8 Tips to Get More Flexible, Even When You Think You Can't

How you approach your body is important, because you'll probably approach the rest of your life in the same way. Want freedom? Practice moving free. Want to do hard things without a struggle? Practice moving easily, even when things get hard. The same goes for flexibility. If you’re looking to become more flexible in your body and your life, here are eight tips that will make it easier than you ever thought possible.

1. Let go of the idea that stretching makes you flexible.

Most people assume that stretching — in a way that uses muscle to force other muscles to lengthen — leads to flexibility. It doesn't ! The old-fashioned approach of static stretching (holding still while pushing hard into a stretch) has been part of most athletic training regimes for decades. What scientists and athletes now understand is that flexibility begins in your mind. If your mind thinks it needs to defend against injury (or against you!) it will do that, bracing for impact, making you less flexible.
Push your muscles hard to get a stretch, and you won't see lasting gains. Instead, stay easy and calm, no force required. You might be thinking, I can't touch my toes! But it’s actually great that you have these good strong muscles and ligaments that hold your body together and keep things working properly.

2. If you’re going to stretch, find a position in which you could sit and comfortably watch TV.

If your muscles are working hard to hold you up or keep you balanced while you're trying to open those hamstrings, your body will remain strained and inflexible. If things are going to open up, your brain needs to believe everything is safe and easygoing, so put yourself in a position where you'd be happy sitting and watching TV for a while.
Take a runner's lunge for example. If you're having a tough time balancing with your hands on the ground, or it's hard for you to sit on your back heel, find another way! Just sit down on the ground, left heel tucked in like you're sitting cross-legged, and extend your right leg straight. Now, lean back, with your hands behind you. Get comfortable. Once you're happy where you are, you have a good starting point.

3. Rather than hold yourself in your "deepest stretch" and wait for it to be over, try moving around gently.

Let's use the modified runner's lunge example again, where you sit down with one heel tucked in, and one leg straight forward. Start by leaning back. Take a moment and get used to things here. Next try walking your hands to the right, and leaning into them, maybe even bringing a forearm down to the ground. Do the same thing off to the left. Keep a slight bend in your knee and stay relaxed in your leg, so as you roll from right to left, your leg can roll around too. Sometimes your knee will face straight up, sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left. That's OK! You want to let your body move naturally and do its own thing. If you find a good spot to
linger and breathe, that's your spot. Linger and breathe as long as you like.

4. Breathe deep.

It might not be obvious at first, but if you want more flexibility, focus more on your breath than on your muscles. This will put your mind at ease, and create the right conditions for your muscles to release tension.
Breathe deep enough that every inhale lifts you a little out of wherever you are, and every exhale eases you back wherever you body feels like going. When your body is really relaxed, every breath will move you. If your breath isn't moving you, try scanning through your body, and see where you might be holding tension or working harder than needed. Let the stress go, and breathe deep.

5. Avoid extreme positions.

Bending over backward to put your head in your behind isn't likely to help you with much! A healthy body holds a balance between stability and mobility, strength and flexibility. Hyper-mobility in joints is a common affliction of yoga posers and performance artists (think ballerinas and Cirque du Soleil artists), and leads to reduced athletic capability, as well as all kinds of chronic pain and need for surgery later in life. Instead, you want to reach your middle point, where your body works at its best: nicely balanced between stability and mobility.

6. Drop the goals, get into you.

Let's try this in the runner's lunge again. Rather than just aim to touch your toes, or get your head to your knee every time, forget the goal! The problem with visible goals is there's a whole lot of
temptation to force our way into them, rather than find our way there peacefully. So we might get to the goal, but the outcome isn't so good.
There's so much more to you than just a pose, so many more directions you can take than just straight ahead. So explore! Move gently in every imaginable direction all around this forward fold. See what you find. It will probably be different every day, and every day you'll get to know more and more of you. That's going to be fun!

7. Move more, rather than pose more.

Take a standing forward bend as an example. Rather than hold straight forward, and trying to get deeper and deeper into the bend, relax and move! Put a little bend in your knees, and sway gently side to side. If you're looking for more, move more. Widen your stance, so your body is more stable and ready to move. Now lean so far off to the right that your left leg lengthens, and the foot might even leave the ground!
Same thing on the other side. Your focus is on moving easily and comfortably all around where you are.Do this across the board, and you'll be getting flexibility and mobility at the same time, without worrying about your flexibility.

