Yoga Nidra

National Seminar on Yoga for Wellness in Life @ Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidy...

Keep on practicing the Self Management

Practice makes a man perfect is the version we use very commonly but understand it very ofteny. SelfManagement is not a easy play, it needs continuous practice. Yoga is a lifestyle which regulates ones Thought – pattern, Character, and Behavior and it reflects into our attitude, personality and Designs. It is a total science of strengthening and improving the physical, mental, and spiritual state of being.

If we define Health, it is also not only the absence of disease or infirmity it’s a state of complete Physical, Mental Spiritual and Social well-being. Health is very nicely defined in ancient Ayurvedic textSusrut Samhita in fifteenth chapter verses 41 as:--         

             Samdoshaḥ Samāgnischa Samdhātumalakriyaḥ /

           ;    Prassanātmāendriyamanaḥ Swastha Ityabhidhīyate//

Meaning - Only that person is healthy, whose doshas dhatumal and agni (the basic elements and functional energy streams as per one’s natural constitution) are balanced and free from all defects and disorders and whose mind and soul are in perfect harmony.

True health is a state of wholeness where all organ systems of the body function at optimum levels 100% of the time. Health is not simply the absence of Sickness. What is the true definition of Healthy Living? It sounds silly that we need to define Healthy Living. After all, we know what Healthy is and we also know what Living is.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. Interestingly enough, health is not simply defined as just the absence of disease. The actual definition of Healthy Living is the steps, actions and strategies one puts in place to achieve optimum health. Healthy Living is about taking responsibility and making smart health choices for today and for the future. Eating right, getting physically fit, emotional wellness, spiritual wellness and prevention are all apart of creating a healthy lifestyle. Since the entire YOU, meaning all aspects of one’s self, must work in harmony to achieve wellness, you need to put balanced energy into each aspect of yourself.

The body or Physical You requires good nutrition, appropriate weight, beneficial exercise, adequate rest and proper stress management. The mind or Emotional You needs self-supportive attitudes, positive thoughts and viewpoints and a positive self-image. You also need to give and receive forgiveness, love and compassion; you need to laugh and experience happiness; you need joyful relationships with yourself and others. The Spiritual You requires inner calmness, openness to your creativity, and trust in your inner knowing. And for some it requires having a relationship with a higher power.

We all know when the Physical You is out of balance. Our body tells us right away. We feel fatigue or catch a cold or maybe become chronically ill. But how do we know when the Emotional You or Spiritual You are out of balance?

Sit down and outline your definition of Healthy Living. List all your negative habits, the ones that contribute to your unhealthy lifestyle (i.e. smoking, excessive alcohol consumption). You may even want to consider your sexual habits and ask yourself if you are practicing unsafe sex. Then take the time to list your current health conditions. Taking the Wellness Quiz will help identify other significant areas that you need to include while outlining your definition of Healthy Living. Once you have all your information written down it’s time to create your Healthy Living Plan. Below is an outline adapted from the American Holistic Health Association. You may find this helpful in listing your goals.

Add as many goals as you need to this outline. Once you have completed your definition of Healthy Living and have turned that into a concrete plan, it’s time to prioritize. Pick a few of the goals that you feel are most important to your overall health and happiness and start with those. Don’t try to do them all at once that’s a sure fire way to fail! Start with 2-3 for a month and then add one per month until you have achieved all your goals. Achieving total health requires taking responsibility, making a commitment to yourself, creating a plan and then taking action. If you can follow these simple steps you will be on your way to living a healthier life.

Health is a natural facet of liveliness - both by definition and realization. The ancient Indians had attributed the secret of ”jivem shardah shatam” - hundred years of vigorous, healthy, happy and creative life - to the total harmony of the mode of living with the Nature and the spiritual inheritance of life. The yoga aims for healthy tuning of all the three bodies (physical, subtle and causal) of a person.

yogasthah kuru karmaani sangam tyaktvaa dhananjaya /

siddhyasiddhyoh samo bhuutvaa samatvam yoga ucyate//

Remaining steadfast in yoga, oh Dhananjaya (Arjuna), perform actions, abandoning attachment, remaining the same to success and failure alike. This evenness of mind is called yoga.  

Links - Yoga and Inter-disciplinary Research

International Journal of Yoga and Allied Sciences
 An Interdisciplinary Journal dedicated to Scientific and Literary Research in Yogic Science & Allied Subjects.
 IJOYAS, an internationally reputed Bi-annual research journal being published by Indian Association of Yoga, publishes original articles (research, scientific, review, conceptual, theoretical, popular etc.) research motes, books review, letters to the Editor, any research news, related to conference etc. from any corner of the world dealing with technical and professional aspects of Yoga and allied disciplines like Philosophy, Spirituality, Psychology, Human Consciousness, Medical, Paramedical sciences, Health sciences, Therapy, Education, Physical education, exercise and sports sciences, bio-mechanics, Literary /textual studies, Physiology, Biochemistry etc. The contributors are requested to send their valuable contribution from their chosen field of profession as mentioned above. 

