Hi Everyone,

For this video I have Rachel with me, and she makes me a yummy breakfast. If you like eggs than see how Rachel gives us poached eggs on toast, but with a few added ingredients to make it that bit healthier and nicer!

I promised you a list of ingredients:

• eggs
• cider vinegar (healthier than wine vinegar)
• avocado
• tomatoes
• tahini
• yeast extract with added vit B12 (marmite is how most people know it)
• alfalfa
• spelt bread  (healthier and easier digestible grain than wheat

That’s it, if you want to know how to make it, look at the video!

enjoy! (I did)

Esther

Hello Everyone,

If your upper and/or middle back needs a good stretch,..

If you shoulders are tight and you want relief..

If you want to live your life with an open heart, and open mind?

Than this is your pose to practice! Hold it for 3-5 minutes, it is great. Also it is a great warm up if you want to practice deeper back bends.

Esther

Hello everyone,
Here a few yoga poses you can do to help calm the body and get the digestive system going. Bring these poses into your regular practice for a while, or do them by themselves. But also think about the portions you eat, overeating could well be causing the problem!
The poses I demonstrate in this sequence are:

• thunderbolt pose / vajrasana
• seated forward bend / paschimottanasana
• lying simple twist
• one leg twist
• savasana / corpse pose

Happy digesting!
Esther

Hi Everyone,

As a result of some requests I’ve decided to let you have a look in my kitchen  Eating healthy does not always come natural and I know it can be helpful to get some ideas so I hope this gives you some.. It is so important what you eat, also from a yoga perspective. You probably all know the phrase “you are what you eat” That is a bit much for me, you’re much more than just what you eat, but if want to be healthy and energetic physically you want to look at eating healthy. A lot of physical problems start from bad diet and some can be fixed with help of a healthy diet. So have an honest look and start making some changes!

Enjoy..

Hi everyone,

Part 3 of yoga for beginners! The final part of the Yoga for Beginners series focusses more on poses that require a bit more strength, in your arms and core! We are getting into a baby backbend (cobra) and a twist. Hope you’ll enjoy it!

As you know I haven’t been feeling great the past week so I haven’t got a new video for this week so here is an older one which fell through the cracks and wasn’t put up previously here. This completes the Yoga for Beginners series.

In this video the poses I explain are:

• chair pose / utkatasana
• downward facing dog pose / adho mukha svanasana
• plank pose
• variation to chaturanga dandasana
• cobra pose / bhujangasana
• lunge / lunge twist
• child pose / balasana

Enjoy

Esther

Yoga for Beginners – Full Series
Part 1 - Basic Standing Poses
For all of you who want to do yoga, but don’t know how! There’s no time like the present to start practicing , Just start…, begin with this part one. Slowly get used to some of the basic standing poses that I will go through in this part and the next few.

Part 2 – Standing Side Stretches
Here part 2 of the beginners series. Still focussing on standing poses! When you begin with yoga I think they are the core poses you need to learn first.

Part 3 – More Advanced Poses
The final part of the Yoga for Beginners series moves from the basic standing poses to some of the more exerting twists and stretches.

Why? why is it so difficult for me to “be.. with being sick”  . After talking to a dear friend on the phone today I found a bit of clarity. He told me his story, that after a few years of being anxious and not able to do the things he wanted to, he learned that his “being” was not dependent on his “doing”. That struck a chord in me. I realized that that lingering feeling of guilt is there a lot when I stop “doing” , what I subconsciously  believe I need to be doing,  to be able to allow myself to”be”.

“I AM” …Sick or healthy, doing something or not, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t even change!  I am that what is aware of all that I think I should be doing or not, I am that what I observe, which is being miserable, sick ,tense, guilty. But most of all I just am, because I simply cannot not “be”. So I finally seem to be able to “be” with what “is”, knowing that that also will pass (thankfully

Written by a feverish Esther

Hi Everyone,

Here it is, the final episode of yoga for weight loss. All about the thighs and the buttocks. whether you want to lose weight or just bring your body in shape. these are enjoyable exercises to do and you will notice a difference if you do them diligently. I would love some feedback on how stringing the 4 parts together has worked for you!

Yoga for weight loss series:

Part 1 – Visualisation of the series is still in a way the most important exercise, because if your subconscious mind stops believing that you can and will be healthier, stronger and thinner soon, than you can exercise and work out al you want but it won’t happen or stay.

Part 2 – Getting Moving! is also important because it works on getting you to move more, so work on yourself believing it and then go and do the work!

Part 3 Abs and Core This is all about stomach and abs routines which are very effective for strenghtening your core and trimming your tummy…

Part 4 Thighs and Butt This video focuses on burning it off your thighs and butt – and enjoyable yoga routine

Esther

Buddha teaches us that there are only two movements that motivate us.  The movement away from pain and the other movement towards pleasure. Take a look at the reasons why you do certain things.  You will see  you are either running away from something painful, undesirable, or trying to achieve something you want, desirable.

