Did you know? Did you know that suffering is optional?

Suffering is an internal condition that is actually not at all related to external factors as generally believed. We are often convinced that the world around is the cause of our happiness (or suffering). This may be the greatest illusion of all and leading more people to bondage and suffering than any other.

When we observe that people who are the least comfortable on the inside, we see that they usually seek to acquire the most 'comforts' in their material life and as a result they are never satisfied or fulfilled. People with the most comfort on the inside require the least amount of 'comforts' in their material life since they are firmly established in the knowledge that nothing material, nothing external, can ever deliver a true sense of wellbeing because that wellbeing is an internally derived state!

With this realization comes great power and an extremely deep and unshakable peace.

“Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.”... Buddhist saying

Pain is unavoidable and we all experience pain in our lives. Ironically, our attempts to manage or control pain often turn it into suffering instead of type of relief. As a result we may choose to ignore the pain, but then we don’t learn anything from it and we continually repeat the same habits that create suffering.

We might experience pain in the form of depression or anxiety and perceive it as a solid, unchanging wall; when in reality it is full of gaps and moments of opportunity for freedom.

Rejecting our pain also leads to suffering because when we do that we make an enemy of our experience. Experience is just that and it is meant to be experienced. Rejecting experience (including our thoughts and feelings about it) is fruitless, deepening the conflict that we would like to eliminate from our lives.

Physical pain (including mental/emotional pain) may be effectively addressed by looking clearly, directly and impassionedly at what is actually happening, without rejecting it, clinging to it, ignoring it, or elaborating upon it. When we choose to do this, we will notice the true nature of pain as being transitory, mutable and impermanent. It is not solid and seamless. It appears and then dissipates over time, like all manifest phenomena .


By keeping an open mind we perceive
our situation clearly and accurately.


By keeping an open mind we perceive our situation clearly and accurately. By learning patience we may sit with it and observe without attempting to alter, judge or make any assumptions. We need to realize that we are never alone. Any pain or suffering we feel personally has also been felt by others. No one’s life is free from pain and of course everyone wishes to be free from pain and suffering. We all deserve compassion for we are all in this together.

Simply watching, observing our pain, without attempting to change it we will notice that it changes on its own. Practicing in this manner brings great comfort and reassurance. We notice that pain is no more permanent than anything else and that suffering doesn’t arise out of the pain but instead from our thoughts and feelings about it. Through this practice we will gain confidence in our ability to work with and through whatever might arise in the present moment.

As an old Buddhist expression goes; “If you can do something about it, no need to worry. If you can’t do anything about it, no need to worry.”

So focus on the power of observing what is, and letting go of the thoughts and feelings that tend to develop a storyline and you’ll see that the storyline supports the suffering and without it suffering disappears. One thing is certain, pain is sure to repeatedly come our way in this life. It is inevitable. But the good news is it is possible to choose whether or not we will turn our pain into suffering, or simply leave pain as it is, to arise and dissolve on its own, without our interference, elaboration or rejection. This is always our option, always!

Did you know? Did you know that Yoga is here to serve us...(Video)

Did you know? Did you know that Yoga is here to serve us...and we are not here to serve Yoga? In our Yoga practice, poses that are injurious to us are to be skipped until our body heals. The ability to let go of unintelligent poses and allow the body to heal is a sign of an advanced Yogi!

Fred Busch

Yoga’s goal, as many of you know, is to unite the body, mind and the spirit. Since ancient times yogis have viewed the body and mind as one, and when given proper instruction and guidance, and practiced in a right environment, it can find harmony and heal itself. Yoga practice is therefore considered therapeutic. It helps you become more aware of your body's posture, alignment and patterns of movement. It conditions the body, making it more flexible and supports a relaxed state even while in the midst of a stressful environment. This is the primary reason people want to start yoga practice - to feel more fit, more energetic, happier and peaceful. But there’s more...

Physiologically Yoga prompts the body to achieve...

• Physiologically Yoga prompts the body to achieve...
• Stable autonomic nervous system equilibrium
• Pulse rate decreases
• Respiratory rate decreases
• Blood Pressure decreases (of special significance for hyporeactors)
• Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) increases
• EEG - alpha waves increase (theta, delta, and beta waves also increase during various stages of meditation)
• EMG activity decreases
• Cardiovascular efficiency increases
• Respiratory efficiency increases
• Gastrointestinal function normalizes
• Endocrine function normalizes
• Excretory functions improve
• Musculoskeletal flexibility and joint range of motion increase
• Breath-holding time increases
• Joint range of motion increase
• Grip strength increases
• Eye-hand coordination improves
• Dexterity skills improve
• Reaction time improves
• Posture improves
• Strength and resiliency increase
• Endurance increases
• Energy level increases
• Weight normalizes
• Sleep improves
• Immunity increases
• Pain decreases
• Steadiness improves
• Depth perception improves
• Balance improves
• Integrated functioning of body parts improves

Psychologically Yoga prompts the mind to achieve...  

