Yoga and Bodywork Archives - Page 13 of 16

The history and heritage of mudras – extract from Mudras of India by Cain Carroll and Revital Carroll

Singing DragonMay 23, 2013 0 Comments

In this extract from Mudras of India, the authors explore the meaning and use of hand gestures in both vedic and Chinese traditions, and describes the ancient spiritual origins, and meaning of the mudras of India.

“Our hands are a source of tremendous power. With such profound dexterity,sensitivity, and utility, the human hands may be one of our most defining features as a species… With the hands playing such a central role in our experience of being human, it comes as no surprise that many of the world’s great spiritual and artistic traditions have considered the hands as sacred.”

Click here to read the extract

Mudras of India is now available in paperback, and includes a new chapter that comprehensively lists the benefits of hand mudras, covering major health concerns as well spiritual and psycho-energetic categories.

“Mudras of India is a much-needed compendium that beautifully illustrates the incredible variety and versatility of the hand gestures that play a key role in India’s sacred traditions. Every dancer, yogi, or yogini will want to keep a copy on hand!”

– Roxanne Kamayani Gupta, PhD, author of A Yoga of Indian Classical Dance: The Yogini’s Mirror

Cain Carroll teaches yoga, qigong, meditation and self-healing worldwide. He has trained extensively under the guidance of Daoist, Buddhist and Indian Yoga masters. His journeys have taken him to remote areas of India, China, Nepal, Tibet, Thailand and South America, where he received private instruction in many rare and powerful practices. Cain is co-author of Partner Yoga and creator of three self-healing DVDs. His website can be visited at www.caincarroll.com. Revital Carroll has been dedicated to the study of Indian spiritual arts since childhood. Intensive study and practice of yoga and meditation in the Himalayas led her to discover her passion for Odissi Indian Dance. She is the creator of three instructional DVDs and she offers classes, workshops and performances worldwide. Visit www.shaktibhakti.com for more information.

The Development of Kinesiology – extract from Principles of Kinesiology by Maggie La Tourelle with Anthea Courtenay

Singing DragonApril 25, 2013 0 Comments

In this extract, the authors describe the early development of Kinesiology, and the unexpected discoveries which informed the basis of many branches of the practice. They also look at how Kinesiology fits within the idea of truly holistic medicine, showing how it can bring change and restore balance in people’s lives.

Click here to read the extract

Praise for the first edition of Principles of Kinesiology:

“A well-crafted book, ideal for newcomers to the subject, whether lay or professional…an accurate and balanced guide to this fast-growing area of healing.”

– Leon Chaitow ND, DO, MRO, naturopath, osteopath and acupuncturist, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies

“A much-needed book…to get help with your pain, stress and improve your performance with energy balance and muscle facilitation.”

– John F. Thie DC, founder and author of Touch for Health

Maggie La Tourelle has worked in the field of holistic healthcare for thirty years as a practitioner, teacher and writer integrating kinesiology, counselling, psychotherapy and NLP. She is an honorary member of The Kinesiology Federation, and a member of The Association for Therapeutic Healers, The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, The Scientific and Medical Network and the Guild of Health Writers. She lives in London, UK.

Anthea Courtenay is a freelance writer, journalist and translator based in London.

Play the Frog’s Breathtaking Speech Game

Singing DragonApril 24, 2013 0 Comments

Bring the benefits of yoga and yogic breathing techniques into the classroom and the home with this game from Frog’s Breathtaking Speech author Michael Chissick. Based on the book, the game is a fun way to help children to recognise negative emotions and lean how to turn these into positive ones.

Simply download the game board, card set and instructions from these links and with some simple steps you’ll be ready to roar the house down with Lion, shake the walls with the Woodchopper Breath and more.

The game is at its most effective if used with the book, Frog’s Breathtaking Speech – find out more about the book here.

Michael Chissick has been teaching yoga to children in primary mainstream and special needs schools as part of the integrated school day since 1999. He is a primary school teacher as well as a qualified yoga instructor. He is also a specialist in teaching yoga to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Michael trains and mentors students who want to teach yoga to children.

Request a free copy of the new Singing Dragon Complete Catalog

sdusaApril 18, 2013 2 Comments

Our 2013 Singing Dragon Complete Catalog is now available. With full information on our expanding list of books in Qigong, Bodywork, Yoga, Taiji, Aromatherapy, Craniosacral Therapy, Chinese Medicine and a variety of other disciplines, our complete catalog is a tremendous resource for complementary health practitioners and anyone interested in enhancing their own health, wellbeing and personal development.

To receive a free copy of the catalog, please sign up for our mailing list and we’ll get one out to you right away. You may also request multiple copies to share with friends, family, colleagues and clients–simply note how many copies of the catalog you would like (up to 20) in the “any additional comments” box on the sign-up form.

