Yoga For Healing By Allen Barkus www.AshtangabyAllen.com #Yoga #YogaForHealing #MedicalYoga #Ashtanga #AshtangaHealingTherapy

If your doctor has recommended yoga to you for relaxation and/or to help with the healing process of physical and medical issues, I have 22 years experience with teaching yoga for healing. My students have had back problems, with/recovering from cancer, rehabbing from spinal surgery, seeking to lose weight (one lost 70 pounds in 8 months), and with other issues.

My exclusive teacher for Yoga Healing Therapy is Manju Jois. Manju, along with his father, brought Ashtanga/vinyasa yoga to America and the Western world.

Unfortunately I've observed yoga is almost always taught wrong. The three key elements that should be learned first are proper breath, Pranayma; internal locks, Bondhas; and focal points, Drishtis. Beyond those first elements, alignment is most important since bad alignment can cause injuries. I recently taught a student who was taught by a teacher "certified" in India who had bad alignment, leading to a shoulder problem.

I've learned you have to be careful of 'certification" programs. In India people have been granted certifications for just showing up, never actually learning to teach. Many yoga studios have teaching programs that are also very basic, often accepting students that do not have a strong personal practice. I will train teachers who have at least five years of daily practice.

I am currently only accepting private students and doing clinics in the Philadelphia area. https://www.ashtangabyallen.com/

AshtangabyAllen: Guest Post: The Shadows Of Yoga & Spirituality: I ...

AshtangabyAllen: Guest Post: The Shadows Of Yoga & Spirituality: I ...: THE SHADOWS OF YOGA & SPIRITUALITY: I WAS RAPED BY MY YOGA TEACHER IN INDIA. MARCH 14, 2017   CORI WRIGHT   In writing this I h...

One Of The Most Basic Elements Of Yoga Is Belief In A Higher Power

I once told someone that I believe God/the Universe talks to us all the time but I do not think many people are listening. Just as she was saying to me how she wishes a higher power would talk to her she was approaching her car, just started to reach in her bag for her keys/fab, and her car doors opened. Her hand was not in her bag yet. I thought it was funny and she kind of freaked out.

I've had many other experiences that don't appear to have a non-spiritual explanation including being prepared for surgery for my appendix, instantaneously healing, and having being admited to a hospital for a full week for observation and tests because the doctors had no idea what happended.

In my view we are guided by the universe all of the time, a combination of instinct and how things happen and fall in place in our lives, but many of us choose to ignore those things. I view our existence as pure energy, as well as our connection to particular people and animals to also be energetic.  Most common is the inner voice we hear when it is time to make decisions about things, usually giving us the correct decision; After the fact we wish we listened when we go against our instinct.

I've also observed that there are people that are supposed to be in our lives for different reasons, sometimes we know and other times we misinterpret the reasons. I have personally encountered people whom I seem to know yet had never met before. Some people believe in past lives, so maybe there is a possability I knew them before.

Yoga teaches us that we are devine beings and practice connects us to our inner spirituality, connecting us to universal spirituality.

Yoga, The Coronavirus, And Moving On With Our Lives...

By nature... humans are amazing beings that adapt and evolve through periods of difficulties. In yoga one of the ways we heal and persevere is practicing the first two of the eight limbs, Yamas and Niyamas, how we treat ourselves and others.

In Perspective...In a few years we will likely look back at this period in time, with adjusted lives. My guess is vaccines and/or effective treatments will become the norm until the Coronavirus is totally eliminated. An Eastern form of greeting will likely become the norm, namaste or a bow, one of the nicest I've encountered is the right hand on the heart and slight bow in Malaysia.

We survived the 1918 Spanish Flu, went back to our normal lives and we will continue again.

Continuing our yoga practices..This is a great opportunity to focus on our home practices. If you do not currently have a self practice many yoga studios are offering streaming classes, some complementary. You can also find numerous videos on YouTube. I also highly recommend focusing on pranayama, breathing exercises that support your practice and have numerous healing benefits. 

