The best yoga practice is the one that actually works for you.

Common sense dictates the best home yoga practice is the one you willingly, eagerly do every day, or at least complete three or four times a week.  Committing to a regular yoga practice and then making it meaningful and productive, you have to make some choices.  But choose cautiously: You easily can over-think these things.  Choose according to intuition and a lifetime’s experience as the world’s leading authority on your own self.  Ask and answer a few practical, realistic questions to lay the foundation for your physical and spiritual journey toward higher consciousness.

Keep it real: Are you sure you want to practice yoga?

Before you invest time, energy, and money in a yoga practice, consider your motivation.  Are you beginning yoga because all the PTA moms agree it’s the totally cool and fun thing to do?  And do the PTA moms love yoga for its physical and spiritual benefits; or do they take yoga classes because the outfits are so cute and the instructor at the gym is so hot?  Carefully assessing the PTA moms’ physical and spiritual conditions, are you sure they represent the best source of information and advice about beginning a serious yoga practice?

What is your motivation?  Yoga will work well if your goals and yoga’s purposes align.  The practice of yoga derives from prayerful spirituality, focusing your attention on your body for the sake of aligning it, its energy, and your soul with the universal forces of growth and evolution.  Yes, you may focus on just the movements, but reducing it simply to its physical elements, you forfeit yoga’s greatest benefits.

Your yoga practice may become the cornerstone of a fitness routine, a personal growth program, or a spiritual quest.  Your yoga practice also may complement swimming, walking, running, cycling, or all of the above.  Yoga does develop both physical strength and psychological endurance.  Your yoga practice does not, however, mix well with diet pills, rapid weight loss, or your initiative to become a super-model in ten days or fewer.  Practicing yoga, your consciousness travels at the speed of light, but your body moves at a glacier’s pace.  Practicing yoga, you inevitably must practice both patiently and purposefully.  For many people who want quick results—rapid weight-loss and instant muscles—yoga and meditation are exactly the wrong choices.

Class or Yoga DVD?

Once again, you must consider what will work best for you?  Do you have the self-discipline to carve time out of your day to practice yoga at home?  Can you transform your family room or your bedroom into a sacred space?  Or do you have a quiet, private place that you can dedicate as a sanctuary for your yoga practice?  Can you find a Yoga DVD that has the right balance of physical and spiritual guidance and that has the right content and production values?  Alternatively, would taking a class give you a greater sense of commitment and dedication to your practice?  Consider the question very practically: Does spending money for a class increase the likelihood of your attendance, or does it just make you feel guiltier when you miss?

In a really good, well-developed and well-produced guided meditation audio, you get exactly what you need and want–a whole lot of nothing.

As a strict matter of content, you should receive an introduction to the philosophy that informs the audio, and you should receive some basic instruction in meditation techniques—posture and attitude most of all, and then you should get an hour or so of guidance and support that take you through a meaningful, productive, refreshing, and recuperative meditation. If you listen to the audio without following its instructions, it may sound a little silly and near-fatally repetitive; because it is dedicated to helping you sustain an altered state of consciousness. When you suspend judgment and consciousness, attending just to the instructions, you ought to feel yourself transported to a realm far larger and infinitely more peaceful than the quotidian world in which you wage commerce and love.

Guided meditation audio satisfies.

Your guided meditation audio yields perfect satisfaction—that is, nothing left to need or want. Some of those exquisitely rare products that lives-up to the claim “one size fits all,” these yoga meditation CDs will give you an all-purpose emotional, psychic, spiritual, and soulful repair tool. Your guided meditation audio tunes-up, beautifies, and protects your spirit, relieving stress and fatigue, and restoring your peak intellectual performance. Unlike everything advertised overnight on your favourite crime dramas, your guided meditation audio delivers on its promises, and the research supporting its claims really did take place at Harvard, MIT, Johns-Hopkins, and other high-powered ivy-covered places. High-powered philosophers and theologians describe “edification,” a state of complete satisfaction. When you and your guided meditation audio work well together, you feel edified. If, however, you can put the words to “edification,” then you did not really achieve it.

Guided meditation audio promotes perfect peace.

