Inspire Yoga

It’s a sad fact that today’s youth are plagued with pressure- high expectations to attain academic success, to excel in sports, hobbies and leadership positions and with the onslaught of social media minute by minute comparisons among peers exacerbates the problem. Isn’t childhood supposed to be the time in our life where we are carefree and adventurous? As a parent it can be a tough time supporting a child who isn’t coping well, instead of simply labelling it as a maladaptive behavior, anxiety or character traits, let’s do what we can to identify the problem and nurture our child in a holistic way so that they feel supported as they learn how to traverse the information overload of the digital age. Stress is epigenetic, it gets passed down as a behavior, then a habit than the normalization of being on high alert. Where do they pick this up from? They model what they see, at home and at school, it’s completely acceptable that adults are stressed on a daily basis, that they deal wit...

Iyengar’s discussion of Prajna- Insight, and Intuition, in his book entitled ‘Light on Life’ is highly inspiring. Challenging conventional definitions of intelligence, he gives meditative insights on spiritual intelligence purporting that it is the ability to see oneness and the positive qualities in all to allow the light of knowledge from the conscience to shine forth. Yoga Iyengar is Practicing How to Focus & Concentrates Our Mind When we have countless thoughts swirling around our minds we are unable to focus, the constant chatter thereby mutes our inner voice as there is no silence within for it to be audible. During our practice of yoga, we are refining our concentration by clearing our mind and focusing only on our body and breath. When we establish a state of tranquillity we are able to free up the clutter in our minds in order for our inner voice to be heard, only then can we realize our intuitive powers. The ultimate purpose is to extrapolate this tranquillity...

It’s a sad fact that today’s youth are plagued with pressure- high expectations to attain academic success, to excel in sports, hobbies and leadership positions and with the onslaught of social media minute by minute comparisons among peers exacerbates the problem. Isn’t childhood supposed to be the time in our life where we are carefree and adventurous? As a parent it can be a tough time supporting a child who isn’t coping well, instead of simply labelling it as a maladaptive behavior, anxiety or character traits, let’s do what we can to identify the problem and nurture our child in a holistic way so that they feel supported as they learn how to traverse the information overload of the digital age. Stress is epigenetic, it gets passed down as a behavior, then a habit than the normalization of being on high alert. Where do they pick this up from? They model what they see, at home and at school, it’s completely acceptable that adults are stressed on a daily basis, that they deal wit...

This is an easily accessible pose to your body, the main challenge is holding your balance- thus this is a  great concentration exercise . However, if you have delicate ankles or have injured them previously please do not attempt the full pose, if standing on one leg is uncomfortable to feel free to place your toes on the floor.   Best Yoga Exercises That Improves Your Sense of Balance To set up the pose, simply stand up with you feet together, lift one foot up and place in the inside of your standing leg, be it your inner thigh or on the side of your shin. Your standing foot should be planted firmly into the mat and  the standing leg anchors the pose by actively pushing downwards . At the same time, the lifted foot is engaged by pushing into the standing leg and the standing legs resist maintaining equilibrium between the opposing forces. You want to imagine that your legs are hugging into the mid-line of your body. On the same token, your palms should push t...

Many of us want to be more flexibile but pushing too much and too soon can be dangerous. Here are 5 tips on how to practice  deep stretching  in a safe and controlled manner. Here we explain what it means to respect and listen to your body to ensure your yoga practise does not cause any damage or excessive stretching. Pain in the best indicator of something going wrong This is a primal mechanism that we should not ignore. We know the difference between a gentle pull on the back of our legs during our first forward bend and the pain from a pulled ligament when we are prematurely forcing our head to our knees in a forward bend. If you feel any sharp pain- STOP! Slowly come out of the pose and alert your teacher. Stay in control Be sure to maintain the pose and be able to slowly move into another pose. Don’t jerk from one pose to another, even if you are flowing with your breath be sure your muscles are engaged at all times and are controlling the movement-...

Intermittent fast and time-restricted are popular trends, we recently held a seminar discussing the body’s natural biorhythms and how shortening the window of eating helps to aid digestion and optimize metabolic functioning. In addition to outlining the best timings to eat, we also delved into being mindful about why we are eating. Have you felt upset and reached straight for food to fill a void? The concept of ‘comfort food’ addresses the disconnection of mind and body, the need for our attention may be on a mental/emotional level but we suppress this by seeking comfort on a physical level instead. The talk, hosted by Neelam Harjani, the founder of Inspire Yoga, highlighted the importance of self love and being aware of the root cause of binge eating or eating out boredom or out of distraction. When there is awareness we can consciously choose when we want to eat and select health promoting foods so we don’t trap ourselves in a cycle of guilt and self sabotage revolving the esse...