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

When I can make it to our recent morning Yoga class with Christina, it really helps me relax, unwind, and then energize my mind and body. I think sometimes I forget that our bodies and minds are one and the same and that focusing on working the body can relieve tension in the mind – and vice versa. I don’t know if that makes a whole lot of sense, but I do know that right now it’s helping me release a ton of stress.

Tags: morning yoga, yoga at work, yoga in the office, sun salutations, yoga for stress relief, yoga practice, yoga everyday

Last week, Christina conducted a yoga session that exercised the eyes. Which got me thinking, how often do we take care of our eyes?

There is a lot of discussion about the Swine Flu, diabetes, and other such physical ailments that we need to take care of. But how often does someone think about taking care of their eyes? Our eyes are a part of our bodies and we probably abuse them the most. For instance, if we hurt our hand or sprain an ankle, we baby it until it gets better. But do we really “baby” our eyes?

Think about this: We are constantly using our eyes. Whether it’s staring for long hours at a computer, driving, watching TV, or playing sports – we are constantly using them. I think we tend to take our eyes for granted sometimes.

So here are some tips that I learned through my eye doctors and various books that I have read.
1.    Don’t stare at something for too long (particularly your computer screen).

a.    If you are looking at objects up close for long periods of time, take a break and look at something far.
b.    It is best to take about a five-minute break every 30 minutes that you are on the computer.
b.1.    There is software on the market that actually locks your computer and forces you to take a break after a given amount of time.

2.     Just like the rest of your body, your eyes need exercise too!
a.    Take some time to do some eye exercises.
b.    There are some helpful exercises that you can look up online that help maintain your vision. Some include relaxation and palming techniques, as well as some eye movement exercises.

• How to Exercise Your Eyes
• How To Improve Your Vision Without Surgery?
• Eye Exercises
• Computer Eye Strain Eye Exercises

So take the time to give your eyes a break!

Tags: eye exercise, computer users, how to improve your vision, eye surgery, yoga for eyes

Today, as I was doing yoga, I found myself on the verge of tears half way through the session. Subconsciously, my body told me that I had to let this out.  “Logical” me was trying to figure out why I was feeling the way I felt at that particular moment.

I pondered the situation I was in as I continued on with the movements, forcing myself to hold the emotions back, which only made it worse. It was interesting to see how much tension this caused in my body as I went into “downward dog.” Almost instantaneously, I felt completely non-flexible and my hamstrings felt like they were going to snap.

Then I realized that I had been holding my breath for almost the entire duration of three poses.

Not good.

I forced myself to take a deep breath, which allowed me to release the tension that was building up. Then it occurred to me: rather than logically thinking through why I was feeling the way I was, I should just accept that I was feeling this way and then continue on.

So I didn’t analyze anything but just kept on going, breathing through it all.

Amazing, some discoveries you make while doing yoga…

Tags: wellness, emotion, physical affection, downward dog, deep breath, discovery, doing yoga, holding beath

It had been quite a long time since I’d last practiced yoga, but I knew I wouldn’t have any problems going through the entire session – simply because it was what my body needed. I was very fortunate that my neck wasn’t causing me any problems, but there were some other areas of my body that felt uncomfortable, and my energy flow had been very low recently.

I concentrated on my body a lot so that I could feel where my energy had been clogged up in my body. The main areas were from the right side of the neck to the middle of my back, as well as my spine. Also, the two fingers of my right hand were still an issue. Those places just needed to be stretched very gently but strongly. Hmmm…after continuing with the yoga stretches for a while, I started to feel so good and I could feel all the positive energy start to flow through my body again.

It’s so great of Christina to bring this idea to us. I think it’s really important that, as a YogaHub team, we keep practicing yoga regularly together so that we can continue to feel a connection with each other.

Tags: connection, yoga practice, yoga at the office, yoga at work, sun salutation, yoga workout

Christina made us do it:)

Actually, even though Christina really did make us do it, it was for the betterment of ourselves and our spines. Throughout the months of our weekly meetings, she noticed that all of our spines were starting to cave in. In other words, we were seriously slouching.

