by blogger Carol Krucoff E-RYT, author of Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain

Yoga's booming popularity has resulted in some classes that are called "yoga," but are actually just yoga-flavored exercise classes. Students learn yoga postures -- such as Warrior, Tree and Downward-facing Dog -- but get no instruction in the deeper teachings of yoga, about breathing, awareness, and cultivating a "non-striving" attitude. So rather than an authentic yoga practice -- which is a journey of self-discovery, healing and transformation -- these yoga-flavored exercise classes are just another workout where participants push themselves, compete with each other, focus on appearance and -- all too often -- feel like failures if they can't achieve a particular pose.

excerpt from Yoga for Pain Relief

Reflect on different parts of your body with gratitude and appreciation. Practice:

• Anytime to repair your relationship with your body. .
• When you are feeling discouraged by pain or illness, or critical about your body, to consciously choose friendliness toward your body. .
• After a medical appointment, to remind yourself that your body is more than its symptoms and diagnoses.

A full practice will take five to ten minutes, but you can practice the essence of this reflection anytime by simply reminding yourself of one reason you are grateful to your body.

excerpt from Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain by Carol Krucoff E-RYT

Just as postural habits, such as forward head, can contribute to neck and shoulder pain, our psychobiological habits, how we respond emotionally and physically to stress, may also play an important role. For example, when we’re faced with fear, anxiety, or other stressors, one of the most common reactions is to tighten muscles in the upper back, shoulders, and neck—in effect, lifting the shoulders up toward the ears. It’s almost as if we’re trying to protect our heads the way a turtle draws its head and limbs into its shell. Other common reactions to stress that involve the neck and shoulders include teeth grinding, lip pursing, and other facial grimaces, along with finger drumming, thumb twiddling, and various forms of fidgeting.

excerpt from Transformative Yoga by Wade Imre Morissette

In the world of yoga, a healthy body and a healthy mind go hand in hand to create spiritual fulfillment. The physical practice of yoga offers great healing potential and health benefits. Yoga postures involve a lot of stretching, for example, which increases your overall flexibility and reduces muscular tension. Opening your body in this way also cultivates heat in the body, which aids in detoxification and expands your breath. The more deeply and easily, you’re able to breathe, the more you increase vitality in your body by bringing oxygen to your muscles. You’ve probably noticed how exercise—whether it’s a workout at the gym, brisk walking, or yoga—makes you feel more energetic.

It’s important to spend a good amount of time in regular physical practice, not only for the outward benefits but also to strengthen your internal confidence, which may weaken if you have a negative relationship with your body. A solid practice also helps ward off harmful influences, such as the stresses of our technological world or toxins from food or the environment, all of which can lead to an unhealthy body—and mind and spirit.

by guest blogger Carol Krucoff, E-RYT, author of Healing Yoga for Neck and Shoulder Pain

One of the most frequent comments I hear from people who learn that I teach yoga is, “Oh, I’d love to try yoga, but I’m not flexible enough.”

To which I typically reply, “That’s like thinking your house is too messy to hire a maid.”

The idea that you must twist yourself into a pretzel to do yoga is one of many common misconceptions about this powerful form of self-care and transformation. In fact, the only prerequisite for practicing yoga is the ability to breathe! I tell people who think they’re too old, too inflexible or too unfit to try yoga that if you can breathe, you can benefit from this healing practice.

I’ve taught yoga to people of all ages and abilities—including those dealing with cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, blindness, fibromyalgia, back pain and leg amputation. Advanced postures like headstand are part of the yoga practice for some people, but they are by no means required. Your yoga practice should be tailored to fit your own needs and abilities.

Here are a few more myths about yoga that I’d like to dispel:

by guest blogger Melissa Kirk, co-author of Depression 101

I remember the moment I realized my rumination was contributing to my chronic low mood and sense of frustration with life. I lived about a mile away from my job, and in nice weather I would walk to work through neighborhoods of beautiful homes and lush gardens. People in Berkeley love their gardens! On my walk, though, I tended to ruminate - to obsess over what was wrong in my life, to replay difficult incidents and conversations, to worry about what I was missing: the right relationship, the perfect body, the "right" personality. By the time I got to work, I would often feel more tense or distracted than when I had started out, and often I would have missed the beauty of the homes and gardens along the way.

I always thought there was something inherently wrong with me that I got depressed and sad; I figured that somewhere, way back when, I hadn’t learned some vital lesson that others - the ones who didn’t get depressed - had learned. In the back of my mind I always figured I was flawed in a deep, core way that meant that I would never have the things that others had: marriage, successful career, physical beauty, the ability to connect easily with others. This is what I would ruminate over on my walk: why can I never seem to be able to do the things others do? What was wrong with me?

Kelly McGonigal, author of Yoga for Pain Relief is featured on Forbes' list of "20 Inspiring Women To Follow On Twitter".

Excerpt from Yoga for Anxiety

Anxiety causes a shrinking in consciousness and a reduction in your sense of self. Growing in consciousness expands your sense of self; as you learn more about yourself, you discover that there’s much more to you than you ever dreamed possible.

Excerpt from Transformative Yoga

My journey toward the healing effects of yoga began in 1993. At the time, I was seeking relief from emotional stress on both a conscious and an unconscious level. During my first year at college, I was a mess inside. I desperately lacked inner peace, although this wasn’t outwardly apparent.

My parents had recently gone bankrupt, so I was exhausted from working three jobs between high school and college to pay my tuition, and I continued to work part-time while in college. The daily grind was unfulfilling, to say the least. Meanwhile, my twin sister, Alanis Morissette, exploded onto the music scene with her groundbreaking album Jagged Little Pill, which went on to become the highest-selling debut album of all time. With her rapidly mounting success, I felt more emotionally and spiritually lost than ever before and longed to find my own identity and path in life.

I was studying to become an environmental lawyer, a vocation I had an interest in, but one that didn’t fully satisfy me. Deep down, I knew academic study wasn’t going to fulfill my quest for inner peace and happiness. Most of the books I was required to read focused on theory. I needed truth—an unwavering, blatant truth with no smoke and mirrors. In the end, I decided not to complete a degree in environmental law. Ironically, though, the time I spent at college led me in a different and unexpected direction: toward a new sense of spirituality.