Practicing yoga has helped me realize a deeper, grounded way of being in the world. I have learned how to communicate in a meaningful way that makes me smile and have learned the super handy skill of efficiency. Use what you need. Rest what you don't.
— Tara Stiles
When we turn on our observation capabilities, we become much more in the moment and much more powerful. Psychic powers have been known to develop from consistent practice of paying attention. It's available to us all. It's all in what we choose to practice.
Fears, insecurities, and the need to please can rule our lives. Our society is economically and socially set up for us to live under these pressures in order to maintain its control and survival.
When we interact with others from a place of compassion without expectations, things are set up to go pretty smoothly.
Yoga, in its authentic form, is a system of health for the body, mind, and spirit. Neglecting an element transforms the practice into something that is not, in fact, yoga.
Yoga is not about the history of yoga. Yoga is not about being in a sacred community of the initiated few. Yoga is about uniting inward, which takes place in the present, not the past, in each and every moment.
Green things are good for your body.
Yoga, the physical part, brings health in your body; meditation works on the mind, realizing your self. And they both can be practiced at the same time.
I've had a righteous streak since as long as I can remember. I never tolerated bullying from kids or authority, no matter the case. I got into trouble for calling things how I saw it in my early years at Catholic school, but I couldn't help myself.
Filter from your tap, and if you do occasionally buy the bottles, please recycle.
A swollen belly is a lot of pressure on the back.
Barack Obama is my American Idol.
Meditation can be like a battle with yourself, your thoughts, your body.
Holiday drinking in my family happens about as often as Sarah Palin is spotted reading the 'New York Times.' Neither of my parents are big drinkers, probably because they each had a parent that was.
It's amazing what we've been through already in our lives no matter what our age. Think of what we've seen, people we've met, our relationships, experiences, and accomplishments. Reflection is a powerful tool.
Yoga practice is therapeutic for the body and mind, reminds us of our goodness, energizes our creativity, and inspires.
What fun is life if it's taken so seriously, and what fun is yoga and the search for enlightenment if we are tight, tense, and clenched up from the inside out?
My instincts led me to meditate in the woods when I was a kid. I would emerge at sunset and announce to my family that we are all connected beings. I would watch the grass grow and dance with trees and realize that I was a necessary part of the inter-workings of the world.
When we have built up armor against all the bad things we think might happen in the world, we have a false sense of protection and have only built up isolation.
When we practice cleaning our slate and interacting without motive, what we actually 'get' in return is greater than what we might have expected. Life can open up and be full of surprises that blow past our narrow expectations.
Yoga puts us back in touch with our bodies' needs and equips us with the tools we already have: the intuition and awareness to nourish our bodies properly with wholesome, healthy foods. Yoga doesn't show us how to starve ourselves. That is a terrible disorder, as terrible as overeating.
There are people who intensely clutch an idea that yoga is a higher system, not to be lowered to the weight loss or even fitness category. This is the same kind of clutching that has kept yoga part of a tightly knit club for so long since its introduction in America.
I've learned that if you don't have anyone opposing your work, if you don't have anyone thinking, 'Man, that should be me. I could do that. I should have thought of that, or they must have teams of people doing it for them,' your work simply isn't reaching enough people to be relevant.
When you practice yoga regularly, you get more then you will from jogging on the treadmill catching up on the last season of 'Lost.' When you practice yoga, you use your body and your mind, and you're gaining awareness and intuition.
It's a great thing that yoga is so popular.
Wal-Mart is like a physical version of YouTube. You can find anything you want on YouTube. It let me access millions of people online who maybe wouldn't have tried yoga. Wal-Mart carries a similar heavy weight in its ability to reach people.
Coloring is relaxing even for adults - and cheap therapy.
I love my life.
Meditation will sharpen your senses and your awareness.
Meditation can be intimidating. Sitting there doing nothing, just breathing, can be trickier than it sounds. It may feel strange, uncomfortable, or even put you to sleep.
This idea of bringing awareness to our lives seems like a good idea, right? We'll gain a productive, enjoyable, reflective life and be able to extend compassion, empathy, and joy to others. That seems like a pretty good deal.
Time moves along at its own pace for as long as we are on this planet, and then some. So why try to beat it anymore? Maybe it's better to meet time head on and chill ourselves out so we can exist in harmony with the passing days.
Imagine an America where the health care system is dramatically improved simply because people need to go to the doctor less. Preventive health care, aka taking care of your own body, is a sensible way to go!
Living, breathing, and being present is the practice that can lead us to having a full and authentic in-the-body experience. If we can shift our perspective from being separate to being part of it all, psychological hang-ups, insecurities, fears, and disorders dissolve.
Paying attention to what we allow ourselves to pay attention to is a tricky thing. It's like being in two places at once but completely worth the discipline. We can react mindlessly or respond mindfully. It's up to us.
When we focus mostly on our immediate needs, wants, and desires, we may achieve some of them but hardly feel satisfied. When we feel connected to ourselves on a deeper level, we get happy. We feel safe.
When we find comfort in knowing that all the love and support we need is housed inside us, we can honestly share that joy with others without needing anything in return.
Extra weight - whether it's physical, emotional, or spiritual - holds us back from our health and our potential. Overeating is a behavior caused by stress, depression, excitement, fun with friends, self-sabotage, and countless other feelings, emotions, and circumstances. There can always be an occasion to eat and overeat.
The world needs yoga. This stuff is powerful and intense. It has the power to harm when held tightly, studied without practice, and posed rigidly. Done right, it also has the ability to heal and cure.
Read labels in your favorite products. Look for short lists of simple, less-processed ingredients with names you recognize as food. If you find some of the same ingredients in your cereal as your shampoo, maybe it's time to switch to something simpler.
I think yoga should be for everyone, not just the folks who change their name to something Hindu.
I was good at embarrassing authority. It was fun. There's a fearlessness that goes along with being a kid.
People need to exercise and pay more attention to their health.
I'm a pushover for cleaning items that come in packages of three or more.
Stress happens. In different ways, we all hold unnecessary tension in our bodies all day long. Shoulders, neck, wrists, hips, hamstrings, back, oh my!
For me, meditation is a practice to get rid of useless junk cluttering my mind and useless ticks inhabiting my body.
We only get one body - might as well take good care of it.
One of my favorite teachers is Osho, mainly because he liked to push people's buttons just to get them to think and live outside of their comfort zone.
Yoga can get at the roots of issues that cause behaviors leading to obesity, heart disease, and stress.
It's no secret the benefits of yoga include but are not limited to a healthy body, calm mind, reduced stress, feeling of connectivity with self and the world, increased awareness and sensitivity, and an overall feeling of awesomeness.
