Yoga on The Huffington Post

Tara Stiles: 10 Steps To Getting What You Want

2009-12-05T07:00:00Z

Everything we need is already there. The challenge is letting go of all our stuff in the way.

Whether it is the perfect relationship, adorable family, successful career, financial stability, radiant health, all of the above, or something entirely different, getting what we want drives a lot of us. Even if we're not quite exactly certain what it is that we actually want (or think we want) we still spend our time doing all sorts of things that we think might get us there. How exhausting! All that wanting and doing can take us far away from ourselves, and out of the present moment where everything happens. The end result is often dissatisfaction no matter how much of the achieved "stuff" surrounds us.

Clearing out the clutter that we've built up in our lives is a good place to start. When we make space, good things can happen. We've all experienced it. A simple task like cleaning the house can leave us feeling calm, relaxed, and inspired. There is literally more room to think in a clean house. Whether it is through cleaning, practice, meditation, or thoughtful planning, when we make space, the good stuff has room to come our way.

I put up a whiteboard recently at home. I know, whiteboards are usually reserved for start up companies, but my life is my start up, and so I need a whiteboard too. The more work I take on, the more I find the need to simplify, and eliminate what is in the way. I need efficiency. From my whiteboard to yours. Enjoy.

10 Steps to Getting What You Want

1. Be YOU. There is only one YOU on this planet. Take advantage of that. You are inspiring, creative, intelligent and capable. Spending any energy trying to be like someone else is foolish.

2. Do What You Love. When doing something you love, no matter what you'd be getting paid, or think the outcome might be, not only will you enjoy yourself more, but you have a better chance of actually creating a sustainable life. Happiness is contagious.

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." Milton Berle

3. Trust your instincts. "I feel there are two people inside of me -- me and my intuition. If I go against her, she'll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely." Kim Basinger

4. Work hard. No one is going to do the work for you.

"Hard work has made it easy. That is my secret. That is why I win. If it were easy everyone would be a champion." Nadia Comaneci

5. Be nice to people. "Your Karma is a continuum, part of the process that is happening to you now, not something far away in future life." - OSHO

6. Don't listen to your critics. "If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business." Abraham Lincoln's words: via Ed and Deb (love this one!)

7. Be Patient. Things might not (and usually don't) happen in the timing that you want. Patience can be your biggest asset. Cultivate it.

"If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent." Isaac Newton

8. Take Care of Yourself. Your health is a responsibility that is completely in your control.

"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease." Buddha

9. Stop Complaining. If you don't like how something is, change it. We can't change everything, but we can do quite a bit about our circumstances when we drop the complaints.

"Instead of complaining that the rosebush is full of thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses." Proverb

10. Have Fun. If you're not having fun then what's the point?

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." Katharine Hepburn

Nancy Ruhling: Astoria Characters: The Answer Man

2009-12-02T10:13:03Z

The black awning says "Halvatzis Realty," and the open door says, "Come right in."

So everyone does.

A neighbor steps in to talk about his girlfriend. She dumped him, just like that, no reason. They'd been together 10 years. Ten years! Can you believe that!

"What should I do?" he asks in despair.

"Dude, you've got to get right back out there," George Halvatzis tells him. "You're a nice guy, you've still got your hair, trust me, you'll do well in the dating game. You've got what it takes."

The phone rings. Someone wants an apartment, so George provides the name of the leasing agent.

Before he hangs up, a former client drops in to chat. She's upset because she's not where she wants to be in life.

"If only my husband weren't a gambler, we could have owned a second house," she tearfully tells him.

George sets her straight. "Girlfriend, just look out on Ditmars Boulevard at all the people who pass by here. How many of them don't even have one house? You've got one, so be grateful. Chill out. This isn't a life-or-death situation."

Next in line is a neighborhood newcomer who wants the name of a reputable locksmith. "Go around the corner, I just used that guy, he'll do a good job."

Excuse me, it's the phone again. A couple George sold a house to four years ago is on a trip to France, and their tenants just called their cell to tell them they have no heat. "Don't worry, have another glass of wine, I'll go over and see what the problem is."

Before he can escape, an older couple comes in to have him list their house. He sets up an appointment for later in the day.

Welcome to the wacky world of George Halvatzis, Astoria's resident and residential therapist, aka The Answer Man. "In every real estate transaction, I'm doing therapy because it's stressful, and my main job is calming people and making them realize that no matter how bad things are, there's always someone who is in a worse situation," he says. "My philosophy is just to take things as they come and get them done, you know what I mean?"

Photo by Nancy A. Ruhling
George with Chopper, the office mascot.

For the more than two decades that George has played the Father Confessor of Ditmars Boulevard, he has been called upon to do everything from propping up marriages and rotting front porches to replastering falling ceilings and patching up family feuds. "I've seen and heard just about everything," he says. "There's very little that's shocking to me any more."

He also has established a record as a rock-solid do-gooder. When his listed clients are out of town, it is George who shovels the snow off their sidewalks so they won't get fined. And he's the go-to guy for customers' disasters great and small. Do you have a dead cat in your back yard? Call George to take it away. Are you expecting a package of frozen steaks? Send it to George's office, and he'll sign for it and keep it in his freezer until you pick it up.

"I don't see my job as selling real estate," he explains. "I see it as helping people out. My wife once said to me, 'I wish you had somebody like you.' Between you and I, I wish I had somebody like me. When I list a house, I treat it just as I would my own."

Although George comes from a real estate dynasty -- his mother owns Amorelli Realty in Astoria and his two brothers manage it -- he didn't see it as his calling. But after he graduated with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Queens College, he started working with his family then set up his own office.

"Everything I've learned, I've learned from business and from life, from trial and error and from watching people," he says.

He makes it his business to attend the "class" of life six days a week from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The office only has four other agents, so George is always on duty. On the seventh day, he's supposed to relax at home on Long Island. But while he's spending quality time with his wife, Marion, his 13-year-old son, Georgie, and his dog, Chopper -- "He's one stubborn Shar-Pei; everyone else listens to me but not Chopper!" -- he's gearing up for Monday morning.

"To de-stress, I play paintball with my son," he says. "I also go to the gym. And I walk Chopper -- or should I say that he walks me?"

Of course, not everyone who comes in George's open door for his continuous open house has a problem to be solved. Some just want to catch up on gossip and hear George riff on everything from yoga poses -- "I tried to do one I saw in my wife's book, and it was really hard" -- to Braveheart -- "'I am William Wallace' ... that's such a great movie."

Before he can get too philosophical, a guy in a backpack walks in, and George is back on stage.

"This business has prepared me for anything and everything," he says. "You never can master it. You have to be constantly evolving and have to change with it."

What are his future plans?

For once, George is stumped.

"People think I know everything, but between you and I, the more I know, the more I know I don't know everything."

Nancy A. Ruhling may be reached at Nruhling@gmail.com.

Copyright 2009 by Nancy A. Ruhling

Elena Brower: Art of Attention: When Doing Nothing Is Everything

2009-12-01T11:55:24Z

"When the smallest fragment of Truth enters a man, he can do nothing but obey."

In the recent weeks I've taken a leap - talking about our role, exploring the role that each of us plays, without exception, as portals for energy [either healing or destructive energy] and how we can refine this role of ours through our practices. We are all carrying within us the same capacity to determine the texture of our experiences. Especially if this idea makes you uncomfortable or sounds esoteric, stay with me for a few more sentences.

My dear friend Danny Kalatsky has been writing and offering me random morsels as he goes, and this concept is one of them.

We are all very capable of refining our seeing and listening in a concrete way- so that instead of moving through our day in a state of reactivity, dread, fear, disappointment or worry, we can remain open and available to a higher purpose that will enhance our ability to be effective, aware beings. By this openness I don't mean we need to extol the virtues of our openness and availability, nor force the role of ultimate peacemaker with our words. It's about presence. More on that in a few moments.

The availability is key. As soon as we close ourselves off to a person or a circumstance due to some outmoded opinion or misperception we've never actually validated, we become a prime source of negativity for ourselves and anyone close to us. We harden ourselves against the world, rigidly rooting ourselves in a limiting position which stops the flow of healing and and creates the conditions for disease within and around ourselves. We are portals, each of us, for any and all energies that have been created, and we get to choose how and what we receive and communicate. How can our practice help us to make that choice in a healing direction?

So let's be practical. Consider one glaring source of confusion currently at play in your world right now. First, silently to yourself, say thank you - for that person, that situation. As ridiculous as this may seem, this is catalyzing you to grow and transform.

Second, take 3 minutes to sit quietly and review how you've been behaving with regards to this circumstance. Have you been reactive? Have you said or done things you wish you hadn't? Don't spend this time judging yourself; judgments only drain us. Just see it, even write down a few of your own reactions that are not sitting well with you; by noting these behaviors on paper, in my experience, we can see that it's likely just a kid of 5, 10, 15 years old, with a given set of unchangeable circumstances, still driving your choices some 20, 30, 40 years later, unchecked.

Third, do nothing. Sometimes the best way is to change nothing and simply watch and see. It's likely that we will have to watch ourselves act that way with that person in that situation hundreds of times - and watch what happens within our bodies and hearts and minds - before we are absolutely done with it. Hugo Cory has told me many times that we must observe ourselves over and over until we cannot bear to bring that sensation upon ourselves one more time. This observation will eventually lead us directly into healing. [Personally, watching myself do or say the same thing over and over, like Jude Law getting recorded by Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman in I Heart Huckabees, is at once horrifying, hilarious, humiliating, and the only way to shift.]

Lastly, practice living in your heart. It helps to think of it this way: consider someone in your life who really knows how to listen, how to be present, who offers their attention to you in a way that makes you feel at home wherever you are, and even more importantly, at home in your OWN heart. This is the behavior of someone who is residing in their heart - which takes practice. What does this mean exactly, to reside in your heart? It's a comfort level at the core of your being, wherein you can stay close to yourself without inserting any buffers [phone calls, emails, addictive substances, food, slumber]. With practice, one moment at a time, each of us is capable of being such a presence within ourselves that we magnetize others who are present for themselves, and we generate cooperation and harmony in the people around us. We become more able to stay open and available for the highest sorts of energies to make our healthy bodies their home.

