Benefits of Incorporating Mindfulness Practices

On a rainy day like this, I thought we would spend more time indoor. And, maybe, just maybe, we can spend some quality time getting to know each other better.
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I’m inviting us all to a short mindfulness exploration and hear its benefits. Neuroscience and modern medicine has now caught up with this ancient wisdom tradition. And, we all take more comfort in hearing the scientific reason behind mindfulness. Here are 5 of those reasons:
 
1. Meditation helps with memory: both short-term and long-term memory parts get stimulated. The aging person’s brain is ensured to retain the ability to store new memories now, as well as through the advancing years.
 
2. Meditation helps the digestive system: the mindful breathing exercises improves circulations and blood oxygen enrichment. This results in sending extra help to all the organs, including the stomach and intestines.
 
3. Meditation activates the happy part of your brain: By stimulating the “feel-good” prefrontal cortex brain region, anyone who suffers from depression can benefit from meditation. With increased feelings of happiness in the mind, anyone, especially the aging senior can renew his or her zest for life!
 
4. Meditation sharpens and focuses the mind: Meditation and mindfulness practices are many times more effective than a crossword puzzle. Better focus, more creativity, quicker wit, are but just a few of the available benefits.
 
5. Meditation melts away stress, yielding many great benefits: Two significant aging and quality of life factors, stress, and end-of-life anxiety, are greatly reduced after beginning a meditation program.
 
Naturally, many experts believe meditation to be the “fountain of youth” for both the body and brain and I think older people can receive a limitless number of these benefits.
 

We are ONE

When you come to Om Prem Yoga, I want you to feel at home. You are not our guest!!! You are an important member of our community and together we co-create a community to foster connecting us to our higher levels of consciousness in support of transforming our lives and the fulfilment of our own life’s purpose, people around us, our community, and ultimately the world.

I feel privileged and honoured to have the opportunity to serve the community I have lived in and love for more than a decade. If the community values and supports us and we can be of service to our community I’m fully committed to serve every single one of our members.

Regardless of where Om Prem Yoga is in 10 years (or other studios for that matter) please remember that you will never become a “Yoga Orphan”! There cannot be such a thing as a “yoga orphan”! As Sri Aurobindo eloquently says “all life is Yoga”. I believe yoga is an internal experience you go through to connect to your higher Being through increasing the awareness of your physical body; in other words it’s the experience when you mindfully align your mind, body, and heart. When you go to a multi-purpose room with many other people doing some physical movements and some resemble traditional asana (postures) moves you are not doing yoga regardless of the name of that program you’ve signed up for. If however, you experience a form of meditation/centering, discussion about applied philosophies of yoga, and nutrition and lifestyle, as well as some asana movements, then that’s yoga. You still need to mindfully align your mind, body, and heart to connect to your Being in order to experience yoga.

May you experience the deepest level of connection to your true Being in this life time.

Om & Prem, Atta

Why I Study and Teach Purna Yoga by Brad Waites

I study Purna Yoga so that I may, with ever-deepening truth and accuracy, answer the question, “Why am I here?”  I teach Purna Yoga to offer to others some effective techniques to explore and answer this same inquiry should they so choose.

For me, “Why am I here?” is the first question, the last question, and all the questions in between.  Every other question in some way arises out of this elemental inquiry and is a subset of it.  Logically, if I want to live my soul’s mission (my dharma) from day-to-day and minute-to-minute, I must be in close and constant contact with my soul.  The deeper my connection to my soul, the more clearly I hear and feel its guidance.  The greater my surrender to this voice, the more integrated my soul becomes in my existence, and the more I live my purpose.

These are not concepts unique to Purna Yoga.  What is unique, in my experience, is the simplicity, clarity, and effectiveness of the techniques taught and used to contact the soul, to surrender to it, and to follow its guidance.  I study and teach Purna Yoga because it works.  Since I began using Purna Yoga techniques, the uncertainty of my practice has evaporated; I no longer wonder what to do, how to do it, or why I am doing it.  My practice and my energies are focused on evolving into the embodiment of my true purpose – into living my dharma.  Everything else seems, to me, secondary.

Go to Brad’s website.

What is Purna Yoga?

“Purna” means “complete.”  Purna Yoga is a complete practice that nurtures all aspects of the being – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.  The practice embraces all facets of life as areas of potential growth.  The smallest part of the work is on the mat; that is not where we live the majority of our lives.  The true practice is in infusing our daily existence – our thoughts, words and deeds – with the truth and wisdom of our spirit.  If the yoga does not integrally change the way life is lived, then why do it?  Purna Yoga is a transformation of our consciousness to the highest state available, and a harmonizing of our lives around that consciousness.  The practice doesn’t simply open the body or calm the mind.  It frees our latent capability and allows us to fulfill our highest potential.

Purna Yoga was created by Aadil Palkhivala and his wife, Savitri (see www.purnayoga.com).  It consists of four primary areas of focus:

  1. Asana and Pranayama, emphasizing precise alignment of the body based on the principles of Iyengar yoga (this prepares the container for holding the more powerful vibration of heightened consciousness);
  2. Nutrition and Lifestyle, drawing on the wisdom of ayurveda, Chinese nutritional philosophy, and modern Western nutrition (this supplies the energy necessary to fuel the practice);
  3. Applied Philosophy, embracing the wisdom of the Vedas, the Gita, the Yoga Sutras, and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (this guides us in channeling our heightened energy towards growth and transformation); and
  4. Meditation, incorporating active techniques that connect us to our spirit, our divine self, which is Light (this enables our highest aspect to be the guiding voice in our lives).

Purna Yoga was created to help you explore, discover, and fulfill your dharma, or life mission.  It allows you to unveil the reason that your soul descended into your body at this time and in this place.  It moves you past the common existence of slavishly adhering to the wants of your ego and towards ultimate purpose.  Purna Yoga leads you to your true path.

Om & Prem

Since a lot of people asked us in and around the time of our open house about the meaning of “Om” and “Prem” we wanted to share a brief on those with everyone:

OM is the eternal, OM is all this universe. OM is the syllable of assent. Saying “OM, let us hear,” the sages begin the recitation. OM moves the cosmic vital force (prana). Every vibration in the body and in the universe emerges from OM, sustains in OM, and returns to OM. Every humming emerges from OM, sustains in OM and returns to OM. To an aching person, OM cures. To a poet, it brings inspiration. To the philosopher, it brings realization. OM is the consent of being for the Consciousness/Divine to enter into him. OM is the expression of the seekers of Truth.

The Divine is Prem (Love). The Divine expressed OM. Therefore, it is the love expression of the Divine. So, OM has come from Prem, who is the Divine. Love and its expressions are identical, so Prem and OM are One and the same. Namaste.

Hello & Namaste!

Welcome to Om Prem Yoga website! We’ll use this space to blog about our experiences teaching yoga in Lower Mainland and around the world and how yoga has changed our lives. Occasionally we’ll also have one or our Certified Professional Integral Coaches to talk about their experiences coaching their clients using Integral Coaching ™ method.