Is yoga just enough for your health ?
This question will be lingering in everyones mind who starts to do yogasanas. If they go to gyms regularly, then for sure this question will be asked to the trainer or to the yoga-instructor.
Well heres my take on this question (From all the readings done on this topic). Ideally, yoga is just enough or even more than enough if you practice regularly for an hour. There has been experiments conducted on endurability/health of heart/lungs/stamina on person who just did yoga and he very well matched or was even better than people who just did exercises.
But, for normal/regular people like us (who doesnt do yoga daily, as recommended), exercises can also be as part of our routine. It adds up variety and sure brings up results quicker than yoga alone. (If you have a very slabby stomach and needs 6pack (not beer!) just yoga alone maynot help you get the results faster.
Ofcourse proper diet is required (no questions about that).
But I always recommend this in my classes. Dont think yoga as an workout. Dont think yoga as a tool to sculpt your body. Those are extra benefits you get if you do asanas. The real benefit is the stress relief, healthy/relaxed mind goaled towards eternal happiness.
Also I recommend not to do regular workouts immediately after or before your yoga session. Try to keep them several hours apart (like one in the evening and the other in the morning)

I can hear you say "Well, who has time for both!". I agree with that :-)

Help your unborn children/grand-children, if you can...

As you all know, many ailments people get from our parents/grand-parents due to genetic reasons. This includes diabetes, heart issues, blood pressure and many more..
Each of these ailment, shouldve originated from any one of the parent/grandparent/great-gps.. at some point in their generation. Why, because of their lack-of-knowledge to have healthy body or diet or lifestyle.
If you are reading this, then obviously you cant say you dont have the knowledge or means to get the knowledge. Internet is wide open with information, daily newspapers, online magazines, friends, tv.. everyday someone is talking about having a healthy diet or healthy lifestyle.
If your parents had blood-pressure or diabetes, then you know what to do to avoid them. Try a stress free lifestyle.. do yoga or other calming exercises. Check your eating habits and fight back those genetic issues and help your future-generation to have a healthy life. Pass on the good-genes and knowledge. Do whatever you can do.
Peace.

Relaxation techniques: Learn ways to calm your stress

Relaxation techniques — Learn ways to de-stress and bring calm into your life.

Relaxation techniques are a great way to help your quest for stress management. Relaxation isn't just about peace of mind or enjoying a hobby. Relaxation is a process that decreases the wear and tear of life's challenges on your mind and body.

Whether you have a lot of stress in your life or you've got it under control, you can benefit from learning relaxation techniques. Learning basic relaxation techniques isn't hard. Explore these simple relaxation techniques to get you started on de-stressing your life and improving your health.

The benefits of relaxation techniques

With so many things to do, relaxation techniques may take a back seat in your life. But that means you may miss out on the health benefits of relaxation.

Practicing relaxation techniques can improve how you physically respond to stress by:

• Slowing your heart rate
• Lowering blood pressure
• Slowing your breathing rate
• Reducing the need for oxygen
• Increasing blood flow to major muscles
• Reducing muscle tension

You may also gain these overall health and lifestyle benefits from relaxation techniques:

• Fewer physical symptoms, such as headaches and back pain
• Fewer emotional responses, such as anger and frustration
• More energy
• Improved concentration
• Greater ability to handle problems
• More efficiency in daily activities

Types of relaxation techniques

Although health professionals such as complementary and alternative medicine practitioners, doctors and psychotherapists can teach relaxation techniques, you can also learn some on your own. Relaxation techniques usually involve refocusing your attention to something calming and increasing awareness of your body. It doesn't matter which technique you choose. What matters is that you try to practice relaxation regularly.

