PEACE OF MIND - EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF!

If we were to sit down and pen our thoughts without any editing, there would be no logical sequence. Our mind can be called a ‘madhouse’ of thoughts— unconnected and random. Out of the 60,000 thoughts we have in 24 hours time, 90% are ‘junk’ in reality. No wonder, our mind is running on the fourth gear most of the time. To prevent its breakdown, it needs to be silenced for a while!

Silence is to the mind what sleep is to the body—nourishment and refreshment. Beneath the ups and downs of life, beneath the restless surface of the mind, there is a profound state of calm and silence. By being able to rest for small periods in that state, we can create a stable and strong mind even in the face of stress. No wonder more and more of us are getting attracted towards meditation.

Finding difficulty meditating?

Meditation or Dhyana is being able to remain with the state of inner silence without any effort. The same can becomes a strain when one forcefully tries to still the mind, control the thoughts, and balance the emotions. Lack of time and patience make meditation nearly impossible for the majority. Nothing to despair as there are techniques which are within the reach of one and all and revolve around mindful breathing practices of yoga.

1. Belly breathing - Slow, rhythmic and deep abdominal breathing leads to calming of the chaotic mind as shown by the alpha waves in EEG recordings of the brain.

2. Vibrations of Bhramari - Specific sound vibrations while humming ‘MMM’ or ‘NNN’ have been shown to reduce anxiety thus leading to a mental restful state.

3. The Magical Pause – Kewal Kumbhaka - During meditation and relaxation, the breathing can become gradually fainter and eventually stop by itself—for a while. This is described as Kewal Kumbhaka. These pauses in our breathing are the abode of bliss, health and freedom. But can I and you experience it now? Yes, and the technique is Kapalabhati – a very versatile breathing kriya that is known to purify the body and the mind. After a short practice of Kapalbhati, the breath automatically gets suspended for a short while! There is no struggle or strain to hold the breaths, but a blissful experience, that peace of mind!

How can Kapalbhati lead to peace of mind?


During the practice with active exhalations, there is a washing out of carbon dioxide from the system with greater supply of oxygen. This delays the triggering of the breath, resulting in a peaceful pause in breathing, once the practice is stopped. When breathing comes to this temporary standstill, all the mental chatter disappears with a state of balanced calm and clarity – a perfectly peaceful state!

The density of thoughts significantly reduces during this time, giving the mind some rest. The breathing gradually becomes normal as the carbon dioxide builds up in the system. The duration of the peaceful pause lengthens if we relax and enjoy it consciously.

Try this –

• Sit straight in a comfortable pose, with head, neck and spine in one line.

• Place your palms on the thighs or knees. Relax and soften the face with a gentle smile.

• Begin with a chest-expanding inhalation and, maintaining it, start the practice. Use your abdominal muscles to perform active forceful exhalations, followed by passive soundless inhalations. Breathe only through the nose. Beginners can initially breath out blowing through the mouth as if blowing off a candle.

• The rhythm should be regular and consistent, like the ticking of a clock. The rate should be slow and steady, allowing enough time for spontaneous inhalations to occur. Stop after 25 – 30 strokes.

• At the end of one round, sit very still and observe the breath and the mind. The urge to breathe stops for a few seconds. Simultaneously, the mind experiences a deep state of stillness, silence, calm and peace.

Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind. Inner silence becomes a gift – strength, stillness and serenity! We tap a new level of health and creativity which surfaces without efforts. Worth it!

THAW THE FROZEN SHOULDER

If you find yourself suffering from significant shoulder pain, stiffness, limited range of motion, difficulty in making your hair or hooking your dress behind, you could be suffering from frozen shoulder or adhesive capsulitis. With primary frozen shoulder, there is no evidence or background history which explains the stiffness or decreased movement. When secondary, there’s an event of injury or trauma which precedes the discomfort.

A blend of customized yoga based practices, serve as a wonderful tool to help restore the shoulder's strength, flexibility, and function. They have to be performed thoughtfully and with patience and involve slow, deliberate movements requiring focus on what is being one and how the body feels. When overdone, they may make the shoulders go into spasm and freeze up even more. It is better to under exercise rather than over exercise. The practices mentioned are for primary frozen shoulder where there is no evidence of muscle injury.

Yogic Sukshma Vyayama – Release the tightness safely

1. Shoulder Circles - Start out with some very small circles; just a few minutes with each shoulder, several times a day.

