38)Is Yoga Enough to Keep You Fit?

http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/739
By Alisa Bauman

Alisa Bauman stays fit through yoga, running, and fitness ball workouts. She lives and writes in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, where she is studying for yoga teacher certification under Mary Rosenberger at Accent on Yoga and Health.

We sent three yogis to the lab to test the theory that yoga is all you need for optimal fitness.

When it came to the fitness benefits yoga can or can't provide, yoga teacher John Schumacher had heard it all. A student of B. K. S. Iyengar for 20 years and founder of the Unity Woods studios in the Washington, D.C. area, Schumacher was convinced yoga provides a complete fitness regime. But many people, even some of his own students, disagreed. Yoga might be good for flexibility or relaxation, they'd say, but to be truly fit, you had to combine it with an activity like running or weight lifting.

Schumacher just didn't buy it.

He knew three decades of yoga practice—and only yoga practice—had kept him fit. He didn't need to power walk. He didn't need to lift weights. His fitness formula consisted of daily asanas (poses) and pranayama (breathwork). That's all he needed.

Four years ago at age 52, Schumacher decided to prove his point. He signed up for physiological testing at a lab in Gaithersburg, Maryland. As he expected, Schumacher tested near the top of his age group for a variety of fitness tests, including maximum heart and exercise recovery rates. His doctor told him that he was in excellent physical condition and estimated that Schumacher had less than a one percent chance of suffering a cardiac event. "I've always maintained that yoga provides more than adequate cardiovascular benefits," says Schumacher. "Now I have the evidence that regular yoga practice at a certain level of intensity will provide you with what you need."

Evidence of yoga's ability to bolster fitness, however, goes well beyond Schumacher's personal experience. Yoga Journal's testing of three yogis also yielded impressive results. Even physiologists who don't do yoga now agree that the practice provides benefits well beyond flexibility and relaxation. Recent research—though preliminary—shows that yoga may also improve strength, aerobic capacity, and lung function. If you practice yoga, you already knew that. But if, like Schumacher, you've been told by friends, family, doctors, or even other yoga students that you need to add some power walking for your heart or strength training for your muscles, here's evidence that yoga is all you need for a fit mind and body.

What Is Fitness?
Before you can prove yoga keeps you fit, you must first define what "fitness" actually means. This isn't a simple task. Ask eight different physiologists, and you'll hear eight different definitions, says Dave Costill, Ph.D., one of the first U. S. researchers to rigorously test the health and fitness benefits of exercise.

Now professor emeritus of exercise science at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, Costill defines fitness simply as the ability to live your life without feeling fatigued. "For normal daily living you don't need the strength of a football player or the endurance of a marathon runner, but you've got to be able to perform your normal activities and still have a reserve," says Costill. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the largest exercise science association in the world, defines fitness as both related to your ability to maintain physical activity and related to your health (for example, people who become more fit reduce their risk for heart disease). According to ACSM, four types of fitness help to bolster health:

Cardiorespiratory fitness. This refers to the fitness of your heart, lungs, and blood vessels. The better your cardiorespiratory fitness, the better your stamina, the lower your risk for a host of diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Your ability to move without feeling winded or fatigued is measured by your VO2max (maximal oxygen uptake), a technical term that indicates how efficiently oxygen enters your lungs, moves into your bloodstream, and is used by your muscles. The more fit you become, the more efficiently your body transports and uses oxygen, improving your overall VO2max.

To test VO2max, physiologists ask you to cycle or walk or run on a treadmill with a tube-like mask over your mouth. The mask gathers the carbon dioxide and oxygen you exhale, and the ratio between the two gasses helps to indicate how efficiently your muscles use oxygen.

There are other tests that measure additional aspects of cardiorespiratory fitness, including a lung function test, in which you take a deep breath and then blow into a tube to measure your lung capacity, and heart rate tests, taken both at rest and during exercise. Since equally fit people can vary as much as 20 percent in heart rate,this measure best indicates your own progress: If you become more fit, your heart rate generally drops.

Muscular fitness. This refers both to muscle strength (how heavy an object you can lift) and muscle endurance (how long you can lift it). Without exercise, all of us lose muscle mass as we age, which can eventually result in weakness and loss of balance and coordination. Because muscle is such active tissue, it also plays an important role in regulating your metabolism, with every pound of muscle burning about 35 to 50 calories a day.

In a lab, researchers test your muscle strength and endurance on specialized equipment that looks like an exercise machine at a gym but contains sensors that read how much force your muscles generate as they contract.

Flexibility. As most people age, their muscles shorten and their tendons, the tissue that connects muscles to bones, become stiffer. This reduces the range of motion, preventing optimum movement of your knees, shoulders, elbows, spine, and other joints. Loss of flexibility may also be associated with an increased risk of pain and injury. Tight hamstrings, for example, pull down on your pelvis, putting pressure on your lower back. In general, tight muscles increase the likelihood you'll suddenly move past your safe range of motion and damage ligaments, tendons, and the muscles themselves.

Body composition. Your body composition refers to the percentage of your body made up of fat instead of muscles, bones, organs, and other nonfat tissues. Though the use of body composition as a fitness and health indicator has come under fire in recent years by those who argue that it's possible to be both fat and fit, the ACSM and many physiologists continue to assert that too much fat and too little muscle raises your risk for disease and makes movement less efficient.

Physiologists can measure body composition in several ways. The simplest method uses a pair of calipers to pinch the skin and underlying fat at various spots on the body. This method works best for athletes and others with little visible body fat. For those with more body fat, a more accurate method is hydrostatic weighing—being weighed while submerged in water and comparing the result to your out-of-water weight. Because fat floats, the greater the difference between your submerged and dry weights, the higher your body fat percentage.

Experts have long recommended that we do at least three different types of activity to achieve optimum cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, flexibility, and body composition. For example, the ACSM recommends building cardiorespiratory fitness by exercising at an intensity that raises your heart rate to at least 55 percent of your maximum heart rate (the highest rate you can maintain during all-out effort, generally estimated as 220 minus your age); muscular fitness by targeting each major muscle group with eight to 12 repetitions of weight-bearing exercise; and flexibility by stretching.

No one argues against yoga's ability to satisfy the flexibility requirement. But until recently, few scientists had considered whether yoga could improve other aspects of fitness. Now that's starting to change.

Putting Yoga to the Test
In one of the first studies done in the United States that examines the relationship between yoga and fitness, researchers at the University of California at Davis recently tested the muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, cardiorespiratory fitness, body composition, and lung function of 10 college students before and after eight weeks of yoga training. Each week, the students attended four sessions that included 10 minutes of pranayama, 15 minutes of warm-up exercises, 50 minutes of asanas, and 10 minutes of meditation.

After eight weeks, the students' muscular strength had increased by as much as 31 percent, muscular endurance by 57 percent, flexibility by as much as 188 percent, and VO2max by 7 percent—a very respectable increase, given the brevity of the experiment. Study coauthor Ezra A. Amsterdam, M.D., suspects that VO2max might have increased more had the study lasted longer than eight weeks. In fact, the ACSM recommends that exercise research last a minimum of 15 to 20 weeks, because it usually takes that long to see VO2max improvements.

"It was very surprising that we saw these changes in VO2max in such a short time," says Amsterdam, professor of internal medicine (cardiology) and director of the coronary care unit at the U. C. Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. He is now considering a longer, larger study to authenticate these results.

A related study done at Ball State University offers further evidence for yoga's fitness benefits. This research looked at how 15 weeks of twice-weekly yoga classes affected the lung capacity of 287 college students. All of the students involved, including athletes, asthmatics, and smokers, significantly improved lung capacity by the end of the semester.

