Thursday, June 5, 2008

How To Cure Back Pain With Yoga

Once an injury to the spine has occurred, regular, often persistent back pain can follow; medical science is still some way from discovering a back pain relief remedy that will work for everyone. Although some medication may be effective and bring pain relief, it doesn’t really help with the underlying problem of the condition causing the distress. As far as the sufferer is concerned, this medication should only be taken whilst under supervision by a medical expert.

Back pain is often caused by muscle strain and repeated strenuous exercises; spinal injury is one of the most common conditions around the world and even sitting incorrectly can create a long term problem. However, back pain is usually caused by a lifting accident or from lifting incorrectly and it is normally the lower back that suffers. However, a number of back pain relief treatments can be used without the need for drugs.

One of the simplest but also underused remedies is just the act of stretching which can bring relief to tense muscles as well. On the other hand reflexology is an alternative medical practice where pressure is applied to the feet to relieve pain in different parts of the body; some people are now discovering its benefits as a back pain remedy. Another benefit to reflexology is how it can improve the circulation which helps to ease tense muscles.

The Chinese medical art of acupuncture can also be used to help bring back pain relief, something which has only been recognized a short while in the West. Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the theory that all people have this energy which flows through them called ‘chi’ or ‘qi’. Although the chi can become blocked, it can be released by using thin needles inserted into various points on the body. Like reflexology, acupuncture seems to be used by people who suffer with chronic conditions like back pain which requires relief.

Another ancient oriental discipline, Tai Chi is similar to many types of Yoga but the movements are much slower and deliberate. This method uses breathing control as the main source of relief with some stretching involved. It is so easy to learn by the young and old alike. Regular exercise is also one of the best preventative medicines available and can help with back pain relief; by exercising regularly there is less chance of a back pain attack.

Weight Loss With Yoga

Yoga deals with a number of easy to do exercises which can be very helpful in keeping the body fit both physically and mentally. Yoga can be practised on a regular basis, as it has easy to do exercises which can be done indoors. Also the time required to do these exercises is much less than the routine exercises. A person can easily take out time from the busy schedule to do these yoga exercises in the morning.

Like the regular exercises that a person usually does to reduce the weight or to keep the body fit, yoga comprises of exercises which are specifically intended to attack the extra fat a person carries around him. These exercises are to be done regularly so as to keep away from obesity. A person must understand the importance of a good health for a good living. A good health is very essential to lead a happy and trouble free life. In today’s hectic work schedule most people do not get time to think about their health and the food that they consume. This ignorance can eventually lead to obesity, and bad health. Not only does a person carry extra weight around him, but also there are several other disorders that come along with obesity. Some of these disease that are related to obesity and overweight include, heart related diseases, high blood pressure, high cholesterol etc. Thus a person needs to be careful always about the food that one consumes, and must consume food with the right nutritional content.

Along with a proper diet, regular work out is equally important. One must have a regular exercise routine so as to keep the body fit and stay away from problems such as obesity. Yoga is another set of exercises which employs its own exercising techniques to help reduce the extra fat contained in the body.

There are a number of easy to do yoga exercises that actually boost the metabolism rate. If the metabolism in the body is increased then the extra fats in the body is burned up easily. Moreover a person’s body becomes more flexible and strong. Also the muscles get strong after practising the yoga exercises. Therefore if a person does these yoga exercises on a regular basis, the fats get burned easily and one can lose weight. Also these exercises lend peace to the mind and hence make a person feel relaxed. Doing yoga regularly helps a person to fight stress. To fight stress is also equally important to lead a healthy life. By practicing yoga exercises a person can get rid of stress and hence it’s related problem. Yoga is a great way of revitalising the body and staying fit.

In one of the exercises known as the sun salutation, one has to salute the sun. This salutation exercise is very helpful in reducing the weight around the abdominal area of the body. More details about all the postures in yoga with detailed diagrams can be seen in the many yoga reference guide books easily available in the market.

