Displaying items by tag: water

Many of us frequently feel tight & stiff, & believe that it would be nearly impossible for us to be flexible, or achieve good posture. Yet enclosed with our skin, we are mostly composed of water & space. Muscles themselves are estimated to be 65-75% water, while our blood is 95% water. If all of this space could be removed from the cells in our entire body, the average human body would be a three inch ball of matter. Denseness, stiffness & inflexibility are illusions when you realise that there is not much to us!

Flexibility is usually determined by the resting length of a muscle. If a muscle feels tight, that's because the nervous system is keeping it contracted when it does not need to be. A great athlete appears to move without any effort because he has so fine tuned his body that only what is needed is engaged, there's no unnecessary contraction, so his body moves fluidly. Contraction occurs when we have adopted habits or alignments that use muscles in ways in which they were not intended. To eliminate these habits, we must wake up parts of the body that are not doing their jobs & turn off muscles that contribute to poor posture habits. In YogAlign we focus on becoming aligned by teaching our bodies to do "less".

The process of yoga is about removing obstacles like excess muscle tension, or excessive worry. YogAlign is about creating a "sustainable body", the most energy efficient body possible. The same way that we are seeking to live on our planet using efficient, natural sources of energy that don't waste or pollute, we must seek out ways to conserve energy in our bodies. Those who are out of alignment & have chronically bad posture waste the lion's share of their energy because poor posture uses muscles inefficiently. When we are misaligned, we waste our precious energy stores, sap our strength, compress our joints, compromise our organ function, and in the long run, develop a life of chronic aches & pains.

YogAlign focuses on:

1. understanding how the body is supported & controlled, and

2. teaching techniques to eliminate unnecessary tension & recover natural flexibility, tone & ease. Our bodies are permeated by systems of connective tissue that align our body through a balanced, tensile force. By practicing safe & easy breathing exercises & positions, we can learn to work with this connective tissue to regain our fluidity, moving more like the water & space that we truly are.

Michaelle Edwards - Creator of YogAlign

Here is Australasia we are amidst a very hot summer season

To keep up your focus & energy levels try increasing your hydration with these two tips

Hydrate from the Inside: To hydrate your skin from the inside, the first thing to realise is that drinking 8 glasses of water a day is not the way!! Instead you must increase your intake of water in gel form— as it exists in foods like berries, cucumbers, oranges, lettuce, and lemons. In fact, adding a lemon or cucumber slice to drinking water with a tiny pinch of Celtic sea salt or Himalayan sea salt will do wonders for the hydrating quality of your water. Adding a tablespoon of chia seeds to water and a pinch of Himalayan salt— and letting the seeds sit for 15 minutes until they swell before drinking will also hydrate your body far better than simply drinking a glass of water. This practice will also eliminate constipation in most cases. 

Remember…….alcohol and coffee are dehydrating. So for every alcoholic drink or cup of coffee you drink, just drink the equivalent amount of water or herbal tea— ideally with a little pinch of salt. You will be amazed at the improvements in your health simply by hydrating yourself optimally. 

Hydrate from the Outside: You can hydrate your skin optimally throughout the day by spritzing with a Hydrating Mist & Toner. Just spray on your face, neck, and décolleté after cleansing & before your moisturiser. Then press the fluid into your skin with your hands and fingers. Since your hands have healing power and are directly linked to your heart, we recommend that when gently pressing the hydrating mist into your skin, you do so with loving intent. Try making your own beautiful Rose Hydrating Mist.