After many comments and emails I was prompted to search further to help share more episodes of Inhale! It’s not an easy job considering the show went off the air years ago. I emailed Maha Yoga and Steve Ross to ask about where to get episodes or when Mr. Ross might be going online or doing a DVD. I got a pretty stale form letter reply citing the excuse that he likes to use popular songs and the difficulty with licensing to do new stuff and try and contact Oxygen channel for the old stuff. He’s been using that music excuse for YEARS now, it’s time to find an answer for the thousands wishing only to laugh, smile, sweat and have some fun inspiring yoga! I have a few suggestions for answers to the music dilemma to send and plan to go out to Cali and go to Maha Yoga for a class. Hopefully I can be more persuasive in person!
Currently I’m living in a small town in Georgia with no access to a yoga class :( I’m really trying hard for all of us middle and rural Americans! Just cause we choose not to live in the cities doesn’t mean we don’t deserve access to fun yoga!
Help build the online library! If you have a taped episode try and get it online :) If your not tech savvy your more then welcome to mail it to me and I’ll put it up and mail it back. Email me for mailing address.
Enjoy the episode below … part four has no sound due to YouTube licensing restrictions but it’s an easy 3 pose stretch section. Play teacher and inspire and make yourself laugh during this part!
part one
part two
part three
part four this section has no sound due to YouTube licensing restrictions but it’s an easy 3 pose stretch section. Play teacher and give your own narration … inspire and make yourself laugh!
It took me a long long time to understand what all the hype was around Mr. Anthony Robbins, I get it now! He’s a truly special human being sharing a great and priceless gift with human kind. I’d love to see his wisdom implemented in school systems especially with teenagers! The older I get and more experiences in life I have the more I feel emotional well being is way more important then all those Math, Science and English classes combined.
I have a hard time accepting and asking for help from others. My grandmother recently told me “if someone wants to do something for you then you should let them”. Simply put I agree with her and I’m learning to gratefully accept all the gifts and help life presents. After all I really like helping other people so it’s only fair to accept help in return.
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I’m soooo happy to be able to share this full episode of Inhale with Steve Ross! It’s been off the air for years and making it to Steve’s Maha Yoga studio in Brentwood, CA or retreats just is not possible for the majority of people. Some may disagree with Steve’s laxed style of teaching complete with jokes, some of those very fun ’7′ words that can’t be said on tv, loud music and don’t worry just do it attitude. Me, I LOVE IT!!!! I have so much fun doing an episode of Inhale and super fun when I’m in Los Angeles and actually get to go to a class. I’ve tried many other teachers, studios, videos and I’ve never enjoyed the fun flow as much as I do with Steve. I remember attending a Bikram class once and feeling so angry and out of balance that I left went home and did more yoga to calm me down.
On a personal note, I’m now 29 and was 18 when introduced to Steve Ross. I grew up dancing and taking gymnastics and had been to a couple hot yoga classes. As much as I liked stretching and sweating and the amazing energy that comes from a great teacher it wasn’t til I found ‘Inhale’ that I really fell in love with yoga. My mother also grew up dancing but when I was 18 and she was 36 she was over weight, living in the desert (even though she’s inlove with the ocean) and in a job that sucked the life out of her. Basically she wasn’t happy and our relationship was not good and had not been good for years. She too had tried some yoga dvd’s but found herself very bored with them …. and then one day I told her about Steve Ross and Inhale!
My mom fell inlove with Steve Ross’s style of teaching. She began doing yoga regularly and turned her friends onto as well. The side affect from this was life changing for both of us. She got happy, lost a bunch of that extra weight, started inspiring others to have fun and be happy and our relationship became the best it had ever been. Steve Ross was in Las Vegas for a book signing for Happy Yoga: 7 Reasons Why There’s Nothing to Worry About . I went there to thank him for making my mom happy which made me love her more then ever, she became an inspiration. Soon after she moved to Southern California to be near the ocean! But wait it gets better … !!!! …. WAY BETTER!!! She then quit her very lucrative job in Corporate America and flew down to the Bahamas to live in an Ashram for a month and became a yoga teacher!
My mom is Denise Wells she is a Registered Nurse and a Certified Yoga Teacher. She lives in Mission Viejo, California and goes by Om Sweet Om Yoga! She loves being outside and does guided yoga hikes, yoga in the parks and on the beach. She also does private in home sessions for all those busy Corporate America types who don’t have time to leave.
Yoga Studio Decor and The Happy Blog was completely inspired by Steve Ross and my Mom! They’ve both been an inspiration and a support system in my life. When I’m facing my hardest challenges or I’m in the worst mood, either Yoga w/ Steve or a call to my Mom gives me the strength to be happy.