What would you like to channel, to communicate? Regardless of your history, the choice is yours.

Sadie Nardini: The War Of Yoga: Bringing Our Troops To The Mat!

2009-11-30T15:05:50Z

I posted a request from YogaforVets.com on my Facebook page the other day. Seems simple, right?

It's a site, founded in 2007 by Navy diver and yoga instructor Paul Zipes. He says he had the idea for the site because he wanted to support the troops and their recovery from war-related stress and injury. He says, "as a yoga teacher and a vet myself, listing free yoga classes for war vets was an easy decision."

Zipes is asking yoga teachers everywhere to offer 4 free yoga classes to veterans of any war, so these men and women can learn a skill to help them cope with the stresses and traumas of active duty. He wanted me to help spread the word.

"Good idea", I thought--a no-brainer, actually.

But some of the negative responses from yoga students and teachers I received made me think again.

"How do you reconcile this post with the fact that yogis are against 'himsa'--or "violence", as set forth by yogic scriptures, and your support of war is shockingly non-yogic", one yoga practitioner wrote.

And there was more where that came from.

"Combat is inherently anti-Yoga"...
"Patanjali would never condone this..."
"War is wrong. How can you ask us to give yoga to those in alignment with it?"

Well, here's how. A fuller understanding of karma, or the outcome of actions, Dharma, or the human path of freedom and peace, and Ahimsa, or practicing "nonviolence" makes it impossible to judge warriors, or war, for that matter, as inherently good or bad. I'll show you why in a moment.

When it comes to their own, bliss-filled circles, many yogis feel right at home. They can walk into and out of their own yoga sanctuary with ease, armed with tunnel vision and a limited concept of yogic philosophy and be accepted by their peers, surrounded by their like-minded yoga family.

Bring a foreign element to the door however, especially one they don't agree with, and you'll see that often, this yoga home is closed to certain people, though open wide to those who share their views. This sanctuary is then revealed as the dogma-house it really is.

And frankly, I'm over it.

In my view, anyone who wants to try yoga, and seek a path of self-knowledge and harmony for any reason, should be welcomed onto the mat. As teachers, we have a responsibility to teach, not to judge, period. If I had to agree with everyone's views who came to my classes, my studio would be near-empty.

Besides, let's talk about yoga as the personal path of transformation it is, not in terms of "scripture", as if it's a religion that's set in stone. There are as many philosophies about how to reach self-awareness as there are people to teach the path, many of them directly contradicting the other.

One of yoga's most foundational texts, the Bhagavad Gita, tells the story of Krishna, a god, who is trying to get this guy, Arjuna, to march onto the battlefield and kill his family, friends and teachers, because, basically, they're anarchists who are keeping a kingdom under immoral and abusive rule.

Krishna himself won't participate in the violence, but he sends Arjuna his army. He explains that Arjuna's battle is just, because it protects humanity's Dharma, or universal harmony and freedom from oppression.

The war is called the "Dharma Yuddha", meaning a conflict fought on behalf of justice.

One yoga practitioner, Lt.Col Randy Fridley, USMC (Ret.), who was deployed to Vietnam, has found solace in yoga, and healing for his body and mind.

To those who might decline to teach a veteran yoga, he offers this advice: "Say what you want about more recent ventures into war by our country. History will judge them too. But that's not the point. Peace is best promoted by one at peace soul at a time.

He continues, "If a just war presents itself as a necessity, I suspect many in yoga would go, and continue to do yoga and keep their inner peace accordingly. Yoga promotes a peaceful soul. Who could find fault with that?"

Our culture, and most of them before ours, have consisted of different sections of society. There are healers, teachers, workers, artists and clergy. There is also the warrior class. And there's a good reason for this, in my opinion.

Yoga philosophy states that we should practice Ahimsa, or non-violence towards our fellow man and ourselves, as one way to release our resistance to our universal nature. If you're angry all the time, it's hard to realize your inherent goodness, and connection to all things. Check.

However, we are also taught that at certain times, employing force may be necessary in order to protect the larger right of a community to live according to their Dharma. We could call this "conscious himsa".

When Patanjali's meaning of ahimsa is applied appropriately, if done for the greater good, and from a place of fighting for people's freedom, and not against it, of denying bullies their choice to terrorize innocent civilians, and all this is truly done on behalf of justice, then it is not the enlightenment-busting form of violence he describes.

Any yogic concept, be it war, ahimsa, Dharma, or Upward Dog, has a positive and negative polarity. You can take action in your yoga poses in a way that harms or harmonizes you. It's the same way with anything. One person would call Elvis "a sinner" while another would call him "a star".

Unfortunately, we've often pigeonholed ourselves in the yoga community into "this is bad, this is good", this is "spiritual", this is "not enlightened" without thinking about the action's purpose and origination point.

Is the action decisive, or unifying? Done from fear, or love? If an action is taken from love and unity, the outcome will resonate that.

When it comes to embracing warriors on our mats, we also tend to conveniently forget our foundational teachings that actions taken for peace will be of constructive karma and actions taken from fear will be of destructive karma, or outcome. Yogically, it's whether you're acting on behalf of unity or separatism, love or hate, universal equality or ego that makes karma "good" or "bad". "War", "Veteran", "Fighting" can be either. It all depends where you're coming from in your heart of hearts, and if the war can said to be truly just.

I'm not making any statements about any of our current wars, or any war for that matter. This article is only to say that much of our warrior class joined the forces in order to protect and serve, two highly "spiritual" values. And, even if our choice would not be theirs, we can lessen this yogic revulsion to a man in uniform and learn to open our hearts with the same compassion we extend to those we do agree with.

Dharma, on the level of human beings, means our "true nature". The Dharma of sugar is sweet, for example. And our collective Dharma is to be free and equal, to live and love and worship as we wish and strive for good and to do our life's work without repression or fear.

If as yogis, we take an all-or-nothing view of Ahimsa as always wrong, and then judge the warriors in our society for their actions, no matter what kind of war they're fighting, or for what reason, then we miss the bigger picture of spiritual understanding of the outcome of warring actions taken on behalf of ultimate peace.

Now, granted, most wars nowadays seem to be more about greed and political power than protecting the inalienable rights of a people to exist without living in terror. However, they are not all about power. There is some justice in our violence yet.

And yogis, if you say that Ahimsa is always wrong, and it leads you to deny a Marine from taking your class, or turn your Yogier-than-thou sights on someone who is showing anger, then let me ask you a hard question, one that is quite disturbing, so brace yourself:

If you walked into your home, and some stranger had broken in and was trying to kill your child, would you stand back and chant Om Mani Padme Hum at them with a soft, compassionate smile on your face...or would you do what you had to do to stop it, using force if necessary?

Personally? I would do anything it took to protect that child's life and innocence. And I bet, even if you're an animal rights activist, you eat vegan, and you are anti-war...you might, too.

Think seriously about it. And if your true answer is closer to the second action than the first, then maybe it will bring a little gray into your black and white Ahimsa outlook.

Because it's maddening to me that we as yogis continue to spout this "no Ahimsa, no matter what" dogma, when in fact, sometimes it can be necessary to save the innocent people of entire cultures.

I know Gandhi is going to pop up in the comments, so let me address that here.

He was able to lead a relatively nonviolent protest against the English, who ultimately were civilized and democratic enough to react to the revolt with treaties and withdrawal. Plus, the whole time and cultural equation was right for that type of protest to be effective.

Do you think those responsible for the genocide in Darfur, or suicide bombers who believe in total Jihad against nonbelievers are going to "see the light" of a nonviolent protest by the people? Doubtful. They want you dead, and most likely, no amount of economic sanctions or making your own clothing or salt is going to change this type of aggression into peace. Because equality and harmony is not what they seek, but power, and destruction.

Perhaps you can also see some gray area around the warriors that go to fight in conflict, as a combination of really hard choices and factors--some of which are also striving for others' good, for freedom and protection from harm.

Would I like to see diplomacy take the place of war? Of course (Go, Obama!), but it takes two to come to the table, and we hit a wall when one of those two sides still prefers suicide bombs to negotiating for peace. Because it's not peace they want--it's for the enemy to be wiped off the planet, forever.

So yes, the reasons both parties are in conflict are opposing. So who is to say what's "best" for one side isn't good for everyone? Well, most rational people can say that erring on the side of allowing a people to live in peace is more constructive than allowing one group to terrorize others, and in order to live their idea of freedom, they must destroy other societies and all the people in them.

I'm not saying any of this to make you believe that war is good, or "right". I think it's always a method of last resort (or should be...right, W?).

I am, however, inviting you to broaden your perspective about the facets of conflict, so maybe you'll have more compassion for those who go to fight in them, at least when the fight is for the freedom of both sides to live in Dharmic harmony. I'm not saying all wars do that, but in my opinion, some of them have the protection of people in mind, and not annihilation.

One thing's still for certain, says Fridley, "The world is out of balance. "

"The fighting man and woman sees that firsthand in a dramatic way that the protected could not begin to appreciate. Their experience often has thrown them out of balance and they struggle to get it back."

He explains that for him, the practice of yoga is one answer to tipping the scales back again.

"Yoga is much about living a balanced life and really has contributed that effect to me. It is really helping me with my delayed onset Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ."

LCDR Eric Fretz, USN (Ret.) who is in support of veterans--or anyone--doing yoga, agrees, adding,

"I would say that if warriors have to be deployed, regardless of how you feel about it, a peaceful centered warrior is the best warrior to have on your side.

Zipes has seen firsthand the healing effects of yoga for so many current and former troops. It reduces their PTSD symptoms, stress and injuries. It helps them deal during, and after deployment, with mental and physical issues I can't possibly imagine.

And, he adds, "Regardless of your view about war (most common answer: "War is bad"), if you are a real yogi you should care about people, even if they fought in wars. As a teacher, you have something positive to offer these people."

