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How to Succeed in Yoga: Practice
Yoga means to control the mind, to master the mind. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras begins by saying: Control of thoughts is Yoga—Yoga chitta vritti nirodhah (Sutra 1.2). But how is it to be done? Even the ideal disciple, Arjuna, says to Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: “My...
Really Living Yoga
When I think of what it means to really live Yoga, I recall a special visit in late December, in the mid-1970s. I was serving as director of the San Francisco Integral Yoga Institute, and Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) was coming to California for the celebration...
How to Live Yoga
Yoga is something that you live. If you want to be a Yogi you should be a Yogi always, not just while you are standing on your head. If you are a Yogi only when you stand on your head, then what are you when you walk on your feet? If you are a Yoga teacher, you are...
The Key to Loving Relationships
Love is a feeling. You cannot even put it in words. You will know what love is if you really want to know. Wanting to love itself is the beginning. And then if you want to love you should know how to love. Now, what is the meaning of love? It's not just...
Spiritual Partnership
God never does something without some good reason behind it. Why is it that God has given us two eyes when we can look at only one thing at a time? Have you ever tried to look in two directions at the same time, with both eyes? Try it. If the left eye wants to see...
How Yogis Succeed in Relationships According to the Bhagavad Gita
When we allow love to transform us through Yoga, the first thing it begins to affect is our vision and thus our relationships. In this article, Catherine Schweig reflects on the ingredients needed for success in relationships. Essentially, Yoga is a practice of the...
Relationships: Staying in Balance
Radha and Gary Gopal Bello are Yoga teachers, seminar leaders and therapists. Gopal is the former director of the Integral Yoga Institute of Montreal. He has a Master’s Degree in Psychology and studied with Ron Kurtz (Hakomi Therapy). Radha and Gopal also spent 16...
Creating Conscious Relationships
A student of Swami Satchidananda (Gurudev) since 1979, Marilyn Graman is a psychotherapist and cofounder of Life Works. She is committed to supporting people on their psychospiritual journey. In this article, Marilyn writes about how connecting with one’s true Self is...
Four Locks, Four Keys: A Simple Approach to Relationships
When I first studied Raja Yoga, or Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, in my Yoga Teacher Training Class of 2001 at the Integral Yoga Institute, New York City, I clearly remember Swami Ramananda saying something like, “First your mind talked you into eating the ice cream, then...
Yoga and Business: Lessons of a Lifetime
In this article, Steven Shankara Bookoff, former president of Satchidananda Ashram and current chief financial officer of Organic India shares lessons he learned directly from Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) about business and finance done the yogic way. I’ll never...
Running a Successful Yoga Studio
The North American Studio Alliance (namasta) was co-founded by Bernard (who serves as president) and Lisa Slede (a Yoga therapist) in late 2002 as a response to the lack of a trade organization for independent Yoga and mind-body professionals. It provides support for...
Yoga and Your Financial Archetype
As a Certified Financial Planner for several decades, Brent Kessel helps individuals, business owners and families manage their assets. Yoga is an important part of his personal path; he has written for Yoga Journal and has been a major presenter at Yoga conferences....
The Business of Yoga
As CEO of Yoga Yoga, the largest Yoga organization in Texas, Rich Goldstein (Raghurai) has explored the boundaries of Yoga and business in a unique way. He has championed the business of Yoga and applications of Yoga in healthcare as a matter of heart and health. In...
Yoga & Your Work
Work in your livelihood as Karma Yoga—selfless service. Do all work for the joy of doing it. Charge nothing for your labors; accept whatever you are paid. Choose work for someone or something that is worthwhile. Offer your work, your energy to God, the All, everyone....
The Yoga of Patanjali and Money
Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, composed around 200 CE and still considered the most succinct statement of yoga philosophy ever written, describes yoga as a path with eight limbs, of which asana is only one. The first two limbs, the yamas (moral restraints) and niyamas...
Savasana: A Passage to Immortality
At the heart of life’s most seductive, unsolved mysteries we find death—that dizzying prospect that our existence is but a flicker upon the landscape of eternity. Or is it? Humans have resisted accepting their own mortality since antiquity, when attitudes toward dying...
Widening the Tent: Accessible Yoga
Trying to hide the fact that I was switching hats during the 2nd Annual Accessible Yoga Conference in Santa Barbara, I secretly changed between three distinctly different caps from Friday, September 16 to Sunday, September 18, 2016. Accessible Yoga, founded by...
Accessible Yoga: An Interview with the Founder
We’re honored to introduce readers to Integral Yoga Teacher and Minister, Rev. Jivana Heyman, the founder of Accessible Yoga – a community that offers teacher trainings, conferences and networking. Accessible Yoga’s vision is to bring Yoga to excluded and underserved...
Prison Yoga
With the popularity of the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black, viewers are given a rare look at what it might be like inside a women’s prison. Recently, I found myself getting a real life look inside a women’s prison. Though I wouldn’t be wearing orange, I knew...
Daring to Rest
Each time you practice Yoga Nidra meditation, you’re stilling the waves of the mind through conscious entry into the sleep state. How? You start with sensing the body and breathing in specific ways in order to trigger the relaxation response. The relaxation response...
Stress & Relaxation: A Yogic Approach
The Roots of Stress Stress is an exaggerated response to change in the external or internal environment. The centre of the neuroendocrine system is the hypothalamus that prods the adrenal glands into activity. These glands are known as the “3 F” glands to the...
Pranayama: Unique Gift of the Yogic Tradition
Gary Kraftsow asserts that pranayama is among the most uniquely potent parts of Yoga practice. He explains that there’s no other tradition that has the sophistication of the yogic science of breath. In this article, he eloquently explains the ways you can use...
Breath: The Sacred Bridge
“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” ~Thich Nhat Hahn Vera was shocked when her boyfriend told her he wouldn’t ask her out again because she always agreed with him. He said she never had any ideas of...
How I Built Up My Pranayama Practice
In this article, Swami Asokananda reflects upon the journey that took him from novice pranayama student to one of Integral Yoga’s master teachers. He shares the challenges and triumphs of having a regular pranayama practice, as well as the insights and wisdom he...
Pranayama: Its Therapeutic & Spiritual Potential
Introduction The Gurus of Vedic times placed great importance on pranayama and advocated its practice in order to unleash the hidden potential energy known as the Kundalini Shakti. In the Prasnopanishad we find the following statement: “All that exists in all the...