Handstands Just for Fun

Tara Stiles is one of my favorite yogini models. She loves to do videos that use yoga to address different situations. My collection of yoga videos is full of her.

Found this one and thought it would be fun just to put this up. Something different, something wacky. But still yoga…

1001 Pearls of Yoga Wisdom

After purchasing the book 1001 Meditations, I was intrigued that another book in the series focused solely on yogic wisdom. Unfortunately, Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street did not have the copy anymore.

Well, on the day my kids and I watched Star Trek, I dropped by Fully Booked’s Promenade Greenhills branch and lo and behold, they had the last copy there. That copy (PhP 639) is now with me.

1001 Pearls of Yoga Wisdom was written by Liz Lark, an experienced yoga teacher, author, artist and retreat leader.

Just to give you an idea of its contents, the book is divided into the following sections:

~ Starting your day well (awakening naturally, a sense of opening, the importance of grounding, encouraging vitality, encouraging fluidity, establishing positivity, readiness is all)

~ Throughout your working day (boosting energy, establishing self-confidence, coping with stress, increasing motivation, maintaining focus, clear communication)

~ Time for yourself (turning inward, strength and trust, inspiration and creativity, joy and celebration, finding balance)

~ Relating to others (love and compassion, a sense of nurturing, developing flexibility, purity and harmony, sensual expression, living in harmony)

~ In times of trouble (accepting change, resolving conflict, lifting the blues, relieving anxiety, dealing with loss, enhancing resilience)

~ Winding down (changing gear, time for reflection, aiding detox, encouraging release, settling yourself)

~ Ending your day well (the importance of rest, mindful relaxation, drifting toward sleep, transformation, silence and surrender)

Yogamad.com gives this brief description of the book:

This compact, colourful book brings together the most fascinating facets of yoga thought and practice in a friendly and accessible way from morning energizers and ways to remain focused at work, to techniques to aid relaxation and restful sleep. With postures, meditations, breathing exercises, mantras and mudras for every occasion interspersed with inspiring quotes from classical Eastern texts and modern gurus this yoga compendium will bring you increased balance, compassion and insight, as well as improved strength, flexibility and physical well-being.

Try to get a copy of this book if you can find it in other branches of Fully Booked or other bookstores. It is a handy book that hardly occupies space beside your bed or on your reading table. The yogic wisdom inside this small book will serve you throughout your yoga practice. And even if you are not yet into yoga, I believe practice of some or all of its tips can lead to a more meaningful life for you.

Here are some page samplings:

1001 Meditations

I found this book while killing time at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street (PhP599). It was the last copy in that branch but I saw another copy at the Promenade Greenhills one.

It’s tiny, just about 4 x 4 inches in size and an inch and a half thick. But when I flipped through its pages, I realized how, despite its being simply written, it contained a treasure trove of wisdom that was easy for anyone to digest and follow. You need not read it from cover to cover. Instead, you can take a few tips at a time and practice them.

The contents are categorized into the following sections:

~ Luck and Destiny (setting out, finding the way, uncertainty, ups and downs)

~ How to behave (positive perspectives, acceptance, humility, motivations and desires, choice and responsibility, right action)

~ Finding your strengths (courage, fortitude, self-awareness, wisdom, calm, creativity, patience)

~ Mind and body (the observing mind, managing emotions, embodiment, subtle energies, healing the psyche, coping with illness, well-being)

~ Home and family (parenting, learning and growth, the nurturing core, sacred spaces)

~ Relationships (in partnership, friendship, making connections, bridging the gap)

~ Happiness (everyday contentment, enjoying the moment, the joy of play, gratitude, treasuring the self, dealing with troubles)

~ The wider world (connecting with nature, the web of life, loving service, the global family)

~ Time passing (change and transition, timelessness, growing older, facing mortality)

~What really matters (truth, compassion, love, spirit, unity)

The suggested 1001 tips are numbered. Here’s a sample:

A Great Yoga eBook

Scribd.com is a site where one can upload documents, books, papers that one has written or has copyright privileges to. It supports many formats (PDF included) and even allows you to download a piece of work if you are allowed to by the original author who uploaded the document/book. For documents that are copyrighted, you can read the book/document right from the browser window itself.

