So, how do you take the soothing effects of your Yoga practice and apply them to the rest of your day? Develop a system where you use your time wisely. This is the wisdom of time management, as applied to “real life.”

We’re not discussing a “catch phrase,” or short-term solution, where a manager goes to a one-day workshop on time management, and then comes back lecturing his, or her, staff, about their time management.

The irony is that, most of the time, this type of manager is aware of time management because he, or she, wastes plenty of time. This usually goes on until the next workshop, and then management will learn a new catch phrase to tell the staff what they are doing wrong.

What we are discussing is a lifestyle, and possibly a big change, just like the first time you visited a Yoga class. In a “nut shell,” we have limited time on this earth and we cannot afford to waste it thinking about future worries, past regrets, fighting with loved ones, or leaving goals on hold.

Most of us leave dreams, goals, relationships, and ambitions on the “back burner,” while the daily routine of life goes by. No wonder people complain about the monotony of daily tasks. Very often, we hear, “I don’t have time to learn new skills, go to night school, practice Yoga, or become a Yoga teacher.”

Remember when you were a child and life seemed to go by so slowly? You had time to play, watch television, listen to the radio, and lay around, without a care in the world. Now, welcome to adulthood, life is flying by at a rapid pace, and goals sometimes seem further away than ever before.

Your starting point is today. All you have to do is write your list of tasks for tomorrow. This is commonly called a “to do list.” You can post it on a piece of paper, on your desktop, in your PDA, or anywhere you will refer to it in a day.

To be honest, I put the piece of paper in my pocket and refer to it during the day. Sometimes, the lesson plan for my next Yoga class can be found in my pocket, too. This is a reflection of my time line, and my generation, but my son would put it on his PDA. Whatever you choose is fine, as long as you refer to it, and get something done.

Notice, I did not say get everything done. Somehow, life throws us curves and your “well laid” plans may not fit into the daily time frame. You learn this in your Yoga practice too. It is absolutely necessary that all of us accept change. These days, change occurs on a daily basis, so there is no need to become tense about it. This explains why so many corporate fitness centers have Yoga, or meditation programs, for their employees.

Be prepared to make modifications to your plans or “turn on a dime.” Deadlines should be taken seriously, but sometimes life gets in the way. There are times when the path you are on will have to be altered. So, be prepared to have a backup plan.

Remember the Serenity Prayer: “God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference.” It goes without saying, that you will waste a lot of time and energy, if you don’t know the difference.

The next point to cover is when to multi-task. What is this? You say, “This doesn’t sound very Yogic.” Yoga refers to “unity” or “union,” and we must exist in harmony with life as it is today. The mind naturally multi-tasks so, let’s make the most of our time.

In ancient times people multi-tasked, too. Why else would people around the world practice meditation for thousands of years? Why else would the people of India practice Yoga for over 5,000 years? Stress was one of many things our ancestors, and the ancient Yogis, have in common with us, and we know that stress is a killer. Most likely stress is linked to every ailment that connected to mankind.

True irony is when you consider planning time, and start to make excuses why you don’t have time to manage, or plan, your time wisely. If you like to watch television, you could do a little planning at the same time. Ideally, it is best to be totally focused, thinking clearly, and be in a quiet place when planning time.

However, there are other forms of multi-tasking you can do such as listening to an audio book in the car, using an exercise bike while watching television, and reading or listening to books while traveling. There are a number of Yoga, and Yoga philosophy audio books, available.

On the other hand, we know multi-tasking can go too far. I will never forget commuting into Boston, stuck in traffic, and seeing a guy next to me reading a newspaper on his steering wheel! Within the same month, I saw a motorist driving with a hamburger in one hand, and a milk shake in the other, while driving through stop and go traffic on Interstate 95!

We’re not considering reckless multi-tasking, but consider combining tasks that don’t require 100% focus. For example, you cannot focus entirely on an audio book while driving, and you may have to listen to it quite a few times before you mentally digest all the material.

For this very reason, you should not consider listening to, and concentrating on, meditation audio books, while driving your car or operating machinery. Yoga philosophy is one thing, but trying to listen to or practice with a meditation audio book, while driving, is quite another. Therefore, be very careful about the safety factors involved in multi-tasking.

Another point to cover is logistics. When you consider where you are going, always plan to avoid “back tracking.” For example: If you are picking the kids up from school and have to get groceries, make it into a combined trip. If you make it into two trips, this is truly a waste of time. Therefore, plan your trips, whether they are time spent in a car, riding a bike, or walking.

Lastly, make time for family, friends, and loved ones.

Unify your time for a balanced life. Life is not, “all work and no play,” but life is not sitting around living the life of a “couch potato.” Remember one of the best excuses for not attending a Yoga class: “I don’t have the time.”

