What is hypnosis? Hypnosis is the bypass of the critical factor of the conscious mind, and the establishment of acceptable selective thinking. Nowhere on this statement mentioned about sleeping nor in a hypnotic trance. That means that anyone with a form of authority over you, whether it's your friends, parents, teachers, doctors, lawyers, any one that you hold in high regard in some form of respect, would have an influence of hypnosis over you. Does that mean at every moment you're vulnerable to suggestions? No, that's what the critical factor is about. The critical factor is like a gateway. It prevents and blocks suggestions from entering your mind. Before it enters it must be judged by your current situation, by your experience and emotional state at that time. If your emotional state is healthy, then whatever does not match the original programming that's in your mind will be blocked, and reflected outwards. But however, if you're in this state of despair, stress, fear, then whatever comes your way has more of a chance to enter. That includes being distracted by a visual or audio sounds. For example, if somebody is flopping their arms, like a chicken and telling you that there is a fantastic sale going on and it will be a great deal! Because you are so deeply distracted by the ridiculous form that he's in, you will receive that suggestion, and it's that easy. Whenever you're distracted in any form of emotional distress, the mind opens. So whenever you hear any suggestions, check in with yourself, are you all right with this suggestion? Or simply block it off and only receive it after you have considered it. This includes, doctors, your teachers suggestions, friends, parents... whether these people meant well or not, you have to judge for yourself and take in whatever that is working for you. If it is not, block it out, it will have no effect on your whatsoever. When you're in a hypnotherapy session with me, all the suggestion that I offer are professional suggestions. At any time, if there's a slightest discomfort, you can reject it, it will have absolutely no effect on you. But knowing that my words are here to protect your mind and my physical body is here to protect your relaxed body, allow these positive suggestions to take root, and allow these permanent changes happen in your mind.

We have a question regarding twists. Where does the spine, which region of the spine is mainly doing the twisting? Now, when we twist, we want to understand is the spine always needs to be nice and long. If the spine is in a collapsed form, such as this, then there is no ability to twist whatsoever. So when the spine is growing nice and tall, when the curvature of the spine has returned back, then this twist become way more available to you. Now, which part of the spine do all the main rotation? The cervical spine is extremely free. This, you have the ability to rotate in many different ways and that's fantastic. On the core, the thoracic spine, the majority of thoracic spine has no ability to twist because of the ribcage, it needs to hold the organs to its place. Now, however, thoracic spine 11 and 12, which is right at the base where it's connected to the lumbar spine, that two vertebra, they have amazing ability to rotate, and that's where majority of the rotation comes from. The rest of your lumbar spine has some rotation, but depends on your mobility level and the structure of the spine. That this could be pretty deep or it could be pretty shallow, depends on how your spine is formed. So how do one improve its mobility in terms of twist? First thing is you have to breathe correctly. Every inhale, if you notice your spine, it's always trying to lengthen with an inhale. Every exhale, the spine softens with a state of ease. So that's utilize that! Every inhale the spine grows taller, and every exhale the spine twists. So let's think about that. Inhale grow tall, exhale as you soften we twist. Repeat a few times. And to come back to the center, you want the spine to be in a long formation to return. So inhale to come to back to the center. Now, several things that might happen, one is the person placed their back hand a little bit too further away, and they starting to lean back. But generally it's not because they want to lean back. It's because their hip flexor is not able to compress and to sit up tall. The hamstring, all the rest of your hips are not supporting that, so this happened and when this happened, this is not conducive to twists. So what we want to do is using your fingertips to press yourself tall and allow the twist to come in deeper. You can certainly come and sit on a block. With the block's support, the spine has more availability to lengthen. And this will also provide you with more length for the twist to happen. If you want to deepen the twist, you can certainly allow the neck to turn with it. But, If you want to go a little bit deeper, turn the head to the opposite direction, this will really deepen the entire spine's twist. The third thing that you want to focus on is how you are supporting the spine from the front line of your body. By hugging the lower belly in and up, this will protect the spine from the front body. This back body and front body support is also going to elevate the spine tall. Hope that it's useful for you, have a beautiful day.

