I took their suggestion and went to “Laughter Yoga on the Phone.com”, as this was one of the recommended resources they gave out during the call. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find out there was a laughter session on the phone at that very moment.

Can you guess what I did? You bet! I dialed into the call and had a good 10-minute laughing fit with one other person. I didn’t even know who she was, I didn’t know her name, what she looked like, or where in the world she was. She didn’t say “hi” to aknowledge I was even there.

When I first got on the call, the phone service announced there was only one other person on the phone, so I figured it might be kind of a quiet call, but when I was connected, it was all laughter, nothing but laughter and then more fun and giggles.

I didn’t know how much I would really be able to just dive right in without any silly exercises or stimulators, but the longer I just sat there listening to this woman laughing (while it sounded as she was in the car driving somewhere), the more I couldn’t help but to laugh right along with her. At first I was kind of laughing at her because here she was all alone before I got there just having a laughing fit.

Then, almost uncontrollably, I joined right on in with her. We must have laughed for a good 10 minutes straight before she announced that we had only two minutes left (incidentally, those were the first words she had spoken to me).

What? Wait, where can I get another token to plug the meter, I don’t want it to end. But rest assured, there’s another session starting up in only 40 minutes. So I guess I’ll go grab a bite to eat and dial back into the phone to enjoy another laughing fit with some more total strangers. How fun Very good, Very good, Yeah!

Tags: Laughter Yoga, Jill and Dan Johnson, laughter workshop, laughter yoga on the phone

I find myself saying “There’s an App For That!” nearly every day now. With the app store touting nearly 200,000 apps, I’ve come to a recent conclusion that there is pretty much an app for just about everything you can think of — no matter how small a niche or obscure the idea.

My most recent gold mine is a sweet little app called Water by foware. I came down with a fever a few weeks back and needed a way to track my water intake. I started just logging the time of when I finished a glass of water into notepad. However, it was kind of boring and uninspiring so I did what nearly every good technology loving, iPhone fanatic would do – I went looking for an app.

Sure enough, a search for “water” brought up at least half a dozen different apps that could do exactly what I needed. After a quick glance and a few reviews, I spotted a clear winner. Not only was this one of the more well thought-out apps I’ve seen in terms of design and aesthetics, it was simple to learn and use.

In a nutshell, you track your daily water intake by placing various different-sized water glasses and bottles onto a table as you finish each container throughout the day. They track your daily progress over time, grading you on a scale of A through F, and display a line chart for the past 30 days to illustrate your progress. If you get 7 A’s, you receive a Bronze medal, and if you keep up your results over time, you can even work your way up to a Platinum award for 365 days.

When you first load up the app, you input a bunch of data points such as your weight, age, the climate you live in, etc. and it calculates the exact amount of water you need to be drinking per day.

Now this might sound just a little on the cheesy side, but for a tech geek who – to some – could appear to be glued to his phone all day, it’s the perfect app.

It takes some dedication to remember to open it and log your progress, but once you get that habit squared away, it’s all downhill from there.

I’ve realized that there are several tips to ensuring your success:

1. Make sure you finish your first glass in the first two hours of your day.
2. Try and drink at least 10-12 oz every two hours.
3. As soon as you finish a glass, go get a refill immediately.
4. Take time for frequent washroom breaks – they’ll decrease over time.
5. Make sure the “Water” app is on your iPhone Doc or home screen.

And don’t forget to reward yourself personally when you achieve 100%. I swear, I must have been a dehydrated zombie like the rest of the world before I found this app. I think I probably drank about 1-2 glasses of water per day at the best of times. Now, in the past 18 days, I’ve managed to drink 995 oz. Now that’s a lot of water!

How’s your water intake? What other life-altering apps have you’ve made a part of your daily gadgetry?

Tags: glass of water, iphone, water app, iphone app, dehydration

What if we knew with 100% certainty that we would all be going somewhere, even if it was just right back to earth and being reincarnated as something or someone else?

What if your report card was judged by the quality of people who attended your funeral?

What if you were judged by the things they said about you after you were gone?

These questions may sound a little far fetched and I’m sure, for some folks out there, I’ve just gone completely off the “deep end,” but if you read those questions over again and then take a few minutes to reflect on your own life, you might just find that there are a few things lacking in your existence.

Perhaps if you knew what these things were, you might act differently with your family, your co-workers – and perhaps even the homeless person who asks you for spare change on your way to work every morning.

Or maybe you might take a good hard look at your life and ask yourself “What am I doing here!,” “Am I happy?”

