Articles » Yoga For Health
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Yoga Positions From The Waist Down
Just as a tree needs to set down deep roots so it will not fall over as it grows, you need to find a comfortable position for the lower half of your body that you can sustain for 5,10,15 minutes or even longer. The great meditators have come up with traditional postures. Although they may appear different from the outside, these postures have one thing in common: the pelvis tilts slightly forward, accentuating the natural curvature of the lower back.
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According to yoga theory, our physical body is accompanied and surrounded by an electromagnetic field called the energetic body. Within this energetic body, there are seven energy centers, called chakras (or cakras). The chakras start on the floor of the pelvis at the perineum with the mula, or the root chakra, and run all the way up to the top of the head to the sahasrara, or the crown chakra. They are generally described as spinning wheels of light that store, regulate, and provide prana, which is the life force, or energy for our body, mind, and soul.
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What Exactly Are The 7 Chakra's?
First chakra: Located at the base of the spine and connected with issues of survival and safety. When it's relatively closed, you may feel insecure and ungrounded, possibly even terrified and mistrustful of your capacity to survive. As it opens, you may feel energy flowing down through your body into the earth, accompanied by images and feelings associated with safety and survival as well as an overall sense of stability and trust.
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What Can Meditation Do For You?
You do not have to be an expert or skilled in meditation to enjoy its benefits. You simply need to practice regularly without trying to get anywhere or achieve anything. And like interest in a bank account, the benefits just accrue by themselves.
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Yoga: Using The Power Of The Imagination
One of the traditional forms of meditation is visualization, which involves the imaginative powers of the mind. Imagination is that mental faculty that is able to form concepts or images in the absence of sensory data. As the yogins of India and the magi of Europe have known for a long time, and as Carl Gustav Jung has rediscovered for Western psychology, imagination is the psyche's most powerful capacity.
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The term yoga is a common word in the Sanskrit language, which is the language in which most of the Yoga scriptures are written. It also happens to be one of the most versatile Sanskrit terms, having a whole range of meanings that extend from simple "union" to "team," "constellation," and "conjunction." It is derived from the verbal root yuj, meaning "to harness, yoke, prepare, equip, and fasten."
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Understanding Our Power Center Through Yoga
The third chakra is what is referred to as our power center. However, it is important to understand what the word "power" really means. Often when people see the word "power," they think of it in terms of the popular model of power in today's world, as power over something or someone. Power over anything involves conflict, struggle and opposition. True power does not come from conflict, struggle or opposition.
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Over the past twenty years or so, meditation has gained an increasing acceptance and practice in the West. While still far from being an important part of Western society, the practice of meditation has made significant inroads in the therapeutic and medical community and is winning increasingly broad support in business, educational, and political arenas.
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Let yourself go! Yawn, stretch, and rub your eyes as if you are sleepy and tired; As you stretch yourself, extend and separate your fingers. If you do not know what to do next, try to imitate a cat, which always makes a regular ritual of stretching itself. First of all stretch while you are lying on your back, then roll over on to your left side, and repeat the whole operation on your right side.
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Tense, nervous and anxious, we are caught up in the hellish grind that drives us inevitably into "stress," because our constant state of anxiety stops us from facing up to the relentless demands of modern life which, behind a friendly and comfortable exterior, conceals an inhuman machine and an unrelenting struggle for existence. Is it really surprising, then, that millions of people live with the depressing feeling that we are "out of step," overlaid by apparently impossible tasks with which we cannot possibly cope, and from which we can never escape.
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Taking A Break From Your Thoughts
The first thing you need for correct meditation is a right mental attitude, particularly one of listening. Most people seldom listen. They are deaf to the symphony of sounds in the world around them. They are deaf to other people, for they are more interested in speaking their own minds. They treat their own conscience as though it were a defect to be overcome. They behave as though perpetually campaigning for their own ideas.
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The best way to relax the body is to tense it first, and thereby to equalize the flow of tension all over the body. Then, with relaxation, you will find tensions being released that you didn't even know existed.
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If you would like to play volleyball but do not know how, what do you do? To start with, you can watch other people play, maybe buy a book or two, and then head out to the court yourself and start practicing. But once you have mastered the basics, you may want to take a class or get some personal instruction to help you refine your stroke or eliminate the mistakes you have picked up along the way.
