The form of Yoga most people are familiar with is Hatha Yoga or Hatha Vidya. Hatha Yoga is the Yoga of postures. The picture that comes to mind whenever you see the word Yoga is of someone sitting or standing in some form of Yoga posture.
Hatha Yoga uses physical poses called Asana and breathing techniques called Pranayama. Hatha Yoga teaches that the body is the vehicle for your soul. It also teaches that meditation can bring the body into perfect health and allow the spiritual part of your brain to come forward freely.
Many believe that your mind typically ignores or suppresses the part of the brain that is spiritual and that our focus is on earthly things. In order to release this spirituality you need meditation and Yoga exercise.
Hatha Yoga utilizes all of these techniques to bind the body and soul as one. To create a union between the body and the mind takes practice. The purpose of Hatha Yoga is to perfect the body so it can be filled with your life?s force or soul.
The way it works is to use opposing energies somewhat similar to Yin and Yang to achieve the binding of body, mind, and soul. Opposing energy examples are hot and cold, positive and negative, and male and female.
The Asanas in Hatha Yoga tech you poise, strength, and most of all, balance. This improves your physical health and helps you clear your mind. Without this preparation, meditation is not as effective. The exercise portion of Hatha Yoga is all part of preparing yourself so you can meditate and become enlightened, allowing your spiritual thoughts to flow freely.
Although most people in Europe or the US use Yoga as a physical exercise primarily, the intent of Yoga is to combine all of your life forces to achieve spirituality and happiness. The following are the different aspects to Hatha Yoga;
Yama: Yama is social ethics. It teaches you nonviolence, compassion, non-deception or truthfulness, honesty, conscious and non-abusive sexuality, security, and how to eliminate greed.
Niyama: Niyama is about personal practices. It teaches purity, discipline, contentment, self-examination, and spiritual attunement with GOD.
Asana: Asanas are the physical exercises in Hatha Yoga. There are many asanas and are of varying difficulty. There are some that are less difficult for beginners that can help you work up to the more difficult asanas. This not only helps you perfect your body, but helps you clear your mind for the more meditative aspects of Hatha Yoga.
Pranayama: Pranayama are breathing practices. Deep breathing exercises help clear your mind in preparation for meditation to free your spirit.
Pratyahara: Pratyahara is withdrawing the senses to facilitate Dharana (concentration or focus)
Dharana: Dharana is meant to help you focus or concentrate better also allowing you to use chants to free your spiritual mind.
Dhyana: Dhyana is an enhanced form of meditation where the concentration is focused on a single point.
Samadhi: Samadhi teaches you how to attain the essential state of joy. The definition of Samadhi literally means transcendental bliss. The exercises in Samadhi Yoga are more vigorous than with other forms.
?Trancendental Bliss or Samadhi is a state in which the individual mind, freed for a time from all material limits takes the form of supreme, omnipotent and omnipresent mind and gains enlightenment.”
?Shri Brahmananda Saraswati (A great yogi, doctor and founder of the Ananda Ashram)
When unaffected by culture, place, time, or circumstance, these principles are universal. They constitute the Great Vow.” -Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, 2.31
The Self cannot be gained by one devoid of strength. Mundaka Upanishad iii :2:3
Robin Darch, of PRT Specialised Services Limited has a website, Yoga Tips to help you find all the information you need about Yoga and the benefits of Yoga.
Yoga Tips
Showing posts with label Physical Exercise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Physical Exercise. Show all posts
March 4, 2009
March 2, 2009
That’s NOT Yoga, if One Eats Like that
Indeed if someone were to say they thought Yoga was just stretching after they saw a student leave a Yoga class and later on eating at McDonald?s or something, they probably would be right.
Why?
Well, Yoga, in its entirety, includes a proper diet. One doesn?t exist without the other. This is THE factor that anyone seriously interested in taking up Yoga must understand. If one wants to do Yoga, you?ve got to include all its principles.
