Tag: inspiration

Living More Youthfully

On By Kim LuyckxIn Lifestyle & HabitsLeave a comment
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How do we generate and maintain our zest for life? It comes from practicing techniques for rejuvenation, reawakening and renewal.

In Ayurveda, this is the practice of Rasayana and it includes our physical, mental and spiritual states of being. Ultimately, Rasayana helps us to achieve and maintain our passion, our enthusiasm and our appetite for life. Rasayana promotes cognitive and physical strength, immunity, enthusiasm and energetic zest for the remainder of our lives. Through Rasayana we can keep living younger longer.

And, it’s not just for old agers… it’s for anyone who may be unbalanced right now. Or for anyone who wishes to move into old age more youthfully.

If you would like to listen to this content, please join me On Wellness Way podcast.

Continue reading “Living More Youthfully” →

Put Some Fire into Your Yoga Practice

On By Kim LuyckxIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
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“The wider practice of yoga is not about arranging our life so that it is perfect and easy and non-challenging. Rather it is about using the discipline we find in asana practice to be able to remain easy in the midst of difficulty. That is the true measure of freedom…” – Judith Lasater

As we continue our discussion about the 3rd chakra – the solar plexus chakra, I would be remiss to not include the concept of tapas. Tapas is often defined as heat. Yet it’s more ancient Sanskrit roots explain tapas has having the ability to remove impurities. In fact, the word tapas is used to define the process of heating alloyed gold until the debris is burnt off, revealing only the purest product.

Through the practice of yoga we can also use heat to burn away the nonsense and expose our true power. This does not just apply to intensive ashtanga, hot or vinyasa yoga forms. Any type of asana, pranayama or meditation can generate tapas.

This week choose a portion of your practice where you feel you need to apply more will power.

If you can’t sustain downward dog without stressing your shoulders, approach the posture through child’s pose and gradually build on the time you remain in downward dog until you feel stronger.

Maybe you can’t relax in savasana for more than 5 minutes. Use a timer to add one minute to each practice until you relish a full 10 or even 20 minute savasana.

By bringing more self-disipline into your practice, you will receive more confidence. This “I can do it” attitude leads to greater contentment. Ultimately you will find that when you persevere in your practice (and your life), you feel more balanced, purposeful and joyful. A little work will release your attachments and free up your consciousness for higher realizations.

If you are interested in learning more about the concept of tapas, click on this previous post: “Tap Into Your Strength.”

Be the Light!

Namasté, Kim 🕉

Are You Ready to Harness the Energy of the Sun?

On By Kim LuyckxIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Happy Solstice Day!

This is the ideal time to honor all of the light we have accumulated!

And, the perfect occasion to announce my next journey.

Over two years ago, I started this blog to stay connected with my students. My initial intention was to provide information to supplement our classes and create new challenges for building a steadier practice for myself and fellow yogis. This effort has lead to nearly 170 blog posts.

Now I am beginning a new adventure and a personal goal – to accumulate and condense all of the information I have created for this blog and turn it into a book. A book I hope students and teachers will use as a planning resource and a guide for building stimulating personal practices and classes. And because it is being generated from this blog, its title is “Yoga Posts: Building a Steady Practice One Week at a Time.”

As of today, I have finished assembling all of the research, experience and words of inspiration I have held near and dear to my heart over the past 25 years of practicing and teaching yoga. I have decided to format the book into a year of challenges based on the eight limbs of yoga – each limb being a “post” that will support a steady yoga practice. Therefore, the book will be comprehensive but digestible, practical but philosophical – a tool for many users.

What’s Next?

Continue reading “Are You Ready to Harness the Energy of the Sun?” →

Support A Steady Yoga Practice: The Art of Sitting

On By Kim LuyckxIn Building a Steady Yoga PracticeLeave a comment

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“Perfection in an asana is achieved when the effort to perform it becomes effortless and the infinite being within is reached”. – Yoga Sutras.

Learning to sit peacefully with the breath is founded on the postures of yoga. Yoga asana is performed so that the body is able to sit comfortably  in stillness. Pranayama or breath control is the fuel that sustains us to stay steady in our bodies and minds.

