Yoga Life, HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT YOGA MAT

HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT YOGA MAT

all of us know the importance of yoga very well. Today “asana” has become synonymous with “yoga” . In the yogic view, the body is a temple of spirit, the care of which is an important stage of our spiritual growth .

(Yoga Life, Why we need asana in yoga Practice)

Yoga asanas is all about your posture, If you want to attain maximum benefit from yoga, you must ensure that your posture is right.

while you are doing yoga asanas lying down on your back, a yoga mat is very helpful. If you're new to yoga you should be looking more at basic what we should look in yoga mat

1.Material -The material of the yoga mat is important when you pick a mat. There are some options you are going to have when you go out in the market to buy a mat for your yoga. PVC- the most commonly used materials used to make basic, cheap yoga mats but It is neither good for you nor the environment since it is so hard to recycle .

rubber mat - Rubber mats are a better choice. Made of natural rubber,

cotton mat-These are the most natural of all the mats available in the market, and even though they soak up the sweat, they are easily washable. They are soft and give more grip

You might consider jute, recycled or natural rubber, or even organic cotton when looking into the materials of your new mat.

2.Thickness & Size- A standard yoga mat is usually ⅛ inch( metric 4 mm) thick but ⅛ inch mat may be too thin for you when you’re in certain poses and you’re doing your very best to focus on the breathing Get the ¼ inch (metric 6 mm) mat. It’s thicker, so it will provide more support for your joints

Your mat should be long enough for your entire body when you lie down Standard yoga mats are about 68 inches long. If you’re taller, make sure to get an extra long yoga mat.

3.Style & Texture - yoga mats are available in different color and prints get your favorite color or print your yoga mat can inspire you to practice more. You’ll look at it and it will remind you of your commitment Stickiness

4.Stickiness. Why it's important: A sticky yoga mat keeps you from sliding all over the place and helps you maintain your alignment as you move from one pose to another,

5.Sustainability & Price- Price is also an important consideration when you buy your mat Look into the price But more cheap mats don’t have a long life, and will tend to wear out fast Look out for some good brands that guarantee quality products.

if you take away anything at all from this guide, know that if you feel comfortable on your yoga mat, little else matters. Buying a yoga mat isn't about finding the most expensive or nicest looking one, but instead finding one that can help you practice yoga safely and properly. and it is applicable for all kind of yoga whether it is power yoga, hatha yoga, astang yoga, vinayas yoga or any other kind of yoga

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Yoga Life, Holistic approach to health

The definition of health according to WHO . Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. — Preamble to the Constitution of the WorldHealth Organization, 1946.

The word ‘Yoga’ means ‘unity’ or ‘oneness’ and is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Yuj’ which means to join

युज्यते अनेन इति योगः (Yujyate Anena iti yogah)

This unity or joining is described in spiritual terms as the joining of the individual consciousness (Jivatman) with the universal consciousness (Paramatma). To achieve wellness, one must practice the holistic approach to health by balancing the body, mind and spirit through the self-disciplined . The practices of asanas, pranayamas, mudras, bandhs, shat-karmas and meditation are ways to achieve holistic health

The eight limbs of yoga are: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. Yama and Niyama are moral codes that relate to how we behave toward ourselves and society. There are 5 Yamas that are meant to purify human nature, in English, they are: compassion, truthfulness, non-stealing, sense control, and non attachment. There are also 5 Niyamas that are personal purifying laws. These are: purity of thought, contentment, discipline of the body, self study(reflection), and celebration of a higher entity. Asana and Pranayama are purifying physical limbs, which prepare the yogi for meditation. The final four limbs deal with meditation. Pratyahara is detachment and sense withdrawal. Dharana is one pointed concentration. Dhyana is meditation on the Divine. Samadhi is final union with the Divine and release from suffering. Desire, anger, greed, infatuation, pride, and envy are six obstacles that need to be overcome in order for the yogi to reach Samadhi.

