Get involved in Yoga Month 09.2009 - a grassroots campaign to inspire a healthy lifestyle

March 29, 2009
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There are many ways to get involved:

  1. Yoga Studios: Add a Yoga Month event
    Yoga studios, teachers, individuals and event planners: Create your own Yoga Month event such as a Yoga Health Festival, Global Mala, concert, yoga class, workshop, peace party or community class anytime during September 2009.

  2. Yoga Teachers: Donate a Yoga Class
    Yoga teachers: Designate one (or more) of your yoga classes as a National Yoga Month Awareness Class and contribute the proceeds to our cause. Funds will go towards the National Awareness Campaign and yoga health education.
  3. Join the Yoga Month Card New Student Program
    Yoga studios and teachers: Take part in the Yoga Month Card New Student outreach Program and tap into our media connections and national network to bring new clientele right to your doorstep.
  4. Be our City Coordinator
    Yoga Month is a grassroots movement and our volunteer ambassadors are a crucial part of the campaign. Be our City Coordinator to help spread the word, write articles, raise funds and take initiative to inspire your community.
  5. Become a Sponsor or Media Partner
  6. Join our Email List and be a part of the Yoga Month Community.

By participating in the Yoga Awareness Month in the US or globally, yoga studios, teachers, organizations and organizers may use the Yoga Month name, promotional materials and other resources made available by the Yoga Health Foundation.

Please let us know how we can help to coordinate Yoga Month in your community and beyond.

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Celebrate Global Mala Yoga for Peace Sept. 20, 2009

GLOBAL MALA YOGA FOR PEACE PROJECT UNITES YOGA COMMUNITY IN SUPPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

Yogis Throughout the World Cross the Borders of their Mats to Raise Consciousness and Funds for Important Causes.

LOS ANGELES — (March 17, 2009) — On September 19 and 20, the Global Mala Yoga for Peace Project, whose purpose is to unite the global yoga community, will implement events throughout the world in honor of the United Nations International Day of Peace. Forming a “mala around the earth” through collective practices based upon the sacred cycle of 108, the mission of the Global Mala Project is to raise both funds and consciousness for some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. Global Mala Yoga for Peace is a featured event during National Yoga Month 09.2009.

Thousands of yogis will practice 108 sun salutations at hundreds of event across the nation. Taking its name from the sacred prayer beads called “mala” used in India and Tibet as meditation guides, the Global Mala Project will benefit the Yoga Health Foundation and numerous other charities and projects being supported by local community leaders. Composed of 108 beads, the mala is symbolic of the prayer for peace, hope and charity the Global Mala Project will be sending to the world.

“With the rising threat of Global Warming, the illusion of separateness is dissolving around the world,” said Shiva Rea, world renowned Yoga teacher and catalyst for the Global Mala Project. “Yoga is one of the few common denominators for millions of people around the world; together we are creating a circle around the earth and dedicating our energy to peace.”

Global Mala Yoga Project in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco and many other cities worldwide will include 108 sun salutations, live music, and fellowship with likeminded yogis interested in creating the peace they wish to experience in the world.

For more information, please visit www.globalmala.org or www.yogamonth.org.

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Yoga is the answer! Prevention is the Health Care System of the Future

I am just flying back from Washington DC from the Integrative Medicine Summit which was organized by the Institute of Health, several Integrative Medicine departments at Duke, Harvard and other Universities supported and financed by the Bravewell Collaborative (philanthropists).

This has been an amazing experience. 600 Politicians, Senators, National Institute of Health, IOM, University Professors, Doctors, Naturopaths, TCM, Homeopaths and other practitioners coming together to talk about how our Nation’s health care system can be improved.

Some highlights are:

-          Major push in US towards an Integrative Medicine model

-          Understanding that health care needs to change, is not affordable anymore.

-          All parties (business, health insurance, health professions, patients) seem to agree.