About the author:

Copyright 2005 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard is the director of Yoga teacher training at Aura in RI. He’s a master instructor of martial arts and Yoga. He teaches Yoga, martial arts, and fitness. He wrote: Is Running a Yoga Business Right for You? For Yoga students wanting to be a Yoga teacher. http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org

Written By: Paul M. Jerard Jr.

I was given a series of correcting and strengthening exercises designed to improve my back and specific to the meridians that were in need of attention in my particular case. Oki yoga has postures classified on how they affect the meridians, which are like energetic pathways within our body. And that was the one thing that helped restore my back completely, to a state that was actually better than it was before I injured myself. When you are suffering an acute injury though, yoga really shouldn’t be attempted until that stage has passed.

That introduction to yoga ignited a deep love of it through which I began to see the more subtle health benefits it brought to my life. Yoga can help with a wide spectrum of physical issues and injuries, but it is also an excellent alternative to the gym for those that find the repetition and distraction of it not to their taste. It is great for toning up your body, whilst gaining flexibility.

Yoga has a reputation for flexibility, and deservedly so. But it can also develop strength. Developing strength is particularly important for women. Women tend to be more flexible than men, but not as strong, unless they have been involved in fitness regularly. But unlike many traditional forms of exercise, yoga also strengthens the inner muscles and organs in our bodies. It makes a great preparation for childbirth!

Yoga also develops discipline. This comes in making the time on a regular basis to either go to classes, or practice yoga in your living room, or in the morning sun in the garden. But there is a more subtle level of discipline. It starts with bringing your mind to focus on your breathing, and then feeling the effects of a posture on your body. This conscious exploration is quite a different experience of fitness than usually seen at the gym – where loud music, televisions and other external stimuli fight for your attention. You won’t see people with headphones on, or reading a magazine, whilst doing yoga.

This conscious exploration establishes a relationship with your body, and its importance cannot be overstated. So often, parts of us are frozen, or numb in some ways. This can express physically as pain, coldness, or stiffness. Energetically, it is as though despite trying to concentrate on an area, we just cannot feel connected to it.

In a more subtle way, when we feel the points of resistance within our body as we do a pose – when we breathe into that stiffness, and sometimes pain, we develop a resilience and mental fortitude. Yoga does, of course, help with concentration. But that process of releasing and going beyond the point of physical limitation is not limited to the body. It develops a quiet confidence and knowledge about one’s own capacity that is not held back by the boundaries we may have falsely believed about ourselves before. With a yoga practice, we can get back in touch with what yogi’s call our dharma, our purpose in life. And we find in ourselves, by virtue of our growing strength, the courage to follow that path.

And finally, a quote from a yoga teacher from Sydney, Australia, Eileen Hall, printed in the Australian Yoga Life magazine:

“Yoga is not about relaxation, it’s not about losing weight, it’s not about learning meditation. It’s about discovering the divine being within ourselves.”

References: Yoga Journal, November 2005
Australian Yoga Life, Nov 2005 – Mar 2006

About the Author

If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of yoga, click here: http://www.yogatohealth.com/benefits_of_yoga.html The article talks about the psychological, physiological, and biochemical benefits a regular yoga practice can bring. Rebecca Prescott runs the website http://www.yogatohealth.com

Written By: Rebecca Prescott

It was only when I started practicing yoga that I became aware of the mammoth yoga benefits that can be obtained from the state of profound relaxation. A few yoga relaxation sessions were enough for me to perceive the generation of sublime state of harmony.

Different women have totally different reasons for practicing yoga. Some women are interested in the health benefits they obtain after performing yoga exercises routinely, while others practice yoga to achieve the desired state of harmony between the inner and outer self, but a large percentage of women carry out yoga sessions just for relaxation.

At this conjuncture, a very important question crops up, Why cant leisure activities provide relaxation?

I consider, that leisure activities are merely a gateway to escape from stressful conditions and feelings for a while. As soon as you confront a stress producing condition, you neither know how to react to it nor you know how to deal with it.

Accomplished yoga practitioners consider that yoga relaxation develops a womans ability to deal with stress more effectively and at the same time makes her more energized, concentrated and relaxed. As a consequence, a woman is able to regain her mental composure quickly during stressful conditions and this enables her to deal with stress with an iron hand. This is one of the greatest yoga benefits associated with yoga relaxation.

Modern women live under overt and subtle pressure to look good, behave well and impress others. She has to deal with competition at work place and difficulties in personal relationships. All these lifestyle factors adversely affect her physical and mental health.

Under such circumstances, the big question is, How can a woman preserve her physical and mental health? You dont have to scratch your head to find an answer because yoga, the legacy of our forefathers is still powerful enough to help todays woman to stay healthy.

If you still have some doubts about the effectiveness of this ancient system of exercise, then consider some yoga benefits retrieved, after thorough research and investigations.