Ultimately it is most important that you be on your mat and do whatever you can do until you can have the more personal supervision and hands-on assists of an experienced teacher.

By Allen Barkus. Allen has been practicing Ashtanga yoga since 1998 and teaching since 2004. His initial teacher training was with David Swenson and has been the student of Manju Jois since 2004. Manju, along with his father, introduced Ashtanga/Vinyasa yoga to America in 1975. His studies focus on Healing Therapy. He is available in Philadelphia for private lessons and clinics and travels around the world teaching clinics. www.AshtangabyAllen.com

Effective Child & Adult Friendly Hand Sanitizer Is Available Directly From Zoey Naturals

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Use: Spray hands thoroughly with product and allow to dry without wiping.

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Ingredients: Ethyl alcohol, water, fragrance.

How To Make Homemade Hand Sanitizer

By Anne

 Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

Some commercial hand sanitizer contains ingredients as scary as the germs they protect you from, so why not make your own hand sanitizer from ingredients you select? This is an excellent project for kids as well as adults since the project can be expanded to include a discussion about hygiene and disinfection. You'll save money, protect yourself from germs, and can customize the scent of the hand sanitizer so it doesn't smell medicinal.

Homemade Hand Sanitizer Ingredients

• 2/3 cup 99% rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) or ethanol
• 1/3 cup aloe vera gel
• 8-10 drops essential oil, optional (such as lavender, vanilla, peppermint, grapefruit)
• bowl and spoon
• funnel
• recycled liquid soap or hand sanitizer bottle

Make Hand Sanitizer

Nothing could be easier! Simply mix the ingredients together and then use the funnel to pour them into the bottle. Screw the pump back onto the bottle and you're ready to go.

How It Works

The active ingredient in this hand sanitizer recipe is the alcohol, which needs to comprise at least 60% of the product in order to be an effective disinfectant.

Essential Oils in Hand Sanitizer

In addition to adding fragrance to your hand sanitizer, the essential oil you choose may also help protect you against germs. For example, thyme and clove oil have antimicrobial properties. If you are using antimicrobial oils, only use a drop or two, since these oils tend to be very powerful and might irritate your skin. Other oils, such as lavender or chamomile, may help soothe your skin.

Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/make-your-own-homemade-hand-sanitizer-606145

Non-Attachment And The Connection To Emotional Healing In Yoga. #MeToo #Yoga #Ashtanga #YogaHealing

Aparigraha, non-attachment in yoga is something I have been thinking about a lot lately in how we deal with emotional healing both on and off our mats.

The Western perspective of  yoga largely misunderstands that yoga is a healing practice for both mind and body with too much focus on the physical practice.


As I get older, now 60, my physical practice has me in as good or better shape than in my 20s. On the other hand my emotional perspective has evolved to understand how attachments, both material and emotional can have negative effects on our lives. Personally I have let go of many of my attachments, things that I thought I needed.

Unfortunately many people I know have suffered from some sort of trauma in their lives from injuries, disease, physical and emotional abuse. In a lot of those cases that trauma becomes a part of who they are and affects them and how they treat others in their lives, even in some cases becoming abusive themselves without even realizing it.

In yogic healing we need to realize the need for non-attachment before being able to move on to healing. One of the ways that has worked for me and my students is acceptance that there are things that we ultimately have no control over and focus on the things we can control like how we treat ourselves and others.

Our bodies also hold emotions and stress in different places, reminded of a student who had very positive emotional releases when doing asanas/poses that worked into his lower back. In our practices we learn to connect to and listen to our bodies to focus on our healing needs.

By Allen Barkus. Allen has been practicing Ashtanga yoga since 1998 and teaching since 2004. His initial teacher training was with David Swenson and has been the student of Manju Jois since 2004. Manju, along with his father, introduced Ashtanga/Vinyasa yoga to America in 1975. His studies focus on Healing Therapy. He is available in Philadelphia for private lessons and clinics and travels around the world teaching clinics. www.AshtangabyAllen.com