How to Bring More Awareness to Your Life: Mariko Hirakawa – Ep. 197
How to Bring More Awareness to Your Life: Mariko Hirakawa
“Ayurveda is translated as the science of life which I find too vague. So, for me, it’s the science of optimizing life embodied on this planet. It focuses on expanding your longevity and all dimensions of living a fulfilling, balanced life including diet, herbs, lifestyle, and breathwork.” – Mariko Hirakawa
Internationally known Yoga and Ayurvedic Practitioner with a Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (B.A.M.S.) Degree Program in India, Author of The Yoga of Personal Development: Enlightened Lessons on Peak Performance, Leadership and Living A Life of No Regrets and the forthcoming book, The Yoga-Ayurveda Book of Anti-Aging Secrets, and Founder of Visionary Yoga, Mariko Hirakawa joins Rob to discuss what it means to live a lifestyle full of awareness. She’s an enlightened individual who has studied Yoga for many, many years and has a great deal of knowledge and advice to share with all of us.
As you listen, you will learn:
- What Ayurveda is and how can it benefit our wellness.
- The four traditional wisdom paths and background of Yoga.
- How practicing Yoga can help us discover where we belong when we feel lost.
- The questions she gives to people to help create movement in their lives.
- How we can feel more grounded and balanced via Yoga, meditation, and therapy in a such a fast-paced world.
Devon and Rob also answered several questions from the Open Sky Fitness Facebook Group:
- How can you add more protein to a vegetarian diet?
- How do carbs and fiber work together?
- How do you gain muscle, but not fat if you’re skinny fat?
The 4 Traditional Branches of Yoga
“There’s this major confusion about Yoga being an exo physical exercise and that is a great misconception. Yoga with a capital ‘Y,’ is a whole path of wisdom tradition.” – Mariko Hirakawa
Much of what we practice in the USA and the other Western parts of the world is Hatha Yoga. Hatha Yoga is a sub-branch of traditional Raja Yoga and incorporates the physical movements into the practice.
The four traditional wisdom paths and background of Yoga are:
- Raja Yoga – Yoga of Meditation
- Karma Yoga -Yoga of Action
- Bhakti Yoga – Yoga of Devotion
- Jnana Yoga – Yoga of Self-Inquiry
Discover Your Purpose Through Yoga
“Yoga is a way to deepen your consciousness and clarify it. It allows you to live with more heightened awareness on this planet and in order to go there, you have to take that awareness outside of the Yoga studios and off the mats in order to live with it. That dimension of living with your yogic-self needs to be emphasized a lot more.” – Mariko Hirakawa
Mariko isn’t only a Yoga Instructor, but she is also a Coach. Many times, her clients come to her not knowing what the purpose of their life is or what their next step should be. Having been in a similar situation herself when she decided to transition from being a Ballerina to a Yoga Instructor, she asks them these questions:
First, she asks them these initial questions to help them create movement in their lives:
- What is your longing? What does your heart desire right now?
- What are your discontents?
People often compare their current life to their past and that’s fine as a place to start, but to get out of conditioned thinking, the next step is starting focusing on possibilities by thinking and answering, “What if?” It’s not normal for us to think well beyond the past and the present, but we should think about what we would love to have in our lives.
So, she asks people – In a year’s time, what would you love to have?
The Yoga of Personal Development
Do you feel that you are meant to live a much bigger life than you are now? Do you long to unleash your full potential and live as a master manifestor of your dreams?
The Yoga of Personal Development: Enlightened Lessons on Peak Performance, Leadership and Living A Life of No Regrets by Mariko Hirakawa contains the powerful yet practical wisdom received directly from the Yoga Masters on how to overcome your limitations and live your highest purpose with courage and integrity.
Your higher destiny, gifted to you at birth, is waiting. Step into the mystical dimension of the Yoga Masters…It’s time to awaken your inner Visionary and step into a bigger life!