When I started doing yoga some 6 years back, I did extensive research on the subject of diet and Yoga. Perhaps this was fate, as co-incidentally, this was around the time that an associate had told me to look into fasting and a natural diet as a means to cure my horrendous acne at that time.
I stumbled on a book called ?The Complete Illustrated book of Yoga? by Swami Vishnu-Devananda, and this had a whole chapter on diet. What he explained here made it clear that as beneficial as most- if not all- yoga poses could be for overall health, if one constantly subsists on unhealthy foods, it defeats the purpose of exercising in the first place.
This is perhaps even more important in regards to Yoga.
Why? Well, Yoga is more than just a physical exercise as Meditation, Breathing Exercises and even some Poses such as the Peacock, Shoulder-Stand and the Sun Salutations are known to have an effect on the spiritual core of one?s existence. This is rooted in one?s solar plexus and forms the basis of the Kundalini or life-force power inherent in all humans. Remember, we are mainly physical bodies living in a Spiritual World.
Now keep that point in mind as I proceed to remind you of this quote and renowned cosmic law: ?You are what you eat?? Now, combine the gist of both factors and you should start to see the connection between how what you eat matters to your entire existence-physically and spiritually.
When you begin to seriously practice Yoga, it is advised that you also begin to watch what you eat. ALL the sages and pioneers of Yoga such as
Swami Sivananda, Swami Vishnu-Devananda and BKS Iyengar have all attested to this fact.
Here is Sivananda?s quote on the subject of diet and Yoga (and keep in mind he is arguably THE guru when it comes to the ?who is who? of Yoga)
?By the purity of food follows the purification of the inner nature??
Swami Sivananda.
In addition here is another quote that supports his comment
?Without observing moderation of diet, if one takes to the Yogic practices, he cannot obtain any benefit but gets various diseases?
(Ghe. Sam. V-16).
Yoga has an adverse effect on yours and the spiritual forces around you, consequently eating what yoga sages coin as the Sattvic Diet (which co-incidentally is the mucus/disease free or alkaline diet of the alternative health fraternity) will be the best way to go.
Simply put, it is your fruits, roots and leafy vegetables (raw and ?properly cooked?). This is the Yoga diet and this has to be included in your lifestyle if you seriously want to practice Yoga.
Is it a co-incidence that this is the exact diet prescribed in Gen 1: 29 in the Bible?
Is it a co-incidence that this diet forms the basis of Hippocrates? quote ?let your foods be your medicine???
Is it a co-incidence this is the same diet that the drug-free fraternity labels as the best for delaying aging, having brighter eyes and complexion, better muscle tone and the like?
I think not.
Heck, if you just want to do any kind of exercise and not just yoga, you will still enjoy a lot of benefits from such a dietetic lifestyle.
I?ve read of several raw-vegan or vegetarian body-builders like Stephen Arlin, David Wolfe, Scott Brodie and Bill Pearl (A 4-time Mr. Universe contest winner) who do extremely well on a similar diet, so one will be on the right track eating as such and choosing any exercise they want.
So do you want to experience all that Yoga has to give? Then remember to include perhaps its most important principle for your overall health-the Yoga diet.
Your friend in the mirror will thank you that you did. Trust me.
In Friendship,
Foras Aje is an independent health researcher and founder of Bodyhealthsoul.com For more Yoga tips and information on Yoga for beginners stop by his website today.
Why?
Well, Yoga, in its entirety, includes a proper diet. One doesn?t exist without the other. This is THE factor that anyone seriously interested in taking up Yoga must understand. If one wants to do Yoga, you?ve got to include all its principles.
When I started doing yoga some 6 years back, I did extensive research on the subject of diet and Yoga. Perhaps this was fate, as co-incidentally, this was around the time that an associate had told me to look into fasting and a natural diet as a means to cure my horrendous acne at that time.
I stumbled on a book called ?The Complete Illustrated book of Yoga? by Swami Vishnu-Devananda, and this had a whole chapter on diet. What he explained here made it clear that as beneficial as most- if not all- yoga poses could be for overall health, if one constantly subsists on unhealthy foods, it defeats the purpose of exercising in the first place.
