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When entering a yoga position, your body has a unique opportunity to let go, while staying fully alert and in a high state of consciousness. This is when Yoga is practiced right. The alternative is injury. When you attempt to go into a yoga posture without the right intensity and will, and without the concentration it takes to do it, you will get hurt. If you try and go into a position without the knowledge of the way the body should move, you will hurt yourself. At times, you will feel it right away, by recognizing an intense pain in one or more parts of the body. In other times, you will not even recognize the pain. While you are trying to get into the right form, you might be ignoring the alarm bells your body rings in full volume. This is the most common mistake, and it is done by most of the yoga practitioners in the first years. This is the main reason of back and knee injuries, the type it takes a long time to create and longer to heal.

When doing a wrong yoga posture, you may notice an intense burning sensation, or a feeling that resembles a knife cutting your muscle. This shouldn’t happen, yet it is very common. It is the alarm the body sounds when you are tearing muscle or tendon tissue while entering a pose in the wrong way. While this is not too good, it is still better than hurting yourself slowly and without pain, injuries that are in areas of the body that are not that sensible. While hurting a muscle tissue is noticed right away, it is also relatively easy to fix, simply by going to a few sessions of physiotherapy. Sometimes, these type of injuries can be treated simply by adjusting your body to the right way in your posture, and keeping the regular routine. The other type of injuries, which is unfelt in the beginning, is not as easy to fix.

The type of injury you get from chronically practicing the wrong way is usually not muscle oriented, but touches another aspect of our body. Our joints are made out of a mixture of tissues. Muscle, tendons, bones, blood vessels, are only a few of the parts that constructs our joints. These complex parts of the body have cartilage in them. The knee has the meniscus, while the back has the discs to hold the bones and keep them from hitting each other. These parts of the body are very important, yet they carry no nerves. Hurting them is harder than hurting muscles on a daily routine, yet while taking our body into intense yoga postures, it becomes easy. By stretching our body on the mat, we open areas in the body that are usually not open at all. Getting these areas to open, and them move into a posture on top of that is very dangerous if done wrong, as it exposes those specific hard to heal areas to injuries.

To make sure we are not hurting ourselves we need a combination of things. One of them is knowledge that comes with patience, will, and the right teacher. It is very important to take the time to read and ask about the postures you do. Know the right way they are done, how to get into and out of them. Another aspect of the safe practice in yoga is using a premium yoga mat. Using high quality equipment in the yoga studio is as important as using it in the gym or on the road or at home. Using the wrong type of gear can create an invitation for injury. In yoga it is even more important as getting yoga skills is very hard, but we depend on ourselves. Driving a car is easy to learn, yet you never know who is driving the car next to yours, and they could cause an accident. You need a high quality safe car to keep you safe. In yoga you are not likely to get hit by your fellow yogi that practices next to you, but each part of your body is a different car on the road of your body, a road that starts in your mind and ends up in Yoga (where a new road begins).

Safe practice, with intention and high levels of concentration and knowledge are the basic needs for a yogi. Using the right equipment for the job will give your mind the freedom it needs, as it takes away the concentration from worrying and into the practice.

As the old adage goes, ‘health is wealth’. Although it may be an age old saying but it holds good even today. Health is definitely not something that you can neglect. You may possess all forms of wealth but to enjoy it in the best way possible you need good health and should lead a disease free life.

Of course, medicines are important to lead a disease free life but many a times; the best medicine is ‘NO medicine’. Did you know that going for total body detox can help you prevent yourself against various diseases? It is a fact. The toxins that build in our body lead to many medical complications and hence it is very important that an individual undergoes a total body detox at least 2-4 times a year for perfect healthy functioning of his/her body.

Detoxification of body has been in practice for thousands of years, but it unfortunately failed to gain its well-deserved popularity until recently. In today’s world, people have realized how total body detox can effectively help in living a healthier life and therefore, have shown major interest in trying it out. And to everyone’s surprise, total body detox has shown several benefits, which has made it one of the most preferable ways to cleanse and detoxify the body.

In case you haven’t thought of a total body detox yet, then maybe it’s high time you do. Yes, your body definitely needs a good clean up! The human body is without a doubt an amazing thing. It has the capability to restore itself and stop the abuse, so help your body by picking up some fantastic detox products, following the necessary medical instructions, and cleansing up from the inside out.

