What a brilliant way to start the weekend, from today onwards His Holiness The Dalai Lama will initiate The Buddha Maitreya. Maitreya is the Buddha of Universal Love, and the goal of this teaching is to bring abundance, peace, and joy to the planet. For this event, taking place at a monastery in India, The Dalai Lama has called ten thousand monks from around the world.

Of course, most of us can’t attend. But you can do your part, thanks to Do As One. This site hosts online “breathing rooms,” where people can sign in and join others breathing; current breathing rooms include Laughter Room and Om Room, among many other great ideas.

“I had a vision of having a billion people breathing together synchronously,” says Do As One co-founder Rabia Hayek. “And then I realized with the Internet that I could actually do it.” The goal is 10,000 people breathing together at any given time.

For this week’s happening, Hayek encourages everyone to log in and join the Universal Breathing Room anytime during the 4th, 5th, or 6th to take part.

We would love to know – Do you think breathing together will have a positive effect?

Yoga Wellbeing classes are filling up with yogis who are using their regular yoga practice to work against all the colds and flus going around. You can’t always keep the colds of winter from stuffing up your head and slowing down your body. Before you know it, you may be wondering if you should attempt your yoga practice or retreat to bed. Here’s a little bit of  Yoga Wellbeing inspiration;

TREAT YOURSELF If you feel you need to take something for your symptoms, try to avoid antibiotics, and even over-the-counter cold remedies aren’t very practical, since many contain five drugs when all you need is one or two. Perhaps you could try individual remedies, like lozenges for a sore throat. For nasal congestion, add a few drops of eucalyptus oil to boiling water and inhale the vapors. Although it’s still not clear how effective echinacea, zinc lozenges, vitamin C, and homeopathic preparations can be, you can still try them, since they are all generally very safe and could be the remedy you need.

LISTEN CLOSE Check in with your body before practice. If you’re wiped out, you could make things worse by pushing through your normal routine, so try a gentle or restorative practice instead and skip strong breathing techniques. Once your energy improves, you can gradually return to a more vigorous practice even if you still have a cough or your nose is stuffy. If you feel worse after practicing, it’s a sign that you’ve probably done too much. Take it easy and be kind to yourself.

TRY OUT SOME POSITIVE VIBRATIONS Vibrations from humming have been shown to open the sinuses and help get rid of phelgm, which can relieve pressure and may even help stave off a bacterial infection of the sinuses. Try chanting Om, or, for nasal congestion, experiment with the pranayama practice of Bhramari: Press your lips together and make the sound of a buzzing bee.

STAY UPRIGHT If your head is stuffed up or you’re feeling tired, avoid inversions like Headstand and Handstand. Even Shoulderstand can worsen nasal congestion and head pressure.

SUPPORT YOURSELF Even restful poses like Savasana (Corpse Pose) aren’t easy when you’re congested, so instead of lying flat, support your back on a bolster running lengthwise from your lower spine to your head, with a folded blanket under the head and neck if needed. This makes breathing easier, and it’s more energizing.

Whenever I ask my yogis before class if they have any requests, I’m asked about hip openers. Hip openers may be challenging, but they can also be incredibly satisfying, both physically and emotionally.

If you’re like most students, you probably feel as though someone poured superglue into your hip sockets. There are perfectly good reasons for this. First, modern life requires sitting all day, which keeps your hips from the rotation, flexion, and extension they need to remain agile. Second, common sports such as running and cycling—and even an everyday activity like walking—demand hip strength but not flexibility. The third culprit is stress, which creates tension in your body, especially in your hip area, which is a complex cluster of powerful muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Even a little bit of stress-induced clenching can really lock them up.

So, short of tossing out your chair (which could lead to other physiological problems), and entirely eliminating stress from your life, what can you do to unstick your hips and get them gliding freely again? For starters, you can start to incorporate Pigeon Pose into your daily routine.

This pose is perfect for tight hips because it stretches the hip rotators (the buttocks area) and the hip flexors (the long muscles that run along the front of your thighs and pelvis). It also requires substantial external rotation in the front leg and substantial internal rotation in the back leg. If you practice it consistently, you’ll notice an increased suppleness throughout your practice. You may also find that your body moves more easily even after class, since your pelvis is the central hub of movement.

