While we all think of yoga as being curled or stretched into unimaginable positions, yoga is a form of exercise that you can do everyday and only take a few minutes to perform. It will keep your joints supple and your mind calmer and more active, the exercise don’t need any special Training and can be performed by anyone. Here are a few very easy yoga stretches that you should make a part of your daily life.

The first quick and easy exercise that you can do and which only take a few minutes to perform and which stretches the whole body and joints are to stand and raise your hands above your head. Gently lock your fingers together above your head and lean slowly to the right, then come back up to the middle position and move over to the left. Try to keep your breathing slow and relaxed breathing in through your nose and slowly out through your mouth.

The second exercise that is just as beneficial and is an excellent way to relive tension is to stand and slowly exhale letting all tension leaves your body. Then as you breathe in slowly lift your shoulders up towards your ears and as you reach this point let your breathe leave your body, repeat this exercise four of five times.

This exercise can be done either stood up or sat down, however make sure that your feet are firmly planted on the ground and slowly breathe in as you raise your arms up and out to the side with the palms of your hands facing down. As you let out your breath rotate the palms up and has you do roll your shoulders back. When you exhale bring the arms back into the body and bend the elbows in to the waist. This exercise is an excellent way to open up the chest in those who suffer from respiratory problems.

Stand up and lace your fingers behind your back, begin to stretch the shoulder and raise the arms slightly behind your back, stretching the shoulders and opening the chest.
Make sure you are standing by a wall and place one hand on the wall with your arms outstretched, as you exhale begin turning your head to look to the side and repeat this exercise around 10 times.

Stand by a desk and gently place your hands on top of the desk while standing up straight, make sure the fingers are facing towards the body. Gently lean forward and stretch the lower wrist and fingers.

Begin this exercise by lifting one arm into the air, as you exhale drop the arm behind the shoulder and as you do bring your other arm and hand and place the hand on the elbow of the arm that’s behind your back. Repeat this exercise four or five times and then repeat with the other arm.

This is an excellent exercise if you have a chair with castors, sit on the chair at your desk and place your hands on the top of the desk, gently push the chair back keeping the hands on the desk and exhale as you push back.

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Yoga has many beneficial effects if you practice it on a regular basis; it is known to help if major illnesses as well as being undertaken by those who just want to get fitter and healthier. There is so much more to yoga however, yoga is a total holistic system that can strengthen not only the muscles but also the mind. Those who practice yoga on a more serious level think of it as a totally spiritual experience and benefit on a spiritual level deeply.

The majority of people who practice yoga do so because of the way that their whole system, their body, mind and soul is brought together and the totally peaceful feeling that this brings out in the person. Yoga helps to bring and harmonize the body, mind and spirit that are essential to a happy lifestyle.

The Chinese have long believed that illness develops due to the body becoming out of sync and that symptoms are just a sign of a more deeper underlying problem. They believe that there is an energy force that flows throughout the body and it is when this energy force is blocked that problems begin to arise within the body. Yoga is one way of ensuring that the flow of energy is kept running freely throughout the body, yoga can help to achieve this many ways, the poses are specifically designed to open up the chest, the heart, the lungs and to strengthen the body functions such as the immune system.

One of the aspects of yoga is to help the person develop their spirituality and to let it flow, to look into themselves and the person they are instead of running away and putting the blame on anything else but themselves. Those who develop their spirituality have found that they are able to feel free, happy and are able to deal with and overcome problems that previously would have had them in knots.

Feeling good about oneself is essential in dealing with a wide variety of problems and indeed if you are able to deal and understand yourself and the problems that affect you then very often these problems simply disappear. One oft eh easiest ways to start looking into yourself and finding your spiritual side is to start off with the yogic breathing exercises. Yogic breathing helps the person to settle down and relax and to look inside him or herself and discover the person they really are.