8. Remember: sometimes where you are is where you need to be.

Balance is good. Right there in the middle, nowhere to go but here! There’s nothing wrong with you, and you don’t need to chase that old feeling of your first shoulder opener. Now you can get into a whole new world: the one that's exactly right where you are. Let's get started together. It's going to be good.

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Ghee: Stove Top Super Food from Mother of All Health Systems

Ghee for thee is much better than butter for you. Ghee, made from butter, is considered a health food in Indian Ayurvedic (pronounced Ah-your-vadic) medicine, which has a 5000 year history predating even Chinese medicine. Ayurveda is continually gaining popularity in the western modern world. Ghee is the preferred cooking oil in India, and it is a healing food in Ayurvedic medicine. Though sometimes confused with clarified butter, ghee goes beyond clarified butter with more health benefits.

The only problem is that if you buy ghee from a health food store, it`s expensive. And you really have little control over the quality of that purchased jar`s content. So why not make your own ghee with a high quality butter and get more ghee for less cost? This article will explain how to make your own after you`ve hopefully been motivated by ghee`s healthful food properties along with a little understanding of Ayurvedic medicine.

A Little on Ayurveda

Ayurveda has its roots from ancient India, but it`s not voodoo or woo-woo. Ayurveda`s foundation wisdom of food as the first medicine for preventing disease, and herbal remedies for curing disease are constantly creeping into the western world`s holistic circles. What is amazing about Ayurveda are the diagnostic techniques for dietary advice and herbal remedies.

Ayurvedic clinics have no expensive equipment, which lowers overhead, and they dispense inexpensive herbs along with dietary advice. All this adds up to providing very inexpensive, effective medical care.

In the hands (literally) of a good Ayurvedic practitioner as well as the practitioner`s eyes and ears, Ayurvedic doctors are able to tell you of underlying problems that unless attended soon will cause future disease, often even before modern allopathic testing gets a hint. This is because the foundation of Ayurveda undercuts the complexity of modern medicine.

By the way, except for being okay with fermented non-GMO soy, Ayurvedic doctors were naysayers on soy years before many others caught on. Their history is ancient, but their awareness is ahead of the contemporary curve. Their ability to catch hidden bad health indicators and give you the tools to thwart them before they manifest can put you in charge of your present and future health.

Ayurveda is the source of Chinese medicine`s diagnostic techniques, using pulse characteristics, tongue observations, and gathering information of a client`s emotional tendencies, physiological reactions to cold and heat, and life style characteristics. Ayurveda`s basic premise is that there are three doshas, or the tridosha concept.

Each dosha is a mind-body characteristic to help determine an individual`s constitutional type. One`s constitutional type, categorized by the dominant dosha or doshas, is determined with a dosha analysis. From this a diet can be prescribed that is in harmony with your constitutional type.

Though all three doshas are present in all of us, usually one or two are dominant. Each dosha has elemental qualities, such as air, fire, earth and water, which were taken up and used by Chinese medicine after Ayurveda. Dosha disorders that create constitutional imbalances are remedied through lifestyle changes, prescribed diets, and herbs.

The prescribed diet balances your doshas by lessening food types that emphasize certain already strong doshas, and increasing food types that augment weak doshas. Surprisingly, you`re not expected to be completely vegan. If you prefer, even meats may be consumed when balanced properly within the diet.

However, the average SAD (standard American diet) person will usually have a very hard time adapting to the dietary shift prescribed. Approaching a prescribed Ayurvedic diet gradually is not unusual, unless one is really motivated!

A balanced dosha system creates steady good health. An Ayurvedic doctor can prescribe remedies for your present and future condition by reading your pulse with his fingers and observing your tongue. But it takes a list of questions and observations to determine your dominant dosha(s) and constitutional type.

What Is Ghee and How Can I Make It?

Ghee is good for all the doshas, and even assists with balancing them.

It is the premier cooking oil in Indian Cuisine. Though derived from butter, it has a much higher burning point than even most cooking oils, 375 degrees Fahrenheit or 191 degrees Centigrade. Ghee has more positive health effects than butter without the impurities (saturated fat, milk solids), enabling even lactose intolerant people to use it as butter on toast or pasty and in cooking.

Modern western science has discovered that ghee has phenolic antioxidants, which bolster the immune system. Traditionally in Ayurveda, ghee has been used to enhance digestion, improve memory, promote intelligence, and lubricate connecting tissues. It is healthier than butter for every day use, as it does not contain any dairy product cholesterols and its caloric content is low as well.