The most important thing, as I always love to mention is you do more nothing than you have ever done before. And that is the best thing ever. Also the concept of, "I love the suggestion and I know it's going to work for me. I love the suggestion. I know it's going to work for me." That will open your mind like a door and make positive changes within your mind, knowing that every single suggestion that offered you is for your benefit, it's always a professional suggestion. Anything that you feel is not suitable to you, you can immediately reject it and it'll have absolutely no effect on you. But like I said, I am here. My physical presence is here to protect your physical body. All my words are here to protect your mind. So allow that sense of security to come in your mind., and you're going to have a wonderful, marvellous time.

I've often been asked in the past or people have commented on that, sometimes they resisted coming to yoga for a long time because they thought they weren't flexible enough. And you know what I always tell people is that is the reason you do come to yoga. You know, we're here for all types of bodies, all types of flexibilities, and people who aren't flexible, this is really the ideal place for them. You just want to start easy, you want to take it easy. And if you're really kind to yourself, bit by bit, your body will open up and you will see changes over time. But you just have to allow your body, you have to be patient, you don't have to worry about what anybody else can do. Just really focus on yourself, focus on what you can. I always tell people celebrate what you can do!

So I'm often asked what one can do to make balance poses a little bit less challenging, and there's a few tips that I have for people. One is just to get really, really strong in your rooting so whatever it is that you have connected to the ground, whether it's, you know, a foot or a shin or an arm to really root as though you're pushing the ground away and then to feel a corresponding length through whatever is extending up from that leg, so to really feel almost like your body is lengthening out in two directions. At the same time, though, not to get physically stiff. So you need to be able to be soft enough and mobile enough in your pose that your body can make the little adjustments it needs to, to stay on balance. Another common thing that happens in balance poses, people tend to hold their breath, because maybe the stress of the pose makes them hold their breath because they're concerned about falling off their balance or sometimes even just the feeling of the movement of your body with your breath feels like it's enough to knock you off balance. Whereas the opposite is kind of true, you really need to have your breath to keep that subtle sense of undulation in your body to compensate and to keep that softness in your body, to compensate and for any balance issues that might arise. The other thing that of course is always often talked about in balance poses is drishti or gazing point. And so it's extremely helpful to find a spot in your line of vision that is in-moving, so not a person in front of you who might lose their balance, but a spot on the wall or on the floor that's not moving that you can focus intently on and by gazing intently at that spot, and that can really help with balance. And lastly, my final piece of advice is to not be afraid to use the wall or props or anything else that can assist you with balance. You know, there is not only is there nothing wrong with using the wall, but it can actually benefit you. So even just standing with one hand, resting against a wall or against a piece of furniture, Because it serves your body and it serves the asanas so much more to be securely in the pose confidently in the pose than it does to try and do it without the wall, without props and struggle through it and not really receive the benefit of it. So never, never be afraid to hold onto the wall for support. And those are my tips for balancing. Thank you.

A common question I get asked is what is functional mobility yoga, and how does it differ from other yoga modalities? Functional mobility yoga, we work with breaths; we work with range of motion; we worked with articular rotations around access points. So articular rotation around your shoulders and neck, your hips, your ankles, your knees, and we use a lot of acronyms in class. One is CARS and CARS stands for controlled articular rotation. And I like to say, it's brought to you by the letter O, so you kind of roll an O controlled articular and rotate around an access point. Building strength, building control, and building fluidity, so you are better prepared to move through life, functionally.

