Balancing Work And Life With Yoga

After a surge of interest during the consciousness-conscious 60's, yoga began to fall out of favor. Exercisers apparently lost patience with the activity, which offers slow but steady results, and turned to the fast pace and quick shape-up of aerobics.

Now yoga is back-less mystical than in the past, less reminiscent of gurus in pretzel positions, and more attractive than ever to people who are interested in working out rather than working toward some spiritual goal.

Once you step out of the metaphysical atmosphere, yoga is a great stretch and flexibility program. Yoga is increasingly being used by those who are having a trouble in balancing their work and personal life.

A stressful working environment and a hectic schedule has a telling impact on the personal lives of the modern day executives and so they are turning to yoga to bring about a peace of their mind and to adopt a perfect work-life balance.

Also, many disgruntled runners, weight trainers and aerobic dancers complain that instead of reducing the stress in their lives, their exercise regimes add more.

People rush to work out every day at lunch, force themselves to keep up and then rushed back to work. Surely, it does something good for them, but it is just another pressure. Yoga is less competitive, less stressful, and above all gives a wonderful feeling of being.

Indeed, the healing aspect of yoga is a key to its renewed popularity. The strained knees, aching backs and neck pains generated by the push for fitness and the stress of making it in a competitive world have inspired a packaged set of a book and audio cassettes. Some orthopedic surgeons, chiropractors and neurologists are now referring patients to specific yogis during treatment.

Growing interest in the mind-body connection is fueling a major comeback of the ancient practice, boosted by research suggesting it can reduce stress and blood pressure, improve work performance, even slow effects of aging.

Several techniques are now being taught in mainstream hospitals and businesses; books about them are brisk sellers and discussion groups have sprung up on the Internet. Even the Army is interested - it has asked the National Academy of Sciences to study meditation and other new age techniques that might enhance soldiers' performance.

Details differ, but a common theme is relaxing the body while keeping the mind alert and focused on an object, sound, breath or body movement. If the mind wanders and it always does you gently bring it back and start again

Stress-related problems account for 60 percent to 90percent of U.S. doctor visits, and mind-body approaches often are more effective, and cost-effective, than drugs or surgery.

For example, 34percent of infertile patients get pregnant within six months, 70percent of insomniacs become regular sleepers and doctor visits for pain are reduced 36percent.

Truths About How Yoga Meditation Can Help You

A headache suffered is an offshoot of the bottled-up anger while maintaining a guise of happiness on the surface. A Bad Case of ulcers perhaps signifies a person has allowed himself to be steered into an executive job he detests instead of adhering to a financially inferior profitable one, which is the more rewarding job he used to dreamed about.

Ever wondered about those obscure anxieties, insomnia, unexpected tiredness most people go through. Or, why get that usual inability to complete the projects you start, or just to get cracking at all, since you just can't appear to get over a deep-rooted condemnation of inevitably failing, to which everything you do will never be potentially better or successful?

You hold to, beyond any doubt, realized yourself as one or some other of these self portrayal. Likewise, to recognize very well the only diagnosis is it's all in the mind. Same applies for a cardinal number of people faltering on the way to mortal happiness.

Eventually, to give rise to change is the same as attempting to elevate yourself past your own ego effigy. The actual trouble evades you. It is on this degree that a lot of people set out to regard psychiatric help. This is for a fair price of around twenty bucks a fifty-minute time of day session.

And all the same it constitutes a truth which you alone can influence paradigm shift in your attitude and cure any corporal manifestations of negativism. This awful energy remains in the core of your being once you don't confront them.

But rather delay your problems drawn-out enough to bury them in the subconscious deflecting disarrays. First of all, you essentially need to identify the real issues that consumes you to find out how you were able to reached a distorted self image. Succeeding you have to resolve, even as you do it with professional assistance, as you begin to pinpoint your troubles solutions seem to surface straightaway.

You must discover to dwell on the more constructive light of affairs concerning reality. When you assimilate achieving a benevolent self cognition you will sense you intercept scrambling your brains on matters which you can't control. An innermost sense of tranquility will supersede meaningless agitation. The motivation to fortify complex mechanisms as for camouflaging resentment and denial shall slowly disappear leaving you liberated to direct your aspirations positively.

