Yoga and Ayurveda

Medicines are the means to put derailed system, back on the track. After gaining the power the body should function on its own, Homeostatic activity is a built-in program in the system. Medicines do not allow this activation of the mechanism. Ayurveda and yoga work on this principles. So they help immunity to come back to action. But generally we are happy with the suppression of the disease and do not allow the pathology to reverse. Ayurveda and yoga practitioners keep on telling this for years. We are happy with the medicines which give quick relief which is seldom complete. For years we keep on taking palliative medicines but we never think of bringing pathology back to normalcy.

Once the body undergoes process of imbalance it shows the effect in form of symptoms which are understood by the individual. It is not a happy situation. It may not be life and death situation, still there is a fear and we make every thing to hush-up the situation. Then things may not be the same as before and may not be simple also. Practicing yoga regularly and taking advise from Ayurveda for dietary control, things are brought well under control. But we generally look for the easy solution and unwinding of the disease process is never opted as a first thing.

In last post we had a look over the fundamental reasons for the illness. It starts with improper use of senses. Let us take example of eyes.

What we can perceive with the help of eyes is limited. We can enhance its capacity with the help of microscope and telescope like equipment. Yet it has limitations. Tolerance of brightness and trying to work in dark both have ill-effect on eyes. If we use more of computers, mobiles we forget blinking of eyes which is essential and there are many other means which can damage eyes. So over use, under use and improper use can be damaging to eyes as well as it affects our lifestyle also. Similarly we can think about all other senses and organs like hands, legs, speech, genitalia and anus. Mind is organ which does not have physical presence but no organ can functions without it!

Behavioral Medicine

Behavioral pattern is the key to understand the living being. We humans learn patterns to know the various species. 

These patterns are of two types. One is built in which are developed as growth pattern. They are formed during development even they are available as inherited legacy. Another pattern is developed with conscious effort. These patterns reflect in likes and dislikes also. Due to these likes and dislikes we have certain effects on our body-mind complex. These effects may be for living healthy life or they can to illness. 

Behavioral medicine is about bringing about changes in life and lifestyle. These changes are for living better life and healthy life. In this thinking behavioral changes are used as a medicine. 

 Ayurveda Gives three basic reasons for illness:

1. Inappropriate use of senses.

2. Cognitive failure to make choices and implement in life. That is Pradnaparadh: 

In Ayurveda Prajnaparadh is a cause for illness explained as one of the important causes for illness. This means, person knows that smoking is bad. In fact he or she knows it correctly how bad it is but still they adapt such habit and they do not leave it either. This leads to sedentary life and many hazards over period of time.

3. Time factor :Age related factors or duration of unhealthy pattern leads to illness.

Behavioral medicine is the branch of medicine more popular in U.S. which incorporates psychiatry, nursing, medicines and other disciplines to help person to change the habit pattern and thereby help to come out of illness.

 

Lifestyle modification has been like a keyword in modern medical practice. Many conditions are solved with the help of different disciplines of medicines. Alternative medicines are also a part of a treating some conditions. Many conditions like diabetes, obesity, certain types of cancers are known to be the effects of inflammatory process going on in the body for very long time. Medicines prove to be of limited use. Without changing any medical line of treatment we can adapt lifestyle modification to control the condition. There may a situation when we may able to reduce medication and eventually stop them with help of a consultation with your doctor.

These lifestyle modifications are brought up in many ways.  Yoga, Ayurveda, Natural therapy and many other practices which give inputs about a change in food pattern, physical activity and in many other ways.

We will discuss these issues in future postings.

Yoga

Do we practice yoga? Do we know what yoga is about? Is we see yoga today, Real Yoga?

Yoga we know as a fitness program more than anything else. No doubt that yoga for fitness or yoga for health are the most popular and well experiential aspects of yoga itself. One can easily relate with story about the elephant described by the blinds. When you try to study yoga it mandatory to read Hathyoga, Yogasutra by Patanjali and Bhagwat Geeta also. But it is not possible to systematize yoga unless you are thorough with Yogasutra by Patanjali. It is also said that Patanjali gives road-map of learning yoga and Bhagwatgeeta provides the implicit aspects of behavior of a yogi. Learning any text on yoga without its practice in life is waste of time and energy.

