People have practice yoga for centuries. With roots in India, this lifestyle focuses on physical and mental health through movements, poses, and breathing techniques. Meanwhile, Ayurveda is an ancient system of traditional medicine originating in India. It promotes balance, harmony, and holistic well-being through diet, herbs, yoga, and other therapies. Together, the two can create a whole-body system of health and wellness that individuals can follow when seeking positive transformation. Here, we dive into the connection between yoga and Ayurveda. The Interconnected History of Yoga and Ayurveda The connection between yoga and Ayurveda is rooted in their shared history in India. Both practices have been around for centuries and are based on similar philosophical principles. Yoga was developed as a physical practice, but it has grown to encompass spiritual aspects of life as well. Similarly, Ayurveda has developed to focus on not only physical health but also spiritual and emotional well-being. Whereas yoga is a physical effort, Ayurveda focuses more on internal health and mental well-being through diet and lifestyle habits. In tandem, the two health systems help practitioners achieve balance, grounding, and whole-body wellness. The Practices of Yoga and Ayurveda Yoga is a practice involving physical poses, movements, breathing exercises, mantras, and meditation. It promotes strength, flexibility, balance, and relaxation. Through regular practice of yoga postures (asanas), practitioners can improve their physical and mental health. Ayurveda is an art of holistic health that emphasizes prevention and balance. It focuses on diet, lifestyle, herbs, asanas, meditation, and other forms of therapy. Ayurvedic treatments are tailored to the individual’s unique needs to restore balance and well-being. Anyone looking for positive personal growth and wellness can cultivate an Ayurvedic lifestyle, and with it, they may adopt a yoga regimen. The Benefits of Yoga and Ayurveda Both yoga and Ayurveda are beneficial for physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Practicing yoga can reduce stress and anxiety, improve flexibility, build strength, increase energy levels, and promote relaxation throughout the nervous system. Similarly, Ayurvedic treatments can restore balance in the body by addressing underlying causes of illness. The combination of yoga and Ayurveda can be especially powerful for achieving holistic well-being. Practicing yoga postures in conjunction with following an Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle can promote balance, harmony, and overall health. When we look to understand the connection between yoga and Ayurveda, the pair works together to cultivate connections between mind, body, and spirit. Yoga and Ayurveda are two ancient practices from India that people have used for centuries to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being. They share a history and are based on similar philosophical principles. The combination of yoga postures and Ayurvedic treatments can be especially powerful for achieving holistic health and overall well-being. By understanding the connection between these two practices, we can use them to create balance and harmony in our lives.

Caregivers and seniors are exposed to so much unique stress in their everyday lives. So, it makes sense that you need similarly unique ways to relieve that tension. Yoga and meditation can be the self-care combo that melts away that stress. Here are some reasons and tips for getting your own practice started.   Yoga Benefits Your Gut as Much as Your Mind  For caregivers and seniors, the primary purpose of meditation and yoga practice is improved mental health. If you get started with yoga, however, you may also be boosting your gut. The flow and work you do through yoga practices can actually encourage healthy processes throughout your digestive system, and that regular movement can help those healthy gut bacteria thrive too. As an added benefit, balancing out your microbiome can also help balance out your mood. So yoga really can be good for your body and brain in many different ways. But if you really want to promote a healthy gut and digestive system, adding fermented foods like yogurt is another way to up the ante. Try a refreshing smoothie that includes yogurt for a pre-yoga workout snack or even a healthy breakfast.   A Home Practice Space Can Enhance Your Habits  Ask any seasoned yogi and they will tell you one of the biggest challenges of practicing is actually stepping onto your mat. It’s important to practice regularly to really get yourself into the habit of using yoga and meditation so you can derive the full benefits. One way to encourage your practice is to dedicate a space in your home. All you need for a relaxing space is an area to stretch out and some basic supplies, like a mat, a block and a full-length mirror. Those items won’t take up too much space, but it’s still a good idea to clear away any clutter. Consider this the perfect opportunity to remove items that are taking up both emotional and physical space. Give yourself time to decide by transferring anything you don’t need to a storage unit (a 5’x10’ unit rents for only $109 a month at Storage Etc-Los Feliz). Whether it’s temporary or long-term, having that extra space can make a difference for your mental well-being.   Morning Meditations May Provide More Benefits  Setting up a dedicated meditation and yoga space is a wonderful first step to encouraging a regular practice. Finding the time to practice, however, can be a challenge for seniors and busy caregivers. One method for making your meditation habit stick is to practice in the morning. By meditating as soon as you wake up, not only are you getting it out of the way, but you’re also setting the tone and mood for the day. If you tend to have a hard time remembering to wake up and meditate, you can also use a handy meditation app to set reminders. The guided meditation that apps like Headspace and Insight timer provide are helpful for caregivers who [...]

