September 2012 - Pragya Bhatt

Yoga

Walking and the Brahma Muhuratam

September 28, 2012

I got an early start to my day today, at the Brahma muhuratam to be precise. Brahma muhuratam occurs one and a half hours before sunrise and considered the best for meditation. It is believed that at this time the air is charged with powerful electromagnetic particles and this intensifies any spiritual practice or sadhana. Some even believe that the Ozone layer is closest to the earth at this time and so the air is pure and clean and inhaling this air and allowing it to permeate your pores has numerous health benefits. Since I was wide awake I decided to walk around the hills a bit, something I haven’t done in a long time, but which I enjoy. As usual, I practiced ‘mindful walking’. I made a note of how the air feels and smells, all the sounds, the feel of the ground under my feet, the temperature…basically practicing awareness in something as mundane as walking.

When I came back, about an hour later I felt energetic and happy (fresh air and exercise always make me happy), and so I decided to extol the virtues of walking on my blog. Here goes:

Walking is an excellent form of mild exercise. It cost nothing but a good pair of walking shoes.
You get a lot of time to meditate on yourself and your life. So it gives you a chance to reflect and contemplate.
If walking early in the morning you get to walk around with no traffic or people rushing about, and kids making a lot of noise.
If you power walk then it helps in controlling your cholestrol levels, increases your endurance, improves your balance, releases endorphins so you’re happy and feel better about yourself.
Good for your back!

And finally, if you’re waking up to walk around the time of the Brahma muhuratam then you get clear, glowing skin and strong, powerful lungs as well.

So start your day at the Brahma muhuratam with a walk.

1 Comment

Wellness Yoga

Before and After

September 22, 2012

For a while now I’ve been talking to people about my weight loss journey and how I managed to go from a hefty 69 kgs to a healthier 54 kgs. However, most people would just nod politely (even those who asked me about how I lost so much weight) and move on to another topic of conversation (usually something about healthy eating or exercising). Until two days ago, while cleaning out my laptop, I came across and old photo of mine. I decided to do a ‘Before and After‘ picture because, honestly speaking, the journey to losing weight is long, arduous, lonely and fraught with self doubt. The fact that I’ve been through it, and have the pictures to prove it is inspirational not only for me, but I realize now, for a lot of other people as well.

Although it’s great to see how far I’ve come on the journey to shape myself not only physically but emotionally and spiritually as well, I have to say that it wasn’t easy to put up the ‘Before’ picture for the world to see and also (invariably) to judge. I felt the familiar hesitation that comes with the vanity that is only human. At one point, the thought “I was so fat!” overpowered the thought “Wow! I’ve come so far!” However, yoga not only gives us physical strength but also emotional strength and I told myself that that was me and it’s nothing to be hesitant about. I looked at the picture again and told myself that though I was many many kgs heavier, I was smiling and glowing. And many years later, I still am :). So I put up the picture and realized how powerful a visual medium can be. By the evening there were close to 50 people (many who were probably coming to the page for the first time) who had commented/liked the picture. Many said that it was inspiring, others asked for advice still others expressed disbelief. By the end of today, after many hours of thinking about all I’ve been through on the elusive quest for weight loss, I decided that a blog was in order.

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Yoga

The 12 Mantras.

September 13, 2012

Yesterday we did the 108 Surya Namaskars with the 12 mantras. Performing the Surya Namaskar is also a spiritual exercise where you are offering your respect, prayers, salutations to the Sun, the only real source of energy. Therefore, the 12 mantras are a tribute to the sun god. Below are the 12 mantras:

1. Aum hram mitraya namah.

2. Aum hrim ravaye namah.

3. Aum hrum suryaya namah.

4. Aum hraim bhanave namah.

5. Aum hraum khagaya namah.

6. Aum hrah pusne namah.

7. Aum hram hiranyagarbhaya namah.

8. Aum hrim maricaye namah.

9. Aum hrum adityaya namah.

10. Aum hraim savitre namah.

11. Aum hraum arkaya namah.

12. Aum hrah bhaskaraya namah.