BetterListen!

Monday MP3 Free Download - Meditation Practice with Beryl Bender Birch

Yoga pioneer and best-selling author Beryl Bender Birch offers listeners a guided meditation, with a beautiful musical accompaniment, as part of her Everyday Mindfulness series.

This title is Free through Wednesday Evening.

Click here for preview and free download.

Excerpt from "Boomer Yoga" by Beryl Bender Birch - Part 3 of 3

Following is the last part of the inspiring Introduction from the latest book by renowned Power Yoga instructor Beryl Bender Birch - Boomer Yoga: Energizing the Years Ahead for Men & Women.

Whether you want to develop the strongest asana practice you can or tone down a blazing training routine you’ve been doing for years, boomer yoga can help you to turn up the heat or dial it down. The practice will slowly lead you through each of the eight limbs of classical yoga and help you move from the postures (asana) to energy control (pranayama) to concentration (dharana) and meditation (dhyana). So, whether you’re starting a regular meditation practice for the first time or you’ve been practicing meditation for a long time, here is a tool, a method to follow that will easily bring you greater health, stability, balance, and peace of mind.  But the biggest thing I hope you will learn from Boomer Yoga is that asana is the equivalent of kindergarten in yoga. It is important to do for life, for health and fitness, but it is still only a small part of what is meant by yoga. Asana is only meant to be an aid to preparing us for the deeper work of yoga, specifically meditation. Can asana keep us healthy, agile and pliable, and more resistant to injury in our sports activities and everyday life? No question. And that is certainly why we get started in yoga and an important reason we continue. But it’s still only a gateway to a vast unlimited awareness of our own boundlessness. That is the experience of yoga. The Boomer Yoga routine takes only 40 minutes, but the true practice of it, of learning to be fully present, happens 24/7. 

Beryl Bender Birch Bio and Links

Excerpt from "Boomer Yoga" by Beryl Bender Birch - Part 2 of 3

Here's the second part of the Introduction from the fantastic book by Power Yoga pioneer Beryl Bender Birch - Boomer Yoga: Energizing the Years Ahead for Men & Women.

This book is for all of us — the baby boomers — born between l946 and l964. Who are we? Well, we are a powerful group, we do know that much because we sure get a lot of attention from a lot of different venues. We know that we aren’t our parent’s generation. We aren’t geriatric, at least not yet. We are healthier, we are living longer, and we are doing stuff our parents never dreamed of. We have spent a lot of time working on success. We have lots of nice things. We have beautiful homes. 

We’ve weathered tough times and survived. Our kids are growing or grown and having kids of their own. And now we are looking around thinking, Okay, I’ve done this “success” thing. I’m comfortable, I’ve prospered, I’ve accumulated some sense of “security,” but I’m not quite all that satisfied. There is something gnawing away at me, a restlessness, a subterranean yearning to know the deeper meaning of life. There is a movement we can feel, a perceptible but welcome shift.  For all of you who are moving into the middle of life and noticing change — maybe for the first time, maybe for a while now, or maybe not yet — here is an extraordinary, simple, ancient methodology that will help you to know your True Self. This is not a one-size-fits-all-yoga-class. This is a means for evolution, your own evolution. Where it takes you is where it takes you. It will be different for everyone who climbs on board. Whether you have been doing an asana yoga practice for years and years or have always wanted to try yoga, this can point you in the right direction easily and gently. 

Beryl Bender Birch Bio and Links 

Excerpt from "Boomer Yoga" by Beryl Bender Birch - Part 1 of 3

Beryl Bender Birch, the renowned yoga instructor who developed "Power Yoga", now brings us "Boomer Yoga" for practitioners "of a certain age."  Following is an excerpt from the introduction from her book Boomer Yoga: Energizing the Years Ahead for Men & Women.

The whole idea for Boomer Yoga started when I realized that I couldn’t exactly do what I used to do in terms of physical activity. My body is changing. Oh my God. That was one hell of a realization. I mean, I wasn’t exactly geriatric but there were subtle alterations. And it wasn’t about discovering a gray hair or a wrinkle. Those things don’t seem to bother me. Since my primary physical activity was a pretty athletic form of the yoga asanas (the practice of the yoga postures) that I had been doing  since l980 and that had inspired my first book, Power Yoga, it was in my yoga practice that I first began to notice changes to my body.

Those subtle changes had probably been going on for some time. And now they had become a little less subtle. In the past, I resisted change like mad and went ballistic when unfortunate things happened. I found that that really didn’t get me too far. After years of practicing being with what is, as yoga directs us to do, I sat down, face to face, with change. One day, just after coming out of rest at the end of my yoga practice, I sat up  laughing. My right hip was really bothering me and restricting my range of motion. I thought to myself, Oh boy, I’ll have to start teaching boomer yoga, a practice for all of us whose bodies are changing. Boom, there ya go — that’s how it happens, a bolt fromthe blue — “boomer yoga.“ I’m a couple of years ahead of the first boomers, but as I sat there still chuckling to myself, it occurred to me that if this was happening to me, there were a whole bunch of folks out there, part of the most successful and prosperous generation ever, who were going to be coming up on some big changes. And all their money and “stuff,” their apparent security, was not going to bring them the satisfaction they had hoped it would. That satisfaction would only come from knowing who they are, and what really matters in their lives. And ultimately, that’s what yoga teaches. 

Beryl Bender Birch Bio and Links

BetterListen! Free Sampler Mix with Thich Nhat Hanh, Shlomo Carlebach, Gloria Steinem, Coleman Barks

Welcome to the First BetterListen! Sampler Mix.

Our sampler mixes offer you a taste of our titles. This Mix features Gloria Steinem, Thich Nhat Hanh, Shlomo Carlebach, Coleman Barks, Beryl Bender Birch, The Indigenous Peoples Message To The World and more.

As far as we know, we've never seen a sampler mix anything like this, both in format and content. So please let us know how the technology works and how you enjoy the content.

Subscribe to our feed to get updates on new preview mixes, new releases, new authors, new blog posts and new audio / video programs.

Follow us on Twitter for unique quotes and special offers.

Share these free previews with your online and offline friends. If you like a sample, you can buy the complete program on our site and on iTunes.

Let us know what you think, Help build our new online community—comment on our blog and BetterListen!

If the player does not show up below in your browser click here to listen.

Everyday Mindfulness: Meditation For Beginners by Beryl bender Birch Available on iTunes and on CD from BetterListen!

Yoga pioneer and best-selling author Beryl Bender Birch offers a clear and compelling introduction to the history and evolution of Mindfulness Meditation. In Part II of the program Beryl guides you through a meditation program, helping you to relax, focus, and be more mindful of whatever you are doing, not just during  meditation, but throughout the day, every day.

Based on principles from a variety of meditative traditions Beryl's guidance offers a practice for quieting and focusing your mind, gaining a greater awareness of your "self", and connecting you with the present moment-where the true joys of life are lived.

Running Time:55 minutes. [Hear Sample on iTunes]

Buy From BetterListen! Note: All downloads sold from iTunes. Never used iTunes before? It's easy- just follow the directions!