Yoga and Gwyneth Paltrow

As yoga becomes more popular in the Western world many celebrities are turning to it in a bid to reclaim some calm and sanity in their lives. Not to mention the toned and supple bodies that yoga leaves them with.

One such celebrity is Gwyneth Paltrow who has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga for many years now. Ashtanga Yoga is a high energy yoga based on a set series of postures aimed at synchronising the breath with movement of the body. Ashtanga Yoga is not for the faint hearted and requires strong concentration and focus which is exactly what many of today's celebrities need to step out of that world and calm their minds.

Back in 2001 Gwyneth spoke about the way Ashtanga Yoga was transforming her life and helping her to reduce the amount of alcohol she was drinking. I drank vodka tonics all the time. But I found that my kidneys got really hard because of it. She then started to maintain a macrobiotic diet, also helping her to feel good and look better. She said at the time "Macrobiotics is not about keeping thin." It's about eating healthy and clean.

She has practiced Ashtanga Yoga all over the world and was attending a workshop with Ashtanga Guru and Founder, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in New York when the September 11 2001 plane attacks occurred. Continuing to attend the workshop, continuing her practice and visiting nearby fire stations helped her deal with the overwhelming experience in New York at that time.After having both her children, Apple and Moses, Paltrow turned to Yoga to help her regain her figure and realign her body after the strenuous experience of pregnancy and childbirth. Paltrow did not focus on immediate loss of weight but instead looked at the long term affects of yoga to help her regain the body she had before. Being happy and present for her children were more important to her than being a size 6, 4 weeks later. Yoga helped her to remember that being happy and enjoying the moment is more important than the outer exterior of the body.

In fact, Paltrow is so enamored with yoga she is teaching her daughter, Apple to practice yoga. She bought a book in August 2005 called "Little Yoga" which is aimed at toddlers and she is now teaching the little girl to do the downward dog.

Also practicing in her sometime home of London has seen Paltrow take part in an auction in aid of Prince Charles Prince's Trust 30th Anniversay in May 2006 - she is an ambassador for this organisation. A record 30,000 British Pounds were paid for a one hour yoga lesson with herself. Paltrow was shocked to learn that a fan had put up that amount of money for her unique offer.

Yoga is a fantastic way to align the soul, mind and body and Gwyneth Paltrow is a shining example of a woman with an extremely busy life keeping centred and focused and making the art of happiness easy to achieve.