Healthy Gut leads to healthy body&mind!

I often remind my students that the yoga asanas we practice in my power and holistic yoga classes are one part of a comprehensive system.  This Yoga lifestyle is based on a 5,000 year old tradition including eight key limbs or areas.  Each limb gives a guiding principal to follow that suggests the best way to live a healthy life physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The Yogic path is a way of life. 

Your body is a miracle and it is designed to heal itself. The Yoga asanas or postures are designed to detox the body of physical toxins, cleanse the vital organs and bring the mind and body back into harmony through pranayama or conscious breathing.  

Ancient Yogis believed that all disease, mental or physical, derives from the gut and blockages in the flow of energy through the body.  The twists, back bends and forward folds of yoga are designed to cleanse and detox your vital organs and supply your organs and muscles with fresh oxygenated blood.  These postures also stimulate the lymphatic system draining tissues of toxins and excess fluid to help the energy (Prana) flow. If you FLOW internally you’ll GLOW externally.  

Modern doctors, researches and holistic therapist have recently come to the same conclusion that detoxing the body improves gut health and resistance to illness. Keep your gut healthy and you’ll feel energetic, vibrant and enable your body to resist disease.  If we treat ourselves with loving kindness and care we equip the body to heal itself and maintain the vital self healing energy we all possess.  Dis-Ease is literally the resistance to ease, the resistance or failure to care for oneself. 

Through the yogic tradition we empower our whole self to be healthy, happy and live life to our fullest potential.  Dr. Edward F. Group, founder and CEO of Global Healing Centre in the US is also passionate about spreading this message of healing your  gut. He says 70% of your immune system resides in your gut. He recommends detoxing your body to eliminate the root cause of any disease. Eating Organic and healthy foods, reducing stress by doing breathing and meditation and keeping your spine healthy so your flow of energy is healthy. 

          Namaste 
          Luma 

Yoga and the Full Moon, to practice or not?

Yoga practice is closely related to nature, Hatha Yoga ( the mother of all yoga) which can be translated as Ha means Sun ☀️ and Tha as Moon 🌑. The Sun is the Masculine energy, dynamic, hot and the Moon represents the feminine energy, related to the senses and cool. The Moon influences the Earth ( look at the Eb and flow of the seas). the Sun influences the Moon. In yoga we want to bring the body in balance and being in tune and the rhythm of nature.

Some Yoga practices like Ashtanga Vinyasa recommend not to practice on a Full Moon day as it’s believed you are more likely to injur yourself. The Sun and Moon exert a gravitational pull on the Earth. Their positions create different energetic feelings in your body that can be compared to breath cycle. The Full Moon energy relates to the end of inhalation, when the force of Prana ( breath/life force) is greatest. This is an upward moving force that makes us feel energetic and emotional, but not well grounded. During the Full Moon we tend to be more stubborn and tend to push ourselves too hard.

Should you practice Yoga on a Full Moon Day?
I would recommend to listen to your body and practice Ahimsa (non harming), perhaps a gentle flow and Yin Yoga ( Yin is the moon energy), when you are in tune with your body and nature then your body will guide you, listen to your body.

Moon Bathing
We all know about Sun Bathing, Forest bathing and try out Moon Bathing. On a Full Moon day it’s glorious to be outside and let the Full Moon wash over you and surround you with its magic. Meditation, sending out Forgiveness and Gratitutde to all that you have in your life. And like Yasmin Boland, Moonlogy expert, recommends to say the following mantra Om Namo Narayani ( I trust in the divine /Universe).

Namaste
Luma

Yoga and Ayurveda 

A healthy body&mind is at the core of yoga and Ayurveda. Keeping your vital organs healthy to have a clear mind and Ayurveda the Indian holistic therapy goes hand in hand with yoga for purification and detoxing of internal body, yoga postures twists, backbends where you massage your internal organs  to keep a healthy flow from the inside and you’ll glow on the outside. Ancient Yogis believed that if your gut is healthy then your mind is healthy. The dynamic yoga postures like Sun Salutations, warriors are designed to tone your muscles and stretch them and then when you sit in meditation your body is not aching. It keeps you healthy on the inside and outside. 

Ayurveda which means Knowledge of life is a health science that derived in India thousands of years ago. 

In Ayurveda it’s all about rhythm of nature. It’s about spiritual health versus in the west focuses on external health. 

Eminé Rushton in her book Sattva explains, There are 3 primal energies in Ayurveda 

1) Sattva: truth of us human beings that is intuitive, feeling rather than overthinking. Trusting your “gut” feeling.

It’s living in the present moment and In Harmony with nature. Where life flows beautifully and in healthy way. 

2) Rajas : where you never sit still, life is rushing around. Living too much in the future and not in the present. In the West we live mostly in this rushed state, waking up by alarm clock and continue rushing to work, gym, commuting. Not living in harmony with nature and it’s seasons. 

3) Tamas: where you cannot move , there is no growth, you are closed off.

Ayurveda teaches us to trust nature, have the attitude of gratitude and living life in rhythm with nature. 

Meditation and stillness can work magic, this will connect you with your true essence. 

Your body is a miracle, it can self heal. But we push it so hard  and hearts pounding racing around. Shallow breathing and the stress piles on. This brings our body&mind out of balance. In Yoga and Ayurveda you counter balance that. Self care by doing your yoga postures, living in tune with nature and eating foods that is in season, meditation, gentleness and stillness is where goodness arises. 

Namaste 

Luma 

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