• Somatic and kinesthetic awareness increase
• Mood improves and subjective well-being increases
• Self-acceptance and self-actualization increase
• Social adjustment increases
• Anxiety and Depression decrease
• Hostility decreases
• Concentration improves
• Memory improves
• Attention improves
• Learning efficiency improves
• Mood improves
• Self-actualization increase
• Social skills increases
• Well-being increases
• Somatic and kinesthetic awareness increase
• Self-acceptance increase
• Attention improves
• Concentration improves
• Memory improves
• Learning efficiency improves
• Symbol coding improves
• Depth perception improves

Biochemically Yoga promotes...

• Glucose decreases
• Sodium decreases
• Total cholesterol decreases
• Triglycerides decrease
• HDL cholesterol increases
• LDL cholesterol decreases
• VLDL cholesterol decreases
• Cholinesterase increases
• Catecholamines decrease
• ATPase increases
• Hematocrit increases
• Hemoglobin increases
• Lymphocyte count increases
• Total white blood cell count decreases
• Thyroxin increases
• Vitamin C increases
• Total serum protein increases

Why Yoga is the Best form of Exercise for your Body

Yoga is an ancient science originating in India around 5,000 years ago. That is an extremely concise way to point out that there is probably something to it. A science/philosphy that has endured 5,000 years, transcending scores of generations, of governments, cultures and religions is probably worth checking out. Yoga has many ‘branches’ or disciplines all focusing on, in some capacity, ‘enlightenment’ or union with the creator/earth. Literally, Yoga means ‘yoking’ or ‘union’ with the divine. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, one of the sacred yoga texts, comes the Eight Limb Path to Enlightenment. Essentially, this path is a road map, a sure way to blissful enlightenment. The eight limbs are as follows:
Yama – ethical disciplines
Niyama – self observation
Asana – posture
Pranayama – breath control
Pratyahara – sense withdrawal
Dharana - concentration
Dhyana - mediation
Samadhi – state of joy and peace


Asana, the third limb of this eighth limb path involves physical postures designed to promote strength and flexibility to enable the body to sit peacefully in prolonged meditation. In the west, there is more focus on this Asana limb of the Hatha Yoga system. (this is the first mention of Hatha. What is it?) Ever hear the saying, ‘your body is your temple,’ the idea that your body is structure in which your spirit resides. The Asana branch of Hatha Yoga focuses on keeping a clean, healthy temple so your spirit can thrive. To do this, Asana Yoga blends focused breathing and deep concentration with physical poses. It joins breathing, moving and thinking.
The benefits of yoga are tremendous and entire books have and will be appropriately devoted to them. That why Yoga has been practiced for over 5,000 years and still finds itself in the mainstream of a culture across oceans away from it’s origin. I provide a lengthy list of them in the back and suggest you read as many of them as you can. Though the benefits of yoga are extensive and largely entertained, in this chapter we will focus on those physical. So we will be concerned, primarily, with this third limb and will focusing on one specific type of Asana Yoga practice: Astanga Yoga.

An Astanga Yoga practice has poses dedicated to engage every cell of your body, heart, kidneys, liver, eyes, bones, brain, nervous system. It is, beyond comparison, the epidimy of the perfect exercise, so essential to total health. Oxygenating the system is one of the great benefits of vigorous exercise and the deep, regular breathing inherent in any Yoga practice strengthens the lungs to a point where more air is drawn in with each breath.
Astanga Yoga is the best, most complete form of exercise and it is all you need. Your lungs become stronger with each practice, your body’s muscles and bone fiber become stronger as you perfect each pose.

People often ask, ‘Yoga sounds like good exercise, but I still have to go to the gym and workout and do ‘cardio’ right? If you want to you can, but the Astanga Yoga sequence is totally systematic and it strengthens every muscle in the body, including the heart. To practice a Power Yoga like Astanga for around an hour everyday is plenty of ‘cardio.’

You may also visit the links listed below for further information regarding Yoga, Detox, Vegan and Holistic approach.

