Exams at the end of August for 4 lectures in preliminary course. Everyone is expected to get more than 60 - 70 %. Three fourth objective type question including Yes/No, fill in the blanks, true/false. Questions expected are:
What is Prana Dharana (which one do you perform? Pratham)
What is differential relaxation
Application of Differential Relaxation and Pranadharna (Sthir-sukhama asanam. Prayatna-saithilyanta-samapattibhyam.) Why is Differential relaxation and Prarnadharna required?
What is Yoga
What is the difference between exercise and yogic practice (Stress on natural breathing, heart is sustaining your action in exercise)
What are adhar asans (Swastik asan, vajra asan, padma asan)
Swashan Marg Shuddhi is a preparatory kriya for kapal bharti kriya. Kriyas are the cleansing processes. When you sit in an Asan, your back is straight but not as a stick but is "S" shaped, that is, it is naturally curved.
Pavan mukta asan is used to remove air from the intestine so that pranayam can be practiced properly.
In chakra asan, we start by bending to the left because the stretch should be on the right side.
Aadhar = support
Monday, August 8, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Yoga and exercise - A comparison.
29th July 2011. Friday- Day 3- Shreedhar Parab (1943 born, age 69 years!).
S. Parab starts by saying yoga is an applied science; just like swimming for example, inferring that it needs PRACTICE. Patanjali Yog text was written 200 years before Christ! In his text, he had not defined ANY asanas! He described yoga as "Sthira, sukham ananta-samapattivia prayatna-shaitilya" Parab says "Be Sajag (aware), be conscious for being effortless. He says prayatna-shaitilya means to minimize your efforts. Technique used to facilitate this is by "conscious differential relaxation". This is "its USP" he jokes!
For example, if you are not using your left leg, why contract it?! Relax all the muscles that are NOT in use. This is consciously done by differential relaxation.
Doing within limitation and not competing!
Whenever you compete, you can make out by observing your chest/breath. As soon as you are out of an asan, if your chest bounces or if you hold your breath or if you take a "sigh", it indicates that you were exeeding your limits. Remind yourself - AC = According to capacity, AC= Avoid competition. Sajagta, Sahajta and Samarsatha (total involvement).
This is where Yoga differs from an exercise. Slow/normal breathing is required in Yoga to slow down the Asana (into anata). If any asan is dependent on stopping or altering your breath, it will not seem into anata, beyond border, frame, or limit. In an exercise, exhaling while contracting and inhaling while inflation would be desirable to increase the quantity of exercise and to streamline it into a rhythm. That will assist you in creating a better, healthier body. Yoga is use of your body to limit your thoughts.
Ultimate purpose of yogic practice is NOT flexibility, exercise or good health! It is Spiritual attainment. We begin with contouring our body and then we count our breath. By doing so we reduce the space available for our fickle mind. This is useful for extending the asana into ananta. Whenever your breathing is fast, your mind follows it. In general the mind follows your breathing. Breathing and the Mind are strongly connected. Conversely, in Yoga all the actions slow paced. Slow action helps you to breath normally and hence steady's your mind. When you are into an asan, you are asked to count your breath. You can focus on anything but it is observed that if you just count numbers without focusing or associating each breath with the number, you tend to hold your breath and try to exceed your limitation. With a number in your mind, you will treat Yoga as a target and when you find that you are not able to achieve what you set out for, you would hold your breath and count faster. Then you would come out of the asan in a hurry and SIGH!
Note: While doing Uttana Vakrasan, while performing the twist, we tend to be aware of our back and are cautious. This is because when we are doing this for the first time, we doubt our capacity. Backache patients would need to be fully aware, breath normally and relax.
Words learnt today-
Purva = Prior or preparatory
Ardh = Half
Shalabh = Locust
Uttan = Lying on one's back
Samarstha = Total involvement,
Anatomy learned today-
Vertebrae- 33.
7 vertebrae in the cervical region, (C1 to C7)
12 Thoracic vertebrae,
5 Lumbar vertebrae (L1, L2, L3 L4 AND L5)
followed by Sacrum and coccyx.
S. Parab starts by saying yoga is an applied science; just like swimming for example, inferring that it needs PRACTICE. Patanjali Yog text was written 200 years before Christ! In his text, he had not defined ANY asanas! He described yoga as "Sthira, sukham ananta-samapattivia prayatna-shaitilya" Parab says "Be Sajag (aware), be conscious for being effortless. He says prayatna-shaitilya means to minimize your efforts. Technique used to facilitate this is by "conscious differential relaxation". This is "its USP" he jokes!
For example, if you are not using your left leg, why contract it?! Relax all the muscles that are NOT in use. This is consciously done by differential relaxation.
Doing within limitation and not competing!
Whenever you compete, you can make out by observing your chest/breath. As soon as you are out of an asan, if your chest bounces or if you hold your breath or if you take a "sigh", it indicates that you were exeeding your limits. Remind yourself - AC = According to capacity, AC= Avoid competition. Sajagta, Sahajta and Samarsatha (total involvement).
