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- Golden Ball of Light Meditation
  
  Posted at 10:57 am by Lisa K, on June 7, 2017
  This meditation is one that I learned years ago and practice often. It takes about 10 minutes, but the calming softness it leaves within me lasts much, much longer. If meditation is new to you, I promise that this one has just enough to focus on to help keep your mind from wandering. It is a good one to practice anytime, but I find it particularly helpful when I feel stressed or anxious.
  
  To start this meditation, find a comfortable place where your body doesn’t need to hold itself up. I like to prop pillows behind me while in bed. Relaxing on the couch is a good spot too. Make sure there are no noises you can control in the background, like the tv or music. Your arms and legs should not be crossed. Let your arms relax beside your body and your legs apart and relaxed at the knees. Closing your eyes will help with the visualization in this meditation as well. If it isn’t possible to meet all these recommendations, make yourself as comfortable as possible wherever you are. Years ago I did this meditation on the go-train so it can really be done anyplace.
  
  I have included a voice recording of this meditation below as well. Have a listen:)
  
  Begin by taking a few deep breaths in through the nose and out through the nose. Try to relax the tummy and let it move freely with the breath. Then begin to envision a faint golden yellow ball up in the sky. As you breath, watch it slowly move down towards you and then settling under your feet. It is about the size of a basketball.
  
  Feel a gentle warmth coming from the orb of light on the bottoms of your feet. It is soft and comforting to you. The golden light is the hue of a beautiful morning sunrise in the middle of summertime. Feel the warmth begin to move into your whole feet up to your ankles. The golden ball has expanded and enveloped your feet. As you breath, feel into your feet. Let all the muscles, tendons, vessels and bones relax. If you feel anyplace that has tension or discomfort, invite the light into that place in your feet and feel it pass.
  
  Now feel the light permeate its way up inside your legs. The golden ball is embracing your legs to the level of your knees. Again, feel the light moving through the tissues in this part of your body. Let it soften you, release any tension. The light spirals over your upper legs to your hips. Your entire pelvis is now also bathing in the beautiful comforting warmth of the golden orb. Breathe into your pelvis, breathe into your legs. Let the light find its way into all the tissues and bones and structures of this deep root of your body. Find any areas that need the comfort of the warm light and breathe. Breathe in warm softness. Exhale tension and stress.
  
  The ball of light is expanding now to engulf your entire torso. Your abdomen, chest, back and organs. Your lungs feel the warmth. Your heart beats and brings with it healing light to your body. Take time to let go of stress, feel the shoulders release, the rhythm of your breathing is comforting. Now the light is spiraling out and around your arms down into your hands and out your fingertips. It is sparkling as it relaxes them. You feel warmth in your throat and softness permeating into your face and around your head. The golden ball is surrounding your entire being and you feel so content and calm. Breathe in warm softness. Exhale tension and stress. Sit and breathe as long as you wish or if you are doing this in bed, allow yourself to drift off to sleep.
  
  This visualization helps to reconnect with and relax the body and steady the mind. I enjoy it every time I do it. If your mind gets distracted at any time, just call it back and continue on. Some days I am more focused than others and that’s okay. Go with the flow of your breath and each time you use this calming meditation, you will feel soft and calmness come over your being. Enjoy!
  
  Voice Recording:
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  Posted in Meditations, Uncategorized | 33 Comments | Tagged energy, equanimity, inspiration, life, meditation, mindful, peaceful, Yoga
- Healthy Lifestyle Tips- A Typical Day For Me
  
  Posted at 4:25 pm by Lisa K, on June 3, 2017
  I usually get up at the crack of dawn when my two year old decides it’s time to wake up. I sleepily look over to my night table and pick up my water bottle. It is a 20 oz bottle of room temperature goodness which I quickly drink down so I can go and see my little morning boy. I started this habit when I was breast feeding and continued it on after because it really felt good. This is the first awesome thing you can do for your body in the morning.
  
  Why?
  
  Drinking water first thing rehydrates the body after many hours of rest. The fact that the water is room temperature is another plus because it kick starts the digestive tract and keeps it functioning optimally. It also improves blood circulation and flushes toxins from the body. All before you even get outta bed!
  