Miami Yoga Teacher Training

Yoga Teacher Training London

Detox Weight Loss Program

Miami Beach Power Yoga

Fred Busch

Namaste

Fred

My name is Fred Busch and I am a Raw Food Yogi.
I eat only 100% Raw food, I practice Yoga asana vigorously everyday.
I am experiencing the benefits of great physical strength, mental agility and connectedness to the universe. One cell at a time, one day at a time I am getting healthier and more full of love.

I am also just like any other person. I grew up on the pizza, burgers and pasta diet for the first 18 years of my life. I am not here to hold high moral ground. I am certainly not here to judge. I am here however to enlighten you to the possibility that there is a more fulfilling life to be led when you can align yourself to the laws of Nature by eating a natural diet and vigorously exercising.

I smoked cigarettes for 5 years, ate meat everyday and never ate salad or fruit until my twenties. Yet I was always attracted to nature and the natural world. My inclination to all things natural and wild led me to study Environmental Policy in university. I know from my own example that no matter how divorced we become from Nature in our lifestyle, the call to Nature endures. And so with that vision I see in everybody around me the pure and vast potential of Nature.

It is said that a gorilla can bench press 4000 lbs. The domestication of the wild human begins at the first bite full of cooked food.

While laying in bed for weeks with terrible headaches I had visions of myself exercising and sweating and EXPRESSING the gift of the human body and I saw the value of health above all. I was treated in Africa but decided that rather than go to India as I had intended, I had better return home and heal and hopefully return to full health.

Perhaps you are lucky enough to not have had to realize first hand that health is the most important thing in the entire world. If you already know about the value of health then you will begin to tear through these pages in earnest. If not, then let me simply tell you that no matter what else you can imagine, if you are not healthy, you have nothing.

Visit Miami yogashala's official site: www.miamiyoga.com or you may send me your questions and concerns regarding 5-Day Detox Programs, Teachers Trainings, Vegetarian Food, Vegan Food, Raw Food, Meditation, or Power Yoga: fredb@miamiyoga.com

Overview of the Spinal Cord

The other one of the overviews is that between heaven and earth, the spinal column—the spinal cord is the bridge, the energetic bridge that is able to bridge the energy—the earth energy, the heavenly energy—and it does that in steps. I want to give you the big picture and the big picture is that cosmic energy, cosmic radiation energy is a very high powered frequency. Cosmic meaning heavenly—but not just heavenly in—I mean literally of the cosmos, basically the radiation that the cosmic energy that exist out in the universe, meaning that the energy of the divine, but that—you know this is real—this is real energy, but this cosmic energy is very high-powered and we as little human beings are unable to handle it, unable to receive it.

The analogy is that you take an electrical machine and it has to be transformed, it has to be able to be received. So the first way of looking at this is that the energy has to be reduced to that you can use it because in the form that it is, it’s like trying to use a bolt of lightning, it’s way to powerful. That’s a very good analogy, the bolt of lightning, because that’s a natural, tight cosmic force. When we speak of cosmic force, it’s being other worldly powerful, that’s what we need. A bolt of lightning it is said if you could harness it and store it, which you can’t do, one bolt could power a city. This is the analogy of energy as it is in the universe being too big for our little bodies and our little nervous systems to handle because our nervous system is an electrical—electromagnetic system, meaning it’s like wiring a building. Your nerves conduct electricity, that’s what they do and your body’s controlling itself, one of the ways is electromagnetism, in other words, through electricity.

Visit Miami yogashala's official site: www.miamiyoga.com or email me at fredb@miamiyoga.com for questions or concerns regarding 5-Day Detox Programs, Teachers Trainings, Vegetarian Food, Vegan Food, Raw Food, Meditation, or Power Yoga.

Sadhana

The Raw Food Yogi has a Raw Food-Yoga Sadhana and this is the foundation for his success. My Sadhana is that I practice Astanga Yoga every day except Saturday and that I eat only 100% Raw food. This to me is as much of a spiritual practice as a health regiment, and yet it is surely the healthiest regiment in the world. When I consider my Sadhana, I feel very deep spiritual feelings where the Sadhana is seen as the God’s Personal Vehicle to go and do as a vessel of Natual Law.

And it has been the Sadhana aspect of my practice that is the most important. When it is a spiritual practice, it just feels different than a regular “workout”. It may be possible to skip a “workout” pretty easily but less likely to try to fool the divine universal

Any body can have a Sadhana. What I hope to inspire is that the Sadhana of eating Raw Food and doing vigorous Yoga practice is the most powerful for healing and restoring.

