Book Review

For this project I chose to read, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, by Deepak Chopra and David Simon. This book was filled with information on many different aspects of yoga! This book starts off introducing the philosophy of yoga by describing it as a practical system to awaken your human potential by generating you with a healthy belief system with a more flexible nervous system. Then after describing the purpose of yoga it moves into the eight branches of yoga, which are: Yama (rules of social behavior), Niyama (rules of personal behavior),Asana (postures), Pranayama (vital energy), Pratyahara(senses), Dharana(attention and intention), Dhyana(awareness), and Samadhi(meditation). These are just the eight different branches of yoga that yogis often perform on certain days of the week. The next subject brought up in this book is the seven spiritual laws of yoga. Each day of the week, as a yogi, you are assigned a certain law to follow for the whole day. On Sunday,it's the "law of pure potentiality", which is basically stating that you should become aware of your place in the world and practicing non judgement while you perform yoga poses. The "law of giving and receiving" is held on Monday, and states that you should give someone a gift that day whether it be a kind word of a small gift. You should also take pride in all the gifts you have in your life while practicing yoga positions. The law for Tuesday is the "the law of karma", and you can obey this law by listening to your heart for guidance and asking yourself what are the consequences before making a decision. The "law of least effort" is reserved for Wednesday, and you can do this by accepting yourself and others as they are, and by staying open to all points of view. The fifth law, "law of intention and desire" is for Thursday, and can be accomplished if you write down the things you would like to see happen in your life. Friday's law, the "law of detachment" can be put into effect when you let go of the control in your life and just let things flow naturally. The last law of the week is the "law of Dharma", and this goal can be accomplished when you become aware of your unique talents. This is to help you use your certain talents to help other people out. The last chapter of this book is about meditation. According to Deepak and David, "Meditation is the exploration of your inner world. Yoga encourages you to be as familiar with your inner world of thoughts, feelings, memories, desires, and imagination as you are with the outer world of time, space, and causality" (Chopra 97).

I enjoyed reading this book a lot. I got tons of information out it like poses, the laws of the days, how to meditate, and etc. My favorite part to read was the philosophy part. I guess since I've been reading about how to meditate, and how to perform certain positions, it was good to find out why these two authors think yoga is important in any lifestyle. I loved how they didn't force you to think that yoga can only be performed to reach one goal, which might be to become spiritual, or become fit, but they gave you the idea that yoga can be used in however many forms you want it to be used. Also at the beginning of each chapter, it started off with a yoga-related quote, which i thought was cute!

There were some down sides to this book though. Although it was filled with information some of the sections were very long. Most of this information was useful, but there were times when I felt like I was reading the same point of view over and over again just in different wording. I also didn't like how the last pages of the book are just random yoga poses. It's got such a great source of information and then the information kind of dies down when random yoga poses start popping up. If anything, I liked this book more than I disliked it, I definately learned alot more details about yoga concerning how strict the pratice can get. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming a yogi or is a beginner.

Chopra, Deepak, and David Simon. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Print.

Multimedia Review 2

For my second multimedia review I chose to watch another yoga interview with a professional. I watched, "Prenatal Yoga Interview with Debra Geymayr" by Debra Geymayr. Debra Geymayr is a yoga instructor that specializes in helping those who are pregnant, so she teaches Prenatal plus yoga. In this interview she explains that she has been teaching for nine years now in south Florida, and that she was the first instructor to be able to teach the fourth trimester yoga class, which is called, happiest baby on the block. She works with pregnant people from as little as six weeks up to forty one weeks. Debra explains that this class is suppose to help you be able to connect your feelings, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. She says its very important to learn what the body goes through to give birth, so she teaches you breathing exercises and poses that will you help through the stress mentally and physically while giving birth without drugs or help. This class also prepares you to give birth at different options, which may be at home, in a hospital, or at a birth center. Debra also goes in to explain that "You wouldn't normally give a baby drugs after it is born, so why would you want to give it drugs during the labor process?" (3:47).

I loved this interview, mainly because it was a whole new side of yoga to me. It wasn't just about positions or becoming spiritual, it was about how you can help your baby and yourself during and after birth. Debra also seemed like she was a very down to earth person in the interview which made you believe that she was very relaxed the whole time. I liked that she was calm in the interview cause it made her seem very nourishing and knowing how to handle pregnant women. She also seemed to know what she was talking about when she started to talk about the fourth trimester of yoga. Overall, I liked this interview far better than the previous interview. This is probably just because it was a whole new side of yoga for me, and it wasn't something I had heard of before.



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"Prenantal Yoga Interview with Debra Geymayr." Prenatal Yoga Plus.You Tube, 25 August 2009. Web. 14 April 2010.

Small Print Source 4

"Which Type of Yoga is the Right Choice for You?", by Della Menechella is an article online thats list some common types of yoga you can do. The most common type of yoga is Hatha, and this is about body positions, breathing exercises, meditation, and relaxation; this class has a slower pace so it's for people that are looking for relaxation or flexibility. If you're looking for a good challenge though, Ashtanga Yoga might be for you. This yoga class can be intense because it flows from one body position to the next and connects with how you breath, at a fast pace. If you're injured or a beginner, Iyengar Yoga would be good for you because this class uses a lot of props to help with your body alignment and it's all about staying in certain positions for a long time. Bikram Yoga is Hatha yoga, practiced in a heated room, so it's great for anybody that likes to sweat! If you're looking for a yoga class that has a little variety rather than following the same order of positions, power yoga would be your class to take. Power yoga is the same as Ashtanga, and according to Della it's her, "favorite type of yoga, and even though I am in excellent physical shape, I find it very challenging" (Menechella). There is also a yoga for spiritual enlightenment, and that is Kundalini yoga. This class is all about postures and specific breathing for each posture, it's suppose to help loosen your spine. Kripalu yoga is the last common style of yoga class you can find, and this class is suppose to help you find your inner awareness so it's all about meditation.

