Beautiful Limbering up asanas

Body Limbering Up Exercises in Yoga

Pawan Mukta asana series: These are wonderful, simple exercises which loosen up, warm up and limber up your joints and muscles from the tip of your toes to the top of your head. It is best to satart any yoga practice with 7 to 8 minutes of Pawan Muktasana excercises.
Before beginning any yoga practice, sit in a comfortable posture. It could be merely in cross legged, or padma asana, on your heels in vajrasana or on a chair or sofa if you are in a debilitated state or have some severe back problem.
Close your eyes and internalize your awareness. Watch your own breathing for a minute or so keeping your spine straight and your whole body relaxed.

a) Feet Stretching exercise: Sit comfortably on your mat with legs stretched out in front of you.
Inhale and stretch your foot outward so that the toes point away from the body.
Exhale and pull your foot inward so that the toes are now poised towards the body. One inhalation and exhalation makes one round. Do seven rounds.

a) Ankle rotation: Sit comfortably and spread your legs a foot apart. Then rotate your right ankle in clockwise direction seven time and then anti-clocwise direction seven times. Repeat the same with your left ankle. Get your feet together and repeat with both feet together.

1) Ardha Titali asana (Half Butterfly) : Sit comfortably with your legs stretched out in front of you. Fold the right leg and place it on your left thigh. Place the right hand on the knee and gently bounce the right leg up and down like the wings of a butterfly. Do 20 to 40 rounds depending on your capacity and comfort level. Do equal number of rounds with the left leg.

2) Poorna Titali asana: Sit comfortably with your legs stretched out in front of you. Then fold both legs. Gripping the toes draw the foot as close as possible to the groin region. Then with hands on the knees, bounce your legs up and down again like a butterfly flapping its wings.

3) Gatyatmak Meeru Vakrasana: Sit on the floor with legs stretched out. Then separate your legs as far apart as possible. Then stretch your hands sideways so that they at the shoulder level and your hands are in one straight line. Then twist your body to the right so that the left hand can grip the right toes and right hand is stretched out at the back. Turn the head to the right and gaze at your right hand. Then twist your body to the left without bringing the hands down. Now grip the left toe with the right hand and turn and gaze at the left hand stretched out behind you. This is one round. Practice between 7 to 10 rounds.

Head Rotation or Greeva Sanchalana: (Neck movement) Sit comfortably in padmasana (cross legged) with hands resting on the knees in gyan or chin mudra.
Close your eyes, relax your body and internalize your gaze.
Move your head forward with exhalation and try to touch the chin to the chest.
The slowly move your head back as far as comfortably possible so that you feel the stretch of the neck muscles and inhale. Do three to ten rounds.
Sit comfortably, inhale deeply and as you exhale turn your head to the right as far back as possible. Then inhale as you come back to the centre and exhale and look to the left as far back as possible. Keep your eyes closed and awareness on stretch and pull of the entire neck region.
Inhale in the centre and bend the head to the side giving a nice stretch to the left side of the neck. Exhale as you bend the head. Repeat for the other side.
4) Mushtika bandha (hand clentching) Sit relaxed in cross legged or any base position. Raise your hands straight in front at shoulder level. Your open palms should point downwards. Stretch your fingers as wide apart as possible. Close the fingers to make a tight fist with the thumbs inside. The fingers should wrap the thumbs. Inhale while opening the hands and exhale while closing. Maintain awareness on breath, and movement and close yours if necessary. Repeat 5 to 10 times.
5) Mushtika bandh ( wrist bending) Sit comfortably in cross legged or base position with back straight but relaxed.
Stretch arms at shoulder level in front of the body with finger together and palm facing downward. Bend the palm at the wrist so that the fingers are pointing at the floor. Then raise the palm at the wrist so the fingers are pointing at the ceiling. Inhale while bending up and exhale while bending down. Repeat it 5 to 10 times.
6) Manibandha chakra: (wrist joint rotation) Remain in base position, back straight, body relaxed. Stretch your hands out in front at shoulder level. Put your thumb inside your palm and close the fingers around it in a tight fist. Then rotate the fist at the wrist in a clockwise direction for 7 to 10 rounds and then anti clock wise direction same number of rounds.
7) Kehuni Naman: ( Elbow bending) Remain in cross legged or base position. Stretch the hands out in front of you at shoulder level palms facing upwards. Then inhale in this position and exhale and bend the hands at the elbow with the fingers touching the shoulders. Do this 7 to 10 rounds
8) Same practice can be done with hands stretched out in a line at the side and palms turned upwards. Inhale in this position and exhale and bend the elbows with the fingers touching respective shoulders.