"The athletes were the ones who were the most surprised, because they thought their athletic training in swimming or football or basketball had already boosted their lung capacity to the maximum," says study author Dee Ann Birkel, an emeritus professor at Ball State's School of Physical Education.

From the perspective of a Western scientist, the few additional studies that have looked at yoga and fitness all contain flaws in their research design—either too few subjects or inadequate control groups. One study, conducted in Secunderabad, India, compared a group of athletes taught pranayama to another group who were not. After two years, those who practiced pranayama showed a larger reduction of blood lactate (an indicator of fatigue) in response to exercise; in addition, they were more able than the control group to increase their exercise intensity as well as the efficiency of their oxygen consumption during exercise. Other smaller studies also done in India have found that yoga can increase exercise performance and raise anaerobic threshold. (Anaerobic threshold is the point at which your muscles cannot extract enough oxygen from your blood and therefore must switch from burning oxygen to burning sugar and creatine. Unlike oxygen, sugar and creatine are dirty fuel sources, creating lactic acid and other by-products that build up in the blood and make you hyperventilate, "feel the burn," and lose muscle coordination.)

Although the research on yoga is only starting to build, a convincingly large amount of research has been done on tai chi, an Eastern martial art that involves a series of slow, graceful movements. Many studies have found that tai chi helps to improve balance, cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular fitness, ability to concentrate, immunity, flexibility, strength, and endurance of the knee extensor muscles.

Dina Amsterdam, a yoga instructor in San Francisco and graduate student at Stanford University, is one of many researchers conducting a three-year study that compares the psychological and physiological benefits of tai chi as to those of traditional forms of Western exercise such as aerobics. (The daughter of Ezra Amsterdam, Dina Amsterdam was the inspiration behind her father's U. C. Davis study on yoga and fitness.)

"Though there haven't been a lot of studies done on yoga that are considered valid, there are numerous studies done on tai chi, with the current Stanford study the largest to date," she says. Because yoga shares many elements with tai chi but can also provide a more vigorous physical workout, Amsterdam expects future yoga studies to produce at least similarly encouraging results. But Amsterdam says she doesn't need additional research to prove to her that yoga builds fitness. "I haven't done anything but yoga and some hiking for 10 years," she says. "When I came to yoga, I was 25 pounds overweight and suffering from a compulsive eating disorder. Yoga completely brought me back to physical and emotional health."

Many yoga practitioners echo such thoughts. Jack England, an 81-year-old yoga and stretching instructor at the Club Med in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, says more than 30 years of yoga have kept him flexible, healthy, and strong. He's the same weight and height as he was in high school, and his stellar health continues to amaze his doctor. He delights audiences at Club Med by practicing Shoulderstand and other poses while balancing on a float board in a water ski show. "I'm an inspiration to people of all ages," he says. "I do things that 14-year-old girls can't do."

Stephanie Griffin, a 33-year-old director of business development for a pharmaceutical research company in San Francisco, discovered yoga after years of running marathons, spinning, and weight lifting. Before discovering yoga, she thought her intense exercise habits had turned her into a poster child for health and fitness. During the last four years, however, Griffin began doing more and more yoga and less and less running, weight lifting, and aerobicizing. As she dropped back on her hardcore fitness pursuits, she worried she might gain weight or lose her muscle tone or exercise capacity.

She didn't. "I have maintained my fitness and even enhanced it through yoga," says Griffin, who no longer has a gym membership. "And I like the way my body looks and feels now better than the way it did before."

Why Yoga Works
Exactly how does yoga build fitness? The answer you get depends on whom you ask. Robert Holly, Ph.D., a senior lecturer in the Department of Exercise Biology at U. C. Davis and one of the researchers on the U. C. Davis study, says that muscles respond to stretching by becoming larger and capable of extracting and using more oxygen more quickly. In other words, side benefits of flexibility include increased muscle strength and endurance.

"My own belief is that the small but significant increase in maximal oxygen capacity was due to an increase in muscle endurance, which allowed the subjects to exercise longer, extract more oxygen, and reach an increased maximal oxygen uptake," says Holly.

Then there's the pranayama theory. Birkel suspects that yoga poses help increase lung capacity by improving the flexibility of the rib area, shoulders, and back, allowing the lungs to expand more fully. Breathwork further boosts lung capacity—and possibly also VO2max—by conditioning the diaphragm and helping to more fully oxygenate the blood.

Birkel, Dina Amsterdam, and others are also quick to point out that Suryanamaskar (Sun Salutations) and other continuously linked poses increase the heart rate, making yoga aerobically challenging. And many yoga poses—particularly standing poses, balancing poses, and inversions—build quite a bit of strength because they require sustained isometric contractions of many large and small muscles. Of course, holding the poses longer increases this training effect.

Finally, yoga tunes you into your body and helps you to better coordinate your actions. "When you bring your breath, your awareness, and your physical body into harmony, you allow your body to work at its maximum fitness capacity," says Dina Amsterdam. "Yoga class is merely a laboratory for how to be in harmony with the body in every activity outside of yoga. This improved physical wellness and fluidity enhance not just the physical well-being but also permeate all levels of our being."

Are You Fit?
Given all this evidence, can you now confidently tell your nonyogi friends they're wrong when they insist that you should add other forms of exercise to your practice?

Maybe, maybe not. The answer depends largely on how much you dedicate yourself to yoga. Studies done on yoga have included more than an hour of practice two to four days a week. The yoga sessions included breathwork and meditation in addition to typical yoga poses. Finally, the asanas used in these studies included not just aerobically challenging sequences, like Sun Salutations, but also many strengthening poses, like Virabhadrasana (Warrior Pose), Vrksasana (Tree Pose), Trikonasana (Triangle Pose), Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose), Navasana (Boat Pose), Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand), Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose), and Plank.

So if you want to become and stay physically and mentally fit, make sure your yoga practice includes a balance of poses that build strength, stamina, and flexibility, along with breathwork and meditation to help develop body awareness. In particular, include a series of standing poses in your practice. As your practice expands, Schumacher suggests adding more challenging asanas such as balancing poses and inversions. "If you are just doing 15 minutes of gentle yoga stretches three to four times a week, you will also need to do some other form of exercise to stay fit," Schumacher readily admits. "I often tell my beginning students that they will need to do something in addition to yoga for a while until they can practice more vigorously."

Holly agrees. If you practice yoga for less than an hour twice a week, he suggests you either pair your practice with moderate intensity exercise like walking, or increase your yoga time or frequency. "But the best form of exercise is whatever you enjoy most and will continue to do on a regular, almost daily, basis," he says. "Should you do more than yoga if you don't enjoy other activities? No. Yoga has a lot of benefits, so do yoga regularly and enjoy it." Beyond fitness, yoga also offers many other gifts. It improves your health, reduces stress, improves sleep, and often acts like a powerful therapy to help heal relationships, improve your career, and boost your overall outlook on life.

All these positives are enough to keep former exercise junkie Stephanie Griffin hooked on yoga for life. Griffin had worried that, unlike her other fitness pursuits, yoga wouldn't give her the emotional satisfaction of aiming for and meeting goals. Soon, however, she realized that yoga offered her a path to constant improvement. "One day it hit me: I realized that my goal was to be practicing yoga well into my 90s," says Griffin. "For me, that is the new finish line. Practicing with that goal satisfies me more than any marathon."

