The list goes on and on. There is no doubt that I am connected intimately with the earth. Each bite that enters this mouth and is broken down by these teeth is a reminder of the gifts that the earth offers. I have no choice but to offer back.

Just before that first piece of sustenance enters this physical form, I silently whisper, “May this food provide this body with health, vitality, strength, flexibility, and balance. Thank you.” This is not a rote ritual, but rather a conscious consideration and appreciation.

Then the first few bites are savored with closed eyes and all focus goes to the taste buds, the sounds of transition, and the marvelous texture of this gift. Taste explosion.

The chicken scrambling about the yard and laying an egg while the farmer slept. How this new life is given up to provide protein and life for my family.

The wheat fields shimmering in the sunlight as a gentle breeze helps them to dance and sway. The soil providing a foundation for the tall stalks and the rain giving life. Hundreds of tiny grains milled and brought together with yeast and water to bring the slice of bread now on my plate.

Also keep in mind that the time in between your yoga class is just as important as the class itself. This is a period when your body can flush out toxins, rebuild itself, and get the rest it needs.

Just as Step Three of my five-step series invited new yoga practitioners not to compete, this fourth step is reminding you to allow yourself the freedom to not push so hard that you push yourself right off the mat and out of the studio.

Taking one class a week is a great way to start. Maybe after about six weeks, you can add in another class – but only if your body feels like it is ready. And another month after that, if all’s still going well, you could consider adding a third class, but not more than that. Taking yoga seven days a week is a lofty and unrealistic goal for a beginner, as it’s important to not push yourself but rather take time for your body to adjust and be open to this new practice.

A. Benefits of Kundalini Yoga Modified Wheel Pose:

Excellent to build and increase flexibility of your back and spine.
Also promotes flexibility in your shoulders and upper thighs.

Stretches the entire abdominal region and helps improve your digestive system.

Stretches the female reproductive organs, massaging and toning them.  Improves conditions related to these organs.

Strengthens your legs and thighs.
Expands your respiratory system and improves lung capacity.
Activates and help heal the Vishuddhi Chakra (Throat Charka) and promotes healthy thyroid function.

B. Practice Tips for Kundalini Yoga Modified Wheel Pose:

Modified Version of Modified Wheel Pose:  If you find the full version of Modified Wheel Pose too difficult, I suggest starting with the modification to this exercise which is demonstrated in illustration #1 above.  In this modification, interlace your fingers as shown and push down against the floor with your arms as you thrust up with your hips and navel.  All else is the same as the full version, except that you don’t grasp your ankles in the modified version.  This modified version will also bestow many of the same benefits and you can use it to slowly increase your flexibility and strength, until you can do the full version. Read the rest of this entry »

Modified Wheel Pose, as mentioned above, is part of both Kundalini Yoga and Hatha Yoga and so here on Mastery of Meditation & Yoga, it will be part of the following 2 free online e-books: Free Hatha Yoga Poses & Free Online Kundalini Yoga Exercises.

One of the best aspects of Kundalini Yoga, and yoga practice in general, is the vast array of modifications that poses offer, so that almost all of us can do some variation of the posture and still enjoy many of the benefits that the exercise bestows.  Modified Wheel Pose is a perfect example of this.  Not only is it a modification of Full Wheel Pose, but it also has a modified version for those who are just beginning yoga and find the posture hard to come into.

Below I have given illustrations of both, the modified version of Modified Wheel Pose  and the full version of Modified Wheel Pose.  This yoga exercise offers many important benefits, such as increasing flexibility, promoting better digestion and toning female reproductive organs for improved function, and I discuss these in more details in the practice section below.

Kundalini Yoga’s Modified Wheel Pose is certainly an exercise worth including as part of your daily yoga routine.  It is an integral part of mine.  This exercise is called Kandhar Asana in Hatha Yoga and also goes by a few other names in various yoga circles.  Since it is often used as a modification to Wheel Pose (see Advanced Yoga Technique for Total Body Workout), and offers many of that position’s benefits without the same degree of difficulty, I find the name Modified Wheel Pose most suitable for it.

The winter season is a good time of the year to be quiet and go inside, and the new year is the perfect time to be contemplative about the past, future, and, most importantly, the present. Here are some local yoga and meditation events to look into on December 31. If you know of any others, please let us know!

Perhaps you already have your sparkly dancing shoes picked out for New Year’s Eve, or you’re planning to spend the first hours of 2009 in another city (or country) altogether. But if you’re still pondering your options for welcoming in the new year locally, you might want to consider doing something mellow and mindful.

Contentment is an attitude that can be cultivated. You may not receive all that you desire for the holidays, but you can still cultivate being content with whatever you have or whatever circumstances in which you find yourself.

Watch the inner workings of your mind begin to sabotage your efforts at contentment.

Also notice feelings that arise. Some of you may have lost friends, partners or family members, and the holidays often bring up the sadness of such loss. Others may have family members fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, which brings up myriad emotions at this time of year for those back at home. Life circumstances may have changed. Notice these various thoughts and feelings that come up and allow them to be expressed in a healthy manner. Then do your best to cultivate contentment — either by consciously changing circumstances to the extent that you can or by breathing deeply and accepting what is.

