Teaching Hatha Yoga: My Yoga Students Do Not Want to Meditate
...Recently, I received an Email from a colleague about local Yoga students and their desire to skip meditation. It seems some Hatha Yoga students find it appropriate to get up and leave before meditation starts. In the area, where he is located, in the western United States, no Yoga studios have meditation as part of the curriculum.
Apparently, there is a lack of interest, and this would leave most Yoga teachers discouraged. However, these same Yoga students love Asana practice. They state that meditation is boring, and they could be doing something useful instead.
What can Yoga instructors do, to explain the mental benefits of meditation? At this point, mentioning spiritual benefits would fall on deaf ears. When Yoga students cannot appreciate anything beyond physical stimulation, it is doubtful they would appreciate anything that cannot be physically measured.
If we teach Yoga without mediation, is it really Yoga anymore? Is this how the Pilates Method was born? Should we fo...more
Yoga For Kids
...thing that they really like and let them imagine being like these things.
You may also have them focus out on belly breathing first and have them listen to soothing and relaxing music.
Then ask them to imagine their favorite spot in the house or let them think that they are in outer space floating, or let them visualize that they are at the beach, playing their favorite sport or doing the best activity that they like.
Sometimes for boys letting them think of a favorite girlfriend helps them relax, but this is sometimes hard to do because they become shy and intolerable when this kind of issues are discussed. Just stick to the visualization thing if this technique is quite complicated for you.
Every day at the end of each relaxation exercises, encourage the children to share their own experiences. Ask them to tell to the group what it was like to be i...more
The Purpose of Yoga- Enhanced Intelligence
...eness, would give your brain many benefits and enhance your intelligence.
A healthy body is one of hatha Yogas main objectives, and we all know that a healthy body has a symbiotic relationship with a healthy mind. Consider the opposite: If you have a severe headache, can you focus, concentrate, and solve problems quickly? Why not? Is it because all you can think of is pain?
Your body and mind are linked, whether you like it or not, so you have to take care of both. hatha, kundalini, and Raja Yoga contain postures (Asanas), which develop a healthy body. When you connect the power of Asana, with Pranayama, and meditate, you have made a wise choice toward mental health, phys...more
teaching hatha Yoga - Abundance is Under Your Nose
... talents, who can contribute much more for the common good of humanity, just by taking some action. If success, abundance, and achievement were bad things, why do so many people spend their time day dreaming about it?
A dream is a start, because an idea, in the form of a dream, has the potential for real possibility. Every man made creation started as an idea or a dream. Medicine, philosophy, mathematics, language, Yoga, and much more, sprang forth from ideas and dreams.
Patanjali put his own ideas, and those from the past, into print. Should he have withheld the Yoga Sutras from humanity for the sake of humility...more
