Matysasana is a classic yoga pose that traditionally follows Headstand is either a joyful experience or one that feels challenging and awkward. Learn from Dr. Robin Armstrong the fundamentals in making this back arching yoga pose safe, effective, and enjoyable.

Benefits of Matsyasana (Fish Pose)
* Opens pectoralis muscles of chest, intercostal muscles between ribs, and upper portion of psoas muscles in hips
* Improves quality of breath by opening accessory muscles of breathing
* Opens muscles in the abdomen and front of neck
* Relieves thoracic/mid back spinal tension
* Strengthens musculature in back and neck
* Traditionally thought to stimulate organs in the abdomen and throat

Read more about how to do Matysasana (Fish Pose).

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Enjoy our latest yoga lifestyle article by guest author Kino MacGregor. Kino offers an engaging view of how we can create harmony through managing our vibration of thoughts and actions.

Is each individual on Earth responsible for their own life experience? Or are other people to blame when they are angry, tired, tedious, envious, rude, selfish and just down right mean? How do you make space for other people’s roll through the rollercoaster ride of life when it bumps right up against your happy day at the park?

The truth is that you really are responsible for your own experience and that you cannot control the way other people treat you no matter how hard you try. It is easier to sit back and judge reality by saying that people should treat you a certain way and that they are wrong whenever they don’t. However as long as you sing the tune of should or should not you set yourself up on a righteous path towards the vain attempt to change other people. When you want someone in your life to act differently than they are, you create resistance to them and the way they are acting. The old statement that the more you try to change it, the more it stays the same hits you square in the face. The more you tell yourself that your friend shouldn’t speak to in that way and get angry and frustrated about it, the more your friend continues to speak to you in exactly that way. You could in fact spend the rest of your life issuing moral dictums about the way other people should or shouldn’t treat you. That would be an awful waste of the rest of your life, especially since you have absolutely no control over the way other people act.

The only thing you have any control over is yourself. You have the power to change your actions, reactions, thoughts and emotions. In fact the only real source of transformation lies in the ability to manage your inner world. Much as you would manage your choice of food at a deli counter by scanning the possible choices and choosing what suits you based on your likes and dislikes, you can manage the full scope of your thoughts by choosing consistently better feeling thoughts about yourself, your life and all the beings in your life. It is how you think, feel and act on a moment to moment and day to day basis that amounts to what’s often called your vibration. What you think right now shapes your experience of reality.

What’s often called the “Law of Attraction” is the organizational rule of the universe and it’s what orders your experience of reality in response to your vibration. It works in a similar manner as when you’re asked not to think about the pink elephant and all you see in your mind is that very pink elephant. Dealing and interacting with family, friends and coworkers is just the same. When you stand in front of a loved one and think that they should not be so selfish, hurtful and ignorant all you see in them is evidence of their egocentric, stupid, heartbreaking behavior. Now you might say that it is really true that they are acting in this way. Yet another person standing in the exact same situation might not be bothered at all. At some moment the finger that points at other people has to turn and point back an its owner. The teaching of Abraham which comes through Esther and Jerry Hicks states that “you cannot restore someone to their Connection with Source by belittling them or by punishing them, or by being disgusted with them. It is only through love that you can return anyone to love.”

As long as you remain committed to complaining about other people, fighting with politicians or reacting in outrage at a traffic jams, you remain committed to a helpless struggle of trying to change other people and outside situations. Setting the tone of your thoughts, feelings and actions to the tune of what is wrong with the world simply gets you more of what’s wrong. Just as you sort through the junk mail in your inbox to search for the good news from colleagues and friends so too must you manage your inner vibrational world to search for better feeling thoughts and emotions about your friends, colleagues and family members. No thought is absolutely, incontrovertibly true and no emotion is permanent. Every person on Earth has the power to bring you immense joy and immense pain and you hold the key to deciding which it will be.

About Kino MacGregor
Kino MacGregor is a small business owner (www.miamilifecenter.com), yoga teacher and freelance journalist who has produced two yoga DVDs and is currently working on her first book, Inner Peace, Irresistible Beauty to be released late April 2009. For complete details please see www.ashtanga-awareness.com.

