Yoga is not a competition

by Freya D'Amico

Whether you're a beginner or have been practicing for years, don't get sucked into the "sports jockeying" stereotype of who can place their hands lowest to the ground or complete the final expression that week. Those are outside forces you cannot control, and yoga should never ever be “who can rip their muscles getting into a posture.” Yoga shouldn't be a competition with yourself either. You should absolutely push yourself toward self improvement, but more importantly, yoga should teach you to listen to your body. Some days, you'll be amazed by how far you've come, and others, you'll be more stiff, or sore, and need to take modifications. These are good flows and ebbs. Don't let your ego get in the way of listening to your body's needs.

Never be discouraged when you come to your mat. The most important thing is that you had a choice, to keep on with your busy life or to come to your mat, and choose to reflect on your inner self. If you're doing yoga at all, thank yourself for making that choice. Everything else is just circumstance.

Yoga for both mind and body

By Megara Tegal

Our busy lifestyles can leave us feeling stressed and under pressure throughout the week. Yet by living such an unhealthy lifestyle, we often place ourselves at risk. Almost all common maladies can be pinned on stress- from heart diseases to a poor immune system to depression.

All these diseases can be fought against and kept at bay with the routine practice of yoga, says Guru Nanda Siriwardene, a 5th Dan black belt and yoga instructor for over 15 years who runs yoga training centres at Nugegoda, Borella, Thimbirigasaya and Kiribathgoda.Having learnt Hatha yoga in India to help enhance his capabilities in karate, Guru Nanda found that yoga helped him maintain a healthy body and mind. He says that to benefit from yoga it is important to have a spiritual understanding, be it Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity or Islam. It is necessary to believe in a greater power.

While there are about 20 different types of yoga. Hatha yoga is about creating a balance between the body and mind. In fact, in Sanskrit, ‘Ha’ translates to sun which is associated with the body, while ‘Tha’ translates into moon and is identified with the psyche, says Guru Nanda who specializes in this form of yoga.

The fundamental part of yoga is discipline. To derive the most from yoga it is essential to be well disciplined in all aspects of life- how you eat your meals, practise yoga and other aspects of your daily routine. The practice eventually becomes a way of life.

“First there should be a regular meal-time. Have a balanced meal, respect your food and eat while relaxed. Also, fibre is most often sidelined, although it is essential in cleaning the bowels. If people made it a point to include fibre in their diet it would reduce their chances of developing stomach cancer.”
“Another healthy habit that is practised in yoga is that after any meal, only 1/2 of your stomach should be filled with food, 1/4 with water and the remaining 1/4 with air.”

“You need a strong foundation to build a house. Likewise, if someone wants to practise yoga they need to master the basic principles to gain the most out of yoga,” he adds.

Becoming disciplined in your daily routine helps you to be disciplined when practising yoga exercises. The exercises must be done regularly if you want to get the most from the ancient practice that is relevant and functional in modern times.

“To maintain the postures in yoga you must be disciplined. To bend, to align yourself and to maintain that posture, you must be disciplined mentally and physically. If you can discipline yourself, you can master yoga easily. No matter what your build may be, you will be able to do the most complex and advanced postures effortlessly,” he added.

Of course there is more to the postures than simply bending your body. Here again, if you want to gain the most from yoga, when assuming a position it is necessary to follow the proper breathing technique.
“We’ve established that ‘Ha’ is the physique and “Tha” is the psyche, together “Hatha” is the overall health, strength and coordination. Yoga is unity. Practising yoga helps to bring them together, making you physically and mentally healthy.”

“Breathing correctly is a vital part of yoga. It gives you universal strength. All humans have a link with the world. When we breathe we take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, which is recycled and breathed in again. So we have a link with the world around us. Following a proper breathing technique we can utilize the most of our surroundings. If we practise the right way of breathing we can gain more energy from our surroundings,” he added.

Breathing techniques are an indispensable part of yoga. So much so that another meaning that is derived from the word “Hatha” is that “Ha” means inhalation while “Tha” means exhalation. When you inhale you can activate your physique, and when you exhale you can activate your mind.

In Sanskrit, asanas refers to posture while pramanaya refers to breathing. The two must be coupled correctly or else the yoga exercises will not be as effective.

“When you practise the asanas, you can activate the inner body, for example the blood vessels and nerves. In the case of blood vessels the postures help in opening up arteries and veins making blood circulation better.”

“Pramanaya is about supplying the maximum amount of oxygenated blood to your organs and muscles.”

Yoga helps activate three vital aspect of an individual- the physical body, mind and energy. It keeps yoga practitioners, healthy in both body and mind, fit and energetic.

Yoga Options

by Jenni Fleming

Yoga is often used to promote relaxation and improve fitness, strength and balance. There are many different types of yoga, so it’s important to find a teacher and style that are a good fit for you.
Yoga Use
Yoga is an ancient practice that aims to achieve and maintain mental, physical and spiritual well-being through the use of breathing exercises (called Pranayama), postures (Asana) and meditation. Health experts consider it to be a form of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM therapy. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, more than 13 million adults and 1.5 million children have practiced yoga.

Many people use yoga techniques to promote relaxation and improve fitness, strength and balance. Research suggests yoga may also be beneficial for reducing heart rate and blood pressure, increasing lung capacity and reducing levels of anxiety, depression and insomnia. Investigators are also looking at the effects of yoga on treatment for many types of health problems, like chronic low-back pain, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

Yoga Types
There are many different types of yoga and combinations of styles. Here is a brief overview of some:

Hatha yoga is the most common type of yoga practiced in the U.S. Followers use breathing exercises and a series of slow-paced, gently postures to achieve a balance between internal and external forces.