This is perhaps even more important in regards to Yoga.
Why? Well, Yoga is more than just a physical exercise as Meditation, Breathing Exercises and even some Poses such as the Peacock, Shoulder-Stand and the Sun Salutations are known to have an effect on the spiritual core of one?s existence. This is rooted in one?s solar plexus and forms the basis of the Kundalini or life-force power inherent in all humans. Remember, we are mainly physical bodies living in a Spiritual World.
Now keep that point in mind as I proceed to remind you of this quote and renowned cosmic law: ?You are what you eat?? Now, combine the gist of both factors and you should start to see the connection between how what you eat matters to your entire existence-physically and spiritually.
When you begin to seriously practice Yoga, it is advised that you also begin to watch what you eat. ALL the sages and pioneers of Yoga such as
Swami Sivananda, Swami Vishnu-Devananda and BKS Iyengar have all attested to this fact.
Here is Sivananda?s quote on the subject of diet and Yoga (and keep in mind he is arguably THE guru when it comes to the ?who is who? of Yoga)
?By the purity of food follows the purification of the inner nature??
Swami Sivananda.
In addition here is another quote that supports his comment
?Without observing moderation of diet, if one takes to the Yogic practices, he cannot obtain any benefit but gets various diseases?
(Ghe. Sam. V-16).
Yoga has an adverse effect on yours and the spiritual forces around you, consequently eating what yoga sages coin as the Sattvic Diet (which co-incidentally is the mucus/disease free or alkaline diet of the alternative health fraternity) will be the best way to go.
Simply put, it is your fruits, roots and leafy vegetables (raw and ?properly cooked?). This is the Yoga diet and this has to be included in your lifestyle if you seriously want to practice Yoga.
Is it a co-incidence that this is the exact diet prescribed in Gen 1: 29 in the Bible?
Is it a co-incidence that this diet forms the basis of Hippocrates? quote ?let your foods be your medicine???
Is it a co-incidence this is the same diet that the drug-free fraternity labels as the best for delaying aging, having brighter eyes and complexion, better muscle tone and the like?
I think not.
Heck, if you just want to do any kind of exercise and not just yoga, you will still enjoy a lot of benefits from such a dietetic lifestyle.
I?ve read of several raw-vegan or vegetarian body-builders like Stephen Arlin, David Wolfe, Scott Brodie and Bill Pearl (A 4-time Mr. Universe contest winner) who do extremely well on a similar diet, so one will be on the right track eating as such and choosing any exercise they want.
So do you want to experience all that Yoga has to give? Then remember to include perhaps its most important principle for your overall health-the Yoga diet.
Your friend in the mirror will thank you that you did. Trust me.
In Friendship,
Foras Aje is an independent health researcher and founder of Bodyhealthsoul.com For more Yoga tips and information on Yoga for beginners stop by his website today.
February 26, 2009
Chair Yoga Case Study ? No More Chronic Neck Pain
Chair Yoga Case Study ? No More Chronic Neck Pain
By Mark Franklin
After teaching chair yoga for several years Liz Franklin can testify that it appropriate for almost anyone, even if they are feeling the effects of aging or have physical limitations. It is not for hard-bodied 20-somethings that can twist themselves into poses that look impossible ? the only prerequisite is that you can sit in a chair, including a wheelchair.
What better way to illustrate how chair yoga has benefited those unable to attend a traditional yoga class than to tell it in their own words?
Hi! I?m Sherri Evert. I?m a 63-year old retired business partner. I began practicing chair yoga in March. I have been practicing yoga for many years. I have issues with my back and found most other classes to be strictly a physical exercise. If I couldn?t achieve the ?perfect pose? I felt as thought I wasn?t doing it right.
I noticed the classes when I was seeing an acupuncturist for arthritis in my neck. I had been in constant pain for some time and was willing to try almost anything to get relief. While acupuncture offered relief, it was only temporary. When I was leaving the acupuncture office one day I noticed a group of smiling women leaving their yoga class. I thought I would feel comfortable with this group as they were close to my age. I wanted to see if my own body could fix the neck pain with help from yoga.
