Customer Reviews

Sacred Yoga Practice with Rainbeau Mars - Vinyasa Flow: Pure Tranquility [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let me clear the air. If you want a workout from your Yoga, do not look here. Go and look for a Rodney Yee, Bryan Kest, or even a Sara Ivanhoe routine.

This is a very gentle practice, performed seated on the floor and is to prepare your mind for meditation, so don't go expecting rigorous sun salutations.

Rainbeau cues in voiceover, and places proper emphasis on breathing. Her mirrored cueing in this practice is generally done well, if not a bit inconsistent, and there are some minor timing issues where her cues are not in synch with her movements - this is a risk you take when you cue in voiceover, but is not so detrimental as to take away from the practice in any sort.

She takes you through seated twisting postures, stretches and forward bends. While you hold the pose she uses spiritual prose to guide you and help you focus. Some viewers may find this a bit 'airy-fairy'; if so, you should not be looking at any of Rainbeau's practices, since it is obvious that it is not a 'Sacred Yoga Practice' that you are after, but more like a '20min Yoga Makeover' or a 'Fat Blasting Yoga' routine, which you will not find here.

My mother, who suffers from depression, makes fantastic use of this routine. After performing the practice she is calm, relaxed, and free from stress. She makes the most use of this routine, and literally lets go of tension and anxiety.


You will be calm, peaceful, and tranquil.

Highly recommended.

Pure Tranquility is a yoga practice designed to prepare you for meditation by relaxing your body and clearing your mind. Even more so than Rainbeau Mars' Beginners video, this is a truly gentle routine--the entire 30-minute practice is performed on the floor. Throughout the practice, Rainbeau reminds you to concentrate on your breathing in order to allow your mind to become focused. She then leads you through a series of gentle stretches, many of which are recognizable from more traditional stretching programs, such as shoulder and tricep stretches. After throughoutly releasing muscles in the upper body, Rainbeau moves on to gentle twists for the lower body, always focusing on opening the hips as well. When the practice ends, it leaves you in a perfect position for continuing in a seated meditation or reclining on the floor for relaxation pose.

Rainbeau comes across as sort of a young, happy, hippy chick. She provides excellent mirrored cuing and is obviously very knowledgable about yoga. This is perfect practice for anyone who wants a very gentle, very relaxing yoga program, but it would also be a great video for those totally new to yoga and wanting to increase their flexibility through very simple yoga stretches. Highly recommended!

This second video in Rainbeau Mars 4 tape set "Sacred Yoga" is really wonderful!

This tape has a beautiful sequence of poses that gently open your hips, shoulders and overall body. What is really great is that not only does it prepare your body for sitting meditation, but the entire tape is done like a meditation.

Rainbeau leads you thru this practice at a gentle pace which lets you really move into the poses gradually and stay in them long enough to really melt into them and receive the most from them physically, mentally and spiritually.

Her instructions are very easy to follow she has a wonderful relaxed and natural way of putting everything across.

The scenery is beautiful and the music is a perfect compliment to it which helps create a really wonderful atmosphere to practice with.

Highly recommended!

Namaste.

The setting is beautiful (Maui) and Rainbow Mars has such a soothing teaching style. I'm a pretty advanced yoga person, however, so this DVD just sits on my shelf. It would be great for beginners or those who need to start very slow with yoga, plus gain the added relaxation benefits.

This 30 minute practice is just about the best restorative yoga DVD you can imagine. It's set in Maui, so the scenery is lovely, and the entire practice is done seated, for those stressful days when you don't have the energy for much of anything. She does use a lot of "new age" terminology, so it that bothers you, look elsewhere. If not, this DVD will surely become one of your favorites for relaxing.

As Rainbeau says, "Yoga is not a competition." Even though she is very advanced, as you can see when she demonstrates her own practice through the closing credits, she makes Pure Tranquility accessible to all fitness levels. A bonus 15-minute meditation session is also included.

I have been doing yoga for about 15 years and have over 20 yoga dvds. I've owned this video for at least five years. I've done it hundreds of times and never get sick of it. That's a big compliment because yoga videos can get too groovy and annoying, even for me. I love this Tranquility video especially when I am too tired to stand up, when I feel stiff and sore all over. It is the yoga I do when I am too tired to do yoga. My favorite instructors are usually Baron Baptiste, Rodney Yee, and Gurmukh. I like John Friend and Anna/Ravi and Bryan Kest, but they can get on my nerves if I am in a bad mood or feeling cynical. This is Rainbeau's best video because it is basic body relief, nothing fancy. It gives basic reminders to pay attention. The sentiment to pay attention to the breath never gets old. I've given this video as a gift to many non-yogini friends because it is basic stretching, nothing gimmicky or off-putting. It really helps me keep going.