37) Being BKS Iyengar: The enlightened yogi of yoga(part2-2)

In the last post we saw the Part-1 of the interview of BKS Iyengar with CNN-IBN's Anuradha SenGupta , here we will see Part-2 of the interview .

35) Being BKS Iyengar: The enlightened yogi of yoga Part-1

CNN-IBN's Anuradha SenGupta meets BKS Iyengar at his Pune residence.

34) Shiva Rea's flow Yoga - Yoga Shakti

Shiva Rea, M.A., is a leading teacher of transformational Prana Flow Yoga and Yoga Trance Dance™. She began exploring yoga at the age of fourteen as a way to understand her name, given to her by her father, a surfer and artist. Her studies in the Krishnamacharya lineage, Tantra, Ayurveda, Bhakti, Kalaripayattu, world dance, yogic art and somatic movement infuse her approach to living yoga and embodying the flow. She is known for bringing the roots of yoga alive for modern practitioners in creative, dynamic and life-transforming ways and for offering the synthesis form of vinyasa flow out in the world.

Here is a video sample from her DVD - Yoga Shakti and this workout is only for advanced practitioners of yoga as it is an intense workout .

33) Simplicity of the Sivananda System of Yoga

The Sivananda System of Yoga as systematized by Swami Vishnu devananda through his "Five Points of Yoga " and "12 Basic Postures" is a simple and straightforward method of living a Yogic life in practical terms . The "Five Points of Yoga" give a Macro view of what is needed to live a Yogic life and the "12 Basic postures" give a very practical tool for starting the Yogic Journey . Being a Sivananda Yoga Teacher myself I found this system of Yoga to be very useful not only for my own daily Sadhana but also for teaching beginners and helping them develop a healthy yogic life . Of course Yoga is a vast subject and the Sivananda System of Yoga does not address all those aspects but yet it is quite complete and comprehensive in its content to satisfy the needs of many common people who want a simple and straightforward approach to yoga without bothering them with deep technical details , mysticism , or dry theory . It is quite practical and the best way to experience the "5 Points of Yoga " is to take a short break and try the "Yoga Vacation" programs at the various Sivananda Ashrams the world over .The "Yoga Vacation" programs will give u the much needed detoxification of the body and mind and give you a taste of what is needed to live a Yogic life .

For more details refer the site www.sivananda.org

32) Did my Sadhana Intensive for the second time

I was away for nearly 3 weeks and returned back to Chennai only on Jan 20,2010 and had gone to the Sivananda Ashram in Madurai for doing the Sadhana Intensive Course for the second time . I did this course last year itself i.e in Jan 2009 and was thrilled to repeat it again the second time .I thoroughly enjoyed the course .We had 32 people from various parts of the world and many were repeating this course for the second time and some for the third time . Last year for me doing this course was a new experience but this time I could manage it better and could do the practices with more maturity . In end it was a terrific experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the course and felt this was the best way to start year 2010 .I am back to my usual schedule and will be updating this blog regularly .

31)Health & Serenity

Needless to say, health and serenity are not separate and distinct. Our physical health unmistakably affects our mental health. And this being a two way street, our state of mind plays a huge role in the quality of our physical health. Unity Woods teacher, Alyson Ross, recently presented a program at the Bethesda studio on Yoga and the Physiology of Stress in which she described the current state of research regarding the effect stress has on physical health. The data is powerful and unequivocal in connecting the importance of our reactions to stress to our physical well-being.

But serenity has meaning and importance beyond physical health. The word derives from the Latin word serenus, which means clear as well as calm. Clarity and calmness are important benefits of yoga. Indeed, one of the common portrayals of the yoga practitioner is that she is calm and serene. How many ads have you seen on TV and in magazines of a woman in a white leotard sitting in half lotus on a beach or in a forest glen, eyes closed, a gentle smile on her face, obviously in a state of quiet bliss? (Of course, it’s not the yoga that’s responsible for this, but the anxiety medication she just took or the new car she bought.) Even in everyday life, however, real examples of this common conception exist. People in the building where I teach have often commented on the calm demeanor of the students leaving from their classes, and unless these students are all secretly popping stress meds in the lavatory, the yoga is clearly having that effect.

There are a number of reasons why yoga has such a calming effect. The physical activity of doing the postures, just as with any exercise, stimulates chemicals in the brain that engender a state of happiness and contentment. And by directing attention to the subtleties of the postures, the mind is drawn from its usually scattered nature to a more focused, one-pointed state. This focused state allows the practitioner to let go, at least for a time, of many of the day-to-day worries that can produce distress and anxiety. Furthermore, the guided relaxation that comes at the end of class (or throughout the class if it’s a restorative class) teaches the student to recognize where she is holding tension in her body and mind and how to let go of that tension.

Breathing is also a powerful contributor to creating serenity. The shift in breathing that occurs when the poses (asanas) are done properly relaxes the mind, and the more direct practice of pranayama (yogic breathing) promotes this calming effect to an even greater degree.

On another level, one of the important things the sincere and persistent student of yoga learns through his practice is that there are things in his body and mind he can change, things he can’t, and that with practice, he can begin to distinguish between the two. This discriminating wisdom helps to foster an attitude of acceptance of the ways things are that brings about contentment. The realization that he also has the power to change the causes of his discomfort energizes him and carries him forward in his efforts toward that end. And finally the conflicts within him that come from uselessly struggling with the things he can’t change begin to fall away.

By John Schumacher ( Senior BKS Iyengar Teacher )

Unity Woods Yoga Center Fall 2009 Newsletter

30)Practised Before Preaching

Today i.e 8th September being the birthday of Swami Sivananda I am sharing the following message by Swami Chidananda . Swami Sivananda’s preachings are all backed by his personal experience of practical Sadhana of the past twenty-five years of ascetic life. His teachings are not based on mere academic knowledge or study of ancient and modern philosophies and religions, but have been carefully devised after personal practice of many years and intimate knowledge. They can easily be comprehended and translated into practice by any sincere aspirant.

Gurudev used to write addressing young aspirants:

You must be very correct, very punctual, very regular. You should discipline yourself rigidly. Otherwise, you cannot attain the highest, the Realisation. It is not an easy task. Happy-go-lucky type easy temperament is no good in spiritual pursuits. Have you noticed how correct, how strict, how disciplined are the soldiers in the army? They have to stand in the parade according to the unit or battalion they belong to. They have to be absolutely spick and span. They do polishing of the shoes and brass by themselves. Even if a single button is dull, the inspecting officer spots the soldier and puts him into quarter-guard, and he will have to do fettling duty. They are always fighting fit, trim and clean, neat and tidy, because they have been drilled into this sort of correctness, precision and training. When an ordinary soldier is required to be so disciplined, so correct, so punctual, so regular, then what to say about you, O aspirant! A spiritual aspirant has to be even ten times more strict, regular, punctual, correct, well-disciplined. A soldier fights to win a battle, whereas an aspirant has to win the kingdom of heaven, win Kaivalya Moksha. Therefore, never give leniency to your mind.

When Gurudev said that, there was hundred per cent impact on the hearer. After hearing Gurudev, one could no longer remain what he was till then. Why? Because when Gurudev gave any instruction, one could clearly see he gave it with the firm conviction of his own practice. In fact, whatever Gurudev has said about Sadhana is based on his own experience only. He advised to the Sadhakas and disciples only such Sadhana which he himself had practised for such a long time that it had become his daily routine, his second nature. So it carried conviction, it carried a force behind it. The hearer immediately felt in his heart, ‘Here is someone who is saying what he himself has gone through; he is not giving us some theoretical or bookish knowledge; he is giving a part of his own life, his own self.’