When you look further into it you see how the two movements are connected, how running away from one thing, means moving towards another thing.  When you move towards flexibility, you move away from being stiff.  It is your fears that are motivating your desires.

So trying to achieve  the desire for “fame”  is trying to run from the fear of being unnoticed, “a nobody” .  Fears and desires are two sides of the same coin.

My inquiry into the desire to become the next “yoga journal blogger”  goes like this.

What would being the next YJ blogger give me?

The answer is : “more exposure”

Question: What would more exposure give me?

Answer: “more security in creating a living”.  Basically I would feel safer in my existence.

Next question: What is now?

Answer: “existence”

The main fear behind all desires is the fear for survival.  Subconscious we believe that fulfilling the desire will secure our survival.  Seeing that in this moment our survival needs are taken care of brings freedom.

Question:  Do I need to become the next YJ blogger?

Answer:  No I don’t, But if so, it would be “just for fun”  :)

Esther

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to Part 3 of the Weight Loss series. This yoga video is all about working the stomach, abdominal muscles. This is often case a problem area if you want to loose weight, besides that strong abs does a lot for feeling more confident and strong in the world. That in turn will have a positive affect on your sense of discipline to stay with this.

Good luck,

Esther

Yoga for weight loss series:

Part 1 – Visualisation of the series is still in a way the most important exercise, because if your subconscious mind stops believing that you can and will be healthier, stronger and thinner soon, than you can exercise and work out al you want but it won’t happen or stay.

Part 2 – Getting Moving! is also important because it works on getting you to move more, so work on yourself believing it and then go and do the work!

Part 3 Abs and Core This is all about stomach and abs routines which are very effective for strenghtening your core and trimming your tummy…

Part 4 Thighs and Butt This video focuses on burning it off your thighs and butt – and enjoyable yoga routine

Since the day I started to take yoga serious and realized the many spiritual and health benefits I’ve been wanting to practice daily.  Having a daily yoga and meditation practice is the very thing I have been wrestling with ever since,  and it still does not come easy.

I’ve come to realize that trying to fit something new,  like a yoga practice,  into your daily routine for longer than a few weeks,  is very very difficult for most people.  So a few tips can’t hurt!

The excuse “not enough time” I don’t believe anymore,  you can always make time for something your whole being prioritizes.  It helped me to hear Obama say he spends (I think at least an hour) everyday working out!  So come on everybody,  if the president of the United States can find the time, SO CAN YOU!

After many years of trying to be flexible and doing yoga when it suits in the day,  I have learned that that does not work well!  It s too easy to keep putting it off till  ”there is a better time”,  and end up not doing anything at all.  Basically if your whole being, conscious and subconscious mind,  is not 100 percent convinced of practicing yoga daily ,  and you know this is the case if the daily practice “doesn’t just happen ” ,  you’re going to have to be very discipled about it!  Otherwise it is not going to happen at all!

Those moments I can say I practiced daily for a while were always the times where I practiced at the same time everyday!  So let’s be clear about it,

* For you to succeed to practice daily, practice at the same time every day!

So what time is the best time?  For me it is first thing in the morning I am most likely to do it and keep up with it.  I can enjoy the benefits all day.  Everybody is different though,  if it works better for you in the evening,  that’s fine.

Something else I have noticed that works really well for me is adding extra time to my day to practice.  So I don’t have to “fit it in” .  So I am an early riser these days.

I used to practice at 7 am,  but I’ve noticed  at that time life is already happening and taking over around me,   my husband having his breakfast and I notice part of me wanting to have breakfast with him before he takes off to work.  At times we take in foster children for a few days, weeks or months and than that’s my time definitely gone…  That got me to arrive at a point where I want to be up at a time that I know is mine to use for me.  For my growth, for my physical and spiritual health.

So here I am,  getting up at 5 am every morning!  And I love it,  It seems to work for me.  Between 5am and 7am the time is mine to meditate,  to do yoga,  to inquire into my believes,  to set myself up for the day so I can be clear and present to life as it unfolds.

* Also you need a plan.

Even when you have a plan,  once you arrive at the plan,  you can still allow yourself to be surprised by the moment.  It does not mean you are bound to it.

However you do need  a plan.  When you do not have a plan your daily habits take over and again it is going to be very difficult to bring something “new” into your daily routine.  So plan your time,  plan what you are going to do during that time.  When you don’t,  before you know it you’re checking your email at 5am in the morning instead of practicing yoga!

There are many more tips but these are the ones that seem to have made a difference in what appears to be my life.  I would like to invite you to share your tips with me and everybody reading this blog,  leave them in the comment box!

Hope this helps!

With love,

Esther