Archive for January, 2009

Written By Deborah Bernstein

Do the long, dark winter months have an affect on your well being? Do you find yourself feeling depleted and in search of opportunities to hibernate? Be aware of what your body is asking for – it usually has a good reason, and often it is wise to listen to it.

At times the best way to serve ourselves is to talk a lesson from the bears and hibernate. Try it for a day. Forgive yourself not being “productive”. Interesting the next time you call on yourself to be productive, you may be a whole lot sharper after having given your body a rest.

And while you’re raising your awareness about your body’s winter needs, here are some fun reminders of why our yoga practice can be special and unique in the winter.

10 Things to Love about Yoga in the Winter

1. Not having to wake up quite so early to do your practice while the sun is rising.

2. More time to attend workshops on the weekends when it’s not competing with yard work (understandably, gardening IS yoga for many of us…but not so much for me)

3. How well our twisting postures prepare us for shoveling.

4. A warm toasty studio or meditation spot on an icy cold day.

5. That yoga allows us to practice impermanence. That all sensations (in this case, cold ones) pass (unless you live on the North Pole).

6. Snow cancellations give us “extra” time that we can use to practice, read, meditate.

7. A meditation walking through a snow storm and listening to the sounds (a kind of buffered quiet I’ve never heard elsewhere)

8. Bundling up in blankets for savasana.

9. Heating up your body all on your own through a vigorous practice.

10. More opportunities to stay indoors and develop a home practice.

Deborah Bernstein is a yoga teacher, owner of Florian Villa Yoga Retreats on St. John, and former corporate finance director of a Fortune 500 company. A portion of all proceeds from Deborah’s yoga retreat business supports families of fallen firefighters and disabled veterans. Join her yoga community at http://florianyoga.blogspot.com

Written By Joanna Thompson

For most of us, yoga is a form of exercise, a way of releasing the tension that our body accumulates after long hours of sitting in chairs, hunched over our desks. Whilst there is nothing wrong with using yoga as a means of releasing physical tension and adding healthy exercise to our daily routine, it can be much more than that. Yoga is a way of life, a style of living, a way of connecting with your true self and of bringing the mind to a space of stillness and joy. Yoga, if studied and practiced regularly and with love and dedication, becomes a journey of self discovery, a way of acquiring harmony and peace in our lives.

If you are new to yoga, here is a quick guide to the most popular forms of yoga.

Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is often used by athletes and those who want a challenging workout which builds power and strength.The focus is more on building strength, stamina and internal health rather than a meditative experience. Ashtanga yoga includes a set series of postures which, with the use of ujjayi (victory) breath and bandas (seals), are used to create internal heat and detoxify the body.

Hatha Yoga is one of the most common types of yoga, combining postures (asanas) with synchronised breathing. Combined with breath work, (pranayama), meditation and relaxation, this well-rounded approach works to still the mind and rejuvenate the body.

Jivamukti Yoga is an integrative style of yoga, combining the physical postures of Hatha Yoga with a spiritual practice. A transformative blend of postures, chanting and breathing techniques and meditation are combined to control the mind and bring serenity and calmness.

Kundalini Yoga is known as the Yoga of Awareness because it awakens the dormant energy in us. In the language of Sanskrit, ‘kundalini’ means ‘that which is coiled’, sometimes understood as a serpent, but also as the dormant energy located at the base of our spine. It is both a physical and a meditative discipline, which harnesses the mind, the body and the spirit together as one. Asanas (poses), pranyama (breath work), mantra (chanting) and meditation exercises are combine to bring about deep relaxation.

An excellent way to begin or expand your yoga life is to take a yoga retreat. Spend a week in a beautiful location and allow the peacefulness of your surroundings enhance your yoga and sooth and calm your spirit.

A range of yoga retreats is held at Daku Resort in Savusavu in Fiji. Daku Resort is a beautiful little resort right on the water on Vanua Levu. They run 13 courses throughout the year in each of the main styles of yoga.

Read more about yoga in Fiji at http://www.yogainfiji.com

Written By Sanjay Behuria

I start from where I left off my last article? What is Yoga?

We defined Yoga as the connection between body and mind, physiology and psychology with the connecting link being the breath. For our purposes we are following the instructions so lucidly and succinctly laid down by Patanjali at around the 2nd century A.D. or bit before around the time of Jesus Christ, but definitely after the time of Buddha.

The purpose of Yoga is achieved when we are able to cease all thoughts and rest in our own form uncontaminated by the conditioning of collective consciousness or our own. When we connect with our Self, the duality of object and subject does not remain to confuse us. We are all one and a part of each other. There is no you, me, them, us, this, that – there is just the Self and all Self are merged into one.