At once, you are capable to readily visualize why genuine Meditation, the sort learned from Yoga, compels the preceding disciplines which will exclusively be conditioned by using Deep Concentration method. Simply when you are capable to stick on any single thought lengthy enough to analyze its every aspect and not advance to some other depicted object until you are prepared to manage sincerely by your personal will, you sustain sufficient willpower to go forward.

In reality Meditation embodies less rigorous than concentration itself. Inward Meditation, besides staying on earnestly on a single charge, you are absolve to allow thoughts course through your psyche all the time. Provided they are relevant to the primary issue in you life.

Naturally, appropriate to hold back from straying into purposeless time consuming daydreaming or even detached connection of thoughts The Yogi sets to commence, in concentration, through purposely centering the awareness on a specific, frequently a section of the physical structure.

Therefore the common, crudely vulgarized by the Western idea of Meditation in Yoga as the effigy of a adult male wearing a turban posturing cross-legged in reflection of his bellybutton. Zilch of such characterization, goes without unfortunately saying, dismissed what real meditation is in truth.

Wait Now – Have Few Minutes Read On

Ina Mirx is 68, looks 35, and can do things with her body that a 16-year-old farm hand can't do, but she wasn't always fit-as-a-fiddle.

At the age of 30, while pregnant, she was forced to jump from the third story of a burning hotel. She landed on concrete, fractured her spine and pelvis, broke several ribs and lost her child.

Over the next 10 years Marx tried nearly every kind of regimen to rescue herself from this state. Nothing worked, and she eventually reached such desperation that she attempted suicide, twice. Then she discovered yoga her salvation.

With new confidence and a new lease on life, she began teaching yoga and has also written two books, ''Yoga and Common Sense'' and ''Fitness for the Unfit.''

With her special yoga program, she combines the physical aspects of Hatha Yoga with Raja Yoga, the meditative side.

Her method is specially designed to reach out to all those who have been left in the dust of the high-energy, high-impact state of modern fitness programs, and those who need to relax and unwind in a short amount of time to relieve a lot of stress quickly.

What's more, the best thing about Marx's form of yoga is that a few stretches a day, for a few minutes a day at home or in the office can lead couch potatoes and grouches to a very bright light at the end of the tunnel.

Yoga Advice For Beginners

As you now know (if you didn’t know it when you started reading, that is!), yoga is a very interesting and ancient approach of uniting the body and the mind. It has proven health benefits, including emotional and physical improvements.

The chances therefore are, if you’re on the verge of starting a yoga program (perhaps at a local center or you’ve purchased a video or DVD and want to try it at home), you’re excited, optimistic, and anxious to get going!

Yet it’s wise to note that, before going into yoga practice, you should ask yourself some important questions. These questions don’t have a right or wrong answer.

They are merely meant to stimulate your own thoughts and give you the mindset that you need in order to succeed as a student of yoga for the long term.

Here are the basic questions that you should ask before starting any yoga program:

* what are my reasons for starting a yoga program? Are they realistic?

* If my yoga program involves some degree of physical strain, such as certain postures in hatha yoga, have I received medical clearance from a qualified and certified health professional to ensure that I don’t injure myself?

* Are my goals for pursuing a yoga program (or programs) clear and positive? Do I know what I want to achieve?

* Am I prepared to commit the time necessary to really get the most of out of my yoga experience?

* Are there people around me who might negatively try and talk me out (or mock me out) of pursuing this path of personal development? Should I either avoid such people, or ask them to respect what I’m choosing to do?

Please note that these are just basic questions; and this isn’t an exhaustive list. The point here is really that you should be clear and confident about your choice of experiencing yoga.

Yoga: Supporting A Healthy Lifestyle

There is some very interesting psychology behind this that students of western thinkers (e.g. Freud, Jung, Fromm, etc.) will find familiar and, indeed, quite rational.

When an individual decides to be happy, something within that person activates; a kind of will or awareness emerges. This awareness begins to observe the jungle of negative thoughts that are swimming constantly through the mind.

Rather than attacking each of these thoughts – because that would be an unending struggle! yoga simply advises the individual to watch that struggle; and through that watching, the stress will diminish (because it becomes exposed and thus unfed by the unconscious, unobserving mind!).

At the same time, as an individual begins to reduce their level of internal negativity, subsequent external negative behaviors begin to fall of their own accord; habits such as excessive drinking, emotional overeating, and engaging in behaviors that, ultimately, lead to unhappiness and suffering.