  When we come downstairs for breakfast, I put on our essential oil diffuser with some lemon to invigorate and help us wake up while we prepare for the day. My kids get a vitamin D drop every day of 600 IU and I take 1000 IU. We do this year round. We all take 1/4 tsp of a probiotic containing 15 million bacteria to help strengthen our gut bacteria. We also drink kombucha throughout the day as it is a fermented drink brimming with gut friendly bacteria. With all the research coming out tying poor gut health to many health problems, I feel it is vital to support ours. We have lemon water with real unpasturized honey about 2x week. The lemon water is excellent for pH balancing the body and the real honey has minerals, vitamins and amino acids that are good for the body while tasting nice.
  
  After I have dropped my daughter off at school and put my son down for his nap, it’s time to focus on me! Yay! Lol. I do my yoga practice for about 1.5 hours. In preparation for it, I like to use a few essential oils. I put sacred frankincense in my diffuser. It is very grounding and calming. I am able to get into my breath and into a meditative state with my practice, love this oil! I rub Valor essential oil over my heart and it gives me feelings of strength, positivity and calmness. My practice is divine and I really relish the time I have to spend each day. Another 20 oz of water!
  
  Hair Care & Skin Care
  
  When I shower, I use my own products which are infused with essential oils. I really enjoy using them because I know that I have removed toxins from my home and from entering my body while I wash. I have some recipes below for shampoo and a face cream and body butter! I use a face cream or serum for my skin and a body butter as well. Easy to make and use! Check them out:)
  
  Lunchtime
  
  We make lunch with vegetable soups, chili soups, wraps, tons of fruit all cut up and water or almond milk to drink. We also have almonds, cashews and mulberries, raisins, oat balls and banana chips to switch it up and enjoy different foods. As many whole foods with as little added sugar as possible is my goal for lunch.
  
  Essential Oil Body Spray Is My Perfume…
  
  I wear a body spray with metabolic and hormone balancing oils which are blended for women. Instead of wearing perfumes which are filled with chemicals and synthetic fragrance, I love the natural aroma of my body spray and how it works with my chemistry to make a lasting and natural perfume. I have the recipe below as well. I have had some personal issues surrounding my monthly cycle and have found these oils to have created natural balance within my body. Win!! I also use a roller bottle with Thieves blend essential oil and place some on my feet twice a day to support my immune system. I don’t have any health concerns, but if it helps me fight off a flu or cold than it’s work is done.
  
  Dinner
  
  Dinner is usually a lighter meal. Eating as early as possible is best for digestion. Tonight we had rice pasta with a vegan pesto sauce and a vegan caesar salad. I let my kids have real fruit popsicles for dessert.
  
  Bedtime
  
  My kids get a lavender roller bottle on their feet at bedtime to help soothe them for sleep. I put a diffuser recipe on for myself in my room and let it stay on after I drift off to sleepy land. I have included my favourite one below. And then I call it a day:)
  
  Hope some of the tips and ideas I have included here are helpful. Basically the idea is to hydrate, nourish, move your body and use toxin-free products whenever you are able. I do my best and that’s the best I can do!
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 39 Comments
- Setting Goals?
  
  Posted at 1:48 am by Lisa K, on May 17, 2017
  Who Likes Goal-Setting?
  
  Creating goals is an excellent way to plan for your future with something tangible to hold yourself accountable. The issue I find is deciding on goals that are relevant and applicable. How do I make sure the goals I come up with will adequately reflect what I would like to achieve in the short and long term? In talking with people over the years, I am not the only one who has had trouble doing this personally and professionally. Those yearly reviews at the workplace can become a daunting task if you too find this to be difficult.
  
  My Little Magic Wand~ Keeping a Journal
  
  If you already keep a journal, you have a book of qualified goals at your finger tips! I am going to share with you how a simple journal can make goal-setting an easy task that will include goals that are perfectly attuned to where you want to be in the next six months to a year or longer.
  
  Take a look at what you have written in your journal at the end of each week. Write down any topics that come up more than once in those entries. After doing this for each of the four weeks in the month, look over the weekly points and then consolidate them. You will likely find that from each week there will be around 2-3 topics that are reoccurring in one month’s time. There could be more, but if you put them into a hierarchy of importance you can keep it to 2-3 topics. Repeat this process for another month and again consolidate that month to come up with 2-3 topics.
  
  Now you are ready to set goals for the next six months to one year!
  
