Yoga for your heart

Here is a fresh viewpoint about Yoga's holistic approach toward heart health.

Are you tired of watching commercials about how your "bad diet" causes all of your heart problems? What about people who eat healthy and have heart disease?

These commercials are usually prescription drug advertisements, which profile everyone with heart disease in a negative light. They profile you as negligent, and smother you with guilt, by giving you a solution to all of your problems with a pill.

Let's face it - there are times, in life, when each of us may have to take a prescription. Pharmaceutical drugs save lives, whether we want to take them or not. Yet, there are adjunct solutions to heart health, and Yoga is one of them.

Yoga has many ways to address your heart health. Most of the Yogic methods address stress, and anxiety, that can damage your heart over time. Many people do not realize the amount of heart damage that stress causes over the long term.

In Yoga, there are healthy vegetarian diet options, which you can adopt for life. Most people will readily admit that vegetarian diets will extend your life and decrease your chances of heart attack. This does not mean that a vegetarian diet insures that you will never have a heart attack.

Sorry, there are no "guarantees by the manufacturer" on your heart. Sometimes, the heart just stops. Your heart runs on electricity, and without it, your heart will stop. Some newborn babies have congenital heart defects. In fact, the heart is a very fragile mechanism.

Yet, what if you eat a vegetarian diet and have a genetic heart defect in your family tree; are you still at risk because of genetics? Unfortunately, heredity can override the positive conditions you place on your heart. Yet, giving up is not an option, if you want to live.

Therefore, a diet with reduced, or no meat, increases your chances of heart health. If you come from a meat-eating culture, this can be difficult, but not impossible. At home, you can substitute veggie dogs, veggie sausage, and veggie burgers, for meat. There are many competing brands these days, and they offer many choices.

Even restaurants offer more vegetarian choices than they did ten years ago. At most local restaurants, you can easily order meals without the meat. Last year, I noticed many new vegetarian choices in the parks at Disney World.

Obviously, keeping your body in motion will help your heart. Yoga asanas and flowing posture sequences will help, but these methods also purge your mind of negative thoughts. With that said, practice any time you have the time.

If you are new to Yoga, please find a local instructor to teach you how to meditate, the intricacies of Yoga Nidra (Yogic sleep), and Pranayama (Yogic breathing). All of the above methods will reduce your risk of heart attack.

Weight loss with Yoga

Weight loss with Yoga is possible but also involves eating a balanced diet and performing some postured based exercises. There are cases where obese individuals have lost weight while performing Yoga, but the primary requirement is dedication. If one simply performs Yoga without a change in lifestyle, you will be greatly disappointed.

O It reduces weight in a lasting and permanent way without causing any side effect to health, beauty and physical or mental condition. O It doesn't cost to correct obesity. There is no disturbance to your normal life or a possibility of regaining the same weight even if yoga practice is discontinued.

Yoga's balanced and multi-dimensional approach to health and wellbeing, ensures that the weight loss is not just rapid, but is also natural and safe. One should always begin with warming up the body including a bit of stretching and relaxation exercises. If you lie on the floor with arms at the sides and with legs slightly apart, it is a good start.

The holistic and energy oriented Pranayama combines using the BODY, BREATH and MIND to help you lose weight and attain your ideal body. Ayama means the control of the Prana, which signifies life or breath which indeed is the key to life.

Everyone has to breathe to live. Breathing is a physical action that allows one to absorb oxygen from the air. The process also allows you to remove the excess carbon dioxide. In yoga, breathing is a vital part of the process. One should start to practice breathing in from the nose and not from the mouth. While breathing is usually accomplished with the use of chest muscles, one can also take deep breaths using the abdominal muscles. The abdomen can pull down on the diaphragm and this will ensure a deeper breath and ensure more oxygen. This movement also helps with the function of the intestine and process of food absorption.

The middle part of the chest (thorax): Put the hands on either side of the ribs. Inhale slowly inflating the sides thoroughly, then exhale and repeat several times. The process purifies blood, improves circulation and calms the heart. The upper part of the chest or collar bones (clavicle): Put hands on each side of clavicle. Contract the stomach slightly. Inhale slowly pushing the clavicle upwards, then begin to exhale pushing it downwards. Repeat several times. The process cleans and fortifies the upper chest.

Meditation is the ability to develop a stable posture and then allow the mind to concentrate. The process allows one to control the body. People, who meditate for years, have great ability to control various bodily functions like blood flow, breathing, and calming of the nerves. There are many postures for meditation. The simplest is to the Padmasana. Here you place the right foot on the left thigh and then the left foot on the right thigh. The hands should be placed on the knees. With the body straight and rigid, one should start the breathing exercises.