Your guided meditation audio delivers perfect peace—that is, nothing left to contest or controvert. When you meditate, you create your own intensely personal, intimate and impenetrable sacred space, a magic bubble. Strict mystics steadfastly maintain your sacred space includes all of your self and your aura; it definitely extends beyond the boundary between your skin and the air. Peace and harmony pervade your space; it has no landscape, nor does it appeal to any of your five ordinary senses. You hear the alternation of Om and silence, but they register in, through, and beyond you rather than assaulting your ear drums. Nothing happens in your sacred space, and you do nothing there except exist. You do not think, feel, or emote. In this space, you feel the pure goodness of simple being, nothing more and nothing less.

Guided meditation audio fosters contentment.

Your commerce with the everyday world depends on setting will in service of desire: you feel all that you lack, and you marshal your faculties to fill all the voids. In the everyday world, you never have enough, and you feel all the pains and vacancies in your life as if you could put your whole hand into each of those empty pockets. When you meditate, following the instructions on your guided meditation audio, you feel complete and satisfied exactly as you are. You know nothing of need, and you want for nothing.

At the end of your meditation, when an ingénue wants to know, “What did it do for you,” you ought to answer in perfect sincerity,”Nothing.”

When looking at meditation techniques and what is available as a Yoga meditation CD then one should consider what is the most often used yoga meditation technique.

Both beginners and advanced meditaiton practitioners all use the mantra Om or Aum some where along the line in their practice.  Om is often chanted at the start of a yoga session.  It is important to be able to chant Om with advancing understanding as one does it.  Om is related to sound vibration and that is caused by intoning the sound Om.   There are classical yoga meditation techniques around this sound practice.

We recommend the Chanting Om CD, Om Unplugged: A Step by Step Guided Meditation for Awakening & Self Realization as in our opinion it is the best yoga meditaiton CD for sale.

One can also do things like listen to meditation music but that is not an actual yoga meditation.  We like the instructor Victor Demko on the meditation CD because his instructions are clear and easy to follow and he outlines the most important parts of Om as it relates to the Chakras and both your inner sound condition and the outer world. 

You may use Om to simply relax but it is best used with focused concentration as concentration like tightening a muscle will help it relax more deeply when released.   Om unplugged is also available as a meditation download.

If one likes to  meditate to music using your own yoga meditation techniques or to do pranayama while listening to a CD then you may want to purchase the Yoga Music CD Namaste.

If you already have a Yoga practice then you may want to use the yoga meditation techniques of Yoga Nidra.  The CD Experience Yoga Nidra :A Deep Guided Relaxation is a good choice and is also available on MP3.  Yoga Nidra is a meditation technique that helps all the internal organs and whole body relax.

So you have 3 great choices for a yoga meditation CDs here for those who do yoga at home and we hope you choose at least one of the CDs and get going on your yoga meditation as yoga offers benefits that can only be found by actually having a Yoga practice.

If you carefully have chosen the best yoga DVD, why would you take a class at the studio or gym if you have to drive more than 30 minutes to get there?

If your DVD matches your skill and fitness, if the philosophy and instruction are the same, then why go to all the trouble of going out?  If you see, hear, and feel no difference between your DVD and a real-life class, then why get dressed and undressed, pack a bag, drive, search for just the right spot, and feel completely self-conscious for an hour?  And why, after all of that muss, fuss, and bother, would you want to shower in a strange place with a whole bunch of people you never have met?  The best yoga DVD beats a regular class like a royal flush beats a pair of eights.

You want to select the video with a reliable instructor who balances exercise and meditation, breathing and balance, leading and guiding both your body and your spirit.  And you want all that substance delivered in a pleasant, encouraging tone of voice.  Selecting the best yoga DVD, you enjoy the luxury of choosing the setting, your companions, the music, and all the other features that determine your workout’s ambience and mood.  If you go out to the gym, you roll out your mat amidst the exercise bicycles left-over from “spin” class and the abs machines that will not fit anywhere else.  At the gym or studio, whether or not practice meets your physical and emotional needs, you acquiesce in whatever the instructor has planned.  And for all this inconvenience, you pay more for one session than you spent for your DVD.  For what you spend on a month’s gym membership, you can buy at least a 3-pack of excellent yoga DVDs.  Why would you want to go to the gym?

