Asana of the Day.

Yoga Mudra (Sealing pose)

1. Sit upright in padmasana.   1. Place the left hands behind your back make a first. 2. Grasp the left wrist with the right hand, placing your hands at the end of the spinal cord. 3. This spot is known as the center of energy. Hold the arms as straight as possible. 4. While exhaling bend the body forward, keeping the hands at the back. 5. Touch the floor with the forehead. 6. Holding the wrist, raise the arms as high as possible while keeping them straight. 7. Breathe normally. While inhaling, return to the upright position. 8. Reverse the process for the right wrist.         Practice one minute, increase to five minutes. To quiet needless thinking, it can be performed for half an hour       1. This heals abdominal disorders, relaxes the entire spine. 2. It develops memory power. 3. It builds up powerful muscle of the face and brain as well as providing energy to the facial and cranial nerves.

Forgiveness...

Forgiving people
who have hurt you
is your gift to them.
Forgetting people
who have hurt you
is your gift to you.

Thought of the Day...

Make your Profession...your Hobby, or make your Hobby...your Profession.

Life is a Journey...

Yoga and Nervous System.

Yoga practice is not only helpful in Physical well-being but also helps in stimulating the brain and nervous system to alleviate stress and tension.
The nervous system is an extensive network of communication made up of long fibre-like cells. These nerve fibres carry chemical impulses to and from various parts of the body, relaying the signals through its major control centre: the brain and spinal cord – which are nothing more than bundles of the same kind of cells. The net physical and chemical interactions of your nervous system, therefore, are experienced as thoughts and feelings, propensities and moods.


Yoga has developed over time to engage the entire nervous system. Located mainly in the various joints (limbs, hips, vertebrae, etc.), small bundles of nervous fibre serve as relaying and maintenance stations for signals and impulses. By targeting some of these key nerve centres, yoga poses stimulate the whole system, clearing communication lines and generally straightening the wires, so to speak. Since the physical nervous system directly affects the mind, this kind of regular exercise can be instrumental not only in clearing away the mental cobwebs that build up over time, but also in treating some psychological and emotional disorders.

But the mind is a complex thing and interactions work both ways. While it may be influenced by the physical body, the mind has the capacity not only to affect the body in turn, but itself as well. That we even have documented cases of the placebo effect stands testament to this fact. And to those who practice yoga for its psychological benefit, the power of the mind may be yoga’s most important aspect.

In yoga, great emphasis is placed on focus and self-awareness. Deep rhythmic breathing directs thoughts inward, preoccupying the mind with considerations of posture, balance, muscle tension and joint orientation. Fuelled by your breath, you calmly attend to your body, its limits and extensions. Now, this is not a mindset you have to get into in order to do yoga; it is a mindset brought about by practicing yoga. It’s unavoidable. The effect is that the world and its concerns dim slightly as your thoughts are calmly redirected inward. Free of external stress, the mind has time to regroup and reorganize, allowing you to walk out of yoga a little more stable.

While this short-term calming effect is a great perk, the yoga mentality has more valuable long-term psychological benefits. Regular, habitual practice of yoga will help train your mind and regulate emotional responses. In this respect, the brain is like a field of tall grass. Each thought, intuition. or feeling you experience treads a path through the grass. And like any such field, the more traffic a path experiences, the more worn and easily traversed it becomes. To put it simply: the more you think a thought, the more likely you become to think that thought. Over time, therefore, the yoga mindset becomes self-reinforcing. Your mind, already regularly acquainted with tools for its own maintenance, will begin putting those tools to work in everyday life.

While it may be seen as a predominantly physical workout, it is undeniable that yoga can have a profound impact on your mentality as well. By both physically maintaining your brain and nervous system and mentally positioning yourself against stress, yoga helps ease emotional tension. With both immediate and long-term psychological benefits, including yoga in your life yoga is a comprehensive and effective way of tending to your mental health. - Alistair Santiago

To reduce Stress, practice Yoga.

Hypertension is not just common, in a strange twisted way it's a status symbol. It shows you have arrived, are busy and lead a stressed life. However, it takes a toll on your heart, spikes your blood sugar and insulin levels and that's bad news.

Recent studies show that yoga brings about a balance in your autonomous nervous system and regulates your blood pressure by stabilising your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.

As a yoga practitioner, I have experienced the calming effect that this alternative therapy can provide. Being static, yoga postures are less demanding and require less oxygen. This causes minimal strain during exercise and keeps your muscles relaxed. Here are a few postures that you can practice to keep your stress levels under control.

Vajrasan
Sit with your legs extended, hands by the side of your body and palms resting on the floor. Bend your right leg at the knee and place your foot under the right buttock keeping your soles tucked in. Do the same with your left leg. Rest your hands on your thighs, keeping your back straight. Hold for some time; come back to the starting position.

Gomukhasana
Sit on the floor stretching your legs forward. Slightly bend both your knees and place your left leg under your right thigh. Take your right leg over your left leg, making sure your left knee is under the right one. Now take your right hand behind your back with your palm facing downwards and place your left hand behind. Try clutching your palms together, making sure your back is straight and aligned with your neck. Hold for some time and come back to the starting position.

