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Archives for Inspirational Stories

In inspirational story for women, yoga clothing designers break the mold

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If you like yoga-related inspirational stories for women, you'll be interested in a feature recently published by the Minneapolis Star Tribune on a pair of siblings who have taken yoga clothing design to bold places.

According to the newspaper, 37-year-old twin sisters Kaja Foat and Zoe Foat Naselaris have spent more than a decade developing a personal success plan that involved yoga outfits. Now, after years spent in design school and countless hours burned over the drawing board, the pair said they have achieved success.

The twin sisters currently own and operate a yoga clothing store in the Twin Cities, and they say that their non-traditional clothing flies in the face of current fashion.

Like Dahn Yoga uniforms, the designs offered by the Foat siblings are based on long sleeves, natural fabrics, organic fibers and comfortable fit.

For ladies in particular, the primary criteria for buying a yoga outfit should be its temperature control and the eco-friendliness of its threads, the sisters told the news source.

"Women's bodies are all different," Kaja told the newspaper, adding that it's up to female yoga enthusiasts to choose clothing that suits their needs.

Jan 17, 2012

Yoga’s U.S. history begins with Thoreau and an inspirational story about commitment

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If you're a sucker for inspirational stories about service, duty, dedication and success, then you're in luck. A quick internet search can pull up thousands of yoga-based stories that can make you laugh, cry or jump for joy. The mind-body regimen is practically a magnet for inspirational stories about commitment.

Just consider a recent article published by the Huffington Post. In it, yoga enthusiast and author Meryl Davids Landau explained that author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau was very likely the U.S.'s first yoga practitioner.

That's right – according to her, the great American thinker is the first person known to have adopted yoga in the New World.

In fact, in 1849, shortly after he concluded his two years, two months and two days of solitude at Walden Pond, Thoreau wrote a letter to a friend about the delight he took in practicing the holistic routine.

"Free in this world, as the birds in the air, disengaged from every kind of chains, those who have practiced the yoga,'" he wrote, quoting an ancient Eastern text. Then Thoreau described his commitment to the regimen: "Depend upon it that rude and careless as I am, I would fain practice the yoga faithfully."

Dec 20, 2011

Inspirational stories for women often include yoga

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There is a clear connection between yoga and health benefits, particularly when it comes to middle-aged women. According to numerous studies, the holistic mind-body regimen entails health improvements both clear-cut and subtle for ladies in their 40s, 50s and beyond.

It's little wonder, then, that inspirational stories for women often involve yoga, meditation, tai chi and other complementary and alternative regimens.

As proof of yoga's enduring popularity among women, consider a survey conducted by the Yoga Journal, which found that more than 11.4 million American females regularly practice the self-healing system.

Likewise, the largest group of yoga practitioners is between the ages of 35 and 54, according to the news source. These demographics – namely, middle-aged people generally and women specifically – are the ones who derive some of the most obvious benefits from yoga.

Studies have shown that women who do regular yoga exercises may experience back pain relief, an increase in flexibility, improved mobility and a reduction in the symptoms of menopause.

Also, several scientific investigations have concluded that yoga-based therapies can ease the aches caused by fibromyalgia, a disease which disproportionately affects women, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Dec 2, 2011

7 yoga quotes that offer inspirational stories about teamwork, effort, selflessness, peace

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For individuals learning the yoga basics, the first thing to know – or one of the first, anyway – is that it always helps to have a little mental inspiration when doing your yoga routine. That is not to say that you always have to have inspirational stories about teamwork or triumph in your head. But it couldn't hurt to occasionally read some inspirational quotes and get yourself in a profound state of mind.

Here is a list of a few such quotes, some yoga-related, some not, many taken from community discussions at Yoga Magazine and Yoga Journal. These apothegms, maxims, truisms, mottoes and remarks may plant themselves in your consciousness, flowering when the time is right.

1. "This calm steadiness of the senses is called yoga. Then one should become watchful, becomes yoga comes and go." -The Upanishads

2. "I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures." -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

3. "Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked." -Desikashar

4. "Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." -Chief Seattle

5. "Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious." -David Williams, yoga instructor

6. "How should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any – lifted from the no
of all nothing – human merely being
doubt unimaginably You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)"

- e.e. cummings

7. "Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny." -The Upanishads

Aug 30, 2011

The Princess Diaries is an inspirational teenage movie

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Personal change and personal development are two of the common interests for people who practice dahn yoga.

The Princess Diaries was written by Meg Cabot and made into an immensely successful movie starring Anne Hathaway. In addition, it inspired many teenage girls to dream and aim for a life in which they are confident, beautiful and potentially a princess.

Mia Thermopolis – played by Hathaway in the movie – is raised by her mother, who starts to date Mia's high school teacher, to the awkward teenager's immense horror. She feels that she is already enough of an outsider without having to deal with her mother, an artist, dating her teacher.

However, what Mia doesn't know is that she is actually the princess of Genovia. Her real name is Amelia Mignonette Grimaldo Thermopolis Renaldo. Her grandmother is the dowager princess of Genovia – played beautifully in the movie by Julie Andrews.