All you have to do is be attentive to the many—and sometimes difficult—physical sensations that arise. Your ability to observe and be with these sensations and the accompanying cacophony of thoughts and feelings may be just as rewarding as the physical benefits of the pose.

Yoga Wellbeing teachers create a range of restorative practices that help clients deal with insomnia. Insomnia—the inability to get to sleep or to sleep soundly—can be either temporary or chronic, lasting a few days to weeks. It affects a whopping 54 percent of adults in the United States at one time or another, and insomnia that lasts more than six weeks may affect from 10 to 15 percent of adults at some point during their lives. To get a decent night’s sleep, many people are turning to pills.

“Sleeping pills are not always a cure; they treat the symptom but not the underlying problem,” explains Sat Bir Khalsa, a Kundalini Yoga teacher. Beneath the symptoms of insomnia are the anxiety, fatigue, and stress that our increasingly fast-paced world seems to be creating. These days, who hasn’t worked long hours without taking a break?

You may feel that you’ve adapted to the intense rhythm that modern life requires, but if you’re experiencing sleepless nights, your nervous system is probably rebelling. It may be stuck in a state known as arousal, where your sympathetic nervous system is triggered. In this state your mind will race or your palms might sweat. Your body will secrete more stress hormones, and your temperature and metabolic rates will rise, as will your heart rate. “There is very good evidence that people with chronic insomnia have elevated levels of arousal in general,” Khalsa says. “And some insomniacs have higher levels right before they go to sleep.” By creating a routine of soothing rituals, you can bring your nervous system back into balance and transform your sleep patterns for good.

Rituals for Relaxing

Whether it’s yoga to reduce muscle tension, breathing to slow the heart rate, or an herbal massage to calm a racing mind, a simple routine can be the most effective and safest road to a better night’s sleep. There is growing evidence that small behavioral changes can make a big difference in getting some good shuteye. A 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that participants who made modifications like reducing stimuli in the bedroom and learning relaxation techniques improved their sleep more than those who took drugs.

Know Your Timing

The first step to feeling well rested is to institute a regular bedtime. Maintaining consistency will help keep your circadian rhythms—the biological changes that happen every 24 hours—steady. Eventually, your body will naturally understand and crave sleep during these hours.

Tuck in Early

Although eight hours has long been considered the ideal length for a night’s sleep, Douillard says that it’s not just the number of hours you sleep that matters, but the time of day you go to sleep as well. He insists that our bodies naturally want to arise around 5 a.m., since humans started their day around daybreak before the advent of modern technology.

These are just a couple of ideas to get you started.

Controlling your breathing is an important part of yoga. In yoga, breath signifies your vital energy. Yoga teaches that controlling your breathing can help you control your body and gain control of your mind. Ensuring an overall feeling of well being. At Yoga Wellbeing we have seen significant changes being made in our clients lives because of yoga. So if you have had a stressful day and are low on energy book a private session or pop down to one of our classes for more information click here.

Yoga is an excellent for stress relief.Research has also shown that Hatha Yoga if practiced regularly, has a significant impact on muscular strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. Studies done on a group of people practicing yoga revealed that after eight weeks the flexibility of this group improved by 14% to 35%.

The physical and mental benefits of yoga provide a natural counter-balance to stress, and strengthens the relaxation response in your daily life. The Yoga that is practiced all over the world is actually called ‘Hatha Yoga’ a component of the wholesome Yogic practices.

You can counter the effects of stress to your body through yoga’s breathing exercises and other relaxation exercises. These exercises try to achieve deep quietness in the mental and physical state to alter your emotional and physical responses. After performing such exercises, you will soon notice that your heart rate decreases, as well as your muscle tension and blood pressure.

Stressed out individuals carry a great deal of physical tension in their bodies. In these cases the natural unblocking effected by yoga postures are helpful. When one rests between postures, abdominal tension is released from the body promoting deep breathing. The benefits of yoga postures (asana), breathing (pranayama), and meditation (dhyana) include increased body awareness, release of muscular tension and increased coordination between mind-and body.

Breathing – Controlling your breathing is an important part of yoga. In yoga, breath signifies your vital energy. Yoga teaches that controlling your breathing can help you control your body and gain control of your mind.

