This power yoga routine is excellent for a total body warm up before you begin your exercise program and, in fact, is a very good workout in itself. It stretches your muscles and works your breathing, as well as strengthens your arms, back, chest and legs. It is important to breathe fully and to do each part of the exercise slowly. Do not hurry through this and concentrate on your breathing throughout.
You start in a standing position with your arms hanging at your side. Slowly breathe in deeply while you look to the ceiling and raise your arms overhead. Try to touch the sky. Slowly bend forward, breathing out, and touch your hands to the floor. Keep your legs as straight as possible but it is important that you stretch down as much as possible. In the beginning, you will probably have to bend your legs. Your head is close to your body and you want to look between your legs. If you are limber, place your palms flat on the floor. Breathe in and, holding the same position, lift your head and look forward. Breathe out and walk your feet backward as you get into a pushup position.
When you become efficient at this routine, you can jump back into position if you like. Breathing in, lower your belly close to the floor, at the same time shift your feet so the top of your feet are flat on the floor and stretch your upper body upward. You stretch your neck muscles as well by looking up at the ceiling. Breathe out and move your body so that the bottom of your feet are now flat on the floor and your butt is as high in the air as possible. Look between your legs. You are in an inverted V position. Breathe in and walk your feet forward until you are back into the position where you are touching the floor with your head close to your body and you are looking forward. Breathe out and lower your head so you are now looking between your legs again. Breathe in and slowly stretch up, standing and reaching for the sky, looking at the ceiling. Now breathe out and return to your starting position, hands at your side. You have just completed one set.
Your goal is to work up to five sets eventually. Remember to concentrate on your breathing. When you breathe in, do it slowly and take in as much breath as possible. When you breathe out, exhale all your breath and try to touch your back with your belly button. Do these before exercising or do them first thing in the morning to get your body ready to face the day.
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I was asked this question yesterday and decided to delve into its answer a little more deeply. My initial response was the following: Synchronicity is the process whereby our energy flows easily and beautifully and attracts to us all the ideal people and events that provide the perfect opportunity for growth. Awareness is key! There are no coincidences. Things, people, and circumstances come into our path for a reason. Synchronicity is the outward manifestation of our thoughts brought to us by our soul, linking and connecting us with others or with events that serve as meaningful opportunities that we have attracted into our experience to assist us in gaining clarity or evolving in some way.
The question lingered in my mind and I wanted to go a little deeper and provide more information on this powerful subject. Synchronicity and Serendipity are two of my favorite words! They represent the invisible, underlying spiritual workings of the Universe. There is a magical quality to these incidents that reminds us that there is something much grander going on behind the seeming coincidences that enter our experience. They can be perceived as signs that serve to offer awareness, awaken us, or inspire us in the unfolding of our spiritual destiny. They appear as two seemingly disconnected events that are actually beautifully interconnected in a divine way.
Each day we encounter meaningful synchronistic events that we have attracted and created (many times unconsciously) into our physical experience. Our souls create synchronistic incidents to be played out in the physical. We have all heard the expression, “There are no accidents.” From my personal perspective, this is absolutely true. All that we experience is by divine design. There are no accidents, just synchronicity wheels in motion. When we open to these events, they can help us make choices in our lives, because they are a form of guidance from the Universe. They aren’t always profound, but they ARE meaningful and represent the inner workings and guidance of the Universe.
Here are a couple of examples of synchronicity at work: A friend of mine was wondering whether or not he should follow through on his decision to get a divorce. He turned on the radio and heard an ad for available apartments. He smiled inside, embraced the soul sign being given, and knew what he needed to do. Another example would be thinking of a friend and receiving a phone call from that friend at that exact same time or watching a movie and seeing within the story of that film a metaphor for your own life situation. There are unlimited examples of this beautiful inter-connectedness of energy and matter/form/physical experience.
To quote Deepak Chopra:
“My own life has been touched often by synchronicity, so much so that now I get on an airplane expecting the passenger in the next seat to be surprisingly important to me, either just the voice I need to hear to solve a problem or a missing link in a transaction that needs to come together….
… I believe that all coincidences are messages from the unmanifest – they are like angels without wings, so to speak, sudden interruptions of life by a deeper level …. “
Often these meaningful coincidences occur at critical points in our lives, and they can be interpreted as containing the seeds of future growth. Synchronistic events really involve the meaningful unfoldment of potential. They are often associated with periods of transformation; for example, births, deaths, falling in love, intense creative work, or even a change of career/profession. It is as if this internal restructuring and/or mental energy produces external opportunities for us outward into the physical world.
In conclusion, I feel that synchronicity offers a beautiful bridge between our inner reality and the divine workings of spirit and our external reality that is revealed to us through our experiences. When we recognize these incidents as opportunities, life becomes VERY interesting! There is a sense of intrigue coupled with amusement when we start seeing things in new ways that broaden our perspective and engage our powers of manifestation with even greater intensity.
Go out and there enjoy this beautiful day and pay attention to the seemingly random coincidences that enter your experience. Challenge yourself to detect the deeper meaning to the divine patterns and find value in what is being offered to you! Be open to new perspectives and allow your mind its full, creative potential!
Yoga is an extremely healthy form of exercise to practice, but many people wonder if yoga can help them to lose weight. The answer to this, is yes. Weight loss with yoga is possible, and you can use yoga to not only lose pounds, but help maintain your weight as well. There is however, a bit of a catch if you are considering using yoga as a form of weight control.