Yoga harmonizes your movements with your breathing and focus. It energizes you and makes you more conscious about everyday choices. You no longer see problems as problems but you actually enjoy looking for solutions and becoming a stronger person in the process of overcoming obstacles. yoga is not only a physical exercise there are some principles which make this practice different from any other exercise Proper Pranayama (breathing)Proper,Asana(exercise) Proper yogic diet Proper dharna thinking Proper relaxation. A yoga practice consists of physical postures, pranayama, and meditation.Certain postures should be practiced every day, particularly the ones that affect the spine, systems and glands of the body. These fundamental poses are maintenance exercises that keep the spine and joints supple, the ductless glands secreting their chemicals properly, and the body calm, yet, energized. There is a certain calm confidence that regular asana practice brings to the mind. A basic regime is enough to improve the immune system by simply tuning up the body. Removing toxins is paramount to the purifying aspects of yoga. There are soucha, cleansing practices, that a dedicated yogi uses to clean his eyes, ears, intestines, stomach, and sinuses. Deep breathing stretches and tones the entire respiratory system. It rids the body of toxic gases and brings oxygen into the body, building healthy tissues

Holistic is perhaps the best term to define yoga. The practice is one that incorporates physical, mental, social and spiritual health all into one big bundle of joy

Yoga Life, Memory Enhancement by Yoga & Meditation

Memory Enhancement by Yoga & Meditation

Your brain plays a phenomenal role in carrying out daily tasks. Your ability to respond, comprehend, perceive and function well is related to the health of your brain.There are many yogic techniques that stimulate the brain and nervous system to improve memory and concentration. Dhayana, the sixth limb of yoga, is a state of focused attention used during asana, pranayama and meditation. Dhayana trains the mind to become clear, focused and one-pointed. Yoga is a science that harnesses the innate capability of the body to improve its powers and functioning. It can act as an instant cognitive boost. It helps relieve stress, which enhances the operation of the brain. Also, breathing through the left nostril activates the right brain and vice versa.

Best Asana for brain

1-Padmasana (lotus pose)

get into a seated position and sit cross-legged, by placing your right foot onto your left thighs and your left foot onto your right thighs, with the soles of your feet pointing upwards. Keep your hands in gyan mudra position, with your index finger and thumb together and extend the rest of your fingers downwards. Inhale deeply and exhale.

2.Paschimottanasana (seated forward bend)

Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you, with the tops of your thighs pressed into the floor as far as you can. Breathe in as you lean forward from your hips and extend your arms and reach as far forward as you can. Then exhale when you’ve stretched out completely. Place on your hands on the sides or on the soles of your feet

3. Halasana (plow pose)

Lie flat on your back with your arms and palms facing downwards and flat on the ground. Use your abdominal muscles and the help of your hands with them on your hips to raise your legs. Sweep them over your head till your toes touch the floor above your head in this lying down position. Inhale while you do so. Hold this position for a few seconds before bringing your legs back to its original position.

4.Tadasana(Mountain pose)

From a standing position, bring the feet Lift up the toes, spread them wide and place them back on the floor. Feel your weight evenly balanced through the bottom of each foot, not leaning forward or back.Inhale and lift out of the waist, pressing the crown of the head up towards the ceiling, feeling the spine long and straight. Exhale and drop the shoulders down and back as you reach the fingertips towards the floor.

5. Padangusthasana or big toe pose

Stand straight with your feet at least 6 inches apart and legs straight.Keeping your legs straight, bend forward and touch your forehead to your knees. Try to move your torso and head together.

Straighten and bend back in cycles, but holding your toes all the time. Increase the torso stretch with every instance of stretching.

6. Vrikshasana Tree stand pose

Stand erect. Keep the feet together.Fold the right leg and placed it at the top of left thighs with the toes of right leg should pointed downwards.The right leg should perpendicular to the left leg.Extend your arms above your head.Inhale and try to make Namaskar mudra with your palms.Balance the pose as long as you can because balancing is utmost important in Tree pose.Try to make your spine straight and feel the stretching from toes to fingers.With deep exhale bring your arms and leg down.Repeat the same with left leg. It completes one round.Do three-five rounds.

