One of yoga’s enduring strengths is its ability to repackage itself for the contemporary world. Although traditionalists may disagree, I think this is admirable – and also essential for its survival in an increasingly (like it or not) commercial world. Yoga’s stress-busting and anxiety-relieving properties have never been more needed then they are today.

While most of us are aware of the physical benefits of yoga postures and training, yoga entails much more. It is also about living in the moment as best you can. A yoga practice teaches many life lessons. Here are 10 from yoga expert and Executive Director for the Academy of Holistic Fitness Linda-Christy Weiler.

Life Lesson #1
Establish a solid foundation
The base of support in yoga postures refer to the body parts that are receiving your body’s weight and transferring this weight onto the earth to create a sound foundation.

Standing straddle forward fold pose (with rotation)

Life Lesson #2
Cultivate a support system
The backside of the body represents the realm of your psychological support system as well as your organic structural support system. “Awareness in the body’s back side feels like having eyes on the back of your head.”

Inclined plane pose

Life Lesson #3
Get your priorities right
Knowing what is most important in terms of placement in each pose will make the pose safer and more beneficial for the body.

Preparing proper leg placement for Warrior pose

Life Lesson #4
Be in the moment
Sensory awareness and mindfulness are vehicles that yoga postures use for transformation and healing. “As long as you are living life as an embodied human, the life of your body is your life.”

King Dancer pose

Life Lesson #5
Meet and greet every challenge
People give up too quickly. Learn to stick with something until the superficial issues drop away and the deeper issues surface. Only then can true problems be identified and essential issues resolved. “Get past the wildness of the mind and tap into the steady and calm nature of your spiritual self.”

Single leg seated straddle pose (with fold and rotation)

Life Lesson #6
Learn tolerance and acceptance
We learn to tolerate and accept poses we don’t like and that may cause discomfort, uncertainty or humility. We understand they have value. We learn to tolerate and accept what we cannot change and instead consider changing our perspective. “Initiate mental equanimity.”

Seated forward fold pose

Life Lesson #7
Restore calmness
There is nothing inherently wrong with humans experiencing a full range of (noncalm) emotions. Even emotions like anger when channeled in a constructive, nonhurtful way can be energizing and empowering. Return to a relaxed presence and release noncalm emotions by deeply inhaling and exhaling to create a sense of peaceful grounding and calm.

Seated Hero pose

Life Lesson #8
Experience and accept change as a constant
By passing through the cyclical stages of a yoga pose we learn to accept the inevitability of change. “Realize that endings lead to new beginnings.”

Seated Funnel pose

Life Lesson #9
Let go
When practicing a yoga pose, detachment enriches the experience. Detachment is a psychological construct that relates to releasing tension, not trying too hard and not being aggressive, impulsive or competitive. Detachment allows you to let the process unfold naturally and accept and approve of how the body performs today.

Tree pose with prayer hands

Life Lesson #10
Live your mission
Practicing yoga enhances your awareness and is a way to help you gain wisdom and appropriate decision making regarding your body, health, behaviors, relationships and your life’s mission. “Make every pose a good pose. Make every day a good day.”

Seated spinal twist

Learn more about how you can incorporate Life Lessons into your yoga class, plus many more new ideas for today’s yoga classes from Linda-Christy Weiler.

The field of psychology has focused much of its efforts on human problems, pathology, and how to remedy the condition. Furthermore, psychology has evolved to embrace the disease model of human nature where people are seen as flawed and fragile, casualties of tough environments or bad genetics, and if not in denial, then in recovery.

Positive Psychology proposes to correct this imbalance and to challenge the pervasive assumptions of the disease model. In simple terms, positive psychology is the scientific study of what goes right in life. It calls for as much focus on strength as on weakness, as much interest on creating the best things in life as on repairing the worst, and as much attention to fulfilling and developing healthy lives as to healing the wounds of the distressed and diseased.

Is Positive Psychology Just Happiology?
When positive psychology is featured in the popular media it is often associated with the happiness movement and the study of happiness. Positive psychologists do study positive traits and dispositions – characteristics such as kindness, curiosity, and the ability to work on a team – as well as values, interests, talents, and abilities. They also study social institutions that can enable the good life: friendship, marriage, family, education, religion and so on. The notable strength of positive psychology is its continuity with the tried and true psychological research methods and the belief that these can be used to study what makes life most worth living.

The Three Pillars of Positive Psychology
The framework of positive psychology is based on three related topics:

1. Positive subjective experiences (happiness, pleasure, gratification, fulfillment)
2. Positive individual traits (strength of character, talents, interests, values)
3. Positive institutions (families, schools, businesses, communities, societies)

Connecting these three arenas positive institutions facilitate the development and display of positive traits, which in turn facilitate positive subjective experiences.

Want to learn more – check out this just released course Positive Psychology by one of the fore most experts and founders of the positive psychology movement Christopher Peterson, PhD and Kathleen Xydis. You will be introduced to strategies that help you connect with your clients, sustain motivation by creating positive flow and you will learn how to implement principles from the emerging field of positive psychology. The authors apply these principles to the wellness and fitness arena and provide insight into motivation, reinforcement and other factors that affect behavior change and support compliance with healthy lifestyle habits.

