About YogaFlavoredLife
Welcome to YogaFlavored Life – a blog with tips and ideas to help you live your yoga both on and off the mat.
A Few Benefits of Yoga
Yoga has migrated from the east to the west over the past few decades. More recently, it has blossomed as a mainstream trend in fitness alternatives. Studies related to pain relief, natural remedies, and alternative resources for increasing personal wellness has lent credibility and brought a re-newed awareness and appreciation for yoga and other eastern practices. Yoga can improve your life in countless ways; relaxing your mind, strengthening your body and renewing your spirit.
Finding Yoga
My personal introduction to Yoga began after a knee injury. Karate had been my sanity saver and fitness method until I had my twin boys. Needing to get back into shape, I dove into my familiar karate practise but my mind was more ready than my post-partum body and I ended up injuring my knee.
Still wanting to exercise and knowing that I needed to re-build the strength in my knee, but recognizing that my body was telling me to slow down, I decided to give Yoga a try. Raising twin boys is alternately rewarding and challenging. I needed to find some time to give back that energy to myself. Trying to practise at home with a dog (licking my face whenever he can reach it) and two toddlers (look—Mommy wants to wrestle) was not a reality for me, so I endeavoured to find a studio where I knew I could achieve a few hours of quality think-time just for me.
The first class I took hooked me with an instant affinity. Yoga has quite a few similarities to the karate which had been my first love. I felt rejuvenated, my body felt energized and healthy. I have discovered that I am drawn to other people who practise yoga. After awhile, I realized there was so much more to yoga than the postures and I wanted to learn as much as I could. I enrolled in a 200-hour Hatha yoga teacher training course – it was life changing.
Yoga inspires me. It makes me more fun to live with and awakens my mind. I have always been interested in reading about health-related issues, massage therapy, nutrition and alternative methods that assist people to regain physical health or reach a personal level of wellness.
Although I still have much to learn, I somehow always feel like I have accomplished something worthwhile after a practice. I bring this energy and sense of achievement home with me where it has a positive effect on my family. I don’t have a lot of spare time, so I am selective with the elements I add to my life. Yoga is one of those welcome additions. It enriches my life far beyond the time I spend practising the poses.
Why YogaFlavoredLife?
Yoga is not just for gurus or the very flexible. Anyone can practice yoga and benefit by building a healthy body and mind. This site is dedicated to helping everyday people explore yoga and how it fits into their lives.
If you would like to learn more about YogaFlavoredLife, send me a note: charlotte.brad@gmail.com Please stay in touch by subscribing to our RSS feed and feel free to connect with me on Twitter.
I hope you come to love yoga as much as I do.
Namaste.
Charlotte Bradley
Publisher, YogaFlavoredLife.com
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Great looking site. Love the picture of your son doing yoga. Be sure to get:
Babar’s Yoga for Elephants by Laurent de Brunhoff, in which it is revealed that Yoga was originally developed by elephants and only adopted by humans many years later.
Thanks for your kind words Bob. I will have to get that book – sounds great! On my way to Amazon…
Great blog! I feel zen just reading your posts. Love how informative your posts are and I’ll definitely be following. Keep up the good work. I’m still exploring the different styles of yoga and can’t believe how much depth this sport/practice has.
Nooschi – Thanks for dropping by and I appreciate the generous compliments. It’s true, there are so many different styles and different facets of yoga. I love that it is accessible to everyone.
I was very excited to discover your Ottawa food blog. I love food – cooking and eating of course! The pumpkin pancakes you posted today look amazing. Think I will be testing those this weekend… yummm.
I would like to order the 108 poses with both sanskrit and english but I was wondering if I could see what the writting under the pose looks like before i order. I am just takeing my yoga teacher training and this would work great for me when doing lesson plans.
Thanks Joyce
Hi Joyce,
Thanks for your question. I sent you an email with a few samples. Hope this helps!
Charlotte
First impression, nice wordpress theme. soothing colors.
I like the posts. Running a site and raising twins is quite an achievement in itself. My compliments. I shall bookmark your site. Although I hardly ever come back to blogs i stumble upon(a sign of wandering focus), I shall try anyway. But you keep up the good work on this site and yourself.
Thanks for you feedback Shavinder. And yes, life is pretty crazy at times but my little guys are pretty awesome! I am grateful for yoga which helps me stay sane
Thanks for bookmarking the site. I know what you mean about wandering focus – there are lots of great blogs out there. Hope to see you back!
Hi Charlotte,
I am happy to be back at your site! You really have done a fantastic job – thanks for reminding us of all the great contributors and posts you have. The piece on Haiti was incredibly moving. Keep in touch!