This is where Yoga differs from an exercise. Slow/normal breathing is required in Yoga to slow down the Asana (into anata). If any asan is dependent on stopping or altering your breath, it will not seem into anata, beyond border, frame, or limit. In an exercise, exhaling while contracting and inhaling while inflation would be desirable to increase the quantity of exercise and to streamline it into a rhythm. That will assist you in creating a better, healthier body. Yoga is use of your body to limit your thoughts.
Ultimate purpose of yogic practice is NOT flexibility, exercise or good health! It is Spiritual attainment. We begin with contouring our body and then we count our breath. By doing so we reduce the space available for our fickle mind. This is useful for extending the asana into ananta. Whenever your breathing is fast, your mind follows it. In general the mind follows your breathing. Breathing and the Mind are strongly connected. Conversely, in Yoga all the actions slow paced. Slow action helps you to breath normally and hence steady's your mind. When you are into an asan, you are asked to count your breath. You can focus on anything but it is observed that if you just count numbers without focusing or associating each breath with the number, you tend to hold your breath and try to exceed your limitation. With a number in your mind, you will treat Yoga as a target and when you find that you are not able to achieve what you set out for, you would hold your breath and count faster. Then you would come out of the asan in a hurry and SIGH!
Note: While doing Uttana Vakrasan, while performing the twist, we tend to be aware of our back and are cautious. This is because when we are doing this for the first time, we doubt our capacity. Backache patients would need to be fully aware, breath normally and relax.
Words learnt today-
Purva = Prior or preparatory
Ardh = Half
Shalabh = Locust
Uttan = Lying on one's back
Samarstha = Total involvement,
Anatomy learned today-
Vertebrae- 33.
7 vertebrae in the cervical region, (C1 to C7)
12 Thoracic vertebrae,
5 Lumbar vertebrae (L1, L2, L3 L4 AND L5)
followed by Sacrum and coccyx.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Day 2 (Wednesday 27th July 2011)- 85th Birthday of Sadashiv Nimbalkar
According to Nibalkar, Yoga is Philosophy, a science and art. He says he is interested in the Art aspect of it. He adds the word "darshan" which according to him, means philosophy. He quotes "Sthir Sukham Aasanam; aasan should derive comfort, should be pleasurable to the mind. (Sthir- stable).
Trainer from Dadar Yog Vidya Niketan talked about the earliest Yoga scripture consisting of just 153 sutras. These could be written on a small book of no more than 10 pages! Very early in the scripture, a sutra reads, "Yog Chitta Vriti Nirodhaya" Chitta means the mind and Vriti means thought. Yoga rids the mind of its thought. I wonder, the fact that Yoga had been pursued as a way to rid the mind of its constant chatter infers that our society thousands of years back, was reeling with similar issues of mental fatigue and burn outs. So much so that thinkers and philosophers were experimenting with various breathing and yogic technique to deal with such issues. Maybe people were more stressed back then because of the esoteric nature of knowledge. Knowledge was much harder to transfer and far few people had access to it. A common man must have faced death on a more regular basis than now. Though the past is often romanticized it doesn't take too long to realize people were suffering at that time too; maybe more hence so many thinkers sought ways/tricks to overcome such issues.
The teacher talked about the three steps of an asan: going into, maintaining and coming out. He talked about the need of Prana dharana. He said "If you do not engage your mind, it will wander". Engaging your mind on your breath is prana dharana. He also stressed the importance of using only those muscles that are directly involved in a particular asan. Also, ideally, less effort should be required to attain a posture. "Prayatnam Shaya.ti.liya Ananta Sama.pita.bhayam". Prayatnam- effort, shayatilya= relax, anant = infinite. Differential relaxation helps in achieving it.
Trainer from Dadar Yog Vidya Niketan talked about the earliest Yoga scripture consisting of just 153 sutras. These could be written on a small book of no more than 10 pages! Very early in the scripture, a sutra reads, "Yog Chitta Vriti Nirodhaya" Chitta means the mind and Vriti means thought. Yoga rids the mind of its thought. I wonder, the fact that Yoga had been pursued as a way to rid the mind of its constant chatter infers that our society thousands of years back, was reeling with similar issues of mental fatigue and burn outs. So much so that thinkers and philosophers were experimenting with various breathing and yogic technique to deal with such issues. Maybe people were more stressed back then because of the esoteric nature of knowledge. Knowledge was much harder to transfer and far few people had access to it. A common man must have faced death on a more regular basis than now. Though the past is often romanticized it doesn't take too long to realize people were suffering at that time too; maybe more hence so many thinkers sought ways/tricks to overcome such issues.
