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Did you know that two-thirds of the 45 million blind people in the world are female, yet women receive less than half of eye care services?The Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology in Moshi, Tanzania (KCCO), supported by the Seva Foundation, was to be the recipient of the money I was going to collect from each western participant in my Yoga Adventure in Africa in February. KCCO’s

(originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/photos/macchick1/)I’m leaving the country for eight weeks in 15 days so I’ve been feeling a bit scattered, making my lists and checking them twice. I have to sit down soon and concentrate on writing my dharma talks for Africa — one is an introduction to mindfulness meditation and the other is "Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness and how they

I believe that all yoga is healing if applied in the right manner. No one called Krishnamacharya a "yoga therapist" and you were surely not able to become certified as one back in his day. When I took my first two courses of study at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, we listened every day to the stories of private students about how the particular style of yoga that is taught at KYM is a

This is all that any of us really need.Merry ChristmasHappy Holidayspeaceshantiasalaam ‘alaykumMAY ALL BEINGS HAVE HAPPINESS AND THE CAUSES OF HAPPINESSMAY ALL BEINGS BE FREE FROM SUFFERING AND THE CAUSES OF SUFFERINGMAY ALL BEINGS NEVER BE PARTED FROM FREEDOM’S TRUE JOYMAY ALL BEINGS DWELL IN EQUANIMITY, FREE FROM ATTACHMENT AND AVERSIONThat is my wish for you.<!– AddThis Button BEGIN –>

photo ©Loba Landscapes, 2009An oldie but a goodie that I think is appropriate for this time of the year….Making Room for New GrowthWhenever I talk on mindfulness meditation (or mindfulness training as I call it now) I always throw out these questions: how many of you are working on automatic pilot? are you so comfortable that you have become numb to the present moment? "How much pruning do

Lots of good advice here, but my three favorites are nos. 21, 33, and 37.HEALTH:1. Drink plenty of water.2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like beggar.3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants. 4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.5. Make time to meditate.7. Read more books than

I mailed a check today to the Seva Foundation in the amount of 0 asking it to be used specifically for the Kilimanjaro Center for Community Ophthalmology. You can read about the eye clinic here.A big hug and thanks to:ShelleyBoband Svastifor their donations!If anyone else wants to donate, please DO NOT send the money to my Paypal account, send it diretly to Seva as per the instructions in my

The Yoga Journey Boutique"We only use clothing from North America, produced to be washed and worn for years. With regard to print quality, we use flex and flock leading technology and water-based ink. You will not wearing a low quality printed T-shirt!Wordans uses only trusted brands such as American Apparel, Hanes and Bella. Our main priority is your satisfaction. If you have any questions or

"The obligation to go to "the place which the Lord your God will choose" (Deut. 16:16)""In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance.""Journey to a shrine or other sacred place undertaken to gain divine aid, as an act of thanksgiving or penance, or to demonstrate devotion."Five years ago the seeds of my teaching in Africa were planted when a

My Yoga Online has posted a new 98 minute yoga class by Rick Coe: Restorative Yoga For Deep Calm. This Restorative Yoga Class goes through poses intended to create a deep calm in your body and leave you feeling grounded and clear. The postures gently open and release tension from the body. The accompanying sounds of crystal bowls will focus and re balance the mind.

Click to watch Restorative Yoga Video For Deep Calm. Also available as a download for your computer or ipod.

About Rick Coe:
Rick Coe has an MA Transpersonal Counselling Psychology from Naropa University. He lives in Vancouver and teaches yoga at Exhale Studio, practices counselling at Jericho Counselling, and is currently training with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy.

In addition he is developing community workshops combining yoga with with movement and dance modalities, as well as with nature reconnection.

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My Yoga Online has added a new Yoga Anatomy Video Workshop by yoga expert David Keil: The Knee Yoga Anatomy. Enjoy this new addition to our yoga anatomy workshop series. Understanding the proper function of the knee and the application of yoga poses will prevent injuries and support a life-long practice. Learn how the knee joint is put together including its major ligaments. Discover how the knee functions and dysfunctions (common injuries). Also practical application of the concepts and movements to do and modify lotus posture.