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It was a beautiful night for a spot of Yoga in the Park. We set up beside the circle of trees and got on with perfecting our yogic flying. One of the ladies commented on what a difference closing her eyes and hearing the wind rustle through the trees made to her relaxation pose. This all adds to the experience of doing yoga outdoors.

Since yoga began in India I can’t imagine many yogi’s practiced in shiny studios. They were happy to be outdoors, enjoying nature. We have to be realistic, when it gets a bit chilly we will be retreating indoors to a studio, shiny or not. As we watch the rain droplets roll down the window mid cobra. Until then I am sure you would like to be outdoors enjoying the mini summer in England. So until the sky turns grey join us for a bendy session or two.

My Yoga Online has posted a new nutrition article by guest author and nutritionist Karla Heintz, Top Food Nutrient Combinations. Learn about the important food combinations for optimum nutrient absorption.

Getting the most nutrition out of your kitchen fridge or backyard garden can be as easy as applying a few main principles. While some nutrients taken together improve the absorption of others, some nutrients can inhibit absorption all together.

Karla presents a list of food combinations you should incorporate and you should avoid in order to receive proper absorption of essential vitamins and minerals. Read full article Top Food Nutrient Combinations.

Learn more about our author, Karla Heintz.

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Enjoy My Yoga Online’s feature yoga pose of the month, Upavista Konasana (Wide Angled Seated Forward Bend) presented by Dr. Robin Armstong.

This classic wide forward bend offers great benefits:
*Stretches Adductor muscles of the groin
*Stretches Hamstring muscles
*Strengthens the supportive musculature of the spine
*Encourages activation of the core
*Traditionally thought to increase blood flow to the pelvis, keeping it healthy

Contraindications/ Cautions
*Low Back Pain: Sit up on a block or blanket, high enough that you can maintain the natural curve of your low back. When you are folding forward, use your hands for support on the floor. If you cannot safely enter and exit the pose without pain, it is not appropriate for you.
*Sacroiliac Joint Pain: If you have been diagnosed with Sacroiliac Joint pain, avoid wide legged poses until the pain subsides. Return with caution, using your core to support you.
*Pregnancy: The hormone Relaxin causes the bones of the pelvis to be more mobile that usual. Take your legs slightly less than 90 degrees, and gently lift and support the pelvic floor muscles (a Kiegel) to prevent unnecessary shearing in the pubic symphis. Do not allow your stomach to be compressed against the floor.

Learn how to effectively and safely perform Upavistha Konasana.

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My Yoga Online is happy to present a new yoga article by guest yoga author, Kino MacGregor. Enjoy this latest yoga writing offering inspiration in creating a strong sense of wellness through the action of mindful thought.

You create your reality in every moment with the thoughts that you think. Your attention is itself responsible for your life experience. No matter how awful the traffic jam is, how loud your neighbors are, how inconsiderate people may seem, how delayed the airplane is, you are the one who is ultimately in control of your reality. Regardless of what type of experience finds its way into your life you always have power over your reaction to reality. In doing so you are the true master of your own fate. Think that life is awful and it is…for you. Think that people are careless, blind and ignorant and they will be…to you. The power of positive thinking is a common topic of conversation, books and seminars in the yoga community. Most of yoga practitioners agree that it is a good idea to concentrate our thoughts towards a positive goal, rather than lull around in the doldrums of complaint and whine. The real question lies not in the debate about whether we can create our own reality or not, but rather in the how.

Enter the five thousand year old tradition of which you take part when you practice yoga. Yoga is a true science of the mind where you actively practice choosing a peaceful response to distressful situations, thus giving you the tools for creating your reality in each moment. When you practice yoga, you watch your mind’s reaction to touching the borders of your physical reality. Your inner dialogue in postures that seem impossible to you parallels your reaction to life situations that push the boundary of your comfortability. Pushing these limits brings up fear, anger, sadness, frustration, and numerous other insidious emotions.

