Hello there – I posted a few yoga videos on my YouTube Channel.
I hope this helps yoga practitioners feel well and stay tethered to the peaceful place inside yourself regardless of what’s going on in the world.
With Peace, Love, Inner Light,
Amy
Hello there – I posted a few yoga videos on my YouTube Channel.
I hope this helps yoga practitioners feel well and stay tethered to the peaceful place inside yourself regardless of what’s going on in the world.
With Peace, Love, Inner Light,
Amy
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Posted in Uncategorized, Well-being, Yoga Gem, Yoga Postures
Tagged becoming the best you, energy alignment, follow your path, healing yoga, inspiration, Meditation, mindfulness, moving meditation, purposeful living, restorative yoga, yoga benefits, yoga postures
Inspired from an article by Eric Barker and neuroscience researcher Alex Korb
Sometimes we get into these “moods” and it feels like our whole being has a desire to stay stuck in a negative emotion. We know we aren’t being our best versions of ourself, but can’t seem to shift back into positivity, peace, and calm.
The best thing to ask yourself:
What am I grateful for?
Gratitude affects your brain at the biological level. Gratitude boosts the neurotransmitter dopamine.
The benefits of gratitude start with the dopamine system, because feeling grateful activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine. Additionally, gratitude toward others increases activity in social dopamine circuits, which makes social interactions more enjoyable…
Gratitude boosts the neurotransmitter serotonin.
One powerful effect of gratitude is that it can boost serotonin. Trying to think of things you are grateful for forces you to focus on the positive aspects of your life. This simple act increases serotonin production in the anterior cingulate cortex.
Sometimes life gets really messy and negative and it’s hard to find one thing to be grateful for – and guess what, it doesn’t matter – it’s the slowing down to think about gratitude.
It’s not finding gratitude that matters most; it’s remembering to look in the first place. Remembering to be grateful is a form of emotional intelligence. One study found that it actually affected neuron density in both the ventromedial and lateral prefrontal cortex. These density changes suggest that as emotional intelligence increases, the neurons in these areas become more efficient. With higher emotional intelligence, it simply takes less effort to be grateful.
Gratitude is a ripple effect – it helps you feel happier and, if you express gratitute to other people in your life, it extends into those relationships.
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Posted in Inspiration, Well-being
Tagged becoming the best you, compassion, energy alignment, inspiration, mindfulness, purposeful living
As I lay here in Savasana, I come into stillness and surrender.
I allow myself to feel completely supported…
Because I am supported.
By something far greater than anything anyone can imagine. God.
I relax into the comfort of being supported and connected to God.
Inhaling, and God approaches me.
Holding the inhalation, and God remains in me.
Exhaling, and I approach God.
Holding the exhalation, and surrender to God.
I allow my whole body; physically, mentally, emotionally, energetically – to surrender.
Surrendering my little “s” self so that I may live in my higher “S” self.
To see clarity in God’s purpose for my life.
Breath by breath, moment by moment.
From the moment I was born until the moment I die, using the breath to come back into the simplicity of life lived through God’s plan.
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Posted in Inspiration, Meditation, Well-being, Yoga Postures
Tagged becoming the best you, energy alignment, follow your path, inspiration, purposeful living, yoga benefits
Inspired from Yogi & Author Stephen Cope
Most yoga practitioners can attest to having a similar experience: While practicing asana, feeling a wave of energy arising during a pose. Muscles ripple and dramatically open. Feelings begin to overwhelm our whole being, and turn raw, real. Maybe it’s sadness, grief, elation. After the experience, we feel better: quiet, present, and soft. This is the real secret of yoga – the practice of being present for experience.
Through yoga, we find an orderly, safe, contained technique for making forays into our deeper inner world within ourselves. We first learn to have a full experience of feelings in the body, learning to tolerate the depth, range, and realness of this life force moving in us. We learn how to ride the wave – to be present for the wavelike movement of energy – acknowledging, experiencing, and bearing the inner world of sensation. Through this experience, we can shed the layers that are preventing us from living our best truest version of ourselves. We can cultivate a deep bond with our bright inner light – our wholeness.
Riding The Wave – The Technique (Breathe, Relax, Feel, Watch, Allow – repeat)
Breathe, Relax, Feel, Watch, Allow – Repeat.
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Posted in Inspiration, Well-being, Yoga Gem
Tagged becoming the best you, healing yoga, inspiration, yoga benefits
By Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, PhD
Complete mastery over the roaming tendencies of the mind is Yoga. (Yoga Sutra 1:2)
The mind is a repository of all our thoughts, feelings, and memories. It is a storehouse of our likes and dislikes. We see the world – and ourselves through the eye of our mind. When the mind is clear and peaceful, we see the world as bright and peaceful. When the mind is convoluted, our understanding of the world and our relationship with it becomes equally convoluted. Our concepts of good and bad, right and wrong, depend on the quality of our mind, as do our likes and dislikes. The quality of our mind, in turn, shapes our thoughts, speech, and actions.
Memories pertaining to our deeds and experiences are deposited deep in our mind. These memories – subtle mental impressions – agitate our mind from deep within. Propelled by these impressions, the mind thinks and acts. Impressions and the thoughts and actions propelled by them are endless. That is why we find our mind constantly chasing one object after another. It has almost forgotten how to be still and be aware of its thoughts and actions.
