Taking Your Yoga Practice to the Next Level

Photo Credit: Avrielle Suleiman via Unsplash

By Guest Blogger Zack Spring

Taking Your Yoga Practice to the Next Level

Practicing yoga is a wonderful way to improve your balance, increase your flexibility, and develop your core strength. It is also very beneficial for your mind as it helps you be more aware and focused. So if you’re trying to incorporate more practices into your busy life, here are three strategies you should implement right now, courtesy of Nani Lotus Bodywork

Create a Stress-Free Zone

Practicing yoga is best done in a quiet and comfortable environment. If you feel that your house is too chaotic to really get into a deep state of relaxation, or too messy to be able to fully engage in mindfulness meditation and really obtain any benefit from your practice, consider decluttering a space just for yourself. 

Find a spot in your home where you’ll have enough room to stretch out, as far away from the hustle and bustle of the common areas as possible. Turn that spot into a calming sanctuary by removing anything that doesn’t belong there and organizing the space so that you won’t have any visual distractions during your practice. 

You can paint the walls in a color that relaxes or inspires you, and even add drapes, room-darkening shades, or blinds if you prefer to practice yoga by candlelight. The idea is to create a space you want to spend time in, where you can be fully focused on your breath and your flow.           

Carve Time Out for Practice

If you work from home, it’s easy to forget about taking breaks throughout the day. But spending all your time hunched over your desk – or worse, slouching on the couch while typing on your laptop keyboard – will do a number on your back, neck, and shoulders. So make sure to break up your workday by incorporating yoga exercises into your routine. 

Take a few minutes to practice poses that promote good posture and strengthen your core. Not only will it be good for your body, but it will be great for your mind as well. You’ll have better focus and clarity, and regular practice can even lead to better emotional balance and resilience. Stepping away from your desk for a handful of minutes and taking a few cleansing breaths or doing some yoga stretches may be all it takes to give you a renewed boost of energy that will help you get through the day. 

You can also set up an appointment with Nani Lotus Bodywork for guided yoga, massage, or reiki to refresh your body and mind.

Make Use of the Latest Technologies

Digital technologies have allowed us to take our practice anywhere, and they can even let us learn new techniques from the comfort of our own homes. If you don’t have time to go to a studio, you can sign up for online yoga classes and virtually meet up with a teacher

Look for a teacher that is not only passionate about yoga but is also able to clearly explain how to direct your body for every asana. Your yoga teacher should be safety-conscious and ask you if you have suffered an injury before starting a class. 

You can also download apps that will keep track of your progress and monitor your sessions as you practice. Choose an app that is easy to use, has valid and current information about poses and their benefits, and that will allow you to give and receive feedback. Some apps even suggest reading materials and videos you may enjoy and learn from, as well as healthy foods and supplements that can enhance your practice.      

Let Tech Enhance Your Yoga Practice

Yoga offers many benefits for the body and the mind. So find the time and space to practice regularly. And take advantage of the latest technologies to help you maintain your mental and physical health!


Zack Spring works as a tech consultant which requires him to travel frequently. He also enjoys running and cycling – staying active as possible. He created TravelFit.info to encourage his readers to stay active while traveling.

Here’s How My Harmonic Egg Session Went

Wait, what in God’s name am I referencing? 

An egg? 

An egg that is harmonic and can create a session?

Okay. So if you’ve listened to my podcast, you know that, along with my friend, we consider ourselves skeptical of woo woo ideas, notions, services and talismans. And since I’ve been inside the World of Woo for so long, I recognize the fact that my level of skepticism has waned and I’m far more open to try new, random things without needing to take a deep dive into believability.

And also, because, at the very least, these things create an experience of the senses, which ultimately is what life is about.

This is how I found myself resting inside a giant, sacred geometrical wooden egg with a soft, whitish lavender light above me, cushy zero gravity chair below me. I was covered underneath a sky blue and white plaid blanket, squished between two soft pillows, and had speakers pumping tunes from each side of the egg.

That’s right.

I sat inside an egg-shaped dome contraption thingamabob for 50 minutes to relax, and “heal”.

