Healthy Lungs Make for Glowing Skin

You may have heard that you have three bodies: physical, energy, and spiritual. The energy body is made up of a system of meridians, or energy channels. This system has 12 major and eight minor meridians. The 12 major meridians are connected to each of the main internal organs and named accordingly. They are paired, running symmetrically through the physical body. Ki energy moves in and out of the body through 365 energy points located along the meridians. These are the acupuncture or acupressure points.

Learning about the energy system, which affects your physical, emotional, and mental health, can get pretty involved. But having a general idea may help you better understand your own body and individual health condition.

Your Lung Meridian (see the diagram on the left) is a major meridian that begins inside the body around the middle, goes down through the large intestine, comes back up through the diaphragm into the lungs, then through the neck to the collarbone area, and down through the arms. It runs along the surface of the body from the Joong-bu point just below the collarbone to where it ends at the tip of the thumb.

Besides infusing your body with oxygen, your lungs take in ki energy from the air that you breathe and send it throughout your body. Problems in the lungs can cause you to feel tired and weak due to insufficient energy and oxygen going to the rest of your body. People who have lung trouble may have a flushed face and dry mouth, or experience stuffiness in the chest, neuralgia in the arms and wrists, hot palms, and lackluster skin.

Lung trouble, besides having a physical basis, can result from intense emotions for prolonged periods, because the Lung Meridian is related to strong emotions, especially sadness. Sadness is said to lead to diminished lung capacity, which can then lead to other disorders.

Improving energy circulation in the Lung Meridian will empower you with more energy, glowing skin, and better concentration. If you’ve never tried acupuncture or acupressure, you might be amazed at the effectiveness of a treatment from a qualified doctor of eastern medicine. A simple alternative is to practice chest tapping or massage your arm on your own, or get a friend to lend a helping hand.

— Michelle Seo

Live in peace like a lotus flower

Dear  Friends

To live in peace, I offer you live like a lotus flower!

The lotus flower is one of the most ancient and deepest symbols of our planet. They grows in very shallow and muddy water. Though it comes out of the mud and mire, it rises as a beautiful flower that lives in the water without being affected by it.

A person should live like the lotus, being in the world but not affected by it. You should always express your natural beauty, though you may grow in a dirty place. Nothing from outside should affect you.

The lotus is a symbol of love and devotion also.

The lotus flower turns its head towards the sun always. That means it always turns towards the light; it receives the light constantly. So you can say it's an ever-enlightened flower.

If we can live like lotus flower, our life will be so beautiful. Think about that....

Wishing you inner peace,

Om Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi

Love and Light

Asana and Prana

Prana, Vital energy, which corresponds to Ki or Qi in Chinese medicine, pervades the whole body, following flow patterns, called Nadis, which are responsible for maintaining all individual cellular activity. Stiffness of the body is due to blocked prana and a subsequent accumulation of toxins. When prana begins to flow, the toxins are removed from the system, ensuring the health of the whole body. As the body become easy to perform, and steadiness and grace of movement develop. When the quantum of prana is increased to a great degree, the body moves into certain postures by itself and asanas, mudras and pranayamas occur spontaneously.

What is the Relationship between Asana and Animal Postures?

Many of the yoga asana reflect the movements of animals. Through observation, the rishis understood how animals live in harmony with their environment and with their own bodies. They understood, through experience, the effects of a particular posture and how the hormonal secretions could be stimulated and controlled by it. For example, by imitating the rabbit in shashankasana (child’s pose) they could influence the flow of adrenaline responsible for the “fight or flight” mechanism. Through imitating animal postures, the rishis found they could maintain health and meet the challenges of nature for themselves.

What is Yoga Asana?

Asana means a state of being in which one can remain physically and mentally steady, calm, quiet and comfortable. In Raja yoga, asana refers to the sitting position, but in Hatha yoga it means something more. Asana are specific body positions which open the energy channels and psychic centers. They are tools to higher awareness and provide the stable foundation for our exploration of the body, breath, mind and beyond. The Hatha yogis also found that by developing control of the body through asana, the mind is also controlled. Therefore, the practice of asana is foremost in Hatha yoga.

What is the Relevance of Yoga Today?

Physical and mental cleansing and strengthening is one of yoga’s most important achievements. What makes it so powerful and effective is the fact that it works on the holistic principles of harmony and unification. According to medical scientists, yoga therapy is successful because of the balance created in the nervous and endocrine systems which directly influences all the other systems and organs of the body.

For most people today, yoga was simply a means of maintaining health and well-being in an increasingly stressful society. Asana do remove the physical discomfort accumulated during a day at the office sitting in a chair, hunched over a desk. Relaxation techniques help to maximize the effectiveness of ever-diminishing time off.

Also yoga provides a means for people to find their own way of connecting with their true selves. In this respect, yoga is far from simply being physical exercises. Therefore yoga does not mean twisting, standing your head or all of those impossible postures and also changing and giving up some of your normal ways of living. Non-vegetarians need not give up their food habits just because they have taken to yoga. Most people just want all of the stuff the ego like, a firm body and ways to show off for impressing people. But the real aim of yoga is an aid to establishing a new perception of what is real, what is necessary, and how to become established in a way of life which embraces both inner and outer realities. For attaining this, you need not give up any of your normal ways of living or doing those impossible postures.