That was the power behind Gurudev’s words. In spite of this fact, he seldom gave such straight, direct talk, rarely, very rarely, once in a while only. Gurudev used to say:

If anyone who is living in Sivananda Ashram complains of lack of guidance, he must be a lazy person, he has no interest in his own welfare. I have given everything necessary for a Sadhaka in my 300 books. If a Sadhaka is seriously interested in his own good, he should go through these books and he will have no more any doubts. He will never have any hesitation in proceeding with his Sadhana. Everything necessary for a spiritual aspirant is given in these books. Study them. If you have got any doubts after a sincere study, do come to me and ask.

He was indeed hundred per cent right. If anyone with real interest takes the pains to go through the hard labour Gurudev has put into his writings, then there will be an absolutely clear path ahead of him. For every question, for every doubt, there is an answer in his books. He was indeed, a man of practical wisdom.

Sri Swami Chidananda

29) Commitment and discipline

Many students say that sometimes they have problems getting themselves to practice at home. Often I hear the statement, "I just don't have any discipline." I would like to redefine the concept of "discipline" by contrasting it with the concept of "commitment".

There is a big difference between discipline and commitment. "Discipline" is something that is externally generated, it is a "should". We have often internalized this "should" as the concept of discipline into our own inner voices; this is the voice we hear inside berating us when we don't practice.

Commitment, on the other hand, is a choice we make of our own volition. The difference between "discipline" and "commitment" is conflict. When we are imposing discipline upon ourselves we are in conflict with ourselves, arguing inside "yes, no, yes, no". But when we are committed there is no conflict, no argument, no problem.

Think about something in your life that you are committed to, for example, brushing your teeth. I doubt that you argue with yourself every morning about brushing your teeth. You just do it, whether it is interesting or boring, it doesn't matter.

When we are committed to practicing yoga, we just get on the mat every day, regardless of our mood, our state of mind, our internal dialogue.

If you have problems sometimes getting your self to practice, spend a little time figuring out what is standing in the way of your commitment to practice. I am guessing that what you learn in the process will not only free you up to practice more often but will enrich your life as well.

Judith Hanson Lasater
Senior Yoga Teacher . She is the author of six books: A Year of Living Your Yoga, Yoga Abs, Yoga for Pregnancy, 30 Essential Yoga Poses, Living Your Yoga and Relax and Renew.

28)Looking for remedies beyond Tamiflu- Yoga , Pranayama and Meditation

DR. R. KRISHNADAS

(The writer is a senior consultant neurosurgeon in Chennai)

http://www.hindu.com/op/2009/08/23/stories/2009082350071200.htm

It is time to wake up to the reality that swine flu is here to stay for good. The evolutionary process has subjected man to many challenges and the fittest have survived. The present challenge is nothing different and will not be the last, but it poses an interesting question as to how we can make ourselves physiologically better to face these challenges. Drugs and vaccines developed in the laboratory may not be the answer as the virus can develop resistance or can mutate .

It is time to move away from conventional scientific views and accept certain out of the box ideas which could be effective. The burden of defining what the best medical practice is has rested on western scientists. There is a lot that is still unknown in this universe and the same applies to human physiology.

A(H1N1)virus appears to be on every one’s lips and mind and the electronic media has been successful in spreading not only awareness but also panic and fear. The latter two were undesirable. Panic and fear produce many chemical reactions in the body and weaken not only the immune mechanisms but also affect the cardiovascular and respiratory system adversely making one more vulnerable to the virus. The host resistance plays an important role in the fight between the bugs and the body. The healthy suffer only a minor form of the disease, but the vulnerable especially the diabetics, the asthmatics, the immune compromised persons and the very old and the very young have to live in constant fear.

Are there mechanisms to increase immunity and to improve the functioning of the heart and the lungs? Psychoneuroimmunology and mind body medicine are the best bets to answer this burning topic. That the mind influences the body and its functioning is an accepted fact. Psychoneuro somatic integration helps the body to function in the best possible manner to combat diseases and this is best achieved through the practice of yoga.

The psyche, the nervous system and all the body organs are hardwired by nerves and regulated by chemicals. The emotional brain lies between the newly developed brain, the neocortex, which is highly developed in the humans and the primitive brain that subserves elementary functions like breathing. The human brain is like three computers wired together. The hypothalamus and the amygdala are the important components of the emotional brain and control the sympathetic nervous system and regulate the secretion of cortisol and adrenalin. Unregulated release of these chemicals can wreak havoc in the body as happens in stress. Cortisol is an immunosuppressant and adrenalin acts on the heart and lungs, making them more vulnerable to attack.

Fear is an emotion that is very effective in the release of these chemicals! Subjecting the emotional brain to the control of the neocortical brain can help regulate these dangerous chemicals. The immune system is of primary importance and can be effectively stimulated by specialised breathing techniques that improve both alveolar ventilation and blood oxygenation making the body more efficient in combating the virus.. The killer cells of the thymus, a component of the immune system, that carry out surveillance in the human body against cancer, is also effective against viruses. The thymus is amenable to stimulation only by endogenous melatonin which can be increased by meditation.

27) Importance of July 14 for me

July 14 is a very important day in my life .Not only is it important because it is the Maha Samadhi day of Swami Sivananda , one of India's greatest spiritual teachers but also due to the fact that this was the day I started my Yoga Journey 12 years back in 1997 . I think it was a divine co-incidence that my Yoga journey started on the Maha Samadhi day of Swami Sivananda on July 14 . People ask me why I choose the Sivananda System and I say to them that I never choose the Sivananda System of Yoga , it choose me and I am ever grateful to the almighty for Yoga entering my life .For me July 14 was not just the day I started practising Yoga but it was also a day that started my assocition with the Sivananda Institution which I consider it to be an extended family of mine .Through this institution only I got certified as a Yoga Teacher by attending the Teachers Training Course in 1998 and then later went on to do the Advanced Yoga Teachers Training Course in 2004 and recently completed the Sadhana Intensive Course in Jan 2009 .It was due to the Sivananda institution that I got the offer of doing a 70 episode morning Yoga TV show for a private channell in 2001 and it was due to this institution that I came into contacts with many wonderful people worldwide . The Sivananda institution is a multi cultural University with people from various parts of the world as its staff and students and guests and the past 12 years have been an amazing experience for me meeting people from world over through the Sivananda Institution and I still continue to meet and make friends with people world over .Many times I had the previlege of Organizing retreats and taking many of these people out in and around Chennai and Thiruvanamalai being the favorite retreat spot . It was due to the Sivananda Institution that I was able to step outside of India first of all when they invited me to their Head Quarters in Quebec Canada in 2006 .The entire visit was sponsored by the Sivananda Organization and I had an excellent visit and enjoyed every bit of the same .Though I started to teach Yoga at the Sivananda Organization as a non paid volunteer slowly I started getting offers to teach outside and have now made it my own full time profession and today whatever success that I have as a Yoga teacher is due to the grace of my Gurus Swami Sivananda and Swami Vihsnu devananda and also due to my association with the Sivanada Institution . These days I am not very much active in the administration and the day to day activities of the Sivananda Centre in Chennai or in fact even teaching there as now my life is more focussed on my own Sadhana and my own private teaching but yet I maintain my association with the Organization through its teachings . Eventhough I read a lot about other Yoga Teachers and other yoga teachings yet at Core I follow the Sivananda System of Yoga both in my own personal practice as well as when I teach others and will continue to do the same . The last 12 years journey through the Sivananda Institution was not always a smooth one and had its own highs and lows but each experience was shaping me and educating me and had enriched me and expanded my vision and outlook and overall I was very much benefitted by my association with the Sivananda Institution and that was due to the grace of Swami Sivananda who brought me in to this institution on July 14 , 1999 and I am very much grateful to him for the same and always thank him for making me as a Yoga teacher .