Yoga Benefits

Does Yoga have any health benefit? Well, to answer in short, Yoga is just great and works in countless number of ways.

Stress is the number one cause, troubling every section of our emotional, endocrinal and physical system. But with the help of yoga, you can easily correct these problems.

At the physical level, Yoga and its cleansing practices has been demonstrated as extremely substantial for various health problems.

Yoga helps in increasing flexibility. It has positions that build up particular joints of your body. Yoga helps to work on those joints, which aren’t stimulated with the help of everyday exercise methods.

Yoga likewise increases the lubrication of tendons, ligament and joints. The carefully studied yoga positions develop the various ligaments and tendons in the body.

It has likewise proven to be true that the body which may have started doing yoga as a rigid one can produce a quite astonishing flexibility all things considered - even in locations of the body which have not been intentionally put effort into.

Yoga contributes to a perfect detoxification of your body. It gently stretches the muscles and joints while massaging the various organs at the same time. It also makes sure of optimal blood flow to the different parts of the body.

This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every little crevice of your body as well as offering nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as slowed down ageing, higher levels of energy and a formidable appetite for life.

The benefit of yoga in terms of health acts in a variety of methods on the various parts of the body. The revitalization and manipulation of the organs for example, in turn helps us by repelling sickness and providing a forewarning at the first conceivable instance of a most likely outbreak of disease or health problem.

An example of the complex benefits of Yoga is the uncanny sense of mindfulness of an imminent infection or ailment that it develops in the practitioner. This as a result makes feasible for the individual to take preventative curative measures.

The Art Of Yoga

Yoga is becoming a more and more popular activity in the Western world today. With a choice of Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Power Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga and many more it can be easy to get confused.

Hatha Yoga - in Sanskrit (an ancient classical language of India) “Ha” means “sun” and “tha” means “moon”. This kind of Yoga is somewhat gentle and slow paced, and is the right yoga to start with if you are totally new to Yoga and do not know any of the poses or asanas. Just like all the different forms of Yoga, Hatha Yoga intends to unite the spirit, body and mind.

Ashtanga Yoga - this kind of Yoga means “8 limbs” in Sanskrit. It is an intense and fast moving type of Yoga practice and is derived from a progressive sequence of poses, coordinated with the breath. This Yoga can be pretty physically demanding since you move constantly from one asana to the next in a sequence, thus you will find that it will develop your stamina in addition to your strength and flexibility.

Power Yoga - this is some kind of western version of Yoga and is derived from Ashtanga Yoga. Power Yoga might not essentially follow the exact order of asanas like Ashtanga Yoga, but it surely involves practicing a sequence of asanas without stopping and starting.

Iyengar Yoga - This kind of Yoga is founded on the teachings of B.K.S Igengar and works on the correct form and alignment of the body. Contrasting to Ashtanga Yoga, this yoga emphasizes on continuing with each pose for a longer time instead of moving continuously from one asana to the next. Iyengar Yoga makes use of props for instance straps and blocks to help support the body into the various poses.

Vinyasa Yoga - Vinyasa means synchronized movement of breath and is a differen and fast paced kind of Yoga, with a stress on breathing. A yoga practice usually begins with sun salutations and followed by excessive stretching. All through the yoga practice every pose balances with a counter pose.

Yoga Exercise For Beginners

There’s no need to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of yoga poses. Hopefully, your yoga practice will be a lifelong pursuit, giving you plenty of time to learn scores of poses. As your yoga practice advances, you will be at ease when working on increasingly challenging poses, however when you are just starting, it is a good thought to keep it uncomplicated.

In a typical yoga class, the students place their mats facing the front of the room in a loose grid. It’s best not to line up your mat exactly with the one next to it because you and your neighbor will need some space in certain poses. The students usually sit in a cross-leg position waiting for the class to begin or do a few gentle stretching.