And when I say happy, I mean TRULY happy. Are you doing the things you always wanted to do, the things you said you’d do when you “grew up?” Or did life run you over like a steam-roller with all its responsibilities and credit cards – not to mention those taxes?

Do you ever feel that sometimes you’re just “chasing the dragon’s tail?” Or do you picture yourself like a hamster going in circles around a wheel?

I don’t really have any direction or focus for writing this piece. I just started to wonder… What is it all about and am I doing the things that I love to do? Am I making a difference? What will people say about the things that I’ve done when I’m gone? Will they even remember my name?

Perhaps I’m having a mid-life crisis. I doubt it; I don’t feel the urge to go out and buy a sports car – not yet anyway! : -)

Tags: life, happy life, after death, mid-life crisis

Went to bed last night with an upset tummy, but I figured it was nothing a few zzzzs wouldn’t fix. Then today I woke up feeling fine, but about 20 minutes into my daily morning walk to and from Starbucks (no, I didn’t get my Chai Tea Late, just a Green Happy Planet Juice), I started feeling a relapse of my nausea and wasn’t sure if I would even make it back to the house without having to hurl in a ditch on the side of the road (sorry to be so graphic ;-(.)

Well, I managed to breathe my way through it and, as soon as I got home, I lay down for a 30-minute nap. I sure didn’t want to wake up but the team said, “Segovia, it’s almost 9:30 and we don’t know how to set up the LIVE video stream – come do yoga with us.”

I want to give a personal thank-you to Christina for taking it easy today and not doing any crazy inversions or balancers. Instead, she had us on our backs most of the time, doing breath work and slow relaxed stretching. It was a very YIN yoga session.

And although it felt great to get some movement in my body, when it was all over, all I could think about was going back to sleep…but no – the show must go on.

I slugged my way through our daily team rhythm meeting, a client coaching call, took a heck of a lot of Chinese herbs, some asadopholis and a few charcoal tablets, and brewed up a hot mug of chamomile tea to sip on as I sat down to try and get some REAL work done (then I started writing this post – hahaha).

Funny thing is, when I’m lying down on my back, sometimes I feel worse. My most comfortable position to put my body in a state of ease is to be sitting right here in front of these four glowing monitors, knowing that I’m slowly hacking away at the mountainous task list that’s somehow landed in my lap.

To better days!

My new mantra is: “I surround myself with green healing energy. [repeat], [repeat], [repeat]”

Tags: feeling sick, yin yoga, daily yoga session, yoga practice, chinese herbal tea

For me, nothing can actually replace the clean, crisp taste of a cold glass of water. But I know that even something as simple as water can come in so many different forms and from such a wide variety of sources.

But when it comes to hydration, energy and the replenishment of important vitamins, minerals and electrolytes, I have to hand it to Nuun with their latest product release, which they call “U-Hydration.”

Not only were they were a sponsor of our recent yoga conference, which we thank them for, but I was actually able to meet some of their team at the Natural Products Expo West held recently in Anaheim. It was interesting to get the full story on their product line – how the company was formed and how they grew out of the original branding of their first product, Nuun, into their next generation product.

I must admit, at first I thought the idea was kind of silly. I mean, who needs yet another powder/tablet form of something to flavor your water when the market is already overcrowded with what seems like endless aisles and shelves of multi-colored water, vitamin water, carbonated water…the list goes on.

But after checking out their site, it became obvious that their mission was more than just about taking care of athletes, sports enthusiasts and yoga practitioners. It was also about taking care of mother earth.

A single tube of U-Hydration or Nuun contains 16 drink tabs. So when you think of just how much plastic would need to be used in the production of 16 12-16 oz bottles (two gallons worth) of another product – say Gatorade – it’s just ridiculous.

And that’s not even taking into account the extra packaging, storage, shipping, gas and other factors involved in the production of other bottled drinks. So overall, the carbon footprint for a comparable amount of liquid is just a fraction.

Aside from that, U-hydration tastes great and comes in four flavors: cucumber mint, goji berry green tea, lemon chai (my personal favorite) and tangerine ginger. Oh, and did I mention that they don’t have all the artificial sweeteners or calories found in products like Powerade or Propel?

U-Hydration can most easily be found at select REI locations, or online through uhydration.com. A single tube is around $7.95, which puts the cost of a 16-oz glass/bottle at around 50 cents.

For myself, when it comes to liquid hydration for my daily yoga practice, I reach for a U tab and my trusty stainless steel Thinksport water bottle.