Yoga Nidra....The Blissful Relaxation

 Yoga Nidra                              

by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Most people sleep without resolving their tensions,
This is termed nidra.
Nidra means sleep, no matter what or why,
But Yoga nidra means sleep after throwing off the burdens,
It is of a blissful, higher quality altogether.

When awareness is separate and distinct from the vrittis,
When waking, dream and deep sleep pass like clouds,
Yet awareness of atma remains,
This is the experience of total relaxation.

Relaxation does not mean sleep.
Relaxation means to be blissfully happy.
It has no end. 
I call bliss absolute relaxation:
Sleep is a different matter,
Sleep gives only mind & sense relaxation.
Bliss relaxes the atma, the inner self.
That is why, in tantra,
Yoga nidra is the doorway to Samadhi.

Beauty Through yoga

                                               Beauty Through Yoga 

                                                 by 

                                             Kamini Bobde

Beauty is skin deep, is a well known adage, but the portend of this message  penetrates people’s minds just as deep. Beauty has been shrink-wrapped into specific parameters of skin colour, height and figure. This kind of brain washing by the commercial world and the media is producing dissatisfied individuals who are trying to attain the unattainable, that is, uniformity in appearance. To want to look good is not a crime but to be slave to it is a crime against one’s own self.

The truth of the matter is that a healthy mind and body are essential for beauty, a kind of beauty which gives joy and happiness both to the possesser and admirer. Not the Hollywood actor Maryln Manroe kind of beauty which the whole world gasped at but Maryln was miserable enough to end it in it’s prime. But the poet said, “A thing of beauty is joy forever”  Which is true. Only the concept of beauty has to be understood.  

What are these attributes of beauty which are joy forever? What about the wrinkled, wizened beauty of a Mother Theresa?

Therefore, before I talk about beauty through yoga it is essential to settle what we mean by beauty and what is achievable through yoga. I am definitely not talking about altering your nose length or rubbing off wrinkle lines with butox.

  

A glowing complexion, sparkling eyes, a strong steady gait, well toned body are attributes of an attractive personality. All of these are attainable simply through the daily practice of yoga or practice of asanas.

 A major attribute of beauty is also appeal which goes beyond mere looks. It is the over all personality of the person. Bad temperament, like arrogance, anger, or negative, depressive dispositions can cancel out all appeal and make a person unattractive. While asanas take care of the physical fitness of a person, the other daily practices like, pranayam, pratyhara, dharna, dhyana and samadhi take care in correcting the mental, emotional and temperamental problems. In short a healthy mind, body and spirit is what results in a beautiful person which is highly achievable through yoga.  

Men and women alike are these days obsessed with retaining youthful looks and vigour in life. Here I would like to relate what was achieved in death by Paramhansa Yogananda which is a proof of what can be achieved through the practice of yoga. Paramhansa Yogananda who is immortalized through his book, “Autobiography of a yogi”, spread the message of yoga and kriya in the west. He lived largely in the west and took Mahasamadhi in Los Angeles, California, on March 7, 1952.

The body of Yogananda was kept for more than 20 days and here is a reproduction of the notorized letter of Mr. Henry T. Rowe, Los Angeles Mortuary Director, in which he wrote how weeks after his death, Yoganand’s face shone and there was no sign of any decay. “The absence of any visual signs of decay in the dead body of Paramhansa Yogananda offers the most extraordinary case in our experience…No odour of decay emanated from his body at any time. On March 27th there was no sign to say that his body had suffered any visible physical disintegration at all.”

While Yogananda was an exceptional spiritual person, but from what he achieved even in death it is clear that if one were to adopt  yoga in some measure in our lives we can hope to arrest decay and destruction of our bodies.

In this column, I will outline briefly how a daily package of yoga can bestow you with beauty.

Asanas are so designed as to revitalize your various organs, exercise your muscles and oxygenate your blood and cells and throw out toxins.

Very often a dull complexion, mousy hair, pimples, pigmentation are result of  bad digestive system, hormonal imbalances, lack of exercise and bad lifestyle. Here I would like to tell you about a young girl who had an unfortunate skin allergy which would darken her skin, and her face would break out in itchy red eruptions. Only a daily application of cortisone cream would suppress it. Realising that at some point the cortisone would stop working, she took recourse to yoga. Her teacher found that she had chronic constipation problem and she was unduly stressed out about studies. A combination of this resulted in accumulated toxins trying to escape through her the pores of her skin which resulted in the eruptions. Ten days of asanas, pranayam brought her problem under control. Then cleansing her digestive system through “Shankprakshalan”, eliminated her problem completely. Now, she takes care to see that her system is cleansed and keeps her stress under control with pranayam and meditation.