I am an empath. Sometimes I wish I weren’t, but most of the time it is one of my greatest gifts.   Empathy is, “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” – dictionary.com Unlike its sister term “sympathy”, feeling sorrow for another, empathy means to experience the feelings of another, from the inside. As you can imagine, going inside the experience of another being is often very unpleasant. When the object of your empathy is experiencing sorrow, you experience sorrow. When she is elated, you are elated. The teachings and techniques of yoga are meant to bring us closer to perfect union with the omnipresent consciousness that underlies all things. In a way, this is perfect empathy. The difference between yoga and empathy is that the former seeks to unite with the pure divine consciousness that all things are made from, bliss, while the latter seeks to unite with the experience of the person, place, or thing in question. But, empathy is a tool for the yogi and one that is naturally cultivated through the practice of meditation. Toward the end of my teacher Swami Kriyananda’s life, many noted the heightened sensitivity he showed toward the suffering of others. Mostly, he choked on tears of joy, but suffering too made itself known in his face. The great yoga master Paramhansa Yogananda once exclaimed, “Can you not feel its pain?!” when a disciple was carelessly moving a potted tree as he prepared to plant it in the Lake Shrine gardens. As we meditate, we experience increasingly subtle energies in our body. It should be no surprise that the result is often a heightened sensitivity to the world around us when we step off the yoga mat. In my new job at March of Dimes, I’m listening to stories of tragedy and loss a lot. Stories of injustice and the extreme suffering of losing a baby or mother. If you are black or brown in the United States, you are at high risk of experiencing complications in pregnancy and childbirth for a myriad of reasons, all of them avoidable and rooted in inequity. The stories break the heart of an empath. So, how does an empath cope? How do we develop these keen sensitivities in meditation and still move in the world with joy? Here is what works for me: Lean into the pain. For Siddhartha, the young Buddha, the pain of seeing aging, disease, and death propelled him on his spiritual search. Do not shy away from the pain you experience if you are an empath. Lean into it and you will find, after the waves of suffering subside, that it awakens your latent desire for truth. Release self-righteousness. The great trap in suffering is to give into the idea that you are right and someone else is wrong. That feeds separation consciousness, which leads only toward more suffering. Dr. Peter described it best in a talk last summer when he explained that [...]

The ancients made many bold claims about yoga, including its almost mythological ability to cure all diseases and maintain eternal youth. Just because these claims were exaggerated and not backed by modern, Westernized science, does not mean that they were unfounded! With a little research, you can see the factual evidence, backed by our fancy new science, that shows the real physical and mental health benefits that regular yoga can bring to its devoted students. Even though I’m not going to claim that it can cure all maladies, yoga has the power to improve almost anyone’s life using these identifiable health benefits. Regular yoga, depending partly on which you practice and how often, can benefit your body on a mental and structural level. Here are 13 huge health benefits of yoga (backed by science). 1.    Back Pain Relief Back pain may be the number one reason people seek out yoga and they’re wise to do so. Poses like Cat/Cow can improve flexibility and strength in your spine, improving mobility and giving you a leg up on overuse pain related to an aging or strained back. Holistic healers recommend yoga first, before any pain meds are on the table, for people with achy backs.   2.    Leg/Arm Strength Your legs and arms can become weak if you don’t work them out (of course!). For many people, strengthening regimens at the gym put too much strain on their schedules. This is where at-home yoga poses that strengthen your arms and legs can come in handy. Try Triangle and Side Angle Poses for your legs and Dolphin Pose for your arms.   3.    Vital Organ Energy We may not think too much about “energy” in this sense in Western medicine, but your vital organs need to be activated and massaged to function well. Those of us who live sedentary lives may be selling ourselves short on energy, something yoga is good at fixing. A lot of poses offer massages to vital organs, which improves kidney, liver, and adrenal function.   4.    Improved Digestion Digestion follows from the same vital energy, but it warrants its own section. Healthy digestion requires movement in your system and poses like Upward Salute can massage your intestines and colon and relax your system so it can process and dispose of food in a healthy way. 5.    Improved Balance Balance may not be a conscious concern until we get older, but people of any age can benefit from improving it. Balance not only helps us prevent injuries from falls but also helps us maintain structural balance. Balancing poses like Eagle Pose can give you the ability to load your muscles properly when walking. 6.    Improved Flexibility This should go without saying, but flexibility and yoga go hand in hand. Bow Pose and Tree Pose will give you access to all kinds of structural stability you never knew you had while getting your spine to a more flexible (that means healthier!) place.   7.    Healthy [...]

