If you’ve previously read any of my articles, you’ll be well aware I am a firm believer in the “holistic” approach to health and wellbeing. There are so many ways to achieve peace and enlightenment and what I like to do is expose my readers to some of the options out there that they may not have considered previously. Yoga is something that for many seems too hard, too physical, and perhaps too time-consuming for them but, in reality, you only need do as much as you feel comfortable with.
Where Did Yoga Come From?
As with so many of the practices we have adopted in the West, yoga came out of the practices of the peoples of ancient India. There is much debate, in the academic world, about the actual origins of the practice but there is consensus that it originated in India probably around 3000BCE. Carved figures, picturing practitioners in various poses have been dated to this period. It was developed as part of the overall purpose of life – achieving enlightenment.
The Pushupati Seal
Although most scholars are agreed that the principles of Yoga probably developed during the Vedic period of Indian history, there is some evidence that it may even be earlier. The Pashupati Seal discovered in an earlier Indus Valley civilization, excavation site, depicts a figure in a position that resembles an asana (a Hatha Yoga body posture) used in meditation. Yoga aimed to achieve harmony between the heart and the soul. Incidental to the practice of yoga came the realization that is was especially useful in controlling certain illnesses and diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and chronic pain.
It is precisely these benefits, perhaps, rather than the search for enlightenment that saw yoga begin to take off in Western civilization toward the middle of the nineteenth century. One of the results of this rise in popularity of yoga in the western world has been the many differing offshoots and schools of practice that have developed. It is important to understand there is no right or wrong way to practice yoga, just different methods and sometimes different sought outcomes from the practice.
Why is Yoga Useful to Us?
Yoga can be beautifully dovetailed into a regime of meditation which I believe is an essential part of wellbeing and centering ourselves. I’ve recently had an article on meditation published in the exceptionally fine, FREE Emagazine, called Mom’s Favorite Reads. You can access the magazine and my article on meditation here from SmashWords. Yoga and meditation are intrinsically linked – one complements the other perfectly. But why do yoga at all?
For most people the idea they would have of yoga is that it is (a) physical and therefore helps with your general level of fitness and (b) mental, in that it helps you relax and gain peace of mind as well as allowing you to zone out from the worries of life, at least for a short period.
The experts, however, paint a different picture of the benefits of yoga. They would argue that the aim of yoga is to actually transcend those things of the world, meaning to move your consciousness away from the day to day hassles of life and actually discover a higher, more spiritual plane of thinking. They would suggest that other forms of exercise can achieve fitness and mental wellbeing, like running, the spin-bike or lifting weights, whereas yoga is seen as food and exercise for the soul. Whatever the reason for doing Yoga there are definitely some real benefits to be had from it:
- Increased flexibility
- Stress relief
- Circulation improvement
- A general feeling of wellbeing
- Physical fitness
Medical reviews, such as one published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology have shown that practicing yoga will reduce the risk of heart disease as much as any of the conventional forms of exercise. On average, people taking part in yoga regularly (weekly) lost five pounds, decreased their blood pressure, and lowered their LDL (Low-density Lipoprotein) Cholesterol – also known as “bad cholesterol” by 12 points. Research is now starting to show many more health benefits of practicing this ancient art, including: controlling obesity, reducing chronic pain, asthma relief, minimizing fatigue and aiding irritable bowel syndrome.
In addition to these findings, neuroscience, using MRI’s (magnetic resonance imaging) of the brain have shown yoga reduces the decline in gray matter brain volume, especially apparent in older people. Interestingly enough, most of this brain protection appears to occur in the left hemisphere, which is the side of the brain most associated with positive emotions and the rest and relaxation response. Perhaps we have finally found the true cause of “grumpy old man and grumpy old woman syndrome”?
It certainly appears there is little to no downside to practicing yoga.
One of the interesting things that Yoga instructors and most students who progress further in the practice have noticed is that their reasons for doing yoga, change over time. What started out initially as a physical activity slowly morphs into a more spiritual and mental activity – a journey of self-discovery, self-actualisation, self-fulfillment, and reflection along with a greater capacity to care for themselves and practice self-love. By reaching back to the very spiritual roots of yoga, people, it seems, actually begin to discover the true purpose for which the practice was developed.