There are several main types of relaxation techniques, including:

• Autogenic relaxation: Autogenic means something that comes from within you. In this technique, you use both visual imagery and body awareness to reduce stress. You repeat words or suggestions in your mind to help you relax and reduce muscle tension. You may imagine a peaceful place and then focus on controlled, relaxing breathing, slowing your heart rate, or different physical sensations, such as relaxing each arm or leg one by one.
• Progressive muscle relaxation: In this technique, you focus on slowly tensing and then relaxing each muscle group. This helps you focus on the difference between muscle tension and relaxation, and you become more aware of physical sensations. You may choose to start by tensing and relaxing the muscles in your toes and progressively working your way up to your neck and head. Tense your muscles for at least five seconds and then relax for 30 seconds, and repeat.
• Visualization. In this technique, you form mental images to take a visual journey to a peaceful, calming place or situation. Try to use as many senses as you can, including smells, sights, sounds and textures. If you imagine relaxing at the ocean, for instance, think about the warmth of the sun, the sound of crashing waves, the feel of the grains of sand and the smell of salt water. You may want to close your eyes, sit in a quiet spot and loosen any tight clothing.

Other relaxation techniques include those you may be more familiar with, such as:

• Yoga
• Tai chi
• Music
• Exercise
• Meditation
• Hypnosis
• Massage

Relaxation techniques take practice

As you learn relaxation techniques, you'll become more aware of muscle tension and other physical sensations of stress. Once you know what the stress response feels like, you can make a conscious effort to practice a relaxation technique the moment your muscles start to tense. This can prevent stress from spiraling out of control.

Remember that relaxation techniques are skills. And as with any skill, your ability to relax improves with practice. Be patient with yourself. Stay motivated to reduce the negative impact of stress on your body and to experience a greater sense of calm in your life.

And bear in mind that some people, especially those with significant psychological problems and a history of abuse, may experience feelings of emotional discomfort during relaxation exercises. Although this is rare, if you experience emotional discomfort during relaxation exercises, stop what you're doing and consider talking to your health care professional.

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Above article was featured in 04/09/07 MSN.com. Thought its worth to put here (And we follow the Visualization technique as our DRT btw)

Thanks
Shankar N

Yoga for GastroIntestinal Disorder:
The IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) includes Diarrhea, Constipation, Gas, Bloating etc

Gas is formed by air that we swallow with our food and also due to regular digestion of the food.
If our body cant digest some of the food (Complex sugars etc), they are sent directly to the colon. Where the intestinal bacteria tries to disintegrate then into various gases, which causes the GAS/Bloating/Diarrhea/Constipation problems.
To avoid this try eating food/drinks in a slow pace. Try avoiding carbonated drinks, smoking.

If you have heartburn (the acid from the stomach, when seeps to the esophagus (Im not sure about the spelling), it gives the burning sensation, which puts the 'burn' in heartburn). Our stomach linings are hard enough to withstand this acid, but esophagus is not. If your stomach lining is corroded, then that is called ulcer. Try avoid very acidic food and try to have Carbohydrates in your diet (Yes! Carb!). Dont totally avoid them (If you have Heartburn issues)
Dont just rely on Protein and 'hot n spicy' foods.
Yoga will compress and stretch the gut muscles, which will help preventing the Gas/Bloating and other GI issues. Below are the list of asanas suggested to get relief from each problem.

Constipation: Dhanurasana (bow pose), Savasana (Corpse pose), Matsyasana (Fish pose), Pavana MUktasana, Forward/Backward bends, Seated fwd bend

Diarrhea: Spinal Twists, Triangle, Seated Forward Bend

Gas: Wind Relieving Posture, Vipareeta Karani (Gentle inversin poses)

Bloating:Gentle Inversion Poses, Wind Relieving Posture, Seated Wide Angle Pose

Indigestion: Corpse Pose, Mountain, Locust, Seated Forward Bend, Cobra or Upward Facing Dog, Forward and Backward Bends

Overall GI Function: Spinal twists, Triangle, Bow, Cobra or Upward Facing Dog, Forward Bend, Camel

In general do any pose, which can stretch your stomach (Dont forget to do the complimentary pose for each of them). Try figuring out, which food causes you these problems and avoid them.

