Yoga: The Art of Life

Yoga is a way of life, a conscious act and not a set or series of learning principles. The dexterity, grace, and poise you cultivate as a matter of course is the natural outcome of regular practice.

The word yoga is derived from the sanskrit root 'yujir yogey' meaning to unite, to yoke, to join or to put together. Yoga is not about mind over body but about developing harmony between them. In yoga you use your mind to perceive (diagnose) and guide (heal) your body, never to control, let alone force it! It means uniting the energies lying dormant in our lower chakra with the highest energies present in the sahasrar or crown chakra. This energy is called 'kundalini' or the serpent power; it has to be awakened and once it uncoils it moves upwards towards the sahasrar chakra which is said to be the seat of Shiva or the higher consciousness.

Yoga is for the body, mind and spirit. You learn to use your body, breath and mind to stretch, relax and energize yourself.

Yoga is a way of life, a conscious act and not a set or series of learning principles. The dexterity, grace, and poise you cultivate as a matter of course is the natural outcome of regular practice. You require no major effort. In fact trying hard will turn your practice into a humdrum, even painful or injurious routine and will eventually slow down your progress. Subsequently and interestingly, the therapeutic effect of yoga is the direct result of involving the mind totally in inspiring (breathing) the body to awaken. One should be gentle and poised. There should be an easy flow to your movements especially while moving from one asana to another; there should be no jerks. Be poised, calm and balanced in mind when holding an asan.

Contrary to popular perception, yoga asanas are not about how far you can reach to touch your toes or how many repetitions you can perform. It is all about paying attention to how your body feels; how it moves without excruciating pain or agony! Yoga is all about breathing correctly about integrating the breath into your being. Conscious yoga does not call on you to force or strain every nerve and sinew, that is: yoga is learning how to do things right so that you need to do less in order to achieve more!

Yoga is not about how much you do but about how you do it. Ironically, by doing less but doing it correctly, yoga enhances your strength, energy, vitality, flexibility and levels of endurance.

Accordingly your body and mind start being more balanced until eventually you find it takes much lesser energy to move through the day. Yes, any and everyone can do less and achieve more - a whole lot more! Do not believe our word - test it, experiment with it keeping an open heart and mind and practicing regularly.

The best feature of yoga is that it is highly therapeutic. Some of the ailments proven to be relieved and even healed through the practice of yoga are acidity, allergies, Alzheimer's disease, anaemia, anger, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, back pain, bronchitis, cancer, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue, colitis, common cold, constipation, depression, diabetes, epilepsy, eye problems, facial wrinkles, gastro-intestinal disorders, headaches, heartburn, haemorrhoids, hepatitis, high blood pressure, hypertension, immune-deficiency, impotence, menopause, menstrual cramps, migraine, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, nervous tension, obesity, osteoporosis, prostate enlargement, sciatica, skin problems, sleep apnoea, slip disk, sterility, stiffness, stress, insomnia, intoxication, thyroid problems, kidney stones, stuttering and stammering, urinary tract infections in women, vaginal infections……the list goes on. A master can give you the right combination of asanas and pranayama to practice and in time you will experience tremendous health benefits and balance of mind.

Everyday people report of wonderful experiences with yoga; the transformation of being taken beyond the here and now. In a session of yoga, people get to practice a number of things; some yogic poses (asana), breathing exercises (pranayama), meditation and chanting. In yoga you first master level one which is a set of asanas and then move on to pranayama. Yoga is fun and relaxing while at the same time challenging for beginners. The intermediate and advanced students who insist on continuing their practice, get more and more of the benefits of this great five thousand year old wondrous way of life. To enhance the benefits of your practice inculcate: yama - five rules for the mind; niyama - five rules of ethics; dharma - social and religious duties and dhyana - conscious meditation. A guru can guide you in the intricacies of this system. Slow and persistent practice will yield great results. Yoga is for the body, mind and spirit. You learn to use your body, breath and mind to stretch, relax and energize yourself. So get up and go!

How to Start a Yoga Practice

Our motive is to make you interested in yoga and you are inspired to begin learning. For that read on. There are four basic steps to start yoga practice.

Learn how to breathe

The most important thing in yoga is the breathing especially when holding the postures. Learn Dirga and Ujjayi Pranayama for use during yoga. Most importantly, breathe through the nose and not through the mouth unless specifically asked to do so.

Start and end with a brief meditation

Sit in any easy pose and start with a short meditation to center yourself and bring your focus within.

Use Basic and Beginning Postures

Start with the basic yoga posture sequence or the following simple postures: warming up of joints and ligaments, set of asanas like pawan mukat, bhujang, sarvang, parvat, trikona, katichakra, tada, bala, ekpada and dwipada. Remember that warming up before you begin the asanas is very important. Do stretches, twists etc and then move onto asana.

End with Shavasana (Relaxation Pose)

Watch your body and synchronize your breath with it. It is a most invigoratin experience to watch ones body moving from one pose to another. It is very important for one to be comfortable performing an asana. Always seek the guidance of well trained teachers; a word of caution to all readers to not follow what is taught on television by many so called yoga gurus as yoga cannot be generalized - one's body has to be diagnosed and if there are any health issues they have to be taken into consideration. Asana should not be done by reading a book or watching a television show. There are some asanas which are safe but most can be beneficial to one and dangerous for another. For every asana a counter asana should is to be done. For example if you do sarvangasana then it should be followed by matsaya asana or supt vajra asana. The simple rule is that if you do a forward bending asana it should be followed by a few backward bending asanas.

Always end your yoga practice with shavasana - resting and consciously relaxing your body for 5 to15 minutes.