We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to get more information about our outstanding new and forthcoming titles such as Heavenly Streams by Damo Mitchell and recent releases in our Discovering Holistic Health series like Principles of Bach Flower Remedies and Principles of Tibetan Medicine. The catalog also contains information about the new paperback edition of Mudras of India by Cain and Revital Carroll and our forthcoming title Vital Face: Facial Exercises and Massage for Health and Beauty by Leena Kiviluoma along with over 150 additional books, DVDs and other resources.

Click this link to see a listing of new and recent titles from Singing Dragon.

To request a copy of the Singing Dragon complete catalog, please click here to fill out our sign-up sheet. Please be sure to click any additional areas of interest as well. You should receive a copy of the catalog within two weeks.

We’re not the healer – by Noah Karrasch

Singing DragonMarch 25, 2013 1 Comment

I’ve long been troubled by the use of the word ‘healer’… it seems too many practitioners want to claim this title for themselves. First, I believe there’s a higher power, call it what you will, that truly does the healing. Second, I believe it’s got to be a decision from the client or wounded or ill person to be healed. Hopefully the practitioner will help that wounded or ill person to find healing, whatever it looks like for them. But to deliver healing and believe it’s coming from within one’s own ‘power’ or ‘knowledge’ seems incredibly egoic to me.

Emmett Hutchins told us long ago that Ida Rolf always marked her occupation as “Posture Teacher” in her IRS forms. She also made us realize that we are not the therapists as Rolfers; gravity was/is the therapist and we are the educator, invoker, or facilitator that hopefully helps the client find that gravitational line and adhere more closely to it and express more fully from it. The basis of Rolfing as she taught it was the idea that we didn’t fix symptoms on clients; we helped get them right in gravity and hopefully the symptoms fixed themselves. While I allow myself to look at and try to assuage symptoms in my work, I’m still more interested in helping that client become even more of themself; that’s the healing I’m able to offer.

Recent studies coming from Harvard Medical School are beginning to examine not only the role of placebo, but the effect of telling the client/patient that the treatment being given is placebo. Interestingly, even people who are told their treatment is a sham are getting better. What’s that about?

I believe it’s because the first step to ‘healing’ anyone is to help them realize that they are worthy of happiness. If we can sit with a client in a non-judgmental fashion and let them see that we acknowledge their pain, they feel the strength of that offered hand… it’s just easier to be in pain when someone is there and lets you know they feel your pain. And if the pain is acknowledged, it’s easier to let it go… what we resist, persists.

So, even more importantly, have we as facilitators of health taken the time to look deeply and fearlessly at our own pains? Or are we the kind of therapist who busily ‘fixes’ others without ever looking at our own situations, our own fears, our own weaknesses? To me a true ‘healer’ is someone who has committed to doing their own work first so that they can non-judgmentally sit with the client/patient, truly listen and create space for that person to express the pain, grief, shame, and guilt and get through it and on with their life. That’s healing, and that’s what I hope to achieve when I endeavor to help others ‘heal’ themselves.

Noah Karrasch is a certified Rolfer and licensed massage therapist, and holds a teaching degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He teaches core bodywork skills throughout the midwest and also works with the Wren Clinic in East London. Noah lives and works in Springfield, Missouri. For more on his work please visit his website: http://noahkarrasch.com/

Request a copy of the UK Singing Dragon Complete Catalogue

Singing DragonJanuary 10, 2013 6 Comments

Make sure not to miss Singing Dragon’s latest UK Complete Catalogue. If you have not yet received a copy, please sign up for our mailing list and we’ll send a free one out to you ASAP.

Readers in the UK and Europe who request a copy of the catalogue before February 15th, 2013 will also receive a voucher for a 15% discount on the entire Singing Dragon list of books, with free postage and packing.

Take advantage of this opportunity to find new, forthcoming and classic books on Chinese Medicine, Holistic Health, Taiji, Qigong, Herbal Medicine, Yoga, Spirituality and more. Also, sample health-promoting recipes with The Functional Nutrition Cookbook, and Make Yourself Better with Philip Weeks’ books. Delve into the history of Ayurvedic Medicine and the Mudras of India, and discover the Five Levels of Taijiquan, Daoist Nei Gong and Chinese Medical Qigong.

To request your copy of our Complete Catalogue, please click here. To receive your 15% discount voucher, please be sure to click the checkbox for “Singing Dragon” under area of interest or else mention this offer in the “any further comments” section.

If you have previously received a copy of the catalogue, and would like to take advantage of the 15% discount, please feel free to request a voucher via email at post@intl.singingdragon.com.

Prana Mudra with Cain Carroll

Singing DragonOctober 19, 2012 1 Comment

This is the second video in Cain Carroll’s ‘Mudra Moments’ series. See here for part 1: Apana Mudra.

In this two-minute mini-class, Cain Carroll introduces Prana Mudra, a traditional Indian hand mudra which improves overall vitality and immunity, activates the body’s self-healing capacity, improves concentration, and strengthens stamina and willpower.