So at 10 am, all of us gathered around the meeting area and set up our yoga mats to begin our yoga session.

We began with began with Mountain Pose.

“WOW!” I said to myself as I immediately felt my spine get a little longer. Our hands were up in the air and we all stretched just a little bit further towards the sky. Right hand, then left hand. Again, I felt like I had just grown another two inches.

As we continued on with the sequence, it was interesting for me to notice the ongoing changes in my spine.

After we finished the session, we all wrapped up our yoga mats and sat at the meeting table. Immediately, I noticed a difference among my fellow co-workers. We were all much more alert and not suffering from the morning grogginess that we sometimes come in with.

Maybe Christina’s on to something with this company yoga session!

Tags: sun salutations, mountain pose, energy of flow, meeting, yoga session, yoga at work

Not really something to gloat about. I admit it, I don’t like driving. Never liked it, probably never will, but it is a necessity. Especially here in Southern California where everything is so far!

See, I’m originally from Northern California, where the lanes are a bit more spacious, the freeways are well thought out, and people are generally in much less of a hurry.

The first accident was probably the worst. I rolled off the freeway on to an onramp. Despite the severity of the accident, I was very lucky as it could have been a lot worse. And it was because someone didn’t check their blind spot.

Second accident, the person didn’t look into his rear view mirror as he was backing up. This happened in a parking lot.

Third accident – it was rush hour. No one pays attention in rush hour…not in Los Angeles anyway. Enough said.

Actually, I’ve noticed a lot of people in Los Angeles don’t really pay attention to the road. They are talking on their cell phones, looking for something in the glove compartment, doing everything and anything except concentrating on the road. My way of thinking now is that everyone who gets into a car is considered armed and stupid.

People are inconsiderate. They don’t let you in when you have been signaling for the past mile. They cut you off. And, worst of all, they casually drift into your lane without realizing it. You know that saying, “stay within the lines?” Well, that should be applied to the road.

Experiencing or witnessing road rage is not fun either.

Yeah, not a big fan of driving.

But I think I could be to blame as well. I’m very nervous when it comes to driving (especially after rolling off a freeway). My confidence and skills in operating a moving vehicle is at an all-time low. How can I keep myself from becoming a nervous wreck all the time when I get behind the wheel?

I learned how to breathe. Doing yoga in the car, so to speak.

I’ve never been one to use the horn or flick people off and I absolutely hate it when my friends do that. And when someone does it to you it’s not cool, especially when you just gave them the friendly “I’m sorry” wave.

It affects me. However small or large the feeling may be, it still affects me. It ruins my day.

Yes, I take it personally, although I know I shouldn’t.

So what do I do? I breathe through it. No use holding it all in anymore, silently cursing up a storm at the wrongful person. Why plunge into the sea of other people’s anxieties and negative energy? It’s not worth it.

But there is another side to this as well. Being nervous in the car only invites my brain to think of some sort of scenario that can happen between my car and someone else’s car. Learning to breathe helps me to relax and focus on what needs to be done: driving.

I’m still learning how to get through the emotional trauma of it all. Not an easy task by any measure, at least on my part. However, breathing helps get me through the driving day after day.

Tags: car accident, breathe, yoga in the car, trauma, breathing, driving, driving in LA

]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/re-learning-to-breathe/feed/ 2 http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-performance/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-performance/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:38:27 +0000 Madoka http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-performance/ I couldn’t sleep much the night before the performance because I was so worried about my physical issues and the multiple roles I would have to play in one show. Fortunately, I felt better than expected when I woke up. Even so, I wasn’t that optimistic about my neck problem as I still felt uncomfortable in my neck and back areas.

As I was looking at my yoga DVD collections, I saw the Yoga Now 3 Set DVD produced by Giam. Because I wasn’t sure how much my body could handle the exercise (the previous night, while doing some yoga practice with another DVD, I was out of breath and dizzy, and almost became sick), I chose a 30-minute core workout instead of a 50-minute one. I grabbed the DVD, spread out a yoga mat, and popped the DVD into my computer. It was time to practice yoga.

