Yoga and Health

Why do we need yoga now more than ever? Is it simply because people are more stressed out? We have been trained to become consumers first, humans second. We deeply need to rediscover another way of existing.

The sensationalistic reports are excessively promoting isolated instances of yoga-related back injuries. Chronic back problems affect millions of Americans and is a top reason people seek out medical care. To balance the ongoing debate, here are four yoga back benefits.

It's hard to believe that an experienced yoga practitioner and Pulitzer Prize-winning author can inspire such ire, particularly when he concludes his book with a huge endorsement. Maybe those angry yogis never finished the book.

I realized that it's only now that I can enjoy yoga every now and then without feeling pressure to do it "right." It got me thinking that yoga is truly a metaphor for getting older. As you age, you stop caring what other people think.

In honor of American Heart Month, here are five ways that yoga promotes a healthier heart.

My advice is that we consider yoga part of a healthy lifestyle. We need to breathe, stretch, be mindful of our bodies, reflect, meditate and perhaps pray.

I'm not on the third act, but breaking life into a three-act play made me understand more about why I practice yoga, and how we become terribly annoyed with yoga translation overload.

Any type of physical activity aiming to increase fitness carries with it a certain degree of risk. Pegged next to the injury rate of common physical activities like weight training and golf, however, yoga comes across as far safer than even a relatively innocuous activity like golf.

Despite the doom and gloom scenario painted by the New York Times, the average Jane or Joe can practice yoga without having back surgery, popping a hamstring or making a trip to the emergency room (or even the drugstore) simply by following two simple guidelines.

I tried yoga about a decade ago (and yes, I am now old enough to be able to toss around phrases like "a decade ago") -- and I hated it. In short, yoga was this thing that I tried, didn't like and moved on from.