Digestive issues make your busy week heavy and slow. Constipation can lead to pain and inconvenience during the day (and eventually, pelvic dysfunction). Bloating and cramping can cause discomfort and embarrassment. Marichi’s Pose offers a way to incorporate digestive functionality into your yoga sequence. It’s a pose that represents wisdom in the practice (it’s sometimes called the “Sage’s Pose”), and for the modern working person, it represents wisely adapting to the trials of troublesome digestion. Marichi’s pose gets your organs moving but also stimulates and stretches other areas for a host of benefits. Read on to learn what Marichi’s Pose or Marichyasana III can do for you and how to perform this pose the right way.   Benefits of Marichi’s Pose Marichi’s Pose gives you a good stretch in your shoulders as it stretches out your spine. This makes your back stronger and can relieve minor backaches and stiffness in your hip. Anytime we stretch the spine, we get all kinds of therapeutic benefits. Since digestion and other processes are keyed into your nervous system, you can stimulate healthy processes by getting your nerves under control. This pose has been nicknamed for a sage because it promotes wisdom. Who knew that it could help you poop? Those suffering from constipation love this pose because it gets things moving. The action of opening your shoulders and stimulating your internal organs also relieves asthma and fatigue, as well as other digestive issues. Those suffering from menstruation symptoms and sciatica will also appreciate the opening and stretching action you feel in your hips during Marichi’s Pose. Now that you know why you’re doing this pose, let’s get into how to do it right.   How to Do the Pose Staff Pose begins a lot of sitting sequences, as you may know. It’s no different with Marichyasana III. Begin with your legs straight in front of you, your hands behind your hips, and your back straight. Bend one of your legs towards you and move your heel close to your hip, as close as you can. Rotate your straight leg in and push your weight into your heel. For the leg you have pulled up, press into the ground through your foot and let your inner thigh loosen. This will help you keep your spine long and strong as you twist it and keep you from hurting yourself. As you breathe out, twist your torso towards the direction of the bent leg and loop your opposite arm over it. This is so you can hold your thigh in place as you press your hip into the floor. With your arm, press the tips of your fingers into the ground behind you so you can get a little lift as you twist. You should feel your abdomen lengthening with your inner thigh on the side of the bent leg. Make sure your other leg is straight and your bent leg has a firm amount of weight in the foot. Feel [...]

