Health

Yoga For Insomnia (Maintain Regular Sleep And Eating Patterns)

November 21, 2018 by Harshitha Leave a Comment

Yoga For Insomnia And Indigestion:

Relieve your body of the stress of irregular sleep and eating patterns, with this 3 yoga for insomnia. Do a little restorative yoga and yoga nidra before bedtime; a 15-minute practice will help you ease those frayed nerves. And some best tips on how to sleep through the night and which minerals and vitamins help with a good sleep in detail. Check out the following sleep inducing foods that help you sleep like a baby.

Why Can’t I Sleep At Night?

That’s always not insomnia. Sometimes the natural hormone melatonin production can be the reason. Melatonin is produced in the dark to promote sleep. So, when the light is not switched off you might end up juggling in the bed. Check whats yours before concluding.

Insomnia Symptoms:

Sleep difficulty
Daytime sleepiness
Depression
A headache
Irritability
Lack of Concentration
Slow activity

Insomnia Causes:

Anxiety, stress, and depression causes insomnia and in turn sleeplessness worsen them. Sometimes indigestion can also cause insomnia. There is certain yoga for stress and pranayama for stress which calms the mind reduce stress to help reduce insomnia.

How To Cure Insomnia?

Insomnia can be cured with medication after the underlying reasons are found. But the underlying reasons are hard to find as they change from person to person and the intensity also may change.

Yoga for insomnia due to indigestion can be reduced with this 3 daily yoga for insomnia and indigestion.

Yoga For Insomnia And Indigestion:

These twisted yoga poses help improve digestion massaging the muscles and relieve tension in there.

1. Parivritta Utkatasana (Twisted chair squat):

This pose activates your glutes, hip, and abdominal muscles, and releases pressure from the lower back.

Parivritta Utkatasana Steps:

Start with tadasana, grounding the feet firmly. Contract the thigh muscles and lift the kneecaps, rolling the front part of the thighs slightly inward. Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor and lift the pubis toward the navel.
Inhale; raise the arms to join the palms in a namaste position and keep them close to the chest.
Exhale; bend the knees comfortably to 90 degrees, making sure they do not go beyond the ankle. Lengthen the tail towards the ground and tuck the belly in firmly. Squat down as low as you can, breathing deeply.
Inhale; as you inhale, start to twist the torso towards the right and place the left elbow on the outside of the right thigh (or place the left palm on a block positioned close to the right foot). Turn to place the right arm on the lower back, for support.
Stay in this position for 5 breaths.

Release the position with inhalation; lift up and release the pose. Repeat the same on the left side.

2. Parivritta Janusirsasana (Twisted forward bend):

This pose releases fatigue, insomnia, and headache.

Parivritta Janusirsasana Steps:

Sit on the floor with legs stretched wideout, in front comfortably as far as you can.
Try and open the legs a little wider; Place the palms behind a few inches away from the hips. Lean the torso slightly back onto your palms and lift the hips up; slide forward, if possible. (Place a bolster or a blanket and under the hips, if you are uncomfortable. Do not pressurize.)
Now bend the right knee and place it close to the left inner thighs, ankle touching the groin.
Inhale; lift the arms up parallel towards each other.
Exhale; twist the torso gently towards the right knee. Place the left palm on the right thigh and the right arm stretching up and bending towards the left leg.
Hold the pose breathing deeply for 10 breaths; release. Repeat on the left side.

3. Parivritta Parsvakonasana (Twisted bent-knee triangle pose):

This pose releases tension from the thighs, hips and the groin.

Parivritta Parsvakonasana Steps:

Start with tadasana, grounding the feet firmly. Contract the thigh muscles and lift the kneecaps, rolling the front part of the thighs slightly inward. Lengthen your tailbone toward the floor and lift the pubis toward the navel.
Inhale; raise the arms and as you exhale, bend the knees, hinge forward from the hips and place the palms beside the feet.
Inhale; step the left leg back, placing the knee on the floor. If you are uncomfortable on the knee, place a cushion under it. Make sure the toes touch the floor. You should feel a comfortable stretch in the left front thigh and the groin. Keep the right foot forward between your hands and align the right knee over the heel.
Exhale; raise the torso and place the palms on the waist to support the lower back. Maintain the extension of the spine and tuck the tailbone down towards the floor and pubic bone in, towards the navel. Contract the shoulder blades in towards the each other and lift the chest up.
Inhale; raise the arms up, towards the ceiling. As you exhale, twist the torso to the right and place the left palm close to the right foot and raise the right arm up towards the ceiling, twisting the torso from the shoulders and the upper back. If you want to challenge yourself, curl the toes of the right foot, and as you inhale, lift the left knee off the floor. Keeping the back leg well engaged.
Hold the pose, breathing deeply for 10 breaths; release by placing the palms back on the floor. Repeating on the left.

