Incorporating Yoga into Your Life

 

September is National Yoga Awareness Month!

Incorporating Yoga into Your Life

by Andrew Pacholyk, MS L.Ac
from his exciting new book, Lead Us To A Place ~ your spiritual journey through life's seasons.

Incorporating yoga into your life can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences you can take on your journey! A nurtured yoga practice can transcend you by creating a disciplined mind, a strong and physically fit body and (no matter what religion you practice), yoga can be a bridge to enhancing your spirituality.

Practicing yoga is associated with establishing harmony, balance and conscious awareness. It has been well-publicized in mainstream media, recommended to patients by their doctors, and praised by practitioners.

1. Creates Discipline: Discipline is a necessity in life. Discipline is essential for achieving any kind of success in your life! It is the secret to the most effective, efficient and well strategic plan you can give yourself! Being successful, losing weight, maintaining relationships are not tasks that come easy for most people.. They are all things we must work hard at creating, keeping and maintaining! Yoga assists in understanding this process.

2. Improves Circulation: Poor circulation is the cause of over 1000 diseases! From a healthy heart to a good sex life, the proper flow and circulation of blood in our arteries is one of the most important things we can do to maintain good health and push back the aging process. There is a common denominator between good arterial health and disorders such as heart attack, obesity, diabetes and high glucose levels, as well as sexual health. That common denominator is blood circulation.

3. Increases Flexibility: Yoga is the way to a more pliable, flexible body. It creates a supple and more resilient muscular structure, suited to react quicker to falls, accidents or for any kind of sports. As we age, the flexibility improved by doing yoga has shown to be a deterrent in injury related accidents.

4. Quiets the Mind: A disciplined mind is a free mind. Gain control over your thoughts and you maintain control over your life. Retrain your mind and you regain your freedom. Calming the mind is a behavioral technique used to interrupt, minimize and eliminate "psychological noise". Obsessive, repetitive thoughts and fears are all apart of negative, self-destructive patterns that benefit from the power of yoga and mind quieting.

5. Improves Breathing: Breath is life! Exchange of electrons. Flow of energy. Your breathing is the voice of your spirit. It's depth, smoothness, sound, and rate reflect your mood. If you become aware of your breath and breathe the way you do when you are calm you will become calm. Yoga helps us to practice regular, mindful breathing and can be calming and energizing. With the addition of music and its rhythm, the "musical breath" can even help stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders. Fall into the rhythm of the music and breathe. Focus on your breathing as you move through your yoga poses.

6. Brings Awareness: Through your yoga practice, you can gain a broader perspective in self-awareness. Being able to open up your mind, allowing a free flow of thoughts and ideas can be liberating. Welcoming a new opinion or way of doing something can bring new meaning to your life. If you give up your closed thoughts and make way for a different opinion, you may be surprised at the outcome. Through your yoga practice, you learn to strive to meet difficult goals as you are pushed to stretch the horizons of what you think is impossible. This is conscious living.

7. Improves Nutrition: The source of fuel you find to nourish you on a daily basis changes as you become a yogi. The demands for a healthier diet make your journey more important. The Ayurvedic science of food is based on incorporating the 6 flavors (salty, bitter, sweet, pungent, sour and astringent) into each meal. The Three Humours or Tri-dosha are the Ayurvedic body types that classify a diet and lifestyle routines that are best suited for you.

8.. Betters Your Sex Life: As mentioned earlier, a healthy heart and the proper flow and circulation of blood in our arteries is one of the most important things we can do to maintain good health and a satisfying sex life. Not only that, just think how much more limber you will be. Not to mention, stamina.

9. Improves Your Quality of Life: You are now breathing better, are more flexible, have found a new sense of purpose, drive, and direction in your life. Welcome, change! Through this gateway, your idea of nourishment has changed. Not just what you put in your body, but what you allow or don't allow in your life anymore. Yoga is like the lotus flower. It teaches us to unfold one petal at a time in order to reveal the raw beauty underneath.

10.. Brings You Closer to Nature/Spirit: Finding spirit and a higher sense of purpose comes to you as you evolve in your yoga practice.. Yoga can show us what is truly important in life. It allows all those "things", that monopolize our time, to have less value or stress-inducing effects on us. Especially, as we grow as a yogi practitioner.