Here’s some info from Harmonic Egg’s main website:

An ancient technology rediscovered – Ancient Egyptians and Greeks used the healing properties of sound in their healing rituals, and the Aboriginal people of Australia to the present day still use their didgeridoo and drums to heal broken bones and muscle tears. ​

In the Harmonic Egg three powerful elements are combined. Energy frequencies of light (color) and music brought together in a geometrically shaped space with the aim of balancing body, mind, and soul with each other. This stimulates the self-healing ability of the body.

As of the herbal world, I have a tendency of believing combinations of – whatever – have a more lasting impact than a single entity. Theoretically speaking, combining the right music (scientifically proven to chill a person out), light therapy (again: science is backing the healing effects of certain tones) and the sacred geometrical shape of this egg could activate healing. 

Alright: I’m unsure if science is backing this one, but I KNOW in my heart of hearts, there is magic in the shape of a perfectly formed water droplet, in curvatures of a leaf, a sea shell, the perfect dimensions of… an egg?

Okay, maybe I need to research that one.

The website further tells us that:

Data suggests that energy therapy balances the Autonomic Nervous System, detoxes the body, reduces inflammation, increases circulation, and clears trauma at a cellular level.

The resonant frequency used by the Harmonic Egg® / Ellipse® has an ability to detect the vibration of your body and any imbalance. That imbalance is harmonized with the exact opposite frequency.

And as an aside, the creator of the egg had an experience inside another type of chamber, has a background in engineering, and TA DA! She created this Harmonic Egg.

Back to my Egg-sperience:

I was brought into the egg room by a technician-in-training. I was introduced to the person who co-owned the egg–a hypnotherapist, Reiki master and psychic among other things–and she introduced herself and plainly asked me to tell about myself to her.

Prior to this, I had to fill out loads of paperwork and disclaimers. She was quick to tap into my energy by looking around my body, sort of said to herself, “I see what’s going on here” and gave me a very quick spiel about the egg. (To which I replied that yeah, I was very tired. I wasn’t thrilled about the assessment without more fanfare, but then again, assuming she had read my paperwork, she must have known about my profession. Still a bit alarming, though.)

The Egg-owner also made mention of smells I might encounter inside the egg — she suggested woodsy or lavender — as this was my “odor” and what my “detox” would smell like.

She also mentioned my past bouts of mono. (So yes, this is truly something asked on the paperwork — and I have a whole slew of feelings regarding EBV, but I won’t go into that here.) I laughed it off (it’s been about 10 years since I had my last flair-up) but she was quick to say not to negate the virus which I house.

She told me she had sobbed inside the egg only yesterday (and due to the wooden nature of the egg, it purportedly doesn’t absorb others’ energies, and is thusly self-cleansing by nature). She said I may sob too — I did not. She also told me I may feel more tired when I left, and how every time is different. I’ve been in this field long enough to know that this is the lingo for many modalities.

I took off my jewelry and shoes, popped into the chair. The technician adjusted it for me, pushing me back, lifting my feet. She gave me the pillows and blanket, had me figure out where to press the bell in case I needed something. The door slowly closed after they made sure the sound was on, and I was alone.

It took me about 5-minutes to calm down; I was excited, I was nervous. I felt my energy being tapped into again, and I assumed it was a part of the process.

Maybe that “tapping into” is more of an opening on my part?

The egg itself is rather spacious — I am a little claustrophobic, but there was so much room on either side of me, and in front of me that I felt fine. The music had a trickle of water running just beneath the tunes, and it seemed like generic, soothing music. As I mentioned, the light was a lavender white, plenty bright to see, not so bright to be bothersome. I closed my eyes and turned on Reiki.

I had expected the colors to change in the egg; they did not. I had expected the music to be louder and more vibratory; it was not. I suppose, overall, it was less a kick-in-the-psychic-ass, and more of a subtle soothefest.

With ten minutes to go, the music slowly fades out. You’re left alone with your thoughts and tinnitus. I wasn’t aware of this part of the session, so I half-wondered if they’d forgotten me (I’m often too timid in making sure I haven’t been forgotten), or if the music had shut off by mistake. But I told my thoughts that they were a wad of nothing, and tried to relax again.