Tags: u-hydration, liquid hydration, vitamin tablets, stainless water bottle, sports drink

More energy, more excitement, more content, workshops – heck, I even wanted more of those tasty little energy bars and u-hydration drinks. I wanted to be immersed in the experience of the virtual conference playground again.

So when Christina, Megan and I decided to host an “Encore Event,” you can bet your bottom dollar I was “all-in baby!”

Well, I’m writing this just a few hours after the close of our encore presentation and find myself a little in need of…dare I say it…MORE.

Thankfully, being one of the creators of YogaHub – and sometimes referred to as the “Wizard Behind the Curtain” – I have the good fortune of being able to log in to the site whenever I have the time (hahahaa) and listen to any one of the amazing workshops or sessions from the 2010 conference.

Which is why I’m so excited we were able to put together the “March Magic” special promotion – because it means that you too can continue the journey, both online and via a special fully-loaded iPod.

So if you’ve enjoyed being a participant of this conference as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it all together for you, make sure you take advantage of “March Magic” today!
Segovia

PS. I’ll see to it that we send you some more tasty samples and goodies in your package too

Tags: virtual event, virtual yoga conference, march magic, ipod, yoga workshops, yoga sessions

A few weeks back during Thanksgiving, we had a visitor from out of town who was practicing with us daily. She felt so sad when it was time for her to leave us that we started to stream our daily sessions live over the web for her directly through iChat.

Well, word went out that we had started to make these daily yoga sessions available to her and some of our off-site team members requested that we make it available to them also.

Hence the birth of YogaHub.TV – LIVE! We made this stream private by first as an invitation-only for close friends and YH team members, but…

Today we opened our new channel live for the world to see at a special dedicated link: Blue Moon Yoga Session.

Our goal for 2010 is to begin making this and other yoga streams available throughout the week for everyone.

So please join us at www.YogaHub.TV/live from Monday to Friday, with a start time between 9:15 and 9:30 am PST.

Tags: daily yoga, yoga session, blue moon, daily yoga sessions, yoga everyday, yogahub.tv, live yoga session, yoga online

Yes, it all sounds wonderful but, as the saying goes, “talk is cheap!” – and I wonder just how many people, if given the same opportunity, would actually commit and stick to a workout, yoga or exercise routine with any regularity, be it daily or even just once or twice a week.

Sure, we all get excited and of course everyone votes to have better health care, especially when it comes to a complimentary daily yoga class. But why is it that after just one week of starting, over 80% to 90% of us fall off this train, get derailed and return right back to our usual daily habits (which tend not to include enough movement or exercise)?

This is the same phenomenon the entire world suffers from come January 1st. We make a commitment – usually to ourselves – that we’re going to “get in shape,” “work out twice week,” or just “start walking for 30 minutes a day.”

So what separates those who CAN from those who CAN’T? Is it something in our DNA? Why is it that some people can religiously wake up at the crack of dawn and get to the gym five days a week, while the rest of us are plagued by the constant and seemingly addictive “snooze button?”

So where do you stand? Do you find sticking to a workout or yoga schedule almost as difficult as trying to fight gravity? Or are you one of those blessed few who can commit to and follow through with some kind of regularity when it comes to your personal health program or fitness routine?

If you’re in the latter group, please share your secrets by commenting below. And if you’re in the former group, perhaps you’ve got some additional insights or light to shed on this strange pattern.

Tags: daily yoga, workout, commitment, new year resolution

What I’ve found interesting about our last visitor is that she chose to integrate fully with our daily lifestyle and routines. Things that I do every day and sometimes take for granted, like a 30-minute morning walk, or a daily yoga session, and even just things like dancing salsa in the kitchen.

It got me thinking and reflecting just how fortunate I am to be able to enjoy so many gifts – the amazing sunny Los Angeles weather, the ability to work from home, the freedom to set my own schedule…even having all my own limbs intact and, of course, enjoying the comfort of my good health.

I just hope that our traveling visitors return to their homes, having been inspired by our daily routines, and find a way to improve their own daily routines.

Which brings me to another point: I’d like to know what your daily routine is. I’m interested in seeing what others are doing so that I can be inspired to make subtle changes in my own life for the better.

So chime in with as few or as many words as you like by leaving a comment below.

Here’s my average day:

7:15 – Wake up
7:45 – 30-minute Walk
8:45 – Starbucks
9:00 – Check email/daily tasks
9:30 – Energy Yoga
10:00 – Team Rhythm Meetings
11:00 – Conference Calls
12:00 – Productive Work
2:30 – Lunch
3:00 – More productive work
7:00 – End Work Day
8:30 – Dinner
11:30 – Neti Pot
12:00 – Sleep

Tags: daily routine, visitor, thanksgiving, daily life, health lifestyle, holiday season

“Yoga Trainer” by NexStudios has a great app that you can load onto your iPhone or iPod touch for only $0.99 – or you could try their ‘Lite’ version for free.