26) Reasons for not updating this blog for the past 3 months .

I was not updating this blog for the past 3 months as from end of December 2008 I was busy involved in preparing myself for the Sadhana Intensive Course at the Sivananda Ashram in Madurai from Jan 3-18,2009 .After successfully finishing the course I remained mostly in silence ( i.e not much online communication ) and confined myself only to my own Yoga Sadhana and my private teaching .This was a period where I was just nurturing the benefits of the Sadhana Intensive Course ( shortly called SI ) and the best way to do was to be away from net / other talks /chats etc and keep following my own sadhana and teaching . That was the reason why I was not also updating this blog for the past 3 months .Even though I am now busy with my own Yoga Teaching I found that it is high time I start updating my blog and continue to share my insights on yoga and related topics . The SI course was a very excellent one and offered me a wonderful opportunity to re-establish my connection with my teaching lineage i.e Sivananda Lineage and I do not have words to express the joy I experienced both during the course as well as the benefits I received after doing the same .I am very much thankful to my Yoga Guru Swami Vishnu devananda for packaging this wonderful 2 weeks Sadhana Intensive course for the Sivananda Teachers Training Graduates and I believe that the best way to express my thanks to my Guru is to keep intensfying my own Yoga Sadhana and keep sharing the benefits of Yoga with my students and help also uplift them .Swami Vishnu devanada coined the slogan many decaded back : "Health is Wealth , Peace of Mind is Happiness and Yoga Shows the Way" and I have found it practically true in my own life especially in my last 10 years as a Yoga Teacher as well as a Yoga Practitioner .

25) Yoga is the supreme religion- BKS Iyengar

The striking photograph of Yogacharya Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar doing the shirshasan in the backdrop of the Swiss Alps brings out the perfection of the asana. Guruji, as Iyengar is popularly known, has worked for 70 years in mastering the art and the science of yoga. In his ninth decade today Iyengar is raring to do more. As president of the 15-school Indian Yoga Association, he has many plans ahead - of bringing about uniformity in these different schools; introducing yoga in schools and colleges and popularising yoga to the Generation Y to keep ills at bay. In a free-wheeling talk the yogacharya extols the virtue of yoga teachers to attain the zenith and look at yoga beyond a form of physical exercise.

From Light of Yoga to Light on Life and the journey in between...
It has been one of enlightenment. The body is connected with five elements. Practice of yoga helps connect with all of them and attain atma darshan through asanas. Light on Yoga is a reflection of the maturity I attained through my practice and research. As my practice grew, I inched towards perfection to introduce intelligence in sadhana, where the entire body including the nail attains stability. Light of Life is the journey of more than half a century of my association with yoga, my travel from darkness to light and from sickness to health, from ignorance to the light of knowledge.

Your contribution to yoga has been far-reaching, in fact yoga is known in the West because you started teaching it...
I started to do yoga first to maintain a good health. When I met Yehudi Menuhin in Mumbai in 1954, and my asanas helped him with his arm, he invited me to London. I gave thousands of demonstrations before people took to yoga. I started slowly, but once its benefits were experienced by all, the followers of yoga multiplied quickly. Now there are plenty of yoga teachers.

There is a guru-shishya tradition involved here, can all the teachers live up to it?
The guru-shishya relationship is essential, but each one has to struggle on his own to attain perfection. Just as I started from scratch and became a king, other must also practice. Teachers of yoga have less dedication. Anyone who practices an art must observe and absorb. When there is observation and absorption, it will lead to dedication. When I teach, there is a lecture and then an asana is presented. It connects well with the student. The guru and his pupil are together concerned with the spiritual knowledge (Brahma Vidya). The fruit of first-hand experience matures and the guru and the shishya explore it together.

Why are there no big yoga camps?
I have never wavered from teaching it to the masses. In fact that is why yoga is popular today. In a poor country like ours, people spend too much on medicines. If knowledge of yoga spreads across the nation people can save money on medicines and use it to buy food instead. Further, yoga is an art for me. I have immense respect for it. It requires years of attention to the subtlest form of the self. Stretching of the body is not yoga. The self has to penetrate outside, just as the body has to look within.

You want schools and colleges to make it compulsory for students...
I began teaching yoga to school and college students in Pune in 1937. If only the benefits had been realised then, we would have had yoga teachers all over the country by now and yoga would have spread all over the nation.

Yoga is willing accepted by people of other faiths. Why?
Yoga is the supreme religion. The body and intelligence are the same everywhere. The mind is individual and yoga helps it become universal. It brings about a vibration in the body and this music is due to the practice of the asanas. Its benefits are immeasurable and that is the only reason for its popularity.

Your favourite asanas...
I respect the viparita salabhasan as much as I do the tadasana. Even the simplest of asanas can have deep impact.

Yoga is now a money spinner...
The world is changing. A teacher of yoga has to make a living. In 1954, when violinist Yehudi Menuhin invited me to London, I was paid 100 dollars and toiled for months. In 1960, when I took my first class, I charged 10 shillings per student. It was barely enough to make ends meet. Today, practical philosophy lies in the teacher giving more than what he takes. Just as there is rajadharma, there must be yogadharma. Each and every student should be treated equally. Preferential treatment to those who pay more is not acceptable.

And you have miles to go...
I began with a scratch and became a king. I practice yoga three hours a day and pranayam for one hour. Yoga is the reason I am still going on at 90. I am a tenant here. I will vacate when God asks me to. Till then, I have much to do

There have been awards — Padma Shree, Padma Vibhushan and Time magazine...
I am honoured. In fact I had no idea about Time magazine's choice. I never thought I was one of the 100 most influential people.

Source :

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1213696&pageid=2

24) Yoga Teachers or Spiritual Healers ?

In post No:22 on the Topic "Multiple disciplined Yoga teachers " I dealt with the issue of how a Yoga Teacher must be having the knowledge of multiple disciplines to be an effective yoga teacher .I will be discussing about that topic again because time and again the question comes as to" what is the role of a yoga teacher" ? , is he a person just teaching you some asanas and pranayama ? is he a person giving you some yoga therapy to cure you from backache , diabetes ? is he another form of fitness instructor ? is he a stress reliever etc ? Is he a spiritual guru ?
Most of the current yoga teachers ususally play one of the above goals but only very few play an integrated goal of all of the above and much more and able to switch gears according to the type of student they face and always end up making the student feel much better and more clear in their association with them .Very few yoga teachers are there who are able to do a complete role as not just a yoga teacher but an integrated spiritual healer .Such sort of teachers have a magical effect on the student .Even if they teach you asanas at the external level they silently tune you in to understanding yourself at the deeper level .At the physical level due to asanas you get lot of physical relief , at the mental level due to pranayama and meditation you get a form of mental rest but still the person feels a void and you get full spiritual clarity only when you understand yourself at the deepest core .That is the highest form of healing and all yogas are directed to that end only . Unfortunately not many yoga teachers are equipped to take a student to such a deeper level as most of them stop purely at the physical level and not many are intersted in learning and assimilating the deeper truths contained in Advaita Vedanta .Yoga practice without Vedantic knowledge is like driving a car without knowing the destination and similarly studying Vedanta without the foundation of a yogic discipline will lead to producing just dry arrogant vedantic teachers / students who will be just talking and talking without having any impact on the students to whom they talk .They will be unable to help a student especially a beginner to spirituality in progessing from where they are i.e at the gross physical level and will be just talking about the end .Many students keep listening to these vedantic lectures for many years and with not much transformation .The problem is not in the subject matter of Vedanta but in the lack of preparation of the student who is listening to the same . So an effective Yoga teacher is one who is not only thorough in the Yoga subject but also on the subject of Vedanta and knows how best to apply the same to each student and help them progess step by step till they develop ultimate spiritual clarity .That is one of the reason Swami Sivananda and Swami Vishnu devananda combined the science of Yoga and Vedanta and urged all their students to assimilate both these sciences for their own welfare and also for the world . This is the qualification every Yoga teacher must have to be effective as a true spiritual healer in all respects and this is also the path I am orienting myself also in to .