The teacher might begin the class by asking the class to chant ‘Om’ 3 times. It depends on the teacher to start with short meditation or some sort of breathing exercise, at the beginning of the class.

After that there are some warm-up asanas, then more of brisk asanas, then stretches and finally relaxation. At any time, take Child’s Pose if you need some rest.

Sometimes the teacher will go around to each student during final relaxation and give him or her a little massage. Most of the teachers end the class with one more round of ‘Om’.

Congratulate yourself! You just had the first yoga class! You might be a bit sore the next day.

Dos and Don’ts

  1. DON’T have a big meal right before class. Try eating a light meal a few hours prior to the class.

  2. DON’T drink water for the duration of class, but have some after and before.

  3. DON’T wear socks or shoes during class.

  4. DO let the teacher know that it is your first class.

  5. DO ask you teacher for help when you need it.

  6. DO glance around and notice what other students are doing, particularly if the teacher doesn’t demonstrate each pose. On the other hand, remember that you might be looking at students of more advanced class, so don’t measure yourself up to them.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Yoga Practice

Yoga is a very popular discipline practice these days. It is practiced to keep our mind, body and soul in good shape. All the three should be good in order to feel good and healthy. Yoga is a discipline that cannot be practiced casually. A person needs to take it seriously and need concentration. The best part of yoga is that even if a person cannot concentrate but is willing to learn it then that person can be taught to have concentration.

A person can practice different poses while practicing yoga like Child’s Pose. In this pose first lie flat on the ground with face facing ground. Your body should be straight. Then rise your body up from the nee. Now you’re both the legs should form an angle of 90 degree with itself. Now rotate your bodies further backward so that you’re both the legs are forming angle of 180 degree with itself. Your body should be straight from waist. Now from the waist lean your body forward so that it form an angle of 180 degree with your hands held toughing the ground and are straight too. This is Child pose. Best part of this pose is that it is very comfortable and relieves stress quickly. This pose when practiced for 5 minutes improves the person spiritually. In this position take deep breath then hold it for 3 seconds and then release it starting form toes. During this imagine body weightless and stress free.

Another type of practice is Salutation pose. This pose can be practiced in sitting as well as standing position. In this pose user join their hands and keep their body straight. Then the user should inhale during which the user should bring its hands together and then rest the thumbs on the center of breast bone (in center) lightly. Now press the palms and fingers together firmly and evenly. During this if you observe that one of your hands is dominant then this means that there is imbalance. Now the user should bow head slightly and try to draw the neck towards the center of the head. Now using your thumb lift the center of breast bone upward and then down to back of the upper arms so that your elbow hangs heavily downward. This pose is used to improve your meditation process. For starters one can practice for 5 minutes and the longer. Benefits of this pose can be immediately realized. One will feel calmness in the heart and opening of mind.

Another very effective yoga pose is of Sun Salutation. When one comes home after hard day the person prefer to relax on the bed. This is wrong to do as the deoxygenated body parts will remain deoxygenated. In this pose person stand straight and try to bend forward, left and right to the expend it is comfortable. This way it will loosen up body joints and can get proper oxygen. This system can tone up digestive system also and its effects can be felt immediately.

There are many other poses that a person can practice in yoga and they all are very effective for their respective areas.

Yoga Therapy

Yoga originated in India roughly five thousand years ago to finding the path to enlightenment. It can give you relaxation to mind, body and soul, ability to communicate with its body. It helps in making body fit and that person’s mind will also be relaxed. Giving the ability to communicate from your within is itself great which is very well practiced in Yoga.

Yoga Therapies are used worldwide. It is used in many Health Cares in United States and almost 60% Health care use Yoga therapies in some or the other form in their classes. It is also used to cure or control various types of problems like joint pain, Internal Imbalances, Stress, Neck and back pain etc.