Gemstone:

A Hindu Dance

"All I ask is that you choose to find a path to lead you down,

where travels are, fulfilling, true, for many paths exist to reach ~ your liberation, bound…

to find just what you're looking for, a unity with God, you see. It's how you break the cycle here, of birth and death no more. 

The Divine resides within us all, regardless of your choice.

We all have the ability to achieve this liberation.

Let go the pain and suffering and release your passive voice.

No one person is condemned, to suffer due to class or place, but rather earns the fruit of their own actions, words and grace.

To advance your spirituality by acting on these facts, in accordance with their righteousness, and this, which we attract."

~ Andrew Pacholyk MS. L.Ac  

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Posted by: yogiguruji@aol.com

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Carrot fries recipe.

 

Yummy healthy recipe.

Carrot Fires

2 Carrots
1Tbsp.Olive Oil
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder
2 tsp. Black Pepper
Salt
Opt.: Sprinkle on Cayenne pepper, or Chilli Powder, or Rosemary

Preheat oven 400 degrees.  Slice carrots into 2 inch long sticks.  Mix in bowl with other ingredients. Place on greased baking sheet. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Diane

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Posted by: Boonight@aol.com

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Summer Detoxification

 

Good Morning!

Summer Detoxification

Detoxifying is the process of releasing accumulated toxins and waste products that build up throughout our system. From birth, we are bombarded by toxins, externally from environmental sources. Internally, our organs give off waste products that accumulate in our body. Imbalanced emotions also play a part in polluting our system with excess chemicals such as free radicals, homocysteine, and cortisol.

Detoxifying is, in many ways, an easy process. Our body does much of the detoxification process through urination, defecation, and perspiration. As our bodies age and our immune systems weaken from illness, poor diet and/or addictive substances, we sometimes need to give our system an extra helping hand. That is why conscious detoxing is a great way back to optimum health.

One of the best ways to start your detoxification is with the body's biggest organ, the SKIN. A detox diet strengthens the organs involved in detoxification and releases stored toxins, expelling them through the organs of elimination: the skin, as well as the intestines, liver, lungs, kidneys, and lymphatic system.

TIPS FOR DETOXING

1. Eating a diet that focuses on fresh vegetables and fruits.

2. Eat whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

3. Adopt a healthy lifestyle including regular exercise.

4. Avoiding drugs and alcohol.

5. Taking a high potency multiple vitamin and mineral supplement.

6. Take nutritional/herbal supplements to protect and enhance liver function.

7. Go on a three day fast, four times per year.

8. Fasting at the change of the seasons is a good rule to remember.

9. Take care of your skin and know your skin type.

10. Consider a self-empowering affirmation to clear your mind. 

Andrew Pacholyk MS L.Ac

https://www.peacefulmind.com/seasonal-healing/seasons/summer

Therapies for healing

mind, body, spirit 

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Posted by: yogiguruji@aol.com

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Top 10 Crystals for Fall

 

Good morning!

Top 10 Crystals for Fall

by Andrew Pacholyk, MS L.Ac
from his exciting new book, Lead Us To A Place ~ your spiritual journey through life's seasons.

Fall is a time of transition. A change in the amount of light we get and changes in weather conditions can all have an effect on our mood and emotions. Crystals can play a part in making changes, improving transitions and helping us to move forward gracefully. They are a great tool to meditate and contemplate with.  Here are my top 10 choices for Fall.

Amber: Warm and inviting this actual resin from tree sap is an excellent choice for Fall. It is excellent at detoxification and protection from other people's energies. Due to its strong connection to nature and the earth, amber is a great stone for grounding your higher energies. Amber can add stability to your life. Helpful in clearing up mental chatter it can bring about a positive mental state. Also useful as a memory booster, it a good stone for studying. Amber is used for past life work, divination, and scrying. It aligns mental and emotional bodies via its deep orange and yellow color.

 Amethyst: The stone of spirituality and dream recall. Used for contentment and meditation. Provides common sense and flexibility in decisions. Native Indian cultures have used this to strengthen and enhances psychic abilities, imagery, and mind quieting. Wear when sleeping or when awake to reduce anger, impatience, and nightmares. Most effective on the Third Eye and Crown Chakra. Amethyst contains the grounding color of red with the energy of blue, which is expanding, spacious and flows with peace. Amethyst is the color that you see in the sky as twilight transitions into night. Amethyst takes you on this transition from the magic time of dusk to a conscious shift into a different place. Crossing this threshold is the lesson of humility, which amethyst can teach us. This stone can show us how to let go and trust; so that you may see beyond the cycle that consumes our attention. Amethyst is considered a Master Healing stone.