2. Side lying arm circles - Lie on the side of the shoulder that is not hurting. Place your top hand on your shoulder and make circles with your elbow, thus rotating the shoulder. Start with small circles and gradually progress to larger ones to finally a figure of eight shape.

3. Side lying fist arches- Then making a fist with the hands of the painful side, pressing the upper arm to the side of the chest, bring the fist down towards the floor and then rotate it up.

4. Hands in and out breathing - While lying on your back, stretch your arm up toward the ceiling with the palms facing each other. As you slowly inhale, open your relaxed arms to the sides and before they touch the floor, breathing out slowly, lift them back to the vertical. Let the length of your breathing be equal to the length of each movement….do it continuously and slowly for a minute and then relax you arms by bringing them down with palms on your belly.

5. Controlled arm stretch – Lying down as above, move your parallel arms back. When you reach a point of stretch with mild discomfort, stop. Have a friend or helper bring some support to rest the arm at just that height. Then at that point of stretch, but not pain, let go of the weight of the arm fully supported with the prop . Breathe and relax for two minutes or more. Do this stretch at least once a day.

6. Side arm lifts - Open your arms out to the sides with palms up, while still lying on your back. Again, use support for the arm at just the right point of stretch sensation. When the arm is at about 90 degrees, you can also bend the elbows to 90 degrees or more, releasing the forearm and back of the hand toward the floor, with the palms up – making a ‘W’. As it is important to restore this movement, use plenty of height supporting the arm, planning on slow progress.

7. Chair release - Place the wrist of your 'good arm' on the top of the chair and walk back keeping legs perpendicular to the floor. The hand of your 'painful' arm’ is hanging down. Let the ‘hurting arm’ just hang down. GENTLY rotate your hips and upper body in a circular motion, you will notice that your hanging arm also rotates very gently in the same direction. Allow your hanging arm to move naturally. Pause for a few seconds, then rotate the hips and body in the opposite direction.

Shoulder strengthening -

Though one may be apprehensive about trying this, most frozen shoulders actually like mild weight bearing, especially when they have gained some confidence after subtly warming up their shoulder muscles.

Setubandasana - with hands interlocked on the floor, give a good blend of strength and stretch to the shoulders, without hurting them.

Marjarasana – Come on your hands and knees and keep your shoulder area actively wide. Then lift each arm forward and up a little off the floor, one arm at a time. Make sure that you keep lifting your trunk up out of your shoulders so there's no valley between the shoulder blades.

Adhomukhasvanasana - If you can do the above without pain, you're ready to progress. An easier variation, with hands on a chair seat suits many.

 

TECH NECK

We live in a constantly connected world but being hooked on to the cell phone, laptop and personal computer, can be a pain in the neck. Crammed up phone between the head and the shoulder and neck straining uncomfortably to view the tiny screen, is a 21st century problem called as "Tech Neck."

Deeply engrossed in our work, our head wants to lead not just functionally but position-wise too, as if it wants to win a race with the entire body. Then the body also decides to lean forward with rounded shoulders, as if catching up with the head. Who suffers – the neck, upper back and the shoulders!

The neck muscles that hold the head straight in place have to work hard all the time, trying to hold it back. They become tight and short with time, and to look in front, we lift our face by arching our neck up. This puts further strain, wear and tear of bones leading to cervical spondylosis.

Tech Neck is also the cause of low energy levels as it hampers free breathing. Slumping alone can reduce the breathing capacity by 20% - 30% as the rib cage cannot expand. This reduces oxygenation to the whole body including the brain thus making us feel exhausted and lethargic.

Yoga Therapy

1. Parshwahastasana - This practice helps to open the shoulder joints, release tension from neck and the chest and frees the breath. With the namaskaar behind, it also stretches the wrists and the hands.

·         Lengthen the spine and stretch the arms on the sides like the letter ‘T’. Then bend the elbows and bring the hands behind the back with the fingers touching.

·         Gently, without any discomfort, begin to press the finger tips upwards so that the palms come towards each other into the namaskar or the prayer pose. You can stop midway if you feel that the stretch is enough for you.

·         Breathe keeping the chest lifted and open. Keep the head directly over the spine and create length to the top of the head.

2. Garudasana arms - By opening the upper back and the shoulder joints from behind, it releases tension from the upper back.

·         Bring the folded arms in front of you, keeping the elbows in level with the shoulders.

·         Then tuck the left elbow firmly under the right and press the back of the hands against each other.

·         If you are comfortable to go deeper, then begin to wrap your arms so that the palms face each other. The palms will not be at the same level though.