How Do I Get Started on Yoga?
The first thing to remember is it DOES NOT MATTER what age you are or what fitness level you currently have. Clearly, if you are in a major city or town, there may well be a yoga studio available for you to consult and join. If this is not an option, or you feel uncomfortable or shy, training initially with others, you can totally start to learn on your own.
- Wear comfortable and lose clothing (yoga pants are absolutely not a requirement)
- Get yourself a non-slip yoga mat
- Enter the process with an open mind and be prepared to be patient – it takes a little determination but you can do it.
- Get yourself a quality “beginners” DVD or view a “beginner’s class” on the internet. (YouTube is great for this).
Some Beginner’s Poses You Can Try:
Initially, the key to success is breathing and determination. Don’t give up just because you can’t make the pose shown on your video instruction. Do as much of the pose as your body feels capable of and breathe, always breathe, through the nose, filling your belly and keeping your body relaxed and controlled. - Sit on the floor in a relaxed, easy position with your legs crossed and your back and neck straight.
- Concentrate on your breathing – regular, slow, peaceful breaths.
- Once you are relaxed, stand up straight and stretch your arms as high above your head as you feel able to comfortably – breathing evenly all the time.
- Exhale as you reach down to the ground. (Don’t get discouraged if you can’t touch the ground initially – just go as far as you feel comfortable without straining yourself).
Once you feel good with this, you’re ready to move onto a few beginner exercises which will be on your DVD or your YouTube Channel you are watching.
One thing that is known to put off newcomers is when they see an expert twisted into some “pretzel-like” shape and they immediately say: “OMG! I can’t ever do anything like that – what’s the point of trying?” Like I said earlier – patience and determination and who knows what you can achieve in the future.
Finally, a couple of beginner poses for you to try that absolutely will not send you running to a chiropractor or requiring your partner to call an ambulance to take you off to the emergency room to be untangled.
Cat-Cow:
A great pose for stretching the back and abdomen.
Begin on your hands and knees, with your wrists directly under your shoulders and your knees in line with your hips. - Keep your spine flat, like a table – the neutral spine.
- Keep your neck in line with your spine. Don’t lift it up or drop it down.
- As you inhale, drop your belly toward the floor and look up. Curl your toes under if this helps you reach the stretch.
- As you exhale, pull your spine toward the ceiling, rounding your back. Your head will drop down and you can focus on your navel. The tops of your feet will lay flat against the floor.
- Repeat this action as you continue inhaling and exhaling, working on your breath.
Downward-Facing Dog:
Another really easy yoga pose, to start with.
Begin on your knees, as with the Cat-Cow pose, your wrists under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.- As you breathe in, push your hips toward the ceiling, straighten your legs and place your feet flat on the ground.
- When your legs are straight, spread out your fingers and let your head hang down between your arms. Use your quadriceps (thigh muscles) to take the pressure off your arms.
- Once you are in position, continue working on keeping your breathing steady and rhythmical.
So, there we have the basics of yoga. I hope I’ve excited you enough to give it a try. Always remember two things:
- Nobody (and I mean nobody) cares what you look like at the moment. It’s none of their business, anyway and they, like you, all started somewhere. Everyone will be impressed with one thing – that you are giving it a go. So, don’t be afraid to try.
- Like everything worth having in life, it takes time, practice, and determination to achieve the tangible results you are looking for, so don’t be discouraged. I can promise you, though, if you try yoga and apply it diligently, you will start to see the incremental benefits very quickly.
There are a ton of resources out there to help you (thank goodness for the internet!) so don’t be afraid to look and if you join a structured yoga class – don’t be afraid to ask for help. We’re all ultimately seeking the same thing.
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- Self-Love and “New Thought:
- Self-Love: How Can I Love Myself:
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Till Next Time I’m Sending: Peace and Light
New thought was a philosophy that began in the early mid-nineteenth century that postulated the idea of “healthy mindedness” as well as a healthy body. It was a spiritual movement with its roots in metaphysical beliefs. It grew out of existing Christian beliefs, especially those of a Calvinist origin. New thought’s basic premise was; “that anything that exists in the mind and could be expressed through words had the ability to transcend the physical and be realized through individual thoughts and intuition.”
