Surya Namaskar

SURYA NAMASKAR:

There are Asanas, which have remarkable impact on weight reduction and to reduce fat on the tummy. The result would begin to show right from the first week. You first start with sun salutations as this is a great way of keeping fit. You have to remember that in yoga you must listen to your body as it will know when to stop and where to stop. If this is the first time you are doing yoga be careful with postures if possible try with some teacher for a while.

This dynamic series is very useful for physical fitness and for treatment of obesity. Surya namaskar is a complete practice in itself because it includes asana, pranayama and meditation. This practice has a unique influence on the endocrine and nervous system, helping to correct metabolic imbalances that cause and perpetuate obesity. Being a dynamic practice, it is also an excellent exercise equated to cycling, jogging or swimming.

Surya namaskar consists of a sequence of twelve postures performed continuously and combined with synchronized breathing. Each position counteracts the preceding one producing a balance between flexions and extensions. The postures are as follows:

1.       Namaskar - salute. Stand erect with feet together and join the palms in the center of the chest (position of namaskar) and exhale.

2.       Chandraasan - crescent moon pose. Inhale and raise the arms above the head and extend the spine  backwards arching the back from the waist and moving the hips forward. Let the eyes follow your hands.

3.       Hastapadaasan - bending pose. Begin to exhale and bend forward from the waist; place the hands on the floor besides each foot. Relax with your head and neck in a bending pose.

4. Surya darshan - sun gaze. Inhale and put your weight on the hands; stretch the right leg behind like a stick resting on the toes. Bend the knee and place it on the floor with your weight on the left foot and arch thespine backward. Lift the head and neck first up and then back. Roll the eyes up. The left foot remains between the hands.

5. Himalayan - mountain pose. Exhale and bring the left foot back in line with the right. Lift the hips up high like a mountain. Push the heels and head down and look at the toes with head down between the arms

6. Sashtang dandawat - Put the knees down first and then bring the chest down. See that eight parts of the body are touching the floor including two feet, two knees, two hands, the chest and the chin or forehead. Sashtang means eight limbs and dandawat means paying homage by touching the floor. Make sure the hips are slightly raised above the ground. Inhale and exhale in this position. Keep the feet together.

7.  Bhujangaasan - cobra pose. Lower the pelvis and abdomen to the floor. Inhale and stretch the toes on the floor. Raise your head slowly up, arch the spine and neck and look up. Keep your legs together and the elbows alongside the body slightly bent and keep the shoulders down.

8.  Himalaya asana. Exhale and wiggle your toes forward allowing your feet to rest on the soles while your raise the hips as you did in number 5.

9. Surya darshan. Inhale and bring the right foot forward and assume pose number 4 exactly as before.

10. Hastapadaasan. Exhale and bring the right foot forward and assume pose number 3.

11. Chandraasan. Inhale and stretch up in a standing pose with your arms up and bend backwards like in pose number 2.

12. Namaskar. Exhale and stand erect bringing the hands back to the center of the chest with palms together as in pose number 1.

Things to remember while doing surya namaskar;

1. The above mentioned are the 12 poses of sun salutation, this is half round of surya namaskar. Full round consists of 24 poses. The same 12 poses are repeated with a minor modification i.e. in position 4 left leg is taken back and in position 9 left leg has to be brought forward.
2. Breathing should be only with mouth. The breathing should occur spontaneously as mentioned in the poses above.
3. Be aware of the body all the time. Witness the various movements of the body and the corresponding breathing.
4.  The number of rounds depends on the health of an individual. Start with two rounds and then increase it to 6 rounds.
5. It is essential to relax after the suryanamaskar, preferably in Shavasana or the corpse pose as shown below. During this pose you have to do a very deep inhale and exhale.

For people who needs detailed explanation on which part of body gets affected due to surya namaskar postures please refer https://yogaandasana.blogspot.in/2012/03/surya-namaskar-and-weight-loss-hi.html. 

Also encourage me with your more comments.

Best Warm Up

WARM UP:

The morning warm-up is best done outside. If this is not possible, any space with fresh air will do. I suggest that you open the window if you are practicing inside. Wear warm and comfortable clothes and flat-soled shoes. It is best to do the warm-up before you eat breakfast. As you do the exercises, breathe easily and fully. Let the belly relax.

The morning warm-up exercises should be practiced with ease; no force, no aggression. If an exercise is painful, back off, do smaller, slower, fewer rotations or minimize the stretch. If this does not stop the pain, then discontinue that exercise for the day and move to the next. Always inhale while coming up from a head-down position, so that you don’t get dizzy.

Remember, the warm-up is meditation in motion, so attend to what you are doing, feeling the movements fully and staying conscious of your breath and alignment at all times. This aspect of concentration, of focus, is the part of the practice that takes you away from the constant mental noise of reviewing lists of things to do, things already done, or dwelling in feelings and emotions unresolved in the past or in the future. Use your morning warm-up as a break from those voices and emotions by concentrating on the sensation of the movements, the alignment of the body and the feeling of your breath.