Whatever you believe about war, yogis, how can any of us call ourselves teachers of a universal spirituality...and then try to prevent any single human being from seeking their ultimate peace? That's not just uninformed, it's arrogant and separatist--which is the root cause of so many wars and conflicts everywhere.

You want to "be the change?" Start with acting in accordance with the unity and welcoming all seekers of the light that yoga truly represents.

Susan Harrow: When Women Hate Their Bodies Men Suffer Too

2009-11-30T12:41:57Z

Sometimes men bear the biggest brunt of women's negative body image (NBO).

If she suffers, he suffers.

Body image expert Sarah Maria, author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life has worked with women and men to overcome their negative body image (NBO). She deals with the root causes and their consequences -- how their past experiences, memories, and repetitious self talk impacts how they deal with themselves and others in daily life, and in intimate settings, where NBO is often triggered.

Sarah Maria worked with one woman, Tawnya* (Name changed) who was thin, fit and exercised compulsively. Tawnya had tremendous anxiety about weight gain. When she got her breast implants the plastic surgeon said, "If I were you're husband I'd be glad you were doing this." But this wasn't the case. Her husband was happy with her body and happy with her. Tawnya hoped that the implants would make her feel more beautiful....

They didn't.

Even though she had been married to her husband for 30 years and had two grown children Tawyna had anxiety every time her husband glanced in the direction of another woman. She imagined that he didn't love her and would have an affair, even though there was no evidence of this and he had been faithful and attentive.

When Tawnya would get unreasonably jealous a vicious cycle would begin. Her husband would tell her to get over it and become irritated. Which in turn she would take as rejection and become frightened. When she'd break down sobbing he'd get more irritated. Her husband's frustration over the years was that nothing he did affected any change for Tawnya so why bother? He felt not only that he couldn't do anything but that he wanted to give up.

Sarah Maria worked with Tawnya to re-frame her feelings and actions. First, she suggested that instead of asking for approval and love Tawnya express her feelings saying something to the effect of: "I'm feeling anxious. Not because of you and what you've done, but because I'm feeling threatened." By expressing her anxiety Tawnya's husband didn't withdraw further or avoid dealing with her fearing that she would go into an an emotional tirade. He was then able to just sit and listen to her while she shared her feelings. By giving him something to do (listen) he felt connected to her and she, in turn, felt heard and didn't have the usual meltdown. So the dynamic shifted.

Soon after she began to work with Sara Maria Tawnya decided to get her implants removed saying, "They don't feel naturally a part of me anymore." The interns at the plastic surgeons' office thought it was weird, but she wasn't fazed by that. She had made her decision and felt confident of it.

Even though she no longer had large breasts, and was heavier than she was used to Tawnya felt happier and better about her body. She practiced yoga and continued to work on improving her relationship with her husband. "It comes down to loveability," says Sarah Maria. When you start to change the internal dialog the external reality changes and a new, more positive shift in experience happens.

Sarah Maria is the author of Love Your Body, Love Your Life. The book outlines her 5-step process for helping you feel great in and about your body and yourself. Click here to purchase your copy and begin to love your body today. To learn more about Sarah Maria and her work, you can visit her website at http://www.sarahmaria.com and http://www.breakfreebeauty.com.

Yoga Breeds Compassion After Physical Abuse

2009-11-30T12:08:50Z

While on the mat, I thought of all the difficulties that life had dealt this man, my ex-husband, my abuser.

Tara Stiles: Your Holiday Relaxation Rescue Guide (VIDEO)

2009-11-28T08:34:53Z

Wouldn't it be nice to fully relax the body and mind. Reserving some time for ourselves around the holidays seems so far away from the reality of forced spending, emotional exhaustion, and general frustration. What ever happened to peace, love and harmony? There still is hope. No matter how robbed we feel by the state of our country, family, and friends, we can reserve a few moments to remedy our inner peace. Everything begins here.

I think there are two great ways to relax around the holidays. One is to spend a little time taking your mind off your mind. For most of us our usual way of being is all attention on a very active mind, always thinking, planning, and figuring things out. The very idea of letting this go even creates all kinds of defensive arguments, which can run something like "If I stop my thinking, who'll run the show, feed the kids, and keep me from turning into one of those "blissed out" types incapable of navigating this world?" This is a very reasonable question!

We can start by setting our minds at rest, since that's where the question comes from. We're not talking about a permanent shut-down. We all have plenty of practice running the show from our thinking control center, so there's little chance of losing that ability for when we need it. What can help us immeasurably is letting go a little bit, just enough to turn attention to something other than our thoughts. Things like meditation and physical yoga often pick breathing and moving as good starting points. When everything is focused on our thinking, there's very little room to hear or feel anything else. Focus on your breath for a bit, and you start to notice things. Spending a little time to relax your mind and give yourself the chance to feel can have a very calming effect. You may notice that you feel good!

This brings up a second way to relax that is helpful right around now. It's related to the first because it involves letting go just for a bit all the reaching, planning, and figuring out. The best way to get where you want to go is to be right where you are. Everybody knows that, but sometimes a reminder is helpful. Again, for most of us the logical challenges can come right up with a statement like that, running along the lines of "If I don't plan and figure things out, how will anything ever get done around here?"

Our logical minds can definitely have a hard time dealing with paradoxes. The thing is, reality isn't bound by logic. It just is. Science will keep trying to measure and predict, how things are will keep on being how things are, and this will often perplex our ability to predict and control through logic. In this case the truth is, being exactly where we are, with all our senses focused precisely on what's in front of us right now, is a good way to feel calm and happy. And it's also the best way to get anywhere. If we need a rational explanation for that, it may have something to do with being "right here" enough to see things for how they are gives us greater ability to act appropriately. When our minds wander off, we deal less with reality and more with fitting things into what we imagine as a path to some future desire.

However we explain it, being happy to be right where we are is a good idea. Taking a little time off the mind through some breathing and yoga can go a long way to helping us relax and get wherever it is we need to be. Try checking out this video for a start in the right direction.

. . . and if that doesn't work here is a little holiday humor for you!

Meditation Has Physiological Benefits, Study Says

2009-11-25T09:04:06Z

Could the mental relaxation produced by transcendental meditation have physiological benefits? A study presented last week at the American Heart Association suggests that it may.

Ed and Deb Shapiro: What The Buddha Would Say To Sarah Palin

2009-11-24T08:18:00Z

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin has become a beacon
of light to her devotees. There is no doubt she wants
to do good and that her intentions are meaningful to many. When it comes to popularity she can also certainly sell
books.

Words have
power to destroy or heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change
our world. - The Buddha

At the moment Palin is touring the country to promote
her book, which has a very large number of words in it, but not all of them are
necessarily either true or kind. Nor were her actions particularly kind when hundreds of
eager autograph hunters were turned away, despite standing for hours in the
rain and cold. All of us have the capacity to be caring and thoughtful, yet it
can be so easy to put our own needs above another's.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for
people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill. - The Buddha

Going Rogue, the name of Palin's book and the ideology she professes to adhere
to, implies she wants to start a small revolution. Yet, having already ditched
the governorship half way through her term, it is difficult to imagine what she
wants to revolt against -- is it having no governors at all?

It would appear Sarah Palin believes that because she thinks
something is right then that makes it right for everyone else as well. Many
politicians think like this and want to impose their beliefs on us all.
However, such beliefs are, by their very nature, severely limited – just as we
cannot presume to know what another's needs are, so in the same way no one can
please all of the people all of the time. Rather, we need to find a way to
accommodate all our differences.

Palin seems to be striving for money power and fame, but that can often be at the expense of truth and kindness and not necessarily because
she genuinely cares about helping the needy and poor, improving education, or
providing health care. In August she called President Obama's health plan "downright
evil" and said he was creating a "death panel" that would deny
care to the neediest Americans. As both these points are false, we can only
presume that her true priority in saying this was to gain media attention.

Focusing
your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too
little of yourself. And it will leave you unfulfilled. - Barack Obama

The Buddha believed in going rogue and he did so by creating a spiritual
revolution that continues today. But he did not always have an easy time
of it. In his journey to awakening he encountered all manner of obstacles in
his own mind that he recognized as delusion, illusion, and the ego at play.

In the same
way, Palin needs to be careful that she is not seduced by the delusion of power
that leads to further illusions of grandeur. As this will, in the long run,
harm her more than she harms anyone else.

The moment that you think of doing harm to someone, that
thought harms you first. Unless you hate yourself, you can’t hate others. If
you love others, that means that you create the feeling of love within you
first, and then you offer the love to others. Your thoughts pass through your
entire system, and are expressed through your mouth and through your hands and
actions. Without thinking, you cannot speak or act. So the harmful thought,
from its very origin, spoils your system. In other words, you can’t hit anyone
else without striking yourself. - Sri Swami Satchidananda

What do you think it would take to make politics kinder and more honest? Do comment below. You can receive notice of our blogs every Thursday
by checking Become a Fan at the top.

You can order a copy of our book at: BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You and the World

****

Ed and Deb Shapiro’s new book, BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can
Transform You And The World, forewords by the Dalai Lama and Robert
Thurman, with contributors such as Marianne Williamson, astronaut Edgar
Mitchell, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Beckwith, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jane Fonda, Jack
Kornfield, Byron Katie, Dean Ornish, and others is published by Sterling Ethos.
Deb is the author of the award-winning book YOUR BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND. Ed and Deb are the authors of over 15
books, and lead meditation retreats and workshops. Enjoy their 3 meditation
CD’s: Metta - Loving kindness and Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath
Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra – Inner Conscious
Relaxation, available on their website:
www.EdandDebShapiro.com

Tara Stiles: Should Insurance Companies Pay For Preventive Care?

2009-11-21T07:00:00Z

Should government pay for preventive care? Should insurance companies? This topic has been coming up lately around the studio. We encourage people to come to class frequently to give them the best possible benefits. The once a week Strala class is fine for relaxation, or a fun social activity, but if you are interested in cultivating a healthy mind and body, more regular practice is necessary.

