Laugh!

Hee Hee ha ha .... lol...

I have been encouraging my yoga students to laugh for about five years now.  Ya'll have my college sweetheart to thank for this.  She informed me of a group of monks who began every day by laughing hysterically, making faces, and other forms of carrying on.  I thought this was brilliant!  Much to the benefit of the entire world, group laughter sessions have become popular all across the globe.

Students and various other folks have been increasingly providing me with more and more studies that have been done in regards to laughing.  This means that the scientific community is getting hip to this.  Niiiice!  The most recent study, my friend and student, Jakey, provided me with.  It was from the April 2009 edition of Harvard Men's Health Watch.  This was very informative.  We are beginning to have scientific proof of feeling good and why.  The best hard statistic that it had was that laughter increases blood flow 22%.  When we are under stress the arteries tighten up making it harder for blood to flow.

In our arteries there are endothelial cells.  It turns out that these cells actually produce Nitric Oxide!  What, may you ask is nitric oxide?  Laughing Gas!  This substance allows the arteries to be more elastic so they stretch and are more slippery allowing the blood to flow easier.  Studies show that laughing increased endothelial function.

Basically, this means that your own body produces laughing gas simply by laughing.  So you don't need to huff balloons at a rave, or make more frequent visits to your oral surgeon, dentist friend.  Laughing alone relaxes your arteries and makes you healthier decreasing chances of heart attack.  The best part is laughter only leads to more laughter.

I advocate silliness! 

Teeth Yoga

Happy Teeth

I never payed much attention to the importance of flossing teeth until recently.  I mean c'mon!  How much food really gets caught in there? 

Regardless of how much food gets caught in your teeth the gum stimulation provided by flossing is golden.  Much of yoga is about awareness.  Flossing I find brings great awareness to the mouth.  Last year I bought floss at Costco!  I was so excited I kept telling everyone how I had enough floss for the rest of my life.  I kept a pack in my car, one in my gym bag, one on the night stand, and of course, one in the bathroom.  So much fun!

to your wellness

Charlie

Love

Love is Key

today and always I emphasize the importance of love.  The love I am talking about is an all encompassing love.  Specific and general.  An overall loving feeling.

When a task is done with love its effect is amplified ten-fold.

try it

If you find yourself doing something, and having a hard time, and there are nasty thoughts swirling about in your personal vortex, then stop a moment...  Take a step back and focus on loving thoughts.  Love yourself, love the task, love the whole universe!!!  Go back to the task and see what happens.

more soon

I love you

Stomach Lift

                                            Ewww! Gross! :0

ha ha that is a common reaction.

This is actually very beautiful

Here is me doing ancient stomach cleansing ritual.  This is known as Uddiyana-banda.  In order to do this one is recommended to practice holding the breath after full exhalation first.  Once you are comfortable with retaining an exhale you should breath out all oxygen then with breath held make like you are trying to breath in while keeping the throat closed so that no air can come in.  This will create pressure and draw abdominal organs up into your ribcage.

This is very therapeutic and cleansing.  As with all things it gets better with practice.  You may only feel slight pressure at first but soon you will develop great abdominal strength and flexibility.  

To your wellness

I love you all

twists

here's a yoga post!

this goes along the lines of the last one about connections.  metaphor.  Parrellels between mind and body.

twists

If a person is good at spinal twists they are said to be good at changing direction.  This is both physically and in life in general.  This means that a persons physical ability reflects their mental ability.  Their spine is supple and can bend.  Likewise in life they can navigate around roadblocks and stumbling stones that may come in their path.

Spiritual Metaphor

In my long study of spirituality I have found that many things are metaphorical and parrallels can be drawn between things.  This happens commonly between the big three breakdown of yoga, being mind, body, spirit.  In ancient hermetic philosophy these three were seen as a general division in what makes a being.  They are divisions we can understand to make sense of ourselves and our universe.  The important thing to note is that although they appear to be differrent, mind, body, and spirit are the same.

These being directly interrelated there are parrallels between them.  On a mental/physical level one may see the relationship of a persons body and mind.  For instance, if a person is capable of doing backbends with ease, that person generally is more extroverted and social.  If a person lends themselves to forward bends they may be more introverted and contemplative.  Do you see how the mental and the physical relate.  This is back to polarity, open and close, light and dark.  Backbends are opening and exposing, showing that a person is confortable with vulnerability.  Forward bends are protecting and inward moving.

Of course there are many people who are capable of both.  They are able to be very social and contemplative at the right times.  This person can do backbends and foreward bends equally well.  It is often true, as well, that someone will 'specialize', they can lean back untill they can see the wall behind them, but they have a hard time leaning forward and touching their toes.  It is safe to say that they can also carry on long conversations but have a hard time with meditation.

I encourage you explore what physical talents you may have and see the mental implications of them.  Be careful though.  Reading too much into things can be a danger.  Parrallels can be drawn when the relationships are consistant.