Get your free Yoga Basics Guidebook, an eBook by Julie Lusk.  It has…

• How to Practice Yoga:  Steadiness and Comfort vs. Struggle and Control
• Guidelines for the Practice of Yoga.
• General Benefits, Cautions and Contraindications of Yoga
• Yoga Guidelines for Health Conditions
• Yoga During Pregnancy:  General Guidelines and Cautions
• Yoga Practice Sheet
• Basic Alignment and Selected Warm Ups to Open Joints and Warm Muscles
• Yoga Practice Sheet – Earth Series ©
• Yoga Practice Sheet – Sky Series ©

As a bonus, you will get the Wholesome Resources News. It features:

• Practical tips for improving your health through relaxation training, yoga,
  meditation, and other mind/body techniques. See previously published articles here.
• Info on books, CDs and other services from Julie Lusk
• Special offers, class and workshop schedules, valuable opportunities and more
• Sandy Byrd says ” Here are real practices for real life!  The content is great…Practical ideas that can be implemented easily.  I always love the quotes.”
• Fine Print
  • Your email address is protected and never shared.
  • You will not get a duplicate newsletter if you already subscribe.
  • You can instantly unsubscribe anytime.

What is the Mind-Body Connection?

The mind-body connection recognizes the reality that the mind and body are intimately and ultimately linked as one.  There is absolutely no separation.  What is thought or felt always resonates throughout the body moment by moment through a bio-chemical reaction.  This reaction is either life and health enhancing or defeating.  It has also been verified that each emotion has a distinct biochemical signature that affects mental and physical health.

Researchers report that meditation, controlled breathing, deep relaxation and directed, guided imagery can boost the immune system, alter blood pressure, decrease pain, and help with problems such as infertility and insomnia.  These practices often help people cope with and recover from unpleasant medical procedures as well as the effects of stress from daily living.  Furthermore, the refinement of consciousness that takes place leads to spiritual growth and maturity.

Positive aspects of this connection consist of and contribute to:

• The ability to accomplish dreams and goals
• Feelings of contentment
• Living in balance
• Physical, emotional, and mental well-being
• Awakening the spirit
• Finding peace and happiness

On the other hand, the mind-body connection can also:

• Undermine one’s health physically, mentally and emotionally
• Create negativity
• Block the flow of creative and healing energy
• Contribute to illness, injuries and disease
• Cause unhappiness and dissatisfaction

Transformational tools that activate and assist this process include:

• Focused breathing
• Guided imagery and creative visualization
• Meditation
• Mind-body fitness modalities like yoga and tai chi
• Affirmations
• Honest expression and congruence of thoughts, feelings and actions

Mind-Body-Spirit Tools

• Take a 2 Hour Power Nap in 10 Minutes
  It’s easy and effective.  Don’t wait!  Take a power nap.  It’s only a click away.
• Crown Pull
  Stimulates blood flow to your brain. Reduces mental congestion. Helps overcome insomnia.  Strengthens memory. Opens the crown chakra to higher inspiration.
• 3 Thumps
  Stimulates your energy, boost your immune system, and release stress, relieve pain.

Take a 2-hour Power Nap in 10 minutes

Trouble sleeping? Insomnia is at epidemic proportions and has dreadful consequences.  A few problems associated with inadequate sleep include feeling irritable, exhausted, lowered immunity, poor mental / emotional health, and heart disease.

Relaxing regularly and deeply is the perfect remedy to conquer stress.  The World Health Organization predicts that stress-related disorders and psychological disorders will be the second leading cause of disabilities in the world by 2020.

Guided Relaxation is another tool for your stress relief toolbox. The secret to gaining relaxed energy is to clear away the mental ruckus and emotional debris to make room for clear thinking.

One of the easiest ways of doing this is through relaxing the muscular tension held in the body by tensing and releasing muscle groups throughout your body using a reliable technique known as progressive muscular relaxation.  Doing so not only releases physical tension, it also teaches you the felt difference between tension and relaxation.

By knowing this, you can catch physical tension early on and before it causes painful headaches, back problems and digestive trouble.  A calming effect for the body, mind, emotions and spirit is awakened as well.

→ Listen to Take 10 free of charge. It’s an excerpt from the Power Napper eBook by Julie Lusk that includes relaxing and refreshing exercises.

Take a FREE 2-Hour Nap in 10 Minutes Now.

Click on the Picture.

PS.  Benefit from the 2-Hour Nap in 10 minutes often by coming back to this website again and again.

PPS. 

Power Napper - Instant PDF Download!

Enjoy relaxation like you've never felt before. Guaranteed! Learn to take a 2-hour nap in 10-minutes! Audio file included! Spark your energy and erase tiredness with proven techniques to clear your mind and refresh your spirit.

