Bhastrika Pranayam

 

Procedure : Take deep breaths and then completely breathe out.
Duration : 2 mins atleast. 5 mins max.
Benefits : heart, lungs, brain, depression, migraine, paralysis, neural system, aabha

Weighing the Benefits of Yoga with Weights

 

Before you take the plunge and give yoga with weights a try, you may be

interested in knowing what the many health benefits of yoga with weights
are. Here’s a catalog of health benefits you may experience if you devote
yourself to yoga with weights.
Making you stronger
Yoga makes you stronger and tones your muscles, but by adding the weights,
you give additional boost to the muscle strengthening and toning powers of
yoga. When you stress a muscle with exercise or a repeated activity, the muscle
increases in strength and diameter as the muscle fiber expands. In other
words, the muscle is toned. The weight-bearing aspect of yoga with weights
improves the oxygenation of muscles, which promotes the muscles’ growth
and repair. The stretching improves the flexibility and health of muscles and
tendons. Yoga with weights also reduces the risk of muscle tears and strains
because weightlifting, when properly done, integrates the muscles closer to
the bones.
Building your core strength
You read a lot about your “core” and “core strength” in this book. When we
write about your core, we’re referring to the muscles of your trunk and torso
that support your spine. These muscles are the major players in balancing
and coordination. The core muscles also support your shoulders and hips.
Most people don’t know it, but the abdominal muscles, which are also core
muscles, are very important for supporting your spine.
Unless your core muscles are strong, you can’t develop the muscles of your
arms and legs to their fullest potential, in much the same way that tree
branches can’t grow big unless the trunk of the tree is strong enough to support
the branches.
Your core muscles are responsible for good posture. They keep your back
straight and your shoulders square, and they keep you from slouching. Your
core muscles also support and protect your internal organs. For example, if

the muscles around your back and abdomen aren’t strong, sitting up straight

for long periods of time is hard, because the muscles of your back and
abdomen take some of the weight-bearing stress off the smaller muscles in
your head, neck, and even your shoulders. Without strong core muscles,
you’re more susceptible to back problems.
When most people think of getting stronger, they imagine being able to lift
heavier weights or run faster. But before you can accomplish such feats, you
need to develop the core muscles of your trunk and torso. Deep strength
begins in these core muscles — your power source, the axis around which so
many muscles move. Yoga with weights is a superb program for reaching into
the center of your body to engage, utilize, and exercise the core muscles that
really matter.
Toning your muscles
Yoga-with-weights exercises are designed to work and tone all the muscles of
your body. If you think your arms are too flabby, if you want to develop your
abdominal muscles, or if you want to strengthen your legs, you can find many
yoga-with-weights exercises that target those areas. In traditional yoga, you
can tone and refine parts of your body with exercises. The addition of
weights makes it possible to really dig into a muscle or muscle group and
work it hard. Chapter 15 describes exercises that target different body areas.

Being more beautiful

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. But beauty is also a matter of
confidence, poise, and bearing. We’ve seen older people with wrinkles and
thinning silver hair who don’t fit the standard definition of beauty but who
are nevertheless very beautiful. These people radiate an inner glow that has
ripened during the years. They have a light in their eyes that tells you that
they’re very much alive to the world around them and living their lives in a
way that’s full of enthusiasm. They have what’s sometimes called inner
beauty or an inspired state of being.

MIND AND BODY

BODY, THE MOULD FOR MINDS ENJOYMENT

The body with its organs is no other than the mind. The physical body is the outward manifestation of the mind. Mind is the subtle form of this physical body. The mind contemplating upon the body becomes the body itself and then, enmeshed in it, is afflicted by it. All the bodies have their seat in the mind only. Should the mind be paralysed, then the body will not evince our intelligence. Without water, can a garden exist? It is the mind which transacts all business and is the highest of the bodies. Mental actions are the real actions. The mind performs all actions very speedily in the Linga Sarira and fluctuates thereby. But, the gross body knows not anything and is inert. Even should this gross body be dissolved, the mind will assume fresh bodies to its liking very quickly. This physical body is the mould, as it were, made by the mind for its own enjoyment, for its outpouring of its energy and thereby gaining different experiences of this world through the five avenues or channels of knowledge, the five Jnana-Indriyas (organs of knowledge or perception).

THOUGHTS MAKE THE BODY

The actions of the mind alone are indeed actions; not so much those of the body. The body is really our thoughts, moods, convictions and emotions objectivised, made visible to the naked eyes. It is a point worthy to note with care that every cell in the body suffers or grows, receives a life-impulse or a death-impulse, from every thought that enters the mind, for you tend to grow into the image of that which you think about most.When the mind is turned to a particular thought and dwells on it, a definite vibration of matter is set up and often more of this vibration is caused, the more does it tend to repeat itself to become a habit, to become automatic. The body follows the mind and imitates its changes. If you concentrate your thought, the eyes become fixed. Every change in thought makes a vibration in your mental body and this, when transmitted to the physical body, causes activity in the nervous matter of your brain. This activity in the nervous cells causes many electrical and chemical changes in them. It is thought-activity which causes these changes.

What Yoga Can Do for You

Yoga is an ancient health-art developed and perfected over the centuries by the Sages and Wise Men of ancient India. Yoga is _not _a religion, a metaphysical doctrine, or a philosophy. It is not magic or mysticism, although the amazing improvements it can make in your health, your appearance and your youthfulness may often seem magical, even miraculous. For thousands of years the Yogis of India have used the simple, reasonable principles of Yoga to regain the zest and enthusiasm and good health of their youth, to preserve into middle age the clear-thinking and sound physique of manhood, and to continue enjoying _even in old age _ the resilience, healthfulness, and well-being of their younger years. Yoga can take years off your face and years from your body--and add years to your life. There are certain secret methods by which the Yogis keep the flexibility and "spring" of early youth in their joints and muscles and limbs well into the declining years. It is a common sight to see, in the crowded, colorful strets of Bombay or New Delhi, Yogis well into their seventies and even their eighties, with the straight, graceful posture of a boy, walking with the elastic, springy step of youth... with firm, healthy bodies, their hair dark and glossy and un-streaked with grey. Firm, unlined faces .. . clear, undimmed eyes. Not only does Yoga make you look and feel years younger, years healthier, but it lends your body superb healthiness. This system of Yoga does not demand difficult positions and postures, uncomfortable exercises or strenuous diets. This is where it differs from every other book on Yoga previously published. It describes the simple, easy, "common sense" secrets of _using the natural health God gave you. _It works like magic because it enables the body to realize its full potential of good health. You know that Nature built into your body certain natural safeguards against disease, certain "defense mechanisms" for self-repair. Well, modern Yoga helps the body's machinery function smoothly, efficiently, at pet performance. It encourages your body to derive every last possible atom of nutritive value from the food you now eat (so different from the natural diet of your ancestors) ... to get every second of refreshment and rest from your sleep ... to attain regularity, relief from little aches and pains, the ability to sleep deep and wake refreshed that can make the difference from feeling "pretty good" to feeling "terrific!" Yoga assists _all _your muscles and bones and organs to operate at top masculine or female vigor. Yoga stimulates into peak performance the latent abilities of your body to throw off the attacks of disease, the psychosomatic "nervous illnesses" that nag and plague millions. Do you suffer from insomnia, "nerves"? Are you without appetite? Do you find it hard to relax? Do you smoke too much, feel "worn out" by afternoon, find as you grow older that you cannot enjoy full life and day to day vitality? Yoga has the...............