Yoga for Life

In the last few blogs on #benefits of #Yoga, I talked about #Pranayama and #physical benefits. As the benefits of Yoga are numerous, and I’ve experienced them more on a #psychological level, here the article #continues. Yoga encourages you and helps you #relax, slows your #breath, and increases your #focus on the #present, shifting the #balance from the #sympathetic #nervous #system (or the #fight-or-flight response) to the #parasympathetic nervous system which is calming and #restorative. It also lowers #cortisol levels (chronically high levels may lead to #permanent #changes in the #brain and #memory and are linked with #depression, #osteoporosis, #highbloodpressure, and #insulin resistance). In my previous blog on physical benefits of yoga   https://headandheartchild.blogspot.com/2018/11/benefits-of-yoga-holistic-connection-to.html I talked about the research done on #rats and #food-seeking behaviours. These are all linked to #mental behaviours and depression. What I ...

In the last blog on #benefits of yoga, I outlined some of the numerous physical #benefits of #yoga practice. This one deals with #Pranayama or the #breath awareness or #breath #control. Although I have been practicing yoga for over 20 years, it’s only in the last three that I really found my #breath. Which is weird – because if I wasn’t #breathing, I would have been dead. Well, there’s breathing and there’s breathing properly. Prana in Sanskrit means ‘vital energy’ or ‘life force’. Prana is the force that exist in all things. It is more than air that we breath. Pranayama is therefore explained as breathing exercises aimed at introducing extra oxygen into the lungs – which in everyday western terms means breathing properly and deeper.   ‘yana’ means control. But in #pranayama the word ‘#ayama’ is used which means ‘extension’ or ‘#expansion’. Therefore, the yogic breathing techniques or pranayama are used to extend the life force and go: ‘beyond one’s normal boundaries or li...

Following on from my last blog on #mentalhealth in the next few blogs I will outline the numerous #benefits of #yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga for over 20 and #studying it for the last three years. 20 years ago, yoga practice was not the same as #today – it certainly wasn’t something everyone was talking about.   If you were interested in having #biceps like #Madonna, then you would have perhaps heard of #Ashtanga yoga and would have pursued the same road to gaining biceps and more #muscle #tone. My first class I attempted to do an impossible. I wanted everything – the #flexibility and the strength (although I was already quite strong), I wanted to come out of that #class and be Madonna! And I was very #proud with myself for being able to get into #Tittibhasana or the #Firefly #pose Bearing in mind that this was my first class, and knowing what I know now, I should have never been allowed to even attempt that pose without a proper preparation.   20 yeas on and...

Coinciding with #Navaratri, today is the #WorldMentalHealthDay, an #international day when everyone talks about #mental #health. Should we not talk do (something) about it? Enough talking! But having one day devoted to the #mental #health at least will turn everyone's attention to it and maybe the #governments will #issue their stance on it. But that isn't enough! In England, #therapies such as #yoga and #meditation, are still considered as "alternative" and not suitable for national health or part-funded cost. However, the effects of #yoga, #meditation and #mindfulness on #mental #health #illnesses are far much better than those of some #medication. Don't get me wrong! I don't advocate stopping medication, I am merely in favour of some 'alternative' solutions to solving the problems, since the #mentalhealth problems can be very deep and very complicated. One size never fits all - therefore why doesn't the government explore these #alternativ...

I’ve been practicing #yoga for years but it wasn’t until I did my #teacher #training that I finally embraced yoga. And not just as a way of #strengthening my #body through the #physical #training and all the asanas (physical poses) but also as my #lifestyle. For years I have been suffering with #migraines and #lower #back #pain. Two years ago, my lower back pain disabled me for the whole month – I got diagnosed with a #degenerative #spinal #canal #stenosis (lumbar). This happened just before I was due to start my #200 YTT course. Over the years, my regular daily asana practice has improved my flexibility. And, although I still find forward bends easier to do (common with people suffering from lower back pain), I am now able to launch into back bends like #Chakrasana/Wheel pose, something that I couldn’t do before my training. Yoga is now generally #prescribed amongst the medical practitioners as a treatment for lower back pain sufferers - although still considered as an alternativ...

I wrote this last year, but being a full-time mum, with no time for internet and leaving the whole blogging community to my children, I never fully published it.... Leo, my beautiful, black 19-year-old cat died in February this year. We buried him in the garden and planted a rose on his grave, which is now known as Leo's rose. He was part of the family – he was the family. He was my first baby – I had no children when my sister and I adopted him and his brother Tiger at only three weeks old. I still miss him. My youngest keeps asking "Where's Leo?" "Has he got food?" It's difficult to explain to a two-year old the concept of death - she wouldn't understand even if I tried. At the same time, I'm not sure I can explain it to myself either! Yoga prepares us for death – after all, Savasana is a "corpse” pose! Yet I'm still learning to cope with the loss of a loved one - a grandparent, a friend, a pet or death in general! Meditating on He...

Often, when we go to Yoga classes the teachers talk about yoga philosophy, some will mention Patanjali (The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali), some won’t (and you may leave the class wondering what on earth they were talking about or may be curious and study further; like me. So what is yoga? And how do we control our minds? The direct translation of the second sutra – Yoga citta Vrtti Nirodhah is, according to TKV Desikachar: "Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without any distractions". So, by controlling the mind, one manages to achieve peace and quiet. Or, perhaps the complete opposite – by not being able to control the mind we become more disturbed! Which one is it? Only you will know! By controlling one's mind and achieving the peace with oneself, it is possible to control the world and our surrounding – or at least have the perception of controlling it. I recently received an angry email from a fitnes...