Rules to practice Pranayama or Yoga O Start practice not before the age of eight to ten years. O Yoga exercise is equally useful for both sexes: male and female. O Always practice in a peaceful, calm, noiseless and airy environment. O Wear clothes which are sufficient to protect the body. O Avoid wearing tight clothes.

Yoga should be done on empty stomach. Therefore eat at least 2-3 hrs before your practice. Children under the age of 12 years should be guided by an Instructor. Normal breathing should be maintained while performing yoga postures.

Prior to beginning any Yoga classes, it is important that one warm up. This means stretching the muscles of the hands and legs. While any form of stretching exercise can be done to warm up the body, one can also for briskly for 10-15 minutes to get the same result. Once the Yoga classes are complete, it is important to rest and let the body cool down. Most people will feel relaxed, agile and calm after a yoga exercise. Some describe the feeling as flying in space. Individuals who are obese or over weight should not risk jogging for fear of causing joint injury or falls. Some exercises like weight lifting can also lead to excessive damage of the joints.

O Cool down after exercising a session with slow and gentle stretches. O Consult a doctor or a yoga teacher before embarking on any yogic exercise program, especially when you are above 45 years of age, pregnant, have a personal or family history of high blood pressure or heart problem. Too much and too fast yogic practice does not provide instant results; these simply lead to injuries, aches and pains.

How Yoga Can Enhance Your Life

Although Yoga is very old, it has only recently achieved more mainstream focus. The celebrity endorsement from people such as Madonna has helped it grow in popularity.

However, Yoga is more than just the latest celebrity fad. It can hugely enhance our lives and give us many physical and mental benefits.

Yoga actually massages internal organs. Many of these including the prostate barely receive any stimulation during the lifetime. Yoga can actually massage these and reduce risk of disease or provide warning signs at the first possible instance.

Yoga features many different positions and exercises. These positions work many different ligaments, tendons and joints and hugely increase the practitioner's flexibility. They will use joints that has never really be used or effectively exercised before. Yoga also assists with lubricating joints.

Because Yoga can be quite intensive exercise, it can provide high levels of toning to the body. We have seen the likes of Madonna and how it has massively kept her in shape as she enters her fifties.

Yoga can help clean out the body of toxins by assisting with effective blood flow to all of the parts of the body.

The great thing is that all of these benefits that are offered from practicing Yoga come as a by product. Yoga offers huge benefits of harmonising the body and the mind. This can be done through meditation which helps the practitioner to achieve detachment.

Once you have taken classes for a while, the great thing about Yoga is that it can be done anywhere. As well as the long term physical benefits of Yoga, it will help you to become more relaxed and centred.

Yoga for all round health benefits

Yoga is way of exercising your body and mind. It is now a world famous and extremely popular technique but its origin makes a humble story. It was practiced by Indian sages thousands of years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests that it is at least as old as the Indus valley civilization. It was the ancient Indian sage Patanjali who proposed this method of wholesome exercise. The word “yog” means union; usually, “yoga” means union God or the divine being. The objective of a yogic exercise is to unite the individual with the divine through a series of body postures meant to control the body and the mind. Yoga in India is now a part of the everyday routine of most Indians.

Yoga in India has many benefits. It helps in cleansing the body of numerous toxins, toning the muscles, strengthening the digestive system and improving the circulation of blood. It also helps in correcting body postures. But unlike other forms of exercise like aerobics and workouts at the gym, it also promotes mental peace, freeing the practitioner from stress connected with day-to-day life. There are also those who undergo yoga purely to attain moksha or salvation.

There are eight stages that yoga consists of
1) Yamas - where one learns abstinence and restraint
2) Niyamas – where one learns to live in contentment
3) Asanas – where one learns the exercises
4) Pranayama - exercises related to breathing
5) Partyahar – exercise connected with the withdrawing of senses
6) Dhrana – where absolute concentration is achieved
7) Dhyana – the satge of meditation
8) Samadhi – achieving moksha or salvation.

Yoga is not only endorsed by its practitioners; even modern science agrees that it is a form of exercise that can help you attain all-round health benefits. As such, Yoga in India is now a vital theme of her tours and travels. There are various centers in all corners of the country- Chennai, Rishikesh, Hardwar, Shivpuri and Uttarkashi are well-known centers. Apart from these places, there are many professional instructors who have been specially trained in the field and they have their private practices. They can be easily located by searching online