Yoga involves equal parts stretching and relaxing. We all feel good in poses that help us get stronger, but many of them are difficult! Restorative yoga is the cherry on top of a tough sequence, the poses that allow you to relax, achieve a sense of peaceful calm, and feel good about what you’ve accomplished. These poses focus not on stretching but on supported relaxation. While all yoga poses have some capacity to be restorative, these poses are in a special category of their own. Restorative yoga postures help you nourish your muscles and create an environment for your mind to feel peaceful and rested. These poses require props and supports to help you achieve a better sense of calm, which can even help you get to sleep. These props are the main reason that beginning yoga students skimp on restorative yoga, but they shouldn’t! It’s a valuable addition to any sequence, and a calming practice even when used all on its own. Read on to learn how to do restorative yoga and a few of the poses you should add to your sequence.   1.    Be Sure to Warm Up First It may seem strange to warm up for a restorative pose (we’re not stretching, after all), but it’s just as important to warm up before these poses as any others. Gently move your body with soft stretching and get used to the space. This will not only “warm” your muscles, but also begin the process of calming down your restless thoughts. It’s ironic that those of us that need restorative yoga the most are least prepared to be able to relax into it! Mentally wash off your busy week by warming yourself up and trying to calm your even busier mind.   2.    Prioritize Your Comfort In preparation for relaxing into restorative poses, you need to make your comfort a priority. When you’re holding an extended relaxation pose, a crinkle in your blanket or a crooked prop can turn a minor annoyance into a lack of relaxation. The goal here is to achieve a sense of calm. A perfect setup, a quiet space, and a clean, open area can be the difference between restoration and annoyance. You can’t hope to quiet your mind unless you make your space as perfect as possible. But if you can, restorative yoga can help you calm your mind and relax yourself to sleep. Restorative yoga can therefore be great insomnia therapy, which helps you get to sleep and even makes your sleep more restful too. But it only works if you prioritize your comfort!   3.    Bring Your Props Props that help support you during restorative yoga can make your sequence more effective. The act of sitting quietly in a pose with no deep or challenging stretches may seem simple to beginners, but these poses are just as difficult in their own way! They challenge you to find inner peace, to stay a busy mind. For some [...]

Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana is one of the key poses for a rejuvenating sequence and one of the most recognized throughout the world. This yoga pose requires specific alignment to work its magic, as well as the strength to devote your body to the position for at least a minute. If you give in to Downward Facing Dog, however, your devotion will be rewarded with many physical and mental health benefits. So long as you perform the pose correctly (details below), Downward Dog is one of the most rejuvenating and strengthening poses you can perform. Read on to learn the reasons to master this pose and the step-by-step guide to getting into it.   The Benefits of Downward Facing Dog When done correctly, Downward Facing Dog is an ultimate calming pose. The stretch through your shoulders and hamstrings is particularly effective at calming a restless mind, relieving stress, and even treating mild depression. Those who suffer from symptoms of menstruation or menopause can use the pose to find some relief. Along with strengthening your arms and legs, Downward Dog brings a sense of balance through the stretch. It gets your digestion moving, gives you relief from headaches and fatigue, and can even help you get to sleep. Anyone suffering from chronic conditions that cause “elevation” or feelings of mental restlessness can find some relief through Downward Facing Dog. This includes those who deal with out of control sinuses as a result of sinusitis or asthma, or even people with high blood pressure. Downward Dog is a great pose to de-escalate a restless mind and body.   How to Do the Pose Downward Facing Dog begins on your hands and knees with your knees aligned below your hips. With palms spread, ground yourself with a few finger taps and tuck your toes. Begin with your elbows on the floor and your tailbone high, as though you have an invisible string pulling it towards the ceiling. Take a big in-breath and as you exhale, push from the floor. Keep your knees bent a bit but be aware of how they straighten and lengthen as you push away. The key movement happens in your tailbone, as you lengthen it, pulling it away from your hips, with your sit bones tugging towards the ceiling. Take another breath. Exhale and straighten your legs, pushing your thighs back and out as your heels and calves get a good stretch. You want your knees to straighten up but not lock as you let your legs lengthen and your thighs roll a little inwards. At the same time, feel your arms roll out a bit as your energy presses into your index fingers and between your fingers and thumbs. Let your shoulder blades widen and stay aware of your head. You want it to stay in the middle of your arms, not hanging to the floor. Downward Facing Dog is a major part of the Sun Salutation sequence, lasting anywhere [...]