It is easy to let your mind spin away into these temptations, however, with regular practice you will have the strength to remain calm, focused and aware. It’s like the difference between scratching an itch automatically and feeling the itch, acknowledging it and then choosing not to scratch. As you remain calm you are able to choose a peaceful response to your experience and thereby create your own reality. Wayne Dyer says that it is always possible to stop any life experience and say to yourself, “I can choose peace over this.” Yoga gives you a forum to practice saying to yourself that you actually can choose peace over the patterns that you have practiced in the past. You finally have the strength to stop scratching those pesky itches. Your thoughts are crystal clear in between your breath, posture, and drishti. With no one else to blame, no where else to run, nothing left to do, you can finally start where you are, in the center of your created life experience and begin the dedicated, devotional path towards creating a peaceful life in the present moment…one breath at a time.

About Kino MacGregor
Kino MacGregor is a small business owner (www.miamilifecenter.com), yoga teacher and freelance journalist who has produced two yoga DVDs and is currently working on her first book, Inner Peace, Irresistible Beauty to be released late April 2009. For complete details please see www.ashtanga-awareness.com.

Related Articles:
Energy of Positive Thinking
Five Principles of Yoga

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My Yoga Online has added a series of new short yoga flows for home and for at work to give you a quick burst of positive energy and rejuvenation. Click to view a free sample:

Yoga For Quick Energy with Kreg Weiss (Level 2 – 3.5 minutes)
Practice this short yoga flow for a quick burst of energy. Great in the morning, or during a short break in the day.

Morning Inspiration Office Yoga with Michelle Trantina (7 minutes)
Start your day with a few minutes of focused breathing and stretches to open your body and awaken your mind. Gentle but effective movements shake off tiredness and increase the flow of energy through the spine and central nervous system. Feel alert and calm at the same time, with this AM practice.

Clear and Calm Workplace Flow with Michelle Trantina (6 minutes)
Feel an immediate sense of vibrant relaxation in your body and mind. Rejuvenate your spine, open your wrists for long hours at your computer, stretch your eyes and your mind as you take a few valuable moments with this targeted practice. We are at our best when we approach work and it’s challenges from a balanced inner place.

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My Yoga Online has posted a new Yoga article by Kreg Weiss, Top Yoga Poses for Headaches. Explore 10 classical yoga exercises that will help alleviate the cause and symptoms of tension headaches.

Yoga can be a beneficial therapeutic tool for relieving headaches brought on by muscle tension and stress. The majority of headaches originate from muscle stiffness and imbalances emanating from the neck and upper back. When headaches set in, using a series of restorative yoga exercises can greatly relieve both the cause and symptoms. Here are our top yoga poses and exercises that naturally treat headaches.

Read Our: Top Yoga Poses for Headaches

Related Article:
Is Neck Tension The Origin of Your Headache

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My Yoga Online has added a new health and wellness article by Kreg Weiss, Five Reasons to Reduce Stress. With people needing to work more, save more, and find more time just to manage schedules, stress is becoming a chronic ailment for most people. Without recognizing the effects of stress and not having a stress management plan in place, this negative energy can produce physiology and psychological health hazards. Here is our top reasons why it is so important to reduce and management stress.

1) Prolonged Stress Weakens the Immune System

Studies have shown that prolonged stress presents strain on the cellular functions that support the immune system. Stress causes hormone imbalances, poor sleep patterns, and wears down on organs. Suppressed immune function readily leads to increased sickness and reduced ability to combat ailments.

2) Stress Promotes Unwanted Weight Gain

Some resources suggest that increased hormone cortisol levels related to stress cause weight gain. No studies have concluded that this increased cortisol level does increase weight gain and studies suggest that the increased levels of cortisol in short to medium stress periods are insufficient for creating weight gain. However, chronic prolonged periods of stress (in terms of years) still present some possible argument towards a correlation between weight gain and stress. There is however still a strong correlation between stress and weight gain. This correlation suggests that ongoing stress patterns generate poor nutrition habits, increased use of food as a support system, and improper meal schedules.

3) Stress Hinders Proper Sleep

Studies have shown that elevations in stress-related hormones increase the prevalence of insomnia. This increase in sleep disorders was shown to be even more prevalent as people age as the sensitivity to stress-related hormones increases as we get older. Studies have also shown that people who focus on the emotions and anxiety stemming from stress more often suffered from shortened sleep and encountered more sleep deprivation issues.

