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Question: What is the appropriate amount of time to wait after eating, before practicing asana or meditation? And after practicing, before eating?
Answer: Meat: 2-3 hours. Carbs, starches: 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours. Fruits and Veggies: 1/2 - 1 hour. The issue is the stomach should be empty. Food in the stomach can reduce range of motion and reduce energy level, which can adversely effect your strength & stamina as well as your ability to concentrate. Now you know the issues, knowing the expediency of your own digestive system, you can make your own decisions. After practicing, before eating: I'm not sure. I've heard 1/2 hour, which makes sense to me.

Question: Do you have to be a vegetarian?
Answer: No, but if being a vegetarian is important to you, go for it. Personally, I like to call myself a selectarian. In other words, I consciously select the food I eat, which is different than unconscious eating, which is eating due to old habit patterns without questioning its health effects & potency. The Dalai Lama, who is considered in Tibetan culture to be a great Yogi, eats meat, and others don't. What works for you? Experiment!

Question: Are there any specific ages that should not participate in a yoga practice?
Answer: No. Although, there are more appropriate ways to practice depending on age and mental & physical ability. For example, for very young people (kids), yoga might be turned into games to help maintain their interest. For older people (seniors), the physical practices may be modified to fit their abilities as well as their specific needs.

Question: Do women that are menstruating need to take any precautions?
Answer: Yes. No. Maybe. There are different points of view. Some yoga traditions say not to practice asanas (poses) at all during the full cycle of menstruation. Others say that asana practice is OK, just that one should refrain from any inverted postures (head stand, shoulder stand, plough, etc....) One of the issues seems to be the flow of toxic matter (discarded blood) down and out of the body, and not changing the direction of that flow. Although, I know women who disregard all of these precautions and swear they are fine. So, again, after experimentation and using your rational & intuitive capacities, make your own decision. Some of the issues here may be linked to a time when women were not allowed to practice yoga. Also, I have not heard that the menstrual cycle affects any other aspect of yoga practice outside of asana.

Question: What's the scoop for pregnant women?
Answer: From a doctors point of view, I've heard everything from, "don't do yoga asana" to "do whatever you want to do as long as it feels right." Clearly a responsible doctor would not want to give permission to partake in something he or she does not understand, which probably would lead to the conservative instruction to not partake. In my experience, I've seen over 50 pregnant women in class and have seen at least 10 go through most or all of the full term of their pregnancy while practicing asana in my class at least 3 times per week with very good results. Of course, pregnancy poses certain vulnerabilities and conditions that need to be assessed and addressed. The abdominal region needs to be protected from stress, strain and compression. So, I would avoid all poses that have you lay on your stomach. Similarly, as you get bigger avoid forward bends that compress the stomach region. To avoid this compression as you get bigger, spread your legs more and more, creating room for the stomach. Also avoid stomach exercises that strain the stomach region. I have been asked about inversions, and find no problem or negative effects with them, although some may need to be modified to avoid compression, such as halasana (plough pose), as well as the added pressure on the head, neck and spine because of the extra weight you are carrying. If something does not feel right, don't second guess yourself . Skip it or modify it. The larger you get the more you will need to modify most all poses to fit your size, needs and energy levels. After intuition, your breathing is your greatest ally. Make sure your breathing is calm and even at all times. If your breath is strained or becomes erratic, it is a sure sign that you are becoming stressed, which usually always attacks your most vulnerable link. In this case that would be your abdominal region. I do want to make it clear, I am not a doctor or an expert. I am only sharing my opinions and my experience. Please hear me, but don't listen to me, listen to yourself as well as get as many opinions as you can from anybody you respect!! Good luck & congratulations if you are pregnant!!

Question: Do yoga and weightlifting work well together?
Answer: I don't think it's a marriage made in heaven, so to speak, but I don't see why they can't coexist together if practiced consciously. The thing is, it's really hard to practice asana fully and maybe even correctly if the muscles are too fatigued from a weight lifting work out. So, I recommend not stressing your muscles to the point of total fatigue and maybe using lighter weights.

Question: Is it necessary to add cardio exercise to my yoga practice?
Answer: The yoga routines provided, for example, by my videos are enough to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. However, you may feel on an individual basis that you would like more cardio exercise, in which case I encourage you to seek out additional, non- or low-impact exercise. Personally, I find it helpful to add regular walks to my practice, taking long walks with my dogs and getting outside for some fresh air.

