The yamas and niyamas are two of the eight limbs of yoga, as described in my post “What is Yoga”. They are therefore an essential aspect of a complete yoga practice. Although they can be integrated as you practice yoga postures, they are truly practices to integrate into your daily life. The yamas and niyamas give us a framework for a way of living; They provide guidance on how to be in relationship to other beings , the earth, and ourselves. We can think of the yamas as the practices which cultivate a healthy external environment, and niyamas as practices to cultivate a healthy internal environment ; though in truth both are instructive about actions and mental states which are beneficial to the individual and society. As we go through life our experiences shape us to react in habitual ways, and many of these habits may not be very useful. Studying the yamas and niyamas helps us to identify habitual and often reactive behaviors and thoughts we have developed, and guides...

I didn’t grow up in a household that knew about the dietary concepts I described in my previous blog “Eating Yogi Style”. My family, like the majority of Canadian families, followed the standards outlined in the Canada Food Guide, provided by the Federal Government of Canada . These guidelines are meant to provide general information on healthy eating to the citizens of the country. The contents of the food guide, which I will return to later in this article, are very different from what I described in my previous blog “eating yogi style”. Here in this blog I want to describe why I began to question what I had been taught about healthy eating, and how I came to the conclusions described in “Eating Yogi Style”. In hindsight, I suffered many symptoms during my childhood and adolescents which could have been alleviated by changing my diet. At the time, however, I believed my symptoms were simply weaknesses I had been born with, inherited traits. The pharmacy or doctor always prov...