Catholic Church urges Irish to oppose abortion law

The head of Ireland's Catholic Church urged followers in his Christmas Day message to lobby against government plans to legalize abortion.
Ireland, the only EU member state that currently outlaws the procedure, is preparing legislation that would allow limited access to abortion after the European Court of Human Rights criticized the current regime.
The death last month of an Indian woman who was denied an abortion of her dying foetus and later died of blood poisoning has intensified the debate around abortion, which remains a hugely divisive subject in the predominantly Catholic country.
"I hope that everyone who believes that the right to life is fundamental will make their voice heard in a reasonable, but forthright, way to their representatives," Cardinal Sean Brady said in a Christmas message on Tuesday.
"No government has the right to remove that right from an innocent person."
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, a regular Mass goer, is bringing in legislation that would allow a woman to have an abortion if her life was at risk from pregnancy.
The country's Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that abortion was permitted when a woman's life was at risk but successive governments have avoided legislating for it because it is so divisive.
The death of Savita Halappanavar, who repeatedly asked for an abortion while she was miscarrying in an Irish hospital, highlighted the lack of clarity in Irish law that leaves doctors in a legally risky position.
Halappanavar's death re-ignited the abortion debate and prompted large protests by groups both in favor of and against abortion.
Kenny and his conservative Fine Gael party have been criticized for tackling the abortion issue and some party members have indicated that they may not be able to back the law.
Relations between the Irish government and the once dominant Catholic Church are at an all-time low in the wake of years of clerical sex abuse scandals.
Kenny told parliament last year that the Vatican's handling of the scandals had been dominated by "elitism and narcissism" and accused it of trying to cover up the abuse. The speech prompted the Vatican to recall its ambassador, or nuncio, to Ireland.
Brady, who has faced calls this year to resign over accusations he failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused, said in his Christmas message that he wanted relations with government to improve.
"My hope is that the year ahead will see the relationship between faith and public life in our country move beyond the sometimes negative, exaggerated caricatures of the past.

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Lawmakers play waiting game with 'fiscal cliff' deadline in sight