One adherent to the new thought philosophy was Joseph Campbell. An American author and editor who lived from 1904 to 1987, Joseph Campbell is best known for his works on comparative mythologies across the world. He examined the universal functions and impacts of myths in various cultures and mythical figures across a wide range of different literature from all over the world.
Bliss is a concept that almost defies description. It is vast, boundless, immeasurable AND it is a totally different state, for every single person and that is the key. Bliss must be personally experienced to understand what it is for YOU. Bliss exists on an entirely different dimension to simple happiness – it is so much more than that. It is a state where the sense of ego slips away and a feeling of total connectedness takes over. When you are in a state of bliss there is no sense of “me”, separate from the rest of creation – there is just joy and peace.
We’ve talked a lot in the last few blogs about the importance to our well-being of our own self-talk. Regardless of the reasons for us having a low opinion of ourselves, so many of us do and we are continually berating ourselves for not measuring up to either our or others opinions or expectations of us. When we denounce ourselves, we are doing serious harm to our self-esteem and self-worth.
I’m sure that will right now be resonating with readers of this blog. What an inspirational quote – if we act and think positively, with respect to self-love and self-talk, we can create whatever we desire and need. If thoughts are things and we can achieve whatever we conceive and believe in, if we don’t believe in ourselves, we will create exactly what we believe in and constantly tell ourselves – that we are hopeless, we are a failure, we can’t do anything right, or what’s the point in even trying if we’re just going to mess it up?
There are so many people in this world today who are quick to try to bring you down, to scoff at your achievements and to belittle you or even withhold applause or praise. Congratulations, and celebrations are so important – always look for things to appreciate in yourself and give yourself a big pat on the back and a high five whenever you make constructive progress or take positive action. Self-love is also about moving away from lower [on an energetic sphere] feelings / emotions such as shame – guilt – anger – judgement and so on, and raising your vibration, instead.
Well, I’m here to tell you that is absolutely untrue! We have everything we need, inside of us, to achieve the self-love and happiness that we owe ourselves. Even more importantly, I have some incredibly easy practical steps to begin our journey of wiping out the past and building a new future through the things we say, think, and believe, today.
Fall in Love with Yourself: We’ve talked about this idea of “falling in love with yourself”, in previous blogs. Stop berating yourself for things you perceive as being your faults or shortcomings. We all do this – we focus on what we don’t like about ourselves instead of all the amazing things that make us the incredible individual we truly are. Be kind, be gentle, be loving to yourself. Think about it this way – we are taught from early on to be nice to other people, to praise them and not to criticize them. Why then, should it be any less for us, the most important person in the Universe, to be kind and compassionate to ourselves? It’s insane that we consistently drag ourselves down instead of building ourselves up.
Express and Feel Deep Gratitude: Gratitude is so important to improving our feelings about ourselves. Be grateful for who you are, for your strengths and gifts. If you feel blessed it is so much easier to look at yourself with positive eyes and positive thoughts. You are alive, you are living on a blessed planet and you are capable of making an immense difference in your life. What a lot to be grateful for!
Eat Properly: There’s nothing wrong with “treating” yourself, rewarding yourself for something you did or tried (in fact that is to be encouraged) but limit the treats and you’ll appreciate them more. A balanced, healthy diet, will make a balanced, healthy, you.
Finally, today, I’d like to introduce you to a concept I’ll be talking about a lot in next week’s blog on Self-Love and the “New Thought” movement; the notion of “following your bliss”. This concept was first brought to our consciousness by 20th Century mythologist, writer, and philosopher, Joseph Campbell.
Self-love is analogous to self-care and many people prefer to use the term self-care precisely because of those negative connotations that are sometimes ascribed to the term, self-love. However, whatever you call it self-love can best be summed up in the following affirmation: “self-love is the understanding and belief that I am a unique human being with talents and abilities that nobody who has ever lived or will ever live, possesses. I am worthy of love, I am worthy of respect and I am the equal of any person, anywhere.”