Of course, the best DVD is the one that sustains your motivation and engagement.  Most yoga DVD’s belong to series, so that, once you have found an instructor you like, you can stay with him or her as you advance from stage to stage.  The DVD allows you to practice in your own home, in your own time, free from self-consciousness about what you wear or how you perform.  Practicing at home with the DVD’s guidance, you remain free to repeat your favorite parts or review the poses and breathing with which you struggle.  Many of the best yoga DVD’s correlate morning and evening practices, so that you may attend class twice a day without ever leaving home.  Frankly, you have no good reason to visit the gym or studio, because you have more than enough expert yoga guidance at home.

Starting off in yoga can be a very exciting and rewarding experience. It’s fairly obvious why it would be rewarding. Yoga has been proven to have many benefits, not the least of which is the positive effect it will have on your physical wellbeing. Anyone who’s done a bit of research though will know that’s not all. Yoga is one of the best ways to strengthen your mind and prepare your psyche to deal with practically anything that life throws your way. And that’s the exciting part. Who doesn’t want to feel better? It’s not always easy to get to a class though, or you might just want something to supplement what you’re being taught. But how do you know which are the best yoga DVDs?

Price is not necessarily an indicator. Some may think that you have to pay an arm and a leg for something that’s of a high quality. This isn’t true. If you’re not careful you can end up paying an inflated price for a DVD that is, to put it bluntly, a piece of rubbish. Video tutorials are a big business and there are many less than scrupulous people who are all too willing to cash in. Anyone with a little bit of knowledge can make one and try to sell it to you at an exorbitant cost. Just do a little research online and you’ll see how many scams have been uncovered thus far. Most of the best yoga DVDs will put you out about $12-25 and you shouldn’t really be paying more than this unless you’re getting a series as opposed to one video.

A great way to weed through the worst and best yoga DVDs is to check out the reviews. This will also give you a feel for knowing if this yoga DVD is best for you. Some people make the mistake of reading one five star review and assuming that the product is great. Reviews on Amazon are good if you want a broad cross-section of opinions.

Ambition is usually a good thing but, in the case of choosing the best beginners yoga DVD for yourself, it can get you into some trouble. Just because the video instructor can get into the positions doesn’t mean that you can without risking injury. You have to know yourself and what you are capable of, and this is where some people falter. It’s easy to convince yourself that you can do things which are more advanced than you can handle. If you are a beginner then you should stick to DVDs which are specially designed for you. The best yoga DVDs will have some indication of the level of student that they are intended for.

One thing that you need to recognize from the start is that yoga is not just about doing poses and tending to your body. A true yoga disciple knows that a healthy body is nothing without a healthy mind to support it. Someone looking for the physical benefits may not be attracted to the meditation side of yoga and that is ok.  But please remember you will never truly reap the full benefits of yoga unless you also try these techniques. The best yoga DVDs will include some component of aspects such as meditation and relaxation and will provide a competent introduction.

The dog yoga pose is better known as the downward facing dog pose, and is one of the most basic of all the yoga postures and is featured on every yoga dvd for beginners. It is also one of the more challenging yoga poses. Yet it is a posture that all practitioners, whether novices or veterans, should work into their daily routines. The dog yoga pose is one which often takes quite a bit of time to master, so don’t get discouraged if you can’t do it perfectly on your first try. Remember that you are practicing yoga and yoga teaches patience and persistence. The idea is to try and try again until you’ve gotten the pose right.

Not all yoga teachers will teach the downward dog yoga pose automatically unless it is a beginners class so it’s important that you know to get into position on your own.  The pose is included in all types of beginners yoga DVDs such as hatha, ashtanga, power and prenatal yoga.  All the best Yoga dvds will include a good explantion of the pose. The easiest way to visualize this pose is as an upside down V, with the feet and hands on the floor. If you already have some level of flexibility, you may be able to get into the posture by stretching, bringing your hands to floor and working your feet back a little. For safety, you may want to start off with your knees bent though, and then try to straighten your legs as much as possible. This is the challenging part of the exercise so don’t push if you can’t get your legs completely straight or you may end up pulling your hamstrings.

An important point to note with the downward dog yoga posture is that the hands should be fully extended, fingers pushing into the floor and making firm contact with the floor. This is why it is good to have a yoga dvd so the posture can easily be seen.  This will help to avoid your wrists taking too much weight and becoming strained. Your feet should be a hip width apart and parallel to one another. The pressure exerted on both your upper and lower body should be as even as possible. If you feel that either your legs or your arms are taking more of the strain then you may not be in the proper position. There should be no arching of the back or contact between the knees. This can cause excessive tension in the relevant muscles and that’s the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.