Real goal of yoga is not shoddy, limited to health and fitness but it is for bringing up unanimity in society. This culture is beyond cast, creed dogma or religion. It is freely permeable through national boundaries. Best and most creations in the world in any field are through yoga. All great people who are genuinely creative and inventive, practice yoga knowingly or unknowingly. In fact Yoga is a built in function in their system. Inventing and taking it to perfection is achieved through constant endeavor without thinking of its commercial aspect. To make those inventions commercially viable also require great efforts. Patience and relentlessly working till end is the true signature of yoga, we can say.

We will continue on these lines in future....

Lifestyle modification a key to health

Unloading of Mind and body both are important factors. We encounter illnesses in life; our body defends and gets well soon sometimes, we need to take some help from kitchen remedies sometimes we have to run to a clinician for restoration of health. In all conditions mind and body complex play crucial role. Along with the postures suggested in previous posts we need to do something to emptying mind complex also, certain practices may be suggested which can prove helpful for keeping ourselves healthy, physically and mentally.

Life style has proved to be playing crucial role in maintaining the health. due to our needs and greed we tend to forget our aim to live peacefully abundant life. Although it can not be achieved very easily but is possible. Nowadays it is known to the science that relaxation and behavior are important factors for maintenance of health. So we can use yoga, pranayama, meditation to fix our health issues.
Here we enhance the practice which is given in previous post. Pranadharana was explaned before this post lead you a step ahead:

Meditation

Lesson I

• ·         Environment should be peaceful, SWITCH OFF YOUR MOBILE OR MAKE IT SILENT, put the door bell off or arrange someone to take care of it.
• ·         Clothes should be comfortable and tight fitting clothes should be avoided.
• ·         Sit on a comfortable chair, feet should touch the ground. Do not cross legs or feet. You can sit on floor on a mat cross legged or in lotus or semi-lotus pose, with a wall supporting back
• ·         Back should be straight enough but not stiff; head, neck and back in a straight line.
• ·         Close your eyes. You can keep your eyes open if you are not getting distracted.
• ·         Watch your breath, breathing should be normal.     
• ·         Feel the touch of the air while coming in and going out.
• ·         There will be many thoughts gushing in. Focus back to the breath.
• ·         Focus on breath again and again when thoughts come in.
• ·         Now feel the touch of air inside the nostril where it touches while inhaling and exhaling.
• ·         Initially for two days put alarm for 5 minutes for first three days. When it rings again be aware of the breath. Take a deep breath, keeping eyes closed. Move fingers move arms gently then after few seconds open eyes slowly.
• ·         Do speak to worldly topics immediately. Wash face, stretch a bit.
• ·         Initially be in this practice for at least 3 to 5 minutes and later on it should gradually be increased to 15 to 20 minutes.
• ·         Do not leave this process in middle suddenly, otherwise it may prove harmful.
• ·         Place and time should be same for doing this.
• ·         Continue the same practice for a week or so.

Relaxation -3

Relaxation  is a rest. Rest to the mind and body. Relaxation is emptying the mind. It is like overwriting on the same disk. It is not like formatting but rearranging the information.

Nothing happens overnight similarly this process takes some time to show its effectiveness provided you are very consistent in practice. Breathing is subtler and still it can be felt very clearly. It is easy to focus. It is necessary to be in seating posture as it is not active nor very relaxing. Lying down may cause sleep which we do not want at that point of time. You can sit in a chair where feet just touch ground. back must be straight but not stiff. It is explained in previous post but here I want to elaborate it further. After certain period when you are confident that you will not fall asleep then you can do it in lying down posture also. suppose you are bedridden for some ailment, you can follow this simple technique in that positions also. In early stages falling asleep while doing this, is common because your mind starts unloading. During that process tranquility increases. Some times you are disturbed because of the thoughts coming up to the extent you get up from the posture or you just stop following the procedure. This time you have to be patient as this is a transitional phase and one has to pass through. There are ways to deepen the levels but even in this system you can go to deeper levels. They will be explained in later stage.

Some times sitting in one position for longer time is difficult so we can start with 10 minutes twice daily If time and place is fixed it will help more. If you do some yogic exercises or stretching will help us to remain in same position for a longer duration. Then you can do it without a support to the back. But in early stages it helps if take support of a wall or in a chair with back at 90 degrees to the base. These details are necessary in early stages when you are used to the technique you may remain in that state of mind even though you are working or walking or talking without internal disturbances.