Hatha yoga breathing relies on focusing on the exhalation; Westerners seem to put importance on inhalation when in fact this is wrong. Changing the way we breathe can vastly change how we feel as well as our outlook on life. When practicing Hatha yoga to develop your spirituality breathe in slowly though the nose fully, yogic breathing focuses strongly on silent breathing, if you are breathing correctly then you shouldn’t be able to hear yourself breathe. When exhaling, be sure that you do so from your abdomen and make sure that you push the air out of your body totally. This is the simplest way to perform yogic breathing to develop and bring forth your spirituality.

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If you work at home or just have some time at home where you would like to take a break to get healthier, more mentally alert, more focused and calmed down, try some of these yoga postures. Experiment to see which ones work best for you, then share them with your other work-at-home friends.

Adho mukha svanasana also known as the dog stretch - Lying face down, stretch your legs back, tighten your buttocks and pull your knees back. Drop your hands just below shoulders and exhale. Then lift your head, your chest, shoulders and torso, and pushing down from your pelvis, straighten out your arms. Overall, your body should be in a curved back position, all the way from the back of your head to the tip of your tailbone. OK, now push shoulders back and then down. And push your head back a little more. Remain like this, breathing normal, as long as you can, and then come down nice and slow. Relax.

Vajrasana also known as the diamond posture - On an exercise mat, carpet or other soft surface, kneel with your knees pretty close together. Sit back on your heels, then stretch up from your hips and align your head.

Bhardwajasana also known as the twist - Get down on the floor in a kneeling position, sit back and bring both feet to the right of your hips. Next, straighten out your right arm, bring it over across your body, the turn it to the left. With your hand palm down, place it (your hand) under your left knee. Exhale. Then turn your body more to the left, grasp your right elbow with your left hand from around your back. Look over your right shoulder, stop for a few breaths, then look over your left shoulder (note: shoulders need to be at right angles to your body). Return to the starting position and repeat with your other side. Repeat hourly for lower back pain, with the approval of your physician.

Salabhasana also known as the locust - This popular posture requires you to lie flat, face down, with your chin on floor. The place your fists under your thighs to help you lift, or else place them alongside your body. Exhale. Lift your legs from your hips. Tighten your buttocks. Stretch your legs up and back. Hold position. Exhale. Return to start posture and repeat.

Yoga exercises help you strengthen your body, make it more flexible, calm your mind and give you energy. Yoga sessions are designed for people of all ages worldwide, for helping promote harmony and balance of the body and mind, where you learn to recognize when one side is stronger or more flexible than the other.

The practice of yoga offers plenty for everyone. You can modify positions and systems easily to meet your needs as well as physical conditions, using a variety of props around you like cushions, chairs, walls, floor mats or other items. A yoga practice can even be customized just for you. Note that with yoga, you do not compete with yourself or others, as yoga is a stress-free albeit powerful way to exercise.

Here are a couple of yoga sessions to try:

1) Cat-Stretch Pose aka Marjari-asana - Kneel, then lean forward, placing your hands on the floor below your shoulders, with your fingers facing forward. Have your hands in line with your knees, your arms and thighs at right angles to the floor with your knees slightly separated.

Raise your head and drop your spine so that your back is concave. Take a deep breath to fill your lungs and hold for three seconds. While you exhale, lower your head and stretch out your spine in an upwards direction. When you finish your breath, pull in your buttocks, contract your stomach muscles and then place your head between your arms. Repeat 5 times.

2) Mountain Pose aka Parvatasana - To help strengthens your muscles and nerves in your legs and arms, and improve the circulation in your upper spine, try this yoga session.

Kneel down on your raised heels and reach out with your arms, stretching them forward so that your forehead is on the floor. Breathe in deeply and relax for a little while. Then lift yourself up on your hands and knees. Tuck your toes under and keep your back flat.

Inhale and then push yourself up on to your toes. Next, lift your buttocks up while lowering your head between your arms. Position your back and legs so that they form two sides of a triangle.

