Sometimes, it seems that by merely living on our planet one can recognize that the realities of life can be difficult and stressful. Especially, in a seemingly vindictive world marked with stigmatic insensitivity to others. If you are at all concerned you might very well know that the world has become an extremely dangerous place to live! This often ends with you being upset, sad and hurt at the activities going on around you, ultimately leading to stress, fatigue, and anxiety.

Living with the daily realities of life, in a world with a growing insensitivity to others, can be stressful. If you are an active and interactive reader – newspaper, blog, or on any social media platform, you might very well know that the world has become an extremely dangerous place to live in! This often ends you being upset, sad and hurt at the activities going around you, ultimately leading to stress, fatigue, and anxiety.

But, what if you find an alternative to deal with it? Maybe a substitute that would diminish your growing stress towards it all. More importantly, what if you could take control of the alternative, guide it to what you wanted and truly needed?

You can achieve this if you embrace the world and the ‘living from your heart’ mindset. The heart is an access point to a source of wisdom and intelligence. It helps us to live our lives with more balance, greater creativity, and enhanced intuitive capacities.

Medically and scientifically, it is said that our heart is surrounded by a
field of energy that extends out about five to eight feet. This heart field extends on the physical and quantum level. This understanding is fundamental to why it’s important to keep your energy field and body in harmony. The dis-harmony in your energy field will cause disease in your body. Since your Yoga practice is a reflection of your life, if your energy field is out of balance, your body will be out of balance.

It is highly recommended to consider the energy of your heart and brain while you practice Yoga. Practice some of the heart opening Yoga postures for keeping your heart fit, balanced and healthy. You can try practicing “Bhakti Yoga” which strives to reach a state of essence i.e. ‘Rasa’, wherein a feeling of pure bliss is achieved in the devotional surrender to the Divine.

1. Take the essence of the practice and begin to apply it to your own life.
2. Remind yourself that life is interconnected.
3. We are not separate. Life flows through our lives with ourself and others.
4. Yoga is union with self and with others. But it begins with you.

Living from your heart and feeling peaceful does not mean living secluded away in a cave on a mountaintop or being optimistically naïve, ignoring the realities of humanity. Through the darkness, we can all do our part to strive to live a peaceful life at our peak potential.

When you shift your energy from your head to your heart, your life – and the lives of those around you – will be enhanced. We all can step into our
light. We need to carry yourself from darkness into light and as we shine, it will diminish darkness. Yoga rides you through this darkness by uplifting your spirit, boosting your energy, and eliminating the negativity around you.

The good news is when you use Yoga to connect to your heart, that conscious choice creates health for yourself and the world. Thus it is said and believed that Yoga practitioners are the most open to learning how to live a heart-centered life.

Yoga is for everybody, there is no barrier of caste, creed, religion, race, color or size.  Any and every individual has the right to practice Yoga. For the bunch of people having a large amount of cellulite hung up onto their bellies or thighs, this is for you.  Don’t be afraid! Your XL size cannot disqualify you in any  way to practice Yoga. For the people having scars on their bodies generally covered, only to be revealed when you stretch out on the mat and that cool t-shirt of yours lifts up – Don’t be  afraid! What people will look at or say, should be none of your concerns.

Get over it! Who cares? Whatever your body ‘hang-up’ – too fat, too thin, those old battle scars, or those new teen spots – we’ve all been there at some point. And yet we still think we’re the only ones. Weight issues, or at least ‘perceived’ weight issues,  are perhaps the ‘big’ one, the most common thing cited by people as a barrier to enjoying Yoga.  Alas, the perception that you must be skinny, nubile, ultra bendy or flexible to get your yoga fix still lingers on.

Regardless of your flexibility, age, gender, or body shape, yoga welcomes everyone to the mat, and it offers effective ways to meet a variety of health goals (i.e., stress reduction, weight loss, improving flexibility, strength building, confidence building, and more).

1. There is no such thing as a “Yoga Body”

There is no such thing as a yoga body. So you need not worry if you are below 30 or above, or if you think you aren’t that flexible as others. Yoga is a universal approach towards fitness, well-being and a healthy lifestyle.