Vinyasa yoga focuses on breath control while moving through a series of postures. Each pose emphasizes stretching and is quickly followed by a counter pose to achieve balance. It’s good for improving tone and flexibility.

Ashtanga yoga is an intense, physically demanding workout. It involves the quick progression through a series of six increasingly difficult postures. This type of yoga builds strength and is ideal for athletes.

Bikram yoga is often called “hot yoga.” It’s performed in a heated room with temperatures ranging between 95 and 105 degrees F. The style emphasizes a series of 26 postures designed to stretch the muscles, ligaments and tendons. The heated room enables a person to stretch further and promotes sweating to remove toxins from the body. Bikram yoga is very intense and not for everyone, especially pregnant women.

Iyengar yoga emphasizes longer-held postures to improve alignment of the skeleton and muscles. Unlike other forms of yoga, it incorporates use of props, like chairs, belts, blocks, pillows and blankets, to promote balance safety and maintain comfort throughout the poses. This type of yoga is often preferred by seniors and those who have problems with flexibility and balance.

The yoga sutras of Patanjali: asana

by Annette Rivlin-Gutman

Asana means “staying” or “abiding”. Most people think of asanas or postures when they think of yoga. It is the most popular part of yoga in the west. However, yoga is so much more. Asana is the third of the eight limbs of Patanjali’s Sutras.

The yoga sutras say that when we are able to do asanas, we are able to handle opposites. We know how our body reacts in different situations, so we can adapt to challenges. Asana creates an ease where there is a balance between movement and stillnes.

According to Patanjali, asanas should serve the highest good of the person rather than the person having to adapt to fit into the practice of the asanas.

Asanas help develop stability, flexibility, and endurance in the body. These benefits prepare the body for proper practice of pranayama, the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga.

Yoga for Sleep Disorders

by Larry Kovner

Did you know that practicing yoga helps relieve insomnia and promotes deep relaxation?

How? Your sleeping quality can improve as a result of the stimulatory effect yoga has on your central nervous system and brain. It also calms your adrenal glands. This is because many yoga postures increase the blood circulation to the sleep center in the brain, which in effect enhances your sleep cycle. The breathing that you do in yoga allows for more oxygen in the body providing clarity in the mind.

You might even need less sleep as a result of practicing yoga on a regular basis! This is due to the fact that yoga helps to eliminate toxins from your body and rejuvenates and reorganizes you at the cellular level. Yoga can help you fall asleep sooner and improve the quality of your sleep. You will have a more restful sleep because of the relaxing aspect of yoga and the subsequent relieving of stress, tension, and fatigue.

In addition to vigorous poses and movements, yoga also includes relaxation poses. A common relaxation pose is called “Savasana” also known as dead body pose. This poses is about being in a state of total stillness and blocking out thoughts that interfere with your peace of mind, making it ideal as a cure for sleeping difficulties.

Savasana can be performed on the floor as a meditation. You can also practice in it your own bed at night to help you fall asleep.

To correctly perform the Savasana pose:

Rotate your legs and then let them fall gently out to the sides.

Let your arms fall to your sides, slightly separated from the body, palms facing upwards.

Rotate your spine by turning your head from side to side

Stretch yourself as though someone is pulling your head away from your feet, your shoulders down and away from your neck, your legs down and away from your pelvis.

Breathe deeply and slowly from your abdomen.

Hold the pose for several minutes. Still your mind still and concentrate on your breathing.

When done, bend your knees and push yourself onto one side, then push yourself in a sitting position.

While Savasana is an effective technique for curing a sleep disorder, it doesn’t work immediately. You have to practice it like any other yoga poses. So if it doesn’t help you fall asleep on the first try, keep practicing it for a few weeks. Your body and mind are deeply connected and will work together to help you get the rest you need.

Yoga Pose Crow and its Dangers

by Celebrity yoga trainer Subodh Gupta

Although the crow pose gives us many benefits for the mind and the body, in some health conditions this pose is not safe to be performed.

Three situations when yoga pose crow can be dangerous:

The yoga pose Crow is also known as kakasana.

"Kaka" means crow (a large black bird with a loud cry). The body in this yoga pose resembles that of a bird, thus the names, crow.

The yoga pose crow is a moderate inverted, balancing yoga pose. This yoga pose helps in building strength in the upper extremities (arms, forearms, elbow joints, hands and wrists) of body. The crow pose requires courage (to risk falling on your nose) and hip flexibility (to bring the thighs alongside the chest).

The crow is one of the yoga poses that actually looks a lot harder than it really is and it requires much more coordination, concentration and awareness than the muscular strength in the upper arms.

As you hold this yoga pose the chest is immobilized so that you can only breathe abdominally.

The crow pose increases both physical and mental balance, concentration and tranquillity. It balances the nervous system, brings lightness to the body and prepares the mind for meditation.

1) if someone has a carpal tunnel syndrome (a lot of pain and weakness in the fingers and wrists), it may aggravate the problem.

2) In pregnancy do not attempt this pose.

3) If you have high blood pressure, it is better to avoid this yoga pose.

Caution: Always check with your doctor if you have any doubts or concerns regarding the suitability of this yoga pose for you.