by Jasmine | Sep 7, 2012 | eStore, Reviews, Stuff I like
What are the best yoga mats and how do you choose one?
Now that I have been practicing yoga for almost 2 decades I have probably used, bought or borrowed almost 100 yoga mats. When you are a yoga beginner I usually tell my students to just go to Target and get a $10 mat. Some of my students have told me they went to Tj Maxx and got a mat for $5.
I am not a big fan of borrowing a mat from a friend or a yoga studio. Most yoga studios do not regularly clean the mats and at the power yoga studios they often are drenched with dried, caked sweat…..making them smell like the plague.
If you borrow one from a friend you also have no idea how many times they put their sweaty butt or dirty feet on the mat where you are putting your fingers, hands and face. Germaphobes beware of the borrowed mat! I know that sometimes you have to pay a few bucks at a studio to borrow a mat and that is cheaper than buying one so it’s tempting to just delay buying one. When I used to borrow mats at yoga studios ( I haven’t for years now) I used to smell the mat like a bloodhound to inspect when it was cleaned last.
So how do you choose the best yoga mat for you?
There are a lot of things to think about when getting a yoga mat.
Thick yoga mats
If you are a yoga beginner and a bit out of shape then I recommend a very thick yoga mat so when you are going to be kneeling and on all fours you have a lot of cushioning. You can also roll up your yoga mat from the back for your knees or just a bit from the front for your wrists to have some cushioning.
Portable yoga mats
If you are traveling a lot then you want a really thin mat that rolls up nice and tight and doesn’t take too much space in your luggage. You can also buy Yoga gloves and yoga booties for your hands and feet. You just wear special gloves and booties so you can do your practice on any kind of surface with no risk of slipping.
Yoga props when you are traveling
If you want to be eco-conscious then you can get a mat made from sustainable materials like bamboo. There are also yoga rugs out there which are quite traditional but I am just not fond of.
If you are doing hot or power yoga then you want a mat where you won’t slip and slide a lot and you want your feet to “stick” to the mat.
There are also all kinds of yoga designs besides just a regular purple mat you can get. I’ve seen mats with butterflies, sunsets and Yogamatic makes custom mats where you can put your own photo on it. I bought one of these for a friend’s wedding and it was around $90 plus shipping.
What matters most to you when buying a yoga mat? Portability? Thickness? Stickiness? Sustainability? Aesthetics? Post your answers below.
by Jasmine | Aug 22, 2012 | Alternative Health, Beginner Yoga, Reviews, Yoga DVDs, & Podcasts, Yoga Teacher training
Anyone else out there taken Gary Kraftsow’s Viniyoga? I’ve been doing this at home the last few days with his DVDs. I like the pace, simple but descriptive enough instructions. He also gives an in-depth anatomy and bio-mechanics. He also has all kinds of graphics about anatomy and the body. It’s a lot of yoga, instruction and education on one DVD. There are actually a few practices on each DVD. For example, I have been watching the Yoga for Low Back Pain DVD and there is a sequence just for low back pain and sciatica, a sequence for hip pain and also a strength building sequence for low back pain and hip tightness.
Yoga master Gary Kraftsow developed protocols for a recent National Institutes of Health-sponsored study of treatment for back pain. This two-DVD series is based on this work and on his 30 years of experience as a yoga therapist. The detailed instruction, gentle repetitive movements, and focus on moving with awareness and the breath make these ideal practices for a wide range of people, including those who may not have pain but can benefit from strengthening and stabilizing their backs.
Yoga Therapy for the Low Back, Sacrum & Hips
There is also a more detailed practice workshop on there but the pace is slower and he is more explaining how to do the pose, which means he only shows how to do the pose on one side so you can’t follow the flow of it since you are left to your own devices to do the pose on the other side. That’s fine if you want very detailed instructions on how to do each movement but it’s not as flowy if you just want to do the practice.
He has quite a few poses where you are kneeling on your knees, which is fine for me. I’ve found that my very overweight students are not able to do the kneeling poses or poses where you are on all fours since that is too much pressure on your knees and for some on their wrists.
by Jasmine | Aug 2, 2012 | Beginner Yoga, Meditation, Spirituality, Yoga Health
In Corporate America, a Shell engineer starts a meditation program that helps innovation & creativity
Far be it from me to promote any oil or gas company. I like to keep track of which oil companies are involved with the most unsavory labor or environmental practices and avoid buying my gas at these stations…. often driving a bit farther to do so and usually going to a locally owned station which according to my husband makes worse quality gas. I’m not actually that educated or knowledgeable about this subject so chime in if you have more info about this subject…. seems hard to find a gas station that runs on sustainable environmental practice and fair trade as part of their governing practices.
I was reading in the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business school newsletter about noteworthy practices in the corporate and government world. I can across an article about “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” at Shell, which had an example of using conscious breathwork and meditation in order to be more creative and productive.
Mandar Apte, a chemical engineer, has worked at Shell for 12 years. He is part of Shell’s Game Changer program, whose mission is to provide seed funding and guidance to cutting-edge ideas and foster a culture of innovation.
Mandar Apte is also the founder of a staff-led initiative called Empower, which uses breathing and meditation exercises to nurture personal creativity as well as inter-personal skills. So far, some 2,000 employees at Shell offices in the U.S., U.K., the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates have gone through classes that are part of the Empower program.