More information on Prana Mudra, including technique, application, benefits and sanscrit notation, can be found in Mudras of India: A Comprehensive Guide to the Hand Gestures of Yoga and Indian Dance.

Apana Mudra with Cain Carroll

Singing DragonOctober 18, 2012 0 Comments

In this two-minute mini-class, Cain Carroll introduces Apana Mudra, a traditional Indian hand mudra which improves digestive health and elimination (including easing constipation and hemorrhoids), and helps to regulate the menstrual cycle (alleviating cramping, dryness and clotting).

More information on Apana Mudra, including technique, application, benefits and sanscrit notation, can be found in Mudras of India: A Comprehensive Guide to the Hand Gestures of Yoga and Indian Dance .

Look out for more videos in the series of Mudra Moments coming soon to the Singing Dragon blog.

A Real Pain in the Neck! By Noah Karrasch, author, bodyworker and educator

Singing DragonSeptember 21, 2012 0 Comments

One of my mentors developed some quite interesting ideas. Much as I’d like to share them specifically and credit him, he and his wife long ago decided that to keep his message pure, they didn’t want him quoted or credited, because they feared his work and ideas would be misrepresented. So, sort of like the reverence with which I hold MY interpretation of John Pierrakos’ work in CORE Energetics, I’d like to share a bit of MY interpretation of a different take on neck pain, fuzzy headedness, and poor health in general. I’ve sprung forth from the wisdom of the unnamed mentor.

We’ve all heard the term “Get your head on straight,” and most of us can see or feel how our heads live too far forward, in front of the rest of our bodies. Many of us use bodywork, postural work, or other awareness therapies to help us hold our heads high and keep them there. It’s not easy! Between driving, sitting in cars and recliners, pursuing intense close detail and breath-holding work (as a hobby or professionally), or for any of a hundred more reasons, we tend to sit and stand with our heads in front of our trunks and hearts, instead of allowing the heart to arrive first and the head to ride on top.

an image of the Atlas wedge in bad alignment

Bad alignment of the Atlas wedge

Image of the Atlas wedge in good alignment

Good alignment of the Atlas wedge

Let’s examine the bones involved here, namely the cranial bones including the occipital bone right at the back base of the skull. Just below it we find the seven cervical vertebrae or spinal bones. Imagine these seven have fingers on each side of the main body, and a little tail at the back of each, with muscle tissue running in every direction to/from all of them. Any one of these bones can get jammed/shortened/twisted in a way that nerve impulses leaving the spinal column above or below that bone get slowed down. It’s hard to send the full message through a clogged channel. As these cervical bones gets out of line, not only the neck, but the head, shoulders, and even arms and wrists can suffer. So, how do we keep the head on straight?

This mentor believed that demons and entities attached themselves to us, right at that place on the back of the neck where skull and neck meet. He claimed the physical sensation generated by these psychic attacks caused the first cervical or atlas bone to move forward, further jamming the spinal column, with the occiput and the axis bone immediately below the atlas pinching this atlas forward and tight.

I never particularly liked the language of demons and entities and for years I simply thought of these ‘energies’ as negative thought forms. After all, if they’re shortening and tightening your neck in a way that deprives your brain of energy, aren’t they negative? In the last couple of years I’ve been reassessing that term and now call these energies ‘unresolved’ thought forms. To me, I’ve therefore assumed responsibility for that which is occupying my space; even if it was directed at me (positively or negatively) by someone else. I believe in trying to take the ‘negative’ out of the situation and working instead at resolving the thought form in the mental and spiritual realms before tackling the physical body.

To that end, ask a client to sit, stand, or lie straighter or longer with chin down, back, and into the chest while the back of the neck pushes straight back; then to breathe. While they breathe I encourage them to allow angers and anxieties to leave even before I apply gentle neck traction. Then, with all these pieces in place, I believe we do the work of helping clients find their true north, their ‘up’. As they physically allow opening, some of the unresolved thought forms can move themselves. Or, as they work to release unresolved thought forms, won’t the neck feel looser? Won’t blood and nerve supply nourish the brain and suddenly make thoughts clearer?

It’s simple; it’s not easy!

Revital and Cain Carroll on Hand Mudras

sdusaSeptember 11, 2012 0 Comments

Singing Dragon authors Cain and Revital Carroll (Mudras of India) recently gave a one-hour webinar on hand mudras with Friends Health Connection. In this presentation, the Carrolls described the health and spiritual benefits of hand mudras as well as historical background and instructions on technique and application.

Click the image above to view the webinar or click this link to view the video on the Friends Health Connection site.

Mudras of India has been called “a much-needed compendium that beautifully illustrates the incredible variety and versatility of the hand gestures.” Click the link below to order or for more information about this book which appeals to spiritual seekers, students and teachers of yoga and Indian Dance, scholars and lay people, and anyone interested in transformative effects of these powerful hand gestures.

Find out more about Mudras of India by Cain and Revital Carroll.