Then exhale, resting your feet back on the floor. Try to touch the floor with the top of your head and hold this position for 10 seconds.

There are many yoga exercises for you to try. Learn more and find exercise sessions to suit your needs and help improve your own lifestyle.

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Studies show that up to five percent of the world’s population suffer from diabetes in some form. In fact, an estimated 11 million people in Western Europe alone are reported to be diabetics. And yoga has shown to offer beneficial results in curing diabetes.

Noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is probably the most common form of diabetes found today out of the many different ways in which diabetes presents itself. And NIDDM or Type II diabetes is known as multi-factorial, dependent on environmental factors as well, like sedentary lifestyles, obesity and negative nutritional issues.

Yoga exercises that many prescribe for helping to heal diabetes are different from basic yoga exercise style as it involves positions tailored to treat certain conditions, as well as relaxation, meditation and stretching exercises.

Case Study

The Yoga Biomedical Trust, founded in 1982 by biochemist Dr Robin Monro and an Indian yoga research foundation, discovered that if people practiced yoga for 30 minutes a day for one full month, the activity helped reduce blood glucose levels in some diabetics.

One of the studies conducted to cure diabetes was the one set up where yoga patients participated in one or two 90-minute weekly sessions for 12 weeks. Participants worked out with certain yoga classes in their homes; including the bow, the spinal twist and some abdominal breathing.

Near the close of the session, the participants blood sugar levels decreased greatly across the board and were only somewhat elevated in the control group, a group who had not participated in the yoga sessions. Notable also was that three yoga students were even able to reduce their own medications they’d been on, including a person who had been on the same drug regime for nearly 20 years.

In summary, medical science has known for quite awhile that exercise is very helpful for diabetics. And the ability of yoga therapy to help lower stress levels may play a part in maturity onset diabetes. However, some patients might find it hard to keep up the regular sessions necessary to reap the full benefits. And many wouldn’t have the money needed for or means to get out to continuing yoga classes.

Note also that you do not need classes outside the home to put yoga into practice. What are important are the techniques, the actual physical exercise itself and the overall benefits - both physically and mentally - from the stabilization that yoga brings about. These are all factors that can help improve the health of the diabetic.

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Once you develop a good set of goals for your yoga practice, pat yourself on the back - easy. If you’ve crafted your action plan to tackle these goals, pat yourself on the other side - easy again. Now take a few minutes and finish up and learn how to manage your yoga plans with some management tools.

Logbook, Diary or Personal Journal

Manage your yoga sessions with a handy log book, diary or personal journal for recording class times, length of sessions, feedback and other data you’d like to note for future reference. You can check out log books and journals at your local bookstore, library or online, to see which type you might prefer to try. You could also grab a 3-ring binder and print out home-made log sheets made from software on your computer like Microsoft Word or Excel.

After you choose which type to use, keep it in a convenient location to grab on the go and use both at home and at your yoga class regularly. You could keep it near your gym bag stuffed with your loose clothing and roll up mat, for example, and keep a pencil with eraser handy there, too, to jot notes in the book as needed.

Planners or Calendars

You also need to make sure to coordinate your yoga activities with the rest of your daily plans. So grab your calendar, day planner or other organizing tool(s) for this. A popular way on computers today is to log your yoga sessions into a software calendar like Microsoft Outlook offers and print them out if you need to. With online calendars like Outlook, you can set up your yoga session on one day, then schedule it to repeat automatically on its own daily, bi-weekly, on the same day of the week and other options. This way you won’t forget upcoming yoga classes.

Other popular calendar and planner systems are sold by Franklin Covey and other brand names at a local office supply store. Check out their software that’s compatible with Outlook and even handheld computers. Or choose from a variety of ringed binder-type planners.

When you have your choice, follow up, logging and keeping your yoga dates regularly. See what works best and revise your management tools and skills – and get help with them either from the place of purchase or your yoga instructor - as needed.