·         Then lift the elbows up and out and breathe into your upper back for half to one minute.

·         Feel your upper back muscles getting stretched and softened. Release gently step by step and repeat with the other side.

3.      Setubandhasana with W arms - This pose has an overall strengthening effect on the whole back, shoulders, thighs and the legs with a soothing stretch to the tired muscles of the neck.

·         Lie on the floor on your back with the knees folded. Place the arms by the side like a wide ‘W’ with the palms facing up.

·         Tuck the belly in and lift the hips and spine off the floor. Strengthen your shoulders as you feel some body weight subtly on them.

·         Tuckyour hin and feel the lengthening and the stretching in your neck muscles.

Quick Office Fixes

·         Chin tuck – Slide your head back with your chin parallel to the earth, bringing your head and heart in line. Let this become a habit and not just an exercise!

·         Neck stretch - Move your chin towards your chest, holding for 5 seconds as you feel a comfortable stretch from your neck to the base of your skull. Then holding the side of the face, gently pull the head to the side.

·         T arms - Raise your arms upto the horizontal like a letter T with the thumbs pointing up. Now turn the thumb back as much as you can. As you do so, your palms will turn up to face the sky. Hold for 5-10 seconds, release and repeat.

·         Head press – With your hands interlocked behind your head, press your head back against the resistance of your hands. Hold, release and repeat.

·         Arm stretch - Clasp your hands behind you, inhale and pull the arms strongly back against the resistance of your clasped hands .You can keep your elbows slightly bent so that the upper arms go back easily.

Quick dupatta stretch!

Wrapping a cotton dupatta around our upper back, flip the two ends behind. Cross them as shown in the picture and pull the two ends down. Do not forget to tuck your chin bringing your head over the heart. Hold the pull for a while and feel good as the tension of the muscles eases out!

ASTHMA CAN BE MANAGED WITH YOGA - read the article 'ASAN' way out!

‘Asan’ way out!

Feeling breathless? You can cut short your frequent asthma attacks with certain Yoga exercises.
An asthmatic, Jaya always had to carry an inhaler in her bag, until she was introduced to the world of Yoga and Pranayama. The healing experience of Neti Kriya helped her get rid of steroid tablets and now she can make do without her inhaler. The regular practice of Yogasanas, Pranayama and Kriyas controls the attacks of asthma, which can be eventually cured.

Keep a check:

Bhujangasana and Ushtrasana
They increase movement in the rib cage and the spine to try and improve the working of the lungs. The forward bend of Hastapadasana helps shift and cough up phlegm.

Surya Namaskaar
A regular practice of Surya Namaskaar done with awareness and correct breathing can do wonders. The sequence of practices is such that 95 per cent of the muscles get to work in a very rhythmic way with alternate stretch and strength, forward bend and back bend, which ultimately improve lung and airway functions and helps drain secretions.

Yoga nidra
The deep relaxation induced in the voluntary muscles with Yoganidra extends to the involuntary muscles of the airways too. This helps relax the constricted bronchial tubes and ease the job of breathing. It also reduces the element of panic during an attack as the mind learns to direct inwards and relax the bronchus.

Pranayama:
It helps the full utilisation of all lobes of lungs, normalisation of the fast breathing rate thus improving the exhalations or the breathing out by relaxing the airways. Pranayama teaches diaphragmatic breathing which is a big help during attacks. Asthma patients find it difficult to breathe out due to the spasm of the airways.

They try to cope up with this by contracting their chest wall, which does not really cooperate much due to the tightness of asthma. Here, diaphragmatic breathing done with the help of abdominal muscles is a big resort to reduce the carbondioxide build-up.

Kapaalbhati
Toxins accumulate in our lungs due to our shallow breathing. Kapaalbhati Kriya, with its active abdominal exhalations, purifies the lungs, helping it get rid of carbon dioxide. This also clears the airways making the flow of breathes easier.

Special techniques:

Jal Neti
It helps gain mastery over hyper reactive reflexes by helping develop tolerance to external stimulants something similar to desensitisation therapy for allergens. In Jal Neti, one washes the internal nose with lukewarm saline water.

Here, the water in the hyper responsive nasal lining would trigger off a whole chain of events including excessive sneezing, watery running and nasal blocking. The excitability of the nerves of the air passages gets reduced eventually and one gains mastery over the allergies. This however, should be learnt under guidance.