With only a week left before a deadline for the United States to go over a "fiscal cliff," lawmakers played a waiting game on Monday in the hope that someone will produce a plan to avoid harsh budget cuts and higher taxes for most Americans from New Year's Day.
Though Republicans and Democrats have spent the better part of a year describing a plunge off the cliff as a looming catastrophe, the nation's capital showed no outward signs of worry, let alone impending calamity.
The White House has set up shop in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing.
The Capitol was deserted and the Treasury Department - which would have to do a lot of last-minute number-crunching with or without a deal - was closed.
So were all other federal government offices, with Obama having followed a tradition of declaring the Monday before a Tuesday Christmas a holiday for government employees, notwithstanding the approaching fiscal cliff.
Expectations for some 11th-hour rescue focused largely on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, in part because he has performed the role of legislative wizard in previous stalemates.
But McConnell, who is up for re-election in 2014, was shunning the role this year, his spokesman saying that it was now up to the Democrats in the Senate to make the next move.
"We don't yet know what Senator Reid will bring to the floor. He is not negotiating with us and the president is out of town," said McConnell's spokesman, referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat. "So I just don't know what they're going to do over there," he said.
Two-day-old tweets on leadership websites told the story insofar as it was visible to the public.
House Speaker John Boehner's referred everyone to McConnell. McConnell's tweet passed the responsibility along to Obama, saying it was a "moment that calls for presidential leadership."
Reid's tweet said: "There will be very serious consequences for millions of families if Congress fails to act" on the cliff.
The next session of the Senate is set for Thursday, but the issues presented by across-the-board tax hikes and indiscriminate reductions in government spending, were not on the calendar.
The House has nothing on its schedule for the week, but members have been told they could be called back at 48 hours notice, making a Thursday return a theoretical possibility.
However, aides to the Republican leaders in Congress said there were no talks with Democrats on Monday and none scheduled after negotiations fell off track last week when Boehner failed to persuade House Republicans to accept tax increases on incomes of more than $1 million a year.
"Nothing new, Merry Christmas," an aide to Boehner responded when asked if there was any movement on the fiscal cliff.
But a senior Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said White House aides were talking with Senate Democratic staffers about the situation.
SCALED-BACK EXPECTATIONS
If there is some last-minute legislation, Republicans and Democrats agreed on Sunday news shows that it will not be any sort of "grand bargain" encompassing taxes and spending cuts, but most likely a short-term deal putting everything off for a few weeks or months, thereby risking a negative market reaction.
A limited agreement would still need bipartisan support, as Obama has said he would veto a bill that does not raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
On Monday, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison urged fellow Republicans to be flexible.
"We're now at a point where we're not going to get what we think is right for our economy and our country because we don't control government. So we've got to work within the system we have," she told MSNBC.
Two bills in Congress could conceivably form the basis for a last-minute stopgap measure.
Last spring, Republicans in the House passed a measure that would extend Bush-era tax cuts for everyone, reflecting the party's deep reluctance to increase taxes.
The Democratic-controlled Senate passed a bill in August, extending lower tax rates for everyone except the wealthiest Americans - a group defined at that point as households with a net income of $250,000 or above. Obama has since increased that to $400,000 a year, in an effort to win Republican support.
Analysts say Democrats might be able to get the backing of enough Republicans in both the House and Senate, especially if they are willing to raise the number to $500,000.
Under that scenario, lawmakers might also put off spending cuts of $109 billion that would take effect from January and agree to Republican demands for cuts in entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the government-run health insurance plans for seniors and the poor.
However, with only a few work days left in Congress after Christmas, there is a good chance that no deal can be worked out and tax rates would then go up, at least briefly, until an agreement is reached in Washington.
"We may go off the cliff on January 1, but we would correct that very quickly thereafter," Democratic Representative John Yarmuth told MSNBC.
The prospects of the United States going over the fiscal cliff dampened enthusiasm on Wall Street for a "Santa rally" in the holiday season, when stocks traditionally rise.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 51.76 points, or 0.39 percent, in Monday's shortened holiday session.
Failure to work out tax rates in the coming days would cause chaos at the Internal Revenue Service, said analyst Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Securities.
"Next weekend is going to be a total, total debacle," he said. The IRS is unlikely to have enough time to revise its tables for withholding taxes.
"The withholding tables are sort of like an aircraft carrier, you can't turn the thing on a dime." he said.

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Venezuela's Chavez improving after surgery: officials

 Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is improving after a cancer operation in Cuba and has started exercising, officials said on Monday, amid doubts over whether the former soldier is in good enough health to continue governing.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro said he had spoken by phone with Chavez, who was walking and doing exercises as part of his treatment.
"We've gotten the best present we could get this Christmas: a phone call from our commander president," Maduro said on state television.
Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said earlier in the day that Chavez had "shown a slight improvement in his condition," without providing details.
Chavez has not been heard from in two weeks following a fourth operation for an unspecified type of cancer in the pelvic region. The government has said he suffered post-operatory complications including unexpected bleeding and a lung infection, but offered few details about his actual condition.
His death, or even his resignation for health reasons, would upend the politics of the South American OPEC nation where his personalized brand of oil-financed socialism has made him a hero to the poor but a pariah to critics who call him a dictator.
His allies are now openly discussing the possibility that he may not be back in time to be sworn in for his third six-year term on the constitutionally mandated date of January 10.
Opposition leaders say a delay to his taking power would be another signal that Chavez is not in condition to govern and that fresh elections should be called to choose his replacement.
They believe they have a better shot against Maduro, Chavez's anointed successor, than against the charismatic president who for 14 years has been nearly invincible at the ballot box.
But a constitutional dispute over succession could lead to a messy transition toward a post-Chavez era.
Maduro has become the government's main figurehead in the president's absence. His speeches have mimicked Chavez's bombastic style that mixes historical references with acid insults of adversaries.
Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October presidential vote, slammed Maduro in an interview published on Sunday for failing to seek dialogue with the opposition at a time of political uncertainty.
"Maduro is not the one that won the elections, nor is he the leader," Capriles told the local El Universal newspaper. "Because Chavez is absent, this is precisely the time that (Maduro) needs help from people (in the opposition camp)."
Chavez has vastly expanded presidential powers and built a near-cult following among millions of poor Venezuelans, who love his feisty language and social welfare projects.
The opposition is smarting from this month's governors elections in which Chavez allies won 20 of 23 states. They are trying to keep attention focused on day-to-day problems from rampant crime to power outages.

