Meditation

In meditation, the mind is focussed. Practice the means by which meditation can happen, using tools of self awareness, eye focus, mantra, imagination, inward focus allowing yourself powers of concentration, recharging mental, physical and spiritual aspects of ourselves.

If you are engrossed in a conversation with someone, do you notice everything going on around you? As long as you are absorbed, you do not. This is the entry point into meditation. The senses are capable of responding, but they do not because they are withdrawn.

Stress itself is not harmful, but our inability to deal wth our bodies' response to it can be. If you can learn to cope with the changes that life presents you, or change your response, you can handle life's stress. To this end, developing a meditative capacity and practice is invaluable.

While meditating, explore your awareness, exploring the inner frontiers of your consciousness with the mind of a scientist and the heart of a lover.

Yoga

Yoga reaches parts that other forms of exercise cannot event contemplate. It exercises very muscles in the body; it tones and invigorates every organ; it flushes and cleanses every blood vessel; it pacifies, tones and harmonises the nerves, body tissues, it enhances skin quality, it clears and relaxes the mind, it focuses attention, it generates energy.

In yoga we use the body to harness the mind. By recalibrating the body we recalibrate the mind. By liberating the body from its restrictions we liberate the mind from its limitations. In Yoga the body is the gymnasium in which we train the development of the mind in attentiveness, concentration, and subtlety, clarify the comprehensiveness. All of these qualities are required and cultivated by the postures. All of these qualities then become characteristics of the mind – characteristics that are then available to any and all of the activities of everyday life.

You do this in yoga simply by paying attention to the way your body feels as you move it, to the rhythm of your breathing, in and out of different postures. Nothing weird, nothing esoteric, nothing complicated. Just moving, breathing and feeling. While how you move in and out of the postures is important, it is staying still that really counts. It is this that distinguishes yoga from other forms of training, giving yourself time to stop still, to listen to your body, to feel yourself as you are.

The benefits of yoga are not in proportion to the difficulty of the postures. Most of the benefits of yoga result from the more basic postures.

Yoga must be approached with integrity. This integrity is one in which the attentiveness and sensitivity of the mind are used to activate each part of the body into a harmonious whole. This is a harmony of body and mind; as one. The guiding link is the breath. As you become more comfortable in your body, and more at ease in your mind, you will feel better and better about yourself. It helps you to drop the tension, anxieties, and inhibitions that prevent you from being fully and freely yourself.

What this means is that yoga is not simply a matter of establishing the greatest possible movement in a muscle or muscle group. It is not simply a matter of lengthening muscles; it is a question of returning all the muscles of the body and their relationship to each other. This returning is not done in order to bring about flexibility. It is done in order to bring about efficiency and harmony of all physical activity. It is a question of the organic activity of the vital systems of the body; respiratory; circulatory digestive, reproductive, immunological, nervous, etc. Nevertheless, flexibility is an obvious and beneficial effect of this process.

The more you put into the practice of yoga the more you will get out of it. It can be used to develop flexibility, strength, stamina and general fitness; to promote relaxation and good posture; to correct muscular imbalances. But it can give you much more than these things, while including them also. It can give a deep and resilient peace of mind which comes from self awareness and self acceptance that reset upon the self determination and self responsibility which the method demands. No one can do your practice for you. Once you begin to feel the way that it opens you to yourself, allowing you to feel and be yourself more fully and more freely, you will greatly appreciate this fact.

As you become more comfortable in your body, and more at ease in your mind, you will feel better and better about yourself. It helps you to drop the tension, anxieties, and inhibitions that prevent you from being fully and freely yourself.

Theory

The yoga training method is designed to bring about total relaxation. It is only the presence of physical, emotional and mental tension that restricts the flowering of our innate potential. As these tensions are removed, our potential is realized accordingly. As the natural harmony and integrity of our body and mind are more able to express themselves, the more immune we become to the stress and strain of life.

The practice of yoga stabilizes our nervous system and our minds. This stability spills over into our lives allowing us to face the unexpected with a calm clarity.

The effects of yoga are very broad and very deep. They touch every aspect of one’s being; most immediately they give back the capability of the body to move freely and effortlessly. At the same time they give the mind focus while bringing vitality.

The practice alignment of the body required by the postures brings, little by little, structural reintegration of the anatomical body. Posture, the way that we hold ourselves, improves carriage, the way that we move through space, does too. Muscles of the body are more able to fulfil the way that we move through space, does too. Muscles of the body are more able to fulfil their role in supporting the moving the rest of the body once they are free from tension.