Click to watch The Knee Yoga Anatomy Video.

About David Keil:
David Keil was introduced to yoga in 1989 by his Tai Chi Chuan teacher. Both the Tai Chi and Yoga practice at the ripe age of 17 began his research into his own mind-body connections. As an instructor of Kinesiology (the study of movement and musculoskelatal anatomy) at Miami’s Educating Hands School of Massage, David had developed a fun, informal and informative style of teaching. Because of his passion and desire to share the human body with everyone, he delivers this complex and sometimes frustrating topic in a way that is very accessible and understandable to yoga practitioners.

A Licensed Massage Therapist and Certified Neuromuscular Therapist, David has taught seminars in Body Mechanics for Massage Therapists and has also worked with other local and national audiences. David’s current personal yoga practice is Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. Since 2002 he has had the honor of studying with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois as well as with John Scott.

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The very heart of the spiritual path is a search for inner peace and when you practice your daily discipline you help translate your individual realization to the larger whole. Society is comprised of its members just as your body is composed of its cells. When you take responsibility for your actions, words and deeds you build a gateway towards the slow, steady realization of true peace one breathe at a time. If a united global consciousness is to succeed each person on Earth must live, act, feel and think with the highest level of awareness possible at each moment. That means you and me too. If you cannot live for one full week without letting your anger get the best of you, then how can you expect whole nations to remain peaceful for any length of time? Simply put, your state of mind matters to everyone.

It seems that there have always been wars between nations, lover’s spats and family feuds as long as humanity has been on Earth. Where humans go, drama is soon to follow. Yet underneath the soap opera emotional rollercoaster is the enduring dream of final and lasting peace. Sometimes it is those who are the most deeply entrenched within the drama of their own lives that most desperately search for salvation. For centuries humanity has turned to organized religion to answer the deeper questions, yearnings and aspirations of life. Now the search for spirituality takes prominence in the public domain and your participation in activities like yoga and meditation heralds a major spiritual revitalization of society.

Living life on the spiritual path allows you to tap into the magical underlayer of existence and it is in this space that the dream of unity and peace exists. The real fabric that hope is made of comes not in careless absent-mindedness but in patient, heartfelt dedication day after day, week after week and year after year. Practicing yoga is not some panacea for all your personal problems and certainly not the ills of the world, however, if you practice yoga you may just find a way to live a more peaceful and meaningful life before your time here is over. What unique and valuable contribution you make to the world is not always measured in terms of grandness, but sometimes in terms of how many smiles you share each day.

In the stormy clouds of life’s inevitable series of setbacks you will find the silver lining of your soul. It isn’t when everything in your life clicks along in an upbeat winning streak that you ask the toughest questions of your life. The search for meaning walks hand in hand with the reality of struggle. When it’s cheap, free and easy, it’s can also be meaningless, light and unbearable. Sometimes people fundamentally reevaluate their life’s purpose, direction and drive after a life-threatening illness. Others do so after a momentous or inspirational meeting with a person, mentor or role model. Many have also voluntarily chosen to face the deluge of bad news that arrives at their doorstep through the power of yoga.

Eckhart Tolle says that every single person interested in spirituality today has suffered and it is the suffering that created their interest in the deeper dimension of life. So it is that yoga as a spiritual path offers a unique kind of salvation, one that promises not to remove you from your suffering but one that teaches you how to love, live with and accept the reality of life as it really is, good and bad days just the same. You see, the bad news comes knocking at your door and threatens to pull you under a permanent shadow of depression, anger or defeat completely uninvited. If you run from it, fight it or try to escape, you’re doomed to fail someday. Every person on Earth has a day that’s better off spent in bed no matter how cheerful, sunny and bright their disposition might be. The glitteratti, celebrity and royalty all have bad hair days. Yogis, priests and saints get angry. And there’s nothing with that. Inner peace is more a discipline of the mind than mere good luck. With the power of yoga you see the truth of life, that is, that there is nowhere to run, no place to hide, and no one to save you. All that’s left to do is begin walking along the slow, steady spiritual path, the path of freedom, truth and lasting peace.