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Japan approves Novo's new combination insulin Ryzodeg

 Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk said on Tuesday Japan's health regulator had approved its new combination insulin, that it plans to market as Ryzodeg, for the treatment of diabetes.
Ryzodeg is a combination of Novo's new ultra long-acting insulin degludec, or Tresiba, which Japan became the first country to approve in September, and its rapid-acting insulin Novorapid.
Tresiba, Novo's biggest new drug hope, had a setback in November when regulators in the United States, where Novo expects to generate the bulk of sales, said Tresiba has a higher heart safety risk than other diabetes treatments, raising fears that it may not be approved there.
Novo has also filed for approval of the drug in the European Union, Canada, Switzerland and other countries.
Tresiba and Ryzodeg are seen as strong new competitors in the long-acting, or basal, insulin market, which has long been dominated by Sanofi's Lantus. Competition is hotting up in the space, with Eli Lilly also having a promising new contender in development.
Novo has said previously that the exact timing for the launch of Ryzodeg would be decided after a price listing for Tresiba, which it plans to launch in Japan shortly after completion of price talks.

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UCB gets Japan clearance for two new drugs

Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB has secured two regulatory clearances in Japan, further cementing its worldwide shift to a new generation of drugs.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare had approved UCB's Neupro patch to treat Parkinson's disease and moderate-to-severe Restleg Legs Syndrome in adults.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical has the exclusive rights for developing and marketing Neupro in Japan, with UCB responsible in all other regions worldwide. Neupro is available in 35 countries.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, UCB said its drug Cimzia had been approved in Japan for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in adults.
UCB is jointly developing the drug there with Astellas Pharma Inc, with UCB manufacturing it and Astellas managing distribution and sales. UCB said it would receive an unspecified milestone payment from Astellas.
Cimzia is currently being sold in over 30 countries, including the United States and in Europe.
UCB, a central nervous system and immunology specialist, is placing its hopes on three new drugs - Cimzia, Neupro and epilepsy treatment Vimpat - as previous blockbuster Keppra, also for epilepsy, faces patent expiries.

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Stay happy by avoiding junk food, says study

Feeling blue? Drop the burger and donuts. While junk food and processed foods may provide a dose of instant gratification, Spanish researchers say they’ve found a direct link between the consumption of fast food and depression. After observing 8,964 participants over six months, scientists found that consumers of fast food were 51 percent more likely to develop depression. And the more they ate, the greater the risk. Their findings, published in the March issue of Public Health Nutrition, reveal a grim portrait of the junk food binger: single, inactive, with poor dietary habits like eating less fruit, nuts, fish, vegetables and olive oil. They also tend to be smokers who work more than 45 hours a week. While the chosen participants had never been diagnosed with depression or taken anti-depressants, by the end of the study 493 were diagnosed with the condition or started to take mild anti-depressants. Even eating small quantities of processed foods like pre-packaged cakes and hot dogs is linked to a significantly higher chance of developing depression, researchers said. The latest study builds on previous research from the same group which found that while trans fats and saturated fats have been linked to an increased risk of depression, olive oil can actually protect against mental illness. Meanwhile, WebMD.com offers a list of mood-boosting foods which also happen to be rich in vitamins and nutrients. For example, look for foods rich in folic acid like beans and spinach, and fish, lean poultry and dairy, which are good sources of vitamin B12, two nutrients which have been shown to help keep mood disorders at bay. Strong evidence has also linked depression to deficiency in Vitamin D –- better known as the sunshine vitamin. Dietary sources include fatty fish, beef liver, cheese and egg yolks. And for an instant mood lift, treat yourself to a small piece of dark chocolate, which releases the feel-good endorphins that can send people on a momentary, all-natural high.