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Establishing yoga goals is the first step towards reaching them. And since successful people in major niches across the board remind us regularly in inspirational articles, videos and other information products, If you fail to plan, plan to fail. So let’s dig in with yoga goals by learning more about goal setting with yoga in mind so that you can establish - and successfully reach - your yoga goals.

Goal Setting Benefits
Think of all the incentives you have for goal setting. You get all the healthy benefits of yoga, to begin with: improved mental focus, relaxation, unity of body and mind, strengthening, and calmness. And once you complete your yoga goals, you will have another success notch on your belt. You will raise your self-confidence level because you strived to do something, persevered and accomplished it. Yes! That translates into pride and self satisfaction in a task well accomplished. Plus you improve your life and have a new achievement to chalk up.

And let the facts speak here, too: effective goal setters have more self-confidence, concentration and focus, and less stress and anxiety. In addition, they lead more productive lives and are much happier.

Goal Setting Steps
Listing goals that represent unplanned steps is not in your best interest. It’s sort of like baking a cake from scratch with no recipe and no idea what you’re doing. It’s a recipe for failure.

Instead, seek knowledge first, as effective goals begin with education. Learn more about yoga, the different types out there, which types might work best for you, how to take lessons, who teaches courses, what equipment you may need, etc. Then afterwards, you can establish steps to get you where you want to go, measurable steps to make keep you on track to completion.

Research
Jump-start your yoga education by heading to you local library for books, videos, audio cassettes and other resources about yoga, seeking help from the reference librarian. You can look for information in popular print magazines, too, like Men’s Health and Fitness RX for Women, Fitness, and Shape. During this preliminary stage, also check in you’re your doctor for advice and approval before committing to anything, to make sure it fits in with your personal health plan.

Also check out yoga instructors and their classes in your area. Look for convenience of location from your home or office, type of exercises involved and equipment, price and other important factors. Then when you’re finished with all your research, begin writing down positive yoga goals as well as steps to reach them, based upon your research. For example, if you seek improved breathing for asthma with yoga sessions, goals might be first to check with your doctor, then learn yoga and monitor your progress and growth, checking to see if yoga helps when you have your next wheezing attacks.

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Many people find that they can improve the basic quality of their lives with yoga, a regimen of using a combination of physical and mental practices that many believe began in India over three thousand years ago. And among these basic life improvements noted are better breathing, relaxation and asthma relief, as yoga seeks to help you get back to a more natural state where your body and mind are not stressed.

Deep breathing and relaxation go hand in hand. Both help you to calm down your system and thoughts and re-energize. What happens is that when you spend a few minutes taking slowed, controlled, careful breaths, the breaths are not nervous, hyper action, but instead steadier, calming actions that help supply much needed energy to the system, sending calming messages throughout.

Take five and reclaim some energy with this sample Breathing / Relaxing Exercise. Make sure to read through the entire list of instructions a couple of times first before you give it a go.

1. With or without a chair, sit with good posture, your spine as straight as possible. Have your feet flat on the floor, your knees directly over your feet, placing something under your feet like a pillow or book, if they are resting comfortably on the floor. Place your hands atop your legs.
2. Gently close your eyes, allowing them much needed rest.
3. Focus your thoughts on your ribs and your lungs behind your ribs. As you inhale slowly and deeply, feel your lungs fill up, your ribs expand outward and upward. As you exhale in a similar manner, feel your lungs release, your ribs go back in and down.
4. Repeat for up to 3 minutes when you first start out, once a day. Then increase up to 5 through 10 minutes throughout your day as needed.

Helping Asthma with Yoga

Yoga breathing exercises have been known to help some sufferers of mild asthma. Although asthmatics should never stop using their medications and any health devices as prescribed by their doctors, they want choose to try yoga breathing exercises, as approved by their doctors. Yoga breathing exercise may help with the reduction of the use of low-dose drug inhalers, especially during wheezing attacks.