Join Mariko’s
Five Day Visionary Yoga Challenge
Receive the Power of Visionary Yoga, a powerful new synthesis of physical Yoga, Ayurveda, and the Art of Manifesting your Higher Destiny, in the comfort of your home every day by joining The Five Day Visionary Yoga Challenge for FREE!
These sessions are designed to connect your physical practice of Yoga to your Depth Dimension, where your higher potential lives.
Sign up now and begin your Five Day Challenge!
About Mariko Hirakawa
Mariko Hirakawa is an internationally known Yoga-Ayurveda Expert with over 20 years of teaching experience. A former professional dancer as well as an Ayurvedic physician trained in India, she is one of the very few in the West to have completed the rigorous 5 ½ year B.A.M.S. degree in India. Healer, yogini, and a performer with a multi-cultural background, Mariko is known for the quality and depth she brings to her work.
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We won’t just be regurgitating the same information over again. Since we began this podcast, there’s so much more information out their on health, nutrition, fitness, and personal wellness. So, each Thursday we’ll really just be going deeper into your favorite topics!
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What You’ll Hear on This Episode
00:00 Open Sky Fitness Introduction
1:15 Opening comments with Rob and Devon
1:30 Check out last week’s show: OSF 196 – Legumes & Grains: The Proper Way to Cook Them
2:20 Questions we answered from our Facebook Live for the Open Sky Fitness Facebook Group
5:00 How can you add more protein to a vegetarian diet?
7:50 How do carbs and fiber work together?
9:30 How do you gain muscle, but not fat if you’re skinny fat?
11:30 How being fat adaptive via Keto can help you with a bodybuilding competition.
13:45 Carbs and fiber- Is it ok to count total carbs, but not net carbs?
15:45 Sign up for our next Sky Fit Challenge starting April 23 or even jump ahead and sign up early to also get the Transition Challenge at no extra cost!
17:30 Introduction to Mariko Hirakawa
18:55 What is Ayurveda and how can it benefit our wellness?
23:00 The different forms of yoga and all the confusing information out there.
23:30 The four traditional wisdom paths and background of Yoga.
26:00 The other sub-branches of Yoga that have been developed in Western culture.
29:30 Why she transitioned from being a Ballerina to a Yoga Instructor.
34:00 Her a-ha moment during a Yoga class and what attracted her to begin practicing Yoga.
41:00 Why dancing no longer felt fulfilling to her, but Yoga did and how she embraced new challenges.
44:10 When someone feels lost, how can practicing Yoga help them grow roots and find where they belong?
46:40 The inquiry question practice she uses to help people find their purpose or next step to stay in motion.
48:10 Questions she gives to people to help create movement in their lives.
50:00 Are many of your clients looking for something similar in their lives?
53:00 How we can feel more grounded and balanced via Yoga, meditation, and therapy in a such a fast-paced world.
57:00 The benefits of slowing down and how it can help you keep up with change.
1:02:00 Her 5-Day Visionary Yoga Challenge to practicing Yoga and focusing on the self.
1:06:00 Final advice from Mariko Hirakawa
1:06:50 Closing comments with Rob and Devon
1:08:00 Sign up for our next Sky Fit Challenge
1:09:30 Open Sky Fitness Closing
RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE SHOW:
- Leave us an iTunes review
- Subscribe to our podcast and take your health to the next level!
- Join The Open Sky Fitness Podcast Group on Facebook
- Sign up for our Sky Fit Challenge!
- Contact Rob and Devon to apply for One-On-One Coaching Sessions
- Learn more about our new sponsor – ButcherBox
- Check out last week’s episode: OSF 196 – Legumes & Grains: The Proper Way to Cook Them
- Connect with Mariko Hirakawa via:
- Learn more about Visionary Yoga
- Try The Five Day Visionary Yoga Challenge
- Find out more about next week’s guest – Robert Sikes of Keto Savage
- You might enjoy these other Open Sky Fitness Podcast Episodes:
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Thanks for listening/reading episode 197 with Mariko Hirakawa: How to Bring More Awareness to Your Life ! We hope you have gained more knowledge on how to be a healthier you.
