A Basic Zen Yoga Body Scan

A Basic Zen Yoga Body Scan
If you are looking for a simple 10 minute meditation, the following body scan recording can help you to achieve a sense of inner calm. By simply focusing on various parts of your body and noticing how those parts feel, you can bring yourself into the present moment and experience deep relaxation. So find somewhere ...

3 simple ways to beat stress

Here are three simple ideas for dealing with stress. They’re not long term solutions but they will probably help to varying degrees. Go for a walk: if you can, go for a walk in the park, surround yourself with nature, but if all you have is city streets then that is better than nothing! Meditate: ...

Spending all day sitting at your desk? The perfect cure for limited shoulder mobility

Spending all day sitting at your desk? The perfect cure for limited shoulder mobility
If you spend all day sitting at your desk, you probably suffer from a pretty poor posture – a tight chest, rounded shoulders, limited shoulder flexibility and a sore back. In this article, I will look at a couple of solutions that will help you to achieve a better posture, make you feel more supple ...

Great music for tai chi and yoga

Great music for tai chi and yoga
As a tai chi teacher, I always play music when I am running a class because: it helps to set the right mood it can hide any background noises such as things going on outside the room. For these reasons, I would also recommend that if you practice tai chi, yoga or meditation, then you, ...

Top 3 yoga gifts for yoga nuts

Top 3 yoga gifts for yoga nuts
It’s that time of year again where we get to treat ourselves and our loved ones so here’s our top 3 yoga-related gifts. Print Yoga Mats Is your yoga mat getting a little tatty? Then perhaps it’s time for a real treat. Make all your friends jealous with one of these amazing yoga mats with ...

How to build strength on a tight budget

How to build strength on a tight budget
In today’s austere times where we’re constantly trying to save money, it can be hard to justify spending money on a gym membership. One of the benefits of gym membership, however, is having access to weights equipment for the purpose of developing muscle size and strength as well as avoiding turning your living room into ...

Beginner’s guide to abdominal breathing

Beginner's guide to abdominal breathing
Abdominal breathing is a type of breathing whereby you breathe into the abdomen and appear to fill it with air. What actually happens is that instead of breathing so that your lungs force your shoulders upwards, you push your abdominal area outwards as your diaphragm moves downwards. To perform this type of breathing, you can ...

10 tips for chi kung and tai chi

10 tips for chi kung and tai chi
There are a lot of things to consider when practising tai chi and chi kung. The numerous rules added to the movements and breathing can be quite overwhelming. Here are my ten tips for beginners practising chi kung, tai chi and meditation in general: breathe through the nose – the tip of your tongue should ...

Can meditation really re-wire your brain?

Can meditation really re-wire your brain?
Yes, according to the latest scientific research! One of the many emails that drop randomly into my inbox mentioned a recent article by Dr. Marsha Lucas, an American psychologist and neuropsychologist describing how meditation can rewire the brain. The article is particularly concerned with how the brain handles relationships but reading between the lines (which ...

The gentle art of weight loss

The gentle art of weight loss
Whenever people want to lose weight, they immediately think about doing some very intense exercise such as running, cycling or aerobics. However, just thinking about leaping around the room or pounding the pavement mile upon mile is enough to make you tired! And while these are very efficient ways of burning fat and something fitness ...