This version was easy to follow, did not involve elaborate positions, and provided quiet time for meditation.

Many people wrote great reviews, I will only add what has been mostly left out.
The menu options are the audio in 2.0 or 5.1 dolby, chapter selections, photo gallery, the bonus section has a 9 min guided meditation (using verbal hints of color, chakras, nature elements) & trailers of her other dvds.
The workout is mostly gentle stretching, 95% in cross legged position. There is a great side torso stretch (arm/hand placement is key) that works the side, shoulder & neck as well, basic common yoga sitting spinal stretch, 2 deep shoulder stretch behind your back also using isometric pulling from the other hand, basic sitting straight leg bend, a one knee bent over the other straight leg knee (great deep hamstring stretch never seen before) & bending fwd & butterfly.
I enjoy Rainbeau's pure positive speech & ways to describe how to move. She sounds like a calm yogi/martial art master. Those who did not like her voice or especially her reminder to "enjoy your breath" probably were holding theirs & pushing their body too far, too fast. She said it herself, this yoga dvd is for learning to go slower, to relax, to really go deep in your body calmly & slowly to open up deep emotional tension that you would skip over in a faster routine.
I was able to go slow & deep w/o getting antsy & hitting the fwd remote I normally would from a teacher who was not as calm as she is. By doing so, I really got some deep stretches & really opened up my neck, shoulders & hamstring. I did feel some subconscious emotional tension come to the surface, but not fully released, but then I did skip the meditation in the bonus section.
This dvd is those who have or looking for yoga teachers who do have full body awareness who knows what feels good, with what specific arm, leg position in the right order who are looking for a slow, calming session to open up emotional tension that is the source of physical tension. In this particular dvd, it is best if you can hold a cross legged position a long time, though you can also have your legs in butterfly position or pause the workout & take breaks.
If you're looking for a more physical demanding workout, try her Pure Sweat or Power yoga. For other teachers with body awareness, try Rodney Yee, Wai Lana, Shiva Rae, Yogi Hari, Better Sex Through Yoga, Yoga with Ateeka, Yoga Fusion-Power, The Firm-Power yoga.

I really like this video, it is great for days that you aren't up for or don't have the energy for a more strenuous yoga practice, but want to stretch, relax and clear your mind. This 30 minute program is done seated, mostly in a cross legged position, often switching the crossing of the legs. You will see spinal twists, side bends, forward bends, and some shoulder, arm and neck stretches while in the crossed leg position. There are also some forward bends and some hip stretches. As others have stated this is not a traditional yoga routine, it is to prepare you for meditation while stretching you out gently. There is a bonus meditation segment on the DVD which is also done seated, but could be doing lying on your back as well.

This is my first DVD with Rainbeau Mars, she is a pleasant and likeable instructor. She instructs as a voiceover, which I normally don't care for but it doesn't bother me here. She instructs one on one on a platform surrounded by rocks with the ocean and mountains behind her, the video is filmed in Hawaii and the scenery is quite lovely. During the closing credits she demonstrate some quite advanced poses which showcase her flexibility.

For anyone looking for a gentle yoga practice, this is a fine choice, great to ease the mind after a stressful day, or on low energy days when you just want to relax and do something good for yourself. Highly recommended.

I didn't care for this DVD and more importantly, my body didn't like it! I'm in complete agreement with Lisa, the reviewer below. I felt more tension while doing this than I did before the program. I didn't know that was possible with so-called relaxing yoga, but apparently it is!

For the pros - the setting by the water couldn't be more beautiful. It's downright gorgeous. But in itself, it's not enough.

As stated by others, you sit cross-legged without moving your lower body for what seems like an eternity (okay, 30 mins). My knees and lower back protested over that. I tried to ignore my body, thinking just give it more time. I only got more uncomfortable as time progressed.

The other thing is Rainbeau Mars reads a script in voiceover and she doesn't pause or stop talking at any point - it's just constant chatter. So not only was my body unable to relax, my mind couldn't either. She didn't give me a chance to go deep within, as most yoga instructors do. She tries to be helpful in what she says, but much of it was unnecessary, and some parts sounded like a sermon to me. And other things she said just seemed rather irritating. For instance, I lost count how many times she says "Enjoy your breath" (I stopped counting at 6). I wanted to mute out her voice after a while. This is not a good sign!

I wanted to like this DVD. Something that looks this beautiful shouldn't have felt like such a waste of time. But there are so many other gentle yoga programs available, I wouldn't recommend this one. Most relaxing yoga programs (if not all, besides this one) let you change your body's position, give you resting poses in between, like child's pose, or poses done laying down interspersed with sitting cross-legged (the latter is fine, if not over done). And in the end the tightness in your body gets released, rather than increased! So I'm going back to my other yoga DVDs, and tomorrow after work I'll donate this one to my local thrift shop.