Within 2 months of practicing chair yoga my neck pain was gone. I also had problems with low back pain and had tried numerous options to cure this as well. The relaxation portion of the classes and videos released the pain. I am much more aware of my posture now. In class Liz helps us visualize our bodies in the posture and makes us aware of the benefits. I now use the yoga poses I have learned in class along with the videos as a personal ?tool box? for taking care of my body. I have definitely gained strength in my arms and legs as well.
I truly appreciate the way Liz works so hard to help us achieve a mind/body/spirit connection in her classes. The meditative experience of her classes carries through my day. I try to attend two of her classes each week and use her videos when I can?t be in class in person. I feel as though the class is meditation in motion and I also have enjoyed the sense of community that is part of her class experience. She works to help us be present in the moment. She also lets us know what the benefits of each pose are which helps us understand why we are doing the poses.
If you are thinking about joining a class or purchasing (some) videos be assured that the hour you put in that you didn?t think you had time for will give back multiple benefits including higher energy levels, a calm mind and a peaceful spirit. You will be glad you did this for yourself and the benefits will spill over into your whole circle of family and friends.”
Mark Franklin enjoys telling people about Liz Franklin’s Yoga In Chairs(r) because he knows it is helping people live healthier, happier, and longer lives. If you want to find out about her special style of chair yoga, visit http://www.yogainchairs.com
By Mark Franklin
After teaching chair yoga for several years Liz Franklin can testify that it appropriate for almost anyone, even if they are feeling the effects of aging or have physical limitations. It is not for hard-bodied 20-somethings that can twist themselves into poses that look impossible ? the only prerequisite is that you can sit in a chair, including a wheelchair.
What better way to illustrate how chair yoga has benefited those unable to attend a traditional yoga class than to tell it in their own words?
Hi! I?m Sherri Evert. I?m a 63-year old retired business partner. I began practicing chair yoga in March. I have been practicing yoga for many years. I have issues with my back and found most other classes to be strictly a physical exercise. If I couldn?t achieve the ?perfect pose? I felt as thought I wasn?t doing it right.
I noticed the classes when I was seeing an acupuncturist for arthritis in my neck. I had been in constant pain for some time and was willing to try almost anything to get relief. While acupuncture offered relief, it was only temporary. When I was leaving the acupuncture office one day I noticed a group of smiling women leaving their yoga class. I thought I would feel comfortable with this group as they were close to my age. I wanted to see if my own body could fix the neck pain with help from yoga.
Within 2 months of practicing chair yoga my neck pain was gone. I also had problems with low back pain and had tried numerous options to cure this as well. The relaxation portion of the classes and videos released the pain. I am much more aware of my posture now. In class Liz helps us visualize our bodies in the posture and makes us aware of the benefits. I now use the yoga poses I have learned in class along with the videos as a personal ?tool box? for taking care of my body. I have definitely gained strength in my arms and legs as well.
I truly appreciate the way Liz works so hard to help us achieve a mind/body/spirit connection in her classes. The meditative experience of her classes carries through my day. I try to attend two of her classes each week and use her videos when I can?t be in class in person. I feel as though the class is meditation in motion and I also have enjoyed the sense of community that is part of her class experience. She works to help us be present in the moment. She also lets us know what the benefits of each pose are which helps us understand why we are doing the poses.
If you are thinking about joining a class or purchasing (some) videos be assured that the hour you put in that you didn?t think you had time for will give back multiple benefits including higher energy levels, a calm mind and a peaceful spirit. You will be glad you did this for yourself and the benefits will spill over into your whole circle of family and friends.”
Mark Franklin enjoys telling people about Liz Franklin’s Yoga In Chairs(r) because he knows it is helping people live healthier, happier, and longer lives. If you want to find out about her special style of chair yoga, visit http://www.yogainchairs.com
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