This brings many people to the problem of managing their already tight budgets. In New York City it tends to break down something like this: Rent, food, insurance, fun. Similar to the fundamental problem of the food diary, we forget to account for mindless spending as well as mindless calories. Clothing and drinks seem most always to get left off the list. I see people complaining on Facebook that they don't have enough money for yoga and in the same message planning to meet their friends out later for drinks.

I do understand what it's like to struggle and be concerned about money. I've been there. I think because of a variety of factors from my childhood leading up to now, I will always feel like I am struggling in some way. That's a whole other cause for stress that leads to sickness. We offer a free (bailout) class once a week at the studio open to anyone. We even offer full and partial scholarships, but in my experience, people don't appreciate what they don't pay for. I'd rather have someone hand the studio $200 cash and we give them back some of it every time they come to class until it's all back in their wallet, than hand out scholarships to someone who heads to the bar or Urban Outfitters after. We're all here together to get healthy and feel good, so we can live our best lives. We want to be surrounded by people cultivating the same for themselves.

It's all where your priorities are. You have to want it for yourself. A regular practice puts you back in touch with you. You don't need all the stuff to be happy.

The question has come up a few times in the studio if insurance companies would cover preventive care. Many companies do, which is fantastic, and smart. Rodale, the publisher of Men's and Women's Health magazines, also publisher of my first book, out Aug 31, 2010, Slim Calm Sexy (shameless self promotion in spirit of HuffPo blogging) reimburses their employees for yoga classes. Other companies have similar policies. A few people I've met at the studio have had strong recommendations by their doctors to practice yoga for specific cases like high blood pressure and vertigo, but as a general practice I really don't think insurance companies and government are there yet.

How would insurance companies make money from healthy people? They wouldn't. Hospitals would be ghost towns. Diabetes and heart disease would become an epidemic of the past. Pharmacies would become dusty and irrelevant. No more need to prescribe anything for anxiety, depression, insomnia or weight loss. Viagra would go out of business because people would be having the best sex of their lives, and if they are too old or not in the mood, they would realize that it's not appropriate to take a pill to get it up. People would make better choices, be happy from the inside out, and actually be nice to each other. People would choose careers that they actually wanted to do, rather than follow a path out of fear of failure, or desire to build protective piles of cash around themselves. People would care about things less and people more.

That reality will never be a decision of insurance companies, or government. That has to be a movement of the people. You have to want it for yourself. You have to be healthy because you want to. Waiting for an outside authority to shine the light for us - whether a doctor, insurance company, or whatever - will never work so well as taking back our responsibility and making our own choices. We all have to find our own way and there are people that can help you along the way to get there. Just look around.

Banish Holiday Stress With Yoga

2009-11-18T18:12:43Z

It seems like all the yoga we do these days is to strengthen our abs and tighten flab, but as we enter the holiday season, we need a great way to relax too.

Jonathan Kim: ReThink Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats -- the First Earth Battalion Wants You !

2009-11-17T17:45:46Z

The Men Who Stare at Goats is dividing viewers and critics. Some thought it was funny and some didn't -- that's just a matter of taste. But it seems the main point of contention is the difference between what people thought the movie would be -- a dark, sometimes surreal examination of the US military's foray into psychic warfare in keeping with Jon Ronson's non-fiction book of the same title -- and what the film is -- a comedy with some nuggets of alleged truth. I had no expectations when I saw the film, and it's been a while since I laughed that much in a theater.

See my ReThink Review of the Men Who Stare at Goats below.

But what was really interesting was the research I did after the movie. In the film, Lt. Colonel Bill Django (played by Jeff Bridges) writes a field manual for a military unit of warrior monks who would have paranormal super powers, boundless love for the earth and their fellow man, and could win wars without warfare. Django's character is largely based on Lt. Col. (ret.) Jim Channon, who studied the New Age movement that was flowering in California in the late 70s and used his findings to write the First Earth Battalion field manual, which explains how to turn soldiers into real-life Jedis.

I was able to find and download the First Earth Battalion field manual from the website of Arcturus Research & Design, where Channon is a founding member. The group describes itself as "Strategic designers, social architects, outfitters to cyberspace since 1978, and a global troupe of players to anchor the planet's most visionary ideas."

See me discuss the First Earth Battalion field manual with Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks below.

Reading the manual, which is mostly handwritten with drawings made by Channon himself, it's easy to see why Channon's findings would elicit snickers and eye-rolls from some military brass. At the same time, you can equally imagine why his findings might generate excitement and enthusiasm from officers who had experienced the horrors of war, were still smarting from a costly and humiliating defeat in Vietnam, and only saw things getting worse with the possibility of all-out nuclear war with Russia.

Contrary to assumption, the First Earth Battalion field manual isn't about soldiers using psychic powers to be better killers -- it's about encouraging the military to focus inwards (both personally and as an organization) and realize that they shouldn't be fighting wars at all. For instance, here is a job description of a First Earth warrior:

Services rendered by the warriors of the First Earth Battalion are specifically designed to generate workable solutions to defuse the nuclear time bomb, promote international relations, spread wise energy use, enforce the ecological balance, assist wise technological expansion, and above all, stress human development.

Sounds pretty nice, doesn't it? Channon believed that the military, with its organizational and technological advantages, should be used to fight what he saw as potentially the biggest threat to the planet aside from nuclear war: environmental destruction (a sentiment shared by the Pentagon). Here's how Channon imagined the FEB's role:

I can see their action expanding to include evolutionary work like planting vast new forests, completing large canal projects, helping in the towns, helping to clean up the innter cities, and working with the troubled inner city youth in young commando groups, and working harmoniously with other nations to see that the plentiful resources of our mother earth are equally shared by all peoples.

But perhaps Channon's most prescient observation was the role that the modern media and world opinion plays in deciding who wins wars, making conventional warfare obsolete in most respects.

Since the advent of worldwide television coverage, the judgments for success in battle have changed. Victory will now accrue to the force that executes an action most consistent with evolving world values. Destroying your opponent and his property will in the long run equal defeat. -snip-

The day most of the world watched war on television they all helped decide who won...and from that point on conflicts were decided based on who had the most RIGHT not the most MIGHT.

When you throw in some of Channon's other recommendations, like using meditation, yoga, visualization and eastern medicine -- many of which are currently being used by soldiers both for general health and to fight the effects of post traumatic stress disorder -- and you've got the makings of an army that even a pacifist wouldn't mind joining.

For more ReThink Reviews, the only (therefore best) political movie reviews anywhere, visit ReThinkReviews.net.

Lauren Cahn: What Yoga Can Do For Jon Gosselin

2009-11-17T12:09:13Z

By now, we've all seen the above photo of Jon Gosselin practicing yoga, and in particular, Jon Gosselin practicing Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, or as it is more commonly known, "Upward Facing Dog Pose", or as I will be calling it here: "Updog". Updog is a key pose in any vinyasa yoga practice (vinyasa yoga is the vigorous form of yoga that links breath to movement and connects each pose to the next through a repetitive sequences of three to five poses known as a "vinyasa", which inevitably includes Updog). It is repeated too many times to count in most vinyasa practices (and yes, I have tried to count it, never being able to keep track after 60 or so). It forms a "counterpose" to just about any pose that consists of a forward bend, and in particular, to Adho Mukka Svanasana, or as it is more commonly known, "Downward Facing Dog Pose, or "Downdog", which is the pose in which the body forms the shape of an upside down "V", with the feet and hands on the ground and the butt in the air).

The physical benefits of Updog are myriad. They include the strengthening of the muscles of the back, the arms, the legs and the buttocks (there is a clenching of the buttocks that occurs when first practicing Updog, although over time and with practice, the buttocks clenches less, and the legs engage more). They also include a broadening of the chest cavity, which provides space for improved lung capacity and better, slower breathing. Updog also enhances flexibility in the spine (think tailbone up to the base of the skull), the wrists and even the ankles.

Energetically speaking, if you are inclined to believe in such things (not that there's anything wrong with that), Updog allows us to ground ourselves, become one with the earth, become clearer in our logic -- while still expanding the heart and lifting it up towards the sky. It's an opportunity to stay connected with what is safe and solid and good while still practicing opening up and becoming vulnerable and giving.

Certainly, Jon Gosselin could benefit from some of that energetic work. If we are to believe what we read in the ... everywhere ... it appears that his marriage is in tatters, his relationship with his girlfriend is in disarray, and his relationship with his former network, TLC, has broken down to the point where lawyers have begun taking aim. I'm not even going to mention what this is all doing to his eight kids. Practicing Updog correctly could help Jon to ground himself in his relationships while opening himself up to what others have to offer as well as to the possibility of giving authentically of himself.

Let's take a deeper look at the photo of Jon in Updog, which comes from Us Magazine. While it is clear that Jon is blessed with a nice, flexible spine and even hyper-flexible elbows, it is also clear that he has his work cut out for him if he wants to truly enjoy the benefits of Updog. So, let's set about fixing Jon's Updog:

First thing Jon should do is to ease up on those hyper-extended elbows. Let the elbows bend a bit as he engages the muscles in his legs, imagining shooting energy back through his toes. The leg engagement should be so strong that it literally lifts his pelvis off the floor and creates space so that his chest can expand and move forward as he takes a long, deep inhale (through the nose). He should be thinking "forward" and "expand" with regard to his chest, rather than "up" (because it looks from the photo as if his tendency is to lift it up, when all that really does is cause his shoulders to scootch up by his ears and his elbows to hyper-extend themselves backwards).

Summing up where we are so far, we have asked Jon to engage the legs strongly, point the toes back and expand the chest forward. At this point, he can begin to press into the floor with the flat of his palms to straighten his arms, but not to the point of hyper-extension. He needs to use his strength to keep at bay that extra bit of flexibility in his elbow joints, which will only cause him to sink inward in the chest and lift his shoulders up to his ears. So, he needs to straighten the arms, but softly, while at the same time, drawing his shoulders away from his ears, and likewise, his ears away from his shoulders. Some yoga teachers like to advise that the elbow creases should be pointing forward in Updog, but in Jon's case, I think that it is enough to be mindful of the tendency to sink into the hyper-flexibility of the elbow joints and use his strength to counteract that.

