How do Miranda Kerr and Gisele Bndchen fit yoga in around motherhood and a career? They do it at home, says The Ishy founder Jane Kersel. With these top tips, you can do it too

BY Rachael Dove | 06 February 2014

Why do yoga at home? Practising a yoga routine at home needs demystifying: so many of my students are worried about posing incorrectly, or think that a routine should always be 90 minutes long. Yoga is not about nailing that perfect pose, it's about getting out of your head and into your body. The more bite-sized chunks of mindfulness you can fit in a day, the better. Practising a routine in a class or a busy gym can often make it harder to concentrate on you. At home you have the opportunity to connect with the rhythm of your body and centre your thoughts inwards. Try and do a routine everyday, but - don't be critical; If you can't practise in the morning, find a moment that suits better.

Prepare a space Always take your outside shoes off when you enter your home to maintain a pure and clean energy. Buy a mat to give your routine and body a level of respect. Unfold it in a relaxing space such as a spare room or bathroom (water promotes relaxation) and avoid putting it in busy or working spaces like your office or the lounge. Take a shower when you get in from a stressful day at work to psychologically mark the end of your working day. Light a candle, play soft music or massage in some body oil to evoke your senses, which connects mind to body and calms the nervous system.

Morning routine When you wake up, stretch in your bed to iron out aches and strains from sleeping. Take your pillows away and lie flat on your back with the soles of your feet on your mattress and your knees bent. Lift one leg into the air, wrap your hands around it and straighten it as much as you can, keeping your back flat. Hold for 10 long breaths and swap to the other leg. Next, start with both legs straight then bring your right knee towards your chest. Holding on to it with your left hand, roll your knee over to your left hand side. Hold for 10 breaths and repeat. Sit up, crossed legged and, for five minutes, be aware of the noise in your head. Let thoughts of your forthcoming agenda slip away whilst you relax in the present moment.

Miranda Kerr's yoga-inspired Instagram photo, posted in November (PHOTO: @mirandakerr)

Breathing routine Cold weather, driving and sitting at a computer screen cause a closed body posture with a collapsed chest and shallow breathing. The key to doing yoga at home is choosing poses that open your lungs and your body, which are the antithesis of bad posture. For instance, the horse pose (feet placed wide apart with bent knees. Check poses online at yogajournal.com) encourages deep breathing and the circulation of blood, which gives you a dose of energy. Start by holding your hands together at your heart. As you inhale take your arms out to the side as if you are welcoming a long lost friend. On exhale, bring your arms back to your heart. Repeat 10 of these arm movements breathing from the base of your lungs.

Stretching routine During the 11th exhale of the horse pose forward-bend to the floor keeping your knees bent. As you inhale, lift your chest (so that it looks like a flat table top) and fold back down towards your legs as you exhale. Inhale and roll up into a standing position. Repeat this five times. On your last exhale, instead of rolling up, step your feet back and put your hands on the floor into the downward dog pose. Stretch your back out as you inhale and exhale. From there, inhale and bring your right foot up to your hands, into a lunge with your hands either side of your foot. This stretches your hip flexors which get very tight when sat at a desk and can cause lower back pain. From the lunge place your back knee on the floor and bring your hands to your heart. Inhale and circle them towards the ceiling and down by your side. Go back into downward dog and repeat with the left leg. This routine is brilliant for those who have never done yoga before, as it does not rely on flexibility.

Energy routine If you are going out in the evening after a tiring day and need a burst of energy, or if you been travelling and are jet lagged, try the viparita karani pose. Lie close to a wall and flick your legs up so that your hips and back are flat on the floor (the flexibility of your back and hamstrings will dictate how close you get to the wall). This inversion circulates static blood from your feet to your heart to give you a feeling of renewed energy. It's excellent for stretching out an achy back, too.

Evening routine At the end of the day, instead of trying to relax by watching television, get into bed. Lie in the corpse pose (flat on your back) and close your eyes. Watch all the anxiety from your day unfolding, and your thoughts float away like clouds. Unhook from the pushing energies that tell you to wake up in the morning, or go into work when you feel unwell. Breathe deeply and accept any chatter in your head. Give your body quiet time to achieve the feeling of true relaxation.

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How to do yoga at home

Subway says it is removing from its bread a chemical reportedly found in Yoga mats, following a petition pressuring it to nix the ingredient.

