Karmic Seeds Body Mind & Spirit

What Your Malasana (Squat) Can Tell You About Your Body MAY 30, 2016       BY  JENNY THOMAS Note: While some schools of yoga differentiate between  malasana  and  upavesasana (depending on the width between your feet), for the purpose of this article malasana refers to a wide-footed, deep squat. Why is  malasana —also referred to as garland pose,  upavesasana  (“sitting down pose”), or a deep squat—much easier for some than for others? The answer isn’t simple, as we all have different body proportions, joint structures, strengths, weaknesses, areas of tension, and areas of mobility. Because malasana is a complex posture involving many joints and muscle groups, all of these factors play a role in how we look and feel in the pose. The good news is that by examining malasana, you can learn more about your body’s limitations and strengths, and then use this information to enhance your overall practice and postur...

Change What Isn’t Working Steps To Freedom by   Madisyn Taylor If we don't change what isn't working in our lives, we will continually have the same day over and over again. We have all had the experience of realizing that something in our lives is not working. This knowledge can come as a sudden realization or a nagging feeling of doubt that grows stronger, waking us up to the fact that something needs to change. Some people have a tendency to act rashly and make sweeping changes before even understanding what the problem is. Other people fear change, so they live with the uncomfortable awareness that something needs to shift but won’t do anything about it. Between these two extreme responses lies a middle way that can help us powerfully and gracefully change what isn’t working in our lives. The first step is remembering that your life is made up of parts that belong to an interconnected whole. Changing one thing can change everything. Because of this, small changes o...

3 Reasons to Curb Corrections in Yoga Class MAY 23, 2016       BY  ANNA DUBROVSKY           As yoga teachers, we exhort students to listen to their bodies. But let’s face it, we spend most of class telling them exactly what to do.  Tilt your chin like this. Hinge forward like that. Press out through the balls of your feet. Shift your weight to your heels.  When instructions don’t have the desired effect, we dole out verbal corrections and physical adjustments. The goal is to get students safely and more deeply into poses, and that’s a worthy endeavor. But there may be a better way, says Leslie Kaminoff, coauthor of  Yoga Anatomy  and founder of The Breathing Project in New York City.  For Kaminoff, the answer lies not in correcting students but in facilitating self-inquiry. The outspoken yoga educator has long been preoccupied with how to individualize instruction in a g...

Wisdom Of The Owl Penetrating The Darkness by Madisyn Taylor Owls are patient messengers, bringers of information and the holders of wisdom and capable of seeing the unseen. For as long as humankind has recognized animals as teachers, wise men and women have recognized traits worthy of respect in both wild and domestic creatures. The cultural and spiritual significance of certain animals transcends geographical boundaries, unifying disparate peoples. Not so the majestic and mysterious owl, which has over many millennial served as the focal point of numerous contradictory beliefs. Though owls have been regarded with awe and fascination, they have also inadvertently served as agents of fear. Since owls are nocturnal, human-owl encounters tended to occur at night and likely when the bird was swooping silently down to earth to grapple with prey. Yet even as some shied away from the owl, calling it an agent of darkness, others recognized the depths of awareness in beautiful owl...

"Do not try to become anything." Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a mediator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. What you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. -Ajahn Chah Meditation for the Day:  Sit in meditation and just be.

The Paradox of Spirit Language of the Soul by  Madisyn Taylor The self is not small or big but is both at the same time. Our spirit is like a drop in the ocean of spiritual energy. Each of us has a spiritual self that animates our bodies and infuses our thoughts and feelings. Our language is limited to the world we know for descriptions of something that perhaps cannot be fully comprehended by the human mind. Therefore, only metaphors approach the expressions that give us a true sense of our spiritual nature. The paradox lies in opposing concepts, all of which are true at the same time. And in harmonizing the opposites, we begin to know the wonders of the spirit. The self is not small or big but is both at the same time. Our spirit is like a drop in the ocean of spiritual energy. Although our spirit seems like a small, disconnected part of a larger whole, it is still made of the same things and can become part of the vast ocean once again. Our individual spirit seems t...