 Carnelian: This stone represents confidence, boldness, initiative, dramatic abilities, assertiveness, and outgoingness. Used for precision, analysis, stimulating appetite, encouraging celebrations and brings awareness of feelings. It is the stone of passion and sexuality and is associated with the Sacral/Spleen Chakra. This stone helps you feel anchored and comfortable with your surroundings. It provides a connection to the past or to historical events. Carnelian can improve motivation. Helps one achieve greater success in career or personal matters. Carnelian is one of the most helpful crystals for healing trauma, stress and emotional wounds that have accumulated in the etheric body or the Aura and manifesting as physical symptoms.

Copper: Excellent energy conductor! Sends and amplifies thoughts, healing, and electrical energy into the wearer's energy field. Worn next to skin, copper is known as a detoxer and soothes arthritis, rheumatism, and other inflammatory problems. Use to improve exhaustion, poor circulation and balancing energy levels. Helps stabilize the metabolism and heightens the immune system.

Hematite: This crystal is the most recommended stone for grounding and is associated with the Root Chakra, by encourages one's survival instincts. Hematite condenses scattered feelings, turns fuzziness into mental clarity, enhances concentration, memory, practicality, and helps those who study. Considered the symbol of life energy, hematite allows for more confidence, will power and boldness. Helps us adjust to being physical. A protective stone that helps bolster low self-esteem. Hematite is known to deflect negativity. In Renaissance times, it was used to restore equilibrium, bring stability and for astral protection. It brings our awareness back to the body and helps one maintain their sense of self. If worn, magnetic hematite can be placed on any traumatic injury to increase blood circulation.

Jasper: This stone is a methodical and meticulous worker of practical, down to earth solutions. It has the ability to foster and nurture. Its energy is used for grounding and protection. Considered more effective if it is used for long periods of time because it works slowly. Each color of Jasper has additional, specific qualities when used alone. Jasper is very effective when using on the Root Chakra.

Kunzite: is a powerful, high-level stone. It is used against negative energy and empowers positive and loving thoughts. Most effective on the Heart Chakra, it opens the emotional heart and spiritual heart. It represents unconditional love and compassion. Used for healing abuse/loss/addictions. Helps empower confidence, connection to our higher self and unity. Kunzite is also used on the Third Eye and Crown Chakra for the reason that it deepens altered states, emotionally and spiritually.

Petrified Wood: This "stone" is most noted in helping us to investigate past-life experiences. Makes the user more aware of nature. It is a warm earthy stone, which is used at the Root Chakra, encouraging one's survival instincts and is grounding. Petrified Wood is also believed to energize the Heart Chakra. In mythological times, petrified wood was believed to possess divine power and to this day, stands as a symbol of man's true connection to the natural world. This stone helps with mental longevity, helping to soothe emotions, generating calm and relieves stress.

Sodalite: This stone is most recognized for healing, meditation, and wisdom. This is a good stone for general communication, for the self and writing. It is used for expressing logic and ideas due to its connection with the Throat Chakra. It is also used at the Third Eye Chakra due to the fact that it can access levels of intuitive information and promote the understanding of these concepts. It is also known to enhance community relationships. Sodalite can strongly affect changes in your attitude about yourself. It helps you be more objective and less critical about ways of dealing with existence. It is a stone associated with studying.

 Sunstone: This stone is a kiss of sunshine, crystallized. Honor God, brings good luck and fortune. Energizes and empowers one's self. Warms the heart and lifts/rejuvenates the spirit. Sunstone is used for protection, life force, and grounding. Sunstone is a great stone to use with "energy vampires", or those who drain your energy from you. This includes parents, children, lovers, patients, bosses or anyone who is possessive, aggressive or overbearing. Sunstone breaks these bonds and allows light, separation, and clarity from these energies. Sunstone does great justice when placed on our power center or Solar Plexus Chakra. Sunstone is a great stone to relieve stress and overcome fear. This stone is so brilliant that it can bring optimism, happiness, and joy to anyone! Use this stone to help bring awareness to your spiritual realm and encourage the priorities of life. This is one of my favorite stones for depression. A good stone to strengthen the psyche as it promotes cheerfulness, good humor, and a benevolent temper.

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