23) Soorya Namaskar( Sun Salutation)

Whenever a student starts a yoga practice the first thing that he encounters is a stiff back and tight muscles and many students give up their yoga practice in the first few days itself because of the "initial discomfort" in their yoga practice due to stiff back and tight muscles . The main cause of body stiffness is due to a lifestyle that does not include any form of exercise and fitness especially exercises that involve some basic spinal stretching and second reason for stiffness is a poor diet ( diet will be discussed later ) .Our body is like an instrument and just as an instrument if it is not used properly get rusted and worn out similarly a body that is not being properly used and lubricated get rusted and worn out .So in order to help a person first develop a minimum amount of body flexibility in order to do a regular yoga practice the "Soorya Namaskar" or "Sun Salutation" is first practiced as a warm up exercise . Traditionally in ancient India the students in the Gurukula ( Vedic School ) used to do this Morning Sun Salutation or Soorya Namaskar facing the Sun chanting the Soorya Mantras.Though it was done as a form of Prayer it was equally an excellent exercise to develop body flexibilty , give energy to the students and make them alert ,fresh and energetic .
In modern context this Sooryanamaskar has become the part of initial warm ups in many Yoga System notably in the Sivananda System and Ashtanga System . There are various types of Surya Namaskar and in this message we will be discussing the Soorya Namaskar that is being followed by the Sivananda System .
Sivananda System of Soorya Namaskar :

The Sun Salutation is a graceful sequence of twelve positions performed as one continuous exercise. Each position counteracts the one before, stretching the body in a different way and alternately expanding and contracting the chest to regulate the breathing. Practiced daily it will bring great flexibility to your spine and joints and trim your waist. It limbers up the whole body in preperation for the Asanas (postures) .

One round of Sun Salutation consists of two sequences, the first leading with the right foot in positons 4 and 9, the second leading with the left. Keep your hands in one place from positons 3 to 10 and try to co-ordinate your movements with your breathing. Start by practicing four rounds and gradually build up to twelve rounds.

1. Stand erect with feet together and hands in the prayer position in front of your chest. Make sure your weight is evenly distributed. Exhale.

2. Inhaling, stretch your arms up and arch back from the waist, pushing the hips out, legs straight. Relax your neck.

3. Exhaling, fold forward, and press your palms down, fingertips in line with toes - bend your knees if necessary.

4. Inhaling, bring the left (or right) leg back and place the knee on the floor. Arch back and look up, lifting your chin.

5. Retaining the breath, bring the other leg back and support your weight on hands and toes.

6. Exhaling, lower your knees, then your chest and then your forehead, keeping your hips up and your toes curled under.

7. Inhaling, lower your hips, point your toes and bend back. Keep legs together and shoulders down. Look up and back.

8. Exhaling, curl your toes under, raise your hips and pivot into an inverted "V"shape. Try to push your heels and head down and keep your shoulders back.

9. Inhaling, step forward and place the left (or right) foot between your hands. Rest the other knee on the floor and look up, as in position 4.

10. Exhaling, bring the other leg forward and bend down from the waist, keeping your palms as in position 3.

11. Inhaling, streach your arms forward, then up and back over your head and bend back slowly from the waist, as in position 1.

12. Exhaling, gently come back to an upright position and bring your arms down by your sides.

For a video demonstration of the same kindly refer the following video :
Dashama Gordon of www.perfect10lifestyle.com demonstrates a yoga sun salutation. Follow along with her explanation. Remember to breathe through your nose as you go through each step.The system demonstrated here is similar to the Sivananda System of Soorya Namaskar .

Warning : Soorya Namaskar is not suited for people who have a back injury , high blood pressure and heart problem .So kindly consult a doctor before attemptiong the same .The video demonstration is given purely to educate you and ecncourage you for practicing Soorya Namasker and it is better that you learn it personally from a yoga teacher .

22) Multiple disciplined Yoga Teachers
I am updating this blog after a very long time . The past few months I was absorbed in reading and reflecting and spending time in silence and I continue to do so . I have taken an informal break from many external activities and just confine myself to my own sadhana and my private yoga teaching .I am using the current spiritual break to recharge myself physically ,emotionally and spiritually and re-clarify my goals and priorities with regard to my yoga teaching , my future program of travel etc .In this regard I wish to point out that I was highly impressed by reading the book "Journal to the Self" by Kathleen Adams that points out the benefits of maintaining a personal journal and how it can help heal us and help develop more clarity .I am using this book as a guide book in maintaining my own personal journal and hope that it will help me unlock my own potential as a better yoga teacher .Also I was equally impressed by reading the speeches of Charlie Munger friend of the greatest Investor Warren Buffett . Charlie Munger's wisdom is complied in a book called "Poor Charlie Almanac" and they are termed as Mungerisms .Though I do not have that book I have access to many of Munger's wisdom through the net and one thing that attracted me to Munger was the fact that he laid enormous amount of stress on self education through voracious reading across multiple disciplines .Munger believes that the world is not linear but a complex entity with various interrelationships and one cannot find solution to anything being just a unidirectional person .He illustrates this by his famous saying "To the guy with a hammer every problem appears to be a nail fit to be just hammered upon " ,what he means is that if a carpenter carries just a hammer he will be ineffective in doing a proper work but if he carries multiple tools like screw driver , spanner , wrench , hammer etc then he will use the appropriate tool for the appropriate job and stop finding solution to everything using just a hammer .Now what does that have to do with yoga ?
I find Mungerism is very valid for a Yoga Teacher as most of Yoga Teachers are just uni-directional and use one tool just asanas or their own favorite posture sequence to address the problem of a student .While this may prove useful in a group setting for a set of healthy and fit yoga practitioners it many not help solve problems for many students who need a personalised solution .A yoga teacher is effective when he has maxamium number of tools at his disposals like posture sequence , pranayama , warm up exercise , meditation , self enquiry ,nutrition ,psycology ,chanting etc . I am sorry I am expecting lot from a yoga teacher but I feel a real effective yoga teacher is one who has a mastery over multiple disciplines and uses a wonderful combination of these disciplines to help strengthen a student who comes to him .
It is not that this is a new concept ,Swami Sivananda already started this concept way back in the early 1930s when he started the Yoga of Synthesis : a combination of Hatha , Bhakthi , Jnana , Raja Yoga and Karma Yoga and first give a student a training in all these multiple disciplines nd identify in which area he is more intersted and develop him accordingly in that area .Swami Vihsnu devananda redefined these things in his 5 points of Yoga saying Yoga is not just postures but a combinationof asanas , pranayama, relaxation , diet and meditation .Unfortunately what we find is many Yoga teachers are very uni-directional and while it is good to develop an expertise in one discipline it is equally necessary to develop necesaary competance in auxilarly disciplines as not all students are alike and not all should be treated the same .So the need of the day is to have Yoga teachers who are having competance in multiple disciplines .It takes a long time for a person to be such a multi disciplined Yoga teacher but in this complex world we need such teachers to help solve students problems otherwise like a man with the hammer many of the yoga teachers will be touturing students rather than helping them . It is this quest to be a multiple disciplined yoga teacher I am on right now and I hope in due course I will develop my expertise in many areas appropriately .