  Look at your two months and check again for any topics that have come up that match. When you have completed this, you will likely have 3-4 important topics that will make relevant goals. When you consider each, think about the context you wrote about them within. For example, one of my personal goals for this year was to be consistent with my daily meditation. I came up with this one because some common threads in my journal entires were about my mind feeling full and having difficulty falling asleep at bedtime because my mind was so busy. It was a strong goal because it came up several times in the two months of journal entries I used for my goal-setting. It is much easier to see the areas that you can work on when they are written down over time.
  
  Personal goals can range from anything like developing a work out routine to trying meal prepping or learning a new language. If you want to learn to play a new instrument or to spend more time with family members, make a goal and it will become a priority and a reality!
  
  If you want to use your journaling for professional goals, you could easily write down some work related activities each day with your entry. Maybe you had a meeting that didn’t go well because you weren’t organized or you lost a file because your desk was too messy. Professional goals can be anything from learning more about a new product, or de-cluttering your workspace to learning how to network better and attend networking events. The substance of your goal should speak to something you believe will help you to enhance your skill set and be meaningful to your professional development.
  
  See how easy it can be?
  
  Patterns occurring in your daily life are not immediately visible and you may not realize what to look for later unless you write things down. This can be done on the go-train home from work, before bed or any time you have to decompress. Writing daily events without even focusing on any purpose for doing so will still yield material with which to generate goals that are both relevant and applicable. I speak to you about this from my personal experience and who knows? Maybe it will work for you too. You could always set a goal to read my blog each week;)
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments
- Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
  
  Posted at 11:59 pm by Lisa K, on May 1, 2017
  Over the last few weeks, I have really been focusing on feelings of love and happiness. My poetry has been influenced by these feelings, my essential oil choices have been heart opening selections and my newest addition is a yoga class designed to open the heart with the use of certain pose sequences and essential oils. Love is in the air! The sap that will be infusing this post will likely make you smile and hopefully entice you to show some people how you feel about them too:)
  
  As I learn more about the corporate world, it is interesting to see how different people become successful or get stuck in their businesses and maybe in life. There was a video conference this past week, which my sister attended, with a focus on expanding and growing your business. She told me that by the end of the class, there were people revealing that they haven’t been able to work further on business growth because of issues surrounding customer acquisition and implementing their plans. The reason? Self-worth issues. In fact, the conference conversations had some people coming to this very realization while in attendance! There were some really emotional responses and I was startled to hear that this had taken place in a conference with such a business focus. When she told me about this , I started connecting the dots in my mind with other similar stories I have heard like this and even some of my own experiences that I have had in the past.
  
  My conclusions? Self-worth is directly tied to self-love and I believe that this information became so intriguing to me because I have been thinking so much about love, sharing love and finding it inside myself right now. There are so many expectations in every facet of our lives from the workplace, to the home, to cultural norms and social groups that remaining confident in all that we do can be somewhat of a struggle at times. It is all too prevalent, this lack of feeling the love, or is it just the lack of sharing these feelings with others?
  
  My post , “Where Does Love Flow” was meant to direct observations of the graceful beauty of Love within ourselves. To remind myself that this is the place where Love flows and grows. What others experience is the outpouring of the overflow of Love from within each of us. We must be working on establishing an ongoing relationship with Love inside, our self-Love. It seems so primal, yet there seems to be a bit of a vacancy in this area for people in general. Let me tell you a personal story to show you what I mean.
  
  So I was working away on Friday evening and I put on this new essential oil I got called Valor II. It is supposed to elicit feelings of innermost strength and enhance mood. This oil really worked it’s magic within me because I felt the intense desire to share with my loved ones how I felt about them. It’s something I feel like I just don’t do enough. It seems to be something that is generally overlooked sometimes. Like it’s weird to just contact my friend or family member and tell them I Love Them. What should really seem strange is that it seems strange for me to do that! Life passes by and I enjoy the company of others very much and yet, I feel like it should be easier to just connect and say I Love You to people, aside from my husband and children more freely.
  