Every day we are exposed to several harmful chemicals. Toxins enter out system through several sources, we breathe them, we take them in through our food and water, etc. Fortunately, there are ways to remove them from within the body.

A total body detox process mainly consists of a number cleansing stages, they are:

a) Bowel detoxification: this is the beginning of the process. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables. The more varied the color, the better it is for your bowel cleansing. These fruits and vegetables have fibers and fluid in them that help in proper bowel movement. This in turn flushes out toxins from your system.

b) Liver detoxification: once you have got you bowel movements right, it’s time to look into liver detoxification. Increase your green food intake; include green vegetables and green drinks in your diet. Doing so will help your body detoxify your liver.

c) Kidney detoxification: after liver come the kidneys. Drink enough water. It is usually recommended to consume 8-9 glasses of water every day if not more. Drinking water has innumerable benefits one of them being detoxifying your kidneys. Consumption of various kinds of fruit juices will be equally beneficial. So make sure you keep yourself hydrated to get better results from your total body detox program.

d) Blood and Lymph Detoxification: this is the final stage of your total body detox program and should ideally start from the 4th month of your detoxification program.

So to conclude, total body detox may be a lengthy procedure but a very effective way to remove toxins from your body. Therefore, feel free to go for total body detox and experience the difference.

Body language is a non-verbal technique that can be used to enhance your presentations. Body language includes gestures, movements and mannerisms that people use to communicate. As with the use of vocal techniques, body language comes more easily to some than to others. Again, body language is something that can be learned.

There are 4 elements of body language that you must pay attention to as you practice or make your presentation. They are:

1) Eye contact

Look your audience in the eyes. The number one reason to use good eye contact is it involves your audience in your presentation. If you look directly at a member of the audience, they are likely to return your gaze, and keep looking at you rather than looking at a paper on the table, staring out the window, or daydreaming.

The second reason to use good eye contact is it leads people to trust you. Studies show that when people are lying, they tend to look up or look down. Looking people in the eyes demonstrates that you’re being sincere. The third reason to use good eye contact is that it shows confidence. Think about it. Who are you more likely to follow? Someone who looks you in the eyes or someone who talks to their shoes? Listeners are more likely to believe you and trust you if you seem confident in yourself and your position on your topic. When speaking to a room full of people, you must speak to the whole room, not just one person. Thus, you must engage in eye contact with the whole audience, as well. Rather than staring down one audience member, scan the room, and be sure to include people sitting to your far right and far left who are often neglected.

2) Gestures

It is the movement of your body or limbs to illuminate and emphasize the meaning of your words. Simple hand movements such as holding up the number one with your fingers when you say “my first point is,” are appropriate. Gesture can be used to demonstrate how something looks or acts, as well. Some people naturally talk with their hands. Nervousness can accentuate this characteristic. Beware of gesturing too much as it can be distracting. On the other side, please use some gestures. I’ve seen presenters give thirty minute long speeches, desperately grasping the podium throughout. It is also important to vary your gestures.

3) Posture

Posture is the bearing of your body, your stance. When speaking to an audience, stand straight with your shoulders back, your head centered above your body and your feet shoulder-width apart. Don’t slump. Don’t lean against the wall. If the situation absolutely calls for it (for example, you’re asked to give an impromptu presentation during a business meeting), you may sit

Tai chi is a mind-body practice that originated in China as a martial art. It developed in China in about the 12th century A.D. It started as a martial art or a practice for fighting or self-defense, usually without weapons.

Over time, people began to use tai chi for health purposes as well. Many different styles of tai chi, and variations of each style, developed. A person practicing tai chi moves her body in a slow, relaxed, and graceful series of movements. One can practice on one’s own or in a group. The movements make up what are called forms (or routines). Some movements are named for animals or birds, such as “White Crane Spreads Its Wings.”

In tai chi, each movement flows into the next. The entire body is always in motion, with the movements performed gently and at uniform speed. It is considered important to keep the body upright, especially the upper body-many tai chi practitioners use the image of a string that goes from the top of the head into the heavens-and to let the body’s weight sink to the soles of the feet.

In addition to movement, two other important elements in tai chi are breathing and meditation which is conscious mental process using certain techniques, such as focusing attention or maintaining a specific posture to suspend the stream of thoughts and relax the body and mind. In tai chi practice, it is considered important to concentrate; put aside distracting thoughts; and breathe in a deep, relaxed, and focused manner.