 A daily practice of asanas as prescribed by a good yoga teacher designed for specific personality and body constitution takes care of  maladies and health problems due to mal function of disgestive, hormonal, system  in our bodies.

Asanas followed by pranayam (breathing control), pratyahara (withdrawal of senses) , dharna ( one pointedness) and dhyana ( meditation)  relieve stress and over a period bring about a balance in one’s attitudes and outlook on life. It is important in any practice of yoga to realize that any amount of reading, or mere intellectual understanding is useless and the only way to fully know what each of the above mentioned practices are is to experience through daily practice under the guidance of good teacher.

   

Dhauti: Three fold cleansing

Dhauti: Cleansing thro Yoga

The sad aspect about today’s treatment of most health disorders is adding yet another disorder to suppress an existing one. Depression or anxiety is treated through drugs like prozac, (fluoxetine) etc, which have side effects like reduced sexual functioning, lethargy and weight gain. This is not to rubbish modern day medicines or medical benefits. They are indispensable. But a synthesis of modern medicine and ancient time-tested knowledge like yoga will go a long way in alleviating suffering of humans.

In yoga the problem of cure becoming a problem is not only recognized but taken care of by trying to correct the root cause of the ailment. Yoga constantly aims at correcting the imbalances in the body, mal-functioning in organs, blockages in smooth flow of energy, information, nutrients, blood and all such essentials within the body through the various systems and pathways in the body.

The only school or institute of learning this knowledge of yoga is personal experience through practise.

Hatha Yoga does precisely this, that is, bring about harmony, balance and purity within the body and the various apparent and subtle pathways in the body.

Yoga and ayurveda work on the three ‘doshas’ namely, kapha ( mucus), vat ( wind) and pitta (bile) inherent in everyone. A balanced proportion of these three makes for an healthy constitution. Hatha yoga helps bring about balance in these three doshas. It is, however, equally important to bear in mind that if there is no such imbalance, then the six shat (six) karmas(action) of Hatha yoga should not be practiced as a routine otherwise they will not be effective when genuinely required.

The six cleansing asanas as stated in the last column are, neti, dhauti, nauli, bhasti, trataka and kapalbhati. Neti was dealt with in the last issue of She.

Dhauti, at the apparent level seems like a good process of cleaning the upper digestive tract. But like in most factors in yoga, the benefits work at several levels. It’s effects are not merely on the physical, but also mental, and emotional. How this works will be understood clearly once the process is understood.

Dhauti must be practiced on empty stomach preferably in the morning after waking up. Keep about six glasses of luke warm slightly salty water ready. Stand near a wash basin and drink successive glasses of this water in smooth but quick succession. Depending on individual capacity, the urge to throw up hits you after four to six glasses of water. Then standing with the body lowered over the wash basin and from head to waist parallel to the ground, throw up all the water. If after six glasses the urge to throw up needs a little stimulation, then put two fingers inside the mouth and rub the tongue near the throat. If a person has been suffering from biliousness, the expelled water is likely to be green, okr if it’s mere bile then it is likely to be yellow and bitter.Depending on what is in excess in the body, bile, mucus the water will be slightly yellow and bitter or If mucus is in excess then it is sticky, frothy and white.

A lot of toxins also are thrown out. This happenes in people who eat out frequently. Such food beidng heavy, a lot of food remains undiested in the lower part of the stomach. This mixes with the next meal and passes into the intestine thus poisoning and contaminating the body by passing into the blood stream through the intestine. Dhauti or kinjal kriya prevents such auto poisoning of the body.

Now the question for most minds will be how can vomitting six glasses of water benefit say a patient of depression or help get rid of stress. Well, the impulse of throwing up stimulates the Vegas nerves and nervous reflex action in the lungs. This releases pent up stress, emotions. There is a feeling of lightness. Thereore, it is a good kriya for depression, lethargy and for introvert people. It also helps expel mucus secretions from the bronchial tubes in the lungs. Removal of such blockages in the respiratory passage of the lungs brings great relief to asthma patients by allowing the person to breathe more easily, writes, Swami Satyananda Saraswati in his phenomenal book “Yoga and kriya”. He goes on to write, that dhauti or kunjal kriya is so beneficial for asthama patients that they can do it even when they are having an attack.

I have myself helped a lady in Bombay who is a patient of asthma and a heavy smoker to come back from the brink of no return with help of this practise.