21)Inner Peace on the Job: 7 Ways to Minimize Stress
Although it is not possible to eliminate stress completely, there are some things we can do to reduce it. Here are effective ways to reduce stress in your day.

1. Slow down and be in the present. It is natural to believe that the harder you work, the more you will get done. However, though it may seem paradoxical, if you work at a slow and steady pace with full awareness, you will most likely turn out better work with fewer mistakes - and feel better while doing it!

2. Set boundaries. Are you the go-to person for every favor and question that is needed in your workplace? Learn to respectfully set your boundaries and say no. Also, take a look at your calendar and make sure you are not over-scheduling yourself after work. Write in one night a week for yourself, and treat yourself to a tai chi or meditation class, a bath, or just an evening curled up with a good book.

3. Remember to breathe deeply all day. Most people who are under a lot of stress or tension breathe shallowly, up in the throat area. When you breathe deeply into your lungs, you are naturally bringing in more oxygen and activating energy in your body.
Try this to remember to breathe: set your intention to take 10 deep breaths once every hour. (If necessary, set a timer to help you remember.) It will only take a minute, but the rewards will be tenfold.

4. Bring nature inside. As much as possible, let natural light and fresh air permeate your workspace. Surround yourself with the inspiring colors of beautiful flowers, which have a powerful influence on a person's mind-set. A beautiful bouquet can lift a less-than-lovely mood and even eliminate stress. In fact, one study showed that people who sat next to an arrangement of colorful flowers were able to relax more during a five-minute typing assignment than those who sat near foliage-only plants.

5. Give yourself a time-out. Take the breaks that are given to you. In this high-paced world, people often work through their breaks, claiming they have too much work to do - this will lead to serious repercussions in the future.

Remember that you are a human, not a machine. Even a machine needs downtime for maintenance! Try taking a 15-minute powernap on your lunch break. If you only have five minutes to spare, just close your eyes. Even this brief rest can reduce stress and help you relax.

6. Meditation brings relaxation. Meditation gives your body a rest and produces slower brain waves that are similar to sleep, effectively combating tension. Regular practice of meditation, tai chi, or yoga can help you slow down and bring peace, not only in your job, but also in your life.

7. Perk up naturally!
Skip the second latte, which stimulates your central nervous system, makes your mind race, and adds to your stress. Instead, try these simple and natural pick-me-ups:

• Take a tea break. Instead of coffee, go for teas that gently boost your energy, such as ginseng, eucalyptus, or ginger.

• Find ways to keep moving all day. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Drink a glass of water from the water cooler every hour. Park your car a few blocks away from where you're going. Not only will this perk up your energy, it will also improve your mood.

• If it's a nice day outside, eat lunch outdoors or just take a walk around the block. The fresh air and the break from routine will be an invigorating addition to your workday.

• Get sustainable energy with snacks. Eat a snack at mid-morning and another one at mid-afternoon consisting of nuts, seeds, fruits, or protein-rich foods like humus made from beans will help you sustain your energy and prevent low blood sugar from setting in.

I hope you find the ways to minimize stress in your work environment! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

May you live long, live strong, and live happy!

-Dr. Mao

20) Learning Yoga from Books /DVDs

The Yoga Market is now flooded with many Yoga Books / Yoga DVDs /CDs etc and people are confused as to which Book /DVD to buy but more than that some ask whether it is advisable to learn yoga from books / DVDs .I am not against any Yoga Book /DVD but I feel that if someone is new to Yoga ( i.e a total beginner ) then he/she must first visit a Yoga Centre and learn the basics from a real life yoga teacher at lest for a few weeks .The reason is each person's body structure is different and these books /DVDs have top class professionals with amazing and perfect bodies performing wonderfully those poses and many beginners feel that they are unable to do those poses as given in the book or as demonstrated in the DVD .Some may even develop pain/ injury attempting them and that leads to frustration and they give it up .
So best for a beginner is to select a yoga school /style first and attend their beginners Yoga Course with the guidance of a real life teacher . A real life teacher will help modify the poses according to your flexibility levels and will also prevent you from doing some poses based on your health and medical history .This is very vital as many people in an eagerness to learn yoga start doing the poses given in the book /DVD as it is without going through the warnings there or without making any assessment as to whether those poses are right form them .This will lead only to injury .So it is highly essential that a beginner takes the help of a real life Yoga teacher .Once a person has had a very solid foundation of a particular yoga practice then he /she can always supplement their knowledge and practice by reading books /journals related to Yoga or watching Yoga DVDs .

19) Which Yoga Styles /Schools to follow ?

When someone is interested in learning yoga the first thing they seem to ask is which Yoga style to follow or which style is good . In the market there are various popular yoga styles like Sivananda /Ashtanga / Iyengar /Power Yoga /Bikram Yoga / Viniyoga /Anusara etc .Some follow a stict classical lineage and some have adapted themselves to the modern fitness culture of hot & intensive yoga .Some styles are highly intensive ,some are mild and some are moderate .There is difference in the way of approach i.e some never teach pranayama till you reach a certain mastery in asanas and some teach nothing but pranayama right from the beginning and some teach only meditation .Some teach in groups and some strictly follow a one is to one mode of instruction .Now the question arises as to how should one go about choosing which is best for him/her ? In my case I never had a big trouble finding the right style as being in Chennai I had just 2 major schools to choose from in the late 90s and they were the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre ( SYVC ) and the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram( KYM) . Even though my first interest in yoga got kindled by reading the life of the great Yogi Sri Krishnamacharya somehow I never got to visit KYM and ended up visiting the SYVC in Chennai on 14 July 1997- the day of the Mahasamdhi of Swami Sivananda .Whether it was a divine co-incidence I do not know but it was the most positive development in my life .From that time onwards I struck to only the Sivananda System of Yoga and did my Yoga Teachers Training ( TTC ) in 1998 and Advanced Yoga Teachers Training ( ATTC ) in 2004 in the Sivananda Yoga Organization only and I follow nearly their same method for my Yoga Teaching .I am not saying that the Sivanada Yoga System is the best for everyone but I find it best suited for me and I intend to remain focussed on it .Though I follow the Sivananda System of Yoga I do read and get valuable inputs from other Yoga Teachers / Yoga styles and they help me enrich my own knowledge and skills in being a better yoga teacher .

So my advice for people will be to choose one yoga style that best suits you and in case you find difficulty in selecting one consult your friends or colleagues who have attended or currently undergoing any yoga training .They might help you develop some clarity on the type of the yoga system , its difficulty levels and the quality of the teacher etc .It is better to stick to one Yoga Style instead of jumping from one style to the other .All Yoga Styles are basically involved in developing a healthy body and peaceful and stable mind and it does not matter which style you follow as long as you are faithful in maintaining a regular practice and are willing to put in your time and energy in understanding the system and making it a part of your day to day life .

18) Positively Healing

The following is an excellent article reproduced from Yoga Journal .
Everything that happens in your mind is reflected in your body, says T.K.V. Desikachar. So, meditate on the good!

By Carol Krucoff
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/2570?utm_source=MyYogaJournal&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=MYJ_298

Wearing a khaki shirt and trousers, his eyes twinkling behind oversize glasses and a shy smile on his lips, T.K.V. Desikachar doesn’t fit the Western stereotype of a great yoga master. But that may be, he says, because “a lot of people are confused about yoga.”