It is when life tests you by offering the challenge of hardship that you know exactly what you’re made of. Strength and steadiness of character are defined not in moments of ease, but in moments of great duress. In the context of yoga, it is not what comes naturally and effortlessly to you that holds the greatest power of transformation. That which is far from your sense of normal has the ability to make you a new person for it is in these moments that you will have a mirror with which to see yourself clearly. Much of my personal journey in yoga has been about developing strength and steadiness both of the body and mind. At moments of great challenge, my first inclination is to quit, give up and grow melancholic and self-pitying. One of yoga’s greatest gifts to me is the awareness that exactly when I want to throw in the towel is exactly when I need to push through, not harshly with unnecessary crass force, but from the core of my being, gently, powerfully and with exactly the right amount of strength and grace.

About Kino MacGregor
Kino MacGregor is a small business owner (www.miamilifecenter.com), yoga teacher and freelance journalist who has produced two yoga DVDs and is currently working on her first book, Inner Peace, Irresistible Beauty to be released late April 2009. For complete details please see www.ashtanga-awareness.com.

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Gaining muscle (fat free mass) is a highly promoted concept for improving your metabolism and efficiency for losing body fat. Understanding this concept and some of the myths are important when working towards adding an exercise routine that builds fat free mass. First off, all tissues in the body require a constant flow of energy contributing to resting metabolic rate. Resting metabolic rate (RMR) is the energy that body consumes when the body is physically inactive – all basic processes used to maintain bodily functions (not including digestion). The higher our daily RMR is, the more overall calories we more effectively consume without the aid of exercise – basically, when we increase RMR, this is a bonus consumption of calories when we are trying to manage body composition.

Muscle consumes approximately 6-10 calories a day per pound with daily RMR. In comparison, the brain consumes 109 calories pound, the heart and kidneys each consume 200 calories per pound. Since organs can not be increased in size, our best option for increasing caloric consumption with RMR is by increasing muscle mass.

One popular myth is that muscle burns 50-100 calories a day per pound. Studies have indicated that increases in muscle mass add increased calorie burning with numbers ranging from 20-90 calories per pound per day. But questions have risen asking if the increase in calorie expenditure was because of the extra muscle alone or if other factors were involved. Experts then concluded that 10 calories per pound per day is a more reasonable estimate versus the 50-100 calories per pound.

By gaining even a small amount of extra muscle mass like 5 pounds can increase your daily calorie consumption automatically by about 50 calories. By the experts figures, this works out to 1500 calories extra a month. To lose a pound of fat requires a net loss of 3500 calories, therefore, this extra 1500 calories via muscle gain can be a very helpful method to reaching the 3500 calorie goal for fat loss.

Morale of the story: if you are working to improve your ability to manage your body composition or to loss weight, it is important to add some exercise activities that will increase your muscle mass. Dieting alone often results in an undesirable decrease in muscle mass and with little fat mass loss – when you exit a diet, your caloric burning capacity is diminished and you will likely gain even more body fat.

Will Yoga add muscle? Yoga can add muscle for those who have been sedentary and beginning a fitness program. Yoga will help maintain fat-free mass for those who are already well conditioned with fitness. Progressive and muscle loading postures will engage large muscle groups and contribute to improving muscular strength, endurance and toning. Here are some ideal Yoga poses that work large muscle groups:
*Warrior Poses (Virabhadrasana)
*Chair Pose (Utkatasana)
*Plank Pose / Push up transitions (Chaturanga Dandasana)
*Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)
*Bridge Pose and Spinal Lift Pose (Setu Bandhasana)

Another key myth especially for women is the fear of looking bulky and masculine with increased muscle mass. An addition of 5-10 pounds of lean muscle mass distributed over the entire body would be quite insignificant in terms of showing as bulk and for woman, this would be more represented as a more ‘toned’ image. Consider that 5 pounds of fat has a much greater volume than 5 pounds of muscle. By replacing 10 pounds of fat with 10 pounds of muscle, you would effectively decrease your body size and enjoy a more toned physique.

