Living Yoga

This is the first of many guided meditations.  There will definitely be a learning curve here for me.  Turns out the mic when I was recording wasn't turned up very far so the whole thing is very quiet.  Oops!  So when you listen make sure you turn the volume on the player and on your speakers all the way up.  The next meditation will hopefully have much better sound! :)

This meditation is 21 minutes long and is a loving, healing meditation.  Please enjoy!

Heal, Strengthen, Renew!
Namaste!

For those of you who are not familiar with mantra meditations let me explain.  A mantra is a word or phrase that is used to repeat internally or out loud in meditation.  This word or phrase is one that will have an edifying, consciousness raising effect.  "Om" is a commonly used mantra and a Christian mantra could be, "Be still and know that I am God."


Today's mantra meditation is "love."  Chant love internally each time you inhale, and each time you exhale.  As you inhale, receive love freely and fully.  Feel it coming in from all around you, from everyone you come into contact with, from yourself, and from God.  As you exhale, give love freely.  Let it seep from your pours to every person, every creature, to yourself, and to God.  As your mind is occupied with the word love, you will FEEL it moving in and out without narrating this process with other thoughts.  Inspiration may come to you in the form of thoughts as you practice this meditation.  If it does, accept it, soak it in, and come back to the word LOVE.

There is a wonderful meditation that feels SO good and can be done at any time you need a spiritual pick me up, literally.


In a comfortable seated position, move your attention to your breath. Feel your breath in your body moving in and out, up and down.  Allow your mind to rest on the sound and feeling of your breath.  Your breath is a wonderful tool to bring you into the present moment.  


When you feel ready, bring your awareness into the base of your spine.  Imagine a light there.  I always imagine a white light but if you feel inclined to make the light any other color, go with it.  That color will be balancing to your system that day if you are attracted to it.  If it helps you to sense this light more you can imagine it carries warmth with it as well.  As you inhale, let this light move all the way up your spine.  On the exhale, imagine this light coming out, like a head lamp, from your third eye center.  Continue as long as desired, ideally at least until you can really feel the light.


This meditation will activate your intuitive center and help you have more spiritual clarity.  If you need grounding at the end of your meditation you can let the light come back down your spine on your last exhale, and imagine it going all the way down connecting you to the center of the Earth.


If you have any questions feel free to post a comment!  Many blessings!

I took this information from an article on organicconsumers.org.  Sometimes I need to be refreshed on why I want to avoid certain ingredients in foods.  I hope this provides a refreshed incentive to eat a little closer to nature! :)  Namaste!

Dr Mercola's Comments

In case you forgot, or never knew in the first place, the number one source of calories in the US is high fructose corn syrup.  Let me say that in different words so you more fully appreciate the impact of this fact.  Remember that fat has 250% more calories than sugar, but even with this major disadvantage, the food that most people get MOST of their calories from is sugar from corn, primarily in the form of soft drinks.

Even though I have known this for years, it is still shocking to me every time I reflect on the enormity of this truth.  But, like W. Clement Stone, I believe that there is a nugget of good in this horrible fact. The good is that stopping this pernicious habit is one of the easiest things to do. Since this is such a pervasive problem in the US, we could make radically outrageous improvements in our health as a culture if we just simply stopped everyone from drinking soda.

I am HIGHLY confident that the health improvement would be FAR more profound than if everyone stopped smoking because elevated insulin levels are the foundation of nearly every chronic disease known to man, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, aging, arthritis, osteoporosis, you name it, and you will find elevated insulin levels as a primary factor.

This evidence of an increase in triglyceride levels and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels is just the latest among countless findings pointing to the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).

Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form, its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified.

HFCS has also been linked to:

    * Diabetes
    * Obesity
    * Metabolic Syndrome

The delusion that fructose is an acceptable form of sugar is quite prevalent in many nutritional circles. In fact, nearly all simple sugars are metabolized quickly and disrupt insulin levels, which contributes to most chronic illness. Eating small amounts of whole fruit will not provide tremendous amounts of fructose and should not be a problem for most people, unless diabetes or obesity is an issue but fruit juices, sodas and other beverages sweetened with fructose should be avoided.

To add insult to injury, the corn that the high fructose corn syrup is metabolized from nearly all comes from genetically modified corn which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns.

High fructose corn syrup is is not something that should be in your diet at all. But HFCS is the primary caloric sweetener in U.S. soft drinks. Researchers estimate that most Americans eat 132 calories of HFCS per day, while the top 20 percent of sweetener consumers eat over 300. And some, they say, eat as much as 700 calories per day of HFCS.
Sodas, of course, are not the only source of HFCS (though they represent one of the main ones). This dangerous sweetener is also in many processed foods and fruit juices, so to avoid it you need to focus your diet on whole foods and, if you do purchase packaged foods, become an avid label reader.

There is a new book that I'm adding to my recommended reading list . . . Yoga As Medicine.  Below is a very interesting chart from the beginning of the book showing different ailments and the percentage of people who were helped in those ailments from a yoga practice.

Medical Condition                                    #of people reporting            %helped by yoga
Alcoholism                                               26                                       100
Anxiety                                                   838                                      94
Arthritis and Rheumatic Disorders              589                                      90
Asthma or Bronchitis                                226                                      88
Back Disorders                                        1,142                                    98
Cancer                                                    29                                        90
Diabetes                                                  10                                        80
Duodenal Ulcers                                        40                                       90
Heart Disease                                          50                                        94
Hemorrhoids                                            391                                      88
High Blood Pressure                                  150                                      84
Insomnia                                                  542                                      82
Menopausal Disorders                               247                                      83
Menstrual Problems                                   317                                      68
Migraine                                                   464                                      80
Neurological and Neuromuscular Disease     112                                     96
Obesity                                                     240                                     74
Premenstrual Syndrome                             848                                     77
Smoking                                                    219                                     74


If you have any ailment that effects your physical abilities be sure to let your yoga teacher know so that you can work together to make your practice as beneficial as it can be.  Not every class, or every pose is right for every body and this is the best way to insure that you get yoga that is right for you.