Inspire Yoga

We are all conscious beings, but how many of us live in consciousness? Are you aware of your own thoughts? Do you get carried away with your emotions? Are you present to your surroundings or lost in your inner world? Our minds are so sophisticated we tend to go along with the ebb and flow of our stream of thought not realizing that we are greater than this current. When we are just with ourselves, our breath, our energy we feel a deep sense of connection and vitality, this is the point that yoga is reaching. We do poses and breathing exercises to eventually silence the mind and connect with our innermost energy, our life force, this brings us the peace and fulfillment that we go on searching in the outside world. But somehow we get stuck, fixating on the benefits yoga has on the body many of us aren’t able to explore deeper and access is deeper value. Our  breathing and meditation program  is designed to bring you to a state where you are functionally optimally in every ...

he 7 Chakras is a yogic system of energy, the first chakra keeps us rooted and grounded, something most of us lack living in high rises, away from nature and competing in the rat race of Hong Kong’s urban lifestyle. The first chakra, or root chakra, is important as it brings us the power to manifest, whereas the 7th chakra, the crown chakra, governs the power of transcendence. If we are working towards fulfilling objectives and creating a change we want that change to manifest and thus the root chakra needs to be balanced and aligned. The First Yoga Chakra is the Most Important & Needs to be Balance Probably the most common chakra to be in a weakened state is the First Chakra. The Root Chakra is located at the very base of your spine. It deals with issues of physical survival, safety, and security and is blocked and weakened by fear and insecurity. The first chakra acts as a pump at the base of the 7 wheels of energy that help energy rise and flow because it is at the...

Ayurveda is the ancient science of Indian medicine. It seeks to bring longevity and a greater quality of life by delving into health and healing. Ayurveda determines the wholesomeness of one’s life by examining the harmony in which one lives with themselves and their surroundings. Any ailments on the physical plane is said to be rooted on the level of the mind, thus a healthy body starts with a happy mind. Ayurveda classifies each body according 3 categories (doshas), our bodies will have characteristics that are predominant in at least one of these doshas. The aim here is to know our bodies better and thus know what to avoid and how to nurture it. If we are out of balance, there is too much of one element dominating leading to poor health. The focus is to bring everything into balance, in a holistic fashion. Vata This is the first dosha, it relates to the elements of space and air. Its physical qualities are dry, cold, light and irregular. People who are vata tend to be ...

Learning how to relax is fundamental to our physical and mental well-being. After a stressful day our bodies and minds may not be able to relax and when lying down to rest or sleep your muscles may continue to carry a certain amount of residual tension which over time can be a constant drain on your energy resources. Corpse pose, or Sivasana, helps to train our minds to consciously let go of any strain, mental and physical in order for us to reach a state of deep relaxation. When lying in bed tossing and turning to find sleep try lying flat on your back and tense up every muscle in your body, hold it for a few seconds and let it go, feel yourself sinking down into your bed and the tension drifting away. Another exercise you can try is to visualise any tension drifting away as you relax each part of your body from your feet up to your head feeling your whole body heavy and your mind completely calm, taking deep breaths in and long, slow exhalations. If this helps to relax you ...

To practice YOGA means to choose to evolve and produce transformations in the being, that will quickly become healthy and purified because of the energies that pass through the body. Even though this passing of the energy is produced, without a proper awareness of the processes that are triggered in our inner universe – when we do our practice – effects on the body, our psyche and mind are much reduced and it takes a longer period of time until energies become visible in the physical plan. The awareness of energies, which are received in our being, will purify by transformations of the body and mind. Out of the whole complex of techniques and procedures that the YOGA system includes, the most well-known are ASANA-s, the body postures. During the practice of ASANA-s we will regard each body posture that we realize as a gate open towards profound spirituality. The practice of ASANA-s must be carried out in a perseverant, effortless and patient way. If the execution of each ASANA will...

From the time we enter the world to the time we leave; our breath is with us every moment. Breathing is the critical sign of vitality- however if we are not breathing correctly it can drain our energy. The breath itself can help bring life and energy to the body- that is why in yoga we treat it as the fabric of health and wellness. The human body can go 3 weeks without food, 10 days without water but only 3 minutes without breathing- our breath is our most important source of energy. In yoga, breathwork is called Pranayama, Prana means energy, so these breathing exercises facilitate the movement of energy. Stress causes tension and tightness around the neck and shoulders, affecting our posture to slouch which restricts our breathing. The full contraction and relaxation of muscles is thwarted causing the volume of the chest cavity to increase and decrease to a much smaller proportion than their capacity. The result? The breath becomes shallow and short, to compensate for the small...

Now more than ever we need to ascertain what we choose to entertain in our minds. Being unaware of your mental conditions can trap you in a habit of forming stress which is physiologically, psychologically and energetically damaging. The introductory techniques of breathing, meditation, and mindfulness help to look within and start to clear the clutter in your mind, the release of stress by the power of your intention of compassion will feel so freeing and liberating it will connect you with a whole new way of being and interacting with yourself. When we think of going for a movie, catching up with friends over drinks or getting a massage as a way of de-stressing, they help up relax temporality by providing a distraction from the root cause of the feeling. The next time you are in a state of angst, take a moment to examine your thoughts and determine how much are you contributing to this stress response by the way you think? Stress is formed by a repeated negative thought pattern...