When we are totally relaxed by using the techniques Yoga has to offer, our system slows down the body’s processes and actual changes occur. These include slowed metabolism and respiration, pupil constriction in the eyes, and the central nervous system is calmed or taken off “alert status”.

New York went yoga crazy for a second day running as thousands of practitioners gathered on Central Park’s Great Lawn.

Under the guidance of acclaimed yogi Elena Brower, the masses assembled for a calming session under the open skies.

Jennifer Lobo, from organisers Times Square Alliance, said it was an amazing sight as peace descended on one of the busiest places on the planet.

She said: ‘If you could create tranquility in the most crazy, high energy place in the world that is a really great oxymoron, or a great opposite.

‘New York City is known for being a city that never sleeps. With all the city noise other imaginable source of noise, it is often hard to find a quiet corner anywhere outdoors.

‘New York yogis are some of the best in the world because they can bring that eternal peace to their practice and disregard anything going on outside, noise or whatever it is.’ commented Jennifer.

It’s great to see that Yoga outdoors is spreading across the globe. Yoga Wellbeing Yoga in the Park classes are only going to keep on growing. If you would like to know more about Yoga in the Park classes then just click here.

Here’s a low-maintenance routine for the weekend

We are starting with a relaxing position and move on to exercises to strengthen shoulders and aid posture.

Start in the Child position and feel yourself relax, then go to the Down Dog, which will strengthen your shoulders, arms and wrists. Repeat the Down Dog exercise, then go into the gentle Cobra, which helps align your body. Only stretch as far as you are comfortable. Then finish back in the restorative Child position.

Balasana/ Child pose

Sit on your heels, toes together and pointing back, knees together or apart. Exhale, bend forward, resting torso on thighs, your arms alongside the body and your forehead on the floor. Breathe slowly.

Adho Mukha Svanasana/ Downward-Facing Dog pose

From Child, put hands out alongside head, palms down. Come up on to all fours, then raise knees off the floor, suck the tummy in and as you inhale lift buttocks to the sky. As you exhale, press into heels. Breathe and hold for four breaths. Rise on to your toes, return to Child pose.

Bhujangasana/ Cobra pose (gentle)

Lie on tummy, legs extended, feet together. Place hands next to shoulders, palms down. Rest your forehead on the floor. Inhale, extend, then lift the head, squeezing thighs together. Keep your hands on the floor. On exhaling, release down slowly.

Hope you enjoy every breath of your practice, let us know how the practice went and get in touch.

You’re having a challenging day and your shoulders are up around ears. Something that can help is self massage. When you don’t have time or money for a massage , you can pick up a few props and follow these handy tips. Take a peek below.

Healing Headaches

If pounding headaches visit you all too often, it’s time to learn how to tap into your craniosacral still point—a momentary cessation of the pulse of your cerebrospinal fluid that dissipates tension and pain. “It’s great for headaches,” says Ann Honigman, a chiropractor and craniosacral therapist in Berkeley, California. “It really helps you quiet the nervous system.” The pros do this for clients with their hands, but you can do it for yourself by lying on an easy-to-make still point inducer.

What you need

Two tennis balls and a sock (stuff the balls in the sock and tie a knot at one end to hold them in place side by side)

How to do it

Lie on your back on a comfortable surface with a pillow under your knees. Place the tennis balls under your head, at the base of your skull (in line with the bottom of your ears, as viewed from the side). Rest your head on the inducer, close your eyes, and lie quietly for 10 to 20 minutes. When you’re done, lift your head with one hand and slide the prop away with the other.

Ease your back pain

Massage your own back? It’s much simpler than you’d think. A couple of easy-to-find props can help you open your chest, release tension in your spine, and even work those tight back muscles exactly where they ache.

How to do it

A massage roller or one of those swimming pool foam “noodles” (can be found on Amazon) rolled in a towel or folded sheet. For a deeper massage, you’ll also need two tennis balls or racquetballs tied in a sock.

Lie on the roller with your knees bent and your feet on the floor, so the roller extends along your spine from your sitting bones to the top of your head. You can either relax on the roller without moving (which opens your chest laterally) or roll gently from side to side to massage the muscles along your spine. Try it for at least 20 seconds or until your chest begins to relax and open.