But it is a good practice to wash face with natural water and drink after finishing your session. Sometimes you may feel hungry but do not take heavy food. Fruits is the beast choice.

This was all about the technique but it is mandatory to have strength for sitting in a meditative posture for longer duration. For that yogic postures are important. Doing yogic postures correctly will help strengthening body keeping it flexible. Then you can enjoying meditation is easier.

cat pose: pose A and B

Ardha Ahalabhasana

Cat pose which comprises many subpositions out of them these two are important.
Ardha Shalabhasana is also important for strengthening back muscles and improves posture of the body.
Cobra pose also helps neck muscles and back muscles.
Bramha mudra is also an important mudra which can help to improve body posture. There are many postures in Yoga which are helpful but these are the minimum and simplest which we must practice

Bramha mudra

Practicing these posture will help us unloading body-stress and sitting in same position longer will be easy with practice. One must be very regular in the practice this regularity benefits in life. Yogasanas give stability to the mind and body both.

 Unloading body also means reduction in weight. If we are with BMI > 25 we need to think in this direction also. Yoga postures help reducing weight. But burning of calories does not take place during this practice. So program for burning calories must be supplemented carefully. Keeping both the systems will help better. Weight reduction program should done in morning time. Yoga may be done in evening after office hours. It is very important to note that all vigorous exercises should be done in morning and on empty stomach. you can take water sip by sip when you feel it is necessary. doing gym or swimming after food have serious impact on body system it may be explained in details in subsequent posts.

Presently we are discussing unloading mind and body to have better quality of life.

Relaxation-2

Relaxation is a must in a stressful life. It is not lethargy. It is not resentment. It is not avoiding the situation. It is the way of handling situation better. It is a tool to make things even better. It is for integration and not for disintegration. It improves capacity when done correctly. It makes you creative. Prana-dharana is practiced regularly culminates in to meditation. Thoughts are reduced and controlled. It improves quality of work. This technique is used to unburden the mind. When interference of thought process is reduced quality and speed of processing in the mind space improves. Then head is lighter and body is relaxed automatically without any drug or a medicine.

This is an important state when overburdened system is addressed properly. But this does not happen overnight. It takes time depending upon the complexity in life. It works for sure! Some people have natural ability to go in to this state of mind and they unburden themselves. Some take help of some music, some like to go to hermitage. The method may be different for every one. The method they choose may be indicate their mind set. But unburdening takes place and they come out with better health and improved thought process. Unless such changes occur we cannot determine anything it also needs courage and patience. Some take help of some drugs considering that drugs and addictions manage thoughts better but, it is never advisable as they are addictive and hazardous for health. This method which we are discussing are helpful to live healthily and peacefully with lot of creativity and success.

We will discuss the further stages in future. But practicing this regularly  is a must.

There arrives a situation when we are overwhelmed with thoughts and responsibilities and when we try anything hastily it gives effect differently and we start blaming our own selves and we put that experience under heading "Failure".So we have to follow certain procedure before we embark upon such relaxation break. There may be certain mechanical procedures which follow everyday in the office or at home. We must write it down and hand over responsibility carefully to someone temporarily. Certain confidential matter such as passwords and something very important info must be written and kept safely. One can reload them very easily having lasting effect. It happens rarely but such information can get evaporated during these procedures. It is a fear but can happen as some information is stored as a conditioned memory when the conditioning is changed the information disappears. So if back up is ready nothing is lost. But we must keep in mind that we are doing this for unburdening the mind-body system. It is always an experience that we find new avenues for better situation in life and life takes turn and graph starts ascending. There is unwinding and rewinding of the film with corrected references. This is a fascinating experience. It is blissful.

When we start following the procedure explained in the previous post we start feeling fresher. But it is rarely experienced on a very first day. Generally gushing new thoughts and more thoughts are experienced. It is because those vibrations in mind-space get more room to become uncompressed say like an unzipped file. That is why mind gets occupied with thoughts. When we just watch these thoughts and do not follow them or get involved, they start receding. Sometimes they are so strong that we have to do something about them. Such thoughts are from past, These stages may be necessary who also wish to enjoy transcendence of mind.

As practice goes on, effect is more lasting.then one can enjoy relaxed temperament all the time even in the most stressed condition. At this stage there can be reversal of many disease processes. Health starts restoring.

There is one more aspect of relaxation which will discuss in next post!