  So what I did next was the best part; I sent little notes to people. I called my grandma and left a message of me singing Stevie Wonder’s, “I just called to say I Love You” and then hung up. The more I connected with people, the more I felt happy and whole inside too. You see, nothing but gorgeous feelings of belonging, closeness and appreciation for the gift of kinship will come from expressing Love to others. It is a boundless offering of positivity, joy and all over warm and fuzziness!!! I know the concept seems odd to other people too because I had a couple of funny responses. One person thought I was just joking and another thought the message must be for someone else! So I guess I’m not the only one who could use a little bit of a boost in this department, lol. The main thing is- I will continue to practice this notion of sharing Love more freely. With no real negatives to doing such a thing, it seems trivial that I ever felt sheepish about it in the first place.
  
  Soooooo…..I have a proposition to anyone who wishes to partake in doing this:
  
  Contact at least three people tomorrow and let them know that the sole reason for doing so was to let them know that you Love them. Then bask in the responses you get in return for such an unexpected and beautiful gift. Go on, I dare you!! Love it forward! Send random acts of love❤️❤️❤️❤️
  
  P.S. I would Love to hear about them too!
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- A Ten Minute Chill-Out Practice
  
  Posted at 2:56 am by Lisa K, on April 4, 2017
  Another busy day has come to pass. More things to plan and prepare for tomorrow. So much to do and so little time. Well it’s time to change the way we think about time….because it’s time to create some for yourself. Sometimes I like to take a bath or read a book to wind down and de-stress. When I feel like it’s a bit challenging to relax right away, a short yoga practice that I have created just for that purpose…to chill-the-beep-out…is in order.
  
  You will find below 2 videos:
  
  I have included a short demonstration in the first video, with really bad lighting, on how to cup inhale an essential oil before you do the practice to heighten the experience of peaceful relaxation and focus during the yoga sequence. Try it, you just might like it:)
  
  The following video has a sequence that most anyone can find the time to do and the poses have been mindfully selected to help de-stress. It has been sped up a lot so try to hold each pose for 5 deep breaths to really feel into them. At the end, lie in relaxation for as long as you wish.
  
  Namaste
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- The Dark Night Yogi
  
  Posted at 2:56 am by Lisa K, on March 29, 2017
  The Dark Night Yogi. Yeah, I like that. It sounds sort of, mysterious or like I could be some sort of vigilante. Too bad the sort of dark night I’m really talking about here is the time of day in which I am currently able to fit my practice. Like how do you find the time in your busy schedule to fit that yoga time or spiritual time or even work out time into your day?
  
  It can be super challenging sometimes to find a consistent time, which would be my preference and so I have had to learn how to settle for less optimal times in my day to fit yoga in. With yoga asana and most physical activities, it is optimal to have eaten a meal at least two hours prior. This is yet another parameter to consider with this fit-in type of scheduling. My evening meditation, luckily, has always been consistent with bedtime. Asana has proven to be far more elusive. With two small children, one of which has a very inconsistent sleeping schedule, my usual 4:45am practice time has had to become flexible. I used to get up before the sun, breathe my merry way through my practice and be finished before anyone stirred. Children really have a way of helping inflexible and routine driven individuals, like me, to be more spontaneous or at least able to see other possibilities for many things in life, including practice. I used to be a real planner, always early and on time. Every detail of my schedule could be, for the most part, followed through upon with little discrepancy. I really depended on the familiarity and feeling that I knew what to expect. After my daughter, things changed for a time, but I was able to return to my schedule. Of course, being a bit late or having to cancel were small steps I had to adjust to.
  
  It was after the birth of my son that things got really interesting. He didn’t sleep through the night at all until he was around ten months. Even then, it wasn’t a sure thing, but I was so grateful for at least a 4-5 hour stretch at a time for sleep, that it seemed like a miracle. Now he likes to wake up sometimes and hang out during the night or get up before 6am. If he gets sick, he is up constantly. This makes early morning practice somewhat of a difficulty because then I have trouble staying awake later in the day and that is really undesirable when there is absolutely no chance of a nap in sight. I know anyone with young children can relate to the sleeping debacle. Yet, throughout time, it has really not been a “normal” sleep pattern for small children to sleep solidly through the night. Recently, the one nap my son takes in the am has moved to the pm. My daughter is in pre-school in the mornings, so you can see the dilemma I am faced with, lol. I can’t even squeak in a late morning practice now. I must now practice in the early am a couple times a week and then do the rest after they are in bed at night.
  