Another concept in tai chi is that the forces of yin and yang -the concept of two opposing yet complementary forces described in traditional Chinese medicine. Yin represents cold, slow, or passive aspects of the person, while yang represents hot, excited, or active aspects. A major theory is that health is achieved through balancing yin and yang and disease is caused by an imbalance leading to a blockage in the flow of qi. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are two principles or elements that make up the universe and everything in it and that also oppose each other. Yin is believed to have the qualities of water, such as coolness, darkness, stillness, and inward and downward directions and to be feminine in character. Yang is believed to have the qualities of fire, such as heat, light, action, and upward and outward movement and to be masculine. In this belief system, people’s yin and yang need to be in balance in order for them to be healthy, and tai chi is a practice that supports this balance.

Tai chi is a relatively safe practice. However, there are some cautions. Tell your health care provider if you are considering learning tai chi for health purposes. If you do not position your body properly in tai chi or if you overdo practice, you may get sore muscles or sprains. Tai chi instructors often recommend that people not practice tai chi right after they eat, or when they are very tired, or when they have an active infection. Use caution if you have any of the conditions listed below, as your health care provider should advise you whether to modify or avoid certain postures in tai chi.

Body Building is one sport that not many people are familiar about, because they do not know the extent to which the body builders practice to win any contest. Generally, people workout at the gym to keep a good shape and they follow the same style of working out through the year. But, in order to build your body for contests, one must know that there are two ways of body building methods to be followed. The two phases that are involved in body building will be clearly explained here. The basic programs are off-season phase, pre-contest phase and the last one is contest phase.

1. Off Season Phases

This phase of the body building program involves mass building. To explain it in simple words, the whole point of this phase is to get as huge as possible and not to bother about definition. This is in terms of muscles and not fat, because fat does not do any good to anyone. Fat will only reduce your determination and the urge to prepare yourself for a contest. So, this is the phase one needs to carefully watch their diet and perform all sorts of exercise that are focused at building the mass of your body. This means that the major exercises to be performed in this phase will consist of the serious exercises like bench presses, military presses, etc. This has to be followed for a few months and a person needs a lot of consistency to take this phase effectively.

2. Pre-Contest Contest Phases

This phase is the main phase in a body builder’s career. This refers to the period that precedes a competition and requires a lot of shredding to achieve the goal in terms of muscles. The exercise involved must be targeting single parts in the body and it requires a lot of cardio exercises. Another important issue in this phase is the diet that is taken. Many people have not realized that in spite of all the exercises and workouts they do, it is a quality diet that plays an important role in this program, and the absence of it will spoil the whole effort. Maintaining a low quality diet shows you the exit door of the competition. So, one must work hard, not just with the separate parts in their body, but also with the diets and maintaining the same.

To detoxify your body simply means to cleanse your body of any toxins it may be harboring. We know, for instance, that some chemicals and pesticides, or certain fumes we breathe, can be toxic to us. In addition, many of our modern day food choices can create a toxic environment that slowly lowers our overall immunity. The phrase Toxic Load refers to the condition of our cells and tissues – the inner terrain – that develops when we consume, year after year, highly processed foods. While the liver and the kidneys are natural detoxifiers, organs whose job is to filter out impurities, there are several other ways to help your body detoxify itself. While some of these ways may be viewed as extreme, such as dialysis or a lengthy juice fast, there are several every day things that can be done to detoxify your body with subtlety and consistency.

Nutrition

No amount of great nutrition in the world will work very well until our body stops receiving the massive amounts of processed and fake foods that create a toxic inner terrain. Fortunately, it’s easy to learn what is hard on your body; there are no complex charts to memorize. Rule One: the more processed a substance, the larger the toxic load. Simply examine your weekly intake. Eat less of them. Find healthier substitutes. Or, better yet, drop them altogether.

