What is a Yoga Lifestyle?

Attending a bunch of yoga classes every week? Wearing tight yoga pants and, every time you get a chance, flinging silk scarves made in India around your shoulders? If I say “Namaste” when I greet someone, or “Om Shanti” when I leave, does that make me a yogi?

While all of the above choices are perfectly in line with the newly-born and rapidly expanding yoga culture, yoga lifestyle means something entirely different. It has nothing to do with the style of yoga people practice, their style of clothing, the type of work they are involved in, or anything else that is externally imposed by fads and culture.

Yoga lifestyle is about one’s internal values: What moves or motivates a person to do what they do? Yoga lifestyle is also about the process: How one goes about performing their daily actions. That person can be an artist, a carpenter, a construction worker, a plumber, a car mechanic, a yoga teacher, or a cop. These external descriptions are like the seasons in New England – they are in constant change. They describe a temporary occurrence. Our essence remains the same. Our core values determine who we are and if we are living a yoga lifestyle.

Several years ago, I witnessed the following scene in New York City.

A hot and humid summer afternoon was drawing to a close. The busy sidewalk glistened in the slanted sunrays weaving their way through the tall buildings. A young woman with a baby carriage stopped at a street vendor to buy a bottle of water. For a moment, she let go of the carriage handle as she reached for her wallet to pay. In that moment, the baby carriage started to roll down the sidewalk and toward the speeding traffic.

All of a sudden, a teenage boy darted away from his ‘gang’ across the street and sprinted toward the rolling carriage while dodging cars. His sharp and urgent voice “Watch the baby! Watch the baby!” jerked the young mother’s head around. She grasped the invisible air handle realizing what happened, and ran toward the carriage, which was already falling over the edge of the sidewalk and into the hands of the teenage boy.

The mother broke into tears and hugged the boy. The boy smiled and shook his head. His friends across the street started clapping their hands. Several other people joined the standing ovation. The street vendor cheered the passers-by to notice what happened. For a few seconds, the busy street stopped, and celebrated the moment.

In those few seconds, a wave of love and gratitude rolled through the crowd. Everyone smiled. We all felt connected. We all felt compassionate toward one another and united in our human condition here on planet Earth, regardless of our background and beliefs.

What moved the young man to sprint through the traffic risking his own life? What moved the young woman to hug the boy? What moved the gang of young teenagers to applaud this event?

Many yoga masters and spiritual teachers have defined yoga as “perfection in action”. A perfect action means “an action that benefits someone and harms no-one”. It is an action rooted in non-violence and compassion coming from a deep source within. When we are living our life in accordance with this principle, we are living the yoga lifestyle.

Non-violence, which stems from compassion, is thought of as the most important yoga principle. It’s called “Ahimsa” in Sanskrit and applies to everything: our deeds, words, and thoughts. Gandhi dedicated his life to Ahimsa. He was a great yogi and a wonderful example of the yoga lifestyle.

There are four more yoga principles of social conduct: truthfulness, non-stealing, faithfulness, and non-greed; and five rules of personal conduct: mental purity, contentment with what we have, accepting suffering as purification, self-study, and surrendering of ego.

No one said it was easy. However, as you begin to quiet your mind and listen to your heart, the natural sense of compassion and non-violence awakens, and there’s no stopping it. All other yoga principles become our choices and the natural extension of the original awakening to the compassionate voice of your inner heart. The yoga lifestyle is the next step in the evolution of the humankind.

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Using Video for Your Online Business Marketing

If a picture paints a thousand words what would video do for your online business marketing? A video allows you to get across not just a message but your personality. The uses of video for your branding and marketing are phenomenal if you take some time to master the art.

Just think about YouTube for a moment since it is the biggest video sharing site. The statistics are mind boggling (Source: Google March 2011):-

· YouTube has more than 2 billion views every single day
· 24 hours of video is uploaded every single minute
· The average person spends 15 minutes a day on YouTube

It is pretty clear then that video is definitely here to stay and will continue to grow at a great pace. What is important is that you use it in building your online business.

Let’s look at some of the ways you can use the video phenomenon to your advantage.

Video on Your Website

Online videos help visitors to make that personal connection with you. Visitors are much more likely to engage with you and stay on your website if you have a video welcoming them on your front page. This immediately gives you an advantage over your competitors.

Video Blogging

With so many blog posts being written every single day how do you make sure that visitors return to your website? The answer is simple – use video for your blog posts. Not only does this captivate your audience (provided of course the content is relevant and interesting) but assuming you are using YouTube to stream your video then you have the added advantage of building up your credibility on your channel as well. If you have an important message to get across then it may be as well to use an online video platform such as comF5 for your video streaming.

If video blogging is not for you then make sure that you at least illustrate your blog posts with appropriate video content which you can get from YouTube and other video sharing sites.

Video Email Broadcasts

Why not use video to engage with your subscribers? This is far more interesting and captivating that plain text email broadcasts. Most of the reputable auto responders make this simple to do. All you have to do is video the content, upload it to a free video sharing site such as YouTube or a private online video platform such as comF5 and then have a link to the video in your broadcast.

Video Email

Now days it is easier than ever to send video email using specialist providers such as comF5. Video email is a fantastic way to build relationships with your prospects and customers. Not only do you stand out from the crowd but you can be more personal and expressive in your message.

Video on Social Media

Stand out from the crowd by using video to engage with friends and followers on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. You have a far greater chance of a friends and followers noticing your messages when you deliver messages via video. Think about how more likely you are to respond to a video introduction to a new friend on Facebook for example. Facebook make it incredibly easy by giving you a video tab to post your message provided you have a webcam attached to your computer.

YouTube Video

Every video you “upload” to YouTube expands your marketing reach provided you follow the simple rules of keyword tagging and make sure your videos are relevant to your audience. This is a great place to create awareness but be aware that the content is no longer yours once it is uploaded!

Video Training

Training can easily be delivered via video and many studies show that video communicates better than graphics and text alone. Training can be delivered by a series of videos or via webinars. Recorded once and delivered many times.

Summary

As an online business you want to drive awareness of your products and services, convert potential customers to advocates and create significant loyalty. This can be done using a combination of free video sites and an online video platform such as comF5 because it is critical to retain the rights to the important video content.

The best suggestion is to create awareness and drive viral sharing with free video sites then direct viewers back to your website where you utilise targeted video content hosted on a secure online video platform such as comF5 where you drive engagement and action.

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Self Employment – Independent Contractor Vs Employees

Self-employed individuals that work for a legitimate company are either contracted as an independent contractor (IC) or hired as an employee. There are benefits and disadvantages to both depending on your perspective.As an independent contractor, you stand to make more money on average because you are not bound by the 40 hour maximum per week regulation as employees are. One of the disadvantages is that IC’s are paid per project or actual minutes worked instead of per hour. This can cause them to lose money if they receive a low volume of work for that pay period.Here are other key aspects of working from home as an IC:
Contracted for your services

Set your own schedule

Taxes are not taken out of your paychecks

File 1099′s each year

Supply all the equipment necessary

Does not have to wait 2 weeks for 1st paycheck

Does not receive pay stubs

Earnings are not reported to the IRS
As an employee, you are paid by the hour. So even if the volume of work is low for that pay period you will not lose any money. The disadvantage to that is not being able to make more than a certain amount each week unless overtime hours are granted.Here are other key aspects of working from home as an employee:
Hired to work

Chooses from a set schedule

Taxes are taken out of each paycheck

File W2′s each year

May or may not have to supply the equipment necessary

Wait 2 weeks for 1st paycheck

Receive pay stubs

Earnings are reported to the IRS

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