Also, don’t miss this fascinating TED Lecture by one of the founding fathers of the Positive Psychology movement, Martin Seligman.

Adapted from A Primer in Positive Psychology by Christopher Peterson, PhD

So much suffering and discontent is tied to hanging on to things. Nine times out of ten, if you are unhappy it’s because you are clinging onto to something, resisting, unable to break out of the box, shed the skin, release the bit from the mouth, take off the mask, cut the umbilical cord, turn the corner – whatever metaphor you chose – letting go, happiness and contentment are synonymous.

I’m letting go… as I roll into 2012?

Are you ready to let go ?

Thank you Gapingvoid for visually clarifying the intention!

Flexitarians can be categorized into two groups, semi-vegetarians and meat reducers. Semi-vegetarians follow a vegetarian diet part of the time, but still eat some meat and dairy products. Meat reducers are not trying to follow a vegetarian diet, but are trying to reduce the amount of meat they eat and incorporate a more plant-based diet primarily for health reasons.

There is little doubt of the health benefits of eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been found to be protective against many cancers, reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis, help to control weight, and lower the risk for other diseases such as macular degeneration, cataracts, constipation, diverticular disease, gallstones and appendicitis.

So when you make your New Year resolutions for 2012, consider being more like a flexitarian. And check out this great cookbook, Greens Glorious Greens to introduce you to a dazzling array of fresh, crisp and nutritious leafy greens, how to buy them and how to cook them.

Wishing you all good health and happy cooking and eating in the new year!

Join Candice Brooks, BOSU Program Developer/Master Trainer and Sugar Bowl Academy Director of Athlete Training, as she shares with you three dynamic winter sports conditioning exercises using the BOSU.

Gwen and bro, Gordon and friend Jim, at the El Tour finish. Top woman finisher 60 plus.

Another example of amazing women, peaking in their 50′s. Hey, 50 is the new 30!

So why, you ask, is Helen Mirren outscoring her younger foes? Let’s be honest…this dazzling woman is edgy, classic, natural and unafraid of who she is. She has portrayed remarkable roles including Cleopatra, Lady McBeth, Madame Bovary, Ayn Rand and the Queen of England. Then there’s the detective, Helen, in Prime Suspect and the Debt, and of course her unforgettable and sexy performance in Calendar Girls.

Known as the sex godess of the Royal Shakespeare Company, her physical attributes can be described as sensual, graceful, alluring and she exudes a sense of sexual erotism. With age, she grows more stunning and admirable.
Keep it going Helen. You are an inspiration!

Today I met a passionate, high energy woman who opened a sports wear resale store in Tucson, AZ dedicated to the mission of fighting obesity and encouraging active lifestyles. Since opening last spring Lydia Kennedy has teamed with over a dozen not-for-profit organizations to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyles – everything from donating gently used sports wear and shoes (Girls on the Run, Bicas), sponsoring fitness activities and creating wellness fairs in the most unlikely places (Native American Wellness, Tucson Youth Development and Tucson Roller Derby).

Lydia’s philosophy of active living, active giving is spreading through out Tucson and her slogan of Pay less, Play more encourages recycling of quality sports wear and shoes for those that want to participate yet aren’t able or don’t care to purchase expensive sports clothing.

If you are from Tucson, be sure to stop by and meet Lydia. you will be WOW’d by her enthusiasm and impressed by her mission, plus she has some great stuff in her store – I snagged two like-new bike shirts for about $30. I have already decided to donate my gently used sports wear – and I’ve got a closet full of it – to Lydia and her mission. She also will buy or trade your used sports wear.

Lydia and her store, Reactivate, can be found at:

2782 North Campbell, just south of Glenn
ReActivateStores.com
(520) 325-4295

And if you are not from Tucson – you can ship your stuff to Lydia or find a resource near you that encourages active lifestyles.

Being physically active is vital to maintaining health and independence as we age, and a new federal campaign for people 50 and older will help them to get active and keep going. Introduced today by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Go4Life campaign encourages sedentary older adults to reap health benefits by making physical activity part of their daily lives. Only about 30 percent of people aged 45–64 say they engage in regular leisure-time physical activity, while only a quarter of those ages 65–74 and only 11 percent of people age 85 and older say they do.

The campaign was conceived, and is being led, by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the component of NIH devoted to research on aging. The NIA will work with the Go4Life community on events and will highlight participating organizations and their activities on the campaign website.

“If we want to become a healthy and fit nation, we need to increase the number of Americans who are healthy at every stage of life,” said U.S. Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A. “Go4Life provides older adults with the tools and resources to get moving and keep moving. With the release of the National Prevention Strategy, we are moving our health care system from a focus on sickness and disease to a focus on wellness and prevention.”

The Go4Life interactive website has great information on how to get started today with your physical activity program and resources for family, friends, organizations and health professions. The materials are also available in Spanish.

DSWFitness, Center for Continuing Education, will be supporting the Go4Life initiatives as we continue to prepare fitness professionals to meet the needs of older adults and those with disease-specific conditions with our two 40-hour certificate programs for fitness professionals:
Physical Activity Instruction for Older Adults
Physical Activity Instruction for Disease-Specific Conditions

Get involved today and stay active 4Life!

Check it out!

french revolution