PPPS.  Explore more mind-body exercises in Julie Lusk’s books and CDs, featuring deep relaxation and yoga nidra, guided imagery, and meditation.  

Crown Pull

Stimulates blood flow to your head.  Reduces mental congestion.  Helps overcome insomnia.  Strengthens memory.  Opens the crown chakra to higher inspiration.

o   Start with your thumbs on your temples with fingertips resting at the middle of your forehead.

o   Apply pressure and slowly pull your fingers apart, stretching the skin.  Breathe deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth.  Repeat if it feels good.

o    Place your fingertips at your hairline and repeat the stretch.

o    Repeat this pattern starting at the top, center, and back of your head.  Continue until you reach the base of your neck.

3 Thumps

Stimulates your energies, boosts immune system, and releases stress.  Relieves pain.

• Place the fingers of either or both hands in the center of your sternum at the thymus gland.  Tap for 15 – 20 seconds.  Use your thumb and all your fingers.  As you tap, breathe slowly and deeply in through your nose with your tongue at the roof of your mouth and out through your mouth.
• Tap or rub the neuro-lymphatic spleen points firmly for about 15 seconds.  They are beneath the nipples of the breasts and down one rib.
• Tap or rub the spleen acupuncture points located on the sides of the body about 4 inches below the armpits. As you tap, breathe slowly and deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth.
• In the future, use either the neuro-lymphatic spleen points or the spleen acupuncture points if one set is more tender than the other.

Get more info on the Mind-Body Connection

Power Napper - Instant PDF Download!

Enjoy relaxation like you've never felt before. Guaranteed! Learn to take a 2-hour nap in 10-minutes! Audio file included! Spark your energy and erase tiredness with proven techniques to clear your mind and refresh your spirit.

Why struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep at night when you can sleep well with yoga nidra?  Sleep is vital to our health and sleep experts tell us we need an average of eight hours at a shot.  Even if there’s time for sleep, many of us have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, interfering with good health and causing frustration.

Find the help you’ve been waiting for in these articles:

• Sleep Solutions: Yoga-Style talks about the best yoga postures and breathing techniques for a good night’s sleep.
• Yoga Nidra and Sleep explains what yoga nidra is and why it’s more restful than regular sleep.
• Not Sleeping Soundly?  Here’s help for those nights when you feel you’re half awake and half asleep.

Listen to this specialized yoga nidra practice especially made for going to sleep (CD or digital download).  It’s from Julie’s new book, Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation

Clear the deck for a good nights sleep by releasing physical, mental and emotional tension.  You’ll love waking up in the morning feeling refreshed.

Enjoy using relaxation skills, specialized breathing techniques, mindfulness, and more.  You’ll enjoy the soothing Native American style flute music followed by the calming sound of ocean waves, Mother Nature’s delightful lullaby.

• “I never slept better.”
• “I love the whole thing.”
• “I fall asleep so easily, I haven’t made it through to the end yet.”

Get copies of Sleep Well ~ Yoga Nidra for yourself and your friends and family here.

Digital Download

• Amazon
• Apple iTunes
• Google Play Music & other online outlets

Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD

Use deep relaxation, soothing flute music & ocean waves to go to sleep. "I slept like a log." Downloads available. By Julie Lusk, Yoga Nidra Meditations author.

Sweet dreams!

Julie Lusk, MEd, E-RYT 500, has over 35 years of expertise in stress relief, yoga, relaxation training, guided imagery, and meditation as an international author, recording artist, and workshop leader.

Julie is the author of

• Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation
• Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief
• Yoga Meditations,
• Two volumes of 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery and Inner Healing
• Desktop Yoga®.
• Audio recordings include
  • Wholesome Relaxation
  • Yoga Nidra Essentials
  • Power of Presence
  • Blue Moon Rising
  • and many others.
  • Learn more at JulieLusk.com

Michael Arloski, Ph.D.,
Corporate Trainer, Professional Coach, Bellevue, Colorado

”In the professions of health care, wellness, training and public speaking we are all looking for an individual who combines professional qualities with personal characteristics in a genuine way.  Julie Lusk is such a person and professional.  Her message is received by others with  openness because her very being fosters trust, love and respect.  In creating a team of presenters for an impactful training for professionals, Julie Lusk would be one of my top five choices in the nation.”

Marianella Machado
College professor and composer

Julie, I would like you to know that your books, CD’s and handy-tips-to-use from the Wholesome Resources Newsletter have been extremely helpful to me.  Since I have no time to attend yoga sessions at the yoga schools in Kentucky, your books, Desktop Yoga and Yoga Meditations have been my only way to practice yoga.  I enjoy doing your yoga exercises because you present and explain them in a very clear and easy way to follow.