-          President Obama has promised to reform health care with a major focus on prevention

-          Dean Ornish was by far the best speaker (before he had to rush to the Capitol for a Senate hearing to testify about how health care can be improved). His points was that he and many other renowned researchers have done plenty of high quality studies on how heart disease, diabetes, cancer can be reversed up to 70% by lifestyle changes (biopsychosocial, for example plant based diet, yoga, meditation) and that it is time to put this knowledge into action.

-          Prevention on a national scale from kids to adults is necessary and will increase quality of life and health care costs.

-          Several discussions were about yoga and how yoga incorporates many of the health benefits we all seek: physical fitness and flexibility, deep breathing, body mind relaxation, mindfulness.

National Yoga Month will play a vital part in the process of transforming health care from a disease management system to a health and prevention health care model.

Thanks for being a living example by practicing yoga and living a healthy lifestyle.

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Announcing National Yoga Awareness Month September 2009

Los Angeles, March 1, 2009 – In observation of National Yoga Month (September 2009), the Yoga Health Foundation calls for all yoga studios, teachers and students to go online at www.yogamonth.org and get involved to create one Yoga Month event in every city across the United States.

The Yoga Health Foundation, a nonprofit 501 c(3) organization based in Los Angeles, CA, was founded by Johannes Fisslinger with the intent of delivering yoga and other preventative health care practices to underserved communities.  To achieve this goal, Fisslinger created National Yoga Month, a national awareness campaign to inspire an informed and healthy lifestyle.  In October 2008, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion deemed September (followed by Breast Cancer Awareness in October) to be National Yoga Awareness Month and listed it as an official health observance at www.healthfinder.gov.

National Yoga Month is a campaign to educate and inspire youth and adults to take responsibility for their health by focusing on prevention and living a healthy lifestyle. Yoga Month is the perfect opportunity to begin to create small lifestyle changes for yourself and your family.

HOW OLD SHOULD ONE BE TO START YOGA?

  • You can start yoga at any age.

WHAT ARE THE HEALTH BENEFITS OF PRACTICING YOGA?

  • Some of the benefits of practicing yoga are increased flexibility, stronger muscles and connective tissue, alignment of the vertebrae, toned and rejuvenated internal organs.
  • In addition, the epidermal, digestive, lymphatic, cardiovascular, and pulmonary systems are purified of toxins and waste matter; the nervous and endocrine systems are balanced and toned; brain cells are nourished and stimulated.
  • Results of a regular yoga practice include increased mental clarity, emotional stability, and a greater sense of overall wellbeing.
  • Yoga is one of the 10 most utilized Complementary Medicine methods in US.
  • Because Yoga operates on so many different levels, it can be an effective therapy for chronic diseases and conditions that do not respond well to conventional treatment methods.
  • Additionally, a regular yoga practice will sharpen concentration, balance, and composure.

WHO BENEFITS FROM YOGA MONTH?

  • You benefit the most. Start practicing yoga (at home or with a teacher) and feel the difference it will make in your life.
  • Yoga Month educational programs were created to offer solutions to diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other chronic illnesses that have cast a pall over the health of our youth. 
  • Yoga Month proceeds fund the national awareness campaign and health education programs like mind body fitness education for children in pre-schools, kindergarten, elementary schools and after-school programs. 

The Yoga Health Foundation’s 2009 goal is simple: One Yoga Month event in every city.

Get involved. Visit www.yogamonth.org and add your event today!

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Global financial crisis, TARP, bailout and why yoga is booming?

You might have heard by now that yoga studios are as full as ever. The physical and emotional stress created by the recession (or is it a depression…) is felt all over the country and globally as well.

Yoga has been around for 5000 years and it will be around for many more to come. Maybe there is something to learn from this. Not only can practicing yoga help us live a more balanced and healthy life but the yoga lifestyle can give many important pointers to redesign our economy and society.

Focusing on sustainable growth with sensitivity towards our environment (our close personal reality and earth itself) will be essential in the years to come.

Yoga Month wants to inspire. Yoga Month is about creating a healthy personal lifestyle and a supportive community. Just imagine what millions of yogis and yoginis can do together.

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