Yoga Health and Fitness

Archive for the ‘meditation’ Category

Meditation whether silent or guided allows you to go within and tap into your calm, peaceful center and establish a deeper connection with your divine source. Based on the premise that it takes about 40 days to create lasting change replacing thought patterns that do not serve you to more peaceful, contented thoughts, practicalyoga.tv is launching a 40 day ‘Change Your Life Challenge,’ With all of the uncertainty in the air during these turbulent times there are times when we are tempted to give in to the fears that are swirling around. The challenge consists of taking just five minutes of silent meditation each day for 40 days. You can download a free audio recording of the meditation and play it everyday on your ipod or any other .mp3 player, you can burn it to a CD, or just listen on your PC.

The goal of the challenge is to empower you to overcome the fear that threatens your peace and to encourage you to strengthen your deep faith and connection to your Divine source. Practicing Meditation For a Calm Heart can help you to create profound and lasting change in your life, and you will be creating a new habit of meditation that will serve you for the rest of your life.

Meditating is an absolutely free, highly effective way to manage your stress. The only thing you need is a quiet place to sit. But even if you can’t find a quiet place you can learn to block out the noises in the environment and focus inward. becoming aware of your breathing and focusing your attention n taking full, deep, cleansing breaths clears and soothes your mind. Clench and then release each muscle from your toes up your legs to your thighs, your midsection, your shoulders, arms neck and head. Soften your jaw and relax the muscles in your face. Sink into the experience, and when the chaotic thoughts of the ‘monkey mind’ threaten to disturb the stillness, gently bring your attention back to your breath. As you see, meditation is very simple, but not easy at first. The good news is that the more you practice it the easier it does get.

So, now when the chaos, stress and pressures of daily life threaten your peace take just five minutes and go within to access a place of contentment and emerge relaxed and centered and better able to take on the challenges of your life.

Yoga is said to offer a whole host of benefits to practitioners including the development of long, lean muscles, increased strength and vitality, better circulation and lowered stress levels. But yoga can also have some curative benefits as well including the potential to help you to quit smoking.

A smoking habit is a powerful addiction. Most smokers are very much aware of the dangers of smoking, and have tried to quit many times before. People who want to quit but are afraid to because they don’t want to gain weight will be glad to know that using yoga as a way to let go of cigarettes will ensure that you avoid this troublesome side effect of quitting. The weight gain associated with quitting smoking is caused by replacing the habit of smoking with the habit of putting too much food in your mouth. With yoga, we will be replacing the habit of breathing in cigarette smoke with deep cleansing breaths of healing oxygen that will fill your lungs with clean air, clear your mind and rejuvenate your body.

Yoga works in several ways to help you to quit smoking:

•    Helps you to cultivate enough willpower and discipline to quit smoking

•    Gives you the tools to manage your body’s cravings for nicotine

•    Puts you deeply in touch with your body and breath; you will no longer want to pollute your newly healthy body with the deadly toxins from smoking.

Specific Yogic Techniques to quit smoking:

•    Pranayma (deep, controlled breathing)
The deep breathing pranayma techniques actually heal your body as the nicotine is leaving the body and lungs. Deep breathing exercises also help at those when strong nicotine cravings occur. Practicing these exercises in addition to regular yoga asana practice eventually replaces the smoking habit and the craving begins to diminish until they have vanished completely.

•    Jala Neti
Jalaneti is the practice of using a small vessel called a neti pot filled with warm salted water to gently flush the nasal passages. Jala neti works to clean the nasal passages, but it also serves to stimulate the pituitary gland in the brain, which awakens the Ajna Chakra located behind the forehead. Jalaneti, when performed before meditation helps to create a space for clear and unobstructed breathing.

•    Meditation and visualization
The practice of meditation brings you to a place of relaxed awareness where you can access your inner strength and wisdom.  While in meditation you can visualize all of the stress, worry, tension and negative emotions are flowing away from your body. You can also visualize yourself as you intend to be–a healthy, happy, non-smoker.

Yoga helps you to cultivate a new healthier lifestyle. It increases lung capacity and through practicing the asana, meditation, visualization, jala neti and deep, pranayma breathing the urge to smoke and pollute the body eventually simply fades away.

Kundalini yoga is one of several major approaches to yoga that dates back to the Upanishads in ancient India. The practice evolved from within the monasteries in Tibet and India over the course of centuries through systematically studying precise movements and breathing techniques to bring about certain results.

By placing the focus on the Chakras, or energy centers of the body, participants learn to generate spiritual power or Kundalini energy. This energy is often described as being held in dormancy in the spine—not unlike a sleeping snake coiled up at the base of the spine. (Sakti) When you engage in the practice of Kundalini yoga, you awaken and release that once latent spiritual force.

Kundalini Yoga has been defined by the Divine Life Society of India, as the “. . . coiled up, dormant, cosmic power that underlies all organic and inorganic matter within us. . .”

Participants learn special techniques in order to focus on the life force energy and rouse the dormant Kundalini energy bringing it up throughout all of the seven chakras. The first chakra lives at the base of the spine, the second at the lower abdomen between belly button and pubic bone, the third can be found at the solar plexus (between the belly button and the base of the rib cage). The heart chakra is the fourth chakra found in the center of the chest, the fifth is the throat chakra, the sixth between the eyebrows, and the seventh Chakra—the crown Chakra lives on the top of your head. Students learn to raise this sacred force all the way up the body through the use of asana and pranayama techniques.

There are many books and DVDs available to help students learn Kundalini yoga at home. Some of these DVDs contain both lectures and asana practice sequences, which students can follow along with and practice whenever they want to.

