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.

I am a vegan first and foremost for the animals, for their protection and safety, to help them live their lives free of pain and suffering. I do not feel God put them on the planet to live a life of confinement, fear, pain and being slaughtered, so that people can get their “protein” fix for the day. Plants, nuts, beans, vegetables and even rice, believe it or not, have protein. Plus the human body does not need as much protein as the media would like to convince us. Excess animal protein in your diet can lead to cancer, kidney stones, high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.

When I shifted from being vegetarian to vegan, by eliminating dairy and eggs from my diet, my body began to heal itself of acne, allergies and asthma. Why my doctors never asked me about my diet, is beyond me… Instead they gave me lots of prescriptions for these conditions, when all I really needed to do was change my diet!

Going vegan is great for your health, the animals and the environment! If you can just start by having one vegan meal a day or week and slowly start retraining your taste buds, to the joys of a plant based diet, I trust in time you will begin to crave foods with more prana or life force and not want as much meat that has been stripped of all life force, in the rearing and slaughtering process. Ask your soul what it would like to eat at each meal and really listen to the answers….remember on a soul level we are ALL ONE.

Namaste’-the divine in me, honors the divine within you and in all beings.

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”
-Albert Einstein

VEGAN RESOURCES:
www.vegan.com
www.farmsanctuary.com
www.Animalacres.org
www.madcowboy.com
“Eat More, Weigh Less,” by Dr Dean Ornish
“The China Study,” by T. Colin Cambell and Thomas M Cambell II
“Diet for a New America,” John Robbins (Baskin-Robbins ice cream heir)
“Quantum Health,” by Kathy Freston
“The Mad Cowboy,” by Howard Lyman
“Animal Theology,” Dr. Andrew Linzey

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.  Click here to read the entire article.

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