SEE. I saw waves of purple/indigo with my eyes open. With the coloring of the egg, it was easy for me to see the waves of energy, be my own or not. I asked to see another color, and an orange came in, but it wasn’t bright. I’ve seen brighter colors before.

TASTE. Nothing.

HEAR. Just the tunes and my own tinnitus!

SMELL. I did have a short burst of cedar appear; but it certainly could have been MAJORLY influenced via the power of suggestion. But if that’s my detox scent, I dig it!

FEEL. I felt a bubble of joy burst up forth from my heart center at one point. While my intention was to relax, I projected a sense of openness to receive. I imagined my grandparents on either side of me, and told them this space was simply for love. I imagined their hands in mine.

Did I feel like I was inside a spaceship at times? Why yes, yes I did.

Did I have to go to the bathroom? Why yes, yes I did. I decided that since I was detoxing, this meant I was releasing stored fluids of emotions. Like what I did there?

I stepped out feeling rested, but I had questions.

Was this particular shade of light chosen for me and my paperwork and assessment?

Yes.

Was this music chosen for me as well?

Yes. It’s chosen to work with my system where I am in the moment, as opposed to force an outcome.

I’m guessing this means my paperwork was assessed in advance and a plan was made prior to my arrival. Perhaps she would have changed the tunes and light had I been completely different than she had thought. I don’t really know. It looks like owners who are listed on the main website need to keep up with training for the listing.

I am interested in learning more about the process.

Would I try it again? Sure, why not. We all need quiet space at times. It’s close by. I have a feeling there’s a world of Egg Culture out there that I’ve only begun to scrape.

If you want more information, the original website can be found here. Located across the world, you can search to see if one is located near you.

2 Year Celebration!

Swellness Vibes has been around for TWO_WHOLE_YEARS already!

While Summer is about ready to kick in full-time and lead me into unstructured chaos, I thought I’d offer a quick recap of what’s transpired over the past 2 years as well as offer a FREEBIE — so long as you make it to the bottom of this blog post. 😂🤣

Color/Light Therapy was a fan favorite crossing the lightwave spectrum of health and healing. What’s even MORE fun is I’ll be teaching an introductory class about Color/Light Therapy in August to some yogi trainees. I haven’t shared this class in three years, I can’t believe it’s already been that long. I’m looking forward to the class.

We’ve covered natural remedies, ranging from homemade elderberry syrup (which I plan on making some soon!) to citrine gem infused water. (And yes, some of these tags cross-reference with color/light therapy among other things.)

We’ve experienced a ton of asanas and yoga at large together. We’ve chatted meditation, self-care and tapping. (I’m teaching an intro class to tapping to that same yogi group!) We’ve shared book reviews, essential oils, skin care, hypnosis, exercise, the lists go on and on and on and on and…

We’ve also covered some bodywork, which, as a bodyworker, makes all the sense in the world. And that’s WHY, to celebrate the 2-year anniversary of the blog, I’m offering a FREE 30-minute remote Reiki session to the first 2-people who email me about it. CONTEST ENDS JUNE 30, 2023 and SESSION MUST OCCUR NO LATER THAN JULY 31, 2023.

Just write “I’m in” in the subject line, and I’ll write you back and let you know if you made the cut this time! Email me at infoallisonkeli @ gmail . com.

Good Luck! 🍀

CHEERS TO TWO_WHOLE_YEARS!

Swell Recommendations!

Here we go!

I’m not sure how often I will post recommendations — either annually, semi-annually, quarterly, seasonally — but I think it’s a superb idea to list current things I find swell in the world.

So for this first round-up, it’s going to be heavy on self-promotion, but I promise, it won’t always be this way.

Podcasts

Naturally I think my own podcast is super swell! It’s traveling along the lines of this blog — in terms of holistic health topics, spiritual topics — but I’m sure they won’t always meander the exact same path.