So how do we cease the thoughts that prevent us from reaching our higher potential – that of connecting us to our Self? In other words, how do we cause cessation of our thought processes which arise to cause obstacles on our path to reach our supreme consciousness where we can see objects as they are without being colored by our past conditioning?

Patanjali is a very practical man. He does not at this stage say that we must always be without thought – that would have been thoughtless of him! After he says that the purpose of Yoga is to cease the thoughts that prevent us from being in our supreme consciousness, lest he be misunderstood, he immediately clears the concept by saying in Sutra 1.4, that other times, when one is not without thought; we are in the same mode as our thoughts are.

Sutra 1.4 in Sanskrit: Vritti Sarupyam Ittaratra.

Vritti – wandering thoughts
Sarupyam or Sarupa – in other forms other then our own form, phenomena
Ittaratra – at other times

When we are not in our own form, when we are not free from our wandering thoughts we are in the form of whatever our mind comprehends the object to be, or sometimes without any comprehension. When we are upset with an event, we continue to think what upset us and stay in the mode of being upset as long as we continue to think of what upset us.

In such a state of thoughtful wandering we lose track of our own form and potential. The thoughts lead us in their own way and we meekly follow. We find ways and means to justify our thoughts. Our conditioning takes over and we get stuck in whatever others say than what we need to do. It becomes difficult to be focused. We stop the flow and have no explanation to all the negative consequences that flow from this mindless thinking.

For our benefit, so that we can reach the sate of Yoga, Patanjali in Sutra 1.5, actually states the five mental thought patterns and then spends time on each pattern in the next five Sutras (thought processes) that prevent us from connecting with our Source to reach the state of supreme consciousness where we become one with our Divine Self.

Sutra 1.5, in Sanskrit: Vrittayah Panchtayyah Klishtaklishta

Vrittyah – wavelike psycho-energy patterns; conditioned thought processes
Pancha- five
Tayyah – categories or groups
Klishta – afflictive
Aklishta – neutral of afflictive results

In English: there are five categories of conditioned thought processes or wave like psycho-energy patterns that may lead or be derived from obstacles and hindrances or may be neutral of such obstacles and hindrances. While these five obstacles are very useful for the evolution and development of our entire species, we need to stay within the context of Yoga, where they act as obstacles. Elsewhere, they are as per use and application. What are these five obstacles that prevent us from reaching supreme consciousness in yoga? Patanjali answers them in the next Sutra.

Sutra 1.6, in Sanskrit – Pramana, Viparyayo, Vikala, Nidra, Smriti

Pramana – proof, evidence, correct perception, belief systems
Viparyayah – false beliefs, incorrect perceptions
Vikalpa – conceptualizations, intellectual thought constructs
Nidra – sleep
Smriti – memory

Pramana – Conditioned and biased thought processes as a result of belief systems (BS) believed to be right, correct, or even superior. We do not have to go far to see the evidence of this. All through the ages war, strife, terrorism and all that threatened to destroy the fabric of our existence have been caused in some way or other by our belief systems which we are convinced are true and superior to others. Evidence (Pramana) leads us to hold limited experiences in narrow confines as the Truth. Proven theory is just that, a proven theory. Just as a map is not the territory, a proven theory is not reality, the truth or right. Belief systems (so called accepted or politically correct views/beliefs) is thus a conditioned psycho-energy pattern and acts as a hindrance in the process of Yoga, and needs to cease (not suppressed) for us to stay connected with our Divine self.

Viparyayah – Filtering, bias, conditioning of thoughts and mental energy patterns due to mistaken beliefs based on errors of perception or interpretation. Anything that we believe without evidence, reasoning, culture, unsubstantiated beliefs fall into this category. Similar to Pramana, while Pramana is a hindrance due to evidenced belief, here there is an error in the process of perception, understanding, inference or in the data itself.

Vikalpa – Filtering through flight of fancy. We are often caught in thinking circularly about our plans to solve various problems. These are rarely tried out or do not see the light of the day. Thus, considerable mental energy is wasted in finding solutions to problems which may not even exist or exists in our imagination. This is like feeling afraid of what the future holds. Until the future manifests itself, we have no way of knowing what the future holds. Yet, we spend considerable energy in making future plans and worrying about their success, without doing anything practical to fructify them.