  Practicing yoga at night feels extremely different from the morning. For one, even though it has been two hours since I ate a meal, I still feel heavy at night. My mind seems less able to focus. I do feel stronger in some areas, but overall it will take some getting used to. When you practice first thing, the mind is generally fresh and clear. The body is fresh and clear. The day is fresh and clear. The physical and psychological aspects of this feeling are known to morning people for sure. I know that anytime I have left for work, yoga or a trip, the morning has a sense of beauty and untouched openness to it. I see very few people out and about. I feel like the energy of the morning is natural and restored by a restful period of night. It is an inspiring feeling and one that has always given me a very joyful feeling. The sun rises with a smile. I assume that is why morning people are often scowled at by those not morning people who think we are too perky and smiley for such an hour.
  
  It sort of seems like when you get used to something, that’s when things decide to change. Over and over, this lesson has come up for me. To be more flexible and open to it. It’s sort of paradoxical really…always trying to create consistency against the one thing that remains consistent….change. For some reason the quote from Forrest Gump comes up every time I think about this, you must read it with a southern accent, “Life is like a box of chocolates, You never know what you’re gonna get.” Then I laugh my ass off. So for now I will be the Dark Night Yogi and I will continue to let life enrich my ability to relate to the world and most of all, be happy doing it. Hope you are able to find a little spot for you in your busy life too 🙂
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- Creating Little Yogis
  
  Posted at 1:23 am by Lisa K, on March 21, 2017
  It stands to reason that if yoga is an integral part of your daily life, it will inevitably infuse itself into the lives of your children. Sort of like how every word that comes out of your mouth, will eventually come out of theirs… The fact is, children are learning about the world and everything we say and do will influence how they communicate with the world in some way. That sounds a little frightening, because I mean, who is a perfect role model for their child every second of the day? Luckily, I have this yoga thing that will help to balance things out and offer a positive example for my little people to learn from.
  
  The usefulness of breathing and moving the body, I feel can only be beneficial to the physical and psychological well being of my little humans who possess sponge-like minds and an uninhibited sense of freedom in movement. From the time my little girl was able to see, she has most definitely witnessed me practicing yoga. She has heard me chant and now does it too. I have taught her different breathing techniques which, even though they are still more just play, will help her to deal with the stress and anxiety that she may be confronted with in her future.
  
  When I stand at the top of my mat and begin my practice with the opening chant, my little girl will OM with me and then hum along for the rest of it. My little guy even gets in on the humming part, lol. She will even start doing some sun salutations with me, her little pink mat next to mine. After a few minutes, she finds something else to do, but I think it’s a good start for a 4 year old. She can hear me breathing deeply, sometimes I repeat my mantra for difficult poses out loud. Mine is actually a yoga sutra. She can hear me repeating “Sthira sukham asanam”. This sutra basically translates to mean grounded or steadiness and gentle ease or effortless effort. For her to hear the Sanskrit and see how I am using this may not make any sense to her in a conscious way, but the sort of energy created may illuminate a palpable strength of effort and determination. Both of these things, I hope she will find to be within her own repertoire of assets as she grows.
  
  For children of this age group, my daughter being 4 and my son almost 2, it is sometimes difficult for them to articulate their feelings. It is also beyond the ability of a 2 year old to comprehend logic and reason and so tantrums happen as an emotional outburst on the regular. Teaching them both to breathe deeply and slowly is physiologically calming, and it takes their minds off of what has been upsetting them too. Bhramari is a breathing technique used to calm the mind and soothe the brain. It is easy and fun for kids because they get to make the sound of a bee! We take a deep breath and then hum as we exhale slowly. Since it is like a game, they don’t even know how it is helping to diffuse their anger or frustration. For my daughter, we can talk about whatever problem that was making her feel upset far more easily afterwards. For my son, we only do this for fun until he gets a bit older and will do it when I tell him it will help.
  
