iyengar yoga Archives - Page 3 of 8 - Pragya Bhatt

Yoga

Yoga to Boost Immunity

March 8, 2020

When Women’s Day rolls around we talk about women. Strength, equality, acceptance, rights. This year I wanted to talk about something more relevant. Immunity. Immunity to ‘what will people say/think/do’. Immunity to unrealistic expectations. Immunity to trying to please everyone. Immunity to self-doubt, self-sabotage.

The key to fighting any kind of external attack is your immunity. The higher your immunity levels, the less likely you are to fall prey to pesky germs.

I suggested a collaboration to my friend Medha of Amruta Bindu Yoga a day before Women’s Day. Within two minutes we were ready. The deadly Corona virus spreading like wildfire across planet earth, we decided to focus on how yoga can help. Yoga’s positive impact on boosting your immunity is proven and well documented. A regular yoga practice helps in lowering your stress hormones and stimulates the lymphatic system (which eliminates toxins from your body). Inversions (asanas where your head is below the level of your heart) help in increasing blood circulation. This increased circulation helps in taking oxygenated blood to your organs, which helps in keeping the organs healthy.

A couple of days ago I came across a yoga sequence to strengthen the immune system, designed by BKS Iyengar. It’s being widely circulated on Instagram and I came across it on the IYNAUS page. Medha and I decided to share the sequence with our followers.

This sequence was created by BKS Iyengar to boost immunity to fortify the body against the invasion of germs, bacteria and viruses. Fun fact: it’s Medha and I performing the asanas in the images.

Daily practice is a challenge, specially when you’re practicing solo. We decided to help by putting together this checklist for you. You can print this out and place it where you’re likely to see it, be it your practice space, your dresser, your bathroom mirror, in front of your desk etc. It’s a reminder to you that all of us need a little help with our yoga practice. You can also download the Daily Yoga Practice Checklist by clicking on the ‘Download’ button at the end of the blog.

Over the next few days we’re going to be discussing how each of these asanas improve your immunity. We’ll discuss the asanas at length, giving you new insight into them. Please reach out to any of us (on Instagram/Facebook) with your queries and we will help you out! We’re incredibly excited about this challenge and hope it really makes a difference to you.

[ddownload id=”8170″] the Daily Yoga Practice Checklist.

Follow Amrutha Bindu Yoga here.

Follow Medha Bhaskar here.

Follow me (Pragya Bhatt) here.

You can read about the individual asanas below:

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Travels

The 2019 Pune Visit

October 2, 2019

Taken on the way to Panchgani. Nature has a way of giving you perspective.

It’s my first ‘day at work’ after my annual Pune visit. A student asked me this morning about whether I gained new insights. During my first few years of yoga teaching and practice, I could easily quantify what I had learned. Stuff like “headstand”, “an arm balance” and “did some intense core work”. Now it’s more difficult to describe. Maybe because now my focus is not so much on the number of asanas in my kitty. Now I like to work with what I have and refine it further. I like to simmer in known asanas so that I can teach them better – or rather, learn more from the asana.

So if I had to recap my month in Pune I like to think about sum total of all the experiences I had. I remember the rush to finish last minute assignments before leaving. I tried (unsuccessfully) to look for a substitute. My students had to contend with no teacher for a month. But it was an auspicious start.

I arrived in the days leading up to Ganesh Chaturthi, things were as bright and festive as always. Once I registered for my month I created a list of things to remember for all prospective students of RIMYI.

The teachers who have had the most impact on me are those who have encouraged me to trust my thought process. My Yoga Therapy professor did just that. I also wrote about how my practice changed during my Pune visit when a teacher told us to ignore the stretch.

In September I discovered an app called YourQuote and started dabbling in writing again. I also attended the Pune International Literature Festival as a writer for the first time. I checked for my book in the bookstalls, I signed books for many readers. Meet other writers was a dream. My friends came out to watch my session.

In September I hit an all-time high in my blog views. Titled “Why Am I Not Losing Weight?”, this blog resonated with many readers.

We’re getting ready for the festive season here as well. Diwali cleaning, de-cluttering, decorating…all this and much more in October.

A Pune visit is never complete without an Irani chai and wada pav. Go to FC Road for the best.

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RIMYI Experiences

Prop or Crutch?

September 19, 2019

This beautiful shot is part of the photos we took for ‘Beyond Asanas: The Myths and Legends Behind Yogic Postures”. Get your copy of the book on Amazon and Flipkart.

I had a 7 am class with Gulnaz Dashti today, my second with her this month. I’ve recounted my hilarious class in 2016 with her here. And last year here. As evident in these blogs, she’s energetic, lively and funny.

Lately I’ve been having problems with the sirsasana. It’s confounding. I’ve been practicing sirsasana for years, even doing variations. Here’s a video of me doing advanced variations too. But suddenly one day I felt my neck starting to cramp up. I hadn’t changed anything and I got a bit worried.