Our tailbones deactivate as our spines compress. And when we sit all day for work, or drive to our errands, or slouch into the couch, both of these things happen! Cat/Cow Pose (you may also hear some call it “Cat/Camel”) allows you to strengthen and release your spine. This helps you let go of all that tension that you carry in your neck, shoulders, and upper back (most of us do!). Improving blood flow to your spine comes with a host of benefits, both physical and mental. Read on to learn about these specific therapeutic uses for Marjaryasana/Bitilasana, as well as how to perform the pose properly.   Benefits of Cat/Cow Pose Cat/Cow Pose provides a warming, gentle stretch as you move between essentially two different simple poses. Combining them encourages flexibility in your spine at the same time it gently stretches the back of your torso and neck. Slow, deep breathing greatly improves your relaxation and openness during your sequence and Cat/Cow Pose can help you dial back and slow everything down. As you transition between poses, you massage and activate vital internal organs such as your kidneys and adrenal glands. The combination of these therapies helps you warm up your spine for more intense yoga, or just relax your neck after a stressful day. You will feel more grounded and present in Marjaryasana/Bitilasana, and calmer as a result. This is not a pose for intensive stretching or challenging the limits of your flexibility. Its main therapeutic application is to bring your body and mind to a state of restful awareness after a long day and prepare yourself to face the rest of it.   How to Do the Pose Begin the Cow Pose with your knees and hands on the floor. Stack your hips on top of your knees and your shoulders on top of your wrists. Allow your spine to fall into a neutral position with your back flat. As you breathe in deeply, engage your core. As you exhale, push with your arms to round out your shoulders and spine. Your belly button should lift towards the ceiling as your core fully engages. Your chin should tuck into your collar. At the top of the pose where your shoulders are most rounded, you may feel your neck release tension. This is the Cat Pose – make sure to keep your wrists and knees squarely under your shoulders and hips. When you inhale again, let your back return to its normal arch and your belly drop down loose and unengaged. Your tailbone and head should lift towards the ceiling. Keep your gaze steady and level, with no pain in your neck. Now, you’re back in the Cow Pose. You should feel your spine become warm and flexible while your neck and hips loosen. You can repeat this pose as many as ten times to relax and prepare for more yoga, or just to calm yourself after a busy day. Remember that you [...]

Discomfort comes in many forms. Dolphin Pose or Ardha Pincha Mayurasana helps you address pain in your shoulders by opening them, strengthening your extremities, and even treating the symptoms of menopause. Many people go to Downward-Facing Dog to find relief from some of these issues, but that pose becomes difficult and even dangerous for people with shoulder issues or carpal tunnel syndrome. Dolphin Pose offers a modified version that can bring you similar relief without risking injury in these areas. Practice Ardha Pincha Mayurasana for a host of calming, strengthening, and therapeutic benefits. Read on to learn the reasons to practice this pose and the step by step moves to perform it correctly (and safely!).   Benefits of Dolphin Pose Dolphin Pose stretches out your arms and legs while increasing circulation to your abdomen and head. This strengthens your extremities at the same time you get a good stretch in your hamstrings, calves, and arches. If you’ve been sitting for a long time, or do so regularly for work, these areas are probably stiff, shortened, and tight. Giving them this gentle stretch can improve circulation and restore your range of motion in those spots. This position also opens and stretches your shoulders. As the blood gets flowing to your head, you’ll notice a calming sensation. After a busy day at work, with the kids, or whatever’s been stressing you out, Dolphin Pose can relieve your stress. If your stress has progressed to depression, this pose can give you some quiet time to stretch it out. This applies to symptoms of stress, including headaches, fatigue, and high blood pressure. Menstrual discomfort can hit hard, and Dolphin Pose can offer some relief (I recommend supporting your head during the pose if this is your goal). Improving digestion and relieving symptoms of menopause comes with the improved circulation offered by this stretch.   How to Do the Pose Begin Dolphin Pose on your hands and knees. Make sure your knees are lined up with your hips and your shoulders are above your wrists. One major mistake that beginners can make in this pose is to let their shoulders fall behind their elbows, which can cause shoulder pain. So, make sure they stay lined up! Feel your weight press into your forearms as you press your palms together. As you exhale, lift yourself by the knees, keeping them slightly bent with your toes curled and your heels lifted. Feel your tailbone get longer as you lift your sits bones towards the ceiling. You should feel a good stretch in your inner ankles and groin. You’ll feel your shoulder blades widen as your arms press into the floor. The placement of your head is important here! You don’t want it to hang too loosely or push too hard into the floor. Particularly if you’re looking for a treatment for menopause symptoms, make sure your head is loose and supported. Your knees can be straight (it helps you get a better [...]