Putting physical attributes aside, the gain in muscle mass will also be beneficial in generating more supportive tissue around joints thus balancing the increase in flexibility you gain from Yoga. Again, challenging another myth, increasing muscle will NOT decrease your range of motion and flexibility as long as you remain consistent in your Yoga practices and train without producing injuries or deep muscle soreness. Finally, increasing muscle mass likely involves generating weight bearing stress on the bones. This loading effect on the bones contributes to improved bone health and reduced development of osteoporosis.

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My Yoga Online has added a new video by Yoga expert Shiva Rea: Creative Core Abs. Shiva Rea shows you unique, graceful ways to build a strong core in this 37 minute yoga program. A strong core improves posture and makes you look and feel great! Enjoy yourself as you perform this fun, easy-to-follow program.

Click to watch Shiva’s online yoga video: Creative Core Abs

About Shiva Rea:
Shiva Rea, M.A., began exploring yoga at the age of 14. Since then, the practice of yoga has transformed her life and become the essence of who she is. A leading teacher of Prana Flow Yoga and Yoga Trance Dance, Shiva travels the globe leading retreats, holding workshops and hosting conferences for her legions of fans.

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Yoga teaches you to listen to your own inner voice. It is a process of awakening and attunement that defines personal integrity by the depth of each students’ connection with themselves. Through pain, pleasure, injury, ecstasy and bliss yoga invites practitioners to travel down the rabbit hole of personal discovery so that they may find their wonderland within.

Feeling the inner body deeply allows yoga practitioners a daily window into their own soul. By regularly tuning into this internal level yogis can actually feel the alignment or misalignment of their actions. The body’s wisdom lies in its pervasive truthfulness
and the yogi’s wisdom lies in the ability to listen to the body’s sometimes superior sense of self. The body is perhaps the most physical form of the mind and the spirit and in fact outwardly and inwardly tells its story with clarity and precision. Practitioners learn to delineate messages from their inner world from whims of fancy and desire through years of dedicated practice. It is a delicate tightrope to walk the line between healthy guidance and destructive old habits that die hard.

Yoga postures or asanas give practitioners a chance to access the spiritual through the physical. This long, arduous task of internal awakening makes it possible for dedicated practitioners to excavate layers of themselves. Yogis cross the bridge between the physical and the spiritual through a path interlaced with the fire of pain, the release of trust and the freeflow of love. Each physical posture presents a series of tests and challenges that heal the body and train the mind. In the small moments where practitioners make contact with the eternal part of themselves they gain access to a more deeply tuned-in way of living, being and acting. It is in this undulating state where the flow of life actually begins.

Yoga is a sanctuary where you learn to listen to your body. Like a holiday from the limiting, negative thoughts that run on auto-pilot at the back of the mind yoga helps amplify the true nature of your mind and soul within. This heightened faculty of
listening allows you to actually hear not only the body but also the mind. When your capacity to listen is at its greatest and most refined you have the ability to listen directly to your soul and seek its constant guidance. At the depths of your being lies a place where you already know all the answers to your deepest questions, a state of being so serene it remains calm even amidst the most terrifying traumas of your life and a mind so vast it encompasses the entire universe both good and bad in a field of love.

While on a daily basis it is often hard to hear the musings of the subtle language of soul, with regular yoga practice it is possible to attune your vibrational sensory perception to follow the messages surface from the deep. All the greatest ideas are in some sense channeled from this soft space within, not generated by a mechanistic world without. The miracle of yoga is that it provides regular people like you and me a way to literally gain access to the sacred inner world of spirit. Without this check-in I would sometimes quite literally be lost. While I do not get it right every time and certainly there are moments when I think I am receiving a deep message only to find that I am just feeding an old negative behavior, yoga helps me get better at listening to, trusting and having faith in the soft, but persistent voice within.