The to-do list seems to get longer as the number of days gets shorter. Will the budget this year allow everything that you would like? Maybe you’re traveling or welcoming relatives into your home — stress! And that’s to say nothing of the stress that can accompany expectations that you’re unaware of and which may go unfulfilled. For many of us, the holidays can feel at times like anything but a “most wonderful time of the year.”

How can yoga change your perspective and experience of the holidays?

One of the goals of a comprehensive yoga practice is to cultivate a calm mind and inner presence. The Yoga Sutras describe specific virtues that support the path toward calmness. One of the personal virtues that the Sutras extols is that of contentment — or santosha in the original Sanskrit. Contentment can be described as a feeling of being at peace or ease with what is. Contentment comes from within ourselves. It is allowing the present moment to be just as it is. Read the rest of this entry »

A few years ago, I crossed over to the other side, and we booked a last-minute vacation in Rincón, a surfing town in western Puerto Rico. It was pleasant and eco-friendly but not social enough in the aggressive and boldfaced way I had hoped. So the next year we pushed our way into Tulum, on the Yucatán Peninsula — another low-rise, eco-friendly area, but with more cachet. We knew people who vacationed there, media-savvy types and social operators who did yoga and wore the right sandals.

But the arrogance of staff and lack of service at our extremely chic hotel was annoying. And all my social machinations to eat dinner with the right people at the right overpriced restaurants became stressful, too. We came home from our oh-so-chic vacation exhausted, and worried about melanomas and credit card bills. If the point was rejuvenation and getting away from it all, we had failed. But at least I could tell people that I was tan because I’d spent my holidays at a hipster resort with yoga mats.

I know. I sound like a deeply superficial person, especially in these times. I mean, along with lowering hemlines, recessions are supposed to raise your spiritual awareness. But, as the French say, non. I prefer the tropical option, the utter languor, health-defying tanning and guilty pleasure of ordering overpriced drinks while chaise-bound. Read the rest of this entry »

A Yoga Alliance experienced and registered yoga teacher, Stott Pilates-certified instructor and a certified personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise. She works with people of all ages, including those with special conditions.Serenity Yoga & Pilates Studio is at 610 Eastbury Drive, Suite 1, in Iowa City.Serenity offers a small, comfortable setting for private and group classes in yoga and Pilates as well as personal training. Marcie Evans, M.A. and owner of Serenity, is a health and fitness instructor certified by the American College of Sports Medicine,.

CorePower Yoga - Stadium Village is located near the Twin Cities flagship yoga studio in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis yoga studio hosts a Yoga Alliance certified 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training along with a range of lifestyle programs for continued growth and wellness, including CorePower Yoga BootCamp, a weekend intensive Nutrition Program and Yogi Training.

CorePower Yoga - Minneapolis will be offering both Hot and Power Yoga Alliance certified 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in January 2009. CorePower Yoga Teacher Trainings include cutting edge learning opportunities such as anatomy study, cadaver labs, video review, yoga posture-specific workshops, and more for a comprehensive experience. CorePower Yoga - Stadium Village is the eighth CorePower Yoga studio to open in Minneapolis/St. Paul. CorePower Yoga studios offer Power Yoga, their signature heated Vinyasa flow, Hot Yoga, Hot Power Fusion, and Yoga Sculpt, which is yoga practiced with weights. All yoga classes encompass a wide variety of asana or yoga poses and are taught by certified yoga instructors.

CorePower Yoga - Stadium Village houses a yoga clothing retail boutique which features flattering styles that extend beyond the yoga classroom to everyday wear. Yoga clothing selection includes active wear, lifestyle fashion and yoga accessories. The featured brands are focused on comfort, functionality and ease in the yoga studio, and include lululemon athletica, be present, Hard Tail, Prana, Tonic and YogiToes.

CorePower Yoga’s Nutrition Program is designed to help identify food allergies/sensitivities, maintain and/or lose weight, and learn how to make better choices regarding nutrition and exercise. The Nutrition Program will be offered at CorePower Yoga - Minneapolis in January 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

‘SEVEN’ UP

“Seven Pounds” (3 stars) is a Will Smith movie, and a good one, better than “I Am Legend” and up there with “The Pursuit of Happyness” in displaying his ability as an actor.

It’s also a Rosario Dawson movie, a showcase for the actress still in her 20s, who takes the rough edges off the likes of testosterone-fueled films of Jack Black (“Clerks II”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Grindhouse”). And she can sing, too (“Rent”).

Smith plays an MIT grad, the wealthy chief of an aerospace company who lives luxuriously on the ocean in Malibu. But he has another life, impersonating an IRS agent (he might’ve seen Will Ferrell’s portrayal in “Stranger Than Fiction”).

For that, he moves into a seedy motel, assuming another identity – even-tempered, friendly, visiting folks he feels are good enough to be helped out financially.

One of them is Dawson, a struggling graphic artist, whose heart is failing. She rejuvenates Smith’s ability for human connection, something he lost tragically. That’s all we’ll say.

Soundtrack treat: Sly & and the Family Stone’s funk version of Read the rest of this entry »