It is called Woo Woo BBQ. The premise is we’re going to roast — or toast — or maybe a bit of both — whatever we’re cooking up for the episode.

For now we are just on Spotify. We have the trailer, an introduction about who we are and why we’re doing the podcast, and three episodes. The episodes cover Reiki, magic mushrooms and El Camino de Santiago.

On Spotify * On Instagram * On the Web

Shopping

The last time I traversed to Salem, MA, it was during Covid shutdowns so I wasn’t able to make it inside this store. But I think, if you have any need for witchy items, you should check out Hauswitch. I’ve ordered some various items from them, and I’m sure I will continue to do so. They’ve got a lot of fun things. |I have no affiliation with this place, just FYI.

Reading

More self-promotion here, and yes, I’ve mentioned it before here. But if you need an easy read, full of woo woo things, love triangles, banter about destiny vs. free will, prophecy, silly dogs and wary cats, then this book is for you. Join Violet as she discovers who she really is, and why it matters. Set in suburban Atlanta, read on to find what happened When Violet Got Bored. On ebook or paperback; free to Kindle Unlimited readers on Amazon.

Like spooky, historical fiction? Check out The Hauntings of DoG Street: Chowning’s Tavern on Kindle Vella. It follows a modern college student who begins to realize she has a natural gift speaking with the dead… in this case, people who lived in Colonial Williamsburg, back when it was just Williamsburg, during colonial times!

Who is the Man in the Hat? What does he want? First 3 chapters ALWAYS free.

Have a kiddo? Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars is my children’s book. It’s in paperback, ebook, and a coloring book variation. This summer it will be released in full color via hardback. And you heard it hear (haha) first: the book will be released sometime soon via Audible, read by none other than me!

Animals

It’s bird-watching season in my part of the woods, so I highly recommend some nesting birdseed blend for your flight babies. If you have a local Wild Birds Unlimited near you, they’ll let you order online and pick the seed up! |I have no affiliation with this place, either.

Eats

I found these at Whole Foods, I think. Babybel has just introduced NON DAIRY wax cheese! AAACK! I freaking loved it! My kid hated them. It reminded me of something — some flavor from my childhood — but I couldn’t place my finger on it. If you have eaten them and have an idea? Email me and let me know! |And you’re right if you’re thinking that Babybel is not sending me money, or free cheeses.

Oils

Rocky Mountain Oils has been, quite probably, my favorite brand for close to ten years. They recently interviewed me via Zoom for a short feature. You can watch it here, or visit them on the web here and check the oils out for yourself. I love the chakra blends and immune system blend. Yes, I’ve already blogged about this in a few places.|It looks like they do have an affiliate program out there, but no, I’m not a part of it.

I think that’s a good enough start for the first List of Swell Things! (Of course I’m thinking of Oprah’s Favorite Things when I type that. Of course!)

Stay swell out there.

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Hay House Meditation Challenge

Photo by Prasanth Inturi on Pexels.com

You know how I love to do all of these challenges and then report back! (I did this meditation challenge at the same time I did the Spirit Worker Challenge which you can read about here.)

This one was a 7-day meditation challenge from Hay House with Matteo Pistono explaining the process each day. I had just come across the 4-day spiritual awakening challenge from Hay House when this thing popped up, too.

Naturally, I did both.

Day One by Louise Hay

Let’s get this party started! The morning meditation was almost 30-minutes long; it seems like most of these challenges last around 10-15 minutes, speaking to our busy lives and limited attention spans. However, Louise Hay is more old school as far as I’m concerned, so the longer duration probably speaks more to the time she recorded it. Certainly longer sessions are more beneficial than shorter ones, but it’s also better to do anything than nothing!

Louise Hay herself passed in 2017, so hearing her voice again, being soothed by it with her affirmations and gratitude was like covering myself in an old, favorite, warm blanket.

Hell! She even convinced me to thank my refrigerator this morning.

Evening with Louise Hay

Another longer meditation, and I fell asleep to Louise Hay’s voice. Both of these offered the old affirmations that we collectively used to use to start our days. I must say, some of that has passed on in my own life, but it’s a nice reminder that it’s still there for me to use.