Americans typically use the word “yoga” to mean “posture,” he notes, and mistakenly measure progress by the ability to perform complex poses. But “yoga is definitely not just posture,” Desikachar asserts, hiking up his pants to assume a dramatic Warrior Pose, then bursting into an infectious laugh. “A lot of people are doing postures, but are they happy? They can do a beautiful posture, but their life is a big headache.” Mastery of yoga is really measured, Desikachar says, by “how it influences our day-to-day living, how it enhances our relationships, how it promotes clarity and peace of mind.”

The son and senior student of one of the greatest yogis of the modern era, Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, Desikachar made these comments last year at “Meditation as Medicine,” a four-day workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which he taught with his son and student, Kausthub. A pioneer of modern therapeutic yoga, Desikachar is founder of the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, a nonprofit healing center in Chennai, India, which offers yoga therapy to thousands of people from around the world each year. The therapy is based on his father’s fundamental belief that practices must be adapted to suit each person’s needs and abilities. “It is not that I must conform to the yoga practice,” Desikachar says, “but rather that yoga practice must be tailor-made for me.”

Yoga places special emphasis on the role of the mind in the healing process, explains Desikachar, who says, “A peaceful, stable mind is essential to well-being.” Ancient yogis developed numerous techniques, including meditation, to calm the mind and channel its power into physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. Meditation acts the way medicine does, Desikachar says, by transforming the mind’s agitation to peace.
Post traumatic Bliss

Desikachar’s teachings hold special significance for me, since my own yoga practice changed dramatically three years ago. During a marathon in Jamaica, I drank so much water that my blood sodium levels dropped dangerously low. I suffered seizures and an irregular heartbeat and was airlifted home to North Carolina, where I lay in a coma for four days. When I awoke in the neuro-intensive care unit, I wasn’t scared, angry, or upset. Instead, I experienced a sort of post traumatic bliss syndrome. Grateful to be alive, I was surprisingly unconcerned about my physical condition—although I couldn’t walk unassisted and my doctors worried that I might have permanent kidney damage.

Too sick to read, watch TV, or do much else, I lay in my hospital bed and did yoga. But my practice looked nothing like my usual Ashtanga primary series. In fact, the only posture I attempted was Savasana (Corpse Pose). I also did breathing practices—particularly counting my breath and extending the exhalation. I silently chanted prayers, visualized healing light, and focused on progressively relaxing different parts of my body. In short, meditation formed the heart of my practice.

Over time I completely recovered, but my yoga practice changed forever. I’d previously focused primarily on postures. But if yoga is about asana, what happens when the body weakens? My near-death experience taught me something I’d known intellectually yet never truly understood: Yoga’s true power lies in its ability to harness the mind for healing and spiritual development. While I still enjoy asana, my practice now is less vigorous, and I spend more time in meditation.

Meditation holds four major benefits, says Desikachar. The first is arta, or a lessening of suffering. “We meditate so pain is reduced,” he says, noting that “pain is not necessarily physical but can be emotional.” Next is jnanam, transcendent knowledge. “You may get a flash, a moment of clarity or wisdom,” he says. “It’s like lightning. For one second everything is bright; then it goes away.” Although this momentary illumination fades, memory of the insight—and its impact—lingers. Meditation can also result in extraordinary powers, called artharta. For example, Krishnamacharya, who died in 1989 at age 100, was apparently able to stop his heartbeat and breath for several minutes with no adverse effects. Meditation’s final benefit is bhakta—realization of the highest truth. Through meditation, Desikachar says, you can discover your true nature.

But not everyone is ready for meditation. It’s especially difficult if your mind is very distracted. Yogic tradition describes five states of mind, beginning with ksipta, an agitated state in which you’re unable to think, listen, or keep quiet. “This mind is not fit for meditation at all,” Desikachar says. When your mind is very agitated, try asana and breathing practices designed to bring the body and mind into stillness. Not until it enters the fourth state, ekagra, is the mind ready to pay attention. Here, the mind is relaxed but not sleepy—a prerequisite for meditation.
Fill Your Mind!

Regular practice of asana and pranayama (breathing techniques) can help you quiet your mind and, if illness or sedentary habits have left you weakened, can also help you become healthy and strong enough to sit still and concentrate. Even if you’re a calm, healthy, fit person, postures and breathing practices can prepare your body and mind for a more willing, joyful embrace of meditation.

In Desikachar’s view, the idea that meditation requires emptying the mind is a common misperception; meditation, he says, actually involves filling the mind with an object of inquiry. “It is never possible for the mind to be empty,” Desikachar notes, “except in a deep state of sleep.” The intent is to “become one with the object of focus.” You can meditate on virtually anything: a natural object, such as the sun or moon, a flower, tree, or mountain—or on a person, sound, deity, even a color. Or focus on the body or the breath. Desikachar suggests choosing an object that is both appealing and healing: “The key is transforming the mind in a positive way, so healing happens. Because whatever happens in the mind, happens in the whole system.” But don’t confuse this word “mind” with “intellectual mind,” he cautions. It is the center of awareness he’s talking about—the heart.

The Good Life

You don’t have to spend an hour on your cushion for meditation to have a profound effect, says Desikachar, who asks busy people, “How much time do you have?” If someone has just five minutes, he suggests a brief meditation that includes one minute for preparation, two and a half for the meditation itself, and one more for tapering off. “Once you feel the value and see the benefits of meditation, you will make time to do more,” he says. Meditation needn’t be esoteric and difficult: “You must always adapt according to what people like and will do.”

During the workshop, he asked for volunteers and created a 10-minute “Mom” meditation for a man named John, who suffered from addiction problems that he linked to a difficult relationship with his father. After listening to John describe intense anger at his father and great love for his mother, Desikachar drew a circle representing John’s life, then designated a small “slice” as the frowning dad. The rest of the circle was filled with positive aspects, including a smiling mom. “Life is like this,” Desikachar said. “We tend to focus on the bad and ignore the good.” Whenever John began to feel negative thoughts about his father, Desikachar suggested that he substitute positive thoughts of his mother. Then he led John through a meditation that involved reciting the word “Mom,” visualizing his mother, offering her a flower, asking her to nurture him, and he had the group chant, “Let Mom take care of John.” Modern psychology calls this process of replacing negative thoughts with positive ones “cognitive reframing.” But, says Desikachar, this type of mental reprogramming is an ancient yogic technique, one that is described by the sage Patanjali in Yoga Sutra II.33 as prakti paksha bhavana. Rather than let disturbing thoughts whip your body and mind into tension and despair, you can choose to substitute positive thoughts that will bring peace and calm. John had expected Desikachar to probe his relationship with his father—as John had done repeatedly in traditional therapy. But he found the unexpected focus on all that was good in his life extremely therapeutic.

For me, the practice of prakti paksha bhavana has been profoundly healing. Whenever disturbing thoughts arise, I make a conscious shift to that most positive place in my recent past—my “rebirth day,” when I awoke from a coma with complete faith that I would be fine. Virtually any stress fades in the light of this most precious gift, having my life and health completely restored. Each morning I start fresh, with a meditation on gratitude. Throughout the day, I try to recapture this sense of peace and share it with others. And every night I say a prayer of thanks for the simple miracle of breath.
Carol Krucoff is a yoga teacher and journalist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the coauthor of Healing Moves: How to Cure, Relieve and Prevent Common Ailments with Exercise.
See www.healingmoves.com.