In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton, Apte discusses the impact that Empower has had on him and his colleagues and his hopes for its future. (Video with transcript)
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/3063.cfm
As part of an initiative to make Shell the most innovative energy company in that industry. Apte ‘s regular job involves encouraging innovation and weeding out limiting or disruptive ideas. According to Apte, “Game Changer is a program where you can bring out-of-the-box thinking to our team, and we are licensed to give you not only a budget but also the support structure and network that you need to build that idea into a proof of concept. In today’s world, innovation happens when you make non-traditional connections. The skills you require to foster this innovation culture are mental and social. You need courage to think out of the box. You need to forget past failures. You have to have the skills to manage anxiety because when you are trying something new, you are stepping into the unknown. You need to build a circle of trust around you where you get positive criticism. By enabling staff to develop these mental and social skills, the Empower program has enhanced the ability of Shell employees to innovate.”
Innovation is about thinking of new things. You learn how to drop the old habits, the old ideas, taking a pause from the day to day task of business That’s what meditation allows you. It gives you tools and techniques to pause. And silence is the mother of creativity. That’s the first step. The second step involves social processes and interpersonal skills. If you can invoke that quality of compassion or empathy in yourself, where you are not judging yourself, you’re not criticizing yourself, nor are you judging somebody else, then I think there is a space for insights to be created. How much energy do we spend negatively judging not only ourselves but also our friends, family, co-workers, managers and even strangers? These qualities of non-judgement, acceptance, open-mindedness are crucial for grooming and harnessing your own innovative skills and nourishing the innovation culture in an organization.
Have you ever participated in a course like this at your company that taught you skills to help you nourish your creativity and innovation through holistic practices? What was it like? How did it impact you?
by Jasmine | Aug 1, 2012 | Beginner Yoga, Yoga Health
Yoga for large, overweight curvy women, bodies
In case you haven’t discovered all the witty and insightful posts from Elephant Journal yet, here is another one that makes me simultaneously smile and also breath a sigh of relief. Make Room For the Luscious Yogi so bravely written by Anne Falkowski. Why do images of yoga always seem to feature incredibly lithe, tiny and ridiculously limber bodies contorting themselves in strange ways.
Yoga when you are Overweight
When you go to an average hatha yoga class, you see a few toned bodies, you see average bodies and you see some bodies with more meat and flesh in certain parts. Does being bony and muscular seem to be the ideal in the yoga world? Does that make your claim to the sacred tenants of yoga of non-violence, non-attachment (detatchment) , compassion, non-stealing (generosity) more authentic? It doesn’t make their shoulder-stand or up-dog any more enviable.
As most serious practioners know, yoga was not originally an physical practice. It was primarily a meditation and breathing practice meant to help you reach higher states of enlightenment and consciousness for the betterment of humankind. It was also primarily taught by men. The poses actually got added later since it if the body had some conditioning it made it easier to sit for long periods in meditation.
Yoga for All Bodies
When yoga got introduced to the West, the emphasis on the poses and alignment became the focus. People started to want to get in better shape, more limber, let go of stiffness and tightness and leave the class more calm and peaceful. Then came hot yoga which packed room of sweaty stinky people in a mirror so you could see how well ( or not well) you were doing the poses and have all kinds of judgement about how your tree pose wasn’t as balanced as the little person next to you. At many hot yoga studios, there are open showers like a gym so there is more bodily comparison.
Yoga advertisements and magazines are filled with more images of toned tightness in $80 Lululemon pants and crop bra tops.
I think one major institution in the yoga world which has done a great job of including all bodies, shapes and colors is Kripalu. I get there catalog and I frequently see images of large and older bodies not only in the brochure but also sometimes on the cover. Kripalu is the top yoga educational institution in the world.. it has an array of classes on all kinds on all kind of spiritual growth and wellness topics that range from drumming, sushi making to horse riding.
Sometimes, I don’t feel like I have the right to be a yoga teacher because I don’t have a perfectly cut and toned six pack like a la Taylor Lautner. I avoid dairy, rarely drink, have a fairly clean diet and exercise with both yoga and riding a stationary bike almost every day as well as strength training. I have so many cute tight yoga tops that lay in my drawer in the hopes one day my tummy will be small enough to wear them.
Then I remind myself that yoga is not a gym workout with oooomming. It’s a practice that helps you to become more self-aware so you can choose to reach to things differently. with less anger and fear and more calm and trust.
by Jasmine | Jul 13, 2012 | Alternative Health, Yoga Health
Yoga halves irregular-heartbeat episodes
Don’t you just love seeing more scientific evidence from the medical establishment about how yoga makes your heartbeats healthier?
Yoga reduced the need for surgery, medicine with side effects for Atrial Fibrillation
Yoga, which we already know and have experience is proven to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, can cut in half the risk of a common and potentially dangerous irregular heartbeat, according to a U.S. study released last week by Dr. Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, an associate professor with the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, who led the study.
The study was the first to examine the benefits of yoga on atrial fibrillation – that is a leading cause of stroke and is most common in the elderly.
“These findings are important because many of the current treatment strategies for atrial fibrillation include invasive expensive procedures or medications with undesirable side effects,” said Lakkireddy.
He presented his research at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology being held in New Orleans.
On average, yoga halved episodes of the irregular heartbeat, while also dramatically reducing depression and anxiety and improving in flexibility, physical functioning, vitality, social functioning and mental health, the research found.
How has your health, mood or functioning improved since you started a regular practice?