The Eight-Fold Path

Sage Patanjali’s treatise on raja yoga, the Yoga Sutras, codified the first definitive, unified and comprehensive system of yoga. Often called the eight-fold path, it is comprised of:

1. Yama (self-restraints)
2. Niyama (self-observances)
3. Asana (yogic postures)
4. Pranayama (yogic breathing practices for the expansion of life force in the body)
5. Pratyahara (disassociation of consciousness from the outside environment)
6. Dharana ( concentration)
7. Dhayana (Meditation)
8. Samadhi ( Identification with pure consciousness)

Branches of Yoga



Meditation by Newsha



There are many branches of yoga:

· Raja Yoga (The system of yoga codified by Patanjali; the eight-fold path)

· Hatha Yoga (Ha stands for Surya (Sun) or Pingala nadi or vital energy (Prana). Tha stands for Chandra (Moon) or Ida or mental energy.Hatha yoga is meant to effect harmony between the discordant principles in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. If purity, peace, harmony and strength prevail in the nervous system, the psychic centres become awakened.)

· Jnana Yoga (The Yoga of wisdom; the branch of yoga that enables us to know what we are.)

· Karma Yoga (The path of action of selfless service.)

· Bhakti Yoga (The yoga of devotion, opens the heart.)

· Mantra Yoga (Combination of potent sounds which, when repeated, enables the practitioner to reach his goal; usually revealed to rishis in deep meditation.)

· Kundalini Yoga (Kundalini is the name of a sleeping dormant potential force in the human organism and it is situated at the root of the spinal columan.)

· Laya Yoga (is a shaivic system of practicing Yoga based on focusing the mind in specific ways on the chakras, and inducing Kundalini energy to arise.)

Each individual needs to find those yogas most suited to his/her particular personality and need. In the half of the twentieth century, Hatha yoga had become the most well known and widely practiced of the systems.

Introduction to Yoga

Advance Yoga
Headstand by Newsha

Yoga is the science of right living and, as such, is intended to be incorporated in daily life. It works on all aspects of the person: the physical, vital, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual.

The word yoga is of great significance. It is derived from the Sanskrit root Yuj (Unite). Yoga means union, identification. Identify with the joys and sorrows of everyone, extend your horizons, live above the pettiness of life. This unity or joining is described in spiritual terms as the union of the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness. On a more practical level, yoga is a means of balancing and harmonizing the body, mind and emotions. This is done through the practice of

·         Asana (yogic postures),

·         Pranayama (yogic breathing practices for the expansion of life force in the body),

·         Mudra (internal exercise for activating glands; a psychic attitude),

·         Bandha (internal flexions to control the involuntary muscles of the body and release psychic knots and prana),

·         Shatkarma (the six purificatory techniques of Hatha yoga)

·         Meditation

And must be achieved before union can take place with the higher reality. The science of yoga begins to work on the outermost aspect of the personality, the physical body, which for most people is a practical and familiar starting point. When imbalance is experienced at this level, the organs, muscles and nerves no longer function in harmony; rather they act in opposition to each other. For instance, the endocrine system might become irregular and the efficiency of the nervous system decrease to such an extent that a disease will manifest. Yoga aims at bringing the different bodily functions into perfect coordination so that they work for the good of the whole body.

From the physical body, yoga moves on to the mental and emotional levels. Many people suffer from phobias and neuroses as result of the stresses and interactions of everyday living. Yoga has a special role to play in the world of today. Its practice alone can remove mental and physical afflictions.

So yoga is “integration and harmony between thought, feeling and deed, or integration between head, heart and hand”. Through the practices of yoga, awareness develops of the interrelation between the emotional, mental and physical levels, and how a disturbance in any one of these affects the others. Gradually, this awareness leads to an understanding of the more subtle areas of existence.

 

Benefits of Yoga

Physical Body Benefits:

• Increase flexibility & strength
• Improves range of motion
• Improved digestion
• Speed up your metabolism
• Weight loss
• Increases circulation
• Improved posture
• Detoxify your body
• Optimal breathing
• Pain prevention
• Calm the nervous system
• Enhance your balance
• Reduced headaches and upper body tension
• Recover from injury and chronic pain
• Improve quality of sleep
• Promote relaxation

Mental Benefits:

• Increased ability to manage stress
• Improved focus and concentration
• Better memory
• More creativity

Emotional Benefits:

• Control of emotions
• Increased enjoyment of emotions
• Increased freedom of expression
• More peace of mind
• More feelings of empathy & love
• Increased self-confidence
• More energy and passion
• Enjoy life more

Spiritual Benefits:

• Connection with the purpose of life
• Open yourself the process of transformation
• Experiencing more joy
• Brightness of spirit
• Increased optimism
• Increased creativity

About Yoga

The word yoga means union- specifically a union between mind, body and emotions. Each person practices yoga for different reasons and realizes different benefits. Physical and mental cleansing and strengthening is one of yoga’s most important achievements.

We live in a time and in a city where stress manifests itself as physical tension in the body and varying degrees of pain, on a daily basis. For most people today, yoga was simply a means of maintaining health and well-being in an increasingly stressful society. Through yoga we can become more aware of the unconscious toll we take on ourselves, and begin to live a more strength, capable,  and more fulfilling life.

Also yoga provides a means for people to find their own way of connecting with their true selves. In this respect, yoga is far from simply being physical exercises. The time you spend on your mat is yours to communicate with your mind, body and emotions, to making harmony between thought, feeling and deed and having a better life.