YOGA AND ME

How will you get started?

To begin with, relax and make yourself comfortable.

There are several parameters you should keep in mind before you start practicing yoga to obtain optimum results.

Time: The ideal time for practicing yoga is early in the morning. It is preferred to keep the stomach empty. In fact, you are advised to keep a gap of about two hours before having breakfast or meals and after Yoga.
 A maximum time period of 30 min. should be enough in the beginning for the complete session of yoga. Later on you can add another 15 min. for techniques like pranayama and end it with meditation to completely calm the mind and spirit.

Place: Selection of place is a very crucial factor in starting your yoga practice. Yoga is not merely a set of exercises. Rather it is a practice wherein all our endocrine glands are stimulated, thus calming our mind. Therefore a quite and airy place is preferred or else an open place like a garden with lots of fresh air is quite helpful.

Clothes: Try to wear clothes that will not hamper your movements and are not too tight or binding. This will aid you in learning and concentrating on your asana.
Over and above these, there are things like how much time you can devote to a particular asana, when to inhale and exhale, and synchronization of the asanas, that is, which asanas should be performed back to back in a sequence. All the above parameters vary accordingly, corresponding to various asanas.

Some Important Points to remember gefore starting a Yoga Session :

• Yoga should be under the guidance of a Teacher
• A warmup should be helpful before starting it.
• Chanting a Mantra before and after the session is beneficial.

I am giving you the method of some of the basic asanas a beginner can start with, for your perusal:

Learn and Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!

Prasritta Padottanasana: ( Wide Stance Forward Fold)

Take a standing position on your mat. Keep your feet wide apart and put your hands on your hips. Inhale deeply and stretch yourself up. Exhale and bend down from your hips and look behind. Put both your hands on the floor between your legs with your elbows pointing behind you. This is the simple Wide Stance Forward Fold Pose – Prasrita Padottanasana.

 Rotated version
 Now put your right hand on your right hip. Exhale and stretch it up towards the ceiling. Take care that there is no bend in the arm from the elbow and the fingers are pointing straight towards the ceiling. Turn your head to look up at the fingers of your raised arm. Slowly bring your hand to the original position on the floor and repeat the same pose for the left side for an equal amount of time. 

 Common for both
After doing the pose on the left side, slowly unwind and return both the hands once again to the floor and slowly straighten up to your original standing position.

Utthita Parsakonasana (Extended Side Angle Pose)

  

Stand with your feet 2 – 3 feet apart and exhale. Lift your arms so that they are parallel to the ground. Turn your left foot slightly towards the right side and twist your right foot at an angle of 90 degrees. Inhale and extend your left hand above your head in such a way that it touched your left ear and the palm faces the ground. Got it? Now make sure that both the hand and the leg are combined and appear as a tight slanting line. Turn your head to look at your left hand. Maintain this stance for a few seconds. Now bend your right knee in such a way that the leg from the knee down is perpendicular to the floor, whereas the thigh is parallel to it. Take care to align your knee with the centre of your foot. Along with bending the leg, touch your right hand to your right ankle in such a way that it touches the outer side of your knee. Stay in this pose for approximately 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stretch as much as possible and then return to the standing position and relax. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for the left side also and complete the asana.

 Malasana (Garland Pose)

Take a standing position with your feet wide apart and your hands by your sides. Now exhale and squat down on the ground and open out your thighs.. See that they are spread wide beyond your feet. If your heals lift up in the beginning, then put a folded towel to support them and help press down. To facilitate even further, the toes can be rotated by 45 degrees outside so that your hips can come even closer to the ground. Now move your body foreword so that it fits between both your knees. Now move your hands in a loop joining the palms into a ‘namaskar’ or salutation. Press your inner thighs to your torso and lenghthen your spine. Hold onto this position for 30 sec. to 1 min. But, take care not to overdo it. Inhale and return your knees to normal position and then slowly come to your original standing position. 

Twist, Turn and Squat to Detox, Relax and Release!!

Practicing yoga ultimately leads you to do long phases of meditation. The Garland Pose-Malasana is one such hip opening asana which prepares you to be seated in a meditation pose for a long time without getting aches and pain. Release tension and garland your life with peace and joy!!