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Few US cities prepared for aging baby boomers

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Few communities have started to think long term about how to plan and redesign services for aging baby boomers as they move out of the workforce and into retirement. Even more troubling, dwindling budgets in a tight economy have pushed communities to cut spending on delivering meals to the homebound and shuttling folks who can no longer drive to grocery stores and doctor's offices. These cuts, advocates for older Americans say, are coming when the services are needed more than ever. And those needs will grow tremendously over the next two decades. The nation's population of those 65 and older will double between 2000 and 2030, according to the federal Administration on Aging. That adds up to one out of every five Americans — 72.1 million people. Just eight years from now, researchers say, a quarter of all Ohio's residents in half of the state's counties will be 60 or older. Arizona and Pennsylvania project that one in four of its residents will be over the age of 60 by 2020. "The bottom line is, the baby boomers are hitting," Chuck Gehring of LifeCare Alliance, an agency serving seniors in central Ohio, told The Columbus Dispatch. "Are communities prepared for this? No." Six years ago, the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging said less than half of cities it surveyed at the time were preparing to deal with the needs of older folks. It said the results "should serve as a wake-up call for communities to begin planning now." Five years later, the Washington, D.C.-based group revisited the survey and found little had changed. There was still a great need for transportation and housing for aging boomers, it said. "There are a lot of communities that recognize they need to do something but haven't done it yet," Sandy Markwood, the group's chief executive officer, told The Associated Press. Some of the changes cities can make include offering training to help older people drive more safely, installing road signs that are easier to read or creating ride-share programs, said Jo Reed, who oversaw the latest survey. The biggest reason why cities have made little progress is the economy. Nearly 21,000 times last year, drivers for the Licking County Aging Program in Ohio took elderly residents in communities east of Columbus to medical appointments. The gasoline bill has more than doubled in the past four years, topping $7,000 a month. "With federal funding for these programs very flat, the burden is on local communities," Dave Bibler, the agency's executive director, told The Dispatch. Transportation usually tops the list of unmet needs in local aging-agency surveys, advocates say. Public transit routes and stops sometimes aren't flexible enough; volunteer transportation networks are popping up in a few places but remain rare. "How do we keep people involved in the community once they stop driving?" said Cindy Farson, executive director of the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging. "It's one of those bottomless pits of need and demand. It's going to take a lot of creative thinking." Home and apartments will need boomer makeovers too. Two Ohio lawmakers have proposed a tax credit to install bar handles, light switches and ramps to improve accessibility in homes. Supporters say it will save money because fall-related hospitalizations in Ohio cost $298 million a year in medical costs. Communities can do some preparations on the cheap, said Henry Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Clinton administration. Cisneros, now executive chairman of Los Angeles-based CityView, an institutional investment firm geared toward urban real estate, said communities can be creative with zoning for denser housing and what he called "granny flats" next to houses. Although the task looms large, communities that address these issues now could reap benefits that reach beyond the boomer bubble. Creative planners like to envision neighborhoods that appeal to those who are young and old. Young people actually have similar tastes to seniors when looking for a place to live, coveting walkable communities with easy access to shopping, entertainment and transit. And boomers want affordable and accessible housing, transportation, recreation options and, when the time comes, in-home care and services to help them avoid nursing homes. Edward Elberfeld, a retired art teacher, and his wife, Barbara, plan to stay in their home near downtown Columbus as long as they can. Elberfeld, 63, has been working with neighborhood residents to form a group of volunteers to help other seniors do the same. Their "aging in place" effort is based on similar projects in affluent neighborhoods of cities such as Boston and Washington, D.C., where private, nonprofit corporations formed to provide services and social activities so seniors don't have to move. When residents are no longer able to drive, or walk down steep basement stairs, volunteers would ferry people around, check on a basement furnace, or help landscape the yard. Residents usually pay an annual membership fee, but far less than the cost of staying in a nursing-home. Minnie Figart-Braden, 63, who oversees a meals-on-wheels kitchen in the city, said it's best for people to realize that good plans and quality care might call for sacrifice. "The boomers have to learn to give," she said. "They have to be responsible enough to give back to the community, to see what's going on." The latest installment of Aging America, the joint AP-APME project examining the aging of the baby boomers and the impact that this silver tsunami will have on the communities in which they live.