I enjoyed reading this article a lot! Usually when I read articles, they're about one aspect of yoga like meditating, breathing, or food, but this one had a variety of information. I liked how Della explained what each class was about and who the target audience was. If I had to do one of these common yoga classes I would pick to go with Hatha yoga, because I would like to experience meditating, positions, and relaxation all in one class. After I got the hang of yoga though I'd probably move on into an Ashtanga yoga class, to go for the challenging side of yoga.

Menechella, Della. "Which Type of Yoga is the Right Choice for You?". Everything Yoga. Web. 13 April 2010.
http://www.everythingyoga.com/articles/choosing-a-yoga-style.htm

Pranayama-Yoga Breathing

The article, "The Importance of Breathing" by Jennifer Bagus is about how people breathe wrong today and the effects of shallow breathing. It starts out by telling us that there are two main important reason for breathing and they are: that it's a way to get rid of waste and toxin in our body, and that it's the only way we can get oxygen to our organs, which is a must to survive. It also mentions some bad habits of breathing poorly, and most of them we don't even take into consideration of them being bad habits. Examples would be: slouching over, places that are not good for our respiratory system, when we exercise we teach ourselves not to breathe if we're struggling, and the more we concentrate on something (Bagus). Jennifer also says that we need to have short and shallow breathing, while we should have slow and deeper breaths. She points out that being in a hurry, getting emotional too easy, having anxiety problems are several reason why we breathe fast and shallow. This is why the yogis have created breathing techniques. They use these techniques not only to increase life span and health but also to be able to meditate so we can reach conscious states.

I thought this article was filled with information. It didn't tell me how to breathe properly like I was expecting, but it did mention what was the incorrect way to breathe. I think we should learn how to breathe properly in health class at school. This might help us quit some of our bad habits such as slouching over. To me, this part and the meditation part would be the hardest part of yoga, because you have to put so much concentration into not concentrating on anything. I'm definately glad I got to read this before I started my yoga class!

Bagus, Jennifer."The Importance of Breathing". ABC of Yoga. 14 March 2008. Web. 7 April 2010. http://http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/pranayama/importance.asp

Multimedia Review

As I watched, "A Yoga Interview With Maggie" by coach Anita Stone, I learned the five wheels of yoga that she teaches her class. She interviewed a new yogi, Maggie, that came into her class. Maggie had just broken her collar bone a couple years back and she noticed that she didn't have as much range of motion in her weak shoulder, so she decided to start yoga. She went to Anita's class on the fourth month of her doing yoga, and discovered that she had not been keeping up with all five wheels of yoga. According to Anita, the five wheels of yoga are, "Cardio, diet and nutrition, enduranace training, flexibility, and strength" (2:28/6:31). Anita just explained that you couldn't skip or miss one of the wheels because all of yoga builds on top of each other, you have to have all five parts in order to succeed. She explained to Maggie that we don't just do yoga to live to be a 105, but so that while we're alive we can walk, breathe easy, and feel fit.

On most yoga articles I've read, it's been about how to reach a certain goal whether it was to get flexible, lose weight, or to just live healthier. This video though was about how you should do yoga so that you can enjoy life at the present, and that it's not just about the future. From seeing these two people on the video, they both looked in shape, and Maggie has only done yoga for four months. Anita though looked very comfortable in her skin, and that makes me want to know that I will one day be comfortable in old skin. This video also worries me because it seems like there are a lot of different views on yoga out there, and you don't really know which route you should follow. For example this video didn't mention anything about being spiritual or how it helps connect you to your soul like most articles do, so I'm thinking this is more of the aerobic side of yoga.

"Yoga Interview." 20 February 2008. Online Video Clip. Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2265DQRwbzg

Food for Our Spirituality

I had never even considered food to be known as a spiritual thing until I read the article, "Food for Our Spirituality". This article was about how much people nowadays are consuming too much food because we live in abundance. There is a spiritual side of yoga, and that involves what kind of food you eat. This article first mentions that "Specifically, the foods we put into our bodies are very connected to how spiritually grounded we are on any given day of the week" (Food for Our Spirituality). This article mentions that you can change your eating habits to fit you because there is not a certain specific meal plan you have to follow. It recommends you giving up or trying something completely new every week. It also pushes towards only eating one meal a day for one day of each week so that your body can cleanse and release toxins in your internal organs. This article also says that snacking into between meals is a no go because most of the time snacks are a want instead of a need. If you stop snacking when your not really hungry this will help your body learn discipline into what you need and what you want. This helps you control your life, and having that power can help you grow spiritually. If you try this no snacking in between meals plan, it is still okay to sometimes have a snack if that's what is going to keep you going through the day. The goal of trying or giving up something new once a week is to give yourself spiritual experiences by learning more about what yourself.

This article first got my attention when it was titled with the words, "food" and "spirituality", in the same sentence. I had never came to the conclusion that what you eat can help you in a spiritual way. I had known that eating too much food or gluttony was a sin, but I never connected it with yoga, and spiritual growth. I am the world's worst when it comes to snacking, and I guess it's not a bad thing, but I could definately go without some of my snacks. This article made perfect sense to me, it helped me realize that when your in control of your life, you have power. And by control in your life, I mean that you make decisions out of everything little or big. That power could be used to push yourself spiritually when your just letting your random thoughts and feelings control your health. I don't know if the "no go snacking plan" will work for me, but it is worth a try!

"Food for Our Spirituality". Health and Yoga. 2007. 1 April 2010.

http://http//www.healthandyoga.com/html/news/food/spm_fos.asp