Ardha Shalabhasan
Lie in prone position (on your stomach), bring your legs together, toes pointing outward, hands by your body, fists closed and chin on the floor. Then slowly raise your right leg without bending at the knee, do not tilt the pelvis. Hold for some time and come back to the starting position. Switch sides and repeat.

Padmasan
Sit on the floor, stretch your legs and place palms along the side of the body. Now hold the sole of the right foot and place it on the left thigh. Take the left foot over the right. Keeping your back straight, place your palms on the knees and slowly close eyes, focusing on your breath. Hold for some time and slowly come back to the starting position.

Anulom-Vilom Pranayam
Sit straight and close your right nostril with your right thumb and inhale from the left nostril. Then close your left nostril with your right index and middle fingers and exhale from the right nostril. Now do the reverse. Inhale with the right nostril, close your right nostril with your right thumb then exhale with the left. This forms one round of Anulom-Vilom Pranayam.

Yoga helps you discover your own truth.

 The significance of a new year is about renewal, restarting, 
  refreshing your intentions and so many other 're' words!

  
   Seriously though, it's a rare person who does not think about 
  how they might do things differently. After all this is the 
  time that people make all sorts of REsolutions for weight loss, 
  shape change, relationships and so on.
           
   Yoga helps you discover your own truth. But what about what 
  others say or do? How do you respond to all that?
  
   Let me tell you what I mean.
   
   If you're a serious yogi, then I guarantee you'll want to pay 
  attention to this one.
   
   Ever heard of Socrates? Probably have,   
   Socrates lived in the century BEFORE the 'common era' (which 
  some people call BC).
  
   Here's a man who could, you'll see, even be credited with a 
  way to speak with compassion and the truth in a NON-VIOLENT 
  way.
  
   These days you simply could NOT deny that the world we live in 
  is so filled with violence. It's not just in countries that 
  have civil unrest or despotic leaders either.
  
   Violence is everywhere. It's in the hearts and minds of 
  everyone to some degree. And it gets reflected by our words, 
  thoughts and actions.
    
   You know, there are times when you stand as judge and jury in 
  your own mind berating yourself. (We all do it to some extent!)
  
   When it comes to yoga, it's a great thing to examine ALL that 
  you do through some useful filters.
  
   The first major way we learn to do that with yoga is to listen 
  to the body.
  
   If you're experiencing a violent moment in your practice -
  we'll call that PAIN or struggle - then you learn eventually 
  how to respond by being less violent and adjusting your body 
  and pose to create a better outcome. 
  
   That can take a long time to get right by the way ...
   ... Sometimes years.      

   But there's ANOTHER important area of our lives that I 
  hinted about before.

   It's the stuff you think and then the stuff you SAY.

   This brings us to Socrates again.

   The story goes that the great philosopher came upon an 
  acquaintance who said excitedly, "Socrates, do you know what I 
  just heard about one of your students?"

   "Hold on a moment," Socrates replied. "Before telling me 
  anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the 
  Triple Filter Test."

   Hmmmm ... what's that? I can hear you say!

   Socrates continued "Before you talk to me about my student, it 
  might be a good idea to take a moment and reflect on what 
  you're going to say ... "
     
  ---------------------------------------------------------------  
   The first filter is Truth.  
  ---------------------------------------------------------------   
   
   "Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell 
  me is true?"   

   "No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and ..." 

   "OK, OK," said Socrates. "Now let's try the second filter ..."
   
  ---------------------------------------------------------------  
   The filter of Goodness  
  ---------------------------------------------------------------  
  
   "Is what you are about to tell me about my student something 
  good?"

   "No, on the contrary ..."

   "So, " Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad 
  about him, but you're not certain it's true."
  
   "You may still pass the test though! You see, there's one 
  filter left:"
  
  ---------------------------------------------------------------  
   The third filter is ...  
  --------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
   "The filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about 
  my student going to be useful to me?" 

   "No, not really. " 

   "Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is 
  neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at 
  all? "

   This is a great story. I believe it's one of the most valuable 
  ones I have learnt. 
  
   In fact I like to think of it as communication yoga or 
  integrity or even relationship yoga!
  
   Each of us is here to blaze our own trail. How you do that is 
  entirely up to you.
  
   My advice - if I may be so bold - is take a lesson from a sage 
  from ancient times. And really, it is ALL about your yoga!
  
   You learn in the room to know your truth, to be good to 
  yourself, respond with awareness and authenticity.
  
   And you learn to do that in a useful and appropriate way, in a 
  way that's not violent but compassionate, and in a way that 
  opens your heart, mind and body.
  
   Now, imagine what your life would be like - what the world 
  would be like - if your first instinct was to automatically 
  respond in this way! (... or if you were practised enough in 
  the Triple Filter principles that it were second nature.)
  
   So you can make yoga the class you attend, or even your whole 
  attitude to life hinge around these 3 considerations. It's 
  another way to bring more importance to your yoga mindfulness 
  and make changes that effect more than just you.
  
   So as Socrates shows us, it's not just what you say or think 
  but how you filter all that you utter and all that others utter 
  to you. 
  
   Truth, Goodness and Usefulness ... worldly and noble ideals that 
  your yoga teaches you. 

   So, think about that :) when you are next listening to ANY 
  conversation. Even one with yourself. :)
  
   Happy thoughts create better lives. Simple really.