Yoga, Yoga guide, Yoga poses, and Yoga at home

Simple guidelines to improve yoga experience

Yoger — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:33:35 +0000

While doing yoga today, it occurred to me that I should post a short note on important basic yoga principles that I follow all the time. It works great and I feel that’s the way yoga should be done.

Before you start doing yoga, clear your mind. Clear every single thought that comes in your way, no thoughts about work, family or anything. Its all about present moment now. Feel the moment.
Feel the calmness, feel every single muscle in your body.
Yoga is not just doing physical movements or stretches. It is all about connecting yourself with your body, that’s the essence of doing yoga.
When you do an asana, feel the stretch.. put all your attention on your pose.
You shouldn’t feel any kind of PAIN in any pose. If you feel pain, try to relax your stretch to the level of no pain.
Breath easy, slowly. Feel the breath running through every single nerve of your body.

It may take a while to adapt these simple rules. Do as you go, it will be part of your yoga practice. You will notice lot difference if you apply these in your yoga.

I will start writing on asanas/poses soon.
Photo credit: lepiaf.geo (License)

A brief look on yoga accessories

Yoger — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:09:57 +0000

Let’s talk about few accessories that will help you do yoga poses (asana) comfortably. You may not really need all the below listed items, but using them will give you wholesome feeling. These items are easily available over internet. You can get organic and eco-friendly products from whole food market too.

Yoga Clothes: Wear comfortable clothes that are made of pure 100% cotton. The clothes you wear should enable your body move freely, because Yoga is an activity of postures and stretches and your clothes should not obstruct in any way to perform asana. Make sure your skin can feel the air and there is enough room for air circulation. A T-shirt and comfortable short will be good enough. You don’t need any foot wear in yoga (not even socks), its better if you can feel the floor under your feet.

Yoga Mat: A yoga mat is a regular thin rubber sheet with a standard size of 24”x68”. The basic purpose of yoga mat is to avoid slipping or sliding on floor during asana. Yoga mat will help you in performing posture correctly; it will give you good grip on floor. You might ask, how about using a bed sheet ? or do it on carpet.. well, I did tried on carpet and I can say it was little slippery for me and I don’t have sweaty palms either. If you got sweaty palms/feet I wouldn’t recommend using bed sheet or carpet. You can try few poses and see how comfortable you are, you might feel ok with doing basic asanas… but doing a balancing asana or any complex asana may lead to injury.

If you don’t like smell of rubber, you can get some natural fiber mats or thick mats made of cloth. They are little expensive that rubber ones, but they are really good.

Yoga Block: Yoga blocks are optional and recommended for beginners and who are not flexible enough. If you cannot touch your feet in standing position without bending your knees, you may need a yoga block. A yoga block helps you to reach down to the floor, you can adjust the height by the changing the sides of the block. Yoga blocks are available in standard size of 4” x 6” x9”. While using the block, don’t put your weight on the block, instead rest your hand or palm on the block to balance yourself. You may not need the block after you become flexible. Yoga blocks are made of either wood or rubber.

Blanket: I basically use blanket to place under my knee while kneeling. A soft cotton blanket is a good choice. I have seen people using under their head during lying pose as a support. Keep one blanket aside just in case if you ever need one.

And finally, keep one towel aside. I need towel whenever I do advanced asana. I will post some recommended mats, blocks, clothes and accessories soon.

Photo Credits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodrigoquinones/158838413/

What is NOT Yoga? ..

Yoger — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:04:40 +0000

What should I write about Yoga? you probably might have read tons of articles on “What is yoga”, where it came from (does it really matter ?!?) etc.,. and I dont want to writeup same stuff that you can find all over internet. Why would someone wants to read or care about where and when it started as long it is enriching our life, I dont really care if it is from India or it is 5000 years old practice as long as I have something good to do every morning and keep my engine running smooth. The founder of yoga (Patanjali) might have foreseen this future and thought he should put something together for generations to come. We are so much stuck to TV, computer with in no activity for hours, the animals do better than us and they dont need any yoga or workouts. Did you ever notice any obese lion or tiger or wolf in wild?? (ofcourse on TV ) I haven’t so far.

You probably might have read how yoga can make us flexible, energetic, make us look young, and can cure certain health problems etc., the list goes on. I could write whole deal of notes on yoga benefits, uses etc., but I am sure no one will be remembering that for a long time and I am pretty sure no one is intened to be a yogi or yogini (so, I am not talking about that either)

What is NOT Yoga ?

- Yoga is not a religion. Yes, definetely its not a religion, though it is very deeply rooted in Hinduism. Yoga is for everyone. Its a practice to unite our body with mind, to create awareness in ourselves, to take care of our beautiful body that this nature has gifted us.

- Yoga is not body building or acrobatics. It is a process of twisting/bending your body in various positions and at the same time connect yourself with the body. Twisting/bending is part of the yoga, it is not the yoga.

- Yoga is not a cult.

For me, if you take care of your body.. it will take care of you. And I do yoga for that very purpose.

An update

Yoger — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:27:03 +0000

I have been very busy all these months (with my fulltime job) and couldn’t even possibly touch this blog to post new stuff. I shouldn’t be reasoning on anything, but from now on I will my best to post some stuff at least weekly. I have few ideas on what type of articles I wanted to post, mostly I am targeting people who work full time and find it hard to do yoga. I will do some write up on poses to straighten up your backbone.

If you guys dont hear me, give me a shout on here with comment. (that should wake me up for sure).

Things to do before you start Yoga

Yoger — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:18:50 +0000

Like anything to begin with, a little prep work before hand will help yielding good results. Before I got my first yoga lessons, I was told how important yoga is for me and what things I need to do to make it more effective. How effective ?? well, it not only streamlined my system but also helped me to organize myself.

First Things First: Attend nature’s call

This is very important thing to do depending when do you want to do your yoga. If you are intended to practice either in mornings or evenings, you need to take care about this. You have to have a clean internal for better health. Excretion right after getting out of bed is the best thing to do, but not everyone can do this. If you are not used to excrete in the mornings, here is the simple and effective solution. Drink at least 32 OZ of water and do little walk for few mins, this will push the waste and helps in cleaning your intestines easily. This formula is simple to follow, you are just flushing your system just like you flush a toilet. Do this one hour before your yoga schedule. My guru told me that yoga improves the digestive system and absorbs food well into the blood, if we practice yoga without cleaning our intestines, the waste in our intestines will be absorbed into our blood and we may get sick. I”m not a Doctor and I”m not sure how true is this. But cleaning my intestines makes me feel much better and lighter while doing yoga.

Abhyanga (Optional):

Abhyanga means oil massage. It looks very simple but the results are amazing. I used to do when I didn’t had full time job and now with the full time job I didn’t had time for it. If you have time, I recommend you do it. I will write a separate article on how to do abhyanga soon.

Take Shower:

Taking shower in the morning before yoga will freshen you up. I personally do take shower because I like it that way, it helps me not to fall in asleep while doing relaxation poses. I know people who does yoga without shower, but its fine too. Since yoga is not intensive oriented activity like regular exercise, it is fine take shower.

Warm-ups:

A simple stretches will loosen the joints and releases the tightness in the muscles(if any). This will help you in doing yoga poses comfortably.

If you know anything apart from what I mentioned above that can add value, please post in here.