The practice of yoga has been traced back to the 3rd millennium BC, and it has only grown in popularity. These days, you can see yoga in the park, streaming online or even at public demonstrations protesting the financial sector. Yoga may just be India’s most influential export, but as the world turns, people are coming up with new, innovative ways to experience and benefit from yoga.

Many yoga practitioners lead a busy life and it can be hard to fit a good routine in between meetings, book signings and other obligations. Similarly, there are many ways to do and benefit from yoga, like group yoga, yoga for a cause and distance yoga.

A good yoga routine generally takes about 30-40 minutes. This gives you enough time to hold, bend and stretch your body to the degree that will actually benefit the body, rather than running through the poses for the sake of brevity. For those who spend their life at work, lunchtime yoga has come to fill the void. You’ll need about an hour total so you can eat a quick meal, and then begin a quick, 30-minute routine.

Yoga studios in Manhattan are filled with light chatter and perhaps a few smiles; but the ties that bind them together have also brought them to the same studio. Doing Yoga with people who have survived serious disease creates a supportive, health-centric atmosphere and provides an outlet. The Manhattan studio I described earlier is comprised of a group of women who suffer from or have survived breast cancer. (http://www.dnainfo.com/20111018/murray-hill-gramercy/union-square-yoga-class-gives-hope-breast-cancer-survivors)

The Indian scientific regimen of yoga is not just lauded by athletic-fitness types. The Times of India has reported on a catholic initiative to popularize yoga by installing various artworks in a 6,000 square foot building next to their historical cathedral. The artwork includes embossed reliefs and paintings of figures like Jesus in yogic postures. It is yet another example of widespread effort to present yoga to the masses not just a beneficial exercise regimen, but a spiritual accouterment.

Like marathons, yoga can be used as a way to raise funds and awareness for important causes. The Rhode Island Namaste Yoga Ball brings together yoga students, instructors and enthusiasts to schmooze, mingle and practice yoga – the ball kicks off with a two-hour yoga practice and music meditation. The event benefits the Rhode Island Women’s Shelter, and brings to light many issues important to the Rhode Island community. Yoga is generally seen as a naturalist exercise and lends itself to benefits like these.

Perhaps the most “Star Trek” of the ways to engage with yoga is telecommunication. It isn’t unheard of to teach language classes to students over video chat or voice communication technology, but some studios have begun distance yoga programs. Students who are away from their city of residence on business or vacation for extended periods of time can tune into a conference call and participate remotely. There are webcam systems to put into practice, but advanced yogis who are familiar with the poses can simply listen in and participate.

It’s clear that the sky is the limit when it comes to keeping up with yoga outside of your normal routine. Yoga for benefit, yoga to raise awareness and aid a cause often deepens the experience of yoga and can leave one feeling more refreshed than they already would be.

It’s not often that you get a win-win situation in life, but I think I have found one of those rare gems. I recently tried a hypnosis weight loss programme called Gastric Band Hypnosis which seems to offer all the positives without any of the negatives.

Gastric Band Hypnosis aims to use the power of the mind to help you lose weight. At first it does sound quite improbable, but after some careful consideration, it does actually seem feasible. Let me explain…

Gastric Band Hypnosis works by convincing the subconscious mind that you have actually gone through with a gastric band surgical procedure. The theory is that once the subconscious mind believes this to have happened, it will act as if this is true. The patient will feel full much sooner than before, will eat less, and so consequently will lose weight – just as if they have really had surgery.

I have to say that I am a BIG believer in the simple premise that in order to lose weight you must eat less. So this product did get my attention. It does not claim what so many claim, which is some sort of miracle weight loss, with no changes in life style needed. I don’t believe it is possible to stick with the same lifestyle and lose weight. This product only claims to help you eat less, which in turn will help you to lose weight.

Basic science says that if you consume more calories than you burn then you will gain weight. It also says that if you burn more calories than you consume then you will lose weight. So if someone eats less and burns more calories than they consume, then they must lose weight. It is just physically impossible to gain weight if you are burning more calories than you are consuming – but people sometimes don’t realize or forget this simple fact.

That is why I don’t believe in miracle weight loss. The calories you eat must go somewhere, and if they are not burnt off, then they must be stored on the body as fat. You can do loads of exercise to burn it off, but isn’t it easier to just not eat the calories in the first place?

Here are my own personal experiences of Gastric Band Hypnosis…

The product came with 4 mp3 sessions plus an eBook. There were also 2 bonus sessions “Sensible Eating Hypnosis” and “Exercise Motivation Hypnosis”, which I have yet to try.

There were really 3 sessions, “Gastric Band Fitting”, “Gastric Band Inflation”, and “Gastric Band Post-Op”. These are supposed to mimic a real procedure that is done over a few sessions. A 4th session was also included which you can use if you want to reverse the whole procedure.