Take Away:

Insomnia may be caused due to various reasons and there are always interrelated effects of insomnia. It can’t be handled from only one referred point. An overall healthy lifestyle, stress-free and happy body need to be developed.

This 3 daily yoga for insomnia and indigestion can help you relieve stress and make your body be at ease for its functionalities such as digestion, irregular eating patterns and help reduce insomnia.

Bija Mantra – Benefits Of Chanting (Clean Your Thoughts)

November 13, 2018 by Harshitha Leave a Comment

Japa Pranayama | Bija Matra:

Japa means constant repetition. In japa pranayama, you repeat a mantra or an affirmation. Bija mantra is one of the mantra or affirmations you repeat.

The repetition allows you to distract from the regular cycle of thought process. It takes your mind away from the trapped thoughts that lead to confusion in your life.

Scientists say that when a mantra is chanted rhythmically, it creates a neuro-linguistic effect. Such an effect occurs even if the meaning of the mantra is not known.

“You just need to have a good ear, stay true to the punctuations, pauses, pronunciation, notation, length and the force of the chant and repeat it over and over again. The transformation happens step by step, over a period of time,” says Menaka Desikachar, senior exponent and former director of Vedic chanting at KYM.

Benefits Of Chanting A Mantra | Bija Mantra:

Regular chanting of mantras is believed to wipe out:

Fear, anger, and depression
Help relieve disorders of the respiratory, digestive, reproductive, circulatory, speech, intellectual and cognitive systems.

Vedic chanting is said to help develop one’s:

Mental powers and strength, ease stress and take one to a higher level of consciousness.
Chanting also improves one’s memory and power of concentration, so crucial if one wants to be an achiever.
Also, knowing the meaning of what you are chanting tunes your mind towards reaching your goal

Listening to mantras regulates:

Blood pressure
Heart rate
Brainwaves
Adrenalin level.

But, remember, just like regular medicines, there are specific chants for specific purposes.

Avoid addictions such as kick alcohol, smoking and overcome the urge to overeat, following a daily dose of chanting for over a year

Why A Mantra?

Think of this. On the physical level, voicing a chant in a prescribed way impacts the abdominal area (from where the chant notes are raised), the lungs, the circulatory system and so on,

Chants have been analyzed to be energy-based sounds and voicing a word or a sound produces a physical vibration. Chants thus create thought-energy waves, and the organism vibrates in tune with the energy and spiritual appeal of a chant.

Bija Mantra:

There are a variety of Bija mantras to activate different chakras of your body and mind. AUM chant is the best-known bija mantra. The vibrations caused during the A-U-M chant activates the Manipuraka chakra(the maintenance centre), Anahata Chakra (the creation process) and Vishiddhi chakra (the destroying limitations chakra).

Other common bija mantras include:

Krim – believed to awaken the lower chakras.
Shrim – thought to promote health, joy and beauty.
Hrim – associated with creativity, purification of the heart and healing.
Hum – energizes the body and eliminates negativity.

In traditional Hatha yoga, each bija mantra is believed to vibrate with the energy of its associated chakra:

Lam – muladhara (root) chakra
Vam – svadisthana (spleen or sacral) chakra
Ram – manipura (solar plexus) chakra
Yam – anahata (heart) chakra
Ham – visuddha (throat) chakra
Sham – ajna (third eye) chakra
Om – sahasrara (crown) chakra

Japa Pranayama Steps:

Sit on a rug to conserve body energy.
Sit with your spine and head comfortably straight, relax your shoulders and close your eyes.
Keep your palms facing upwards and resting on your thighs.
Concentrate on normal breathing.
Start to chant the mantra, consistent with your inhalations and exhalations.
Chant slowly and clearly, sticking to the exact pronunciation and emphasis. Keep your eyes closed.
Breathe deep and slow.
Don’t hold yourself rigid. Let your muscles relax.
Give it time. The effects are slow but sure to come.
Repeat the chant 21 times and relax.