I found this world-famous Maran Illustrated Yoga ebook that can be read at Scribd’s site.

Here are the links to some chapters. Other chapters are not available at the site.

I have browsed the ebook’s chapters and found it very helpful and informative regardless of the yoga level you are in (beginner or avid yogi/yogini). Hope you find it as interesting as I did!

Chapter 1: Yoga Basics (not available)

Chapter 2: Yoga and Breathing

Chapter 3: Warm-Up Poses (not available)

Chapter 4: Seated Poses

Chapter 5: Seated Forward Bends

Chapter 6: Chair Poses

Chapter 7: Standing Poses

Chapter 8: Standing Balancing Poses (not available)

Chapter 9: Standing Forward Bends (not available)

Chapter 10: Table Poses

Chapter 11: Back Bends

Chapter 12: Inversions

Chapter 13: Reclined Poses

Chapter 14: Relaxation & Restorative Poses

Chapter 15: Practices (not available)

My Semi-Anusara Yoga Practice Today

This is a chant I copied off the Anusara.com site.

Today, I was home due to a parent orientation seminar at the boys’ school. It gave me time to do some shopping in the afternoon and a light yoga practice in the evening.

As I said in my previous post, I had become enthralled with anusara yoga since I got to know Hillary and Elsie, 2 wonderful anusara yoga teachers/podcasters in the US. More so, after taking a class with Francesca at Pulse Yoga.

I “grew up” in yoga doing the vinyasa style of yoga. And until now, this has been my favorite yoga style. However, lately, I have began exploring anusara after hearing the podcasts of Hillary & Elsie. This style of yoga is speaking very strongly to me — speaks to my heart. And I want to know more about it and how to use it in my self practice.

Of course, not knowing exactly how the sequences go in anusara yoga, I attempted to remember what I could from Francesca’s class. I did the OHM chants, then as I went through the asanas, I modified them to open up the chest and the heart as wide as I could. In the Trikonasana , I did it the way Francesca told us — fingers apart as it reached out to the sky, arms thrown back as far as we could instead of straight up, chest open.

For me, that time alone with myself was like a beginning journey into self-discovery. In anusara, one has an individual light — a light that can shine on the world radiating goodness, beauty and love. It recognizes that Divine Grace flows through us and in us. As one does the pose, it is felt from the inside of one’s self — that deeply creative and spiritual part of your self — and it springs out from you and is manifested in your alignment with our Divine God.

My practice today was short — just over an hour. But I chose specific poses that emphasized openness. I even did more forward bends and backbends than usual. And in Savasana, I lay on my mat with arms open and accepting of where my body was at this time and where my life and heart were. And it made me smile.

Yes, I will continue my vinyasa practice. But I hope anusara yoga is eventually introduced in the Philippines (and I will definitely keep a close watch on when Francesca will be returning!). Added to this of course is the wealth of podcasts already released by both Hillary & Elsie which can help me during my self practice days.

I would also like to plug the new yoga DVD of Hillary’s which is slated for a Sept. 2008 release.

Hillary is a certified anusara yoga instructor but more than that, she is a beautiful and warm person — someone I now call a friend. What is even more amazing is the fact that she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in 1996 while working with Prada. Her dedication to yoga and her devotion to a healthy life has kept her symptom-free to this day. A part of her DVD sales will go toward supporting children with MS and other auto-immune disorders.

While I still do not know how we can pre-order or have delivery sent to the Philippines, I will try to inquire from Hillary. Suffice it to say, I am trying to get my own DVD copy.

Visit her site HERE for more on this DVD. Once I have more purchase/delivery details, I will post updates.

Yoga Journal Goes Green

In an unprecedented move, Yoga Journal has gone one step further to protect Mother Earth and go green.

It published its May 2008 issue in digital form in cooperation with Zinio, a company that sells and distributes popular magazines in digital form.