How to Quiet the Mind by  Gina Lake The Truth About the Mind and Who You Really Are The mind is a wonderful tool for thinking, but it has a dark side. There is an aspect of the mind that is not useful but pretends to be useful, which is called the egoic mind. It is the aspect of our mind that chats with us as we move about our day. It is the "voice in our head," as Eckhart Tolle calls it. Much of the time, this voice seems like our own thoughts and our own voice, and we often express these thoughts (e.g., "I love doing that!" "I can't wait until tomorrow." "I wonder what will happen"). At other times, this voice is like the voice of a parent or other authority figure or a friend (e.g., "You should try harder." "Don't forget to take your vitamins." "Wouldn't it be fun to try that!"). It may even seem evil or mean (e.g., "You never do anything right. You're worthless. You might as well give up...

You’ve just arrived at a new yoga studio and the only thing standing between you and your practice is—the yoga liability waiver. Most likely you’ve signed some sort of document at every studio you’ve practiced at. You’ve also probably not read that document before adding your signature to it. Sure, you might have skimmed it and caught a few words. But what does it all mean? And how does this piece of paper impact you if you’re injured in class? To start, what is a waiver and what is its purpose? A waiver aims to protect businesses from liability. A waiver contains the description of the activity and the reasonably foreseeable risks that may occur. It also includes an agreement that seeks to place the legal responsibility for those risks on you, as the participant. By signing a liability waiver, you essentially agree not to sue if you get hurt. Yoga is generally presumed to be a safe activity, but injuries can occur, especially for those with pre-conditions or for new practition...

With all the benefits of Power Yoga, there’s no reason to suffer shoulder injuries if you follow a few easy steps to ensure proper shoulder alignment in Chaturanga Dandasana. What is Chaturanga Dandasana? Chaturanga Dandasana or Four Limbed Staff Pose Chaturanga Dandasana  or  Four-Limbed Staff Pose,  also known as  Low Plank , is a Yoga asana, in which a straight body parallel to the ground is supported by the toes and palms, with elbows at a right angle. The name comes from the Sanskrit words  chatur  meaning “four”,  anga  meaning “limb”,  danda  meaning “staff”, and  asana  meaning “posture” or “seat”. Danda refers to the central “staff” of the body, also known as the spine, which supports the body. In Chaturaṅga Daṇḍāsana the hands and feet are on the floor, supporting the body, which is parallel to and lowered toward, but not touching, the floor. It looks much like a push up, but with the hands quite low (just above ...

When external factors shift we have an opportunity to rediscover our core which is the only truly safe place to call home. There are times when our whole world seems to be falling apart around us, and we are not sure what to hold onto anymore. Sometimes our relationships crumble and sometimes it’s our physical environment. At other times, we can’t put our finger on it, but we feel as if all the walls have fallen down around us and we are standing with nothing to lean on, exposed and vulnerable. These are the times in our lives when we are given an opportunity to see where we have established our sense of identity, safety, and well-being. And while it is perfectly natural and part of our process to locate our sense of self in externals, any time those external factors shift, we have an opportunity to rediscover and move closer to our core, which is the only truly safe place to call home. The core of our being is not affected by the shifting winds of circumstance or subject to the cycles...

   BY  AMBER BURKE  &  JONINA TURZI The hamstrings are three long muscles ( semitendinosus ,  semimembranosus  and  biceps femoris ) at the back of the thighs. Their job is to flex (bend) the knee and extend the hip, though it might feel at times as if their primary responsibility is to stymie our attempts to forward fold! Sitting in chairs , an activity in which these muscles are both inactive and at their shortest length, is a primary culprit for tight-feeling hamstrings. A lack of flexibility in and around the hamstrings can cause postural problems, and can set the stage for spinal disc injury by pulling the ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) down and forcing a posterior (backward) tilt of the pelvis. That posterior tilt flattens the curve of the lumbar spine (lower back), and makes it hard to  hinge safely  into  forward folds  like  uttanasana   (standing forward fold),  prasarita padottanasana  (...