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Half of all cancers are preventable: study

Half of all cancers could be prevented if people just adopted healthier behaviors, US scientists argued on Wednesday. Smoking is blamed for a third of all US cancer cases and being overweight leads to another 20 percent of the deadly burden that costs the United States some $226 billion per year in health care expenses and lost productivity. For instance, up to three quarters of US lung cancer cases could be avoided if people did not smoke, said the article in the US journal Science Translational Medicine. Science has shown that plenty of other cancers can also be prevented, either with vaccines to prevent human papillomavirus and hepatitis, which can cause cervical and liver cancers, or by protecting against sun exposure, which can cause skin cancer. Society as a whole must recognize the need for these changes and take seriously an attempt to instill healthier habits, said the researchers. "It's time we made an investment in implementing what we know," said lead author Graham Colditz, an epidemiologist at the Siteman Cancer Center at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Exercising, eating right and refraining from smoking are key ways to prevent up to half of the 577,000 deaths from cancer in the United States expected this year, a toll that is second only to heart disease, according to the study. But a series of obstacles to change are well enshrined in the United States, which will see an estimated 1,638,910 new cancer cases diagnosed this year. Those hurdles include skepticism that cancer can be prevented and the habit of intervening too late in life to stop or prevent cancer that has already taken root. Also, much of the research on cancer focuses on treatment instead of prevention, and tends to take a short-term view rather than a long-term approach. "Humans are impatient, and that human trait itself is an obstacle to cancer prevention," said the study. Further complicating those factors are the income gaps between the upper and lower social classes that mean poor people tend to be more exposed to cancer risk factors than the wealthy. "Pollution and crime, poor public transportation, lack of parks for play and exercise, and absence of nearby supermarkets for fresh food hinder the adoption and sustained practice of a lifestyle that minimizes the risk of cancer and other diseases," said the study. "As in other countries, social stratification in the United States exacerbates lifestyle differences such as access to health care, especially prevention and early detection services. "Mammograms, colon screening, diet and nutrition support, smoking cessation resources and sun protection mechanisms are simply less available to the poor." That means any bid to overcome deep social imbalances must be supported by policy changes, said co-author Sarah Gehlert, professor of racial and ethnic diversity at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and the School of Medicine. "After working in public health for 25 years, I've learned that if we want to change health, we need to change policy," she said. "Stricter tobacco policy is a good example. But we can't make policy change on our own. We can tell the story, but it requires a critical mass of people to talk more forcefully about the need for change." A separate annual report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other major US cancer groups found that death rates from cancer in the United States continued to decline between 1.3 and 1.7 percent from 1998 to 2008. New cancer diagnoses also decreased less than one percent per year from 1996 to 2006 and leveled off from 2006 to 2008. However, the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer also highlighted the problem of obesity-related cancers, such as colorectal cancer, as well as cancer of the kidney, esophagus, pancreas, breast and endometrial lining. "If you watch your diet, exercise, and manage your weight, you can not only prevent your risk of getting many lethal forms of cancer, you will also increase your chances of doing well if you should get almost any form of cancer," counseled Edward Benz, president of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

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Top 10 Reasons to Hire Older People

