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Brahmacharya is the fourth of the yamas and the word, literally translated means dedicated to the Divinity of Life. The word is often used in yogic practice to refer to celibacy or denying pleasure, but this is only a small part of what Brahmacharya represents. The purpose of practicing Brahmacharya is to keep you focused on your purpose in life, the things that instill a feeling of peace and contentment

Historically, Brahamacharya as celibacy was likely a product of teaching yoga to young men, whose desires can be difficult to harness. Unless you are living the ascetic life of a sadhu, chances are you will indulge in sexual pleasure, food pleasure or any number of possible treats. To bring brahmacharya into your life and yoga practice is to practice moderation in all things, including those things that are pleasurable distractions.

When we become hooked on pleasure, it becomes an addiction and the absence of pleasure feels like loss or dissatisfaction; we become unable to enjoy the simple happiness of life, to observe the quiet broad beauty of our minds - slowing down becomes difficult because the focus becomes the object of addiction. Practicing moderation allows us to enjoy pleasure and remain focused on our greater purpose. . How does this relate to asana practice? Sometimes yoga students push themselves in yoga practice, creating a sense of urgency, correctness (am I doing this pose well?) and anxiety. This can leave a student feeling exhausted at the end of their practice rather than feeling relaxed or refreshed and ready for purposeful action off the mat.

It is important to apply moderation to moderation also, so it is not a burden. It is a beautiful practice. It is about moderating the extremes, not wanting too much and being happy with what you have. The practice of Wanting Wanting Wanting will always leave you feeling unsatisfied.

Brahmacharya can bring out many issues and energies as you begin to observe moderation - our addictions and ego rebel strenuously when they are not in control. When they arise, notice what the issues are, go deeper into your practice and discover your true motivations.

Ask yourself what is your purpose in your yoga practice? What are your goals in yoga and do you allow space in your practice to reach those goals?

In yoga,

Jenn

It appears that negative calorie food is helping obese and overweight people in their fight to overcome their weight problem. Recently Mike Baker, an employee of TV Channel FOX 2 reported that he lost 30.5 inches and 70 pounds by eating negative calorie foods. Similarly his wife Suzie lost 31 inches and 40 pounds! They are not alone.

The obvious question arises, what is a negative calorie food? after all calorie is a unit of energy, how it can be negative? The food itself cannot possess a "negative calorie", because all foods have some calories. However, some foods need more effort to get digested by our body, while there are some foods that are very easily ingested by the body.

Let us take an example. Suppose a food contains "a" number of calories and it needs "b" number of calories in the whole process of eating and digesting it. If "a" is more than "b", then the excess calorie in the food is stored by the body. There are several foods for which "a" is less than "b", that is the calorie in the food is less than the number of calories required to ingest the food. Such foods are know as "negative calorie foods".

Such foods are plant foods like fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains. The main feature of these food items is that they themselves possess very few calories as compared to foods derived from animals which gives too many calories, mainly from fat. Each gram of fat gives you 9 calories. The body requires little efforts to digest fat so the calories from fat go straight to your body.

It is then obvious choice to include these negative calorie foods in to your daily eating plan. if you replace your high fat foods with these foods and you remain physically active, then no wonder you can transform your body into a fit body with ideal weight. The negative calorie diet is based on these foods.

Copyright 2007, www.NegativeCalorieFoods.com

For more information on negative calorie foods, visit the web site: http://www.negativecaloriefoods.com

Patients with lower back pain often have hip flexor tightness. The hip flexor that is very easy to locate is the sartorius due to its strap-like form stretching from the outer aspect of the hip to the medial aspect of the knee joint. This muscle allows us to sit in the taylor sit position or the lotus position.

The sartorius muscle flexes the hip as well as rolls the hip outward (external rotation). It is also a knee flexor.

To test this muscle, the patient places the heel of the tested side on the opposite knee. Patients with pain and tightness of the sartorius tend to have difficulty placing the heel on the opposite knee.

However, difficulty in performing this function also depends on presence of pain and spasm in the lower back muscles, hip extensor muscles, hip abductor and internal rotator muscles. Tightness and shortening of these muscles will produce difficulty performing this motion which is also called the FABERE testing (this is a combination of ability of the hip to flex, abduct and externally rotate).

Nerve supply: Femoral nerve
Spinal segments: L2, L3 and L4 nerve roots
2007 copyright all rights reserved www.stopmusclepain.com Low back pain - hip pain- Sartorius

Jennifer Chu, M.D., founder of eToims Soft Tissue Comfort Center is also President and CEO of eToims Medical Technology LLC, a medical device company with training programs in eToims Twitch Relief Method. She is an Emeritus Associate Professor in the Department of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of pennsylvania, where has been on faculty for more than 30 years. www.stopmusclepain.com

Jennifer Chu, M.D. emeritus professor of Physical medicine and Rehabilitation, school of medicine, University of pennsylvania, pioneered eToims Twitch Relief Method that utilizes surface electrical stimulation to locate motor points (trigger points). The motor points are then stimulated to induce strong local muscle contractions, termed twitches. This results in reduced muscle pain and discomfort in the areas that were stimulated. The involved pain/discomfort-relieving mechanism is thought to include local muscle exercise and stretch effects.

eToims Soft Tissue Comfort Center specializes in diagnosis and treatment which ends muscle discomfort and pain.