Take Away:

Don’t just choose a mantra and start chanting. The benefits of chanting are best achieved by doing it in a proper way.

Learn from a guru. Besides teaching you to pronounce a mantra perfectly, a guru knows which mantra you need.

There are people who have discovered that chanting can take you on a path that leads to a higher plane of well-being. Some stopped drinking, smoking, and overcome the urge to overeat, following a daily dose of chanting for over a year. And some overcame Down’s syndrome who no longer drools or behaves in a disoriented manner. Also, some got their asthma is under control. And personally, I got over menstrual irregularities. Others chanted their way out of chronic depression…try it.

Ujjayi Pranayama/Ocean Breathing (Become Victorious)

November 12, 2018 by Harshitha Leave a Comment

Ujjayi Pranayama Technique For Victory:

Ujjayi pranayama technique is great for improving concentration and focus. You become calm and energized with this victorious breathing technique. You can check my compilation of some of the daily yoga for concentration and focus.

Ujjayi, a Sanskrit word, which means to be victorious or a conqueror. The process involves making certain sounds while breathing and hence it is also known as ocean breath or hissing breath. It has alternating deep and even inhalation and exhalation with the glottis half closed.

What your mind needs is some training that will allow it to take a step back and relax. Breathing practices are usually the easiest way to give yourself the break that you require.

Ujjayi Pranayama is a gentle way to restore the imbalances in your mind-body complex and bring about some sense of mental equilibrium. The body responds to this practice by detoxing, lowering raised blood pressure and soothing the nervous system.

The circuits in the brain which were previously devoted to frantic problem solving are now freed up for creative thinking. Though the process will not take effect immediately, regular practice will show results that are inspiring and lasting.

This particular pranayama produces heat in the body making the body warm and makes the mind calmer.

Benefits of Ujjayi Pranayama:

This practice calms your mind, free of distractions.
Tremendously improves concentration and focus.
Regular practice improves blood circulation.
It warms up the body and stimulates the overall body metabolism.
Ujjayi pranayama fills positivity to your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
Detoxifies the whole body.
Reduces stress and tensions.

Ujjayi Pranayama Steps:

Do this once in the morning and whenever you feel overwhelmed by racing thoughts.

Sit with your spine and head comfortably straight, relax your shoulders and close your eyes.
Keep your palms resting on your thighs.
Take deep and even inhalations and exhalations through the nose. When you become comfortable to constrict the glottis. Feel the air through the windpipe.
Exhale; softly make the sound ‘HHH’ from your mouth.
Inhale; Keeping the constriction inhale through the nose experiencing an ocean sound.
After you’ve become comfortable with the constricting the glottis, you can close your mouth and start to inhale and exhale through the nose.
Make sure the inhalations fill up the lungs fully and the exhalations empty the lungs completely. The breathing should not be forced, it should be at ease.
The inhale and exhale with the glottis constricted is a cycle, you can do 25 cycles in the beginning and on practice, you can increase to 100 or more.

Precautions:

People suffering from hypertension should avoid the practice.

A little warmth in the back of your throat is OK. If you feel dizzy, stop the process.

Take Away:

Don’t forget to concentrate on the airflow in the windpipe and the sound you make when you inhale and exhale. On regular practice, you can gain a great positivity and become victorious in life with the focus and concentration you attain.

What Is A Healthy Diet-Eat What’s Good For Your Body

November 11, 2018 by Harshitha Leave a Comment

Importance Of Healthy Diet:

What Is A Healthy Diet? What to eat-What not to eat.

Eat what’s good for your body – Sadhguru

Does the food what we eat really make a difference in our lives?

Yes, the food we eat can affect our way of living. After All, the food is what we are taking in to survive. But survival is not the only motto of our lives, we’re here to live happily with ease.

On a particular day, if you feel so light and you’re with ease of life, the food you ate on that day must have had a major contribution. There can be various reasons for you being happy or blissful or sad or of any emotion, but food has its part in it.

