After five thousand years of written documentation, Yoga may well be the oldest self-improvement system that ever existed. We don't know what Yoga knowledge may have been lost before man started to record it. In the time period beyond 5,000 years a fair amount of knowledge would have been passed on by word of mouth, and as a result, some of it would be missing. There are many different types of Yoga, but all of them contribute to mankind's self-improvement. So, mankind has been a work in progress for thousands of years and has organized systems to constantly improve....

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Being a practicing Christian myself, there are very few things in Yoga that conflict with Christianity. Some critics argue that Yoga and Christianity cannot co-exist, and yet we know that Yoga is not a religion. However, that depends on your opinion. Recently, I was reading about someone who claims Kundalini is "new age witchcraft." Sorry to say, another person recently stated, "Good Christians should avoid the devil's exercise," in reference to Yoga. Are the Salem witch trials still so close to our hearts?...

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For some reason, I had the time to sit down and watch a little television, and as luck would have it, Bikram Choudhury was being interviewed on 60 Minutes Wednesday. My wife, Marie and I don't often get home at that time of the night, as we are usually closing up the wellness center, so this was fate and a bit of luck. Our center does not have 105 degree Bikram classes or hot Yoga classes, but we are familiar with Bikram's style and his wife's many accomplishments. Rajashree Choudhury is a five-time winner of the All-India Yoga Championship competition....

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Unlike some other sports, you don't need a lot of yoga accessories when you practice. With yoga, your body is really the most important 'equipment' that you need. There are some items that are basic and which can help you be more comfortable and safer in your practice. Standard Yoga Accessories Clothing Your clothing should be comfortable and breathable and allow you to move freely. You don't want anything that is going to get in the way of your movements or that will bunch up or create a distraction....

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I absolutely love using yoga DVDs and yoga videos during my practices. As a matter of fact, I use one of them almost every time I do yoga. Why do I love using them so much? They Provide Variety I don't know about you, but I get bored pretty easily. Doing exactly the same practice over and over again would drive me crazy. Instead of enjoying the relaxation that comes from yoga, I would probably be irritated by having to do the same program every time I practiced. To deal with my need for diversity, I have an assortment of yoga DVDs and I usually pick a different one each time I practice....

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The next large component of self-mastery is mental health, and this is much trickier than physical health, due to many pitfalls that affect the mind along the way. The list of reasons why people fall prey to mental illness is so long; it could fill a large book. Anyone can get a mental illness, as it crosses every social and economic boundary that exists. Some mental illnesses, such as Schizophrenia, seem to have marginal genetic factors, in that, it can "run in families," but studies don't indicate why this occurs....

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Stress is very common in all walks of life and in all occupations. There are different kinds of stress, such as acute, episodic and chronic. Each one has its own list of symptoms and triggers that set it off. Chronic stress is the most dangerous one because it can affect a persons health and welfare and lead to depression if he/she cannot develop methods of stress relief. This is the gnawing feeling that people encounter day after day. It can be related to work, an unhappy marriage, money problems or a whole host of things that cause people to become very unhappy with their lives....

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There is an interesting article in the September 5th issue of Time magazine. This particular article covers a spectrum of opinions about mixing Christianity with Yoga. Even, if you don't agree with a single opinion, it's a good read, as long as you remain objective. Over the course of time, I have been lucky enough to teach, or practice, with someone from every known religious denomination; so the statement by a Professor Tiwari at the Hindu University of America, where he states that, "Yoga is Hinduism,"...

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Every process of Yoga... neigh Meditation that frees us from the clutches of Attachment... Bondage or Moha, whatever we may call it... Is the right process on the path of gaining Enlightenment. Are Yoga and Meditation two different words with different meanings? No, the truth is not so... we need to understand that it is the path of yoga which shall lead us to gaining Enlightenment within this life. And what does yoga itself mean? The word yoga has been derived from the Hindi root yog and which in Hindi means synthesizing two things....

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