7. Sirsasana (headstand)

interlock the fingers, palms forming a cup. Place the head on the formed cup so that the crown of the head touches the palms. Raise the knees from the floor by pulling the toes towards the head. Slowly raise your legs upwards from the floor. After the body gets properly balanced in this position, gradually and slowly straighten the legs.Take care that you maintain equilibrium and you don’t fall backwardsMake sure that the spine and thighs are in line, straight and vertical.Relax the whole body as much as possible.Close the eyesBreathe slowly and deeply.This is the final pose of sirsasana. Stay in the final pose for a comfortable length of time. Come back by flexing the knees and sliding them down to the floor in reverse order.

8.Best Pranayam for brain

Bhramari Pranayama Or Humming Bee Breathing

The humming bee breathing can improve your memory as well as concentration. It can help release any negative emotions from your mind and calm you down as well. Perform this pose every day to experience the calmness associated with the humming sound vibrations. You can also use this as an antidote to stress or fatigue.

Find a quiet, airy spot and sit down with your eyes closed. Smile gently.

Notice the sensations your body experiences within and the quietness around you.

Now put your index fingers onto your ears in the cartilage between the ear and cheek.

Inhale deeply. As you exhale, press gently down onto the cartilage.

Keeping it pressed, make a loud bee-like humming sound. Higher pitched sounds work better, but if you are more comfortable with a low pitch that's fine too.

Inhale again and repeat this 3-4 times.

Best way to improve brain and memory enhancement is meditation

Yogic meditation can also help the mind achieve its full potential. It can make you more positive and less stressed. One such meditation that can help you is the calm heart meditation with anjali mudra or salutation pose.

Settle down in a comfortable position on the ground or in a chair, in jnana mudra (with the thumb and index fingers of each hand touching), hands on knees with palms facing upward.

Relax any tension in your body as you feel your spine rise up out of your pelvic region. Let the back of your neck lengthen and your chin rest gently downward.

Focus on the center of your chest and start to chant "Om" as you exhale. It should feel like the sound is emerging from your chest itself.

Feel each progressive "Om" resonate and vibrate more, opening up your heart and washing away stress and tension. Do this repeatedly for a few minutes or as long as you wish. Most people meditate between 10 and 30 minutes.

When you want to end the meditation, bring your hands together in the salutation pose or anjali mudra, palms flat against each other and head bowed.

This technique will ease tensions, wash away anxiety, and calm the mind. It will also help you better manage the emotional ups and downs you experience every day.

Now that you know which asanas and breathing and massage techniques can boost your brain power, learn how to perfect these movements and practices under the guidance of a yoga teacher

memory enhancement by yoga Meditation

Yoga Life, yoga can help in Anxiety

What Is Anxiety?

Generally speaking, anxiety is a disorder that instigates fear, worry, apprehension, and nervousness. You can’t sleep, can’t concentrate at work, and can’t even enjoy life with friends because you’re worried about Exam, Future, work, debt and/or your marital status People can be in a general state of worry when they face a challenge. This is normal. It becomes a concern when the worry interferes with your sleep or daily activities. Anxiety occurs when your reaction is out of proportion to what is usually expected when you face a situation. Anxiety is nothing but a state of mind disturbance or fear where the cause is often unidentified. Although mild anxiety is very normal but it can be damaging in its advance levels. Due to anxiety your body and mind goes extreme state of stress Stress, fear, anxiety if we start counting all those instances in life when we experienced these emotions, we may just lose count! Anxiety about an exam result or the reaction of our parents to the report card; nervousness about the first date or a job interview – we all would have lived through these moments. A little bit of fear is normal; in fact, just like salt in the food, it is needed so that we remain disciplined, focused and dynamic.The problem starts when this fear becomes persistent and so intimidating as to start interfering with our everyday life. Then it becomes an anxiety disorder – a state of excessive uneasiness, worry, or fear of the unknown, which needs to be treated – and this is where yoga can help.