I am Kiesha Jean. I am a photographer who loves yoga and life! All of the images in the Yoga Studio Decor store were taken by me on my travels. I currently live in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. I hope for the Happy Blog to be someplace you can always come to when you need a smile, a laugh, inspiration, love and wisdom. If you have a story you’d love to share email [email protected]
It’s the harvest season here… and you know what harvest means. Harvest means food. Halfway between Canadian and American (US) Thanksgiving, there are all sorts of beautiful things clamoring for space in my refrigerator. Beautiful orange squashes, dark greens, and the completely sexy color of beets make my plate an exquisite thing. Not to mention sweet potatoes, which are my favoritest, are literally popping up out of the ground. Most delicious treat ever?: Baked sweet potato with salted, crunchy peanut butter, cinnamon, honey, and extra salt. Decadent and filling.
It’s a very happy thing and these days the eating is so good. What’s better than fall harvest? Accordingly, here’s a sequence for massaging internal organs and aiding in digestion. Eat up, and enjoy!
1. Begin in Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Bound Angle). Take hands to the lower ribs, thumbs to the back (towards the floor) and the rest on the front of the ribcage.
2. Breathe deeply, feeling the expansion in the ribs with the breath. Feel the movement underneath the hands.
3. Remain here for 1-3 minutes
4. Draw the knees together with the hands and drop them to the side for a supine twist.
5. Repeat other side
6. Supta Pavana Muktasana (Reclined Wind Relieving Pose). Repeat other side
7. Draw both knees tightly into chest
8. Urdhva Prasarita Padasana (Straight Leg lowering and lifting). Repeat 12x.
9. Jathara Parivartanasana (Straight legs side to side). Repeat 12x.
10. Place hands on belly and gently massage and breathe
11. Come onto belly
12. Bhujangasana (Cobra Pose). Using the breath, rise higher and inhale and lower on exhale. Continue to raise and lower for 6 cycles of breath
13. Bhujangasana (hold for 5 cycles of breath)
14. Dhanurasana (Bow Pose). Repeat 3x. On third time, use breath to “rock” body in Bow.
15. Release to floor, allowing legs to “windshield wiper” side to side, releasing lower back
16. Garbasana (Child’s Pose)
17. Walk hands in front of you to one side. Side stretch. Repeat other side.
I had a freak out on Friday; totally uncontrollably angry. I’m at my angriest for one of two reasons. One: being told how I am feeling or should feel. For example: “Oops, someone’s in a bad mood.” Two: Not feeling in control of a situation.
The second is a whopper because, duh, we are never really in control of any situation. The roof always has the infinite possibility of caving in. As that dark dude Shopenhauer said,
“We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses one first and then another for his prey. So it is that in our good days we are all unconscious of the evil Fate may have presently in store for us– sickness, poverty, mutilation, loss of sight or reason.”
What we do have, though, is control over how we react. Or, better, *don’t* react. On Friday I was both repeatedly told that I was angry (making me angrier) and not allowed to make decisions for myself. So, was completely and totally angry in feeling helpless and then being told I was. Released from the bad situation, I immediately felt better (get me to a town with a bathroom, feed me, and get me off of nauseating back winding roads– for over four hours!– and I perk up). Doesn’t change the fact that I was not in control when the situation was at its worst. Yes, it was a really, genuinely bad situation, but as Shope points out… it can be a lot worse.
One type of breath work that is great for freaking out, stressing out, or being really, really mad is Dirga Pranayama (Three Part Breath).
Lie down on the back, closing the eyes
Taking one hand to the belly and one hand to the chest, feeling the natural rise and fall of air against your hands. Begin to breath more fully, expanding on an inhale into the area where the hands are placed. Breathe through the nose.
Begin to isolate the breath in different parts of the torso. On an inhale, fill the belly up with your breath. Expand the belly with air like a balloon.
On the exhale, let the air move out of the belly
Continue for 1 minute
On the next inhale, fill the rib cage with air, causing the ribs to widen apart and upwards.
On the exhale, let the air release from the rib cage
Breath into the rib cage for 1 minute
On the next inhale, breath into the chest all the way up to the collarbone
On the exhale, let the breath go first from the upper chest
Continue for 1 minute
Now, put the three together with one breath. On a single inhale, breath into the belly (expanding outwards), then filling up to the rib cage, finally having the inhale culminate up by the collar bones
On a single exhale, exhale from the collar bones, the rib cage, and then the belly.
Inhale from bottom to top, exhale from top to bottom
Continue for 2-5 minutes
Stop being angry
sequence provided by: Emma G Silverman – visit her site The Joy of Yoga for DAILY sequences!
Emma’s experience with yoga began over a decade ago with a dedicated Iyengar practice. Over the years she studied Bikram, Ashtanga, Kundalini, and Vinyasa Flow yoga. After working at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, she now teaches (primarily) in the Kripalu style. In the past, Emma taught chair yoga, Vinyasa yoga, yoga for kids, and yoga for health care professionals. Recently having landed in Ithaca after a move from Madison, Wisconsin, she’s looking forward to working and playing in the Ithaca yoga community!