  I think my 4 year old will be ready to try learning to do some simple chants soon. I have learned several and I think it will be a great way to build concentration and focus as well as calm and produce positive energy. Who doesn’t want that? So you see, yoga really is for human beings of any age. I even remember playing yoga chants and songs as relaxation when my daughter was a baby. Yoga lullabies! So my message for this writing is really to find ways to share your beautiful yoga practices with your children and really anyone who will let you. There is really nothing like sharing something you revere, respect, enjoy, love and feel grateful to have:)
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  Posted in Mini Yogis, Uncategorized | 21 Comments | Tagged ashtanga, breathing, energy, funwithyoga, kids, kidsyoga, miniyogis, yoga mom, yogainspiration, yogalife
- Becoming Attuned
  
  Posted at 1:23 am by Lisa K, on March 14, 2017
  Yoga was something I started when a fitness friend told me about a local yoga studio in the town where I live. At the time, it was really the only one around and I didn’t know much about it. My thoughts on it were the usual breathing and stretching but I figured there was no harm in trying it out. So I went. The first thing I noticed when I walked up the stairs and into that the little studio was that it smelled like nag champa incense, such an alluring and inviting aroma. It was a different atmosphere being at the yoga studio compared to the gym. There were Himalayan salt lamps around, OM symbols, heaters and the incense was burning. It was quiet and really quite peaceful. Throughout the class, hearing the Sanskrit terms and breathing felt like a sort of homecoming. As far as the asana went, it was super fun, more challenging than I had expected and it reminded me of dance. I did some serious ballet dancing when I was younger and the whole feel of yoga, getting into the poses and using muscles I forgot were there was pretty awesome. My very first teacher ever was very charismatic, magnetic really…and it truly added to the burst of engaged enjoyment I experienced. She was a natural, a real yogi inside. The next day I was surprised to have some sore muscles but super excited because I had basically found “my thing”. I knew it was going to become part of my life on a permanent and influential scale.
  
  Since that early time, my practice and life has changed dramatically. When I started, it was about fitness and it quickly shifted to a lifestyle. Even when it became a lifestyle, my appreciation for the space it creates in my mind has grown significantly as time passes and life changes. The layers of how I thought about yoga and use it in my life continued to revise as I began to learn more and more about the history and philosophy of Ashtanga Yoga. I wanted to live a clean life. Inside and outside of my body. When I had children, this desire included them too. As far as organic clean eating goes, I have been vegetarian now for more than ten years and even went vegan for two. It feels right for me. That was the first majour change that happened. I was eating a healthy diet prior to that time, it was the awareness of how food made me feel that became more attuned. But there was more…
  
  I’ll never forget the first trip I went on to study yoga in Thailand. I was gone for a whole month. I observed that the way of life is spiritually focused and more natural in Thailand. Many things were in contrast to my life at home. A big one was the place where I spent my time, it was on an island and away from the big cities and towns. It was also extremely hot. Most of the time I don’t remember smelling anything too intense besides coffee and the ocean, both of which are quite welcome anytime:)
  
  When I returned home, the most notable thing I remember was the intense bombardment of chemical odours when I went out to the mall. The perfume, the deodorant, hairsprays, make up, hand lotions, fabric softeners and who knows what, filling the air as people passed by me. I thought I was going to pass out from all the overwhelming nose stimulation and crazy chemical smells and the sudden headache I felt. We had to leave because I couldn’t focus on why we were there in the first place anymore. I was consumed by the chaotic trauma my nose was experiencing, LOL. I am pretty sure that most of us have become so desensitized to this onslaught of stinky-ness because we are exposed to it in such high frequency. Scientifically speaking, our noses and sense receptors are programmed to discontinue prompting our awareness to smells which are around for more than a few minutes. When we smell skunk, for example, the smell slowly dissipates shortly thereafter. Whether we are conscious of it or not, the chemicals are still there.
  
  When I first began to learn about essential oils, a whole new understanding of how scent affects our physiology helped me to understand how oils can benefit our bodies and how these other fake and chemical fragrances can wreak havoc on our internal systems. The whole process helped explain my experiences when I returned home from Thailand. Here’s how it works- our olfactory system is closely linked to our brains, being in such close proximity to each other. Odours moving into the nose move up and bind with olfactory receptors. These are transmitted through to the the olfactory bulb via electrical impulse where smells are identified. The signal travels further to the thalamus to be directed to the orbitofrontal cortex and the limbic system. The limbic system is where we connect memories, emotion and learning. It’s no wonder that certain smells can bring back memories and feelings. The problem is that research has revealed that synthetic scents have endocrine disruptors in them which can be harmful to the function of your hormones and lead to various health problems. I could go on about phthalates, parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate and so many more hundreds of chemicals that are filling our shampoos, soaps, laundry detergents, deodorizers and more….but I won’t be that annoying:)
  
