Scriptures of Hinduism

Open your life's doors towards the Hindu Wisdom - the most ancient and extensive religious writings in the world.

Ayurveda - The science of life

The 'veda' (science) of 'ayur' (life span) - Indian system of medicine is a gift of the 'vedic' age

Secrets of Hindu Customs and Rituals

The Hindu culture is a culture of love, respect, honoring others and humbling one's own ego so that the inner nature, which is naturally pure and modest, will shine forth.

A to Z of Yoga Sastra and Meditation

Learn yoga sastra. Also learn yoga postures, poses, asanas and more

Temple Database

Know about Hindu Temples in and outside India

Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label healthy. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 October 2011

How will Yoga help me?

Q1. What are the physical benefits of practicing yoga?
Yoga is a powerful discipline that can improve health and fitness. Regular yoga practice has been known to increase the stamina, flexibility, stability and strength. Practicing of yoga postures also brings a feeling of well-being to the entire body by stimulating the organs and improving the circulation. As the body works more efficiently, problems like headaches, back pain, stiff hips and digestive disorders can all be alleviated. Pranayama, the breathing techniques can lower the blood pressure, increase cardiovascular efficiency and aid relaxation.
Q2. What are the mental benefits of yoga?
Just as yoga can help us increase our physical health and fitness, practicing of yoga has also been found to beneficial to our mental health. Yoga can help reduce stress, improve concentration alleviate mood swings. It brings awareness and the ability to be 'still'. Practicing pranayama helps bring mental clarity and calm.
Q3. What are the diseases that can be cured by yoga?
Yoga can be useful in reducing the effects of the diseases like hypertension, spondilytis, asthma, arthritis, slip disc, digestive disorders, menstrual disorders, mental disorders and sleeplessness and many more like these.
Q4. What is the advantage of Yoga over to other exercises?
Exercise increases strength and stamina of the muscles but Yoga affects complete body mind complex and triggers a change from negative to positive direction on the physical, mental, spiritual plane of existence.
Q5. Can Yoga delay middle age?
Yoga is the greatest form of exercise there is. After our mid-20s, the venous supply to the disks of the spine naturally atrophies.

Through yogic exercises that bend and stretch the spine, fresh blood and nerve flow revitalize all the major glands and organs. Unlike other forms of exercise, which develop fitness by stressing the body, yoga builds strength and endurance while lowering the stress hormones that age us.
Q6. Can yoga make me stronger?
It's a proven fact that yoga does makes you stronger. Some balance postures such as Tree Pose and Shoulder stand require enormous muscle control in order to prevent you from falling over. This helps to build and strengthen your muscles. The muscles you develop during yoga are more likely to be elongated, because while you are strengthening them, you are simultaneously lengthening them. You also do not focus on an isolated muscle, but actively recruit the smaller muscle groups as well. You truly work your entire body when you practice yoga. In addition to all its other benefits, yoga can help you improve muscle fitness.
Q7. Can yoga relieve my back pain?
Studies have shown that yoga is a good exercise for those suffering from back pain, particularly in the long term. Many of the postures in yoga gently strengthen the muscles in the back, as well as the abdominal muscles. Back and abdominal muscles are essential components of the muscular network of the spine, helping the body maintain proper upright posture and movement. When these muscles are well conditioned, back pain can be greatly reduced or avoided. However, not all yoga asanas can automatically relieve the pain, some might even aggravate the pain. So it is advisable to perform the poses under the guidance of a trained yoga teacher. Some helpful poses are the camel pose, corpse pose, cat stretch.
Q8. I'm stressed out - will it help me to relax?
Yes, definitely, Yoga helps in reducing physical, mental and emotional stress. Yoga is well-known for its calming effects. Because of the body/mind connection, if the muscles are relaxed by stretching, the mind will also relax, with less anxiety and better sleep patterns.
Q9. Can Yoga help cure migraines?
Migraines which are caused by the constriction and dilation of blood vessels to the brain can be made more manageable through yoga. Regular practice of yoga, including postures, pranayama and meditation can help relieve the suffering. Postures will help improve blood circulation and also relieve physical tension and stress, which may be a contributing factor to migraines.
Q10. Can Yoga treat arthritis?
Yes, yoga poses provide relief to stiff and damaged joints. Yoga's controlled movements and gentle pressures reach deep into troubled joints.

The mild form of stretching involved in the practice of yoga can help strengthen your joints which is crucial in preventing and dealing with arthritis. It also reduces stiffness and makes your joints function normally. In addition, the controlled stretches in conjunction with deep breathing exercises, relax and release the muscles that have seized up around the joints to protect them.
Q11. Can yoga treat obesity?
That depends on the type of yoga you are doing and how frequently. Very vigorous types of yoga practice, such as Ashtanga and Vinyasa are cardiovascular exercise and may help you lose weight if done regularly, along with proper diet changes. Regular practice of Yoga and controlled life style reduces obesity. Yoga has different effect on obesity, which is permanent in nature than other techniques for obesity reduction. Weight loss is permanent but one needs to practice few important techniques regularly.

The Yoga principle on healthy diet and the practice of the Asanas will help balance the endocrine system, tone the abdominal organs, stimulate both the nervous and circulatory system, and reduce stress. Yoga also helps one to gain a better understanding of ones self, leading to acceptance and appreciation which will help eliminate the psychological reasons for Obesity. The practice of Yoga deals with all the aspects of an individual: the mind, body and spirit, giving a person control over his mind and body and making the effect more permanent than other techniques.
Q12. Can yoga cure insomnia?
Yoga has a stimulatory effect on nervous system and the brain in particular. Certain yoga postures increase the blood circulation to the sleep center in the brain, which can normalize your sleep cycle. You will have a more restful sleep because of the relaxing aspect of yoga and the subsequent relieving of stress, tension and fatigue.