Some beginners starting yoga may be thinking to themself that there’s no way they can get their body into an upside down V shape and they’d just as well ignore the position altogether. That would be a mistake. The downward dog yoga pose is one of the most beneficial postures that you will ever come across and it can help to:

·Strengthen the muscles of the arms, shoulders, legs and lower back.

·Decrease back pain.

·Reduce spinal tension and any associated headaches.

·Increase circulation throughout the body, but especially to the brain (since the head is in an inverted position).

A lot of people consider the biggest benefit of the downward dog yoga pose to be the effects on the back. The number of individuals who suffer from back pain has increased dramatically over the years, in part due to changes in lifestyle. Chiropractors are making a ton of money from office workers, to drivers, to housewives, and everyone in between. The downward dog yoga posture stretches out the muscles of the back, thereby reducing the tightening that arises from being in one position for a long time.

As with any exercise though, there are some individuals who should take extra precautions when attempting this pose. Those suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome need to be especially careful since the wrists do bear some of the body’s weight and this can exacerbate the condition. Also, women in the late stages of pregnancy should avoid the pose as it can bring on abdominal pains for certain individuals.

Most of the basic yoga poses that you will learn as a student of yoga will involve standing, sitting, or lying flat. These are some of the easiest postures that you will ever come across, and that’s why all students are expected to start off with these. As you progress through your course of study, you will be taught more advanced yoga poses which are designed to increase your flexibility even further. One set of yoga poses which tend to cause some worry amongst new students are the inverse postures, most notably the headstand. These poses involve arranging the body in an upside down fashion and keeping your balance can cause some concern. While it is in theory possible to injure oneself, proper yoga instruction will make the process a lot easier and the benefits of these advanced yoga poses are many.

How do inverse positions help the body? Well, gravity is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to the internal organs. Because of the high water content of our bodies, we are very susceptible to the effects of gravity. What gravity does is compress the body and this causes the organs, and the associated systems, to essentially become constricted. This can lead to countless health problems, from cosmetic concerns such as sagging fat to more serious conditions such as varicose veins. By inverting oneself, you are releasing this pressure and this causes the organs to function better. This is not just a theory as studies have shown the effects of maintaining an inverted position for a few minutes every day. There are four main systems which can benefit from your practicing these advanced yoga postures.

The Endocrine System

When you think of the endocrine system, there are two main things which come to mind: the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. These are crucial in maintaining the hormonal levels in the body, especially in women. Problems in these areas can have devastating effects on a person’s physical and mental health, leading to conditions such as growth defects, excessive weight gain and mood fluctuations. Inverse advanced yoga positions improve the circulation of blood to these areas, thereby allowing them to be immersed in a fresh supply of oxygen. This helps them to remain healthy and maintain the chemical balance in the body.

The Digestive System

This is one of the systems which experience the most compression by gravity. Inverting oneself not only relieves some of this pressure but also encourages the diaphragm movements consistent with deep breathing exercises. This serves to massage the internal organs and we all know how effective a massage is. The blood flow to the organs is also increased so they have a larger supply of oxygen available.

The Circulatory System

Your heart has a lot of work to do. It is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body and this is a tough job. Inverted poses take some of the strain off. These advanced yoga positions strengthen the muscles of the heart by bringing more blood to it in much the same way that aerobic exercise does. The advantage is that it doesn’t have to do as much work to get oxygen rich blood to the brain because gravity does that naturally. By supplying the brain cells with even more nutrition, you are minimizing tissue degeneration and fatigue. Daily yoga practice rejuvenates the brain and helps you to think with more clarity. If a yoga DVD will help you with this, it is advisable to play the Yoga DVD as often as needed to get your motivation and technique up to the level you would like.

The Lymphatic System

It is a well known fact that fluid accumulation in the lymphatic system can lead to painfully swollen lymph nodes. This is especially prevalent in the lower body. Inversions essentially flip the flow of the lymphatic fluid, thereby reversing the build up. Since the lymphatic system is associated with the immune system, this gets a boost as well from daily practice of these advanced yoga postures.

When done properly, yoga inversions are extremely effective at tackling a number of health problems. It is best to do these advanced yoga positions for a few minutes each day to gain the full benefits. It is essential though that you have a qualified instructor and you should consult a doctor if you have any pre-existing conditions such as hypertension.