Before you start soorya namaskaram its mandatory that you do warm up. There are few execises for warm up like stretching sideways, jogging etc. I have few stills below where you can do any four of them for 10 counts each before you start soorya namaskaram.

Jogging can also be done. You can do jogging in two ways. One is jogging by standing in the same and another one is running and doing. The most important one in standing jogging is the heel should touch the back. If you are preferring to do warm up by jogging you can do it for atleast 5 mins.

Your body needs to get warm up before doing any heavy exercise such that your body will respond to the exercise you do and will result to some extent. For any type of exercise warm up is must.

Body Cooling

COOLING:


In yoga, we have three ways of body cooling techniques. All the three ways are done through mouth. They are 


a) OPen your mouth, put your tongue outside, roll your tongue in a vertical position and then inhale deeply through your tongue and then close your mouth and exhale through your nose. Repeat this three times.
b) OPen your mouth, fold your tongue inside your mouth like when you whistle and then inhale deeply through your mouth and then close your mouth and exhale through your nose. Repeat this three times.
c) Close your mouth, widen your lips, open your lips and show your teeth and then try to inhale deeply and after that exhale with your nose. Repeat this three times.


The above ways are to cool your body before staring with yoga. It is very important to cool the body before doing yoga.




ACCUPUNCTURE:


This is just a treatment for yourself for all your important organs in your body. Through this you can avoid many organ failure. Usually in our yoga class we use to do exercise for kidney functioning, for all brain nerves and heart nerves and then for headache. Let me tell you the steps which we follow in our class.


FOR GOOD KIDNEY FUNCTIONING: 


Just press your left palm's middle area with your right thumb tip for a minute. After that with your left thumb tip press your right palm's middle area. The palm's center area is directly connected to the kidney nerves. By pressing them kidney nerves will be active all the time and keeps the kidney to function properly throughout your lifetime.


FOR GOOD HEART FUNCTIONING:


Just press your left wrist area concentrating from left side, middle side and right side of your left wrist. Focus one inch of your left wrist area. From top to bottom three points you have to press in that one inch wrist area. Start from left side, continue with the middle part and end with the left side of your wrist. Those Nerves are well connected to the heart nerves. It helps with proper heart functioning.
Similarly you need to do with your right wrist one inch area.


FOR HEADACHE:


Just press the left hand's thumb tip with the help of right hand's thumb, forefinger and middlefinger. Similarly with the other hand's thumb.


We concentrate only on the above areas in yoga section which are very important. Hope fully there are other execrcise for other organs in our body. Will update you on this momre as i when i learn them.

Yoga Beauty Tips

TIPS FOR BEAUTY AND HEALTH THROUGH YOGA, ASANAS AND MUDRAS:

Hi folks

Let me start with few tip and will keep updating day by day. This will be helpful for all ages.

You need to spend some time to take care of your health and to make yourself look pretty. Its not necessary you need to spend your useful time in this. Even when you watch TV or when you read books or when you talk to some one you can do this. Also its not compulsory that you need to do this in a specific time. Any time you can do this. Most important one is NO MONEY NO TIRED NO TIME WASTE NOTHING.

WEIGHT LOSS:

This mudra helps to reduce your weight. Try holding in this position for 5 minutes and then release. Repaet the process for 3 times a day. This will burn all your fat and make you look slim. Just fold your ring finger and press it with your thumb. Rest fingers keep straight.

WEIGHT GAIN:

This mudra helps to gain your weight. Try holding in this position for 5 minutes and then release. Repaet the process for 3 times a day. This will boost your energy level and will improve the blood circulation. Anemic persons can do this too. Just join your thumb tip and ring finger tip. Rest fingers keep straight.

HAIR GROWTH:

Just rub your nails for 5 minutes. Repeat it for 3 times any time. This will help in hair growth and will lessen your hair fall. Also nourishes the hair root and helps in hair growth. Even you can get rid of premature grey hair while doing this exercise.

Visit this link for detailed explanation on rubbing your nails for hair growth.

http://yogaandasana.blogspot.in/2012/03/how-rubbing-nails-works-on-lost-hair-hi.html

http://yogaandasana.blogspot.in/2013/04/goodbye-to-hair-problems.html

Eye Care by Yoga

EYE EXERCISE:

There are actually various types of eye exercises. But the most important ones are below.

You can do the below exercises three times to complete full eye exercise. This will help to increase the blood circulation in your eyes also helps your sight to improve. Make sure you close your eyes and open whenever you start doing a fresh eye exercise like an interval.

With the below pran mudra posture on both hands, sit straight and follow the below steps.

HORIZONTAL SIGHT:

- slowly move your eyes alone from left to right and from right to left. (3 times)
- Close your eyes and open.