Symptoms of an anxiety disorder:

1.You feel unusually panic, scared and uneasy.

2.Excessive Worrying

3.You tend to get uncontrolled, obsessive thoughts of past traumatic experiences.

4.You wake up from frequent nightmares.

5.You tend to repeatedly wash your hands.

6.You have problems sleeping.

7.Your hands and feet stay unusually sweaty.

8.You get frequent palpitations.

How yoga can help in Anxiety?

Yoga, pranayama and meditation are three powerful tools that are used for reduction and prevention of state of anxiety,Yoga and pranayama and meditation play an important role in your life to become healthy. Yoga brings stability, calms the mind, improve blood circulation and cure depression stress and anxiety. these exercises grow the mental power of self-belief, strength of mind, attentiveness, determination, and tolerance. And when all three are practiced together they will create an even stronger effect on relaxing the mind and sentiment. The breath also plays an important role in several cases of excess anxiety. To control anxiety due to breathing pranayama is best option, pranayama is a yogic breathing exercises. With the help of this the nervous system is naturally calmed and quieten. With a regular practice one can understand how to intentionally maintain a slow and calm breath every times to stop or control extreme states of anxiety. Sit Cari and Shitali pranayamas are helpful in case of anxiety due to breathing.

The mind plays an important role in case of long-term anxiety. Yoga and meditation permit us to have rule over our feelings through mental disconnection and the capability to focus the mind on the present experience.

yoga postures

These yoga postures can help achieve a happy and healthy mind and body. Asanas help release tension and negativity from the system.

1.Dhanurasana (Bow Pose)

2.Matsyasana (Fish Pose)

3.Janu Shirsasana (One-Legged Forward Bend)

4.Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose)

5.Marjariasana (Cat Stretch)

6.Paschimottanasana (Two-Legged Forward Bend)

7.Hastapadasana (Standing Forward Bend)

8.Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog)

9.Sirsasana (Headstand)

10.Shavasana (Corpse Pose)

Do these yoga pose daily for stability, calms the mind, improve blood circulation and cure depression stress and anxiety

Other way to relax in life?

1. Spend time with good people.
2. Laughter is the medicine of life.
3. Important to make room for relaxation.
4. Accept Stress and take it positively.
5. Relax your body by pranayama breathing techniques

6. Have a healthy diet, avoid excessive caffeine, eat fresh fruits and vegetables, drink more water.
6. Running jogging, walking in the park, swimming, cycling,

7. Think positively.
8. Spend time with positive people and avoid negative thinkers.
9.Think always logically when you are stressed.
10.Do meditation daily in a quiet place.

11.Stop feeling guilty or do not blame.
12.Each person has different expectations and priorities. Expecting more from life, let you unsatisfied.
13. Take care of things before they become a big problem.
Hope this may help you, do it under guidance of good teacher hope you find good teacher for Yoga for anxiety in X town
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a good book to read for anxiety

Yoga Life, Yoga according to Swami Vivekananda

"Arise! Awake! And stop not until the goal is reached."

Swami Vivekananda is considered as a key figure in the introduction of Yoga to the Western world. Vivekananda described Yoga as a practice that joins a human to "reality" or "God".

The Hindu concentrated on the internal world, upon the unseen realms in the Self, and developed the science of Yoga. Yoga is controlling the senses, will and mind. The benefit of its study is that we learn to control instead of being controlled. Mind seems to be layer on layer. Our real goal is to cross all these intervening strata of our being and find God. The end and aim of Yoga is to realise God. To do this we must go beyond relative knowledge, go beyond the sense-world. The world is awake to the senses, the children of the Lord are asleep on that plane. The world is asleep to the Eternal, the children of the Lord are awake in that realm. These are the sons of God. There is but one way to control the senses—to see Him who is the Reality in the universe. Then and only then can we really conquer our senses.