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Lighten up! Perhaps you have noticed that non stop thinking and worrying generate a kind of inner fears feed on one another, problems get magnified exponentially, and the next thing you know, you are feeling overwhelmed and panicked. Meditation encourages an inner mental spaciousness in which difficulties and concerns no longer seem so threatening.
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Meditation And The Three States Of Consciousness
Meditation, properly speaking, begins once the thoughts and emotions have been silenced. It is a state of intense inward awareness, a state in which a persons’ attention is no longer engaged in the outside circumstances but is wholly engrossed in the superconscious experience. Meditation may be defined also, as any practice of which the goal is to reach to the superconscious awareness.
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Learn to live more superconsciousiy. This means to live with meditation-born awareness. Try to make the peace you experience in meditation the basis of your objective experience of life. Do not let the meditative peace slip between your fingers the moment you find the winds of worldly duties again hit you.
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How Get In Tune With Your Senses During Meditation
Smell: You can enhance your sense of smell by exploring the particular nuances of your favorite scent, a flower, or fruit, and the sensations of breathing it in. Then, as if appreciating an intoxicating fragrance, inhale slowly and savor the breath. Even if there is nothing actually in the air to be smelled, putting your attention in your nose as you breathe awakens the sense of smell.
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Getting To Know Your Breath Through Yoga
Breathing is a classic focus for meditation, for several reasons. For one thing, breathing is sensuous, rhythmic, and always with us, as long as we are alive. Also, breath is a gift to us from the larger universe; it comes inside our body, into our lungs, into our blood, then into every cell. Breath is an intimate exchange with the entire cosmos in which we live and move and have our being.
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Getting To Know Your Aura Through Yoga
While seated comfortably, rest your hands in your lap and turn your palms to face each other. Take a few easy breaths, and then gently become curious about the sensations in your palms. Explore moving your palms up and down, toward each other and away, in toward the body and away from it. Let your hands be very relaxed and loose, and still facing each other. You may have tiny sensations in your hands, pleasant feelings of warmth or tingling. Explore in this way for two or three minutes.
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Creating Your Own Meditation Mantra
Start by singing or humming the vowels in any way that occurs to you, at any volume, speed, or pitch. Just get a playful. Feel free to change the order after a while (u-e-a, for example). Change the pronunciation however you like, for each sound has a dozen or so different ways of being said.
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Yoga Concentration Through The 3rd Eye
There is a great significance in concentrating at the point between the eyebrows. This point is known as the Christ center. It is here that the meditator, when deeply concentrated, beholds the spiritual eye or third eye, a phenomenon that has been known since ancient times.
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Benefits Of Meditation Whether At Work Or At Play
Meditation teaches you how to cultivate qualities and skills that naturally contribute to making you better at your favorite endeavor, whether it's sports or business, gardening or studying, or simply washing the dishes or sweeping the floor.
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Applying Meditation To Everyday Activities
Anything you do or experience can provide you with an opportunity to practice mindfulness. But you may want to begin with some of your usual activities - the ones you may be doing now on automatic pilot while you daydream, space out, or obsess. The truth is, even the most routine tasks can prove enjoyable when you do them with wholehearted care and attention.
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For many of the same reasons that meditation helps to facilitate healing, it also enhances performance. It relaxes your body and reduces stress and anxiety, which allows you to function more effectively. It promotes positive mind-states, such as love, joy, and well-being, and encourages the flow of life-energy through the body, which in turn promotes self-confidence and a sense of power and effectiveness.
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Yoga Postures: Learning The Rocking Technique
When you start yoga postures for the first time then naturally you will begin with the simplest ones, then as your joints and muscles start to limber up you shall proceed to those that are more difficult to do. Please do not allow yourself to be frightened away or easily discouraged.
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The Connection Between Health, Stress, And Mediation
The link between meditation and healing is a venerable one indeed. Take the world's great spiritual teachers - many were renowned for their healing abilities as well as their wisdom and compassion. Jesus, for example, first revealed his spiritual maturity by helping the lame to walk and the blind to see.