Day Two

Morning by Kyle Gray

A much shorter meditation for the morning; it was a body scan. I’ve done a million body scans, and each offer their own insights. But I liked this one because it allowed us to apologize to ourselves for the various abuses we’ve done to these shrines (as well as others having harmed us, too). It lead us into being willing to change and support our bodies more. With a lilting Irish accent, it was lovely.

Evening by Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

It was a Yoga Nidra led by Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli. I was so excited. I’ve never done Nidra before, but I’ve heard wonderful things about it. I’d say within thirty seconds of its start… I fell asleep.

Which is the point of Yoga Nidra. However, I had wanted to be awake for some of it at least! I was very tired. Oi! I suppose this means I should just attend a live class.

Day Three

Morning by Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D

A 30-minute challenge which focused on the breath, focused on imagining limbs growing heavy, limbs growing warm. I had monkey mind, but overall was still able to focus enough to get something out of it. I had a hard time with the warm limbs because some of my body areas were already receiving sunlight! The heaviness was nice, though, and for some reason it was really easy to feel with my right leg.

Evening with Robert Litman

This was 20-minutes long and meant to reset nervous system. He explained about benefits of breathing through the nose vs through the mouth, which was cool learning about the science. However, I felt like it was more lecture than meditation.

Day Four

Morning with Jeralyn Glass

She called it a work for our endocrine system, although she didn’t explain why we were working with that system or how it affected the system. Yet, this so far has been one of my favorite meditations. It was sound healing. All of the singing bowls were easy to get lost in and absorb their vibrations.

Evening by Dick Sutphen

This was a FULL HOUR! As it was supposed to lull you to sleep, I suppose it worked–I missed the whole thing again. I’m not going to lie–all of these meditations going on while I’m asleep make me a little nervous because of whatever subconscious psychobabble is taking place while I’m snoozing. His voice didn’t resonate so much with me; it seemed like a voice from a television show.

While I’m trusting that Hay House wouldn’t say anything negative, that scene from the Workin’ Moms episode named “Consent” still lingers! (One word summation for the episode: creep.)

Day Five

Morning by Spring Washam

THIS was perfect timing as I was doing the Spirit Worker Challenge with James Van Praagh. This also spoke to overcoming fear. This woman’s voice and guidance were lovely. It was a short 20-minutes and I wouldn’t mind listening to this one again.

Evening by Belleruth Naparstek

I’m not sure if it’s the meditations or life that are causing me to fall asleep so quickly this week, but I missed the guided meditation and fell into dreamland very quickly. I must say, though, that I had vivid dreams occur the following morning!

Day Six

Morning with davidji

I really enjoyed myself. This is the first walking meditation I have ever tried. I wish the speaking part had lasted a little bit longer, but being guided about what to focus and feel as I encountered my walk, and then listening to the music. I walked slowly, much more slowly than usual, but it seemed to work with the music.

Evening with Nicky Sutton

This was a 2-hour sleep meditation, and she had a nice, soothing voice. It almost reminded me of ASMR, the type of inflections she used. I turned it off before it ended, although I had totally fallen asleep upon hitting play. Very hypnotic.

Day Seven

Morning by Anita Moorjani

She spoke of different frequencies. While I meditated, I was in and out of consciousness, yet was acutely aware of her voice in the background.

Evening by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

It was sad to have the final meditation by another one of the lost greats, and he focused on mantra sounds. OM and shal-OM; expressing gratitude; sinking into sleep.


Night times seemed to all basically be some form of hypnosis with positive affirmations; letting go; having gratitude. There’s nothing wrong with that, but my personal ego is still so mad that it was so easy to fall asleep because I feel like I missed so many of the recordings. They clearly served their purpose well!

For more information about Hay House and their offerings, visit here. Or you can just purchase their Empower You Unlimited Audio app. The app has some freebies and I think when they offer these series for free throughout the year, they’ll just automatically pop up in your app. Another bonus in the app–you can set a sleep timer to the meditations and your phone will just turn off.

Happy Meditating!