Mindful movements provide a productive outlet to release pent up energy that would otherwise make us feel aggressive and anxious, helping us to feel more relaxed and experience better quality sleep. Exercise decreases the risk of developing certain diseases especially high blood pressure and cholesterol. Chronic stress physiologically releases a hormone called adrenaline which contributes to increased risk of heart disease, signs of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, exercise decreases stress levels and regulates adrenaline levels keeping heart disease at bay. The mindful movement is an embodied learning, it releases endorphins but also forces us to pay attention to our breathing that promotes feelings of calm and wellness and frees us from the cycle of negative thought patterns.  The movement paired up with breath awareness releases stress, physiologically the release of hormones from the exercise decreases the risk of high blood pressure and high cholesterol  from...

ositive psychology advocates meditations from the Buddhist concept of lovingkindness, where we consciously fill ourselves with positive emotions of harmony and gentleness. A clinical trial by Carson et al in 2005 published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing found that this meditation lead to a decrease in pain, anger and psychological distress in a study of patients with chronic lower back pain. When we bring the mind towards peace it finds it within ourselves. From this state we have the confidence to be authentic as we accept and love ourselves for who we are and not an unrealistic gold standard. This peace within radiates out enhancing our relationships as we connect from a place of harmony and not competition, Pema Chodron quotes “Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves”. The relationship we have with ourselves is a determinant factor in how we view the world, relate to others and deal with pressure.  Strong interpersonal skills begin with an intrapersonal...

We spend so much time in front of our computers sitting, do you suffer from back pain as a result? Stiffness around your neck and shoulders? Poor blood circulation from the lack of physical movement? Occupational tension is a term coined from the physical stress placed on our body from our modern-day sedentary lifestyle. We will go through basic movements that can be done at the desk in your work attire to help relieve the build-up of tightness around the shoulders, neck, back, and hips from sitting for prolonged periods of time. We demonstrate the importance of posture to breathing, mood, and energy levels. Practical tips on the following topics will be outlined -Spine Mobility -Hip positioning while sitting -Feet alignment while standing -Protecting wrists from tendinitis The first step to making a change is to bring awareness of the problem, these seminars facilitate open discussion and reflection so we are more empowered to direct effort into healthier habits and ...

Having come from a background of investment banking I saw my yoga practice as a time to dissolve tension from my body and release stress from my mind. I used to be a derivatives trader and coping with the time pressure of the job left me feeling very stiff and exhausted. It was then when I realized it was because my mind and body were so disconnected, my mind racing all day and my body completely sedentary at my desk. Yoga helped me to realign the connection by bringing mental stillness and physical agility. It made a tremendous impact on my energy levels and made me feel much more alert at work. I realized by address my body through stretching, strengthening and balancing poses I needed to focus on the subtle rhythm of the breath which in turn freed me from the mental inner chatter that kept me feeling so tight. In the ‘work hard, play hard’ environment of Hong Kong I wanted to be able to share this gift of inner calm and proper alignment with my colleagues who were burnt out and ...

How does stress affect our breathing? We experience stress as the ‘fight or flight’ response which is rooted in the emotion of fear stimulated it is governed by the limbic brain. This causes a physiological domino effect causing us to hold our breath or hyperventilate, causing muscles to tighten, the heart rate to increase, cortisol levels to raise and sustained periods of this leads to lower immunity, sleep disruption, digestive issues, lower fertility rates, and premature aging. What connects the stimulus on a mental level (stress) to a physical manifestation (deterioration of health)? It’s the breath! By addressing breathing patterns we can reverse engineer the effects of stress to ensure we stave off the adverse health conditions. Setting up the  breathing exercise Long Back, Fluid Breaths A long extended spine allows for maximum lung capacity breathing, fluid breaths. As we breathe in first fill up the abdomen then the rib cage and finally ...

Remember the days where we all huddled around the TV to watch the weekly episode of the X-files? Getting together and watching a favorite show as a family was a time of bonding, we waited the whole week for it and would excitedly discuss how the story would evolve in the next episode. We would go to the toilet only during the commercial breaks and sshh anyone who spoke during Skully and Moulder’s dialogue. Fast forward 15 years, we all have our own personal devices that we can watch a show on, there is a plethora of options available to us to choose, we can access hundreds of episodes immediately and commercial breaks during shows don’t exist anymore. Wow, this is a real change, moving from an addiction to screen time, a mode of isolation, binge watching for hours at a time- all this has drastically affected our relationship with screen time, our health and our family, all in the name of innocent entertainment. We are at a tipping point where more is no longer better, our overdos...

When we are in stressful situations and in toxic relationships, we can’t help but feel helpless, our thoughts get stuck replaying a negative feedback loop, reliving difficult experiences and feeling the hurtful emotions associated to the events. How do we move from feeling victimized to empowered? When we try to control our outside environments we soon realize that there is only a limited amount of force we can exert and actually we don’t have a say in how others think or act. However, when we move from blaming others as the source of our problem to reflecting within, it is how we are affected, how we respond and how we come across that govern our frame of mind and yet we relinquish total control of our inner environment to the ebb and flow of the external environment.   Can you change? Don’t you feel lost and insecure when you are stressed? And when you are peaceful isn’t it easy to feel loving, generous and kind? Our negative emotions are grouped together, fear, anger,...