2. Yoga is Accessible for Everyone

Yoga is a continuous learning experience. Many who practice it, strive for higher enlightenment, however, it’s about far more than learning a series of poses to perfection. Yoga practice evolves over time. One should continue to learn and practice different poses and be challenged by new exercises to grow. There is no perfect, one-size-fits-all way to practice yoga. This is why Yoga
offers various modifications (i.e., including tools like bolsters, straps, and blocks) to make it accessible for everybody regardless of gender, age, physicality, existing injury, or body shape.

3. Everyone Needs Rest and Recovery

As with any new activity that challenges your body, Yoga will cause some muscle pain and discomfort from all of that stretching and holding of poses. You may very well feel some discomfort in your arms, legs, chest, core, and all over your body the following day, but that pain is an indication of the changes and improvements taking place inside your body. You work hard in a yoga
session, give your body the respect and time it deserves to heal (muscles build during rest) to avoid an injury or exercise burn out.

4. Yoga Focuses on How You Feel NOT on How You Look

Yoga practice is all about you, not the person falling over during half-moon to your left, nor the person twisted into a pretzel on your right. Yoga is a very personal practice, which is why we all come to the mat for different reasons. All bodies are different, and so different are the ways of performing Yoga postures, and exercises. You should not copy your companion, or colleague
while practicing it. Just concentrate on yourself, it’s about you not them!

5. Choose your Yoga Style

Yoga comes in various styles so you’re likely to find one that suits your goals and your unique abilities. You can also modify and customize the poses, exercises, and Yoga forms depending on your physique and body patterns as you know yourself better.

One of the most powerful limitations to starting or restarting a Yoga practice can be your own fear. This fear might be a feeling of non-acceptance due to your body weight, or any reason. But Yoga doesn’t stop you from attaining your desired state of peacefulness and well-being of your body system in any way.

No debate can arise from Yoga Exercises or is questionable on just how powerful yoga can be. Yoga has proven to give beneficial rewards to millions of people in helping them to keep in shape while at the same time assisting them to lead a healthy lifestyle. Your health and yoga is a match made in heaven. Yoga Exercises and the people who practice regular routines are finding it easier to cope with stress on top of easing body aches and pains.

Times have changed dramatically from the days of yesterday – in the days gone by life was a struggle for families – but somehow they coped with the illnesses that plagued and terrorized their well being. In those days you never saw a jogger, a treadmill, or come to think of it any form of exercise like yoga. The only thing that the modern world has in common from the days of the notorious Jack the Ripper is the plague.

Citizens today are plagued by stress brought on by pressure from work, commitments to running the home, and much more. Why do we put up with the torment of coping like the people of yesterday who were a lot less fortunate than ourselves – where their options to help reduce any health risks were zilch?

Yes, changes have been dramatically altered but in our best interest where health matters is a major concern.

Yoga Exercises do go back to ancient times but why did so many poor unfortunate urchins die from cholera etc while trying to pick a pocket or two. The answer to that is there was no awareness program administered on how to stay healthy and fit, programs which may have helped save lives? Could this be the reason why so many children have been introduced to Yoga Exercises by their parents in the 21st century? Parents are becoming more involved with health maintenance procedures in keeping their children fit and healthy.

Yoga exercises for children start with simple and easy moves. Yoga moves and poses for kids are normally named after animals to make it more fun as well as interesting. For example, the butterfly pose is very popular among the children – this exercise includes an exercise where the child will sit with their knees bent leaning down towards the floor and the soles of the feet slightly touching.

One of the main reasons for introducing a child to the world of yoga is obesity. By enlisting your children to join local yoga classes you have just thrown them a lifeline where they will learn more about body awareness. Some children take to yoga exercises like a duck to water and pick up quickly on the understanding as to why they are performing such exercises. But then you have those who struggle to come to terms with their exercises and have no idea about the rewards that can be gained. What really matters is that as long as the children are enjoying themselves then that is one rewarding result in itself.

Later in life when the child is fit and healthy – it is then that you will find that the child`s perception of the whole yoga experience will answer their question as to why mommy and daddy did what they did and that was to send them to practice yoga exercises.