This is a question regarding neck cracking. So the first most important thing, is there any pain or discomfort involved? When you twist your head side to side, like so, or even rotation, if there's any pain involved, that means there's a nerve got pinched, especially when so close to your brain it's really not desirable. So if there is pain involved, definitely seek out professional. Chiropractor or spinal osteopath, so this will allow the spine to lengthen and safely do so as well. Now I want you to know that there are things you can always improve your overall posture. First thing is you want to investigate how your day-to-day posture is. If your shoulder cave forward, if your neck lean forward, and this comes from tablets or phone. So this for a long time is just simply not desirable. The spine does not enjoy this level of shape. So allow the shoulders to roll back, lean the head back, lengthen the back of your neck. Now this is important, you can also interlace your hands, place it behind your head, elbows hug in, inhale lifting the elbows up towards the ceiling as if you're leaning back into your hands, while allowing the hands to pull upwards. This will lengthen the cervical spine. Now be mindful of your shoulders, allow to drop down away from your ears, and this will pull the spine long. Now, after a few breaths, you can release, absolutely. Second thing I want you to know is have you ever move your neck to extreme position. Now in general, our neck is pretty boring. We only really look forward. We rarely turn extreme side to side. In Hatha yoga there is way to do so. The starting position is always chin to throat. After a few breath, chin toward the ceiling. Lengthening, as if the head is elevating, not compressing at the back of your neck. And also turn to the extreme right, and then turn to the extreme left. So all these things are good things to do. Once you have find few breaths, at least three to five breaths after each position, then you can starting to do rotations. So from the bottom, this is the starting position to the right, and up, and to the left. Now we can do this three rotation. Then you would reverse that direction. All these will improve the overall neck health. Now, knowing this is very important because it's so close to your brain. Neck health is important, you want to know how you rest on your neck. So whether your pillow is too tall, too firm, or when you are resting in yoga, you put a block too high behind your head, all these things, are going to create a shape of this, and this is not desirable. One inch forward over your head. You add 10 pounds to your neck structure, so that is heavyweight onto your neck. Now, when you starting to have neck pain, you will develop migraines and that this definitely is something you wish to avoid. Take good care of yourself. Last little tip, when you smile, you know what the body will soften. So be mindful of how your emotion is. When you are joyful in nature, the body will open. When you are tense in nature, this is the natural shape of the body. Yeah. So smile and let yourself soften. Enjoy your health.

Hypnosis de-mystified. Must watch!

Many people have asked me about how to improve knee health. So here are some tips that you can try at home. First thing is bring some mobility into your knees. The first you can try is taking your feet together, knees bent and allow your hands to gently rest on your knees and draw small circles with your knees. Now these will bring some mobility to the knee region and loosen it up. Knee problems are generally attributed to tight hips or tight ankle, or perhaps both. So you want to give it a try by taking your hands behind you, set your feet mat distance wide, and just windshield wiper your knees left right left right. Notice how I flex my ankles and this will allow the pivot to be a little bit stronger and more fluid. Certainly you can come into what we call malasana, deep squat, by taking your feet outer hip distance apart, toes turn out. This will also improve your knee health by improving your hip mobility. You can also to a kneeling position with your heels together. toes tuck under and just gently sit on your heels. Now to some people, this is absolutely not acceptable in terms of the intensity of the sensation. You can place a block underneath your knees, and this will be your way to train how to sustain in this posture. The most important thing is to keep your heels together. You can also allow yourself to come to a seated posture, to open up the knee joint. For example, my left forearm underneath the left knee pickup and right hand grab onto the ankle and gently pull it in. This will allow a sense of opening of the knee joint. You could also do this with a dowl. So a dowl is a wooden stick, like so, and allow a blanket to wrap around it, place behind your knees. Gently sit down. Now it may not be the most comfortable sensation, especially if you have very muscular legs for runners or joggers, but this will improve the general knee health as well. You can also allow yourself to see if you have enough muscular development to improve knee health. So, first thing is hand on the outside line of the shinbone. Bring your mind to your pinky toe and gently take the pink toe outward away from the rest of the toes. Now, if you feel this is available and you should feel there's a muscle pulsating up and down. When fully activated, you will hug the knee from the outside. Same thing as the inside lining hug the knee on the inside. You can take a block at the narrowest width and place it between your groin. With an inhale, we hug the knees in, as if you can compress the block and this will wake up the inner groin, the adductors, after a few breaths. We will let go, relax. Do this three times. So inhale hug legs in, activating the inner groin, and then the exhale after a few breaths, relax. Now, if you do this, this will not only improve your knee health. It will also improve what we call fallen arches. This is quite important because the adductor was weak. That's why all these symptoms starting to show on the inside. So by allowing yourself to pay attention to every part of your body, definitely it will provide you with better health.

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