Your CD’s have also been very helpful to me. For example, Power of Presence CD has been a great way to control my physical stress as well as to enhance my meditation techniques.

Moreover, all of your handy-tips to use from the Wholesome Resources Newsletter are helping me to maintain an organized plan for improving my physical and mental health, because they make me focus my attention on what I need to do to feel better. I am looking forward to your new Mind-Body Wellness eBookCollection.

I am extremely grateful to you for your wisdom, knowledge, and kindness.  You certainly are a very gifted spiritual person. May God continue blessing  you with many more gifts.

Christopher Baxter, Architect, Yoga Trainer, Wellness Educator
Founding director, AtmaYoga Educational Services and Whole Human Wellness

If you, like so many of us, are faced with enormous challenges at this time, the necessity of a self-care approach to wellness is obvious. Your time invested in reading, reflecting on, and practicing the practical methods Julie provides will bring enormous relief, inspiration and renewed strength to your entire life and all those who are in your life.

As a yoga teacher and wellness educator for over 30 years, I can say with confidence that the up-to-date information and practices Julie has presented presented in her Mind-Body Wellness Collection are of the highest caliber. As a highly qualified expert in wellness, she has assembled a terrific collection and created a brilliant synthesis of their complimentary aspects.  Any one of them, taken alone, will bring lasting benefits. Having them arranged in such a well organized system synergistically increases their transformational impact.

This is a powerful body of work.

→ Mike Sterling, Director of Human Resources
The Art Institute of Ohio writes:

Dear Julie:  Thanks for sharing the DARE to Relax session with our staff.  I have received several positive comments about it, especially the “2- Hour Nap in 10-minutes” segment.

Our staff received several valuable tips on reducing stress and the consequences of stress at work and in our personal lives.  It was definitely time well spent.

→ Marianne Lang
Julie’s classes are a combination of challenge, relaxation and physical fine-tuning that are dramatically changing my life for the better.

→ Debbie Jackson
Julie’s yoga classes inspire the child within and brings to the mat asanas (postures) that touch the heart, joy that lifts the spirit and mindfulness to center the self promoting a smile to begin each new day.

Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices for Awakening

“Yoga Meditations offers a wonderful and generous assortment of simple but powerful, eminently practical practices to guide and empower its readers, from beginner to sophisticate.”

→ Belleruth Naparstek Creator -Health Journeys guided imagery

Variety is the spice of life….and meditation, October 19, Milwaukee, WI

Yoga Meditations by Julie Lusk is a gem of a book – chock full of inspirational meditations for beginners as well as more seasoned practitioners. The variety here is nice   – everything from breathing meditations to chakra meditations. You don’t have to be a yoga student to utilize these as they are appropriate for anyone. As a yoga instructor, this book helps to bring more diversity to the meditations at the end of our classes. My students have been really enjoying them.

This book comes with a CD, which features some of the meditations in the book. It is a nice bonus.

Wonderful resource!, June 5, 2008

Yoga Meditations is a wonderful book! I teach yoga and stress management at the college level and I use this book in both classes multiple times during the semester. The author Julie Lusk takes concepts that we as teachers study for years to understand (like the subtle anatomy or differing forms of meditation) and she explains them in a clear, concise and logical manner without oversimplifying them, but making the ideas accessible to teachers and students alike. She has invited other respected experts in mind-body techniques to contribute to the many guided exercises offered and the book also serves as a great resource guide.

Desktop Yoga ®

I’d give Desktop Yoga 6+ stars if I could!, October 23

Desktop Yoga  is a God-send,
This is a wonderful resource that helps me get through every day at work. My headaches and neck aches are better since I started using the yoga stretches and breathing techniques. It has taught me how to powernap for relief  from feeling exhausted, and has given me lots of tips on how to cope with change, handle stress, and enjoy life more. A lot of helpful information is packed into the useful book. Thank you very much.

30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery & Inner Healing – Volumes One & Two

Volume 1

Finally! A comprehensive Imagery guide!, April 6

I use this book all the time., December 27
This is one of my favorite books because it is such a helpful resource to help me relax and benefit from guided visualization in incredible and powerful ways. Not only that, I use it all the time with my stress management, yoga and meditation clients. This book doesn’t get old.

Hurrah for Volume Two of 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery
December 27, 2001
I am extremely pleased with this book and am now the proud owner of both volumes of this book. It is one of those books that I use all the time, which says a lot. It helps me personally and is a terrific resource when I teach stress management sessions.