Nidra – Sleep is also a state that acts as an obstruction to our Yogic state. Here, Patanjali does not mean just active sleep, but conditions of sleep, such as laziness, sleepy moods, dullness, inattentiveness, delusion and hallucination. This could be substance induced, a natural state, tiredness and exhaustion. We all have experiences of how this state affects our attentiveness and concentration.

Smriti – Memory of past events, our relationships with our family and others, our growing up experiences, past conditioning and some past life memories or archetypes in the collective consciousness act as hindrances to our achieving the Yogic state. Memories act to cause rigidity, as our references to past events act to harden our views on various phenomena and behavior.

With this short essay on what are the actual mental energy processes that hinder us to connect with our source and achieve our highest potential Patanjali goes on to define and describe each of these patterns in detail. In the next article I will try to describe the five hindrances which may be obstacles or may be neutral in our efforts to achieve our goals.

Sanjay Behuria

http://www.knowurself.com

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Written By Dr Rajesh Nair

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, non-contagious skin disorder in which abrasions tend to form on knees, elbows, chest and other parts of body. It may be triggered by viral infections, immunization or extreme stress. In Ayurveda, Psoriasis is termed as ‘Sidhmam’ and is an imbalance of Vata and Kapha doshas.

The treatment of psoriasis is achieved by a proper routine and removal of harmful factors from the patient’s living environment. Ayurvedic treatment for psoriasis goes through several stages viz. lepanam (application of ointments), abhayangam (oil massage), snehapanam (taking medicated ghee), pizhichil (full body massage), avisnanam (medicated steam bath), sirovasti (keeping oil on head) and other bastis (enema).

Panchakarma chikitsa (treatment) is achieved by:

1) Snehapanam (consuming medicines with ghee as its base)

2) Vamanam (taking medicines that induce vomiting)

3) Virechanam (taking medicines that act as purgatives)

The treatment purifies the entire system and stabilizes the metabolism of the patient. The body immune system is built up through intake of specially prepared herbal potions. Along with the application of medicines, the person also needs to control his diet and lifestyle to attain best results of this treatment such as; food intake to be vegetarian avoid chilies, black gram, excess salt, frozen foods.

Panchakarma helps in detoxification of body fluids. Initially the person is given medicated ghee for about five to seven days, followed by inducing vomiting and detoxifying the body, a process known as (Vamana and Virechana). Therafter a procedure wherein medicated buttermilk is dripped overhead called (Dahara) is done, after which the entire body is pasted with mud and other medicines. Finally medicated enemas (Basthies) are given for a week and internal medications in the form of herbal concoctions and medicated ghee has to be consumed for at least three months.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease seen as redness, scaling of various sizes. Ayurveda emphasizes on the effect of stress in Psoriasis and yoga goes a long way in relieving stress. For psoriasis yoga exercises should be done in the morning sun. Seven types of pranayama, the breathing and mental exercises, can be practiced towards successful treatment of psoriasis.

Pranayama Exercises

Sit cross-legged on a thin woolen or silken mattress in the open and do the following exercises in the order as below:

Bhastrika

Close eyes and inhale deeply through both the nostrils. Follow this up with exhalation.

Kapalbhati

Breathing in series of quick exhalations accompanied by an inward drawing motion of the stomach.

Bahya

Inhale deeply to allow air to fill up lungs fully, hold for a few moments, and then exhale forcefully.

Aalom Vilom

A single-nostril breathing exercise. Pressing right nostril with thumb, inhale deeply, through the left nostril, followed by inhalation through the right nostril.

Agnisaar

Inhale deeply but slowly, pushing stomach muscles outward, filling up stomach with air. Exhale deeply, hold breath and move stomach in and out vigorously as many times as possible, before releasing it and allowing air to fill up lungs.

Bhramari

Close eyes and plug ears tightly with the thumbs of both hands. Put the forefingers on forehead, over eyebrows, and the middle fingers of the two hands right on the closed eyes. Inhale deeply and say ‘OM’, without opening mouth, so as to make a humming sound that travels from mouth to ears.

Udgeet

After closing eyes, place hands on knees. Take a deep breath in and then exhale, saying ‘OM’, stress on the syllable ‘O’ as long as the breath lasts, utter the syllable ‘M’ right at the end.

Thereafter, rub hands vigorously to generate heat and place them on eyes. While doing the breathing exercises direct the energy generated towards the affected parts of the skin by thinking about its well being to get best results.

Dr Rajesh Nair is the consultant of world’s largest online ayurvedic store http://www.ayurvedaforall.com Please check his favourite Ayurvedic medicines and Ayurvedic treatment in http://www.ayurvedaforall.com