Listening to the sessions was actually a very enjoyable experience. I though I was going to get a stern voice telling me how unhealthy and fat I was, but this actually wasn’t the case. It was a calming and relaxing English male voice that guided me through a gastric band procedure as if it was really happening. I could actually picture the hospital in very clear detail, almost like I was actually there, and see the doctors and nurses. I listened to one session each day for 3 days, and enjoyed all of them. To me it was worth listening to for the relaxation benefits alone!

What struck me was once I finished the sessions I weirdly felt different. It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean. Perhaps it’s rather like when reading a very good influential book that seems to click with you and change the way you think forever. Or a wise older person whom you deeply respect, giving you life changing advice. Whatever it was I did feel like I had made a profound and deeply lasting change. A switch had been clicked in my brain.

I am not particularly THAT overweight, at least not in my humble opinion, but admittedly I could probably do with shedding a few pounds, perhaps about 14. I did find after the sessions that I wasn’t as bothered about eating as I was before. I have started leaving food when I have had enough, which is not something I generally did before. I also don’t seem to be as bothered about eating in between meals anymore either. So overall I am definitely eating less than I did before, and that’s without really trying.

The scales? Well I have lost 6 pounds in the last 3 weeks. That’s an average of 2 pounds per week. Whilst that’s not exactly ground breaking, I hear that it is quite a good healthy rate to lose weight, so I am quite pleased with the results so far.

The thing that really struck me about this product is that not only has it so far done what it claims to do, but also it was a pleasant and enjoyable process. I don’t see why we should have to torture and beat ourselves up just to lose a bit of weight.

Overall I would say that if you are struggling to lose weight, then you should give Gastric Band Hypnosisa shot. You don’t have to do anything crazy such as eating cabbage soup every meal, or starving yourself till you nearly pass out. You just carry on with life just eating that bit less than before – constantly and consistently, which I feel is the key to it’s success. All those bits of calories here and there that you stop eating soon add up, and can make quite a difference over a period of time.

All I can really say is that it has worked for me, so it could well work for you also. It isn’t a miracle weight loss aid that will help you shift 10 pounds per week, but I’m not sure such claims are actually true anyway. This is a sensible, slow, enjoyable and relaxing way to lose weight, which I think is a great balance. This could just be the missing part of the jigsaw you need to meet your weight loss goals.

Check out the sales page bellow for more information…

Buy Gastric Band Hypnosis

The routines we’ve developed to contend with our modern multitasking lifestyles don’t tend to allow much room for relaxation. That’s a pity. Because not having relaxation built into our routines isn’t just harmful to our psychological well-being; it actually decreases our productivity at home and at work. Multitasking was hyped as the new efficient way to work but it has actually proven less efficient. Engaging in multiple ongoing tasks leads to less focus on each task. That leads to a drop in efficiency and quality in our work as a whole, and production suffers. Integrating relaxation and meditation time into our daily routines can help increase productivity.

Relaxing improves focus. Taking a half hour at the start of your day for relaxing seems could seem counterintuitive. But instead of charging into work and blundering into your tasks like a whirlwind of misdirected energy, try taking a different tactic, even if it means coming into the office a bit earlier. Sit down and close your eyes and don’t think about work at all initially. Meditate if you like. Don’t get lethargic, but allow yourself to relax completely.

Once you’ve achieved that, direct your thoughts to the tasks you need to accomplish in the day ahead. Allow yourself to begin prioritizing the tasks mentally. What is most important? What task needs to be executed on first to set up the next one? A logical progression will begin to follow and priorities will begin to crystallize in your mind. At this point, while still relaxed, take out a pen and paper and begin to write down the day’s priorities in a list. When you’ve done this, you’re ready to start your day. There is no reason to be anxious during the day because you’ve got your list of tasks identified and you can begin to complete each one in order while remaining calm, focused and efficient.

This process can work just as efficiently for your personal life as it does at work. Worrying about things that need done seldom results in accomplishing concrete goals. Not accomplishing goals results in anxiety. You may find it helpful to set aside time every day for meditating. Just as you do at work, while meditating at home, begin to identify the areas in your life that are causing you anxiety. Once you’ve identified personal priorities think about the best way to execute an action plan for each one.

Education, career and relationship issues are often areas that people fret about without having an action plan to resolve them. If education is high on this list for you, think about your options. For folks who never finished college, or who want to return to university for continuing education for a master’s degree, getting an online degree may be a great action plan.

Career issues need to be identified. Make a list of three actionable items that you can easily incorporate into a workplace strategy. If career advancement is what you’re preoccupied with; execute your identified goals to help get you there and quit stressing about it. Relationship issues can be handled the same way. Identify the problems you may be encountering in your relationship and come up with three concrete actions you can take to positively impact your relationship.

Meditating and relaxing can be vehicles to increase calmness and tranquillity in your life in two different ways. The most obvious of course is that the mere process of meditating results in calmness. The second, less obvious way that meditation can increase your quality of life is that by using it as a tool to identify causes of worry, you can set about removing the worry by taking effective action.

- Article by Whitney Jones.