In yoga by interacting with owns body is very important. Human’s stomach is considered to be the energy center which process and give energy to body, similarly mind is considered to be a playful thing which want to jump from one place to another. If they ever have any problem in their working then severe effects can be seen on the body of that person. One should try to listen to their warning signals and if one doesn’t then that person has to face consequences.

So it is clear how motivation and yoga have connection between them. And Yoga can also be used as a tool for overall personality development. In fact it is the only disciple that does so. At the end I would say Yoga is must thing and everybody should try to practice this for their own good even if this is for few minutes a day.

Our body gives signal when there is some problem in stomach and it is our work to solve the problem (can be solved by choosing meditation). Yoga therapy says that we should be free and listen to the signal of the body, try to solve them through meditation and special exercise depending on the problem whether is it of stomach of mental tension.

In yoga a person can follow 3 steps therapy that will improve all mind, body and soul. They are:-

  1. Stimulate relaxation -In this process move your shoulders 5 times clockwise and 5 times anticlockwise in which arms should rest. During this process neck should be erect. This process helps in frictionless flow of blood in and out of the brain.

  2. Breathe Observation - the person should close eyes and try to free the mind from all tension or anything. Now try to observe your body’s breath process. If a person is able to observe and bring it to normal level then that person is at de-stressing level in which mind start losing all the stressful things.

  3. Yogic Breathing - Again in this process your eyes should be closed. Try taking gentle and comfortable deep breath. Now the person should feel the air going to the stomach and them coming up to lungs. Now exhale the air. During exhaling the air one should try to exhale from the top and then from the bottom.

This way yoga therapy can cure many problems.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Yoga and Motivation


As you all know that Yoga originated in native India roughly 5000 years ago to finding the path to enlightenment. It can give you relaxation to mind, body and soul, ability to communicate with its body. A person practicing Yoga will have a fit body and that person’s mind will also be relaxed. It also has the ability to make a person more active then that person was ever before.
Motivation has strong connection with Yoga. To understand their connection we need to know answer to some basic questions that will be ultimately the answer to the connection. Firstly, we feel completely normal during a course of an event and on the other day with the same event we feel stressful. From where does this stress arise? When we are stuck in a traffic jam we get frustrated and when we think over it we feel that it is due to some external source while it is our own internal state. This is all because we want to achieve a set of things whether it be losing weight or getting promotion. We do all this to get happiness which is root cause of the suffering. This does not mean that we should stop having any preferences but it is that we should not get trapped in it. We should not bind our self with set of criteria. The easy way out of this is to free your mind. Don’t be crazy about achieving the thing you want to achieve. Try to let go your mind free and feel relaxed.

Secondly, people are confused on what fitness should they choose, should they choose a program that make them muscular looking or one which make them lean look? Well, it is not this way. According to yoga everybody have a limit and different requirements. A person should set the requirements after assessing self capabilities. For this the person has to work under the person’s guru and then set the requirements. After the person has set the requirements then that person is motivated by the person’s guru to achieve the target. The person can self motivate to accelerate the process and get more out of the workout but under any case this should not be overdone.

Thirdly, not much people know that stress and anxiety are caused by the persons own ego and also ignorance. So, a person can also go for this type to program in which yoga track these problem causing elements and try to remove them so that person have a peace of mind. This program requires lot of motivation as the person is fighting against itself (feelings).

So it is clear how motivation and yoga have connection between them. And Yoga can also be used as a tool for overall personality development. In fact it is the only disciple that does so. At the end I would say Yoga is must thing and everybody should try to practice this for their own good even if this is for few minutes a day.