At this point, if Jon finds that his butt is clenching, he should try to relax it, consciously, and remind his legs to do the work. If he finds his shoulders climbing up, he should release them down. If he finds that his feet are starting to turn inward, he needs to make them parallel again, or even roll the outer thighs in slightly, unless that makes his lower back feel compressed, in which case, parallel is fine.

Finessing the pose further, Jon should lift his eyes upward, allowing his head to gently tip back (unless this causes pain) because the cervical spine is part of the spine, and should be included in all backbends (again, unless pain or injury is a counterindication). It would be a good idea at this point to remove the backwards baseball cap because it could interfere with the backbend reaching Jon's cervical spine. Or it might fall off in the middle of the pose, which could be distracting.

And by all means, Jon should be breathing throughout all of this (what IS it about not breathing? Oh yes, it makes us dead). Each inhale should expand his chest. Each exhale is equally important, lest he hold his breath and find himself panting when he comes out of the pose.

As Jon explores these adjustments to his Updog, he may feel some uncomfortable emotions bubbling up to the surface. These can include anxiety and/or anger, which are physiological responses to bearing one's neck and exposing one's front body. It's not hocus-pocus, really (if it were, you wouldn't hear me talking about it). This is simply a vestige of our having evolved from animals with razor-sharp survival instincts. If he feels those feelings, he should be aware that they are fleeting and usually end just as soon as the pose does. If they do not, that is, if he feels angry or anxious following an intense exploration of Updog, he should come back to the mat and do several minutes of forward bends, which tend to sooth. Think of them as hugging oneself.

Good luck, Jon. It's good to see you doing the yoga. And please have a lovely Namas-day!

Trish Kinney: The Medicine You Don't Have to Take

2009-11-16T15:26:01Z

Before my first child was a year old, I came down with a blinding headache that knocked the wind out of me. The doctor diagnosed a sinus infection after one glance up my nose with those little reverse tweezer spreaders. He gave me the prescription, the thing you go there for, and off I went to take my drugs like a good girl.

But in this case, the drugs didn't make me feel better and in fact I began feeling a lot worse. Reluctantly, Cigna decided they couldn't avoid sending me to a specialist and he couldn't hide his concern when he used the little tweezer spreaders. He declared my sinuses abscessed and proceeded to drain them immediately. Not only was the procedure very unpleasant but seeing what had been hiding in my sinuses was downright disgusting. It seems that the original doctor made a correct diagnosis but hadn't brushed up on which drugs actually kill sinus bacteria. In fact, the wrong antibiotic had allowed the bacteria to flourish.

Follow-up x-rays showed that most likely permanent damage had occurred and a complete recovery was not in my future. What was in my future was a full blown sinus infection every 90 days. We just celebrated my son's 32nd birthday. That's a lot of sinus infections. Over the years, it was determined that I had no physical abnormalities that could be surgically corrected and different drug therapies were unsuccessful. Finally a Mayo specialist said to take my drugs four times a year and everything would be fine. No big deal.

Fast forward to a recent trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico. My tender sinuses were acting up causing the whole side of my face to hurt. My hostess, a dear friend, insisted that I try her neti pot. It looked like a tea pot in which she put warm water and a little scoop of salt. She taught me how to lean over the sink, turn my head, and pour the warm water through one nostril as it came out the other. When I lifted my head and blew my nose, it cleared my sinuses and alleviated the pain. She promised if I used it every day, my sinus problems would be a thing of the past. I smiled and said to myself that she just didn't understand the longevity and severity of my sinus issues and no pot was going to cure me. But it felt so good that I bought my own when I got home and began using it religiously. The next sinus infection cycle came as always. But the one after that never came. I skipped a sinus infection for the first time in over 30 years thanks to that little pot.

I'm the first one to tell you that once you are sick, it's probably best to take your medicine. Even though my high risk cancer was, in my mind, most certainly a result of emotional dis-ease, once I had a raging 11 centimeter breast tumor taking over my lymph nodes very quickly, I immediately began 8 months of intense treatment. In fact, my bone marrow transplant was one of the most emotionally healing experiences imaginable. And once one of those regular sinus infections came on, wild horses couldn't keep me from that bottle of antibiotics. It's what we do when we are well, how we may avoid being sick in the first place, that should be on our minds.

In the quiet of the very early morning, I was sitting in the dark in my living room, clearing out the e-mail that comes through during the night on my Blackberry. Deciding it was time to get rid of some of the regular junk, I scrolled down to the bottom of the first one and clicked on the unsubscribe link. I watched the "requesting" blue line at the bottom of the screen move so damned slow and fought the urge to use the back space button which would cancel the whole procedure because it seemed impossible to wait another second. I remembered my first Blackberry and how painfully slow it was, although when I first got it, just having internet capabilities on my phone seemed nothing short of miraculous. Then I couldn't wait to get the higher speed version, but now, in the peace and quiet of my home, long before my day even had a chance to get really stressful, I simply couldn't bear to be patient while the blue line made it all the way across the screen.

This A-type behavior is contrary to the principles taught in my regular Bikram yoga practice and yet it seems easy to practice those things in the safety and security of the studio at 108 degrees and 40 percent humidity. It is much easier to be "present" under those circumstances. You almost have to just to survive it. They say it prepares you to handle any stress. But we are very good at compartmentalizing in our lives. Good breathing in yoga class. Barely breathing when the "requesting" line takes forever to load.

My massage therapist, a wise woman, tells me to take short breaks during the day for constructive rest. Just lie down for a short while to rejuvenate body, mind and soul by connecting to your breath and being present with yourself. It sounds wonderful, doesn't it? And even though I have the opportunity and believe in its value, have I actually done it even one time?

Our self-image, who we perceive ourselves to be, is not usually a work in progress. We are good at believing that we are who we are and we do things a certain way because of it. A highly motivated person, it is hard for me to see constructive rest as anything but slacking. That is foolish, of course, and I know better, but it is ingrained. Sometimes we use our self-image as an excuse not to change, feeling we should be accepted and loved for who we already are.

Can we force ourselves to examine the big picture and truly decide not just who we are, but who we want to be? Are we brave enough to admit the effect of certain behaviors on our health and then make the change necessary to improve the quality of our lives? And why is it so hard? I do know one thing. Despite being overjoyed to see that full bottle of antibiotics still in my cabinet, the one that was waiting for the next sinus infection that never came, there is a part of me that feels a little lost. Those quarterly events, no matter how dreaded, had become part of my story, ingrained into my self-image. Now I am not the woman who gets the infections every ninety days. I am the woman who stopped the infections after thirty years. I'll take the latter. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?

Tara Stiles: What Would You Do For God? (VIDEO)

2009-11-14T07:00:00Z

I've been hooked on Netflix streaming for the past few weeks. It's served me as a useful post-book revision wind down, but not so useful in granting a good night's sleep. I've plowed through loads of my queue and started exploring indie documentaries. My latest obsession is the BBC special, The Atheism Tapes.

"Six renowned intellectuals debate whether God exists in these fascinating interviews with playwright and atheist Jonathan Miller. Highlights include playwright Arthur Miller discussing the anti-Semitism he's faced and his disbelief in God. Other participants are biologist Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion; theologian Denys Turner; physicist Steven Weinberg; and philosophers Daniel Dennett and Colin McGinn." - from Netflix

I grew up feeling from a very young age that what was right was right, no matter if God or my teacher said so. The mere acknowledgment that "God is watching" can act as a trap, fueling bad behavior, corruption, and guilt, all remedied by God's forgiveness. No personal responsibility is needed - someone on the outside sees whatever we're doing and makes it all ok. I remember thinking that someone who really wanted to get away with something big came up with this institution. For everyone to be still going along with the whole charade felt ridiculous. In a seemingly contradictory fashion, I also wanted to become a nun. I wanted to help people, but I couldn't commit to a corrupt institution that was based on guilt, power and control.

People argue that religion guarantees good behavior and so it is good to teach our children these rules to live by. The English philosopher Collin McGinn says "What is right is right, not because God, an outside force, says so. If God told us that to steal and to murder was right, we wouldn't think it was right. So what's right is right and we don't need God to say so." McGinn says believing in God adds that extra umph for some people to do the right thing. People hate to feel guilt and God can take that away. This argument shapes up God to be an enabler. He might as well hand you a beer, a Big Mac, and the keys to your neighbor's house so you can steal their bigger TV, and wife if she's, you know, better than yours. He'll forgive it all, so why not just go for it.

Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg says we are simply winners in a cosmic lottery. People are religious because they know they are going to die. Everyone you love is going to die. Life will come to an end. Darwin had a wounding impact on religion by finding the causes for why people are the way they are. Weinberg says science is corrosive to religious belief. He sees this as a good thing.

Regrettably, many people do awful things out of sincere religious beliefs. When someone crashes an airplane into a building they must really believe in the paradise with which their God will reward them. When adjusted moral codes are fixed back to God, that's madness. Putting God above humanity is a terrible thing. There's no need for it, and the results can be disastrous.

Is any of this necessary? McGinnin says in his autobiography that when he decided not to believe in God it was like shedding a skin. The new one was fine but he was disappointed. He said he'd like to believe in a God that rewards the virtuous and punishes the non-virtuous, especially the punishment part because the world has no justice. But he doesn't believe. He can't see his way to it.

It seems to all come back to moral code. Do we need God to be somewhere outside of us, so we can look outside to find what we need? It can be confusing, the idea that we might already have whatever we need right here inside us - especially when things are often so difficult. People can be weak. We make a lot of mistakes. But rather than seek absolution from some other authority, maybe we could recognize where we are and keep trying to live better, with more compassion and love for humanity. Maybe we could build faith in our selves. It takes practice so we don't miss the mark.