Sadhana does not have to start out as 100% Raw and practicing yoga 2 hours everyday immediately. Actually it is started quite humbly. Just start by eating one banana a day more than you would have eaten, and start with one sun salutation everyday. This Sadhana would take about 1 minute and a half. Yet it is just as spiritually powerful as any other. Then the next week two extra bananas and two sun salutations. In a few months, taking it very slowly, you can evolve your Sadhana so that you only eat fruit before noon and you do 30 minutes of Yoga daily. This is powerful stuff. All you have to do is start.

To consider your daily actions to be spiritual acts delivers great strength. Sadhana is a personal practice or discipline done without attachment to the fruits of the actions.

Sadhana is the vehicle. You do it everyday!


Sadhana is a Sankrit word for “Daily Spiritual Discipline or Practice,” and is the foundation to the practice of Yoga. All great people have great Sadhanas.

Deepok Chopra, one of the most respected healers in the world, begins each day at 4am with Sitting Meditation and Yoga until 6am and then he writes for 2 hours all the material for his many books, and then does some exercise, ALL BEFORE 9AM. And so he says that he has taken care of his entire being, Mind, Body, Spirit and Livelihood, all before 9am so that everything that happens in the rest of the day is just extra. This is one of the most powerful Sadhanas that I have ever heard of and it is not surprising that it comes from such a successful person.

Not most days, everyday! There are no “I don’t feel like it todays”! It is not a question of “if?” you are gonna practice that day, but rather “when?”.

Please email me through this email address for your questions and inquiries: fredb@miamiyoga.com; You may also visit me at my Miami Beach Power Yoga Studio on South Beach if you have questions about Vegetarian Food, Vegan Food, Raw Food, Meditation, or Power Yoga. I also do 5-day Detox programs, Intensive Teacher Trainings at the following Miami Yogashala locations: Brickell Yoga, Sunny isles yoga and South Beach Yoga studios.

Transition

The reason why yoga is so important a part of this transition and lifestyle is that it assures the most efficient elimination of the poisons releasing into your bloodstream as the body ejects them in its re-assertion of it’s own domain which relied upon sufficient energy to enable.

So start doing a powerful Astanga or Power Yoga class 3 times a week. So matter what kind of diet you have now, you can start to do yoga 3 times a week. So the first month of a transition time might have no dietary implications at all and simply involves the physical practice of yoga. This will build initial strength and energy reserves, as you begin to sleep better.

The next month eliminate flesh foods and rejoice in that decision, it is not a deprivation but a gift to ourselves and the planet. Begin to eat as much fruit as you can and try to eat fruit when hungry instead of other “snacks”. Next month is time to eliminate dairy foods.

Always take it slow, it could be a year instead of a month, or it could be a week instead of a month, it is up to you and where you are at and thus what your needs are now.

Now begin to do some yoga 4-5 times a week and see if you can do it everyday.

If you're interested in enrolling for 5-Day detox programs and intensive Teacher Trainings, you may inquire at the following Miami Yogashala locations: Brickell Yoga, Sunny Isles Yoga, and South Beach Yoga studios. Email me at fredb@miamiyoga.com or visit me at my Miami Beach Power Yoga Studio on South Beach for questions about Vegetarian Food, Vegan Food, Raw Food, Meditation, or Power Yoga.

Yoga and consciousness

As yoga is primarily concerned with the lifting of consciousness in ones daily life, the selection of Raw food for each meal becomes an expression of the highest level of consciousness. And as yoga is in the union of that which is seemingly dual, the awareness of the fact that “we are what we eat” is a Yoga practice in and of itself. Many people new to Yoga consider that it is basically a physical practice. These people have gone to yoga classes and experienced the Asana limb of yoga. The Asana limb of the great Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, one of the sacred yoga texts, involves physical postures and strengthening of the body. As we know this is essential to maintain health in the body, but for our purpose here we will make clearly state that this is not the main goal of yoga, which is enlightenment, or union with the divine. It is no coincidence then to find that union with the divine comes in hand with maintaining a healthy body, a healthy temple.

If you have any questions about Vegetarian Food, Vegan Food, Raw Food, Meditation, or Power Yoga, please visit me at my Miami Beach Power Yoga Studio on South Beach. I run 5-Day detox programs and intensive Teacher Trainings also out of all three Miami Yogashala locations. Brickell Yoga, Sunny Isles Yoga, and South Beach Yoga studios. I can be reached for questions at fredb@miamiyoga.com
www.miamiyoga.com is Miami yogashala's official site!

Namaste