Did You Know Yoga Can Reduce Food Cravings?   Fitness trends come and go, and time will tell if the latest craze is here to stay: goat yoga. That's right, yoga sessions with goats. The CBS News video above features some of the instructors and enthusiasts of this unusual pairing. At Laughing Frog Yoga studio in Santa Monica, California, pygmy goats Floyd and Rosco are part of the ensemble. According to Michelle Tritten of Hello Critter Care, goats have the uncanny ability to "bring out the best in people." Many others agree. Lainey Morse, one of the first to introduce goat yoga to the world in 2016 at her farm in Albany, Oregon, tells CBS "it's impossible to be sad and depressed when you have goats around you." Since then, goat yoga has spread around the country, with a number of celebrities testing it out and spreading the word on social media. Writing for Viva Glam Magazine, actress-writer Malorie Mackey writes about her goat yoga experience at Laughing Frog, saying:1 "As the goats enter, giggles and happiness ensue. Roscoe enjoys jumping and climbing on people while Floyd enjoys walking under them. Together, they move around the class jumping on yogis and having fun under the supervision of Michelle. Perhaps it isn't the most calm, meditative yoga class, but it breaks up the norm and adds lighthearted fun to your yoga routine." Yoga Is a Powerful Mind-Body Practice While I believe anaerobic exercise such as high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is key for optimal health, there's no doubt yoga can be an important part of a comprehensive exercise program. And research reveals potent mental and physical benefits from yoga, regardless of your current state of health or fitness. Yoga has been around for about 5,000 years, and while many regard it as just another form of exercise, it's really a comprehensive lifestyle practice that integrates mental, physical and spiritual elements. With regard to the latter, yoga can be viewed as a form of meditation that demands your full attention as you move from one asana (yoga position) to another. As you learn new ways of moving and responding to your body and mind, other areas of your life tend to shift and change as well. In a sense, you not only become more physically flexible, but your mind and approach to life may also gain some much-needed flexibility. A report2 by the Institute of Science in Society details how meditative practices such as yoga, tai chi and qigong, just to name a few, can actually alter your genetic expression through their impact on your mind. Indeed, thousands of genes have been identified that appear to be directly influenced by your subjective mental state. Examples of genetic effects obtained through yogic- and other meditative practices include the down-regulation of cellular stress response genes and genes associated with the pathway responsible for the breakdown of proteins, while expression of heat shock proteins and immune function are increased. One study [...]

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Hip imbalances lead to all kinds of trouble, including a tucked tailbone that can pull your pelvic muscles out of alignment. This can lead to weakness and pain, especially if you’ve had kids. Making your deep hip flexors stronger represents the best chance you have of staying in balance and preventing this dysfunction, which is why I advocate the Boat Pose, especially for people concerned about their alignment. Boat Pose or Paripurna Navasana is not a pose you can pick up and master as a beginner. You have to work at it! But as with many challenging yoga poses, the work pays off in health benefits. Read on to learn why people work hard to master the Boat Pose and how you can pull it off effectively in your sequence.   Benefits of Boat Pose As yogis, even expert ones, we tend to stretch and lengthen muscles without strengthening them. The hip flexors represent the problem with doing this. They can get overstretched but not strong, which is common for people who frequently practice yoga. This leads to weak abdominals, imbalanced hips, overworked hamstrings, and more stress in your entire body. Boat Pose represents the counter for this pattern of imbalance. It tones up your abs, stretches your hamstrings, and stimulates your vital organs. This leads to better kidney and thyroid function as well as healthier digestion. Any pose that improves balance and enervates your organs leads to stress relief in addition to all its other benefits.   How to Do the Pose Boat Pose begins sitting up on the floor. Place your hands next to your hips, a little behind you, fingers facing forward, legs stretched straight. As you push, you want to lean back without slumping. You should feel a lengthening in your torso and all your weight going straight down through your arms and sits bones. As you exhale, bend your knees and lift your feet by pushing from your arms. Try to feel your tailbone widen against the floor as you lift your legs. The goal is to get your toes as high as possible while keeping your knees straight. However, most of us will instinctively bend our knees. That’s okay! This is a hard pose. If you find that you can’t get your toes up to your eye level without bending your knees (most of us can’t at first!), bend your knees instead and do the pose by raising your shins until they’re flush with the floor. Boat Pose will give you a good stretch in your arms as well. Your shoulders should feel spread as you press into your fingers. Remember to breathe regularly! You want your abdomen to strengthen and feel firm, but we don’t want to seize it up. This can lead to holding and hardening, placing more stress on the musculature than it relieves. Tilt your head forward until it’s no longer lax or leaning back so your spine stays straight from your tailbone to your [...]