According to Dr. Vasant Lad, author, lecturer, and director of the Albuquerque, NM Lad Ayurvedic Clinic, "Ghee relieves chronic fever, anemia and blood disorders and is useful for detoxification. . . . it aids in the balancing of the tridosha. Ghee promotes the healing of wounds and alleviates peptic ulcer and colitis. It is good generally for the eyes, nose and skin."

Making Ghee at Home

If you don`t have the time or inclination and you have the bucks, at least buy and try some ghee for cooking and buttering to improve your health. However, some believe it will taste better while giving you quality control if you make it yourself, besides being cheaper.

To make it yourself, get the best butter you can buy. Butter from whole raw milk is ideal, but difficult to find unless you know some Amish or Mennonite groups who make dairy products from raw milk. Goggling raw butter or raw butter sources may get you somewhere though. At least make sure you get real organic butter from whole milk if you can`t get raw butter.

There is some deceptive labeling out there with lowered USDA organic requirements, which allow dairy producers to use a percentage of milk containing hormones (RBGH)in their dairy products. Do some research, or talk with knowledgeable health food store staff to determine which butter brands are truly organic.

It`s also important to make sure the milk producing cows are grazed on non-chemically sprayed or non-fertilized grasses or alfalfa. Toxins get lodged in fats, and you don`t need those toxins in your ghee.

Get at least one pound of organic unsalted butter. Make sure you have unbleached cheesecloth on hand for filtering the liquid, and make sure you have a clean, sterilized heat resistant lidded jar on hand for the finished hot ghee.

Put the butter into a pan or pot over low heat. When the butter completely melts, continue heating at low heat until boiling occurs. There may be some sputtering as the water in the butter boils off. Before 30 minutes elapses, you should be aware of three layers in the liquid.

1) A top layer of foam, which is the water boil off
2) A middle layer of liquid
3) And at the bottom, the milk solids

If you want clarified butter for shrimp, crab, and lobster, here it is! But getting the ghee requires a couple of more steps.

Continue heating and now stir occasionally while closely watching to prevent the clarified butter from burning. Keep an eye on the milk solids as you stir occasionally. The milk solids will turn medium brown, and the liquid will become a translucent golden while emitting a fragrant nutty aroma.

At this point remove from the heat. Let it sit for a short while to ensure all the milk solids drop to the bottom. But while it`s sitting, go ahead and skim the foam or froth from the top of the liquid. A gravy or fat separator can make this easier. This is an important step, as you don`t want any water in your ghee. Water will spoil it.

Then get your cheesecloth layered over twice, or once inside of a fine mesh filter, and place that over the mouth of your selected jar. Pour carefully into the jar through the cheesecloth to prevent those milk solids from getting into the jar.

Keep the jar lid off until it cools to room temperature to prevent moisture from forming on the inside of the lid and contaminating the ghee. Then put the lid on. You can refrigerate it or put it on a shelf.

Ghee keeps for a year, even without refrigeration. If you want to use it for buttering toast or pastry, you will probably prefer it in a more solid state. So you can refrigerate it to keep it solid, as it gets soft for buttering quickly when taken out. You won`t need to be concerned about having it spoil if you do leave it out.

Note: as you use your ghee for cooking or buttering, make sure you do not allow any food particles, crumbs, or water to get into the ghee. Those can contaminate and spoil your ghee.

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Still looking for a cure to allergies? Ayurveda offers an alternative solution

Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of life, has some great advice for seasonal allergy sufferers who would like to eliminate the root cause of symptoms. The solution lies in the connection between the gut and the immune system. When digestive and metabolic activities work in synch with elimination, the body is able to rid itself of toxins which could otherwise block the channels to produce a variety of allergic response symptoms.

In healthy individuals, inhaled pollen and dust are trapped by the mucosal lining of the respiratory tract and either expelled forcefully through the mouth or nostrils, or broken down internally. When the protective ability of this mucosal barrier is compromised, the body compensates by increasing the production of mucus to facilitate expulsion of the allergen. This is followed by more common allergy symptoms, and suddenly even simple activities like breathing become difficult.

In Ayurveda, there are several ways to manage this, ranging from pacification treatments to intense full body detoxification and purification. Although detoxification takes a little longer (several weeks to months, depending on the individual), it is the recommended line of management for those looking to rid themselves of symptoms.

The treatment involves one or more of the five Panchakarma procedures, which methodically remove toxins from the deep tissues and safely expels them from the body. Its specialty lies in the use of medicated fat (usually ghee) to bind toxins which are the root cause for all types of allergies, including respiratory, digestive, skin allergies and even auto-immune disorders.

Here, we'll discuss the simple pacification treatments for respiratory allergies which can easily be done at home following these general rules, in the order mentioned.

