• First Rite: Clockwise spinning: inhale and exhale deeply as you spin.
• Second Rite: Inhale deeply while lifting the head and legs; exhale while lowering the head and legs.
• Third Rite: Inhale as the spine arches back; exhale as the spine returns to an erect position.
• Fourth Rite: Inhale while rising up; hold the breath while in the top position and tense the muscles; exhale while returning to the starting position.
• Fifth Rite: Inhale while raising the body; exhale while lowering the body.

Read more:
Five Tibetan Rites (Wikipedia)
Five Tibetan Rites (Tibetan Yoga and Metidation)
The Five Tibetan Rites

Whether you are a newcomer experiencing your first practice, reawaking your interest in yoga after a lapse in practicing or a seasoned yogi looking for a way to practice between studio sessions, you will love the convenience of our inspiring, refreshing new classes waiting for you on your computer every day.

You can also find Yoga Today at You Tube where there at present is 46 videos, the hour long ones as well as videos around ten minutes long.

I have looked at some of the videos and am impressed.

If you are on Twitter then follow @NetFleck and get updates from Yoga Today.

Wikipedia says this about Sat Nam:

In Sanskrit, “sat” means “truth” and “nam” means “identity”. There are many differing interpretations when you put the two together – some websites have given the following interpretations: “truth is my identity” and “The essence of God is within me”.

Other common interpretations include: “in name there is truth” and “the light shines in you”; light being a metaphor for truth just like in mystical Kabbalistic teachings. The words themselves have a soothing and centering quality due to their monosyllabic nature, similar to sounds made by babies.

The Kundalini Yoga website lists SAT NAM among mantras:

SAT NAM is the Seed Mantra or Bij Mantra and it is the most widely used in the practice of Kundalini Yoga. Sat means the Truth; Nam means to call upon, name or identify with. Sat Nam means Truth is my identity and I call upon the eternal Truth that resides in all of us. Chanting this mantra awakens the Soul, and more simply means “really”. It is pronounced to rhyme with “But Mom!”

Both “truth is my identity” and “The essence of God is within me” are powerful statements.

I prefer short meditations and practice spot meditations.

Image from YogaJournal.

I did it a couple of times yesterday, for around five minutes each time, and I can already feel a difference in my neck and upper back. It is straighter and more relaxed, a nice feeling. Guess I will have to incorporate this pose in my daily routines.

Note: Image from Savasana.

Meditation 101 is about the basics of meditation. It is written by Claudia Cummins, here are more of her essays.

If it’s hard for you to still your mind to meditate, the senior teachers at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health have developed a five-step approach that could help. Follow these steps and allow yourself to fall into a deep meditative state that will reveal a closer connection to the present and help calm you when you’re upset.

The five steps are:
1. Breathe—Focusing on your breathing is an essential practice that draws your awareness inward and helps you experience the presence and flow of energy.

2. Relax—The more you relax, the more you deepen awareness of sensation.

3. Feel—Let your sense of feeling move beyond physical sensation. Acknowledge who you are as a being of energy.

4. Watch—Sense who you are as a witness; be a scientist observing phenomena arising in and around you.

5. Allow—Sense who you are with no preferences. Be present to the process of your life unfolding moment by moment.

Yoga Journal also has a Sequence Builder. You can pick poses and create your own sequences.

The mudra that caught my eye today is the Garuda Mudra. The text says that:

The Garuda mudra is used to heighten intuition and enable communication with the spirit world.

My intuition is pretty strong already but improving it would be nice, enabling communication with the spirit world would be a great bonus.

There is also a yoga pose called Garuda-asana – The Eagle Pose.

Most of their subsites have newsletters. I follow Poker and Yoga.