With this being said, it would be an overstatement to imply that practicing yoga is the easy way to, say, quit smoking, or to start exercising regularly. If that were the case, yoga would be ideal!

Yoga simply says that, based on rational and scientific cause and effect relationships that have been observed for centuries, that when a person begins to feel good inside, they naturally tend to behave in ways that enhance and promote this feeling of inner wellness.

As such, while smoking (for example) is an addiction and the body will react to the lessening of addictive ingredients such as tar and tobacco (just to name two of many!), yoga will help the process. It will help provide the individual with the strength and logic that they need in order to discover that smoking actually doesn’t make them feel good.

In fact, once they start observing how they feel, they’ll notice without doubt that instead of feeling good, smoking actually makes one feel quite bad inside; it’s harder to breathe, for one.

Now, this isn’t an anti-smoking blog, and if you’ve struggled with quitting smoking then please don’t be offended by any of this; there is no attempt here at all to imply that quitting smoking is easy, or just a matter of willpower.

Scientists have proven that there is a true physical addiction that is in place, alongside an emotional addiction that can be just as strong; perhaps even stronger.

Why Is Yoga Beneficial?

As I’ve repeatedly pointed out in this blog (and probably started to bore you with; sorry!), yoga is not a religion. It can be religious if one wants it to be, and it can co-exist with an existing religious belief. But yoga itself is not religious in the sense that it focuses on belief or faith.

Yoga is a science; and indeed, in many places in the world (such as India), it is referred to as a science. This is not mere playing with words; it truly is approached as a science, which means that it is understood in terms of the scientific method.

Yogic science seeks to verify cause and effect, and build principles based upon objective observations. Indeed, in many places in the world, to be a yogic master of any credibility, one must be highly educated in the sciences, including physics and the biological sciences.

This discussion on yoga as science is important for us to have here, because it allows us to sensible ask the question: what are the benefits of yoga? After all, if yoga is a faith or a belief, then asking this question isn’t fair; because it’s one that yoga cannot answer in terms that we can objectively understand.

Yet (again sorry!) yoga is a science; as empirical and pragmatic as kinesiology, or exercise science, which seeks to understand how the body acts and reacts to changes in the internal physical environment. And even more simply than any of this: each of us has a right to ask the basic question why should I bother doing this yoga thing? Before we should be asked to consider experiencing it for ourselves.

Indeed, while the experience of yoga cannot be reduced to words just as reading a book on preparing for a marathon isn’t going to actually physically prepare you to run a marathon the goals and principles of yoga can easily be discussed.

Yoga Builds Your Physical Health

Yoga does not see a distinction between the body and the mind; and this is an understanding that western psychology has also concluded for many years now (the link between mental health and physical health, and vice versa).

If you’ve come to this post looking to understand yoga as a means to help your body heal or improve, then please don’t worry; you’ve come to the right place!

Yoga is indeed a process that involves releasing blocked tension and energy in the body, and helping make the muscles, tendons, joints, ligaments, and all other components work to their utmost potential.

Yoga believes that human beings are optimally designed, by nature, to be flexible and agile; and stiffness and lack of mobility only arrive when the body is unhealthy or out of alignment.

Therefore, countless people have found themselves in a yoga class, or on a yoga mat at home in front of a Yoga video or DVD, in the hopes of improving their physical health; and perhaps you may be one of them. If that’s the case, then keep reading!

There are proven physical benefits of yoga, which include:

• increased flexibility and range of motion
• reduced pain in joints and muscles
• stronger immune system
• stronger lung capacity and therefore higher quality respiration
• increased metabolism (which can lead to weight loss!)
• higher quality of sleep (especially due to improved breathing and a more oxygenated body)

Given that certain yoga practices require postures to be mastered, yoga has always helped promote the body’s flexibility; it also helps in lubricating the joints, ligaments and tendons. Yoga detoxifies by increasing the flow of blood to various parts of the body. It helps tone and invigorate muscles that have grown flaccid and weak.

So please do keep in mind that, while yoga is often discussed in terms of its mental approach, there are clear and proven physical benefits that are a part of this approach.

Therefore, if weight loss is your goal, or the ability to shovel the snow in winter without having your back ache for days, then yoga is as viable an option to you as it is for the stressed-out corporate executive who needs to find a strategy for coping with the craziness if her busy life!