Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga Restorative Yoga

Must remember to breathe and relax ... har har.

Yoga breathing and relaxation. Thank goodness I know what to do when life gets a bit out of control.

Had a great day yesterday. Got alot done and managed to spend some time relaxing and eating--of all things ice cream. I don't even like ice cream, but seemed like a good idea at the time.

I put this video together, it's very short but I like the music.

O.K. I'm off to do some yoga study.

What we learnt

*   You also need to hold poses longer, as you would in restorative yoga, and dedicate longer periods of time to developing slow and complete breathing. Vigorous vinyasa, backbends, handstands, and arm balances are powerful and beneficial, but they don't stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system as much as the practices listed previously.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga - Green smoothie recipe

Hmmm... how to get this blog indexed?

Yoga Homework... will do some today :-)

Green smoothie pre-breakfast. I will have to find time to write my recipes down and get a book together. Green Smoothies are so excellent, taste good and deliver so many live enzymes to the body.

Here's a recipe if you would like to try one:

Green Smoothie recipe

Equipment:

Blender
Cutting board and sharp knife
green leafy veges
Apple or Pineapple Juice
A little water and ice
1 banana
1 apple
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This morning I picked 6 large green leaves (silver beet, or chard)out of the garden, a few stalks of parsley
1 stalk of celery
a couple rocket leaves (mild tasting, not too strong flavour)
a tiny sliver of super hot chilli
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Wash,chop fine (so it's not too much strain on your blender)

Toss everything into blender with a small tray of ice and 1 cup of pineapple juice (vary according to taste)

Blend until there are only tiny green particles visible whizzing around. Takes my very inexpensive blender 2-3 minutes.

That's it. Very quick, easy and packed full of easy to digest nutrition.

Enjoy

What we learnt

*  The truth is that much of the yoga being practiced these days doesn't do as much for the parasympathetic nervous system as you might think. To build your parasympathetic nervous system, you need to do poses that encourage deep relaxation, such as forward bends and hip openers; do fewer standing poses; and do more sitting, supine, and prone postures as well as inversions.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga - Parasympathetic nervous system

O... dear. How easy it is to get distracted. Perfectly good intentions mind, but somehow the days have passed so quickly and without any yoga study done at all. Dreadful.

I'm making a mental note to myself right this moment, I HAVE to get it together, sides I don't really want to embarrass myself pfft ... we have a ton of homework and more demo's to do... ooopppsss..!

Get moving ...! and get into it. Hmmmm tomorrow?

A side note. The garden is producing the best greens, and paw paws. The paw paws or you might be more familiar with the term papayas. So, amazingly sweet, could have eaten the skin and all. All organic and planted in a no dig garden. Will post some pics at some point.

What we learnt

*  The parasympathetic nervous system counteracts many stress-related symptoms and the negative by-products of our modern, fast-paced, high-output lives. It also normalizes your blood pressure and lowers your heart rate.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga-Work shop 2

Busy, busy, busy. It's all on again and it's a great day for it. Warm, but not hot - with a gentle breeze blowing, just enough to keep us cool.

Not looking forward to the demo we have to give today. Always think you're going to have time to study, but .... life is like that, always throwing spanners in the works. Seems there is never enough time in the day. We need more hours or, I need to be more organised.

Protien drink for breakky. It's actually quiet easy to eat healthy, keep it simple, nutritious and wholesome. The green smoothies always go down well. Will post some recipes here sometime.

All the demos went alright, could tell everyone was nervous, but we all made it through without too much bother. Of course I had to be the only one that went completely blank for a very long 2 seconds (smiles) but was alright after that.

Geez... 1 week done and only 51 weeks left to go... How many days is that???

What we learnt:

*  The parasympathetic is the part of your nervous system that slows you down—it's responsible for telling your muscles to relax, improving your digestion and assimilation, boosting immunity, and helping you sleep better.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga-End of Day 4

K...nice day today, feeling good.

Some of the young ones were exhausted and had to have a break from the yoga asana's. Huge suprise, myself and friend were thinking we would be down and out for the count, but no! We were still going strong.

Bought lunch today, there's a really good group of shops in the area, nice fresh healthy meals, so a few of us shared lunch.

Woh ... we got off early today so we all decided to go to meditation. It was really, really relaxing to go sit and listen to ancient yoga wisdom and do alot of meditation. A great meal was provided also. I don't know about anyone else but I had the best time. Group meditation to music was so much fun, I thought I was tired but got my second wind while there and found a bit of energy to run around but was really tired when I got home.

*  The question is, why does yoga asanas help us feel better? How does yoga work? As you've probably heard, one reason asana leaves you feeling so good is that it activates your parasympathetic nervous system, thanks to two elements that almost all asana practices have in common—the lengthening and strengthening of musculature and calm even breathing.

Today was the last day of the workshop. Heaps of study and practical to do before the next one in a few days.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga - End of Day 3

8 hrs a day for the last 3 days ... Lots of yoga, a bit achy and tired -- a wee bit spacey also.

I'm glad I packed a couple of green smoothies to help get me through the day. I've been starving, the yoga poses are really stoking the fire of digestion.

Went out for dinner to a Bhuddist vegetarian restaurant, the food was excellent. The company was really good as well. Had a chance to catch up with friends.

*  Different in tone and substance as the various yoga styles might be, they share one quality that inspires people to practice them: They work. Put simply, you feel better when you walk out of class than when you walked in.

A shame I missed out on group meditation, but never mind ... had a good day. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga-End of Day 2

We took alot of photo's yesterday--just remembered that...interesting.

Today went by as a blur. Alot of chatting and getting to know the other teachers in training.

All the young ones seem to eat all day long, constantly nibbling and snacking away just like little squirrels -- don't know where it all goes, they are not over weight at all.

I managed to spill my breakfast on my yoga asana book. I hate that, I like to keep everything pretty together -- so kinda off to a messy start.

*  Among its myriad of benefits, the transcendental sound Gau-ra-ang-ga balances the crown chakra, our third eye and throat chakras (calms our overactive minds) and brings peacefulness to our troubled hearts.

Am learning heaps and having fun.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga - End of Day 1

A bit of a shocker, all those long words and new information. Everyone seemed to be coping, I think I won first prize for being the most "inattentive".

All the yoga teacher trainees in the course are really cool.

I think I'm the oldest one there, but that doesn't bother me.

It was good to see all the super healthy food come out during the day. I'm pretty sure everyone doing the yoga teacher training course are vegetarians.

*  Attentive breathing can also release and remove phlegm and debris, calm and purify the nervous system and promote unrestricted air circulation.

It was a really long but good day.

Prana - Yoga Meditation Holistic Yoga

*  Full, deep breaths allow for prana (energy) rich oxygen to nourish the body’s blood, brain and muscles, whilst cleansing the subtle channels. Focused breathing can enlarge and clear the sinus cavities, which in turn cools the brain for clearer thinking, offering a refreshed, quiet mind.

Yoga Meditation 4221 Holistic Yoga Teacher Training 2010

Yoga Teacher Training began this April 2010. I thought it would be interesting to keep a random record of events. See how it goes, see what we end up with after a couple years.

This is the first post for my holistic yoga teacher training blog.

*  There are a dizzying number of styles and approaches to yoga these days. Some involve resting in simple supported postures in quiet, candlelit rooms. Others push students to the edge of their physical capacity or are done to the beat of loud, rhythmic music. Some focus on physical alignment, while others offer a heart-centered approach. There is so much variety that describing them all is impossible.