A yoga beginner can make these 3 mistakes, and loose an opportunity to increase the storehouse of inner peace and vitality.

Mistake #1. Not recognizing the value of paying attention to the breath – Inevitably at the very least you are probably becoming more aware of the inhale and exhale as you practice yoga. Sometimes you are instructed to hold the pose for 5 breaths, and you follow the instructions perhaps without understanding the impact of this simple action.

Fact - Paying attention to your inhalation and exhalation trains the mind and increases drops of peace. It also increases your awareness of the subtle aspects of your being.

Mistake #2 – Undervaluing breathing exercises – Without an appreciation for the positive and far reaching effects of breathing exercises (pranayama), it is easy to undervalue this subtle practice.

Fact – Pranayama increases our chances of breathing with the diaphragm instead of with the chest, and even belly. Diaphragmatic breathing massages the organs in the abdomen, and increases chi, prana or life force within your body.

Mistake #3 – To exclude pranayama from your daily yoga practice - It is easy to exclude the breathing exercises from your yoga routine when you are ignorant of the profound benefits of this practice.

Fact – You can surround your movement practice with the breath. Start and end your practice with breath awareness and/or a breathing exercise. Deepen you practice even more by beginning each phase of the breath (both inhalation and exhalation) first, and then moving after the breath has begun.

Increase finding inner peace and vitality through breath awareness and a breathing practice. Your treasure store will grow.

Looking for tips on Yoga for Beginners? Yoga poses can be used to explore feelings. Think of  your time with yoga poses as an experiment; as if you were in a laboratory. Kripalu yoga developed a framework for working with emotions: Breathe, Relax, Feel, Witness, Allow.

Decide how you want to experiment with an emotion. You may wish to go deep and explore, or you may prefer to simply witness. There are 3 principles to consider when witnessing. Let’s use one principle working with a Standing Pose.

Standing poses are great to work with. They bring a quality of strength and confidence as you make effort to sustain the pose. At the same time  you remain calm and relaxed as you pay attention to your breath. The two qualities of effort and surrender create a balance in yoga poses and in life. In yoga for beginners it is an important point to grasp through experience.

Working with Emotions through Sensations

Enter the pose and find a way to hold the pose comfortably to allow sensations to emerge and expand. Avoid suppressing or sidestepping sensations. Remember to breathe consciously, and create space for the breath with micro movements.

Witness

After you have established the pose, totally focus on the physical sensations you feel.  Notice the size, shape, quality of the sensation. Perhaps you are able to see colors and images.  To witness is to observe without judging or analyzing.  If creating a sound helps with a release of emotions, by all means free yourself.

Healing Emotions

This process releases stuck energy of feelings and emotions. What do you notice when the energy is released?

I invite you to share your experience of healing emotions through any of the yoga poses you choose to explore in your laboratory.

Community, prosperity and a courageous spirit to face the future can be yours if you so desire and intend. The method I suggest is meditation with a chant.

Why to Chant

Sound creates a vibration. Our thoughts are silent sounds that vibrations. We attract according to the frequency of our vibration. When you chant a mantra, you attract whatever you are vibrating.

How long to Meditate

11 minutes of meditation begins to change the nerves and glandular system.

Stage 1 –40 days to change a habit.
Stage 2 –90 days to confirm the habit.
Stage 3 –120 days to own the habit.
Stage 4 –1000 days to master the new habit.

When to Meditate

First thing in the morning is the best time right after your yoga exercise. Your yoga exercise could be a mindful walk, movement, or a breathing exercise. If another time is better for you, of course make it then. Get together with friends and practice in community.

Benefits

Mantras can transform destructive mental habits and limiting personality tendencies. If you like being alone or the other extreme seek attention and popularity these will evolve to community with your courageous spirit. Hoarding possessions or poverty consciousness will change to the realization of prosperity. And your courageous spirit will transform fear of the future or, the other end of the scale, fantasy of the future so you face the future.

The Kundalini Yoga meditation chant is available for free download on this site.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian healing system that allows you to gain insight into your body mind.  It explains how to keep the body mind balanced with the internal and external environment, and functioning optimally.

When you have insight into your unique body mind nature, you can adjust your yoga exercise practice for balance. In addition to this Yoga Ayurveda connection, you understand:

Your likes and dislikes
Why you do the things you do
How you are likely to respond to stress
What diseases you are more likely to succumb to
What your dominant tendencies are, both negative and positive

The ancient seers realized that the 5 universal elements exist within all of creation. That the qualities or metaphors of earth, water, fire, air and ether is present within nature in various combinations.  For example: observe the proportion of solidness – earth – that’s within a palm tree and an oak; the quality of lightness – fire – within garlic and pepper; and the quality of movement – air – within a tortoise and a hare.

A unique combination of the elements, called doshas, form the body, and each body must be cared for it its own unique way to achieve and maintain balance with the environment.  This is essential for health as an excess or deficiency of an element can ultimately result in disease.

Take the test to gain insight into your unique body mind nature.

This is part 1 of a series on Yoga Ayurveda.

When you know your Ayurvedic constitution you can make important choices regarding your speed and style of practice of yoga exercises. While Yoga Exercises means a lot more than physical movement, this focus is on the physical aspect of yoga.

Let’s take 3 key qualities of our body mind: strength of body, temperature of body, and movement of mind.

Strong Body
If your constitution is the weakest of the three, choose a style of yoga that reflects this. A strong Ashtanga practice is an excellent choice for those with a strong body. Those with a weaker body might be able to keep up with such a practice but would require a much longer rest period to recover.

Movement of Mind
When the mind is very active, a grounding practice is important to achieve stability and balance. Focus the mind on whatever part of the body is touching the ground. If the mind is dull and lethargic, large upward movement of the arms will stimulate the body mind.

Temperature of Body
Always feeling cold? Increase heat with strong breathing during the exercises, especially in the cold seasons. If on the other hand your body temperature tends to be hot, avoid over-heating the body by practicing a cooling forward bend when necessary.

Balance your body mind with yoga exercises and Ayurveda.

Have a safe practice.