This video is a meditation I learned and borrowed from Kundalini yoga. Many yoga schools have become religions, so can be just as dangerous as other religions. This is especially the case when moral code is adjusted by leaders and tolerated by its followers. In any religion, yoga or otherwise, the potential for good drops off massively when people give up their own control and discernment, and hand it over to a leader. It can be more comfortable for people to be told what to do. It's hard to keep looking within to find our own answers. But, keep looking. The benefits of yoga - just plain yoga - along with any path that is truly our own, can make us more compassionate, tolerant, healthy. The answers are all there waiting for you.

Yoga Helps Kids Channel Energy, Emotions

2009-11-13T11:12:14Z

Once an oddity reserved for only the crunchiest communities, downward dog for the grade-school set is now being taught in studios from Minnetonka, Minnesota, to Moscow, Russia.

Sara Avant Stover: Unplug and Recharge: How Yoga Can Open Your Heart (VIDEO)

2009-11-12T12:24:07Z

Sometimes the circumstances in our lives--relationships, overwhelming emotions, or even the way that we habitually sit and stand--can shut down our hearts.

Here's a short yoga sequence to help you transform your armor into openness.

Enjoy!

To watch more videos from Sara, please visit http://www.thewayofthehappywoman.com/videos

Erica Heinz: How To Cure The Hiccups!

2009-11-11T11:20:21Z

Drink from the far side of a glass of water. Eat a
spoonful of sugar. Get someone to scare you. Then pour the sugar water on your
friend’s head, and come here to stop your hiccups.

Hiccups are caused by a spasm of the diaphragm, the
breathing muscle that runs across the base of your ribcage like a trampoline.
So, to stop the hiccups you have to get the muscle to relax. You can cure them
in one deep breath. Here’s how:

Take a
relaxed exhale. Then inhale, as deeply as you can. Feel the bottom ribs
lifting, and the side ribs expanding. Keep inhaling; lift and arch the chest,
and gently turn the neck to one side. Hold there, and hold the breath. If
there’s any space, sip in a little more air. Hold the breath until a few
hiccups would have passed. Then relax and breathe slowly. Your hiccups are
gone.

What’s going on here? You’re lengthening and
expanding all your breathing muscles, leaving nowhere for the spasm to go.
You’re stretching out your hiccups.

The breathing muscles run throughout your torso. In order of importance, they are:

your diaphragm, the primary mover, a mushroom-shaped dome at the base of your ribs

your intercostals (external and internal), which connect your ribs

your sternocleidomastoid, at the front of your neck, and your scalenes, at the sides of your neck

Here’a great animation of your diaphragm. This
muscle cuts our body literally in half, and yet a lot of people don’t even know
it exists!

(For more information on your breathing muscles, check out the anatomy classes and
teachers at the Breathing Project. Understanding and adapting your breathing can help asthma, anxiety, depression, even chronic pain.)

So maybe now you can visualize a hiccup. The pink dome would be spasming up and in. And once you can visualize a system, you can better feel and address it.

The hiccup stretch has worked for me each and every time I’ve tried it. Let me know if it works for you!

Read more: Body, Yoga, Hiccups, Health, Breathing, Living News

Lauren Cahn: 25 Random Things About Yoga

2009-11-10T18:08:27Z

I have seen "Yoga" on Facebook, but I've never friended it (even though Facebook keeps nagging me to do so). So, I don't know if it's ever done one of those "25 Random Things" things. If it has, it probably talked about how enlightened it is, and how awesome it feels to bend over backwards and put your feet on your head. But I see things a little differently, yes I do. And so, without further ado, here is my own version. Now paste this into your update and keep it there all day long:

25 Random Things About Yoga

1. You don't have to be thin to be flexible.

2. To get into certain poses, however, it does help to be thin to make up for a lack of flexibility.

3. Some types of yoga include high-impact exercise (some Kundalini Yoga sequences include jogging in place; Ashtanga Yoga is based on a sequence of poses linked by "vinyasas," which might be described as something like "squat thrusts," which you might remember from high school gym class).

4. What many people think of as "yoga" (that is, the physical poses), is only part of what is really meant by the term "yoga," which includes, among other things, meditation and principles that are recommended to be followed in order to make one's life conducive to a state of enlightenment.

5. The ability to levitate is one of the promised effects of enlightenment, according to the Yoga Sutras, which are to yoga what the Bible is to Christianity or the Torah is to Judaism.

6. You don't have to know much of anything about yoga in order to become a yoga teacher. You simply need to call yourself a teacher. Or take a yoga teacher training course and then call yourself a teacher. I have yet to hear of anyone who was unable to pass a yoga teacher training course.

7. Some yoga teacher training courses take place over the course of a weekend, after which newly minted teachers are set free to call themselves certified teachers. Could be the teacher you had today at your gym!

8. Some schools of yoga do not have teacher training courses at all; rather, one's proficiency as a practitioner and commitment to the practice is judged by the powers that be, and if it is deemed acceptable, one is given "authorization" to teach. This is especially true in Ashtanga Yoga, where the teacher's physical touching and adjusting of the students is of paramount importance to the conveying of the teachings.

9. Many students look to their yoga teachers for nutritional advice and many are advised by their teachers to become vegetarian or vegan or eat raw foods. Some are encouraged to fast and drink castor oil to induce diarrhea. Some are encouraged to engage in "Pancha Karma" (sometimes spelled "Pancha Krama"), which involves not only inducing diarrhea but inducing vomiting after eating butter. I'm not kidding.

10. Yoga teachers are not nutritionists and as a general rule have no training in nutrition (unless they have a degree in nutrition apart from their yoga teacher training).

11. Many yoga students experience "transference" with regard to their yoga teachers, projecting onto them the role of parent or lover, and many yoga teachers experience the other side of the coin in return: "counter-transference" with regard to their yoga students.

12. Yoga teachers are not psychologists, counselors or therapists (unless they have a degree in such, apart from their yoga teacher training) and are not trained to cope with transference and counter-transference.

13. It is not un-heard-of for yoga teachers to have sexual relationships with their students.

14. Yoga teachers are not "yoga therapists" unless specifically trained as such.

15. Many yoga teachers call themselves "yoga therapists."

16. Some yoga teachers request that their students have no other teachers, paraphrasing this sage advice from a now-deceased guru of yoga, "Having more than one teacher leads to the death of the student."

17. The ability to stop and start one's own heartbeat at will is one of the promised effects of diligent yoga practice, according to the current top guru of Ashtanga Yoga.

18. There are yoga competitions throughout the world (e.g., The International Yoga Asana Championship).

19. Yogis have been known to challenge each other to do such feats as practice blindfolded and drop back from standing into a full backbend without having warmed up first.

20. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were more than 5,500 yoga-related injuries treated in doctors' offices, clinics and emergency rooms in 2007.

21. When taught and practiced responsibly, yoga can improve fitness by building muscle while raising the heart rate.

22. Many yogis report that they lost unwanted pounds after incorporating a yoga practice into their routine, which may be attributed to the fact that the yoga practice, with its twisting, bending and upside down poses tends to make its practitioners conscious of what they eat and the way what they eat will effect the way they feel while practicing yoga.

23. Yogis are just regular people, no matter what they tell you. They still yell at their kids, they still park in front of hydrants, they still drop their gum on the sidewalk. Sometimes.

24. Being proficient at yoga poses does not make you proficient at "yoga" or more enlightened or more spiritual or nicer or more worthy in any way.

25. I thought I would leave this one blank...for you to fill in in the comments section!

Ed and Deb Shapiro: What Do Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Dr. Dean Ornish And Actor Ed Begley Jr. Have In Common?

2009-11-10T08:19:02Z

What could an
astronaut who walked on the moon, a brilliant doctor who has proved that yoga
and diet helps heart disease, and an actor who is committed to helping the
environment possibly have in common? Firstly, they all care about people and want a better world, and are doing what they can to make it happen. And secondly,
they have all found that one of the best ways to work with our limitations is through
meditation.

What
is it that stops us from being the best we can be, from giving unreservedly,
from caring for others more than ourselves? Self-centeredness and selfishness,
the hallmarks of the ego, affect not only our own lives and relationships but
also influence the way we behave in the world. There is no limit to the damage
a strong ego can do, from the arrogant conviction that its own opinions are the
only right ones, to wielding and abusing power at the expense of other people’s
lives or liberties.

Through meditation, from being
self-centered we become other-centered, concerned about the welfare of all rather than
being focused on just ourselves and our families. We become more acutely aware
of how we treat each other and our world, and seek to become a positive
presence rather than a negative one. Meditation can do more for the world than
all the money and good works, as we are no longer contributing suffering to the
world but offering our peace. This gift is priceless.

Our long awaited book, BE THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can
Transform You and the World, has just been published (yea!!!). In our
last blog we highlighted seven of the inspiring women who contributed to it.
This week we are highlighting seven of the men in the book, men who are each
making a difference to our world.

When we look
at the world from the moon, as astronaut Edgar
Mitchell explained to us, it is just a small round ball. As Apollo 14
moved closer and the earth became larger, Mitchell’s life changed forever. From
exploring the far reaches of outer space, he began to seek a deeper meaning for
his experience and turned to explore his inner world, which came to include
meditation. Due to this he co-created the Institute of Noetic Sciences to
encourage and lead research into human potential.

Robert
Thurman, professor of
Indio-Tibetan studies at Columbia University, NYC:

"When
I see my attitude about my own egotism and I realize that I am just one of all
beings and I am interrelated with everyone else, then meditation is like a
weight that pushes that realization down deeper into my gut until it finds the
'I, me, mine' level where it transforms it. Meditation is what makes my
understanding experiential."