Optimize your digestive system

This is the key to managing most allergies. If your appetite is low, and bowels are not moving regularly, the digestive system must be corrected first. For a few days, eat very light food such as hot, clear, oil-free soup made with fresh ginger and black pepper, along with steamed rice. Avoid anything cold, including fruit! This will increase the appetite and stimulate the gastrointestinal tract to begin eliminating toxins more easily.

Once the appetite becomes strong, return to your normal diet. This may take anywhere from 1 - 5 days depending on the person.

Instill nasal drops

In the early morning after evacuating the bowels, 2 - 3 drops of warm sesame oil can be instilled into each nostril to strengthen the nasal mucosal and prevent allergic attacks.

Use oils inside and out

In order to build healthy epithelial and mucosal linings throughout the body, a sufficient quantity of oil must be ingested on a daily basis. According to the person, season and location, the ideal type and quantity of oil can vary from 40 - 70 ml or more per day. Excellent, easily available oils include unrefined coconut, sesame and olive, which can be used while cooking or added to a hot meal. Always avoid cold food and drinks with the meal as they can solidify the oil and lead to indigestion.

Externally, warm coconut or sesame oil should be massaged over the body before showering.

Apply heat and steam to open the channels

After applying oil externally, heat and steam from a hot shower helps to soften the tissues and open the sweat glands. This stimulates excretion of toxins through sweat and also allows the oil to penetrate the deeper layers of the skin. Very mild soap should be used (or none at all) for those prone to dry skin.

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6 Yoga Tips for Everyone with a Healthy Body

Yoga isn't just for the thin and flexible. Anyone who’s open to it can benefit from it. It can adapt to any and every body. If you're a bigger-bodied yogi or yogini, it may help to keep the following in mind.

1. Take it easy.

We're conditioned to think that exercise needs to be fast and hard to be worthwhile. This mindset has infiltrated yoga to the extent that the faster-paced vinyasa styles have become the mainstay. However, one of the best things you can do for your body is s … l … o … w ... d … o … w … n. Slower forms of yoga

improve flexibility and strength while balancing the nervous system; plus, they flush the chemicals released by stress that cause inflammation and weight gain.

If you’re just beginning, look for “gentle” classes. If you’re lucky enough to live near a studio offering Yoga for Bigger Bodies or something similar, take advantage of that!

2. Follow your instincts.

The most important disposition you can have to keep yourself free from injury and gain all the mental benefits of yoga is to listen to your body when moving into and out of every pose. Every single body on the planet is unique. Not all postures will work for every body. Plus, there's no requirement for teacher trainings to cover the special needs of larger bodies. Listen inward just as much as you listen to the teacher.

3. Think of your weight as a weight.

Keep in mind that if you’re in a room full of smaller people, you're doing a lot more work than them. For example, in arm balances, I’m lifting at least 50 pounds more than most other people in the room. Don’t give yourself a hard time for respecting the needs and limitations of your body. That’s the real work

of yoga.

4. Use props.

You can always use straps to make your arms longer or blocks to bring the floor up to you. In lunges, if your hands don’t reach the floor, use blocks. When the teacher guides everyone into a bind and your hands don’t reach each other, grab hold of your shirt or pants to find the twist or stretch. If getting up from the floor

is tricky business, consider the ultimate prop and try a chair yoga class. In any situation you encounter, don’t hold back from being creative. Determine the intention behind the posture: is it to build strength or to stretch a certain set of muscles? Figure out a way to make it happen.

5. Find the right teacher.

Don’t waste your time in a class that doesn't help you feel good about yourself. Move on until you find a teacher you enjoy. Yoga should leave you feeling refreshed and renewed, ready to face the world with clarity and compassion, or at least a little more tolerance and patience.

6. Remember why you’re there.

Yoga is first and foremost a mental practice. The postures provide an opportunity to practice staying present with our physical experience, observing and accepting ourselves in this moment exactly as we are. The process gives us the chance to exert control over our thoughts. For some of us, myself included,

the hardest part can be letting go of the constant stream of negativity and self-badgering that wrecks us, taking away our confidence and any sense of ease.

The mental practice of yoga is demanding but it’s entirely worthwhile. We cannot

be at peace if we're at war with our bodies. Choose peace!