VERTICAL SIGHT:

- slowly move your eyes alone from top to bottom and from bottom to top. (3 times)
- Close your eyes and open.

CIRCULAR SIGHT:

- slowly rotate your eyes alone starting from left, top, right and bottom and reverse. (3 times)
- Close your eyes and open.

DIAGONAL SIGHT:

- slowly see your left bottom object and then top right object and then reverse. (3 times)
- Close your eyes and open.

LONG AND SHORT SIGHT:

- slowly see a maximum distant object and then see your nose tip and then reverse. (3 times)
- Close your eyes and open.


Finally close your eyes, rub your hands and keep on your eyes to give rest to your eyes. This is a must after eye exercise.

Next interesting eye exercise is TRATAK.

TRATAK:

This is also an eye exercise where you have the pran mudra on both hands and make your room dark, light a candle and start focussing the flame without closing your eyes. Never mind if you get tears. This procedure should be done for atleast 5 min. Maximum its your capability. You can do it for more than 5 minutes also. First time when you do this you cannot focus at a stretch, you can close your eyes when you feel to. This is a very good exercise for eyes.

After Finishing off any eye exercise rub ur hands and keep it on your eyes you will feel very relaxed. Then you can wash your eyes with water by taking a bowl fill with water and then put your eyes inside it and rotate your eyes inside water without closing your eyes. By this way you clean your eyes after exercise.

Yoga Procedure

Yoga needs to be done with following steps :

1) Put your kneels down.

2) Sit and join your hands together.

3) Tell the peace mantra and start your yoga.

Basic Procedures in YOGA:

1) Daily after prayer Early morning Breathing Exercise aslo called as pranayam.

2) Eye exercise.

3) Cooling exercise.

4) Accupunture.

5) Warm Up

6) Surya Namaskaram.

7) Sitting Asanas.

8) Standing Asanas.

After step 7 finish your yoga with prayer saying "OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI OM" three times.

Detailed Description about yoga steps:

You need to learn how mudras work in yoga. For each and every finger you have positions called as mudras. Let me explain one by one.

Any living body is made of 5 distinct elements :

FIRE

WIND

ETHER

EARTH

WATER

These are not as per science's definition of elements but refer to the five building blocks that go into the formation of any living body. Several ancient

health systems are based on the concept of the balance of the five elements. Indian Medical science according to Ayurved and metaphysics affirm that

distortion or impairment of the 5 elements create outer disturbance and inner sickness in the body.

The 5 fingers of the hands represent these 5 elements :

The Thumb symbolises the Fire

The Forefinger symbolises the Wind

The Middle finger symbolises the Ether

The Ring finger symbolises the Earth

The Little or small finger symbolises the Water

BREATHING or PRANAYAM:

First of all we need to make sure we sit in correct position while doing yoga means place your right leg on top of left thighs and sit straight. keep each mudra in your left hand one by one and simultaneously for each mudra, in your right hand bend your forefinger and middle finger and close your right side of your nose with your right thumb and inhale for 10 secs, then with your right ring fingerclose your left side of your nose and with your right side of your nose exhale for 10 secs and then do the reverse like inhale with right side of your mose and exhale with left side of your nose. This is one cycle. This cycle needs to be repeated for each mudra thus we complete our breathing exercise.

This exercise is to balance our body weight and thats why we prefer alternate breathing with either side of our nose.

HOW I STARTED DOING YOGA

Hi Folks


How are you all doing? I am doing great. 


I know everyone wants to live a happy life till they live without any pain, stress, disturbance etc. Everyone will feel they should be healthy enough to supprt themselves and children till the end. If we are healthy only we can look after ourselves and also take care of our children. So keep yourself healthy strong without any diseases. 


In a day we spend lot of time unnecessarily doing many things. In that, somehow we can spend one hour maximum time to make us healthy and strong. So friends please have in mind we need to be healthy and strong to live a happy life. I have a thought which i can share with you all regarding this. 


I have a kid who is two year old now. After delivery i put on weight but it got reduced to some extent now but still i dint get back my old weight that was before marriage. Also i dint get enough time to do exercise because i need to be behind my kid and also i was working.


One day my husband had a thought of going to yoga for his health and office stress. He wanted me to join with him. As i was not interseted i dint go when he called. But later after three months i could see a drastic change on him which inspired me to join yoga. He lost weight, his stress has gone and he beame very active. I too decided to join finally. It happened two weeks i joined yoga. I find lot of changes in myself after going to yoga.


Let me discuss with you what all i do in my yoga class. 


First of all we sit and pray telling below slogam to get peace before starting yoga.

SHANTI MANTRA (Peace Mantra)

we are everything, we are together

SAHANA BHAVATU SAINAI BHUNATKU

SAHAVIRYAI KARAVAVAI TEJASVI NAMADHI TAMASTE

MAHAVADHYAI SHAVA HE

OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI OM