Medi—Pranayama
This is a special left nostril breathing technique with the left hand in the ‘Surya Mudra’.This breath meditation strengthens the immune system to fight both viruses and bacteria and thus prevent infections. This is followed by breathing with hands interlaced to stimulate the thymus gland (call it the head quarter of the immune system) . The technique has been published internationally and has to be learnt correctly.

Attack the attack - Shashankasana breathing
While sitting in Vajrasana position, hold the right wrist with your left hand behind your back. Synhronise your breathing with your movements — exhale to bend forward on your hip region and inhale to lift your body up. Do this five times. Then as you bend forward, chant a soft ‘Mmm…’ and inhale to come up. Do this five times. During an attack, one can chant ‘Aaaa…’ with the forward bending instead of the ‘Mmm…’



 

BACK TO BACK - SAFE HOME YOGA FOR BACKACHE

Back pain is quite common and equally common is yoga being done for backache. Though freely available on the net, is it advisable to do it without proper guidance? It is indeed very sad to see how we perform yoga with total lack of inner awareness.


The aim of yoga is to create space between bones with support from strong and supple muscles in balance. Is our practice of doing yoga or any kind of exercise for that matter crushing us from inside? Give it a thought! So, choose the exercises wisely and also the person who is training us and is capable of customising the yoga practices for you!

Some common mistakes can hurt the back:

Yoga without Core Awareness

A weak sagging and toneless abdomen puts strain on the back while doing any yoga practice. The activity of the inner corset or the deep abdominal muscles is fundamental to the stabilisation of posture. And developing this central support will make it possible to let go of the compensatory tension we are carrying in different parts of the body. When the inner corset gives the continuous support, the outer corset helps build strength and movement.

Forward Bending on the Waist

Instead of bending from the hips, we bend from the waist due to tightness of the hamstrings or the back thigh muscles. Forward bending should be done as if the hip joints are the hinge with a straight back. If it is not happening this way, then bend the knees safe guards the back.

Unsteady Twisting

We may be twisting from the pelvis or the hip region rather than the spine. It is very important to stabilise the pelvis before going into any twist. Chair twisting is indeed a very healthy alternative that stretches the muscles that to without destabilising the hip region.

Overdone Back Bends

Bhujangasana, a back bend, is a part of every yoga protocol. If done carelessly with a sway back or the accentuated lumbar curvature, the movement may be occurring in the lumbar spine instead of happening in the middle and the upper back. Over arching from the lower back will compress the bones. So, it is important to stabilise the tail-bone by gently bringing tone in the back muscles of the hips (gluteal muscles), and then lifting the middle and upper back away from the pelvis.

Going beyond your limits

Some asanas which are good for the back can become harmful if overdone. The bridge pose or Setubandhasana is one such example. Straight leg lifts (alternate) also overarch the back when they are overdone. Let us therefore approach yoga as not for the eyes but for the inside!

A safe home protocol


Imprinting

Press the spine to bed. Fold your legs and while exhaling, press the spine to the bed for a few seconds and release. This will strengthen the core abdominal muscle or the transversus abdominis which will provide a steady support for the back.

Pawanmuktasana (Back Stretch)

Fold one leg and exhale to press the thigh on abdomen. Hold it and do not raise the neck. Tuck your chin to stretch the full length of the back muscles — the para spinal muscles. Repeat with the other leg.

Setubandhasana Foundation

This gentle rocking of the lower body in the lying down position will help restore mobility of the pelvis on the hip joints — needed for a healthy posture and smooth walking. Lie down with folded legs and feet parallel. After engaging the core belly muscles as with imprinting, raise your hips up by just two-five inches. This will strengthen the muscles in the tail bone area and the hips.

Ardha Shalabhasana (Back Strengthening)

Lie on your stomach and rest your forehead on the floor lengthening the neck without pressing down through the nose. Then place the arms straight on the sides with the palms down. Prepare the body by connecting with your core — firm the buttock muscles without squeezing them in.
Pressing one thigh down, lift the other straight leg up by two-four inches. Maintain position for a few breaths as you keep extending and lengthening. Come down with control and relax.

BACK TO NAG - EH!

BACK PAIN REMEDY WITH POSTURE ALIGNMENTS, OFFICE YOGA .....Read in the article...http://www.punemirror.in/article/64/20110528201105280612581668d9e27e5/Back-to-nag-eh.html

MINDFUL BREATHING CAN TRANSFORM - READ THIS WEEKS ARTICLE

http://www.punemirror.in/article/64/20110514201105140056577411180e1fc/Take-a-breather.html