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Yoga

Pose #5 for Women – Setu Bandhasana

March 5, 2016

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I remember when I first started practicing yoga, the Setu Bandhasana (Bridge Pose) used to be my least favourite pose. It felt really uncomfortable and even gave me a back ache sometimes. I put it down to being overweight. I thought that because I was heavy, my hands were unable to support the weight of my lower body. Of course now I know better. And now I come across so many people who don’t! So many people tell me that their arms are not strong enough or their thighs/hips/butt are/is too big/heavy which prevents them from doing this pose well. Study your technique. The key to any yogasana lies in the technique. Study your technique.

Benefits of the Setubandhasana:

Stretches the chest, neck, and spine
Strengthens the core muscles and the legs.
Enables blood flow to the brain and this helps in reducing stress and bringing about a feeling of rejuvenation and wellbeing.
Provides an excellent massage to the abdominal organs.
Massages the Thyroid gland.
Helps in reducing discomfort during
Reduces discomfort and pain during menstruation.

To avoid making the mistakes I did when practicing this asana remember to:

Evenly distribute your weight on the soles of your feet.
Push your soles into the floor evenly.
Engage the thighs and the core muscles.
Roll your shoulders back and away from your ears.
Using your legs push your chest closer to the chin.
Keep the back of your neck long and pushed against the floor.

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Yoga

Pose #4 for Women – Trikonasana

March 4, 2016

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In an interview with Prannoy Roy, BKS Iyengar said that he was still working on his Trikonasana. In my yoga class we work on Trikonasana every day and the teacher always frowns in disapproval. In an interview I watched a couple of weeks ago Maty Ezraty talks about how she can judge the level of a student by how they perform the Trikonasana. Personally, the Trikonasana has a heavy influence on my practice. Some days I break into the asana with great ease. Other days (like this morning) there’s some stiffness and soreness and I creak through the asana. Maybe it’s a combination of shoulder and hip opening. Or maybe it’s the stretch along the sides of the body or the release of tension from the shoulders….but this pose makes me want to linger.

Benefits

Great for the legs and torso.
Relieves pain and tension from the lower back.
Maintains the flexibility of the spine.
Provides a great massage to the abdominal organs and stimulates them.
Good for digestion since it provides a massage to the abdominal organs.
Relieves backache, especially through second trimester of pregnancy
Helps in managing flat feet (I’ve seen it even reduce the condition).
Helps in managing and preventing osteoporosis and sciatica.

When practicing the Trikonasana, remember to:

Keep the legs straight.
Keep the chest open.
Keep the spine long and strong.
Bend the torso laterally (from the hip).
Keep the hip joint open.
Reach out with both hands.
look down if you get migraines or have a BP condition.
look down if you have a heart condition or neck pain.

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Books Yoga

5 Books on Yoga Every Beginner Yogi Should Read

February 21, 2016

Important books on yoga for beginner yogis.

When Your Yoga Practice Calls You Deeper…

All yoga practitioners reach a point when they start to look beyond their yoga class for resources to explore more. Some look for more guidance and some for answers. Usually we turn to the internet and look up all the books on yoga and reviews we can find. We start to look for teachers and students see if we can find the light through the avenues which they are seeking answers.

There are many many books written on the subject of yoga. From coffee table books to instruction manuals. YouTube gives you access to teachers old and new. I’ve been through my fair share of texts. Some have been forgettable, some have been good and some I consider essential. The challenge for new yoga practitioners is finding books on yoga that resonate with them as beginner yogis. Academic texts and translations are often too obtuse, and other sources contain only rudimentary and superficial information.

The books below have not only given me food for thought, but have also helped with my asana practice, philosophy etc. I still have a bunch of books that I’m waiting to devour (birthday shopping), but until now, the below are books I consider indispensable for beginner yogis.

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Yoga

How Yoga Can Help Create a Better India…and a Better World

January 25, 2016

I’ve been watching a lot of videos of master teachers Saraswati and Sharath Jois lately to glean wisdom from their philosophy. Yoga is a living breathing philosophy. The way it was taught and practiced a hundred years ago was different from how it is being taught and practiced now. The world is changing. And with that, yoga’s role in this changing world.

Just 50 years ago perhaps the greatest challenge in the yoga world was the lack of awareness of the practice. Now the challenges are greater. Advances in science, increases in population, changes in lifestyle etc., have brought along an increase in stress and psychosomatic diseases. Which has resulted in an increase in crime.

Sharath Jois, in one of his many interviews says that besides asanas we have to practice Ahimsa and Satya. And if hundreds of people practiced Satya and Ahimsa, then it will be good for society. There will be no violence and no bad things happening. That’s the message that yoga is trying to give us. Sharath goes on to say that our responsibility is not only to think about ourselves but also to think about the plants and the animals and other living beings. I guess here he’s trying to tell us that to live in harmony is perhaps the best way to co-exist with each other and with the life around us. And if every one of us practices Satya and Ahimsa, we can change the world.

In recent years a lot of young people have started coming forward to drive change. Whether it’s in politics, entrepreneurship, social work, education etc., the youth has made an impact. However, at a deeper level, to make a change in the fabric of the social psyche itself, maybe we need to practice Ahimsa and Satya with ourselves. Know when to push forward and to hold ourselves back. To know which battles are worth fighting and which are just fueling our ego. To sometimes accept that though we tried our best, but our best wasn’t good enough. (Which is OK because there are too many more mountains to climb so wallowing in self pity isn’t a good idea.)

Sharath also says, “Life is very precious, life is very important. So how you lead your life is very important.”

A little more Satya and Ahimsa with the usual Asana will help us create a better world.

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Travels

In Mumbai a Few Months Ago…

January 10, 2016

A few months ago Roshini and I had to go to Mumbai to collaborate with TheHealthSite for yoga/workout videos. We only had a day to work on the videos. We decided to take the first flight in and the last flight out. Here are a few pictures of the experience and the videos that they put together. I have to say, Roshini and I were excited about making these videos but by the end of the day we were exhausted. So much goes into the whole process of making good quality useful videos. From the content to the aesthetics, it’s a process which is time consuming, but can be extremely rewarding as well.