Dhauti is also helpful in treating depression, anxiety, stress besides constipation, acidity, and is incomparable way of washing the digestive system from the stomach to the mouth. Cleansing of the digestive system also takes care of bad breath. Besides, the cleansed system works more efficiently in digesting food, assimilating nutrients and eliminating other digestive problems.

Therefore, its benefits are manifold.

Although, it is good for acidity, those suffering from ulcers should avoid doing it until, their ulcers are brought under control. Also, those suffering from hernia of the stomach or abdomen , or those who have just had any stomach operation, plus those with high BP and heart must do it under care of an expert. Especially those have had an open heart or implant or stent must avoid it.

Now, a problem for most people in doing this kriya is revulsion at the idea of vomiting. However, they must introspect if retaining toxins, fermented, poisonous, contaminated food ,ill-health, bad breath is better.

Management of Tension thro Yoga

Management of Tension

A prevailing myth about emotions is that there is nothing we can do about them. Most people feel they are like tiny boats on a vast sea of emotions. However, Norman E Rosenthal, psychiatrist and researcher, writes, the more we learn about emotions the more we see how much we can do to treat troublesome emotions and develop healthy ones.

Researcher James Laird from Clark University has found that asking students assume facial expressions associated with subtle smiling or frowning made them happier or angrier. If such simple subtle difference as a facial expression can influence the state of one’s mind then how much more powerful yogic postures which work on the endocrine and limbic system can work on creating right mental balance in a person. For, one’s state of mind is like a simple equation with the right balance between body and mind being equal to a peaceful state of mind. Asanas are the body part of the equation and pranayama and pratyahara are the mind end of the equation.

It is a sad commentary on modern living that the unprecedented comforts and luxuries have sadly not contributed to the mental and emotional well being of individuals. In fact, tensions have increased in equal proportion. For example, one of the “programmed response” of modern living is fear of failure and that the only people worthwhile in this world are those who have “made it” in life”.

The above is just one example of the manifold pressures of life which is the cause of tension. Physical, muscular, mental and emotional tensions are the manifestation of modern day living. These tensions cause imbalances in the health, mental, emotional state and therefore personality of the person.

So how does yoga help in managing stress and tension in life. It was Sage Kapila who gave us the Samkhya system. Later on during Buddha’s time, Maharshi Patanjali modified Kapila’s philosophy and gave us the Yoga-Sutras. He defined yoga as the science of mental control which affects the various dimensions of a person’s personality and patterns of behaviour.

Asanas:

It has been established scientifically that asanas and yogic postures bring about complete harmony between body and mind. To understand this we must know how the mind and body complement each other. If you worry too much, get angry, think too much, are self-conscious, these lead to hyper activity of your glandular system. It is well known that the

endocrine system/ glands have great impact on the physical and mental behaviour of a person. These glands include, thyroid, pituitary, pineal, pancreas, etc.

The mind and the endocrine system are closely linked. With regular practice of asanas and yogic postures many tensions can be managed as they manage the endocrine system in a balanced way. The simple practice of two asanas, namely, Paschimottana asana and Dhanurasana can result in muscular and mental relaxation.

Paschimottana asana: In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika it is simply described as, “Stretching the legs (in front) on the ground, like a stick, bending forward, holding the toes with both hands and placing the forehead on the knees.”

This asana stretches the whole spinal column and the central nervous system thus enabling nervous and pranic impulses to pass directly up to the higher centres. When there is a lot of tension in the body and mind, paschimottan asana helps removing it by regulating the adrenal glands and the whole system.

Dhanurasana: It is an asana in which lying flat on the floor on the stomach, the ankles are clutched by both hands and then the whole body is drawn like a bow, hence its name. It is useful in overcoming lethargy and sluggishness in mind and body. It directly affects the solar plexus at the navel which is a large sympathetic nervous centre so important for healthy functioning of organs of the body. It is particularly good for relieving tension because various endocrinal glands are massaged and toned, notably the thyroid and the adrenals. It removes tiredness for cortisone is secreted to give the required lift or if you are overactive the secretion of cortisone is reduced so that the body attains balance.

But, it is most important to bear in mind that asanas should be learnt from a proficient yoga guru and should be performed with full mental awareness and correct breathing pattern. Awareness on every part of the body participating in the movements is of supreme importance in yoga.

These asanas remove the tension which gets accumulated in the muscle in the course of the day.

Emotional Tension:Emotional tension is the most difficult to manage. Especial if it is loss of a loved one in an accident, divorce a love affair gone bad, etc.