“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anyone.” 
Self-love, or self-care, if you prefer, is critical to our physical, mental and spiritual health and yet we invariably CHOOSE to put it at the bottom of our priority list. Why is that? Are we not important enough to put ourselves at the top of our priority list? The truth is – many of us think we are not and I’ll go into why that is so and how to overcome these impediments in our next blog on this topic, however, for now it is important to understand that we are the ones making the CHOICE to ignore our own needs for the needs of others – we are the ones who control our own lives and yet we choose not to and do so at our peril.
“No one can make you feel inferior, without your consent.” 
The World Health Organisation presents us with some incredibly sobering statistics: They estimate that approximately one million people commit suicide every single year – that’s a global mortality rate of 16 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds – horrifying, isn’t it? Worse, they predict that by 2020 it will be one death every 20 seconds.
Say positive things to yourself (“I am unique – I am amazing”)
The Ancient Egyptians were noted for their extensive crystal use. They used turquoise, carnelian, emeralds, lapis lazuli and clear quartz in their jewellery. In addition to this their funerary amulets were also made from these same gems. Crystals were used by the Egyptians for protection and health. For example, Chrysolite (known as topaz and perodite) were used as a deterrent to nightmares and to ward off evil spirits.
Perhaps the Greeks, more than any other civilization brought us the world of crystals as we know it today. They believed crystals were extremely powerful and gave us many of the words we use for crystals, today.
The crystal that was most prevalent and important in ancient Chinese culture was undoubtedly, Jade. Jade was highly valued and even some Chinese written characters represent Jade beads. Many musical instruments, in the form of gongs and chimes were made from Jade and Chinese Emperors were often known to be buried in armour made from Jade.
The middle of the nineteenth century saw a massive spiritual movement known as “New Thought” take hold across Europe and the Americas. The “New Thought” movement, with its fascination and emphasis on the power of thought, vibration, spiritualism, the occult, and energy movement saw a resurgence in the use of crystals as healing talismans. Many of the practices we see re-emerging right through to the current day owe their roots to the traditional native beliefs we have discussed earlier but rely much more on modern science and the belief that everything is energy and crystals and gemstones, like some other materials are magnificent conductors of energy.
Ultimately, crystals can only form a part of an overall wellness regime that includes: diet, sleep, exercise, meditation, natural remedies and yes, modern medical care. All these things should work together in harmony to achieve a balanced, healthy, and happy human being.
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The basic theory behind healing crystals is the idea that they harness the life-giving elements of both the Earth, in particular, and the Universe in general. The crystals harness the energy and vibrations of the sun, the moon, the oceans, and all living things. This energy is passed on to us through contact with the crystals. As discussed in previous articles there has to be this willingness to connect, this requires an open mind, on our part to receive the true benefits of the crystals. There is limited scientific analysis of the curative properties of crystals, but the anecdotal evidence is wide-spread and substantial. Our forebears used crystals as indeed they used natural herbs and plants to assist them in curing disease and promoting health. Most of these ancient remedies have since been proven through modern medicine, to be valid and viable healthy alternatives. Remember, almost all of our modern pills and prescriptions, although often mass-produced synthetically, originally came from the plants and animals in our world. Given that, would it not be presumptuous of us to assume the ancients were right about herbs and plants, but wrong about crystals? I think so. We need to approach crystals with the same holistic approach we used to determine the efficacy of herbal and plant remedies – with an open mind and a willing heart.
Enhances intuition;
Promotes self-love;
Deters negative energy;
Assists awareness;
The Divine Stone;
The protector stone;
Helps us conquer our fears;
A symbol of vitality, contentment, energy and the zest for life;
Is the symbol of purity;
The bringer of good fortune;
If nothing else, I hope I’ve piqued your interest in this fascinating world of crystals to make you want to do some further research on the subject and maybe, just maybe, dip your toes into the waters of the wonderful world of crystals. Just start with one and see what effects it has on your life. Remember, though, approach all of this with an open, receptive and inquiring mind and you cannot go wrong.
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