1. Yoga relaxation improves the overall physical and mental health of a woman through the relaxing effect on her body and the calming effect on her mind. This is one of the most basic yoga benefits related to relaxation.

2. It relieves and delays the onset of fatigue.

3. Yoga relaxations works to expand the consciousness, which brings about greater freedom from negative conditioning and repressed memories.

4. It helps a woman to minimize and alleviate illusions, confusions, and inessential burdens, and develop a living that is more skilful.

5. Life is complex and challenging. There is suffering in life. Yoga relaxation helps us to deal with the modern stresses of competition, complexity and change.

There are many more yoga benefits that can be linked with yoga relaxation. Infact, each yoga practitioner has an incredible yoga health benefit experience to narrate.

To achieve maximum yoga benefits and to accelerate the process of arriving to the intense stage of relaxation, perseverant yoga practitioners advocate adherence to five essential components of yoga:

1. Diet- It is an important factor because the things we eat influence not only the structure of our body, but also our brain.

2. Breathing techniques- Deep and prolonged breath helps your brain to stay oxygenated, which contributes to analyzing things in a clearer manner.

3. Postures- They cultivate and maintain mental and physical balance, strength and health. They are most beneficial when practiced on a regular or daily basis and at the same time, each time they are practiced.

4. Meditation practice- During relaxation it is essential to mediate on the true values of the world.

5. Relaxation practice- Yoga postures are often cumbersome and demand a lot of attention therefore yoga relaxation is necessary and mandatory stage of every yoga routine.

Yoga is a connection between spiritual and real world, and yoga relaxation is considered to be a stage, which safely brings you back to the present reality you live in.

To yield rich yoga benefits out of yoga relaxation, a woman must have the right attitude and focus. These are considered to be the key elements. Entering the profound stage of relaxation and synchronization between your inner and your outer self cannot happen unless you physically and mentally desire it.

About the Author

Written By: Anubha Shyam – A freelance writer

* Ahimsa (Non-violence): this is one of foremost yamas. It means the lack of intention to hurt others. This intention need not be just physical but includes mental and emotional cruelty. Here the attitude is more important than the actual act of killing. You should not even have the intention of offending others. * Satya (Truthfulness): this quality implies the honesty and sincerity in thoughts, words and deeds. This is possible only when one has conquered greed and ambition since these are the two major culprits which take you away from the truth. * Asteya (Non-theft): in Sanskrit, “steya” denotes the enjoyment or keeping with oneself the things that do not rightfully belong to them. This is basically the act of stealing or theft. A person is inclined to steal only when he has no love and has some selfish motive. A yogi or a student of yoga has very few basic needs. He has learnt the art of loving himself as well as the others. Hence he does not feel the need to exploit or steal from others. * Brahmacharya (Celibacy): sex has been defined as on of the vital necessities of human existence. It ranks next only to food. Since ancient times, very few people have been able to master their sexual urges. If not satisfied, these urges lead a person to depravation and develop psychotic tendencies. Yoga lays a great stress on the celibacy. It considers not only the act of sex itself as sexual but even thinking, talking and looking at opposite sex as a part of sex and hence has to be avoided. Patanjali has declared that brahmacharya increases the mental strength also called veerya in an individual. * Aparigraha (Non-gathering): this yama means not going on collecting wealth and objects just for enjoyment. Yoga teaches one to collect wealth and objects just to meet his primary needs. This is important because greed causes distraction and thus leads to increased strain on his mind and body.

The above mentioned points deal with vairagya or the negative aspects of one’s behaviour. Now we take a look at some of the niyamas or the positive aspects of the behaviour as described by yoga:

* Shoucha (Cleanliness): This includes the cleanliness of the mind and the body. Yoga has described a clean mind as the one free of any prejudices, false beliefs, ignorance and ego. Generally speaking, all the yamas come under this niyama since they deal with eliminating some or the other impurities. * Santosha (Contentment): a yogi is taught to be happy and satisfied with his lot. He does not need to achieve any ambition. * Tapas (Religious austerities) : This niyama describes the rituals like fasting needed to fortify the mind. Yoga believes that this increases the resistance power of the body and makes your body and mind stronger and thus you can face adverse conditions effectively. * Swadhyaya (Reading of religious literature): This practice is very useful for overcoming ignorance and facing the adversities of life calmly. It helps to fill your mind with peace. * Ishwarpranidhana (Devotion): this teaches you to rely on the divine will and to ascribe the effects of your action to the divine providence. This is a very useful habit to cultivate as you can accept everything as God’s will and can achieve peace of mind. This eliminates the fear and worry.

About the author:

Kevin Pederson, the webmaster for Yogawiz, mentions the importance of yoga and the benefits one can reap by it which has cured serious illnesses.

Written By: Kevin Pederson