I decided that maybe I should change the way I use the blanket under my head. Until now I was using a folded blanket between a folded mat. I started to fold the blanket in the Iyengar “three fold long” style. I felt it would give me height . But that also didn’t feel right. I spoke to Gulnaz about it last week. “Is it possible for someone to do a pose for many years and all of a sudden to lose it one day?”

She said in her quick rapid style, “Until now you’ve learned how to do the sirsasana. Now you’ll understand the posture. Go, I’ll see next week!”

So today before I went up I asked her for help.

“Why are you using a blanket?!” she screeched. “You people become so used to the props! Keep the blanket aside and go close to the wall, I’ll adjust.” She reached down and lifted my shoulders away from my ears. I felt the weight shifting forward to my elbows. My wrists and elbows woke up, and I pushed them firmly into the mat. I teetered for a bit as I got familiar with the new center of gravity.

“Props were invented to teach you how to do a posture, not to become a crutch for you. You people don’t even question the necessity of a prop! You become so dependent on the prop that that’s all you see! You don’t see the pose, you stop learning the pose!!!”

“Don’t be in a hurry to get away from the wall,” she cautioned me. “Stay there and understand the pose.”

Got it Gulnaz – learn the pose with the props, and understand them without the crutches.

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RIMYI Experiences

Don’t Go After the Stretch

September 10, 2019

pc: @khan.clicks @deavalin_david_dsouza makeup: makeupbyhennaanbaree location: Cubbon Park

I had a late class yesterday. It started at 7.10 pm and went up to 8.40 pm. The teacher was new to me. After the usual queries (“Where are you from? Who’s your teacher?”) I spread my mat and got ready for a class.

All the teachers at RIMYI have a distinct style of teaching. The strong teacher-student tradition of yoga ensures that your attitude, approach and philosophy towards the practice reflects that of your teacher. Your students will be able to see the ‘Iyengar’ or ‘Ashtanga’ shades in your classes. If you go to multiple teachers/don’t go to any teacher – that is pretty evident too.

There isn’t much of a crowd at RIMYI this year. Last night’s class had about 15 students. We had enough space to spread out. The class was quiet. It wasn’t action-packed or fast paced. We did very few asanas. We held each asana for a very very long time.

As you continue to hold, you’re able to go deeper into the pose. You can intensify the stretch. You can observe which limbs are working, which are sleeping. I worked on lengthening and opening my torso in Trikonasana – I noticed that I could actually activate the hamstrings more. Similarly in Parsvakonasana.

“You may be feeling a stretch in your hamstrings and on your groin,” said the teacher. “But feel the quietness in your abdomen.”

I blinked a couple of times. It’s a mannerism Ive noticed recently. It’s an automatic response if I’m surprised or intrigued.

“Most of us go after the stretch. We think asana works only if we feel the stretch. But all asanas bring quietness in the abdomen too. Find this quiet.”

And with these few sentences, he changed my asana practice forever.

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RIMYI Experiences

Registrations at RIMYI

September 3, 2019

Finally getting the hang of this.

I headed to the institute at around 9 am this morning. In previous years I’ve always registered in the evenings so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I decided to wear my practice shorts just in case.

The person at the front desk smiled and nodded his head in recognition. He suggested I go practice first and come back later to get the registration forms.

Self-practice sessions at RIMYI can be intimidating. Alhtough you have people of all levels you tend to look only at those who are busy defying gravity. Today there were students going from adhomukha svanasana to urdhva dhanurasana and back again.

Watching students who have a better asana practice than you can be intimidating…or extremely inspiring. As a yoga student the one quality that has been of immense help to me has been that the only ‘I’ I take with me to a class is ‘I am a yoga student.’ Besides this I don’t think, ‘I can’t do back bends’ or ‘I have a mean urdhva kukkutasana’. I’m willing to explore what I already know. And willing to wrestle with prejudice, fear and doubt to discover new movements.

Besides the above two things, the other things I should mention for a month in Pune are:

Don’t bring your yoga mat. You have every prop ever created available for use.
Do bring comfortable walking shoes, preferrably ones that can withstand the rains. Pune is known for its sudden showers (it’s pouring as I write this). Don’t forget a trusted umbrella.
Students generally bring skirts or loose pants to wear over their practice shorts rather than changing at the institute.
Don’t forget your passport photos (along with the other documentation such as visa copies, passport copies etc). It had completely slipped my mind that I needed passport photos, but luckily had some extras in my wallet.
You can pay your fees through cash or card.
A lot of students like to have a coconut post class. I would recommend bringing your own re-usable straws rather than using the disposable plastic ones.

These are the few things that come to mind right now. In case you have specific queries, drop a comment.

Post practice I got my schedule. I have evening classes three times a week, and today happens to be an evening class. Fingers crossed for a good class and an awesome month.