In a world where traditional retirement makes less and less sense, the need and desire of older people to retain or find meaningful jobs depends in part on overcoming bogus attitudes about older employees. Smart and progressive employers get this. Sure, Google is probably not losing any sleep over failing to train septuagenarians about search-engine algorithms. But being uninterested in crowd-sourcing the best taco stand within four blocks of your smartphone is not a disqualification for being an excellent employee. [See 10 Workplace Myths Debunked.] Unemployment rates among older workers are lower than that of the general workforce. However, when an older person does lose a job, it has been much harder to find a new one. Older job seekers need to do an honest self-assessment of their skills and upgrade them if needed or set their sights on jobs that better match their current capabilities. Employers need to make their own adjustments, beginning with tossing preconceptions of older workers out the window. Judge each job applicant as an individual. It's the law, and it's also the right thing to do. In assessing the suitability of older job applicants, here are 10 other things to keep in mind: 1. They are not unhappy. MetLife recently completed its 10th annual survey of employee benefits, based on extensive surveys of hiring managers and employees. It finds that younger employees are really unhappy these days. Older workers, by contrast, tend to be more appreciative of what they've got. 2. They are not going to jump ship. MetLife also found that alarming percentages of younger workers would like to be working somewhere other than their current employer in 2012. Among Gen Y workers (born 1981 to 1994), it was 54 percent, while 37 percent of Gen X workers (born 1965 to 1980) were ready, willing, and able to bail on their employers. The comparable figures were 27 percent for younger boomers (born 1956 to 1964) and 21 percent for older boomers (born 1946 to 1955). 3. They are not as needy. Upwards of two-thirds of Gen Y and Gen X employees want more help from employers in providing benefits that better meet their needs. Among older baby boomers, only 31 percent felt that way. 4. They don't want their boss's job. Older employees have, by and large, recognized where they are in terms of professional advancement. They don't waste a lot of time, either theirs or their employer's, with career concerns. [See When Your Boss is Younger than Your Child.] 5. Their skills shortage may be way overblown. Don't assume that older employees don't know their stuff. Maybe they are not texting during meetings because they are more polite. Odds are, they may actually know how to spell complete words, too, if that's important to you. 6. They know what they want. Personal quests are great but they shouldn't be done on work time. Older workers tend to leave their angst at the door when they get to work. 7. They show up on time every day. Any older employee with a solid resume has already developed the kind of attendance and reliability records employers want. 8. They have few personal or family distractions. Seniors love their children but are gladly done with afternoon school runs, soccer games, and any number of other parental duties. 9. Benefits are not as crucial. The MetLife research found that much more pressure for better benefits comes from younger workers. In part, that's because they don't believe Social Security and Medicare benefits will be around for their later years. Older workers, by contrast, have much greater confidence in being able to count of those government programs. [See Is an Extended Senior Career in Your Future?] 10. Wisdom still counts for something. Even a rock picks up something of value after 40 or 50 years. Imagine what older employees can bring to the job if they are encouraged to share it and even mentor younger colleagues. One final note: Today's column includes several misguided stereotypes about younger employees. Before taking too much offense, imagine how older folks feel when they are treated the same way.

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How to find a good yoga teacher

Finding a yoga class is easy, but finding one that is a good fit is an altogether different matter. If you're new to yoga, or still searching for a class that strikes the right chord, here are a few tips to keep in mind. A good place to start is by talking: ask your friends or colleagues at work to recommend a teacher or studio or school. Even if you consider yourself in great shape but are new to yoga, sign up for a beginner's class. Also investigate the methods beforehand: some techniques are notoriously intense, such as Ashtanga, while others are gentle, such as Kripalu. Before unrolling your mat, have an idea of what you're getting to. Get the details beforehand on the length of the class, the cost, what kind of dress is recommended (for example, for heated classes such as Bikram and Power Yoga, you'll want lightweight clothes that breathe), whether or not you need to bring your own yoga mat, and how large the class is. More experienced and popular teachers can draw huge, tightly packed classes, meaning less time to work with individuals. Newer teachers, while a little rougher around the edges, will have more time to give you personalized attention. When it comes to finding a good teacher, make sure he or she not only has been certified to teach yoga but also continues to practice and study under a master yoga teacher. Talk to your teacher beforehand if you have any problems or issues, and look for a teacher who is patient and respectful. While yoga can be challenging and will initially at least cause some pain, never perform a position in class that generates "bad" pain, especially in the knees, lower back, and neck. Talk to your teacher, ask for a modified pose, or assume a rest position. Never allow a teacher to encourage you to "work through" this kind of pain. Also a good teacher will walk around the class, looking at the students' poses, making adjustments as necessary. Get a feel for how the students respond, whether or not there is camaraderie in the class, and if he or she offers feedback and alternatives. Also be sure your teacher incorporates some breath work, which is an intricate part of all forms of yoga. If you find a teacher you like, it's best to study under that teacher as much as you can, allowing your teacher to familiarize herself with your practice. A good teacher will take a personal interest in you and your yoga by listening to your goals and hopes.

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