Irish Yoga

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LAUGHTER REALLY IS THE BEST MEDICINE… having grown up in New Jersey, near New York and part Irish… I loved this!

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Dieting – Why it Just Doesn’t Work

by Calley O’Neill
Click to view imageIf you have ever been plagued with weight issues, or know someone who is – listen to this talk.
 
Why is this in my yoga blog?  
 
You’ll find out in the very first sentence from a neuroscientist who will explain the reality of your own brain.  It’s so clear and so well done, I learned a lot and recognize the truth of it.  Enjoy!
Calley O'Neill Yoga - Click here to visit our site
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Why Eat Organic?

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Click here to watch the video

I vividly remember one day long ago, shopping in our local health food store with my dear friend Laura Lynn.  With bulging baskets, we got to the check out register, and another woman came up behind us with an item in her hand.  “Boy, that’s a lot of food!” she said, probably thinking we were being totally extravagant, our beautiful foods covering the counter.  Without missing a beat, smiling broadly, Laura Lynn said, “Of course!  This is my health insurance policy.  Imagine how much money this will save me in health care bills in the long run…maybe tens of thousands of dollars.”  The woman was speechless, and I knew a fresh seed had been planted.

Well, tonight Laura Lynn sent me a 2 ½ minute video that I highly recommend.  So, enjoy this sweet potato video done by an 8 year old on her school project, and her profound conclusion about the health of people and our nation, derived from one simple experiment and a bit of research.  Then, Please send this blog/film to everyone you know and care about…especially those who don’t yet shop local and organic at their farmer’s market, because supermarket food and produce is a bit cheaper.  In the long run, eating organic might save us hundreds of thousands of dollars!

http://www.nextworldtv.com/page/25815.html

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UNDER PAR and Over The Top …

UNDER PAR…YOGA gives you the Edge in Golf                              By Calley O’Neill

Here’s why and how The Full Body Elixir Yoga/Qigong can transform your game:

First there are the benefits for your health that improve your game. 

Golf is one of, if not the most imbalanced, one-sided games there is.  Yoga is one of, if not the most effective way to correct your alignment, improve your posture, and balance and offset repetitive and one-sided motions.  Along with excellent nutrition and a generous intake of all the minerals your body needs,  (natural sea salts, Rainbow Light Magnesium Calcium +, lots of seaweed, lots of fresh, local, organic vegetables, trace mineral drops in your water) slow flow yoga circulates the life force energy in your body, opens your body, realigns it, reinvigorates it, releases tightness, tension and pain, and renders it more fluid, flexible, elastic and properly aligned.  Yoga, especially the Full Body Elixir, is fluid motion with isometric and core engagement, which protects and your back and strengthens not only your muscles, it promotes full presence in your body.  Slow flow yoga with isometric focus, and constant core activation lubricates and strengthens your joints.  A strong flexible core creates a powerful drive, on every level.  Quite a few of the Elixir movements open up and lubricate your hips and back, and this is essential for men who want juicy vim and vigor.

Slow flow yoga, when done with a thoughtful, personal, bilateral attention, can realign your shoulders, hips and back.  Flowing yoga promotes balance and awareness of where you are in space and how your posture is in the moment – key aspects of a fine golfer.

Additionally, the regular practice of The Full Body Elixir protects you from injury.  Healthy, supply tendons and long, supple muscles tend to be much more resilient, safe muscles and tendons, not bound to tearing or injury.

Let’s face it.  If you feel great, your mind will be more relaxed, and you’ll enjoy the game a lot more; you will feel a whole lot younger, and therefore play a whole lot better.  Vitality translates into accuracy, power and ease.

Second, there are immense benefits for your mind that also improve your game.

Golf is a mind game, an inner game, and a game of visualization, immense concentration and competition.  Lose your concentration and off you go into a sand trap.  Golf is a game and it’s supposed to be fun, as well as engaging.  Presence in the moment means you are not reliving the last round; you are able to let it go and be in the now.

Drishti means focused awareness, attention, or concentration.  You develop drishti in yoga  – one pointed awareness.  Our attention and where and how we place it is our power.  Many are not aware of the fact that attention is our only power.  Directing it is the most valuable of all skills, especially on the course.  Wherever we direct our attention, energy grows, and the ball goes.  We direct and change the course of things by the quality and focus of our attention.  We simply learn or remember to – pay attention.