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3 Steps to Start a Powerful Personal Transformation

Never has the possibility of personal transformation been so rapid, urgent and accessible. Our world is
now inundated with modern day truth-seekers, trying to find inner peace among the chaos of their
external and inner landscape. The world is changing so rapidly, if we don’t transform our thoughts and
actions by clearing out the old beliefs and consciously choosing to take full responsibility for living our
true life's purpose, then life may become overwhelming and difficult to navigate.
We are facing great challenges, but if we have transformed our attitudes, tuned into our inner power
and consistently connected to life force energy, we will actually thrive, evolve and grow regardless of
the dark landscape of our external world.
Personally, I have felt more energetically sensitive to the planetary shift. Feeling the urgency to awaken,
feeling lost, I asked, "Where do I begin the inner transformation process?" Here are the steps I took to
begin my personal journey:

1. Create a balance of mind, body and spirit.

The first key is to create a simultaneous balance of the mind, body and spirit. All reinforce each other,
and when you focus too much on one in isolation, the process is held back by lack of balance. In my
experience, Kundalini yoga, the yoga of self-awareness, was the most powerful tool to bring about a
unity in my mind, body and spirit. I enhanced my intuition, strengthen my energy field and inner-power.

2. Express your emotions.

The heart of any transformation is to get in touch with your emotions and allow them to be expressed
in a non-judgmental way without attaching any stories or lasting importance to them. Releasing
emotions and energy from your body that no longer serve you creates the space for you to embody
inner-peace. When you allow yourself to experience emotions in your body, free your mind from past
programming and connect with your pure power and light, inner-transformations are fast and
permanent.
Kundalini meditation is designed to tap into your subconscious, break negative though patterns, release
emotional energy blocks and allow for deep healing.

3. Be the example of living from your highest self.

A full and complete inner transformation requires you to practice living from the space of love, light and
peace. True personal fulfillment comes from being of service and helping others embark on their own
journey towards inner-transformation.
Sharing your uplifted energy with everyone you meet and making the commitment to fulfill your life's
purpose, so that you can serve and help others awaken to undertake their own personal journey, is the
sign that you've successfully made a personal transformation.

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5 Basic Yoga Poses to Make You Feel Fantastic in 15 Minutes

The practice of yoga can do wonders for your overall mood, physique and peace of mind. With our
fast-paced lives and crazy work schedules we rarely get to take time for ourselves to reboot.
Fortunately, spending hours at an ashram or a week at a spa is not required. Yoga is the perfect practice
to implement into your daily life, because you can experience its many benefits quickly. All it takes is 15
minutes a day for a sunnier disposition, heightened sex drive and a greater sense of well-being.
Here are five basic poses that will help you feel better in your own skin, and they don't take long if you
want to include them in your daily routine!

Dolphin

1. Come into a straight-arm plank with wrists under shoulders and legs extended straight back. Keeping

your hands in place, shift your hips up and back.

2. Point tailbone straight up to the ceiling, relax head and draw shoulders away from the ears. Press

chest toward thighs, spread hands wide and begin to engage your core.

3. Hold for 10 deep breaths.

Warrior II

1. Stand with feet wider than hip-width. Turn right toes out and left toes inward at a 45-degree angle.

Deeply bend right knee so thigh comes close to parallel with the ground. Keep left leg straight.

2. Extend arms directly out from shoulders and gaze over your right finger tips. Draw core in tight and

stay low in the legs.

3. Hold for 10 deep breaths each side.

Warrior III

1. Come into a lunge position with right foot forward (knee bent) and left foot back (straight leg). Hinge

forward at your hips and bring torso close to parallel with the floor. At the same time, kick left leg up to

hip-height, forming a straight line from the crown of your head to your toes.

2. Place both hands at heart center, draw belly button toward the spine and gaze a few inches in front

of you.

3. Hold for 10 deep breaths each side.

Triangle

1. Stand with feet wider than hip-width. Turn right toes out and left toes inward at a 45-degree angle.

Keep both legs straight as your hinge at your hips toward the right leg. Draw your torso as far to the

right as possible, maintaining length through your spine.

2. Place right hand above or below the knee and extend left arm directly above shoulder. Spin right hip

forward and left hip back. Gaze toward the floor to stretch the neck.

3. Hold for 10 deep breaths each side.

Pigeon

1. Come into a downward dog (see pose #1) with tailbone pointing toward the ceiling and hands

pressing into the floor. Lift right leg up to hip height, then gently swing it forward. Bend right knee and

lower leg onto the mat.

2. Try to get your shin close to parallel with the front of the mat and always keep foot flexed. Left leg

stays straight. Fall forward over right shin and rest hands or forehead on the mat.

3. Hold for 10 deep breaths each side.

*If your hips are very tight, please place a pillow or blanket under right hip to assist in this

posture.

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