Mia learns to sit up straight and to act like a lady. These are just physical developments while the more lasting and meaningful developments are within her – in terms of confidence and a sense of honor and purpose.
 

May 5, 2011

The Princess and the Frog is about determination and adventure

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One of the many facets of dahn yoga is its link to personal change and personal development.

The story of the Princess and the Frog is rife with personal change and development. In Disney's new version of the classic tale, a young girl is turned from human to frog, falls in love, accepts that she will have to live the rest of her life as a frog, and then is finally turned back into a human.

Tiana is a girl living in the 1920s New Orleans and her dream is to open her own restaurant. Prince Naveen is from the fictional place called Maldonia and he has been turned into a frog by an evil voodoo witch doctor.

When Tiana meets Prince Naveen – in frog form – at a masquerade ball, he convinces her to kiss him, agreeing to see to it that she will receive the money she needs to fund her projects. However, the trick doesn't work and Tiana herself becomes a frog.

The Disney movie has many new twists and turns on the old story of a beautiful princess kissing a frog, who then becomes a human again.

However, the theme of staying true to one's dreams – Tiana's dream of becoming a restaurant owner, for example – and the necessity to be courageous even if it involves deep personal change is a timeless subject in which many can find inspiration.
 

May 5, 2011

A new children’s book from Kristi Yamaguchi

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Dahn Yoga DVDs and books can be a learning tool and guide into the world of yoga, personal change and personal development. There are also many children's books designed to foster growth and inspire young kids to dream big.

Figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi has written a new children's book aimed at inspiring kids to achieve their dreams, according to the Naperville Sun Times.

The new book is titled "Dream Big, Little Pig!" and is published by Sourcebooks, which has had 16 New York Times best-seller titles.

The story is about a pig named Poppy who dreams of becoming an ice skating champion. When asked what her inspirations were, Yamaguchi said that she was born in the year of the pig, according to the Chinese calendar. "I love Miss Piggy," added Yamaguchi.

Tim Bowers worked as the illustrator for the book.

“This is not the average celebrity book. Sometimes we wonder how involved the celebrity is, but you can tell this is Kristi. It’s about finding your dreams and inspiring people. We are known for books which inspire with a lot of heart, which is why we have so many best-sellers. They reach people," Dominique Raccah, the CEO and Publisher of Sourcebooks, told the news outlet.
 

Mar 30, 2011

Lady Gaga’s new hit encourages life balance

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Lady Gaga's most recent song, Born This Way, may be of interest to those who have researched Dahn Yoga basics. Much like the form of yoga, the tune encourages a healthy life balance and encourages the human spirit.

The song, which was released earlier this season, is the first track off of the pop sensation's new album of the same name. There was much hype leading up to the release of the tune – and now fans are raving about the deeper meaning of her lyrics.

The catchy melody is accompanied by lyrics that encourage self-acceptance for all types of people. In the chorus, Gaga sings, "I'm beautiful in my way, cause God makes no mistakes, I'm on the right track baby, I was born this way."

The original release of the song has already garnered much attention among the music world, but a new rendition of Born This Way released today may reach out to fans of Western music. The remix features the same vocals, but the background is slower and has a distinctly southern feel.

The full album will be released on May 23. This will be her second in-studio album, following her wildly successful Fame Monster release.

Mar 25, 2011

The ‘Sedona Method’ of Meditation

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Wanting to share what he had learned, Lester Levenson traveled to speak at seminars and to small spiritual minded groups of people. Soon, people flocked to hear his amazing and inspirational story, and his audience swelled to several hundreds and thousands of people.

In 1958, he felt a sudden urge to head west, perhaps to California. On his way to San Diego, he passed through Arizona and spotted a sign that read ‘Sedona’. He heard an inner voice tell him “go there!” Guided by this inner voice, he went immediately to Sedona and was overpowered and overwhelmed by the unique combination of breathtaking beauty and spiritual energy he found there. He decided to purchase land in a remote area of Sedona on which to establish a meditation and retreat center. Here he told people of his experiences and shared the methods by which they too might experience the realization that he had. This eventually became known as the ‘Sedona Method.’

The ‘Sedona Method’ of meditation became known all over the world, with thousands of people practicing its techniques. His closest students in New York visited him often in Sedona, with some of them moving to be near him. One of them was Dr. David Hawkins, the renowned author of Power vs. Force, who worked with Nobel Prize winning physicist Linus Pauling. Lester Levenson, who expected to die at the age of 42, lived until he was 84, and was active until the end of his life.

Nov 28, 2008

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Though it was founded in the 1980s, Dahn Yoga's basic precepts and techniques are directly descended from methods practiced five millennia ago in East Asia. These precepts include the importance of the mind's partnership with the body, as well as the need for a balanced bond between the two.

Today, thousands of Americans practice Dahn Yoga everyday, many of whom are delightedly trying it for the first time. Taking a little time out of one's day to stretch, breathe, pose and meditate with a gentle smile on one's face can radically change one's mood and outlook.

This blog offers responses to news items that prominently feature Dahn Yoga and its neighborhood centers.

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