Yoga for mitigating migraine:
Symptoms and causes:
Migraine is caused by the dilation of blood vessels on one side of the brain. Migraine headaches are usually characterized by severe pain on one or both sides of the head. Other typical migraine symptoms include headaches, muscular tension in the head, neck and shoulder due to the congestion of blood vessels that supply blood to the brain and muscles. Several factors are known to trigger migraine.
1)Tyramine is a chemical known to trigger migraine. This can be found in certain food items like beer, wine, aged-cheese, yeast, coffee, banana, eggs, orange, spinach, and tomatoes. Also, aginomoto aka MSG may also trigger symptoms of migraine. (Read the labels of food you buy)
2)Fatigue, sleep deprivation, Bright light
4)Certain infections
5)Menstruation
6)Stress
7)Poor posture
8)Drug or other food allergies, low blood sugar
9)Eye strain
10)Head injury
Try to find out what causes or triggers your migraine and avoid that.

Suggested yoga exercises:
After a brief warm up the following exercises are recommended: For the details of the asanas, please refer to the notes sent by the instructor:

For warm up:
Kapalabati
Balasana (child pose) breathing
Single leg raise
Double leg raise
Perform 5-6 rounds of Surya-namaskar

Core yogasanas
Tree pose (Vrikshasana)
Triangle pose (Trikonasana)Cobra pose
Cobra pose (Bhujangasana)

Wind releasing pose(Pavana mukhtasana)
Inverted pose (Vipareeta karani)
Half-waist wheel pose (Artha- kati chakrasana )
Forward and backward bend
Yoga mudra (Padmasana fwd bend)

Relaxation:
DRT
Pranayama

Myth: Discontinuing yoga, increases weight ! Is this true ?
Well, here is a question from one of the attendees. "After doing yoga (asanas), if you stop doing it for a while, I heard that people gain weight. Is this true ?"
This is my take on the answer. You gain weight, if you eat more than what your body needs or if you dont burn enough calories (by doing exercies) of the excess food you had or if you have problem in thyroid glands. Period. Yoga has nothing to do with it.
Ive been told, that many have felt hungry, after doing yogasanas. Well, its suggested that you practice asanas on empty stomach. After 45 min session of stretching and twisting and breathing.. its natural that you feel hungry. Just be careful on the amount you eat. If you eat more.. you are going to gain weight.
May be we practice yogasanas for a while and after each session we might tend to eat little more than your usual limit. And once we stop doing asanas, but if we tend to intake the same amount of food, we could gain weight. Do you agree ?
Well, what is the secret of maintaing the body weight ?
Stick to a food habit. That is, Eating around same time daily. Eating same amount daily. Eating same kind of food daily. Dont switch, chinese one day, pizza next day, rice-sambhar next day and mexican the following day. Once in a while (or once a week) should be fine. Most important avoid snacks or keep it to very little ( I know, its difficult to control sometimes, when you start onthe chips.. Damn!)
How do I stop overeating ? People tend to eat more, when they are hungry. Our body takes a while, to calm the hungriness, after having food. So, eat slowly. Or there is a quick way to control having more food. Eat 4-5 almond nuts 5-10min before having food or when you are hungry. The (good) fat in the nuts, tend to make believe your brain, that you had enough food. Then have food and you wont consume more.
(Ok.. caution. Be gentle on the Almond nuts. Not more than 4 or 5).

PS: when I pay 12.99 on a buffet, I dont count calories :-) And I dont go to buffer that often. Once or twice a month mostly.

Interact with your instructor..

There are lot of yoga studios and places where they teach yoga/asanas and stuff. If you ask generally, people will say, "this guys is the best", " that guy is amazing"..
If you ask the person who got recommended, he may or maynot feel the same way like the person who recommended.
That doesnt mean the Yoga Instructor is not as good as he was described. My theory is, Its just that, we who attended didnt click with the instructor.
To be close-friends with everybody is difficult, dont you think ? You click only with very few people and stay close with them. Because their frequency and thought processes clicked with yours and you remain close friends. Remaining people, either you didnt interact much or didnt click well. Doesnt mean they are as good as your friends (and you belong in that category in others point of view)
Same goes with the instructor also. All you need to do is try to interact with the instructor more and be open to any suggestion you get or you can tell them your point of view. Eventually you will love every yoga instructor and you will gain a lot from everybody. Many times people (including me) refrain from interacting thinking what the other person will think or so.
Bible also says "Knock, the door will be opened for you. Ask for it, to get it". Same thing here also. Plan what interests you, what you want out of any class and you will get that.
Try this out and get more out of your classes.