After 30 minutes of practice, I felt so refreshed and full of energy that I could have done more. Of course, I decided to stop rather than take a chance of getting sick again before the performance!

This time, I didn’t have to wear a kimono at home and drive with it because I was going to change from a regular costume to a kimono during the play. But I was still worried about driving 45 miles with my stiff neck. Luckily, one of my co-cast members offered to drive together, so we met up halfway between each other’s places, and I hopped into his car.

We arrived at the venue half an hour early, so we continued to drive along the coast. It’s beautiful. I always love the area called Ranch Palos Verdes in California, which is a very wealthy residential area along the Pacific Coast.When we arrived at the elderly home where we would be performing that day, we were all surprised at how breathtaking the view was from the home!! I wouldn’t mind living there even at my age! Hahaha!

We performed the play, I played koto, and then some dancers performed several traditional Japanese dances. I lastly closed the show with another koto solo – so the audience was treated to a full course of traditional Japanese performances!!

After the show, I was exhausted but at the same time so relieved with the fact that I had managed to do everything without feeling any pain or discomfort. What a relief!

Koto Performance and Yoga:

• Why Was I So Busy??
• My Wishes Never Last Long…
• Yoga and the Performance

Tags: yoga, koto performance, play, japanese dancers, Rodney Lee, Giam, Yoga DVD, 30-minutes exercises

]]> http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/yoga-performance/feed/ 0 http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/getting-sick/ http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/getting-sick/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:58:06 +0000 Madoka http://www.yogahub.com/team-blog/getting-sick/ So this is exactly what happened.

The day before the performance, my neck started to hurt badly.

Some of you who have read my previous blogs know that I have a chronic neck pain, but so far it’s only affected my right side. Well, this time it was on my left side, which was a first. Luckily it wasn’t as painful as my past experiences with the right side of my neck had been. Believe me – that really was awfully painful!! But it still hurt when I moved my neck and, at the same time, the left side of my back felt icky and stiff too. The pain in my neck was coming from my back – I could feel it. But even with the pain, I was still able to move my neck – and since there was a rehearsal in the morning on that day, I had to go!

So there I was at the director’s house. I didn’t tell any of fellow cast members how I was feeling because I didn’t want to scare anyone, especially the director! By the way, we, Pacific Theatre of LA, are a non-profit organization. We’re a small group with no understudies, so now you can imagine how worried the director would be if I told her I wasn’t feeling good!!

During the rehearsal, I felt some pain here and there but it wasn’t too bad. I was also careful enough not to put more pressure on my neck, even when I was dancing. Actually when I was dancing, it was the least painful time. That might have been because the muscles of my back and neck were getting more stretches and exercises.

After the rehearsal, however, while we were having lunch together, my back began to feel more and more uncomfortable. I did a downward facing dog, but couldn’t get rid of the feeling. Of course not. Why should it be so easy? Over the last few months, I’d built up a lot of pressure and stiffness, so it was too late to try for a “quick fix.”

I wasn’t feeling too bad while I was hanging out with the co-cast members, but when I got back to the office, I started to feel really sick. My body was exhausted and it didn’t help that a wildfire had started nearby, causing the air to be all smoky. I just didn’t have enough stamina to resist it. And because of the neck pain, I felt that there wasn’t enough blood flowing to my brain, so I decided that I needed to rest for about an hour.

I somehow managed to baby-sit for a while. Then I decided to do some yoga on a DVD to stretch out some of my muscles pains. Christina let me borrow a Simple and Pure Yoga DVD but even this DVD was too powerful for my weakened body. I couldn’t even go through the entire exercises. I stopped in the middle of session and lay down for a long time.

Once I’d rested, I felt better so I started to practice koto for the last time before my performance. I played through the pain for hours. Then before going to bed, I prepared what I had to bring to the performance – I didn’t get to bed until 2 in the morning!

I will talk more about the performance. Stay turned!

Koto Performance and Yoga:

• Why Was I So Busy??
• My Wishes Never Last Long…
• Yoga and the Performance
  

Tags: performance, stiff neck, neck pain, back pain, stretches, exercises, yoga dvd, yoga at home

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