Yama/Brahmacharya: To consist of (not totally limited to): Life of celibacy, religious study & self restraint—continence, abstinence, self-containment & moderation. Niyama/Santosa: Contentment has to be cultivated. A mind that is not content cannot concentrate. Contentment and tranquility are states of mind—these are present when the flame of the spirit does not waver in the wind […]
The religious study component presents some very interesting areas for self-reflection. I consider myself to be an Agnostic (one who holds the view that any ultimate reality-as God-is unknown and probably unknowable). I would probably be best served to have some real in-depth discussions concerning the agnostic and atheist (one who denies the existence of […]
The Niyama discussion relates to the concept of Santosa (contentment). I am generally very content and satisfied with what I have (and/or don’t have). Recently this was brought to light in two separate situations both relative to my passion for bicycling. FACT: I was not accepted into the 2011 Leadville Trail 100 MTB race. This […]
As part of Axis Yoga’s Denver-based teacher training program, students conduct personal experiments that bring yogic principles into their daily lives. Some students choose to explore the application of different yogic yamas such as non-violence and truthfulness, while others experiment with asana or pranayama in various aspects of their lives. This student chose to conduct […]
When I initially started the Axis Yoga Teacher Training program I had very little knowledge of the world of yoga outside of the asana practice. Certainly I knew that there were other components that made up the practice of yoga, but I did not understand that all of these parts must be practiced in order […]
During the beginning of the experiment I was very motivated to see if living a more pitta soothing life would make a difference for my asthma. I was lucky that week one happened during the Ayurveda section of our class. I felt very supported my classmates who were also working hard, and Beth Sanchez who […]
During the second week of the experiment I lived a completely unmeasured and chaotic lifestyle, and I paid for it. I started off by paying no attention to the time I went to sleep or when I woke up. I went to bed when I was tired, sometimes this was 9:30PM and other times it […]
Overall, I felt like this experiment was very telling in many ways. What we feed our body and how we incorporate both exercise of the mind and body into our daily routine is very important. Although it is often time a ‘hassle’ to structure a day with such precision it makes the day far more […]
As part of Denver’s Axis Yoga teacher training program, students conduct experiments that incorporate yogic priciples into their daily lives. Coming into the program with a clear and strong set of spiritual and philosophical beliefs, Sarah found herself losing sight of those as she became more and more immersed into the program. This loss of […]
I planned my personal experiment with a typical beginning, middle and end. However, the experiment took a quick left turn and ended up going down a much different path than expected. As this paper will describe, I found the end result was exactly what I needed. Over the last couple months of soaking up a […]