4) Stress Creates Musculoskeletal and Physiological Imbalances

Stress is a highly tacking process that depletes energy from bodily systems affecting work and activity performance. Stress is often a culprit for generating muscle tension throughout the body. This muscle tension is most commonly experienced in the spine with discomfort radiating through the neck, back, and shoulders. Neck tension is often diagnosed as the origin of many headaches. Stress also greatly affects digestive function, reproductive organ health, and hormone balance. One can see how readily stress generates hormone and energy imbalances especially for those who have skin disorders like acne and eczema.

5) Stress Reduces Quality of Life and Social Relationships

Most people have difficulty managing stress and associate themselves with the factors causing this stress. Without managing stress, this negative energy manifests into emotions and physical reactions. As social beings, others encountering someone else’s stress manifestations will either facilitate these stress reactions further (like attracts like) making the environment even worse. Or, those who are sensitive to others’ stress responses will choose to remove themselves from this social environment. Stress can adversely affect our relationships with others causing us to lose healthy relationships and foster further negative social relationships.

The first element in managing stress is to become sensitive to the physical responses that stress creates. Emotions and physical sensations (tension, lack of breath, headaches, low energy) are clear signs that we can monitor and use as tools to help us make changes when needed. When stress responses are apparent, we can stop, breath, and observe. How relevant and true is my allowance for this stress to enter and act on my mind and body? I may not be able to remove myself from the external stressors, but I can dissociate myself from these factors causing stress and not become bound to them. As we become more accustomed to recognizing stress, we can then engage in stress management activities like exercise, yoga, meditation, Yoga Nidra and relaxation programs offering great physical and mental benefits.

Related Article:
Yoga: Cure for Modern Day Stress

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Many types of headache exist: tension headaches, migraines headaches with and without aura, cluster headaches, temporal arteritis and cervicogenic headaches, just to name a few. Each of these headaches develop for a different reason. Once the cause of a headache has been determined, it can often be successfully treated. This is especially true for cervicogenic headaches. Manual medical practitioners frequently are able to diagnosis cervicogenic headaches and, fortunately so, since there is much that can be done to manage them.

Have you ever had a headache that starts in your neck, wraps up the back of your head and somehow makes in into the back of your eye or temples? These are some of the symptoms people may experience with a cervicogenic headache. They may also notice neck pain, nausea and vomiting, when severe.

Cervicogenic broken down:
‘Cervico’ meaning cervical spine or neck
‘Genic’ meaning produced by or origin of

How does neck pain or tightness turn into a headache? Hopefully the only time you have ever seen someone suffer from a heart attack has been in the movies. If you can picture the actor suffering, they often clench their left arm or complain of left arm pain. Why is this? Our heart and our left arm share a similar neurological supply which can confuse our brain when significant pain is noted in one of the two locations. In the case of a heart attack, our heart is the source of the pain, but our left arm is where the pain is often experienced. Our poor brain has a lot to manage and sometimes gets confused. This principle is the same for cervicogenic headaches. It is the muscles and joints in the neck that refer pain into our heads.

This is actually great news! This means that if we treat the neck musculature and joints which are the headache culprits, our head pain can often resolve. Medical research has proven the effectiveness of chiropractic manipulations in the management of cervicogenic and migraine headaches. Soft tissue work such as Active Release Technique® (A.R.T.®) and Graston Technique® are also effective in treating this type of headache.

Now, we need to get to the root of the root. The most common cause of neck complaints is upper cross syndrome: weak deep neck flexors, middle and lower trapezius muscles in combination with tight suboccipital (neck) and pectoralis muscles. By strengthening these weak links and getting the tight muscles treated, neck pain is likely to improve and subsequently the headaches as well.

If you suffer from another type of headache, you may recognize some of the symptoms mentioned above as there can frequently be overlap in headache complaints and diagnoses. For this reason, it is important to ensure that all aspects of your headache are being both diagnosed and managed appropriately.

Article by Dr. Carla Cupido
Learn more about Dr. Carla Cupido.