Which Diet Is Right For Me?

To know what to eat or what suits you best you don’t need a healthy diet quiz online.

You must check for one thing: whether the food you’ve taken is easily digestible for your body.

Why Is It Important To Eat Healthy: The Digestive System

Sadhguru says it is not about being vegetarian or non-vegetarian, but it is what food is suitable for the human digestive system to make digestion easy so that human beings can go through life effortlessly.

The digestive system is very important in our body, which produces the necessary energy for the body through the process of digestion.

If the digestive system creates a bad environment in the process of digestion with the food you’ve had, your body gets into trouble, so as the mind and the day will be ruined.

For example, we all know constipation is a condition of the digestive system which ruins our day. This occurs when the food moves slower through your digestive tract, the colon will absorb more water from food. Consequently, the faeces become dry and hard making it difficult to defecate. The slow movement of food depends on the type of food we eat. That’s why choosing what to eat is very important.

And if the digestive system creates a good environment in the process of digestion, your body will be at ease, so as the mind and the day, everything will be great. This is because, when you’re good within anything that comes in your way also turns pleasant with your action.

Here is the most logical explanation from Sadhguru

Take Away:

So, check for the food which suits you and make consuming food ease life but not an obstacle.

Happy EATING… and take good care of your digestive system…

Kapalbhati Pranayama(Detoxify Internal Organs & Let Skin Glow)

November 9, 2018 by Harshitha Leave a Comment

Cleanse Your Body And Mind With Kapalbhati:

Kapalbhati pranayama is an internal cleansing technique for both body and mind.

‘Kapala’ means skull and ‘Bhati’ means light. The light in this context means perception and knowledge.

The process starts with short, explosive exhales alternating slight longer, passive inhales. The exhales cause contractions in the lower belly, between the pubis and navel, pushing air out of lungs. The inhales release the contractions sucking in air into the lungs.

These contractions and release of lower belly muscles massage the internal organs and help detoxify them.

Kapalbhati Benefits:

There are numerous kapalbhati benefits and so it is said to be practised first in the morning.

Kapalbhati pranayama detoxifies the brain and body.
With the detoxification, the skin, hair will improve radiantly.
A cleansing technique that calms your mind and you sense a clutter-free lifestyle.
Improves blood circulation.
The practice massages internal organs and improves kidneys and liver functionality.
Vigorous in and out of air removes stress from the eyes.
It also improves digestion with massage.
Increases metabolism and thus good for people who want to lose weight.
Rejuvenates brain pumping oxygen and energizes the whole body.
As the abdominal organs are massaged and soothed, any acidity and gas-related problems are resolved.
It also improves memory and concentration.

Kapalbhati Pranayama Steps:

Sit in a cross-legged posture with your spine and head comfortably straight, relax your shoulders and close your eyes.
Keep your palms facing sky resting on your thighs in Gyan mudra.
Focus on the lower abdomen.
Inhale; breath in slightly longer and passive filling up the lungs and pushing the abdomen out.
Exhale; breath out short and explosively at once pulling the lower abdomen in and letting all air out. (Tip: In the beginning, it might be difficult to contract only lower abdomen. You can make a fist with one hand and place the other over it and put it on the lower abdomen to push gently while exhaling to feel the contraction.)
Steps 4 and 5 are one cycle. Start with 8 – 10 cycles continuously in the beginning. Later, on sufficient practice, increase the pace at 2 inhale-exhale cycles per second.

Start with 25 – 30 cycles slowly at first and gradually increase to 100 or more.

Precautions:

People suffering from acid-related gastric issues like ulcers, cardiac problems, spinal disorders and hernia should avoid Kapalbhati pranayama.
Also, women around their pregnancy period must avoid doing kapalbhati pranayama.
People of age above 40 should do the practice at a slower pace and increase until it is comfortable to do.

Take Away:

Kapalbhati pranayama is an internal cleansing technique. It has numerous benefits such as weight loss, reducing hair fall, skin problems and also other serious issues such as acidity, digestive issues etc.

Finally, don’t forget to keep the focus on the lower abdomen. The contractions and release of lower belly muscles, massage the internal organs thus detoxifying the whole body.