You will find several web sites on the Internet that offer free Kundalini yoga asana sequences.  Many of these asanas are focused on building and maintaining a flexible spine and core body strength. Sequences begin with specific pranayama (controlled breathing) exercises, which allow the student to relax, get centered and let go of the stress and cares of the day. This is then followed by some chanting before the asana practice begins. A closing chant and a period of meditation typically ends the routine.

The ultimate goal of practicing Kundalini yoga is to achieve an awakening experience, or sahaja enlightenment experience. This phenomena occurs quite spontaneously and is not in the participant’s control. Sometimes there can be a shaking of the body, spinal rocking, or other ecstatic experiences that can be pleasurable.

The Kundalini approach takes the study and practice of yoga to a deeper, more profound level. Students learn to embrace the powerful spiritual forces within themselves to bring about great changes, healing and profound personal transformations.

If Yoga is being compared to the image of a tree rooted in ancient tradition, then the eight limbs of the Yoga Sutra support the six branches of yogic practices which include the, Bhakti, Hatha, Jnana, Karma, Raja and Tantra aspects of yoga.

All of the branches of yoga incorporate the general principles of yoga including the use of asana, pranayama and meditation. Some focus more strictly on a moral code of behavior, while others have a more intellectual orientation.

In ancient days, yoga was passed down in the oral tradition with an unbroken line of yogis and gurus who took on disciples and taught them the sacred practices and teachings so that they could pass them on to their followers and so on.

With the ulitmate goal of attaining freedom (Kaivalya), or enlightenment for the soul, participants dutifully follow the yogic path ultimately becoming free.

Here is a brief description of the six branches of yoga:

Hatha yoga
This branch of yoga consists of asana practice (poses), pranayama (controlled breath) and meditation. Ha means sun and tha refers to the moon in the ancient Sanskrit. These references to the sun and moon speak to the energy channels in the body which are opened up through disciplined asana practice.

Raja yoga is a more classical approach to yoga, which involves strict compliance with the eight limbs in the Yoga Sutras. Students learn to control their body, mind, thoughts, and senses through meditation and pranayama.

Bhakti yoga is a devotional path of meditation and visualization, which celebrates love and acceptance for all living things.

Jnana yoga is the path of the mind and involves careful study of yogic texts, scriptures and ancient traditions. It focuses on developing deeper knowledge by accessing the intuitive wisdom found within the soul of the practitioner.

Karma yoga is the yoga of service. It is based on the premise that the circumstances of your life flow from the ramifications of your past actions, and it calls for selfless acts of service to the world.

Tantra yoga focuses on the experience of the Divine in all aspects of daily living. It uses rituals to help students increase their awareness of all aspects of life.

If you think of life as a journey, then you understand that there are many different paths that can lead you to your destination. No path is superior to the other as long as it serves to get you where you want to go. The branches of yoga are each a different path, but they need not be separate. Appealing aspects of the various paths can be incorporated into the student’s practice at various times as they see fit. These spiritual practices can only serve to help the student feel more fulfilled and at peace with themselves and their world.

Yoga is a word from the ancient Sanskrit which basically means union of the mind, body and spirit. In the west Yoga has come to be associated with performing difficult poses, but it is really more about using the body and the breath to quiet the mind and achieve the union of spirit with our source.

According to the The Yoga Sutras of Patangali, the ancient text that yoga is based on, there are ‘eight limbs’ that define the practice of Yoga:

1. Yama

2. Niyama

3. Asana

4. Pranayama

5. Pratyahara

6. Dharana

7. Dhyana

8. Samadhi

Health Benefits:
Yoga has healthful benefits for both the body and the mind that are almost too numerous to mention here. Practicing yoga on a consistent basis can improve mobility and flexibility, build and strengthen muscles, improves posture and balance, increases circulation, cardiovascular conditioning, immunity, helps manage blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol and excess weight. For the mind, yoga helps to relieve stress by relaxing both body and mind, fosters focused attention, and increases energy and vitality.

Yoga poses: (asana)
The end goal of asana practice is to work the body in preparation for meditation. There are several different types of asana each with a distinct purpose in training both body and mind. In addition to helping to develop strength, flexibility and stamina, asana practice also works on the internal organ systems, and on the level of the mind they can build confidence and foster a sense of peaceful well being.

Breath, which is the life force of our bodies (prana) is a major focus of yoga practice. Control of the breath, (yama) is what links the physical and mental aspects of yoga unifying mind body and spirit and aiding in the deeply relaxing full expression of each asana. Pranayama establishes the flow of energy and relaxation.

Meditation is really the end goal of yoga practice. Asana and pranayama both serve to prepare the body and mind to sit silently for extended periods of time. Meditation moves the practitioner from the chaotic activity of the busy, waking mind to a place of inner calm and peaceful serenity. Daily meditation keeps the mind fresh and at its best. The benefits of meditation accumulate over time with consistent practice. After awhile you will begin to see its fruits in your life as improved concentration, poise, willpower and focus.

While it’s often studied in a class setting, yoga is an individual pursuit. The beauty of it is that each person can begin wherever they are. There is no need to prepare you simply begin. Here are a few tips for beginners:

•    Be easy and start slowly

•    Modify the poses until you can perform them fully

•    Don’t try to compete with others

•    Proceed at your own pace

•    Search until you find the right teacher and class

Yoga is simply an approach to living. It’s not a religion that you must join or gain membership to. The goal is union of body, mind and spirit, and its benefits of asana practice, pranayma, and meditation will overflow into all aspects of your daily life.