A regular practice of body/mind yoga as a moving meditation quiets and clears your mind.  Yoga focuses attention and breathing awareness into the present moment, your mind in the body, awakening of your big awareness, who you are, how grateful you are, and where you live – inside your body as pure awareness.  Yoga strengthens your mind, and opens your ability to see clearly and visualize where that ball must land, so that your attention will actually direct the ball to that hole and your mind to personal victory.  Yoga improves your eyesight, so you can see that tiny ball fly on to the green.

Mindful presence – awareness of your stance and your relaxation in it prevents injuries.  When you are your awareness, you are centered, alive, present, and able to use your mind to protect your body and direct the ball.

Many forms of rigid and static yoga are simply not good or right for golfers, especially older golfers.  The Full Body Elixir is perfect for older golfers due to its fluid, isometric, slow flow motion as a meditation and physical rejuvenation practice.  The Elixir promotes youthful vigor, focused energy, positive attitudes, confidence, healthy musculature, strong joints and flexibility.  The regular practice of The Full Body Elixir enhances your game or can bring it back from the sand.

Third, there are immense benefits to the way that you breathe that will improve your game and help you thoroughly enjoy every minute of it.

Conscious, deep breathing is the key to a happy life, a relaxed and present mind, clarity, focus and concentration.  Relaxation of the mind is the key to a great game.  The regular practice of slower, deep breathing dissolves nervous tension that can make for a bad round, and calms you down into your ability to choose a better thought, create a higher outcome and a lower score.  Take long, deep breaths before and during the game.

Under par and over the top – the regular practice of The Full Body Elixir, and breathing meditations can help every aspect of your game, and your life.

 

Calley O'Neill Yoga - Click here to visit our site

 

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The most important thing we can do…

Charlie…is realize that everything we do matters.

Jane Goodall

‘Everything’ can be interpreted, in the yoga sense, as the daily choices we make, both for our own internal environment, and the one surrounding us in which we walk and breathe.  Each of these choices becomes a brush stroke in the tapestry of our individual creations, as well as the global picture we all create with our daily awareness (or not) of our collective environment.

Charlie, a magnificent creature of dignity and grace, lived at the Oregon Zoo, a poster child for animals rescued from the jungle stew pot.  Calley’s portrayal of him for The Rama Exhibition captures his beautiful being, and illustrates Jane Goodall’s famous observation that “everything we do matters.”

‘Everything’ represents not only our actions, but also our thoughts and words, as they powerfully influence our inner and outer surroundings as well.  The very awareness it takes to be mindful of our thoughts and patterns of speech carries into the awareness that allows the world we inhabit to be more pristine, more protected, more appreciated, more enjoyed by ourselves and those with whom we come in contact.

The body hears everything we think and say, and behaves accordingly.  If one regularly says, for instance, that they “can’t stand!” something, they might find themselves hobbling along, unable to stand as their knees or their ankles comply with their habitual utterance.

Yoga, in my mind, entails all that we think and say and ultimately do…on the inside and out.

Julia Fairchild – Calley’s Webmaster and Guest Blogger

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As promised, books and movies listed – titles galore!

We are what we read!We just launched the new page on the website, listing favorite titles in books and movies on consciousness, health, and manifestation.  Calley has listed her favorites, and there is a form there for you to suggest your own.  Julia Fairchild, Calley’s web mistress and Program Manager has also added some of her favorites, so it’s your turn to share!  Click on the photo to be directed to our reading list page.  All books are linked to Amazon, which makes it handy for you to order your own copy.  Enjoy!

Calley O'Neill Yoga - Click here to visit our site

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THE YOGA OF THE PLANET By Calley O’Neill with Love for our World

 

SIMPLE WAYS EVERY DAY TO PRACTICE PEACE AND HEALING FOR OUR WORLD

The most important thing we can do is realize that everything we do matters.   Jane Goodall

Meditate and Practice Yoga everydayPractice yoga and meditation or silence/centering prayer and qigong/tai chi every day.  What we practice, we become.  Become a well of peace, harmony and happiness.  Every word you speak matters.  Every thought you emit matters.  Every action matters.  Become conscious of your thoughts, such that they become a blessing in your body, a blessing within your family, your community, the world and the living Earth. Be the peace for the world.

Plant a tree and save the worldPlant lots of trees, especially native trees, fruit and nut trees in your yard and on your street, your church and schoolyards.  Planting trees helps to offset the effects of climate change, a most important task.  We are all in this together. Trees are the lungs of the Earth.