Dean Ornish, Medical Editor for the HuffPost:

"People who have had a heart attack sometimes say it was the
best thing that ever happened to them, and I say, 'Are you crazy?' They say, 'Well,
no, but that is what it took to begin making these changes that have made my
life so much more profoundly joyful and meaningful.' Change is hard, but if we
are in enough pain, the idea of change becomes more appealing and we will try
just about anything. When we make these changes, the pain subsides, and not
only the physical pain like angina from heart disease or back pain, but deeper
levels of pain that are more difficult to measure but are often more
meaningful. When we can focus on something, which is what meditation does, it
enhances our inner communication, giving us more personal power and peace of
mind.

"When people are stressed out, they may say, 'My fuse is
shorter and I explode more easily, but when I meditate on a regular basis, my
fuse is longer. The situation does not change, but how I react to it does.'
Meditation allows us to experience more of an internal sense of well-being. It
dampens our sympathetic nervous system. It enhances our parasympathetic nervous
system, so we can relax. Our mind quiets down. Our breathing becomes slower and
deeper. Our metabolic rate balances."

Marshall Rosenberg, director of the Center for Nonviolent Communications:

"In
60% of the television programs watched by children, the hero either kills somebody
or beats him up. History teaches about the good Americans who killed innocent
people. I believe engaging in self-empathy supports us to stop and transform
the thinking that creates violence. It is a very important part of peace on our
planet. We need to take time each day to remind ourselves of the preciousness
of compassionate giving and receiving. If we have played violent games with
other people—guilt games, shame games, anger games, punishment games—then we
can grieve for this in a way that changes us and creates a more caring
world."

Ed Begley, Jr., actor
nominated for six Emmy’s and an environmental activist devoted to green living:

"We
can make it a saner and happier world if we just slowed down and had less focus
on wanting or needing more stuff. If stuff made you happy, there would be
nothing but happy people living in Bell Air and unhappy people living in Fiji
where they have nothing, but I have been to Fiji and there are plenty of happy
people there. I have never seen a hearse with a luggage rack on top. We have
got to get away from stuff and appreciate what is here."

Matthew Fox, the founder
of the Friends of Creation Spirituality:

"Meditation
is calming the reptilian brain. We have all got three brains in us: One is a
reptilian brain, which is about 420 million years old, our mammal brain is half
that old, and our most recent one is the intellectual creative brain. The
reptilian brain is very prominent; it runs our respiratory and sexual systems;
it is action and reaction. We have to calm this reptilian brain so that the
mammal brain, which is the brain of compassion and is here to bring kindness
and kinship and bonding, can function. I mean, reptiles do not make good
lovers; that is not their thing. Meditation allows us to treat the reptilian brain
well: 'Nice crocodile, nice crocodile.' When we calm the crocodile, then the
mammal brain can assert itself. Meditation is not just for professional monks;
it is a survival mechanism for us all, especially in this time of crowdedness
and rubbing shoulders with people of different faiths and traditions. We all
have to learn to calm our reptilian brain."

Bernie Glassman, founder
of the Zen Peacemakers:

"Take
care of the person next to you. It might be your spouse, your child, your
parents, or it might be a stranger. It doesn't have to be big, it doesn't
matter who it is, and it doesn't matter if they have nothing to give you; you
just do it because it is there to be done. Meditation leads us to the
experience of oneness. In that state, we automatically take care of everything
we see because it is ourselves; it is not separate from us. That is the bottom
line for me: Once you take care of the delusion of separateness, then everything
else is taken care of."

Mingyur Rinpoche, author
of Joyful Wisdom:

"Who
makes problems? We humans. And who is the controller of the human? The mind.
And how to control the human mind? Through meditation. If you can control the
pilot, then the pilot can control the plane."

Do you have any meditation stories of
how meditation has helped you? Do comment below. You can receive notice of our
blogs every Thursday by checking Become a
Fan at the top.

Join
us for a booksigning: MAIN EVENT November 16^th at Barnes &
Nobel, 150 East 86^th St., NYC, with guest speakers: Ellen Burstyn,
Robert Thurman, Cyndi Lee, Andrew Cohen and Mark Matousek.

Other
events: Nov 11^th at Powell's, 1005 Burnside, Portland OR; Nov 13th
at Barnes &Noble, 2675 NW University Village St., Seattle WA; and Nov 17^th
at Gasoline Alley, 250 Albany St., Springfield MA. More details at: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

****

Ed and Deb Shapiro’s new book, BE
THE CHANGE, How Meditation Can Transform You And The World, forewords
by the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, with contributors such as Marianne
Williamson, astronaut Edgar Mitchell, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Beckwith, Jon Kabat-Zinn,
Jane Fonda, Jack Kornfield, Byron Katie, Dean Ornish, and others is published
by Sterling Ethos. Deb is the author of the award-winning book YOUR
BODY SPEAKS YOUR MIND. Ed and
Deb are the authors of over 15 books, and lead meditation retreats and
workshops. Enjoy their 3 meditation CD’s: Metta - Loving kindness and
Forgiveness; Samadhi – Breath Awareness and Insight; and Yoga Nidra
– Inner Conscious Relaxation, available on their website: www.EdandDebShapiro.com

Alanna Zabel: AZIAM Yoga - I Am Kind

2009-11-09T13:23:03Z

Mantra: I Am Kind
Posture: Tree Pose

The tree pose asana has multiple physical benefits. It strengthens the thighs, calves, ankles and spine. It stretches the inner thighs and groin area, and it improves an overall sense of balance. It can also be of benefit in relieving sciatica and in reducing flat feet. With one foot pressing into the opposite thigh, it is also known to stimulate kidney meridian pressure points that run along the inner thighs - acting as a bit of self-acupressure.

Avoid raising your arms above your head in this workout if you tend towards feeling lightheaded, and please seek medical advice before attempting the complete asana if you have very low blood pressure.

To begin:

• Stand upright with the feet together and your arms by the side.

• Raise the right thigh by bending your knee. Place the sole of your right foot as high up as possible onto the inside of the left thigh.

• While balancing on the left foot, raise your arms up over your head, while keeping your arms as straight as possible. Breathe steadily as you move. Keep your focus on one spot.

• Hold the final posture while completing ten full breath cycles (one inhale and one exhale equals one breath cycle).

• Repeat in your mind I Am Kind. Feel the essence of kindness.

• Return your right leg and your arms to the starting position. Pause. Repeat the movements, this time raising the left leg.

Carry this out for as long as you feel comfortable, all the while practicing and honing your present-minded focus. Use this practice to calm a restless mind and to drive away distractions as you concentrate on maintaining balance. Achieving balance on either leg for a length of time can be challenging - please do not become discouraged, but simply continue practicing. It is inevitable that you will see progress in time.

Yogis associate this posture with a tree - the leg which you are balancing on is the trunk rooted into the ground; the arms, lifted leg and head as branches and leaves of the tree. A tree epitomizes a non-judgmental, resource-providing, season-changing, patient symbol of our Earth. Embody these attributes today.

Throughout your day today, offer sincere compliments, resources, shade, flowers, and any other expressions of kindness to those who are lucky enough to be in your neck of the woods.

"Acceptance of others - their looks, their behaviors, their beliefs - bring you an inner peace and tranquility instead of anger and resentment." - Unknown

May today grace you with kindness as you shower kindness to others,

Alanna

Elena Brower: Art of Attention: Healing Your Heart 101

2009-11-09T12:44:55Z

Everyone in your life, without exception, is there to show you the path to your freedom. The more vexing the situation or the person, the more clearly your path is being illuminated for you. Will you see it?

There are going to be real moments when vexation compromises any semblance of composure. In order to cut through the confusion and see the next step clearly, I offer you a very simple, specific exercise that has recently proven inordinately helpful.

In one sentence: follow your breathing to your heart and dwell there - for a few moments, or minutes if possible.

Here goes: right now, take a breath in, place your attention in your heart [generally center upper body]; exhale, soften your skin. Several times, inhabit that space with presence for just a few breaths - or minutes - if it feels resonant for you. Notice how everything eases: your mind, your body, your face.

We can do this on the mat while practicing yoga, which shows us what's possible in any daily interaction. Doubt and distraction always surface when I'm practicing - staying in my heart invariably just brings the doubt and distraction down and keeps me in my body.

Interaction-wise, I've recently staved off bouts of searing fear and anxiety using this practice; each time I manage to get one moment of time in my heart - even amidst the most haunting, bracing clarity in a conversation or circumstance - instead of saying or thinking that which would only drain me, I've noticed a profound softening.

"Such a choice should be made anew in each stressful event. It is about developing awareness of intricate, neural maneuvers. There is no grand conversion to the intelligence of the heart, no theatrical, emotional fit that announces that you're now 'realized' and you may relax..." When I re-read this recently it came to me that we are actually accumulating experiences in an ongoing journey to nurture real presence. Whatever the situation brings, we must learn to value, honor and respect ourselves and our own process by continuously striving for presence in this part of our body. This accumulation generates magnetism within us, drawing toward us whatever will best serve our growth.

We are not learning something new; we are approaching and engaging an inherently human function, that of our heart, which harmonizes all the systems of our body. When we become aware of the over-emphasis we place on our intellectual activity, it's obvious that we need to make more room for the balancing, harmonizing effect of our heart in our body with a practice such as this.

As you traverse time and experience, collect moments of residing in your heart and create true presence in your body. If I'm vigilant enough, this sense of presence helps me catch my brain's intricate, insidiously overpowering trails away from my heart. When I catch it, I am able to liberate myself from all momentary distractions (my history, doubt, fear) and return to the nourishing harmony of my heart again.

Caveat: your brain is not a problem. There is simply a process of discernment and choice that most of us have not fully engaged yet. We can only accomplish it by choosing the extent to which we engage ourselves mentally by living in our hearts more of the time.

Essentially, in this simple, single moment of following the breathing to your heart, you are submitting your cerebral consciousness to your harmonious, nurturing heart's consciousness. This silent choice is ongoing, and we must be incredibly consistent in choosing it. This inner harmony is our given state; to live there more of the time is to feed and uphold the most abundant ecology of your being.

Ring the bells that still can ring; forget your perfect offering. There's a crack in everything; that is how the light gets in.