The teacher talked about the three steps of an asan: going into, maintaining and coming out. He talked about the need of Prana dharana. He said "If you do not engage your mind, it will wander". Engaging your mind on your breath is prana dharana. He also stressed the importance of using only those muscles that are directly involved in a particular asan. Also, ideally, less effort should be required to attain a posture. "Prayatnam Shaya.ti.liya Ananta Sama.pita.bhayam". Prayatnam- effort, shayatilya= relax, anant = infinite. Differential relaxation helps in achieving it.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
First Sunday: The Beginning.
Nothing much to write about. Prospectus/course structure discussed. Liked one quote by Mrs Bela. She talked about "Within limitation". I think she was referring to (one) meaning of "Yoga/Yogya". Read about a similar thing in Harry's book "Younger Next Year" in which they talk about the qualities of a good Yoga instructor.
Sabir shaikh talked about his perspective of Yoga. He thinks of it as "Integration of personalities" ; integration at physical, mental and social level. At the end of the lecture he talked about the 3 misconception of Yoga namely Yoga being a part of religion (adding that its a religion in itself), Yoga is for Yogic people and Females shouldn't practice Yoga.
In exams a candidate would be judged by how pleasurably he does his Yog. Slackening is another quality preferred which can be enhanced by differential relaxation.
Sabir shaikh talked about his perspective of Yoga. He thinks of it as "Integration of personalities" ; integration at physical, mental and social level. At the end of the lecture he talked about the 3 misconception of Yoga namely Yoga being a part of religion (adding that its a religion in itself), Yoga is for Yogic people and Females shouldn't practice Yoga.
In exams a candidate would be judged by how pleasurably he does his Yog. Slackening is another quality preferred which can be enhanced by differential relaxation.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Inauguration- 35 th Diploma in Yogic Education.
Venue Yoga Bhavan Vashi 6 PM. 22nd July 2011.
Years after learning yoga in Anushakti Nagar, and completing the preliminary summer course, today was my first evening at the inauguration of the 35th Diploma in Yogic Education. After more than a decade in the field of IT, I had never given any thought of making health and fitness a full fledged career! The idea is still as crazy to me as to any future reader! Telling anyone that one works for TCS 'India's largest software company' and then to start saying that you are learning to be a Yoga instructor still brings a very separate chain of thought in people's mind. What shall I say of others when I myself have had a certain preconceived notion about who an IT guy from infy or TCS is and what the credentials of a "yoga instructor" are! Starting this Yoga course is a huge leap of faith and I don't mind falling on my face. I feel I am far more lucky than my parents generation who would have never dared such extravagance!
Just yesterday I had made an entry in Wikipedia about rakesh jhunjhunwala. He is a self made billionaire but I was shocked to know that he is just over 50. There are two kinds of people in this world- one who would read "I was shocked to know that he is just over 50" and presume that I am talking about how successful he is in amassing such a wealth in such an young age! And then there are others who have seen this man on TV and wondered how could a man become so unhealthy in just 50 years! I wonder how much his billion dollar will help him in dealing with his body every moment of his life. I can understand that we live in a time when many would say "I don't mind being unhealthy just give me that billion dollars"! There is nothing wrong in either chain of thoughts, its a matter of preference. I prefer a slow paced, easy going relaxed life and he loves his action packed, highly stressful but enjoyable, high risk day in the stock market. This blog is for people who wouldn't mind cutting down on their life style to live a more healthy, relaxed, and peaceful life. Others can click here.
Years after learning yoga in Anushakti Nagar, and completing the preliminary summer course, today was my first evening at the inauguration of the 35th Diploma in Yogic Education. After more than a decade in the field of IT, I had never given any thought of making health and fitness a full fledged career! The idea is still as crazy to me as to any future reader! Telling anyone that one works for TCS 'India's largest software company' and then to start saying that you are learning to be a Yoga instructor still brings a very separate chain of thought in people's mind. What shall I say of others when I myself have had a certain preconceived notion about who an IT guy from infy or TCS is and what the credentials of a "yoga instructor" are! Starting this Yoga course is a huge leap of faith and I don't mind falling on my face. I feel I am far more lucky than my parents generation who would have never dared such extravagance!
Just yesterday I had made an entry in Wikipedia about rakesh jhunjhunwala. He is a self made billionaire but I was shocked to know that he is just over 50. There are two kinds of people in this world- one who would read "I was shocked to know that he is just over 50" and presume that I am talking about how successful he is in amassing such a wealth in such an young age! And then there are others who have seen this man on TV and wondered how could a man become so unhealthy in just 50 years! I wonder how much his billion dollar will help him in dealing with his body every moment of his life. I can understand that we live in a time when many would say "I don't mind being unhealthy just give me that billion dollars"! There is nothing wrong in either chain of thoughts, its a matter of preference. I prefer a slow paced, easy going relaxed life and he loves his action packed, highly stressful but enjoyable, high risk day in the stock market. This blog is for people who wouldn't mind cutting down on their life style to live a more healthy, relaxed, and peaceful life. Others can click here.
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