Yoga and Meditation

Yoga is a popular and ancient technique used to combine mind, body and soul. It is also used to cure many type of disease including mental and physical. Yoga practicing person feel good and healthy. To practice yoga a person need to know how to meditate as it is the only source to interact with our body and inner-self. When a person meditates then that person is in a state to communicate with his body and soul, and can free the person from all the stress that the person is suffering form.
There are many people who suffer from different kinds of problems like migraine headache, full body pains etc. They go to doctor and take pills which show affect for few days then after few visits doctor tells you to consult to a specialist and again you start taking pills, this process keeps on going. This process can also have severe side effects like stomach upset or other problems. Instead of going through this entire painful process one can go for yoga classes and practice meditation. Best part of this is that it has no side effects and there is no pain in it. In meditation a person relaxes the body. The person has to take deep breath and hold it as long as it is not painful and then exhale out slowly. Then the person tries to free the mind from all the tension. The person should now try to feel light if the person is not feeling so. Now the person should try to observe the motion of the breath. After doing all this, the person can now do the specific exercise for the problem that the person is having. If the problem is of neck then the person can go for neck exercise, if it is headache problem then the person can go for related exercise.

In order to feel good the person should have positive attitude and can follow the three points which are:-

  1. Awareness . we must train ourselves of what and how is our brain thinking. How are thoughts generated and handled by our brain. If we are able to do so then we will have right control on the processor of our body.

  2. Acceptance . in awareness we learn to control our brain but this can lead to a problem of making judgment of what we are thinking. This can be a dangerous situation unless we learn to accept things that are happening around us. Try to be calm as mush possible at times of difficulty and say to you “I can solve this problem”. There can be a situation in which your partner refuses to go with your decision, in that case don’t be mad and accept that it is natural that your partner has such thinking and that’s what your partner is following.

  3. Attitude . need to accept truth and your thoughts. If one is successful in doing so then that person can now actually start working on the problem. One should always have positive attitude of problem solving and not getting tense over the problem.

These three points can make whole lot of difference in Meditation and ultimately help the person himself.

What is Yoga


Yoga is misunderstood by people and they thing it is just like any other cool thing, yes it is cool but it cannot be compared with any other thing. Yoga originated in native India roughly 5000 years ago. Yoga was discovered for finding the path to enlightenment and it is.

It can give you relaxation to mind, body and soul. It helps the person to communicate with its body and understand it much better which unfortunately not body do these days. An experienced person can develop the ability to combine all the three elements and can become very powerful spiritually and mentally. If a person practice Yoga then that person’s body will be fit and that person’s mind will also be relaxed. A person practicing yoga is more active then that person would have ever felt.

As we all know that life these days are very hectic and we don’t get time for ourselves, plus we are always up to solving one or other problem. If a person fails to solve his or her problem then that person might suffer from depression and more devastation things can happen. There can be body problems with all these tension. As yoga has the ability to incorporate the power in a person to fight with all these problems so it is becoming more and more popular these days. Yoga has gained popularity not only in Asia but also in west. Its popularity can be easily felt by the fact that many Hollywood stars even judges there line up with their guru and practice yoga. According to the new review almost 75% of the Health care in United States includes some or the other form of yoga in their classes. The numbers of Americans that include some form of yoga in their exercise have risen to twice since last 5 years.

Looking at the power of yoga many questions has been raised like can yoga prevent heart attacks or can it rejuvenate looks of people. The amazing think about all this questions is that the answer is YES. Most people who have heart attack is due to mental tension and yoga is a very powerful way to relax your mind and free form tension even if it is for small time but this time is enough for the body to gather enough strength to fight with this tension again. It is been observed that people practicing Yoga live longer than usual.
If a person study Buddhism then that person can see that Yoga has great influence on this religion. Zen (is derived from Sanskrit work “dhyan”) Buddhism deals with “dhyan” of Yoga. Yoga is extensively used in Bhagavad Gita. In it Yoga is used for action, devotion, Knowledge.

There are different categories of people who are practicing Yoga. They are classified in following groups:-
  1. People seeking for Spiritual Element

  2. People who are more concern for Fitness and Flexibility

  3. Finding solution for Health Disorder

  4. Others for All-Round Development
At the end I would say Yoga is must thing and everybody should try to practice this for their own good even if this is for few minutes a day.