While tranquilisers and hypnotism are used for overcoming emotional problems of sever kinds and sometimes even lesser ones, they do not help in tackling it at its root. Yogic practices of pranayama and pratyahara help in managing emotional problems which are bound to occur in the ups and downs of life.

Pranayama: It is system of breathing exercises which help in expelling maximum amount of carbon dioxide from the body and ensures a good supply of oxygen to the brain and body.

But, as the yogis have said, that one should not mistake pranayama merely as breathing exercise. It does improve oxygen in the body and expels carbon dioxide which has its own benefits physiologically. But as Swami Satyananda has said,”Pranayama actually utilises the breathing process as a means to manipulate all forms of prana within the human framework whether gross or subtle. This in turn has repercussions on the mind and body. “Mind is the master of the senses and the breath is the master of the mind.”( Hatha-Yoga Pradipika 4:29). Therefore breath awareness stills the mind, helps your awareness to turn inwards as one watches with eyes closed and an inward gaze, the movement of breath within our body. It helps in warding off thoughts which relaxes the mind and therefore smoothens out tensions in the mind and body.

Pratyahara : The process of pratyahara is intended to disconnect one’s awareness from the sense organs, thereby instigating internalization of awareness. Pranayama followed by pratyahara is a potent combination for calming all tense nerves, muscles and knots of tension within oneself.

All this will remain a whole lot of words unless one actually practices and experiences the wonderful benefits of yoga.

Balance Through Yoga

            Balance: A necessary virtue of life

                                             By

                                                Kamini Bobde

Scott McCredie in his book, “Balance: In Search of the Lost Sense”,  declares that “balance” is the sixth sense. Expostulating on its importance he  expresses concern over “an epidemic of falls” in the USA. His worry is understandable if one were to go by the figures cited by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention which says that by 2040, 25 million people will fall in the USA resulting in 8 million injuries and 25,000 deaths. 

Balance may have suddenly become a fashionable term. But its importance has been recognized way back by yogis in ancient India and Aristotle in Greece. Aristotle in his exposition on what is virtue or excellence said that it was the middle path or balance between two extremes. Will Durant in The Story of Philosophy, expounds on Aristotle’s “Golden mean” and writes, “The qualities of character can be arranged in triads, in each of which the first and last qualities will be extremes and vices, and the middle quality a virtue or an excellence. So between cowardice and rashness is courage; between stinginess and extravagance is liberality; between sloth and greed is ambition; between humility and pride is modesty; between secrecy and loquacity, honesty; between moroseness and buffoonery, good humour; between quarrelsomeness and flattery, friendship; between Hamlet's decisiveness and Quixote's impulsiveness is self-control. "Right " then in ethics or conduct, is not different from "right" in mathematics or engineering; it means correct, fit, what works best to the best result.

 Hatha Yoga, too lays great emphasis on balance. It not only reveals the benefits of physical, mental and emotional balance but also outlines how to detect imbalance, correct it and explains the physiological aspect of balance. How it can be done through the various practices of yoga we will see as we progress in this column.

But, before we go into the practices, it is necessary to understand and internalize the principles of balance in our body, mind and consciousness. If yoga was merely physical exercise then one could do it mechanically with our mind elsewhere. Therefore it is required that one understands the principle and practice of any yogic exercise.

In yogic scriptures, Hatha Yoga is described as attainment of physical and mental purification. The word Hatha is a union of two bija mantras, Ham and tha.  The syllable ha means the sun and tha means the moon. Therefore, Hatha yoga is about balance between the sun and moon aspects of our body. These mantras are significant as they are correlated with the two important nadis of our body within which energy flows.

The aim of Hatha yoga is to see that the flow of energy between the two nadis is in harmony or in a balanced state. Ha is identified with the right nostril and represents the pingala nadi and is associated with the solar force. The characteristics of which are dynamism, extrovert, hyperactive, masculine and is called the physical force.           

That is identified with the Ida nadi, that is, the lunar force. It is passive, introvert, quiet, tranquil, female and artistic in character.

At any given time of day or night you will find that one nostril is clearer than the other. Before asana, pranayama, or meditation it is desirable to have a balance between the two nadis.

In today’s world, external action, enjoyment and understanding the outside world occupies a greater part of our lives. When one experience exhaustion from pursuing ambition, wealth and material accumulation then one turns inward to fill the emptiness of  the spirit. Then one begins to balance outer activities with inner awareness.

But, let me clarify here that yoga does not give emphasis to inward awareness or internalization importance over the external. It maintains that extreme of either is unhealthy and right balance is what is desirable.