The only major difference between the two is that the Lite version has advertising. Aside from that, they both pack over 70+ poses and nine pre-defined yoga sequences, in addition to their quick introduction to yoga.

On first appearances, this app seems relatively simple, but once you look under the hood and begin to put it to use, you’ll find it extremely customizable as it allows an unlimited number of possible custom yoga sessions.

You’re provided with some templates to get you started, but I usually find it more fun to make my own sequences.

From the home screen of the app, you can choose from a list of courses:

• Introduction to Yoga
• Advanced Poses
• Daily Warm-up Yoga
• Daily Yoga Session
• Full Course
• Meditation Course
• Pranayama Course
• Pre-Natal Course
• Sun Salute Series
• Yoga for Abs

Once you choose your class, a slide show will start immediately and there’s a small timer in the corner of each card that counts down the length for each pose. At the start of each new pose, a male voice announces both the English and Sanskrit name for the pose. There is a small five-second intermediary timer between each slide that allows you to make pose adjustments.

Aside from the brief audible title of the pose and a small chime between poses, there is no other auditory sound, which means if you’re unfamiliar with how to do the pose, you’ll need to pause it and flip the pose card over to read the back for a detailed step-by-step written instruction.

While this may seem a little cumbersome and perhaps even edging on annoying to a new yoga student, I actually found it quite useful not to have someone constantly talking throughout the entire pose.

There is also no background ambiance soundtrack or music (which would be a nice feature). However, you can load up anything you like in the iPod and play it in the background while the Yoga Trainer app is running, which means you can essentially create your own soundtrack.

A few other noteworthy features include:

• Making your own notes on each pose
• Being able to adjust the times for length of each pose
• Shaking to shuffle random poses
• Basic searching for poses

Creating a custom sequence is by far the most useful feature of this app. It’s a very efficient and easy process as you can simply give it a name, browse or search through all 70+ poses and quickly add as many as you like. Once you’ve added all the asanas that you want, you can quickly reorder them using the same standard sorting feature found in other native iPhone apps.

It’s also useful to be able to hear the correct pronunciations of each pose in Sanskrit, which is great for those who love learning these tongue-twisters. I always find it interesting to learn the correct Sanskrit names for the poses and often it takes me a long time and many classes before I’m able to remember which names are for what poses. This function is especially helpful if you aren’t attending live classes or your instructor doesn’t choose to use the Sanskrit names.

Either way, I’ve found that the search function of this app works well as a flash card system. All 70+ poses are categorized into various sections (e.g. beginners, advanced, core, arm balancers, etc.) You can simply browse through each category, read the English name and attempt to remember the correct name and pronunciation of the Sanskrit name, which is what I do. Then you just need to tap the pose to see if you’re correct.

This could also be a very handy feature for newly practicing yoga teachers who need to brush up on their skills before their next class.

As mentioned above, you can customize the time and length of each pose, which is very helpful. However, it’s a global setting so you can’t have one time for a child’s pose at 60 seconds in workout session #1 and a different time (say three minutes) for a second workout session. I found that out when I was trying to create my own Yin Yoga sequence.

My work-around was to simply buy the Yoga Trainer Pro app and keep the Lite version on my phone so that I could keep most of my custom yoga sessions in the Pro version. But in the Lite version, I’ve changed the time for each of the poses to last three to six minutes, which I use for all my Yin yoga sessions.

In conclusion, I give this app a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. I’ve seen a few revisions to the app over the past six months and will upgrade my rating to 5 full stars when they post full voice guided instructions, and possibly even a full motion video (although I’m not sure it’s necessary for some of the more basic poses.)

A few other features that would be nice to have are:

1) To be able to see the time and length of each sequence from the main screen since there is currently no way of determining the length without having to go through the entire process and time yourself, or skip through each slide and total up all the minutes.

2) Advanced search that would not only search the basic English titles but also give the ability to search the Sanskrit versions, the full pose descriptions, and your own custom notes. It would also be great to have an icon displayed on the face of each pose card to indicate which slides have custom notes.

There are dozens of other yoga iPhone apps available, but in my opinion this one ranks in the top five. Stay tuned for future reviews of other apps.

Tags: iPhone, iPod touch, iTouch, Apple, yoga iPhone, yoga apps, yoga trainer, Yoga Trainer Pro app