9:30am Yoga Class in Albany Cancelled October 31st

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our yoga students but we need to cancel our 9:30am Kripalu Yoga class held at our Albany, NY – CNY Healing Arts Center. All other yoga classes will take place that day, this only pertains to the 9:30am one.

Thanks for your patience and understanding,
CNY Healing Arts Staff

Featured Tonic of the Month for November: Male Tonic

Male Tonic is an herbal formula that helps to prevent swelling of the prostate.   Man vine, its main ingredient, is a muscle relaxant that improves the flow of fluid to the prostate muscle.   This particular tonic can help with many issues seen in males including erectile dysfunction, impotency, benign prostatic hyperplasia, kidney or bladder infection, dysuria, prostatitis (not acute or infectious), and peyronie’s disease.

The tonic is anti-septic to the urinary tract and removes mucous from the kidney and bladder and reduces chronic urinary tract infections.  It also helps to clear the prostate of accumulated debris and relieve prostate swelling.

The few contraindications with this tonic include that it may react with cortisone or Cortisol products, erectile dysfunction medications and anti-depressants.  In some cases of hyperacidity, the urine may become darker and have a stronger odor.  This is showing that detoxification is working and this will disappear within days.

Male Tonic is our featured tonic and is 10% off during the month of November.  Please feel free to contact any Maya Abdominal Therapy practitioner at any of our CNY Healing Arts locations for further information. Click here to contact us.

Nature and Guided Meditation

By now you have likely read or heard about the wonderful benefits that meditation can provide to you.  It goes beyond the obvious stress reduction, relaxation and inner peace. A NY Times article shares proof that meditation can actually change your brain. Read the article here

Now not everyone will find it easy to meditate so we’d like to share a few options with you that can make it much easier. Remember that CNY Healing Arts offers regular classes and workshops to assist you on your efforts with meditation, just check out our calendar and pick the location nearest you: Syracuse, Albany or Rochester.

Guided Meditation:

This is by far one of the easiest ways to meditate. You can either utilize a CD, podcast, video or other form of media if you wish to practice from the comfort of your own home. Or you can attend a guided meditation class or workshop to enjoy the community aspect and personal connection. Guided meditation is very simple. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a meditation session guided by a person and usually with relaxing sounds in the background. This can be a simple guide talking you through the process of relaxing, focusing on a given mantra and continually bringing you back to that mantra. Or possibly your guide will walk you through an experience such as a walk in the woods that opens to a field and on the other side is a loved one that you connect with and explore with further. The options are vast, you only need to find what works best for you.

Nature Meditation:

This is a fun way to meditate and if you haven’t tried it yet, you really should. This one is also very simple. You will want to find a space outside that is comfortable to you. Bring a blanket and a pillow. Sit down, cross-legged on your blanket with the pillow under your seat for comfort. Keep your eyes open for a few minutes and take in everything that surrounds you with your senses: sight, sound, smell. Now close your eyes and do the same thing again: take in everything that surrounds you with your senses (with the exception of the obvious – sight). Notice as your eyes stay closed longer, you begin to hear sounds you may not have heard while they were open. Take some time to hone in on those different sounds and enjoy the experience. Now open your eyes slowly and do it all over again.

This is a beautiful meditation that is foolproof and allows your mind to completely clear of everything but the task at hand. Nature becomes your mantra. Remember that meditation is work and you can’t do it wrong just keep practicing.

Prenatal Yoga and a Few Key Poses to Practice

Should you practice yoga during pregnancy? You bet! A regular prenatal yoga practice can give you more energy, help you get and stay in touch with your changing body and prepare you to have an easier delivery. Plus, prenatal yoga can ease the discomforts of pregnancy, such as moodiness, shortness of breath, swollen ankles, nausea, indigestion and insomnia.

We have many yoga classes that are suitable for you to take part in during your pregnancy at all of our CNY Healing Arts Centers. Check out our class schedule here, it’s separated by location: Syracuse, Albany and Rochester. We hope to see you soon!

Below are a few of the poses that can be very useful to you during this prenatal time. Enjoy and remember you are doing a wonderful job nourishing yourself and your baby by showing up to your yoga practice whether you do 1 pose or a full 60 minute class.

• Tree Pose is a wonderful balance posture. As you practice this pose you may enjoy the empowering feeling you get when you are in the pose and balancing perfectly. Especially during this time of life when your body is so rapidly changing and may feel a little off balance.
• Camel Pose is a great upper spine arch and heart opener.
• Malasana Squat is a pelvic opening pose that’s a perfect birth posture. Note: Do not do malasana squat after 35 weeks because it might bring on labor.
• Cat Pose is great for stretching your spine and delivering nourishment to the area as well as being good for the baby.
• Child’s Pose is a fantastic stretch for your back and a wonderfully relaxing pose. It’s one of the favorites that many yogis return to during their practice for a little break and opportunity to go inward.
• Downward Facing Dog Pose is a wonderful pose and a save inversion for you to do during your pregnancy. It will bring fresh blood to the upper part of our body and underneath the organs. This one can also relieve tension in your back as it stretches during the pose.

Featured Tonic of the Month for October: Female Tonic

Female Tonic has a number of uses but overall it is a great hormone enhancer.  Some of its uses include fertility enhancing, painful or irregular periods, PCOS, and menopausal symptoms.  This tonic contains herbs that help to warm the reproductive organs and has a mild anti-spasmodic action on uterine muscles.   It also acts as a uterine cleanser which helps to remove incompletely flushed menstrual fluids from month to month.  One of the herbs contained in this tonic, Mexican Wild Yam, is one of the best herbs to help regulate the menstrual cycle because it contains the steroid diosgenin.  This steroid is 75% similar to the hormone molecules of estrogen and progesterone.  These in turn work to supply the ovaries with required hormones.  Additionally, the Mexican Wild Yam helps to alleviate severe hormonal fluctuations of menopause and PMS.

There are a number of contraindications with this tonic so it is very important that you speak with a Maya Abdominal Therapy practitioner so they can review each of these with you.  The Female Tonic should not be used in conjunction with any Chinese herbs, birth control, IVF related hormones, hormone replacement therapy, pregnancy or breast feeding.

Female Tonic is our featured tonic and is 10% off during the month of October. Please feel free to contact any Maya Abdominal Therapy practitioners at any of our CNY Healing Arts locations for further information.  Click here for contact information at our Syracuse, Rochester and Latham locations.

Our Tonics are now available online here.