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Setting Aside Time For Meditation
Meditation resembles sex in a number of ways, and this is one of them: You may prefer it short and quick or long and slow. But whatever your predilections, you would no doubt agree that some sexual contact with your beloved is better than no sex at all.
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Learning To Sit Still For Mediation
When talking about the practice of sitting still, one of the great meditation teachers, the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, used to say that the best way to show a snake its true nature is to put it in a hollow stick of bamboo. Take a moment and give this unusual metaphor some thought. What could he have possibly meant by it?
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Many people still think that Yoga is a religion. Others believe it to be a kind of magic. Some associate Yoga with the rope trick, with snake-charming, fire-eating or sitting on nail-beds, lying on broken glass, walking on sharp swords, etc. Sometimes it is even linked to fortune telling, spiritualism, hypnotism and other "isms." In reality, however, yoga is a method, a system of physical, mental and spiritual development.
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There are a variety of types of yoga that focus solely on spiritual practice and the integration of soul, mind, and body. Yoga as a spiritual practice is what the original practitioners intended. In the West, those original practices have been modified to suit different temperaments. There are too many to list here, but these are some of the most popular.
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Yoga, based upon the principle of combining the mind with the body, provides a simple, but effective, form of relaxation. Life is hectic and we are constantly faced with problems and demands in our workplace and at home. We seek ways to alleviate the stress, cope with the unexpected, and maintain a comfortable balance in our everyday activities. Stress can have far-reaching effects on our relationships with family, friends, and co-workers and over time, our body slowly but surely wears down. We are left mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, needing to relax, but unable to do so. The answer for many of us is in the art of yoga.
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The number of types of yoga are too numerous to count, but here in the West, there are quite a few types of yoga that were developed specifically for their exercise benefits. Types of yoga for exercise are many and varied, so here; we'll focus on the most popular. Bikram: In Bikram yoga, you will definitely sweat. Every studio is close to 100° Fahrenheit, because the goal is to get you to sweat. When you sweat, you secrete toxins from the blood, allowing for better circulation. The postures, of course, have all the benefits of any yoga class, but if you're not sweating, it's not Bikram yoga.
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Yoga is meant to be a means to enlightenment. This belief has caused yoga to be a key element in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainis which are primarily Indian religions. The different postures are developed in an effort to unite the body as one. There are four main yoga types: the Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, and Raja. All of these in some way are said to help with the meditation process.
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Yoga is a series of postures or poses that are done fluidly and steadily while controlling breathing. Yoga is essentially an low-impact exercise that is invigorating yet relaxing, as it also encompasses some meditation. Yoga is about strength and flexibility, not just about stretching, however, stretching and ‘reaching’ is definitely a part of yoga. Anyone can do yoga, from babies to seniors and of all lifestyles. Practicing yoga is different for each person and the best thing about it is that you can tailor it to suit your needs and activity level.
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The Yoga philosophy of Patanjali takes a leaf from the Sanskrit text for its definition on Ashtanga Yoga. In Sanskrit, Ashta means eight and Anga means limbs. Astanga yoga was popularized by the Yoga guru Shri. K. Pattabhi Jois.
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Yoga derives from yog the Sanskrit word for union or yoke. Yoga then is a fusion of the body with the mind. Largely known to many people as a system of mental and physical exercises which facilitate meditation and flexibility, Yoga has been practiced for several thousand years.
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Improving Flexibility With Yoga
Yoga is a low-impact exercise that helps improve your overall health. Yoga minimizes health problems, lessens stress and anxiety and maximizes flexibility. Yoga is a series of movements that are invigorating, yet easy for anyone to do at any exercise level. It can be done slowly and fluidly, and in time your flexibility will gradually increase.
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Helping Improve Circulation With Yoga
Yoga is a 5000 year old prescription to good health and longevity. Be it increasing physical vitality, endurance, mental sharpness, agility or increasing your spiritual awareness, you will find Yoga always helpful to your well-being.
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If you’re considering taking a Yoga class, you should know that there are several different types of Yoga. While any style of Yoga will fit
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Yoga, which means "union," from the Sanskrit word yukti, is an ancient system of practices. Developed in India, yoga aimed at integrating mind, body, and spirit to enhance health and well-being. Its principles were first set down systematically by Patanjali in the second century B.C. in the Yoga Sutras.