Links - Yoga and Inter-disciplinary Research

Skill development through Self Management

Self Management Process:
People frequently ask what is this Self Management, why self management and How to do so...
It has been explained in previous posts that it is not so easy. There are several components of Self Management, some of them are radiated in the picture below:

Health Management, Thought Management, Time Management and Will-power Management are the primary components

Stress Management, Anger Management,Lifestyle Management Diet Management and other practical aspects are the secondary components of this process.

Management of self grows slowly and it develops the potentials and skills in life. What should be the next step in our life? Meditate for a while, Try to find out the objective and work hard to achieve that. It depends what we want to develop....... Strength grows when we dare, Unity grows when we cheer, Mission grows when we share... & Team grows when we care....

Meditation: A Self Management Technique

The Practice of Meditation is to open the inner eyes. Explaining what mediation is, it can be said that it is an art of observation and Guru is the one who teaches us to observe. Negativity is prevailing because the art of viewing (circumstances) has deteriorated. It is the time to change our outlook and our attitude to stay away from negativity. Giving an example, Gurudev Pandit Sri Ram Sharma Acharya wrote a book 'Mahakal aur Yug Pratyavartan Prakriya' in six days during the acute pain of Sciatic in his legs. This is idealism of doing the constructive work even in the most adverse situations. The path of spirituality is like walking on a double edged sword. All the great saints like Meera, Kabir, Ramkrishna Paramhans, Shri Arvind and Vivekananda has faced immense difficulties. Sacrifice is the key for walking on the path of spirituality and the biggest sacrifice is to lose self, our own existence, our own ego. Dhyan is a process where Guru gives a new eye. Because the physical eyes can see the circumstances around but the INNER eye is to watch within i.e. our emotions and our thoughts. If we want to tackle the circumstances around we need to see within as the solution for the source of the problems around. The biggest barriers for Dhyan is our past sanskar and our way of living. These conflicts within us can be destroyed by Guru. Maharshi Arvind calls human beings as 'Mental Animals' whose biological nature dominates the psychological nature. Untill the sanskars are cleansed, a person cannot change. All academic degrees have no value in front of the art of Dhyan. Dhyan is a process of cleansing sanskars. One can run away from everything in this world except his own mind. Dhyan lessens the weight of mind. Dhyan gives us an introduction to our own self. Dhyan is a process to fill our self with light. If we want to have a wider vision as compared with an average person and if we want to develop our emotional quotient,we must perform Dhyan. Dhyan (Meditation) is the only process to develop the divinity within

Self Management Technique (Yoga Nidra)

Yoga Nidra is one of the finest way to Self Management Yoga-Masters as well as Psychologists are using it now days as a Psycho-spiritual Technique of Healing. Ancient Indian scriptures are pregnant with the knowledge of self realization. Yoga Nidra may be one such technique at the same path. It is a complete practice of Yoga Sadhana. It can lead the aspirant at the stage of Samadhi. These days Yoga Nidra is practiced as a best-known technique to induce complete physical mental and emotional relaxation. Yoga Nidra is a state of consciousness, which is, neither sleep nor awaken, neither is it concentration nor hypnotism. It can be defined, as an altered state of consciousness.

For the practice of Yoga Nidra one should lie flat on his back and follow the spoken instruction of yoga instructor. It is convenient to use Yoga Nidra tape. During the practice there should be no movement by the practitioner, as well as he should try to remain awake and aware of every given instruction. In Yoga Nidra, it is not necessary to concentrate. One should just keep the mind moving from point to point and be aware of every experience. Yoga Nidra means sleep with a trace of awareness. Practice of Yoga Nidra in this study is the simplest method of relaxation which is being practiced in the flat lying position of shavasana and follows the spoken instruction of Yoga instructor. The practice includes the resolve, body part awareness, breath awareness and visualization.

Scientists are taking advantage of new technologies to see exactly what goes on inside the brains of Yoga nidra practitioners. The neuroscientists hypothesize that regular meditation actually alters the way the brain is wired, and that these changes could be at the heart of claims that meditation can improve health and well-being. But the rigors of the scientific method might never have been applied to studying the practice of Yoga Nidra.

Dr. Kamakhya Kumar in 2006 awarded by Ph. D. degree by Dr. A. P J Abdul Kalam (President of India) for his work "Psycho-physiological Changes as Related to Yoga Nidra". He observed six months effects of yoga nidra on some Physiological, hematological and some Psychological parameters on the practitioners and he found a significant change on above mentioned parameters.