In the practice of yoga it is important to find a restful seat. Using a wall, a chair or other props to keep your spine upright is suggested if your hips or back muscles are weak or tight. Another method for learning to sit on the floor is to gradually introduce the muscles to the practice.

Here are my tips for crafting a comfortable seat: Continue reading “Support A Steady Yoga Practice: The Art of Sitting” →

Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Elongate the Breath with Four Simple Techniques

On By Kim LuyckxIn Support A Steady Yoga PracticeLeave a comment

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The great sea
Has sent me adrift,
It moves me as the weed in a great river,
Earth and the great weather
Move me,
Have carried me away
And move my inward parts with joy.  – An Eskimo Song

Now that we have created breath awareness and discovered some new ways to expand our breathing vessel, let us address the quality of the breath. This week, I will introduce some simple techniques of pranayama or breath control.

Here are four methods for elongating the breath:

#1 Ujjayi Breathing

This approach can be described as a slight deepening of the normal breath.  It is best done from a supine or seated position in which your body is nicely aligned.   Continue reading “Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Elongate the Breath with Four Simple Techniques” →

Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Expand Your Vessel & Truly Breathe

On By Kim LuyckxIn Support A Steady Yoga PracticeLeave a comment

opening breath

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.” ― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

As students of yoga, we eventually learn how to connect with our breathing. We come to understand that the simple act of inhalation and exhalation can be enhanced when our posture is aligned. As we physically straighten, we open ourselves up to experience a fuller range of movement in the upper chest/back, ribcage and abdominal areas.

In an attempt to expand our vessels for the breath, here are three key strategies:

#1 Counteract “Techno – Hump” 

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Using computers and cell phones can adversely affect our breathing function. The head forward position can lead to a spinal curvature disorder called kyphosis which compresses the movement of air by collapsing the chest.

Here is a short posture sequence for reducing upper back tension and straightening the body:

Continue reading “Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Expand Your Vessel & Truly Breathe” →

Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Breathe

On By Kim LuyckxIn Support A Steady Yoga PracticeLeave a comment

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“Pranayama has slowly pried open some of the tighter places in my body and so provided me with new openings in my asana practice. This, in turn, affects my breathing and, so on and so on, asana and pranayama oscillating back and forth to each other’s advantage.” – Richard Rosen

Pranayama or breath control is defined by B.K.S Iyengar as: “… techniques to make the respiratory organs move and expand intentionally, rhythmically and intensively. It consist of long, sustained subtle flow of inhalation, exhalation and retention of breath.”

With the guidance of some of the world’s wisest yoga teachers, I have made it my quest to incorporate pranayama into my practice. Breaking down the art of breathing into separate stages has helped me to gradually meld it into my daily yoga routine. Over the next few weeks, I will share my personal journey towards pranayama with you. Here are the four main categories we will explore: Continue reading “Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Breathe” →

Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Combine Effort & Ease

On By Kim LuyckxIn Support A Steady Yoga PracticeLeave a comment

“Focus your attention on your breath. When your mind wanders, simply return your awareness to the inhalation and exhalation. You don’t need to empty your mind or have perfect attention. It is the act of noticing mental distractions and bringing the attention back to the breath that lends the mind steadiness (sthira) and ease (sukha).”

How do we keep ourselves physically challenged yet safe? Continue reading “Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Combine Effort & Ease” →

Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Stoke Your Inner Fire

On By Kim LuyckxIn Support A Steady Yoga PracticeLeave a comment

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“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

To stoke our inner fire this week, we are connecting with our Manipura or Solar Plexus Chakra and the asanas that relate to this energy source. The solar plexus is the region that covers the mid-body and can be associated with the stomach or gut yet is literally a ganglia of nerves located behind the abdominal region at the level of the first lumbar vertebra.

The third chakra is related to our power, our intention and desires. The balanced movement of prana through this area gives us self-confidence, motivation and direction.

Find your intention by balancing your Manipura (solar plexus) Chakra with these powerful, energetic postures: Continue reading “Support A Steady Yoga Practice: Stoke Your Inner Fire” →