I believe it is a wonderful move, a timely one, what with everyone concerned about the greenhouse effect all over the world.

Yoga Journal made their maiden digital issue available for free and I was able to get a copy. After previewing my copy earlier this is what I have to say — this is NOT just a digital copy like a PDF file that you read via Adobe Reader!

- you can flip through the pages by clicking the corners of the magazine (just like you would with a printed mag)

- multimedia is embedded into selected pages. For example, when you go to the editorial page, hover your cursor over the bottom of the editorial page, where you may see a tiny arrow. Click that and a tiny screen opens at the bottom and a video of Kaitlin Quistgaard, editor-in-chief, comes on with Kaitlin explaining what you can expect to find in their first digital edition.

- hyperlinks are available everywhere! Anything underlined is a link to another part of the magazine. In fact, advertisements have hyperlinks back to their websites (now, isn’t that NEAT?)

- a scroll bar at the bottom of the online Zinio reader allows you to drag it to fast forward or double back to any page, just like flipping through the pages of the magazine. As you are dragging the scroll bar, thumbnails of the pages are shown so you know exactly when to stop “thumbing” through it.

And after previewing this, if you feel that you want to subscribe to digital issues, you can head over to Zinio, create your own account, and order online (NOTE: I have not yet personally tried subscribing via Zinio so here is a caveat for all readers to exercise all prudent care and practice internet safety for online transactions). However, Zinio says on their site that they are “hacker safe” and that their site is secured by digital certificates. Zinio comes with its own downloadable offline reader so you can download your subscription magazines and read offline at your leisure.

A yogi friend, in an earlier online chat, commented that he still liked to read his magazines in print and said it was still convenient to bring to the toilet “so as not to get bored“. J, you can always bring your laptop to the toilet!

Yoga Journal allows this maiden digital issue to be forwarded via email to friends so if you want your own digital copy, post in the comment section below and I will try to have it emailed to you.

Thank you, Yoga Journal, for your wonderful contribution to Earth Day!

And to you all…

Namaste.

Inquirer Interview on Bikram Yoga

The Philippine Daily Inquirer recently conducted an interview of Bikram yoga instructors Sherie Dyer and Al Galang. They talk about yoga in general, Bikram as a specific type of yoga, benefits of yoga, and what a new practitioner should expect.

Here’s the link. Watch it!

Trying Out Bikram Yoga

Scribd Discovered!

If you love reading free ebooks online or have been wanting to find a way to publish your written works and still retain copyright over them, I just discovered Scribd from reading Daily Cup of Yoga’s post.

This is how Scribd folks describe themselves:

Scribd is a Silicon Valley startup creating technology that makes it easy to share documents online. You can think of Scribd as a big online library where everyone can publish original content, including you!

The FAQ section of Scrib (pronounced by them as one syllable with the short i sound: “skr’bb’d) shows the many features of Scribd. But what I discovered to my delight was that it had some yoga ebooks which I could download in PDF format into one’s laptop for reading offline or even on a handy PDA.

One great book on Scribd is Yoga for Men.

Surprisingly, despite its title, it has several chapters which appeal even to yoginis like me. To give you a foretaste, here are its main chapters:

Part I – Overview – Yoga as a Living Tree

Part II – Hatha Yoga – The Main Traditions

Part III – Contemporary Adaptations of Yoga

Part IV – Yoga for a Man’s Special Needs

Part V – The Yoga Lifestyle

Part VI – Supplemental Resource Information

Afterword – The Yoga Puzzle -Putting the Pieces Together

Another discovery is the Hindu-Yogi Science of Breath by Yogi Ramacharaka.

And lastly, I found Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi which was first published in 1946.

According to an entry in Wikipedia: “In 1999, it was designated one of the “100 Most Important Spiritual Books of the 20th Century” by a panel of theologians and luminaries convened by HarperCollins publishers”

There are many other ebooks which you can readily preview, not just on yoga but on a whole spectrum of topics.

Check it out!