Q13. Can yoga bring energy?
Yoga is a brilliant energizer. The postures and other techniques stimulate your body's energetic system to make you feel more alive. In many Western exercise systems, energy is thought of as something to be used up - we talk of expending energy to burn calories. However, the yogic understanding of energy is not related to burning calories at all- in yoga, energy is related to a subtle force called prana. This subtle energy is said to flow through all living things. The practice of yogic postures assists the flow of prana and thus helps in the free circulation of throughout our energetic system.
Q14. Can yoga help me in PMS?
Premenstrual Syndrome or PMS is characterized by uncomfortable mental and physical symptoms that can occur up to two weeks prior to the onset of menstruation. Several yoga poses are proven to ease menstrual pain. It also help your mind and body adapt with stress, anxiety and depression making you feel relaxed and calm, and enabling you to cope with psychological symptoms of PMS.
Q15. Can yoga help me ease stress and postpartum depression?
Yes, definitely, yoga, Kundalini yoga in particular can help reduce stress and overcome post-partum depression. It is the breathing, along with the repetition of sounds and visualizations that help balance our hormones, purging the negative chemicals that can cause some women to experience postpartum depression. After giving birth, a woman's body makes a complicated physiological switch from pregnancy to nursing, and yoga can help a woman keep a healthy relationship with her body.
Q16. Can yoga help keep a check on my blood pressure?
The relaxation and exercise components of yoga have a major role to play in the treatment and prevention of high blood pressure or hyper tension. A combination of biofeedback and yogic breathing and relaxation techniques has been found to lower blood pressure and reduce the need for high blood pressure medication in people suffering from it.
Q17. I'm stressed out - will it help me to relax?
Yes, definitely, Yoga helps in reducing physical, mental and emotional stress. Yoga is well-known for its calming effects. Because of the body/mind connection, if the muscles are relaxed by stretching, the mind will also relax, with less anxiety and better sleep patterns.
Q18. How does Yoga help in my everyday life?
In this modern city, there is hardly anybody who doesn't suffer from some kind of stress. He is always in search of sailing the ship on the way of happiness and peace of mind. The stable mind and well tuned body can give him a real joy which does not vanish like our materialistic happiness. These things can be achieved through Yoga. Yoga can control the working of mind. Once you begin to practice regularly, yoga will help you to live your life with renewed positivism and enthusiasm.
Q19. Can Yoga improve my personality?
The physical development as well as psychological improvement can be obtained by Yoga. The proportionate body structure can lead to increase your confidence. The stability of mind, increase in the concentration of the mind can be obtained with the help of Yoga.
Q20. Will yoga help me in playing my game (e.g. tennis) better?
Yoga can be tremendously beneficial to your game. Yoga poses stretch and strengthen the muscles and that increases your reach and power. Yogic breathing expands lung capacity and purifies blood. Yogic meditation helps the player to become calmer and centered in whichever game they are playing.

Friday, 30 September 2011

Yoga and Healthy Skin

Yoga Articles >Yoga and Healthy Skin
 
Your skin is the reflection of the health state of your body. A glowing, supple and flawless skin stands for a fit body and peaceful mind. An unhealthy diet, lacking required nutrients, sedentary lifestyle, intake of junk food and aerated drinks, rising pollution levels, over exposure to sun and high stress factors, are some amongst the sundry factors squeezing the life out of your skin and cause for the spiraling number of skin diseases. 


It’s high time you start caring for your skin. Yoga bestows a natural luster to your skin by balancing your hormones and promoting the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your skin. This keeps your skin springy and prevents dehydration and sagging. Yoga nourishes your skin at the cellular level and detoxifies it. All the internal organs and particularly the endocrine glands get activated and their functioning is optimized. It helps lower stress levels considerably and provides complete relaxation. 


The following exercises should be practiced for at least 5 minutes each on an empty stomach, ensure that you do it religiously since the efforts will be realized only after 3 weeks.
  • Bhastrika: Inhale a good volume of air through your nose and then exhale it. This is quite simple and acts like a warm up session before you take up the others.

  • Kapalbhatti: In this exercise you blow out air from your nostrils and are detoxifying yourself. The speed at which you blow the air out should be moderate. The ideal speed is one blow per second.

  • Anulom Vilom: Here you inhale air from one nostril and exhale through the other. While you breathe in from one nostril you need to close the other one with your thumb and while breathing out release your thumb.

  • Shitli Kumbhak: It is an extremely useful pranayama for skin. This has the potential to reduce facial wrinkles and purify the blood. To perform this, you need to fold your tongue so that it protrudes a little from the mouth. Slowly inhale through your mouth and experience the coolness inside the neck while inhaling. Then swallow the breath and hold inside your stomach for a few seconds before exhaling through the nose
More oxygen + More blood circulation + Stress-at-bay = Yogic formula to a healthy and glowing skin. 

Asanas that help you achieve the above are:
So you see, yoga can breathe life into your skin and bring about dramatic changes to your looks. All it asks for is your time; don’t lose heart if you don’t get immediate results. “Patience” is the watchword. Also once you have achieved the desired results do not discontinue yoga because like I said it is nutrition for your skin, body, mind and soul.