Yoga Practitioners are Missing Out on using Yoga to enhance Mental Health
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word Yoga? For most yoga practitioners, the first thing that comes to the mind when we utter the word Yoga is Asanas or a series of practices to still the body and slow down the mind. They are powerful, but we are dumbing…
5 Daily Yoga Practices For Better Mental Health in 2023
Key Points Mental health crisis on the rise The importance of sound mental health is now increasingly becoming a part of the popular narrative. Google search trends will reveal a steady rise in searches for Mental health over the last 5 years. There’s almost an 87% growth in searches around mental health on Google in…
Pranayama is critical before beginning Yoga Asanas
A lot of us don’t get the sequence of Yoga right or are trying out Yoga poses based on YouTube videos. In my experience, Yoga asanas are meant to be done and learned under the guidance of a trained professional or instructor. Otherwise, you can get the sequence wrong. Before any Yoga sequence, it’s important…
Does Yoga Actually Help You De-Stress? Here’s What Science Says
The main goal of Yoga is not about a fit body. The main goal of Yoga is to still the changing states of mind. Most of the modern Yoga practices that we see today have originated in some form or the other from the classical school of Yoga. The foundational text of this school is…
3 Simple Breathing Exercises To Calm Your Mind For Beginners in Yoga
One of the key things for beginners is to get regular with a Yoga practice. As a beginner, I struggled to be consistent with my Yoga practice. One of the things that helped me stay regular is taking a few steps, a few asanas at a time. We all tend to have busy schedules and…
A Simple Breathing Exercise For Calming Your Mind
There are several breathing techniques and exercises prescribed by multiple Yoga and meditation Practitioners. If you are new to the practice or want a quick way to calm your mind, here’s a simple breathing technique that helps me. Before you begin this simple breathing exercise make sure to be in a noise free environment with…
Concentration: Its Practice – Swami Vivekananda
The practice of concentration is the second part in Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga and a continuation of the first part, which describes the spiritual uses of concentration. The first part has the first 51 sutras of Patanjali where the uses of concentration have been described. The second part discussed below has the next 55 sutras…
Pranayama Exercises and Rising of Kundalini – Swami Vivekananda
The exercises in Pranayama have been detailed out in the chapter titled The Control Of The Psychic Prana in the book Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. We have seen that the first step, according to the Yogis, is to control the motion of the lungs. What we want to do is to feel the finer…
Prana – Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda
Pranayama is not, as many think, something about breath; breath indeed has very little to do with it, if anything. Breathing is only one of the many exercises through which we get to the real Pranayama. Pranayama means the control of Prana. Akasha According to the philosophers of India, the whole universe is composed of…
Raja Yoga First Steps by Swami Vivekananda
Raja-Yoga is divided into eight steps. The first is Yama — non – killing, truthfulness, non – stealing, continence, and non – receiving of any gifts. Next is Niyama — cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self – surrender to God. Then comes Asana, or posture; Pranayama, or control of Prana; Pratyahara, or restraint of the…