We are already in the process of removing azodicarbonamide from our bread as part of our bread improvement process, Subway said on Facebook on Wednesday, responding to angry comments. While the ingredient is approved by the USDA and FDA, it will be removed from all our breads soon,

More than 66,000 people have signed a petition on the popular food blog foodbabe.com to remove the chemical, which is used only in North American restaurants and is said to be found in yoga mats and shoe rubber.

A Subway representative told the Associated Press that the process began before the petition, but did not say when it will be complete. The complete conversion to have this product out of the bread will be done soon, Subway said in a statement.

See a video from the petition here:

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Subway Will Drop Yoga Mat Chemical From Bread

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

1. Bill Nye, are you influencing the minds of children in a positive way?

Many kids that watched Bill Nye developed a passion for knowledge that fueled their desire to become scientists (or science writers). There are many positive lessons you can learn from the Science Guy curiosity, creativity and thoughtfulness, to name but a few.

2. Are you scared of a Divine Creator?

Are you scared of a universe that does not center on mankind (and, by extension, yourself)?

3. Is it completely illogical that the earth was created mature? i.e. trees created with rings Adam created as an adult

Yes it is. The Big Bang was an extraordinary event, but there are lines of objective evidence that point towards its existence. There's no physical evidence to prove that a tree or a man can pop into being fully formed.

You could maybe argue that God shaped the universe 4,000 years ago but carefully formed it to just look like its billions of years old -- planting bones in the Earth and putting rings in trees and encoding our DNA to make us seem close to chimpanzees -- but that seems like a twisted vision of a Creator. Wouldnt a deity have something better to do than to pull a massive, universe-wide scam?

4. Does not the second law of thermodynamics disprove Evolution?

This is a common trope in creationism, but its based on a flawed understanding of thermodynamics. The second law says that the entropy which, in the interests of simplification, we can think of as disorder in a closed system will increase with time. So if its a natural law things get more disordered, then evolution must be impossible because it has created more and more complex (or ordered) forms over time!

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22 Responses To Questions From Creationists

Park Ridge, IL (PRWEB) February 06, 2014

Health and spiritual resource, Far Eastern Fitness, today announced the nomination of Frank Huguenards recent documentary "Beyond Reason" for a Peoples Choice Award by Culture Unpluggeds Spirit Enlightened Film Festival. The film focuses on contradictions within modern scientific methods and how human intellect often becomes a stumbling block on the road to knowledge.

Huguenards work serves as an inspiration and supplement to the mission of Far Eastern Fitness. His series of films Beyond Me, Beyond Belief, and Beyond Reason explore various themes tied to his goal of promoting awareness and understanding, and helping others better themselves by nurturing and cultivating their own consciousness.

The first film in the trilogy, Beyond Me is focused on the link between animal instinct and human personalities and provides a simple, empowering solution for ending human suffering and misery. Beyond Belief breaks down certain traditions and beliefs and challenges us to question the authenticity and lineage they assert. The fourth installment, Beyond Thought, expected to be released in late 2014, will examine the origin of human thoughts, the relationship between thoughts, consciousness and the human brain and why we observe recurring and unwanted thought patterns in our lives. Huguenards previous work has garnered a Peoples Choice Award in the Spirited Enlightenment Networks 2012 Film Festival.

As an organization dedicated to bringing enlightenment to the lives of others through yogic arts, self-healing practices, and spiritual teaching, Far Eastern Fitness has a vision that closely coincides with the message of Huguenards groundbreaking documentary series.

Frank enriches our lives with the Yoga of knowledge, said Far Eastern Fitness founder, Anthony Castelluccio. Hes produced a trilogy of captivating films that really speak to the human experience on a deeply spiritual level. Were thrilled hes being recognized for his groundbreaking work.

Beyond Reason is now viewable along with more information on Huguenard and his visionary films at the Beyond Me Films website http://www.beyondmefilm.com/.

About Far Eastern Fitness

Far Eastern Fitness is an all-encompassing resource for healthy and spiritual living. The organization has assembled the worlds finest instructors of the yogic arts to add spirituality to lives and teach self-healing. Far Eastern Fitness has harnessed this unique expertise to produce several educational tools, including a recently released DVD and interactive e-book both designed to promote inner peace and outer joy. Part of every purchase will be donated to the One Drop water project, an organization that works to ensure that everyone has access to clean water.

For more information, please visit http://www.guruve.us, or email fef(at)comcast(dot)net.

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Far Eastern Fitness Announces Award Nomination of Frank Huguenard Documentary, Beyond Reason