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Personal Development

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15
May 13

Tips for creating and sticking to your personal development goals

Creating a personal development plan may feel like an overwhelming thing to do, but it shouldn't be. Once you've set some personal development goals, you may discover that you've been on the wrong path, and it's time to look for a new job, place to live or make some other life changes. 

O! The Oprah Magazine has some recommendations for how you can start discovering who you're meant to be. For example, you should start by making a list of all of the things in life that you truly love doing. When you look at this list, you may seem a common thread running through them that may hint toward what you're meant to do. Once you determine what you need to do, it's important that you approach it with a positive attitude. 

Yahoo! explains that it's very difficult to stick to your goals when you don't have the right attitude. This means not only staying positive, but also having the discipline to stick to your plan and do whatever it takes to achieve your goals, not matter how many roadblocks you may encounter along the way. 

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Personal Development — No Comments
25
Mar 13

Health problems? Consider yoga for personal development

If you've been dealing with minor health issues lately, you may want to consider the personal development advantages of practicing yoga. Incorporating this physical activity into your regular routine can help improve your overall health and wellness. Here are three examples of how yoga can boost your personal development plan.

Weight issues
After a long, cold winter, you may have noticed that you're carrying a few extra pounds on your body. For a simple and enjoyable way to manage your weight, yoga stretching exercises are easy on your muscles and joints.

Poor sleep
If you spend each night tossing and turning due to a burdened mind or muscle pains, you may be looking for a way to improve your sleeping habits. A regular workout can soothe muscle pains while minimizing your stress levels, allowing you to fall asleep more easily and stay asleep through the night.

Frequent headaches
A lack of physical activity combined with poor dietary habits can be a recipe for frequent headaches. This is because poor blood circulation and stress can impact your health when you don't take care of your body. Not only can yoga poses get you back in shape, but meditation and deep breathing can relax you to reduce your chance of headaches.

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28
Feb 13

How practicing yoga outside can boost personal development

If you've been looking for a way to improve your usual yoga routine for personal development, you may want to consider the benefits of the great outdoors. Offering fresh air, sunshine and soothing plant life, yoga and nature are a match made in heaven. Here are a few reasons why you should consider yoga outdoors for your personal development plan.

A moment of peace and quiet
Practicing yoga at home can be a great way to keep up with your routine when you can't make it to class. However, there are plenty of distractions in the house that can impede your workout success. Heading outside for a yoga session can help you escape the electronic devices and interrupting family members for some peace and quiet.

Deep breaths of fresh air
Deep breathing techniques are essential to yoga mediation and poses. Because of this, what better place to focus on taking steady, controlled breaths than the outdoors? The combination of fresh air and sunlight are sure to benefit your session.

Relaxing in a favorite spot
Do you have a favorite beach where you like to read? How about a park tree where you always host your family picnics? These meaningful and beautiful locations can be ideal for helping you get into the mood for a yoga workout.

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8
Feb 13

Finding the right yoga class for personal development

Have you made the decision to start practicing yoga? Need a little help getting this new fitness plan started? Before you begin focusing on yoga stretches or meditation techniques, you should make sure you can find the ideal yoga studio for personal development. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when making your decision.

Ask friends who practice yoga
If you have friends or relatives who are big on yoga, your search for the perfect yoga class should begin with them. These people can provide you with detailed knowledge about what to look for with your personal development plan, including tips on different styles of yoga and teaching styles.

Consider your workplace
Before writing any checks for membership fees, consider investigating any employee health plans available through your workplace. Some businesses offer employee health incentives to encourage fitness and better nutrition. You may be able to get a few dollars to put toward your yoga class.

Speak with class members
Attending a trial yoga class can give you a chance to practice yoga poses and techniques. But more importantly, you can also speak with other class members to get a better sense of a particular form of yoga’s benefits.

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Personal Development — 4 Comments
12
Dec 12

Three personal development goals for the holiday season

As you probably know, the holiday season is about more than just exchanging gifts. Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa, this time of year is meant to be an inspirational season about love, friendship and caring for others. Here are a few things to keep in mind about personal development during the holidays.

Make time for family
It might seem like there's nobody more annoying than your loud uncle or nosy pair of in-laws, but the holiday season is meant for sharing moments with family members. Considering that your relatives may be spread across the country without much time to visit, this is the moment to make memories that last.

Lend a helping hand
There are plenty of people out there struggling during this time of year, so don't forget to extend some holiday cheer to complete strangers. Whether you donate to Toys for Tots or volunteer at a local soup kitchen, helping others in need is what the holidays are all about.

Take a moment for yourself
Personal development goals should definitely include some well-deserved rest and relaxation, so don't forget to treat yourself this season. Whether you're kicking back with a favorite holiday movie and a mug of hot chocolate or getting ready for the vacation of a lifetime, you should certainly enjoy this festive time of year.

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Personal Development — 1 Comment
3
May 12

Can tweens use yoga to achieve their personal development goals?