Tara Stiles: Relaxation: The Art of Doing Nothing (VIDEO)

2009-11-07T07:00:00Z

Our minds are occupied with so many useless thoughts that cause tension. When we try to relax we aren't even aware of how to go about releasing the tension that we are gripping, because we don't fully understand why it is there. It happens to all of us. Stress and tension are complicated physically and psychologically. Soothing pictures of sunsets, calming music, and meditation won't help much unless it points us in the direction of understanding our obsession with activity, the cause of our tension.

Have you ever been in an argument with someone who told you to relax in a raised tone of voice? It seems like the most ridiculous command in the moment. You can't yell at someone to relax and expect a calm, steady, and in-the-moment result. The same happens when we tell ourselves to relax. We tense up even more.

When I can't relax I'm usually obsessed with the outcome of a project, or tense about finishing a deadline. When I get really wound up my mind has a hard time focusing on the tasks I need to finish. Room for creativity shrinks and I'm left with a pile of energy that is useless to me. I've learned from reading and listening to the Dalai Lama, Ram Dass, Krishna Dass, and other great teachers that all that stuff will get done because you are doing it. You can drop the stress. I've also learned that this lifetime, this moment, this second, is so fast and it's best to enjoy it and be thankful for what you have, and not to worry about what you don't. Worrying won't make it happen, or make you happy when you get or don't get it.

We have the ability to put everything in perspective, reconnect with ourselves, our compassion, and our ability to help others instead of being worried about our wants and desires all the time. Putting your attention toward helping others, by the way, is a great relaxation technique. Deep thoughts aside, tension is in the way of our efficiency. We don't have to relax the tension, we just have to drop it. Let it go. Use what you need. Rest what you don't.

If you're relaxed on your day off it's probably not because you are sitting around commanding yourself to relax. It's probably because you have given your mind and body a break, a necessary activity for recharging and allowing inspiration to surface.

All that tension is like a clogged drain, keeping what we don't need from dropping away, standing in the way of our potential. We need to dig out all the sludge. Take a good long look at it, learn from how it got there in the first place, put a proper filter on the drain, and let it go. Of course the sludge will probably come back. But with the new filter in place, we have the proper tools for dealing with it.

Don't let the sludge take over your life. Get a filter.

This routine is designed to chill you out and release tension in the hips, hamstrings, and spine. Try it out whenever your drain is clogged and hopefully you'll be feeling nice and relaxed soon.

Sadie Nardini: Mr. President: I Challenge You To Quit!

2009-11-05T11:43:36Z

Dear Mr. President,

I know you're trying to fix our massive problems, all while moving us forward on multiple fronts. I voted for you, and rejoiced when you won.

Yet, I also want you to quit.

I'm sure your stress levels are unbelievable. Yet, if you want to help create change we can believe in, then you must stop bumming cigarettes. I know you've done it, and might do it again, because you told Men's Health about it.

And you haven't come out with a definitive statement since then about totally putting down the pack. So, in service of my president, and my country, I am going to offer you a quick and easy way (yes, there is one) to replace those stress-related smokes with a more powerful habit to suit the powerful man you are.

Readers--take note.

Because now, Houston, we have a problem.

Cigarettes are one of the greatest causes of preventable death in our country, with obesity nipping at its heels. We don't need any more high-profile leaders leading our youth by example into the addictive mire of smoking.

And though bumming on the campaign trail isn't the same as heavy usage, no amount of carcinogens is OK. By it's very nature, doing something is saying that it's OK for others to do. I can't drink vodka and then tell you to lay off the hard stuff.

And no, our president doesn't have to be a role model for everything and I know he's not perfect. But he is undeniably cool. And by his natural emanation of coolness, he makes bumming cigarettes seem much, much cooler than it is.

Sharing a chocolate chip cookie with a friend is said to release all the calories, which is a harmless joke. But it's not as if, when smoking someone else's cigarette, all the death falls out.

Do cigarettes kill everybody who smokes? No.

Neither does staph infection, but I'm not going to go out and bum some from someone and see. I've decided that if the odds are good that the choice in question is deadly, but avoidable--I'm going to avoid it.

I can't tell what's in everything I eat, drink or breathe, but I sure as hell don't have to pick up a pack at the store on purpose.

Yet, I have to admit something to you, Mr. President, since you admitted it to us:
Even though every little harmless-seeming cigarette is a flirt with the can't-turn-back-now Big C, I, too, love smoking. A well-timed cigarette can be just what the doctor ordered if you know what I mean.

However, even though I have a crush on cigarettes, I also hate dying. So, I find myself at odds.

I may be a relatively detoxified yogi now, but I used to smoke a pack a day. When I smell that first puff, what we used to call the "butternut" and which was always my favorite part, my whole body squeezes and I want...just...one...drag.

And yes, I still bum one once in a while. My last one was a few days back, and that's when I decided to lead by example, and offer you the same tools I'm offering myself.

So before all you smokers brush off the "healthy" chick, let's be clear that I'm talking to the sometime smoker in my own mirror, too.

And I don't think I accept my friends' offers to join them outside because movies and the media make it so inviting. I, like the president, am not easily swayed by advertising executives marketing to my target group. I also have a sneaking suspicion that if Barack Obama wants to smoke, it's not because he wants to be just like Joe Camel.

So, Mr. President, and readers, I invite you to do what I promise to do this month--own our proclivity for bumming smokes (and smoking) and stop this nonsense together. In so doing, I will teach you, readers, how to get all the benefits of a cigarette--without ever smoking another one again.

Because really, we're after the ritual, the alone time, the sense of calm and space and camaraderie and relationship we get with this often-deadly lover. None of us want to be codependent, but, dysfunctional or not, we are. They might be hurting us, but cigarettes are always there for us when we need them, and we keep going back for more.

Though cigarettes are quite the stimulant, smokers most often cite the sense of calm, and centering as their primary reason to reach for one.

Mr. President, if anyone in this country needs a freakin' ciggy, it's you. I get it. But let's get all of us that moment of Zen--and the buzz, too--without all the carcinogenic accoutrements.

Because, as we all know, stress happens. So what are you going to do about it?
We have to deal with life's pressures somehow, so why not choose the coping mechanism that makes your life better instead of worse, and actually solves the physical imbalance of stress rather than masking it with a literal smokescreen?

Ready? Ok.

THE BUTT-KICKING BREATH:

Use this technique any time you would normally choose to smoke, or any time stress or anxiety gets the better of you.

This breath has been shown to slow your brain waves down, switching your central nervous system from the fight-or flight of anxiety to the still waters of the parasympathetic, and release endorphins that give you that same glad-to be alive buzz without, oh, say, the carbon monoxide.

It lowers your blood pressure, oxygen consumption and heart rate, detoxifies you. It also increases your lung capacity, which tends to diminish in smokers. Importantly, this breath gets you back into mastery of your moment, so you can decide what to do next.

Best of all, every time you use it, you will feel better and your health will be better, instead of feeling better mentally and emotionally, but actually being worse physically. And a win-win is more optimal than a win-lose any day.

Here goes:

1) Go to a different, smoke-free spot to enjoy your moment, since inhaling other people's secondhand smoke doesn't really count.

2) Sit comfortably.

3) Breathe in through your nose for 4 counts. Let your chest and belly expand as you do this. Hold.

4) Breathe out through your mouth for about 8 counts with pursed lips, as if releasing smoke. Press the air our slowly with your belly and ribs. Hold.

5) Repeat.

Do the Butt-Kicking Breath for as long as you want or until the cravings and stress have dissipated. And watch...they will.

"That's it?" You might say.

Yeah, that's it.

And by "it", I mean "the power to calm yourself down anytime, anywhere, without killing you".

I'm aware that to quit smoking, you'll have to go through withdrawal, whether mental, emotional or physical. I want you to know that the Butt-Kicking Breath will help you get through the 14 minutes it takes to bust a strong craving. It will help cleanse your body of toxins faster, and give you a tool to use while you support your efforts with the Patch, the gum, or whatever you need to ease the transition.

Eventually, though, you will find the power in being a DIY stress-reliever. Any time you hit drama in your life, reach for this breath. Find center yourself. And then, you're free.

Smoking has other draws, too, that you can switch over to healthier habits.

You want a ritual? Whenever you're stressed, go for a walk, and do your breathing practice. With every exhale, release your shoulders more, and with them, your crappy day. Realize this too shall pass.

Seeking community? Join a vigorous yoga class, shape up your body, and meet other people who support your smoke-free lifestyle, and are choosing to de-stress sans emphysema and families who have to pay their medical bills long after they're gone.

Oral fixation? Try having more sex. Your partner will thank you (and me). Or, though not quite the same, keep tea tree or cinnamon toothpicks around. It worked for my husband, after smoking for 20 years. The toothpicks, I mean.

Want to avoid the weight gain that can come with quitting? Don't smoke more...move more. Take this opportunity to learn the joys of eating well.

Mr President, am I being hard on you? Smokers--ditto?

You bet.

I think you're all rock stars. I'd vote for all of you for a second term. In fact, that's what I'm trying to do right now.

It's just this bad habit of yours has been fooling you into thinking you're handling your stress. In fact, the smokes are managing you.

Yoga and mindful breathing is all about taking control, real control, of your life. I know you can get the relief and peace you're looking for in another, more life-affirming way. And I'm all for trading up.

In fact, Mr. President, and readers...I'm starting today.

You?

Sara Avant Stover: Unplug and Recharge: Need Energy? Try Yoga! (VIDEO)

2009-11-04T16:40:06Z

Here's a short 'n sweet meditative yoga flow for you. It's a great way to start your day--or to fit in whenever you need a little pick- me- up.

Now that temperatures are dropping, it's a great way to increase your circulation and got toasty from the inside out. It's slow tempo and attention to breath will also help your mind stay focused and alert--ready for whatever your day brings you.

Feel free to leave a comment, letting me know how it goes for you, as well as what kinds of yoga practices you'd like to see here in the future.

Enjoy!

p.s. You can watch more of my videos here.