Articles by Kathleen:

Kathleen is currently writing a blog for Yoga Life Magazine about yoga and weight loss: www.iyogalife.com.

Vegan for Life - Maya Yoga: Becoming Vegan, Benefits of Vegan Diet
By Kathleen Kastner

“If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarian.”
-Paul McCartney

I am grateful that on a soul level, I was born a vegetarian. I loved and respected animals as a young child, even though I was raised in a meat eating family in the middle of Kansas! I remember getting violently ill, after eating a bite of roast when I was 6 years old, which lead me to stop eating beef and pork. Unfortunately for the chickens, I continued to eat them until my late 20’s. However my 21 year old cat, Samantha, helped me see the light that stopped me in my tracks from eating meat once and for all. Samantha was dying from kidney failure and I made the choice to end her suffering, by having my vet put her out of her toxic misery. As I held her precious body in my arms, because I wanted my face to be the last thing she saw before passing on from this life, to more life, I watched as the Vet pricked her frail body with the needle and in an instant I felt her soul leave her body. In that defining moment, I felt in my heart the deepest connection to all animal souls and that I had no right to be eating them, so I made the conscious decision to stop eating all forms of meat once and for all.  Click here to read the entire article.

Featured in the May 2007 issue of Yoga Magazine
God is in the Silence.
By Kathleen Kastner

"Everything else can wait, but your search for God cannot wait."
-Paramahansa Yogananda

Patanjalim defines yoga as: "yogas citta vrtti nirodaha", yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. Notice he does not say, "He who does handstand best is the most enlightened!" However, instead of adopting a regular meditation practice, we spend hours on the mat doing more asana, in search of clarity, self-acceptance, and a deeper meaning to our lives. Because the ego mind, which is full of fear, worry, and doubt, is threatened by meditation, it therefore encourages us to do MORE physical activity, whether it be asana, jogging, or cleaning our house, anything to distract us from our meditation practice.  Click here to read the entire article.

Featured in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine
Liberation from the Gym: The Magic of Ashtanga Yoga!
By Kathleen Kastner

Ashtanga yoga is the closest feeling to being HOME that I have ever experienced. This challenging yet infinitely rewarding style of yoga has changed my life in so many unforeseen ways for the last ten years and continues to do so, every time I step on my yoga mat.

How can ashtanga yoga be such a tool for transformation? I'm not really sure myself, because for me, yoga is about all about Spirit, and therefore isn't to be fully understood by the rational mind, but is a feeling to be experienced and not measured.

I began ashtanga yoga while working as an exercise physiologist and a personal trainer. I had been practicing more gentle styles of yoga for two years previously and was making very little progress in my practice. Fifteen years of compulsive cardiovascular and weight training exercise had left my body and my being, in what I now feel was a crippled state of existence. I had created so many imbalances in my body from conventional exercise and was paying the price of tight muscles, injured knees and an unfulfilled sense of Self.

Therefore, I took a great leap into the unknown and let go of my controlling mind, which had dictated my exercise behavior for half my life, and decided to do a pilot study on myself, by just practice ashtanga yoga, without any other form of exercise. After all, if I was going to exercise for two hours a day, I wanted to be doing something I enjoyed and was meaningful to my personal and spiritual growth. In that defining moment I was liberated from my previous gym mentally, which was the best choice I have ever made concerning my well-being.

As a health professional, I whole-heartedly believe that ashtanga yoga is the most effective and thorough form of yoga, exercise, weight management, addiction recovery, physical therapy and psychotherapy. It truly is magical!

On the physical level, ashtanga yoga has made me feel like a little kid again. I feel stronger and more flexible than I ever have in my life. Years of conventional exercise had left my body in a bulky shape, that made me unrecognizable to myself, and ashtanga yoga has reinstated my body to its' natural shape, with longer, leaner muscles. Ashtanga yoga uses your body weight as resistance, very similar to gymnastics, so your entire body is working synergistically; using muscles you never knew you had, making you equally strong and flexible throughout your body.

Astana yoga continuously flows in a vines style of movement, from one pose to the next, making the system a moving meditation, or prayer in motion. Once your body becomes familiar with the set series of sequential poses, you feel like you are truly channeling thru the ashtanga system, instead of struggling. This is mainly due to the utilization of deep ujjayi breath and the energy lock, called bandhas. The breath and bandhas help you connect to Spirit and tap into to your energy body, so you are working your practice, from the inside out. Therefore in time, the appearance of your practice becomes effortless; allowing you to do poses you never dreamed could be possible for your body.

In my yoga teaching I am a huge proponent of encouraging students to step out of the box of their comfort zone. My intention and hope is that they will then take the internal power cultivated on their yoga mat and apply it to their personal lives, allowing them to live their life with less fear and more courage and self-esteem.

On an emotional and spiritual level, ashtanga yoga has helped deepen my connection to myself and to Spirit, which has given me the strength and insight over the last ten years to do the following; opened my own yoga studio after my first one burned down, became a vegan, moved across the country, from Kansas City, to Los Angeles, quit a 20 year coffee addiction, left relationships, that were not serving my highest good, met my biological mom and ten years later, met my biological dad, and most importantly, ashtanga yoga helped give me the faith and grace to get thru the unexpected death of my father who raised me, who just didn't wake up four years ago on Easter morning.

In turn, it is hard for me to put this powerful practice in to words, so I hope you will take an ashtanga class and experience its healing benefits firsthand.

Astanga yoga is intentionally designed to be challenging and immediately unattainable, with the positive intention of helping you to grow on the mat and in your life. It is not about pacifying your ego. It is a discipline and commitment to getting honest with your SELF and the GOD of your knowing.

Kathleen Kastner has a master's degree in exercise physiology and a bachelor's degree in Journalism, from the University of Kansas.

She has been teaching ashtanga yoga for the last ten years and currently teaches yoga at Maha Yoga and Mark Blanchard's Power Yoga, in Brentwood, CA. She is also the owner of Maya Yoga, in Kansas City, MO.
www.kathleenkastner.com
www.mayayoga.com

Links to other articles:

Featured in Yoga Magazine
Confessions of a Yoga Studio Owner

Featured in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine
Being a Vegetarian in Kansas City

Miscellaneous
Why Yoga Can Help You Lose Weight!
Ashtanga Yoga Compared to Other Styles of Yoga