Question: Is the stress weights put on bones better for women with osteoporosis, than simply the body weight used in yoga asana?
Answer: I don't think there is sufficient research done on this subject. At least, not that I'm aware of. My opinion at this point is no! I don't see how our body weight would be less potent or efficient than the dead weight of steel.

Question: How often should I practice and how long should each practice be?
Answer: These are personal questions with personal answers. Yet, obviously the more you practice, the more you benefit. The practice needs to happen with wisdom. Becoming extreme will definitely not benefit you. Practicing often does not mean practicing aggressively. The practice will need to be modified according to your energy level and level of fatigue. Maybe practicing a little every day is your thing, maybe practicing strongly just 3 times a week is most optimal for you. One thing I've learned over 24 years of practicing yoga asana, I need to listen very carefully to what I'm feeling in order to know what I'm needing and what I'm needing changes all the time! One word of advice, if I may. Try not to do what you did and try not to do what you wish you could do and try to do what you need according to how you feel!

Question: What if I'm not that flexible?
Answer: I know it might be hard to believe due to our assumptions about yoga because of the few images we've glimpsed at (like that guy on that TV show "That's Incredible" who tied himself up in a knot and stuffed his body into a box for the duration of the show). Yet, you know what happens when we assume. But yoga really has nothing to do with being flexible. Then why do all the poses seem designed to create flexibility? This is an important point! The poses really are not created to promote flexibility. They are created to heal or maintain the health and vitality of the places they expose. Yes, if you are carrying a lot of tension in an area a pose exposes, the tension will release, and your range of motion will increase. Yet, if there is no tension in the area, there is no need to release any, and the pose's job is now to maintain its tension free status as well as create stimulation, which facilitates circulation which promotes oxygenation which is a prerequisite for regeneration as well as flushing out toxicity. Remember, the goal is to maintain vitality, not to create flexibility. After all, too much flexibility creates a state of instability and that's not healthy. Just like we have different faces and personalities, we have different hips and different length hamstrings. We are not all supposed to get our head to our legs in forward bends. We all need to find our own place in each pose. That way the pose becomes ours. We are not supposed to look the same in every pose. The beauty of the human race is the differences among us all. It would be boring if everybody looked the same in every pose. Let's flourish in our differences. Plus, I don't believe there is any proof that looser people are healthier or happier, so what's the point? Isn't the goal Health and Happiness? So, no, you don't need to be flexible. All you need is the time to breathe and move! Amen!

B.K.S. Iyengar

A photograph of B.K.S. Iyengar

B.K.S. Iyengar , (aka Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyengar) born Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar, December 14, 1918, in India, is founder of Iyengar Yoga and one of the most respected yoga teachers in the world. Millions of students and followers around the world practice Iyengar Yoga. Iyengar and has written a number of definitive yoga texts. Iyengar Yoga

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are one of the six darshanas of Hindu or Vedic schools and, alongside the Bhagavad Gita and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, are a milestone in the history of Yoga. The book is a set of aphorisms, which are short, terse phrases designed to be easy to memorize. Though brief, the Yoga Sutras are an enormously influential work that is just as relevant for yoga philosophy and practice today as it was when it was written. Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

The most fundamental text of Hatha Yoga is the Hatha Yoga Pradipika , a Sanskrit classic written by Swami Swatamarama, a disciple of Swami Goraknath. It is said to be the oldest surviving text on the Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga and Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Kundalini

Kundalini is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning either "coiled up" or "coiling like a snake". There are a number of other translations of the term usually emphasizing a more serpent nature to the word— e.g. 'serpent power'. The caduceus symbol of coiling snakes is thought to be an ancient symbolic representation of Kundalini physiology.

Zen

Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887.

Zen is the Japanese name of a well known branch of Mahayana Buddhist schools, practiced originally in China as Ch'an and subsequently in Korea , Japan , and Vietnam . Zen emphasizes the role of sitting meditation (zazen) in pursuing enlightenment. Zen can be considered a religion, a philosophy, or simply a practice depending on one's perspective. It has also been described as a way of life, work, and an art form.