  As I become more attuned to my body and how I experience the world around me, the more I can see how important it is to remove as many of the harmful products and constituents that are all around us. Yoga is a spiritual practice involving introspection of ourselves and it allows us to become more receptive to observing what affects us in our environment and what is happening inside our bodies and minds. The sense of gratitude I feel by discovering and embracing this path and gift of learning through yoga grows and radiates into more aspects of my life as time goes on. Such a beautiful thing.
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  Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments
- Breathing~ An Incredible Force. A Five Minute Practice
  
  Posted at 6:36 pm by Lisa K, on March 2, 2017
  One thing that I ALWAYS experience after my yoga practice, is a feeling of improved mental function. This happens regardless of how tired I may have been, how focused I was or how my poses felt while I was doing them. How does this translate into daily life? Well for me, my level of patience for the chaos that can occur with young children is noticeably improved, I can sometimes remember more than four things I had on a list and my overall feeling of well-being is just better. The most important one for me is that when I have had a lack of sleep, which is quite often, I usually feel rejuvenated. Aside from the benefits of having physical activity in my daily life, there is a reason to attribute to this superbly beneficial phenomenon. Let’s see why:)
  
  In Ashtanga Yoga there is a threefold focus of attention called the Tristhana. The places of attention are posture, breathing system and looking place. The body, nervous system and the mind are affected by the use of the Tristhana in Ashtanga Yoga. This trifecta is inherent in the effects that yoga creates but I believe that it is the breath that carries the most weight. This is why I will focus my attention on this aspect for this writing. Yoga has often been called a “moving meditation” and if you think about, having a focus of any kind that creates mental relaxation is a meditation.
  
  I guess a simple analysis of the science involved in breathing will help to shed light on how a seemingly simple body function can have such a comprehensive impact on our mental well-being.
  
  The body has a natural response mechanism to deal with stress and reacts congruently to physical and psychological forms. Many of us have heard of the “fight or flight” response. Basically, when we are confronted with stress of any kind, our sympathetic nervous system is called into action. Increasing adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol levels spike for the period of time stress is encountered. This causes shortened and increased respiration, a reduction in digestive processes, diminished pain perception, among others. The body is literally ready to fight or run away from a perceived threat. Usually the parasympathetic or “rest and relax” part of the nervous system will rebalance the body after the event. With psychological stress increasing in the world, due to money woes, work and economic problems, family responsibilities, the list goes on…the sympathetic nervous system can be left “turned on” and a lingering stress response will ensue. Over the long term, this may become harmful to the body because it is continually on high alert.
  
  Deep breathing has a calming effect on the nervous system. I have read many articles and books over the years and research shows that deep breathing lowers blood pressure, among others. More complete belly breathing allows for gas exchange to be more efficient and effective. The nervous system is able to relax and this sort of meditation on breath creates more balance in the body and mind. Anxiety and depression problems have also been shown to improve with the use of deep breathing and meditative techniques.
  
  There are many Eastern practices and even entire monasteries devoted to breathing and meditative practices. There is no mistake that thousands of years of learning and studying breath is evidence that this simple and everyday function can be used to alter our bodies and minds in countless and astonishing ways.
  
  There are simple and easy techniques that can be done in the comfort in your own home to help reduce stress and improve mental clarity. If you want to create some metal space for yourself you could try an easy breathing meditation like this:
  
  -Sit comfortably on the ground or in a chair so that your back is straight or you could lay down with a pillow under your head and one under your knees (pictured above)
  
  – it’s always nice to have an essential oil diffusing in the background that is known for improving meditative experiences, such as sacred frankincense
  
  – Start to become aware of your breath, maybe resting a hand on your belly and one on your chest. Do you feel your belly rise and fall with each breath?
  
  – Take a deep inhalation and feel your belly, ribcage and upper chest rise. Then exhale feeling your upper chest, ribcage and then belly release down. Do this for 5-10 breaths and work you way up to more over time.
  
  – When you get more comfortable you can add in a visualization of watching the breath, moving with golden light, as it enters your nose and moves its way down into your belly and then oscillates back up and out.
  
  Do this for just five minutes a day, if that is all the time you have. Doing any amount is doing something to change your physiology in a positive and health giving way:)
  
  “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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