Select organic, whole, unprocessed foods, whenever possible. Stop eating foods with additives and preservatives. Get your oil needs from olive oil, nuts, seeds, such as flax, psyllium, etc. Slow down or eliminate: processed meat (highly processed beef, chicken, lamb, sausages, pate, luncheon meats, bologna), most seafood (bottom feeders, such as mussels, clams, lobster, highly processed anchovies and sardines), pasteurized dairy (milk, butter, cheese, ice cream, yogurt), processed oil(hydrogenated, lard, canola), flour products (bread, pastries, cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, crackers), caffeine (coffee, black teas), tap water ( use filtered or bottled spring water), alcohol (beer, wine, sake, scotch, gin, vodka), processed sugar (candy, sweets, chocolate), sodas (diet coke, sugared drinks), and fake foods (artificial anything!).

Re-hydrate

Our bodies and our world are both largely composed of water, making water a vitally important element to the human race. Thus, it’s no surprise that water is a huge factor in overall health, as well as detoxification. Re-hydrating helps detoxification in several ways. First of all, water is a natural appetite suppressant, keeping people from ingesting things, such as fast food meals, that may add toxins to the body. Secondly, water stimulates the kidneys, helping them to do their job of filtering. Water also aids in digestion; without water, digestion can not occur, leaving the intestines without the ability to remove waste.

One of the most important reasons for re-hydrating is the lymph system. The lymph system is the often overlooked set of vessels used to transport metabolic waste out of the body. Drinking water to re-hydrate helps prevent the lymph system from becoming overwhelmed with old, necrotic material.

While it is recommended that the average person drink at least eight glasses of water a day, people often forget to do this, compromising their body’s natural health driven abilities. Some suggest taking your weight in pounds and dividing it in half. This is the number of ounces of water you should drink a day. Buy a bottle, somewhere around the size of a gallon. Fill it each day, and drink it empty each day. It is a great way to measurably know how much water you are using. If you don’t have access to spring water, then filter your tap water with a carbon filter.

Brush Your Skin

Brushing your skin may seem like an odd concept, an act that is typically reserved for a head of hair. But, the pores in our skin are often an open doorway to innumerable toxins we may encounter. Because our skin absorbs what’s on it, it will absorb any toxins present. Brushing these toxins away, however, can minimize the amount of toxins that enter the body through the pores. Our skin can be considered our largest elimination organ, especially during a change in nutrition. To help this process along, purchase a long handled skin brush and dry-brush your entire body for two or three minutes before bathing or showering each day. It may sting a bit the first few times, but you are conditioning your skin to breathe more. This also improves circulation, releases toxins and stimulates new skin production. For some, wet-brushing while bathing can be just as effective.

Take Alkalinizing Baths

Another good idea is Alkalinizing Baths. For these, toss a cup of sea salt or a cup of baking soda into a bath. Get in and slowly increase the heat until you are sweating. The object is to make the outside water more alkaline than the body and blood itself. It is relaxing, and very powerful when combined with skin brushing.

Do Yoga, Be Yoga

Yoga is one of the best detoxifying exercises you can practice. Because one of the foundations of yoga is breathing, and one of the ways to detoxify yourself is to simply breathe, yoga can teach you correct ways to breathe, giving you the ability to make the most out of every breathe you take. The poses, or Asanas, practiced in yoga also aid in detoxification. Freeing the body of restrictions, these Asanas stretch muscles and limbs, loosening them and letting the muscles and limbs become more relaxed and nimble, freeing the toxins that muscle knots may harbor. These Asanas aid in circulation – the circulation of blood is greatly enhanced through flexibility – and these poses make you physically and mentally flow better. When things flow correctly, the body rids itself of toxins much more easily.

Yoga also circulates positive thinking, which removes toxins from the body in more ways than one. A person bent on negative thinking will not only perpetuate thoughts laden in toxicity, but they are also more likely to engage in an overall unhealthy lifestyle, a lifestyle that invites impurities rather than fights them. Yoga, however, because it helps people feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually better, allows a positive life force to circulate within, a life force bent on removing toxins. It also arms people with a mindset that allows people to embrace and embody health and wholeness, adopting an internal environment where toxins don’t want to remain, packing up and leaving instead.

TWISTED is a medical yoga studio at the Center for Osteopathic Medicine in Boulder, Colorado. Twisted integrates osteopathic medicine, hatha yoga and mindfulness practices to teach optimal balance between physical, mental, and emotional health. It aims to educate and help people to live a healthy life from the inside out. Rehabilitation programs offer a comprehensive treatment regime for the whole being, empowering each person one breath at a time to stimulate the body’s natural healing potential.