The deep stretching that yoga brings to the muscles, and the effect of improved circulation, brings oxygenated blood to tissues that my have been neglected due to poor circulation. Those parts of the body that have been or are beginning to stagnate, are brought back to life, to vitality.

Just as respiration and circulation are improved, so too is digestion
Method

Respecting the body/mind means not trying not to impose on them. Imposing on the mind brings frustration, conflict and confusion. Both kinds of imposition are acts of aggression, of violence against yourself. Practice should be an open inquiry carried out with honesty and sensitivity.

Yoga is about balance. There are five main aspects to the practice of yoga – by doing this we can make sure that our practice is balance. These five aspects are structure, movement, breathing, energy and awareness.

We need to make balance between effort and ease applying enough effort; but not too much, being relaxed but not compromising, structural integrity; introducing balance between power and fluidity; between developing and utilizing the ability to resist gravity and more freely and not fighting with our blocks; finding the parameters within which we can challenge our resistance; introducing balance between striving and enjoyment between achievement and pleasure.

Practice

Repetition is fundamental to any learning process. Progress in Yoga depends upon regular practice. Yoga is not self-mortification. It can and should be continually accompanied by a sense of release, relief, growth and expansion. This is the same way that infants learn to move and walk. Through hesitant repetition that becomes more and more confident, while a pattern of neuro/muscular action is being learned. When the pattern has been coded in the brain, the action, movement, or posture becomes stable and can be sustained without strain.

A little often is more beneficial than a lot occasionally. However, your progress will be slow and you might not even realise that it is happening.

It is better to have a rest every now and then. This allows the muscles time to assimilate the lengthening work you have been doing. Too much stretching can cause the muscles to tighten and harden up in resistance to overdoing it.

Postures

In yoga the shapes of the posture act like a lens bringing the mind into focus.

Yogic Diet

Eating regular meals will ensure that the body received a steady supply of nutrients that can be utilised to provide energy as well as growth and repair. During the day the body’s energy systems take a leading role, enabling us to carry out our daily activities. At night the energy systems slow down, and maintenance and repairs actions come into force. Any food not processed during the day is sorted and fully digested while we are asleep, and the various nutrients are taken around the body and deposited where they are needed. Any waste matter is then let in our waste products’ department, ready for elimination in the morning.

Healthy eating means that we look for foods that will be advantageous to our own health and take in nutritious food – without it we may lack energy and be susceptible to a variety of illnesses and infections, by not adhering to a sensible diet, actually encourage health problems. Know your ingredients and what they are doing for and to your body.

The yogic diet is one consisting of pure, simple, natural foods which are easily digested and promote health. Simple meals aid the digestion and assimilation of foods. Nutritional requirements fall under five categories, protein, carbohydrates, minerals, fats and vitamins. Eating foods first hand from nature, grown in fertile soil (preferably organic, free from chemicals and pesticides) will ensure a better supply of these nutritional needs. Processing, refining and overcooking destroy much food value.

How to Correct Your Diet

The most important element is breathing having an influence on the body – mind – spirit. Through breathing as the main source of human nourishment, we introduce prana the energy that makes our bodywork.

What is vital within us is then animated by the prana. We can notice its effect on the heartbeat, on digestion, on movements, on thoughts, etc. When breathing is controlled and its rhythm is slow and deep, then our nourishment will change. We will be able to “feel” which is the kind of food that most suits us. Eating in a relaxed way means eating in tranquillity, chewing well, introducing less food, avoiding feeling heavy, having good indigestion.

Healthy eating guidelines that follow the principles of yoga:

· Eat at fixed times, refrain from eating between meals

· Try to eat as little processed food as possible

· Try not to eat meals late at night but if you are very hungry eat something light – perhaps fruit

· Take some lemon and honey in the morning for health and energy and to purify the blood

· Do not eat when you are angry as poisons are secreted by the glands and thrown into the bloodstream when you are angry or upset

Moving Toward a Yogic Diet

Some experts claim that the easiest path to success if a total and abrupt change, but for most people a more gradual approach is needed. If you change a few habits at a time, you may experience less disruption of your life. If you are considering changing your diet, try these suggestions:

· Cut back on junk food and replace with nutritious substitutes; fresh fruit for sodas, whole grain cookies for those made with refined flour, roasted soy beans instead of peanuts, baked chips instead of fired, and so on.

· Add more fruit and vegetables. Focus on green leafy vegetables such as cos and iceberg lettuce (while in season) and Chinese cabbage. The cruciferous vegetables – cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts – are cancer preventers.

· Replace bacon, burgers, hot dogs and sausages with sandwich slices on wholemeal bread

· Use fat-free or low-fat dairy products as often as you can