The mind is disturbed because deep within the elements of attachment, desire, anger, fear, and doubt are active and the mind is operating under their influence. The mind is stupefied – dark, dense, and dull – because deep inside the elements of worry, grief, dejection, and hopelessness are active and have rendered the mind inert. The mind is distracted because disturbance and stupefaction are mingled with enthusiasm, courage, motivation, clarity, and purposefulness – and all these elements are randomly active. As a result, the mind is partly focused and partly dissipated.
A mind caught in any of these three states lacks clarity. It has no confidence in it’s own powers and privileges. It is indecisive and only halfheartedly willing to act on its thoughts and ideas. It seeks validation from external sources. When propelled by a disturbed, stupefied, or distracted mind, our endeavors, no matter how noble, bear little fruit. The fruit they do bear is invariably tainted by doubt, uncertainty, and fear.
This is where the quest for (samadhi) a perfectly still state of mind begins.
The mind becomes one-pointed when the elements of purity, clarity, and peacefulness are active deep within. Acting under the influence of these elements, the mind regains its power of illumination (sattva). A one-pointed mind is stable. It no longer grieves over the past nor worries about the future. The elements of disturbances, stupefaction, and distraction have been put to rest. The mind is serenely active and flowing peacefully inward.
Now the practice of Yoga, in its truest sense, has begun.
Posted in Inspiration, Meditation, Well-being, Yoga Gem
Tagged becoming the best you, follow your path, healing yoga, inspiration, yoga benefits
Live while you are alive…
Learn to be what you are in the seed of your spirit
Learn to free yourself from all the things that have molded you
And which limit your secret and undiscovered road…
Never forget that love
Requires that you be
The greatest person you are capable of being,
Self-generating and strong and gentle –
You are your own hero and star…
Be grateful for life as you live it,
And may a wonderful light
Always guide you along the unfolding road.
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Posted in Inspiration, Meditation, Well-being
Tagged becoming the best you, compassion, follow your path, inspiration, mindfulness, purposeful living
“Everything you have in life can be taken from you except one thing: your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. This is what determines the quality of the life we’ve lived. Not whether we’ve been rich or poor, famous or unknown, healthy or suffering. What determines our quality of life is how we relate to these realities, what kind of meaning we assign them, what kind of attitude we cling to about them, what state of mind we allow them to trigger.” ~ Victor Frankl
Posted in Inspiration, Well-being
Tagged becoming the best you, inspiration, purposeful living
Inspired by passages within: “Yoga Mind, Body, and Spirit: A Return to Wholeness” by Donna Fahri
Take time to pause frequently and ask “Who am I becoming through this practice? Am I becoming the kind of person I would like to have as a friend?”
Our whole day offers us the opportunity to practice yoga. What we learn on our mat can be a reflection of where we are – our asana can be a powerful mirror for us. During asana, rather than focusing on the external form of your posture, learn to perceive progress through “invisible” signs. While your asana unfolds, it may be helpful to ask, “Am I moving towards greater kindness, patience, or tolerance? Am I calm and centered even when other people around me are fidgeting or distracted? Is the energy I am creating within my whole entire posture grounded, attentive, and at ease?” Check in with your breath to see if it is easily and fluidly moving through your body. When I find myself pushing my body to its limits just to feel the pose more intensely, I honor where I am and without judgement, and bring myself back into a pose that feels more like a compassionate offering.
I realize that what I create on my mat is going to be carried with me for the rest of the day. If I let go of the external form, and create a focused, calm, attentive, beautiful asana practice (a dance with my body following my breath) – that’s what carries me through my day. On the other hand, if I create pressure, pushing, resistance, holding of my breath (bottling) – then that is what unfolds throughout my day. Yoga is a disciplined practice – where we take care of and tend to each moment without judgement. We are all human – we fall and we will never be perfect (and that’s not the point anyway!!) – but we pick ourselves back up – look honestly at where we are at – and start walking the path again.
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Posted in Well-being
Tagged becoming the best you, compassion, energy alignment, follow your path, inspiration, yoga benefits
by Madisyn Taylor
Like a tree our growth depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed boundaries and defenses we no longer need.
Trees grow up through their branches and down through their roots into the earth. They also grow wider with each passing year. As they do, they shed the bark that served to protect them but now is no longer big enough to contain them. In the same way, we create boundaries and develop defenses to protect ourselves and then, at a certain point, we outgrow them. If we don’t allow ourselves to shed our protective layer, we can’t expand to our full potential.
Trees need their protective bark to enable the delicate process of growth and renewal to unfold without threat. Likewise, we need our boundaries and defenses so that the more vulnerable parts of ourselves can safely heal and unfold. But our growth also depends upon our ability to soften, loosen, and shed boundaries and defenses we no longer need. It is often the case in life that structures we put in place to help us grow eventually become constricting.
Unlike a tree, we must consciously decide when it’s time to shed our bark and expand our boundaries, so we can move into our next ring of growth. Many spiritual teachers have suggested that our egos don’t disappear so much as they become large enough to hold more than just our small sense of self–the boundary of self widens to contain people and beings other than just “me.” Each time we shed a layer of defensiveness or ease up on a boundary that we no longer need, we metaphorically become bigger people. With this in mind, it is important that we take time to question our boundaries and defenses. While it is essential to set and honor the protective barriers we have put in place, it is equally important that we soften and release them when the time comes. In doing so, we create the space for our next phase of growth.
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Posted in Inspiration, Well-being
These are good
http://time.com/4166814/morning-rituals-happy/
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Posted in Inspiration, Well-being