Plant a gardenGrow a garden with lots of organic food and flowers in it.  Best guide I know: HOW TO GROW MORE VEGETABLES, J. Jeavons.  Or join your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm.  Pay the farmer a reasonable weekly fee and she will deliver a box of in-season fresh local vegetables to your door.  It is a solid approach to family food security.

As Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, growing food on the smallest amount of land is the most important art.

Plant wildlowers for the beesPlant wildflowers for the bees.  Bees are in trouble.  Use no pesticides and herbicides on your land, and work to eliminate pesticide spraying in your neighborhood and roadsides.

Rectcke EVERYThing

 

Recycle everything. A great goal: ZERO trash going out of your home or garden – zero waste. Google the Story of Stuff and take 10 minutes to be amazed at our current cycles of production and waste.  Be sure your workplace recycles.  Do simple things like bringing a coffee cup to the coffee shop and to work.  Everything matters.  Love your mother   – Earth.

Join Green Dimes.comJOIN GREENDIMES.com today and tell your friends about it – one of the simplest, easiest ways to help save the Earth’s fragile atmosphere.  For $36.00 once, they will stop your junk mail and plant a tree a month in your name for a year.  It WORKS! When enough of us take the time to act, extensive tree planting can offset global warming.  Breathe.

Become a Locovore

 

Become a LOCOVORE!  EAT and BUY LOCAL and organic– this is the biggest revolution there is for healing our world, and it’s so easy.  Support your local organic farmers, gardeners, bakers and craftspeople.  Between buying local, fresh unsprayed produce and imported organic produce, support local growers.  The ideal is to buy your products from within 50 miles of your home.  Join the

Take Back the TapTAKE BACK THE TAP movement.  Filter and drink tap water.  Most bottled water is tap water and has less rigorous standards than tap water.  If you must buy bottled water, be sure it is local, fresh and you recycle the bottles.  Use only glass, stainless steel or # 7 plastic bottles for drinking.  We vote with every dollar we spend.  NO GMO foods in your body.  Genetically modified foods necessitate huge amounts of antibiotics, biocides and chemicals and produce sterile, patented seeds, an immensely dangerous plan. Vote for life.

Attend your local green festivals

 

Go to local Green Festivals or the Bioneers (fall, SF, CA) or other “good news” positive message concerts, festivals and conferences.  Attend local meditation and healing workshops and celebrations.  Commune with awakening people.  Together we will thrive.

 

Embrace wind and solar energyBuy a solar hot water heater and a photovoltaic array for electricity, a small windmill and conserve energy and reduce your carbon output. Let’s become self-reliant again.  Every contribution counts. Buy a solar/wind turbine. Every one of us can make a difference.

 

Take the bus - ride your bikeBike, walk, carpool and take the bus.  What we do really matters in transportation.  Buy a fully electricTesla, the BMW i3, a Nissan Leaf, a Chevy Volt, a Coda, a Toyota Prius and plug into the sun.

 

New Dimensions Internet RadioListen to New Dimensions Internet Radio: 4 one hour-long interviews every day with the most brilliant minds on the Earth.  So easy to learn so much!  It’s graduate school in life.

TEDtalksTED.com –  Listen to amazing talks from some of the best minds on the planet, 18 minute cutting-edge, inspiring talks on technology, entertainment, science, medicine and design.

Listen with your heartListen to Abraham/Hicks, Hay House Meditation, Peace radio and FragrantHeart.com.

www.ParentingUnpluggedRadio.com Conscious parenting.  Change the world at home. 

 

Listen to uplifting music, talks, and moreChange habitual mind patterns: sing with Krishna Das, and Karen Drucker and any positive, meaningful music that you love.  For background, try the Dalai Lama’s Healing Chant and also CALLING THE LAMAS FROM AFAR.  There are all kinds of CD’s and songs to lift your spirit. Listen to Calley’s Instar Guided Meditation CD.  Everything is energy and vibration. 

 

 

Pray for the earth and all her inhabitantsIf you pray, please pray for humanity and the Earth, and for wisdom and awakened action by our world leaders every day.  What else to do?  Be the Change now and develop the courage to step into the light.  We are at a critical turning point ~ every action matters – Without these simple yet substantial lifestyle shifts, by 2050, 1/3 of all the life forms on the planet may disappear, and climate change may destabilize vast populations.  Pray healing into being.  We have everything we need to heal this world. Practice appreciation, peace and harmony.  Let’s work together wherever we are to practice what we want for all life

          Think it into Being.  Speak it into Being.  .Act it into Being.   All people are our family.   All races.  All ages.

Books are important teachers.  Stay tuned for some of my very favorites:

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