Learn more about yoga and how it may help with your breathing, relaxation and asthmatic conditions. More studies are being done all the time. And people using different yoga practices are reporting positive feedback.

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There are many different yoga postures and exercise to work into your practice sessions. Here is a small sampling to see which can ones may meet you needs.

1) Janu Sirsasana - This is for correct foot placement with your yoga posture.

Begin by sitting up straight, legs extended outwards in front of you. Next bend your right leg at the knee, and then place your foot so that the heel is in your right groin with the front of the foot touching your left thigh. Turn your foot so that the bottom of it is facing upwards and then press your knee back, forming an obtuse angle with your body. This position might be difficult when you first try it, so be gentle and don’t force it. You may place a folded blanket under your knee and hips, then gradually the knee will move farther back. Remember to keep your foot positioned correctly.

2) Janu Sirsasana - This is for correct posture with your yoga.

Once you position your foot and knee correctly above, stretch your left leg out and keep it firmly on the mat. After firmly settling your heel, stretch up your toes and inhale, bending forward over your straight leg. Catch your the foot with both hands if possible. Note: only as far as you can without rounding the back; beginners may not reach as far and that’s fine. When you have this posture performed correctly, your will roll forward over your extended leg, flat from the tail bone to the head. Remain and breath normally for as long as you can, then inhale, release breath, and come up smoothly, straightening your bent leg. Relax and repeat on other side.

3) Pose of the Moon aka Shashankasa - For this yoga exercise, sit on your knees with your palms on your thighs. Close your eyes and relax. Keep your spine and head straight.

Take deep breaths and lift up your arms over your head. Keep them straight, shoulder-width apart. While you exhale, bend forward from your hips, keeping your arms and head in a straight line. Gradually rest your hands and forehead on the floor in front of your knees. Then bend your elbows, so that your arms are fully relaxed. Hold for five seconds, and then inhale, slowly lifting your arms and body back into the upright position. Exhale. Place your palms back down to the top of your thighs. Repeat 3-5 times.

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For people in a hurry and trying to squeeze in a little healthy yoga into the day or night, try one of these two yoga sessions on for size. You can be at home, at your place of work or anywhere, any time. Experiment and see where these fit into your day best.

Multitasking Meditation

While you are reading or writing your e-mails, focus on breathing slowly and you’re your focus and attention on your breath, not just your messages. When you exhale, take twice as long at this than when you inhale, to help calm you and help keep you clamer throughout the rest of your day.

Upper Stretch Time

Reach head your head, and interlace your fingers, holding your head in them. While you are doing this, relax your shoulders and elbows. Think happy thoughts, smile, breathe slow and deep, and stretch your elbows back. Release the tension slowly.

Posing Prompts

Lift your arms to your sides, fingers pointing outwards. Take one large step off to the side, keeping your right foot out with your knee bent while your left foot remains firmly on the ground, left leg straightened out. With your upper body straight and firm, relax your shoulders and relax into the stretch, while not holding your breath. Return upright to a standing position, and then switch sides and repeat.

Lower Stretch Time

With your hands on the edge of something firmly in place like a desk or table, stand back with your feet apart. Drop your head and chest and then breathe, relaxing your shoulders.

Swaying Palm Tree Pose AKA Tiryaka Tadasana

To streamline your waist and help with balance, stand with your feet 8 inches apart. Focus your eyes on a point directly in front of you. Interlocking your fingers, turn your palms outward, and deeply inhale while you lift your arms up and over your head. While you exhale, bend from your waist to your left side (don’t reach backwards or forwards). Hold your position for a few seconds, then deeply inhale and slowly return to the upright position. Repeat this five times with each side.

There are many more yoga sessions you can practice anytime, anywhere. Many are short sessions like these and some are much longer. Do a little research or look for yoga classes in your area and see which sessions work best for you. Then get fit inside and out and sty that way!

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