While the tradition of yoga is intensely bound to the sanctity of the teacher-student relationship, the words and guidance of the greatest teachers are meant as sign-posts that lead students to the discovery of their own true voice within. The presence of every yoga master raises the bar for the possibility of a better life for each student and is a starting point where we can begin. The ending point of this age-old tradition, the ultimate goal of eternal peace, must be an individual experience gained through the hard work and good fortune of each practitioner. Years under a teacher’s divine guidance can best give you the gift of finding your highest teacher within. No sacred teacher wants you to do what they say just because they said so or because you read in an ancient scripture. At its best yoga is a non-dogmatic, non-religious path towards self-realization. All yoga is experiential by definition because no one can live your awakening for you. No matter how many times you read it in scriptures or hear it from your teacher nothing is real for you along the path of yoga until you actually feel it in your own body, mind and soul as a call to action. There is no one who can know your own journey better than yourself and no one who can answer the hardest questions of your life but yourself. Teachers and tradition illuminate the path ahead for you, but you have to take each step with your own two feet. Once you dig deep enough and touch the eternal nature within you hold the key to lead yourself out of darkness into your own salvation.

Yoga seeks to unify the practitioner with the deepest level of themselves through a harmonization of body, mind and soul. When the mind is quiet, the body is healthy and the soul is free every living being can experience what is their birth right, that is, a state of boundless happiness, limitless joy and compassionate power. The entire process of yoga is one of remembering who you really are. In the glory of our true nature we trust the innate goodness of our being and learn to listen to the quiet voice of belief that comes from our deepest sense of self. Against a mountain of evidence to the contrary and doubt that cripples generations you have one thing to hold onto, a soft, subtle, but courageous voice that dares to say I think I can.

About Kino MacGregor
Kino MacGregor is a small business owner (www.miamilifecenter.com), yoga teacher and freelance journalist who has produced two yoga DVDs and is currently working on her first book, Inner Peace, Irresistible Beauty to be released late April 2009. For complete details please see www.ashtanga-awareness.com.

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My Yoga Online has added a new yoga anatomy article by Kreg Weiss, Tree Pose-More Than Just Balancing. Kreg offers anatomical tips often neglected in this seemingly simple yoga pose.

Tree Pose (Vrksasana) is one of the most recognizable classic yoga postures demonstrating the beauty of balance, focus, and serenity. Often considered an introductory asana for teaching basic balance techniques, subtle alignment applications can be readily overlooked when participants view this pose as ‘easy’. Starting from the ground up, here are some important anatomical adjustments and tips to improve the integrity of your Tree Pose. Click Here to read all the tips.

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My Yoga Online has posted a new healthy nutrition article by guest author Carol DiPirro, Quinoa-The Mother of Grains. Learn about the health benefits of this nutritious grain including a great recipe. An ancient food that is not yet well known in North America, Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wah) has been cultivated in the South American Andes since at least 3,000 B.C. and has been a staple food of millions of native inhabitants.

The quinoa seed is high in protein, calcium and iron, a good source of vitamin E and several of the B vitamins. It contains an almost perfect balance of all eight essential amino acids needed for tissue development in humans. The protein in quinoa is a ‘complete’ protein due to the presence of all 8 essential amino acids. Quinoa is 12% to 18% protein and four ounces a day, about 1/2-cup, will provide a childs protein needs for one day. The 6-7% fat of quinoa is relatively high when compared to other grains, but it boasts a low sodium content and also provides valuable starch and easily digestible fiber. The seeds are also gluten-free which makes this a nutritious and flavorful alternative grain for those with gluten sensitivity. Quinoa would be a worthy addition to anyone’s diet, supplying variety as well as good nutrition.

Click to read full article and recipe: Artichoke, Asparagus & Mushroom Quinoa Risotto

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If you think yoga is only stretches and exercise your body, then you are wrong. Very few people realise that the emotional and spiritual parts of it.

I discover this little secret from this book – The Secret Power of Yoga

Have we ever sit donw and listen to the sound of our body, which we force to do all the posture that claimed to make us better. Everyday, we put in more and more stress to our body without knowing it was very tire. Have we ever slow down our pace, giving it a break? Do we need to push our self to the limit?

If you often headache, fatigue, mood swing or with diminished interest in most or all of the activities, then this is the time you should take a break and listen to what your body would like to tell you. This book – The Secret Power of Yoga may help you to discover something of your life that you have never aware of.