Tara
Hi Tara,
Thanks for your generous comments. I have been lucky to have some caring and excellent writers contribute. I was very moved by Sean’s photo essay on Haiti as well.
I hope your new yoga class is going well. Having been in your classes before, I know your students will love it!
Take care,
Charlotte
hey
great name
I too have had my fair share of injuries since I was taught to be right-handed and I find out from Rolfer that I am really left handed. Everything I do now is leading with left, but kinda hard when I wanted to be a drummer.
So anyhow, glad you are well and don’t let go of that martial arts interest. God knows we need good fighters in this country which is going to the rich banker dogs or pigs and we could sure use one more karateka.
Hey Charlotte,
Great site! My girlfriend and I are very much interested in yoga, so we will be making many visits here for tips and tricks!
T
Thanks so much for your compliments Taylor. Yoga is a great thing to do together, nice that you are both interested!
Charlotte
Hey how’s the kickboxing going?
I’m considering ordering the 108 poses images with both the Sanskrit & English asana names. I’d like to see samples of the writing under each pose before I order. Is that possible? I’m in a 500YTT and though, I am an artist, these images of the postures have more fluidity then the averange stick figures.
Do you also have cards with these images available? Thank you!
namaste,
monananda
hi there – just wondering if you have any samples of the yoga postures with both the sanskrit and english? many thanks!
I love your web site and product. It would be a bonus to any teacher setting up lesson plans in an easy way.
I also really enjoyed the pictures of your son doing yoga too!
I’m looking for stories from yoga moms for my upcoming book. If you are interested please checkout my web site and contact me about writing a story.
Thanks!
Sorry the web site is http://www.LittleBodiesBigSouls.com for the book.
Hi !
I emailed you again last week – I’m interested in the posture cards but don’t do the pay pal thing – plus e-mail snaffs – see another e-mail account for me – and check your spam box for my message – thanx for BEING!
Monananda-jiji
Great site, been doing yoga for 35 years, love intelligent sites like yours, can see you have a good understanding of what yoga really is. .
Hi Lynne – thanks for taking the time to leave your kind comments. I love hearing how yoga has supported people throughout their lives. If you ever feel like sharing your thoughts in a blog post, let me know! All the best in your continued practice.
Hello Charlotte,
I am a huge fan of yoga and I have come to realize that only Yoga can give one a healthy body and mind. Your blog and site name is so perfect and the information is so easy to grasp. Keep it up.
Regards,
Suman
Lovely resource, just purchased and very happy with the quality and also the variety of ways that you have (thoughtfully) packaged them up. Thanks!
Kind regards,
Dean.
Thanks for your kind comments Dean. I hope you enjoy the drawings and find many ways to use them. Take care!
Warmly,
Charlotte
Suman – Yoga has so many benefits and has changed my life! Thanks for your interest – all the best with your yoga practice.
Best,
Charlotte
Hi again! I don’t suppose you have reversed versions (i.e. L / R) of poses with labels do you?!
I was starting by putting together a Chandra Namaskara (with description) like you have for Surya Namaskara A, and obviously it’s easy to flip the images, but using the ones with Sanskrit / English isn’t going to work well!
If not, I guess I could select just the stick man part and flip that, adding the L / R label myself, building them up over time. If I do that, would you like a copy emailed back to you?
Thanks!
Hi Dean – funny I was just working on this the past weekend. I have had a number of people request something like this – most would like to have all the poses facing one way but I can see how both ways would be convenient. I have a bunch that I have made facing left. I will zip up what I have so far and send it to you!
Charlotte
Many thanks, I look forward to that!
Namaste.
Hi Dean – I sent you the file (to your freedom-yoga email address). Let me know if you received them. If you would like me to re-send to a different address, let me know! charlotte.brad@gmail.com
Hi, I’m finishing up my teacher training and am planning my first class. I found your site by looking for breath of joy. Your site is a breath of joy itself! What a wonderful resource.
This is such a warm and welcoming space, I’m thoroughly enjoying being a guest blogger here!
WKF
Hi, I would really like to order the package from you, but I dont have a Paypal account. Is that the only way to make payment??
Sincerely,
Sigrún
It is a pleasure having you write for the blog William. I am really enjoying your thoughtful articles.
Sigrún – I just sent you an email. Let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you for your nice illustrations.
I´m a yoga teacher and need illustrations for handouts. Because I´m also a student and have another job you are giving me lot´s of free time.
My drawing talent is also pretty limited…..
I´m just missing a few pavanmuktasas and …. maybe as an inspiration!
Thank you for your passion!
Thanks for the kind words Pia! I am so happy to hear you are finding the drawings helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!
Charlotte