Yoga itself is a great strength building form of exercise. It is also good for maintaining flexibility to your body. Given the nature of yoga however, it can often be difficult to obtain the raised heart rate that is necessary in order to actually burn calories and melt away fat.
If you want to practice yoga for weight control, it is important to note that you will need to perform a vigorous form of yoga, at least 90-minutes three times a week. Fortunately, there are various forms of yoga that you can try that are vigorous enough, including Ashtanga yoga and power yoga. You can also do your yoga routines in a hot room, such as a sauna, which will induce more of a sweat and raise your heart rate.
Once you decide to give yoga a try, there are different options available to you. You can try to locate a yoga studio in your area that offers yoga classes, or you can find a private instructor that will teach you the yoga style you are interested in. If there are no yoga studios or instructors in your area, or you are uncomfortable trying yoga in front of other people, you can also find yoga videos that you can play right in your very own home, which will teach you all that you need to know in order to successfully lose weight with yoga.
Tracy Boseman suffered with her weight problems for years, finally she discovered an amazing weight loss guide that changed her life. [http://www.melt-that-fat.com]
Change is not an easy word for us. We either avoid it or accept it.
Where are you on the change spectrum? Do you go out of your way to avoid change? Is change easy for you? Do you look forward to change? Is change your friend or enemy?
I just spoke to a friend via email and this was her response to me …”you know how hard change is for me!”
Why do we fight change? Why do we resist change? We get into our comfort zone and find ways to stay there. Why?
We know seasons change, our bodies are changing every moment, the weather changes every minute, our days turn to nights etc etc. Life is about change. If our lives never changed, wouldn’t it become stagnant or dare I say boring?
I propose we would be much happier if we embraced change instead of fighting it. Furthermore, if we look forward to change in every arena of our lives, we would learn to be in a congruent flow with life.
Hence, if life is all about change, then lets take a new attitude towards life and focus on the benefits of change. Make change a positive in your life. Open your mind to change and see how your life changes!
I believe you will find resistance subsides and life begins to work in your favor. First, accept change and then learn to welcome it!
I do not remember the 100 days of the Rwanda genocide. I heard about Rwanda through the media, however I never understood what was happening.
I read Immaculee Ilibagiza’s book “Left to Tell”. Her personal story of surviving the Rwandan genocide and was completely fascinated. Now I wish I had listened and tuned in.
Moreover, I saw Immaculee speak at my church and was incredibly impressed with her greatness. She exudes peace, faith, forgiveness, love, gentleness, kindness, joy, happiness etc. She is simply the greatest figure I have had the honor of experiencing. She is the modern day Mother Theresa!
Being in her presence is an honor.
Because of Immaculee, I am now more in tune with Rwanda and the genocide that took place 15 years ago. It his hard to imagine this happened and even more difficult for me to understand how this happened under my nose with nary a care.
Well, I share this upcoming conference in Rwanda with you as it exemplifies Forgiveness and I truly believe we all could use more love and forgiveness. Rwanda is leading the way for the world to experience forgiveness.
Thank you Rwanda. God Bless you and your gift of forgiveness.
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Global Forgiveness Conference
By Jean Michel Habineza
The rain is back, the streets are dark, its April again. The time where our hearts lose hope, our minds see only darkness and our memory comes back. We remember. We remember when we were hunted night and day by militias who were killing us for who we are, we remember spending months hiding in the dark just praying God nobody finds us. We remember hearing our brothers scream of pain and we couldn’t do it. We remember our mothers and sisters being deprived from their honor by ruthless militas just before being hacked to death by those ones. We remember Evil.
Right now people of Rwanda are still suffering but they have chosen to forgive!! People in Rwanda are forgiving the impossible (what some might call it) and in July at the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the genocide, we have a conference in Rwanda!!
15 years ago Rwanda was drawn into the worst genocide in the history of man. In just 100 days, 1 million people were murdered by their neighbors and friends because they were born different. They suffered and lived through what some might call “hell on earth.”
However, 15 years later Rwanda is now changing where there was blood being spilled, there is now mud to construct the country. Rwanda is rebuilding. Rwanda chose to forgive instead of revenge.
In Rwanda victims and perpetrators are living together and have found the courage and strength to forgive each other and reconcile. If you want to know the most profound stories of forgiveness come to Rwanda and see how man is able to do evil but how we overcome evil by good and hatred by love.
In Rwanda you would be able to see a man that lost 132 members of his family sitting and preaching to those that killed them in a love attitude.
Forgiveness is changing people’s lives in Rwanda and I believe that if someone can forgive someone else for killing 132 members of his family then we can all be inspired by the stories of Rwanda.
In July 2009 at the occasion of the end of the 100 days of mourning we are organizing a forgiveness conference in Kigali, Rwanda intitled “ Global Forgiveness Conference”. this conference is an occasion for the world to come and learn from Rwanda about the redeeming power of forgiveness.
If you can please plan to attend and for more information please visit our website http://www.globalforgiveness.org or email me globalforgiveness@gmail.com or add on facebook for whatever Questions on Rwanda and forgiveness and anything.
“Forgiveness cannot change the past but it can enlarge the future”
With love and respect,
Jean Michel Habineza
http://www.globalforgiveness.org