Zen is the common name for this branch of Buddhism in Japanese as well as in English. However, in the last half of the 20th century, Zen has become an international phenomenon, with centers in many countries around the world. Zen

Kundalini Yoga - Awakening the Kundalini Energy

Kundalini Yoga

Kundalini Yoga is the most powerful Yoga ever known and is considered as the mother of all the Styles of Yoga. It centers on awakening the Kundalini, the energy (serpent power or Bhujangini) which is found at the base of our spine or the Muladhara Chakra. Kundalini came from the word kunda which means "pot" but it Kundalini Sadhna, it is defined as the coiled energy that looks like a serpent with three and a half coils lying dormant at the base of the spine with the tip of its tail to its mouth. The three coils represent the Three Gunas : the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, the half coil

Kundalini Yoga

Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) is credited with being instrumental in the resurgence of interest in hatha yoga. His students included Indra Devi, B.K.S. Iyengar, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar—major yoga teachers in their own right. Born in 1888 in Mysore , India , Krishnamacharya received his first instruction in Sanskrit and yoga from his father. He went on to attend the Royal College of Mysore and later spent seven years studying in Tibet . He returned to Mysore in 1924 and later opened a yoga school. In 1976, Krishnamacharya's son and closest disciple, T.K.V. Desikachar, founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, a yoga center in Madras .

Sri K. Pattabhi Jois

Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois was born on Guru Purnima in 1915 in the village of Kowshika , near Hassan, Karnataka, South India . Jois currently teaches yoga at his school, the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute, in Mysore , India .

In 1927, at the age of 12, Jois attended a lecture and demonstration in Hassan by S. T. Krishnamacharya and the very next day became his student —the beginning of 25 years of study with Krishnamacharya

Karate

Two Karate practitioners engaging in competition style Karate.

Karate or karate-do , "the way of the empty hand") is a martial art of Okinawan origin. Karate is a synthesis of indigenous Okinawan fighting methods and Southern Chinese martial arts. In modernity, it is categorized by some as budo, introduced to the Japanese main islands from Okinawa in 1921 by various Okinawan practitioners who moved to mainland Japan during the early 20th century

Meditation

Meditation refers to any of a wide variety of spiritual practices (and their close secular analogues) which emphasize mental activity or quiescence.

The English word comes from the Latin meditation , which originally indicated every type of physical or intellectual exercise, but which later could perhaps be better translated as "contemplation." This usage is found in Christian spirituality, for example, when one "meditates" on the sufferings of Christ; as well as Western philosophy, as in Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy , a set of six mental exercises which systematically analyze the nature of reality.

Meditation

Chakra

In Hinduism and its spiritual systems of yoga and in some related eastern cultures, as well as in some segments of the New Age movement -- and to some degree the distinctly different New Thought movement -- a chakra is thought to be an energy node in the human body.

The word comes from the Sanskrit cakra meaning "wheel, circle", and sometimes also referring to the "wheel of life". The pronunciation of this word can be approximated in English by chuh kruh ; with ch as in chart and both instances of a as in yoga (the commonly found pronunciation shock rah is incorrect).

Self-realization

In yoga, self-realization is knowledge of one's true self. This true self is also referred to as the atma to avoid ambiguity. The term "self-realization" is a translation of the Sanskrit expression atma jnana (knowledge of the self or atma). The reason the term "realization" is used instead of "knowledge" is that jnana refers to knowledge based on experience, not mere intellectual knowledge.

As discussed in the article on yoga, while the goal of self-realization is the same in all yoga paths, the means used to achieve that goal differ. For example, in Sahajayoga or hatha yoga, self-realization is said to be achieved when the serpent force or kundalini rises through the shushumna nadi to the sahasrara chakra.

Asana

Asana is a Sanskrit word that literally means a seat but in the practice of yoga refers to a pose or posture. In Patanjali's yoga sutras Asana means, mainly, sitting for meditation.

The practice of asana involves stretching and moving the body into various positions. With practice, the body can be made to remain in a given position for a longer period of time, comfortably. When a degree of comfort is attained in a given posture, it becomes Asana . In general, however, the term is also used to refer to physical yoga exercises in general. Asana

Soul

The soul , according to many religious and philosophical traditions, is the ethereal substance — spirit — particular to a unique living being. Such traditions often consider the soul both immortal and innately aware of its immortal nature, as well as the true basis for sentience in each living being.

The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what happens to the soul after death. Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it possibly material. Soul