Practicing yoga is something that anyone can do, regardless of age, background or skill level. So why is a prominent newspaper questioning the value of Chicago yoga classes for tweens? Well, it's not questioning so much as weighing the value, and the holistic system ends up being portrayed pretty favorably.

The news organization in question is the Chicago Tribune, and the query it sought to answer was whether yoga might be better than competitive sports for tweens – that is, for pre-teens.

A full panel of staff contributors addressed this issue. Overall, their conclusion was that yoga is at least as good as sports for tweens' physical health, mood, social growth and personal development goals.

One contributor explained that yoga "increases [tweens'] focus and ability to calm themselves, which I've found to be one of the great, lasting benefits of yoga." And if that weren't enticing enough, they added that "while team sports are great, I think it's important to promote physical activities that kids can still be doing at age 80. Like yoga."

Others agreed, pointing out that yoga poses little risk of injury and boosts self-esteem. Both of these benefits are vital for tweens, who face the gauntlet of puberty.

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13
Feb 12

Personal development videos make life changes as easy as 1, 2, 3!

You've started developing a personal development plan? Congratulations! When it comes to making a big shift in the way you go about your day-to-day existence, simply making the decision to change your life is half the battle.

So now that you've begun revolutionizing yourself, it may help to plot out how you'll go about doing it. Here are some basic steps that we recommend to our practitioners at Dahn Yoga:

1. Make a list of goals. Sometimes simply seeing the things that you want to accomplish laid out in order can help you determine how you'll go about chasing your dreams. Try making a large "draft" list first, including everything that you can think of. Then cross off minor or infeasible items, leaving only the essentials.

2. Learn to meditate. Being able to relax, reflect and explore your own inner self can be quite helpful, especially when you're trying to pin down who you really are, deep down.

3. Watch personal development videos. DVDs and web clips that focus on this topic can give you pointers you might otherwise miss.

4. Do yoga. It never hurts to attend to your mental and physical health at the same time.

5. Join a holistic health community in your area. You'll love the support and encouragement you receive!

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Personal Development — No Comments
3
Feb 12

New history volume of yoga comes up short – readers may want to stick with Dahn Yoga’s personal development books

There are plenty of personal development books out there, and more are being published every day. So how is a yoga enthusiast supposed to choose one that's particularly good? Well, they could always read the New York Times book reviews, but these aren't always foolproof.

For instance, the newspaper recently reviewed William Broad's new book, The Science of Yoga, which looks at the regimen's clinical uses as well as its long and storied history.

Ultimately, the reviewer said that the book is a good exploration of the mind-body system, even if it "lacks the clarity of a book that sets out to define and defend a preconceived position."

However, one of the problems with the book itself is that it explores a range of serious but extremely rare yoga-related injuries, mostly those that beginners would incur if they took the regimen way, way too far.

So if you are thinking of taking Chicago yoga classes, but you want to know more first, try reading Dahn Yoga's personal development books instead!

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Personal Development — 1 Comment
10
Jan 12

With yoga, physical and personal development goals are within reach

Yoga is good for the body and the soul, and it's hard to argue otherwise. Some of the nation's leading health organizations say that the holistic healing regimen is good for reaching physical and personal development goals – a sentiment that most yoga experts agree with.

Recently, Lee Renfroe, an assistant professor in health promotion at the University of North Alabama, told the Alabama Times-Daily that doing yoga is something that more healthcare professionals are recommending, especially since the mind-body routine has been found to supplement wellness in so many ways.

"Yoga and meditation and those types of things are evolving," he told the news source. "Part of it has to do with healthcare costs and healthcare issues, and the fact that more people are going to be looking for more ways to impact their health outside of seeing a doctor."

The beauty of yoga is that it is an effective, all-natural way to soothe the body while restoring equilibrium to the mind. No wonder the Mayo Clinic says that yoga is an effective method for reducing stress and anxiety.

By joining the Dahn Yoga community, you're putting your personal wellness first!

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Personal Development — No Comments
18
Nov 11

Yoga shapes some inmates’ personal development goals

It can be hard enough to develop a yoga-based personal development plan when your day-to-day life is crowded with work assignments, traffic jams, screaming kids and dirty dishes. But what if you were even more stuck? What if you were serving a sentence in prison?

Evidently, yoga and meditation are quite effective at calming down inmate populations and facilitating the creation of their personal development goals. According to Reuters, a nonprofit group in Mexico City is leading juvenile offenders in yoga classes a few days each week.

This population of teens, which by its very nature can be quite explosive, has lately been calmer, quieter and more optimistic, sources told the news organization. Reuters noted that the program reaches six detention centers in the city.

This is not the first time a yoga program has made headlines for reaching out to troubled youth. In April, the news source described the positive results of a yoga regimen being carried out among female prisoners in Pakistan.

Studies in journals like the Contemporary Justice Review and the Californian Journal of Health Promotion have indicated that yoga can help even problem inmates become more compassionate, self-aware and hopeful.

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