Swami Vivekananda has influenced young minds to walk on the path of enlightenment for more than a centennial. Stretching his wings of spirituality out to the world, he started a revolution which still resonates among millions of his followers

Every man must develop according to his own nature. As every science has its methods, so has every religion. The methods of attaining the end of religion are called Yoga by us, and the different forms of Yoga that we teach, are adapted to the different natures and temperaments of men. We classify them in the following way, under four heads:

(1) Karma-Yoga—The manner in which a man realises his own divinity through works and duty.
(2) Bhakti-Yoga—The realisation of the divinity through devotion to, and love of, a Personal God.
(3) Raja-Yoga—The realisation of the divinity through the control of mind.
(4) Jnana-Yoga—The realisation of a man's own divinity through knowledge.

These are all different roads leading to the same centre—God. Indeed, the varieties of religious belief are an advantage, since all faiths are good,so far as they encourage man to lead a religious life. The more sects there are, the more opportunities there are for making successful appeals to the divine instinct in all men.

Each one of our Yogas is fitted to make man perfect even without the help of the others, because they have all the same goal in view. The Yogas of work, of wisdom, and of devotion are all capable of serving as direct and independent means for the attainment of Moksha. "Fools alone say that work and philosophy are different, not the learned.” The learned know that, though apparently different from each other, they at last lead to the same goal of human perfection.

Without non-attachment there cannot be any kind of Yoga. Non-attachment is the basis of all the Yogas. The man who gives up living in houses, wearing fine clothes, and eating good food, and goes into the desert, may be a most attached person. His only possession, his own body, may become everything to him; and as he lives he will be simply struggling for the sake of his body. Non-attachment does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our external body, it is all in the mind. The binding link of "I and mine" is in the mind. If we have not this link with the body and with the things of the senses, we are non-attached, wherever and whatever we may be. A man may be on a throne and perfectly non-attached; another man may be in rags and still very much attached. First, we have to attain this state of non-attachment and then to work incessantly.

From a young age, he took delight in various subjects, including religion, philosophy, art, literature and social sciences. He was also drawn towards the sacred books of the Hindu religion. Bewitched in the charm of the wandering monks, he started meditating before the idols of Lord Shiva, Lord Rama and Mahavir Hanuman.

Curiosity in his eyes and the desire to get closer to the supreme power, he once asked his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna, “Have you seen God?” Without any qualms, his master replied, “Yes, I have. I see Him as clearly as I see you, only in a much intenser sense.”

reference taken from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda buy to read set of book

Yoga Life , lose belly fat with 30 minute Yoga

lose belly fat with 30 minute Yoga
Yoga Poses for Fast Fat Lossand the Yoga Beginner's Guide!
Obesity is extra fat stored in our body. When We take excess fat in our food it stored in our body mainly near belly area. Hence size of our belly increased. We can reduce it with the help of simple rules and posture of yoga. For it 30-45 minute practice daily is enough . Step are as follows

1.sit in comfortable pose and take deep breath and chent aum ॐ 3 times

2.Do warmup for 5 minutes
3.Do 5-10 tadasan and 5-10 tryaktadasan

4. Do 5-10 katichakrasan

5. Do 5-10 trinkonasan (triangle posture.)

6. Do 5-10 padhastasan ( touching feet)

7.3-5 rounds surenamaskar (sun salutations)

8.close eyes and take 5-6 deep breath
9.sit in shukasan ( comfortable pose) and 5-10 side starching
10. Do 15-20 kapalbhati( forced blow air)

11.sit in vazarasan and slowly go to shashank asan( rabbit pose ) then slowly go to bhujang asan (cobra pose) and then come back to rabbit and then to vazarasan repeat 5-7 times