The Yoga rules

By Jennie Gandhi

If one is an average person coping with average problems, here is what one is doubtlessly up against: The day is too short. One has to rush to work in the morning and double back home at night, fighting one's way through crowds and traffic snarls. Bills must be paid, expenses budgeted, meals cooked, chores taken care of after hours - the spouse and children bring their problems; the house-hold absorbs all of one's energy; family life makes endless demands on one's emotional and physical resources.

The same holds true for the work-world: In the course of any single day one is up against a dozens of unforeseen complications - there are delays, disappointments, errors, misunderstandings, irritations and similar minor crisis. And then if ever a major crisis looms. All at once one feels driven beyond one's capacity.

And all this amounts to Stress...

Different people have different ways of responding to all the stress. Some panic, others lose their temper or become paralyzed. The physiological reactions vary too, but chances are they will manifest themselves in symptoms such as headache, insomnia, backache, nervous ticks, hives, stomach upsets, etc.

Keeping the tensions up, letting them begin to feel insoluble; and the body protests by escaping into psychogenic illnesses- illnesses that are very real indeed, but whose causes are mental rather than strictly physical. Next come the perpetual frowns, the wrinkles, the greying hair; a general sense of defeat and of growing, old before one's time.

Yet none of this mystery is inevitable, if one only makes up their mind not to let it get an insidious hold of them. That's where the practice of Yoga can be of such enormous help. Consider yoga to be a tool that will help banish fear, and the fear of fear. Think of it as a key to spiritual freedom. Yoga and stress relief go hand-in-hand.

As for the spiritual and mental results of Yoga practice, these soon become manifest in a fresh ability to make the most of ones inner resources. While one's powers of relaxation increases, there follows improvement in concentration.

Once one learns to live without stress, one discovers his own optimum potential and is on the way to live up to it. One's relationship with others will grow more harmonious and satisfying too.

You can check in for details on stress management and learn some good communication skills or find out some good inspirational quotations on our website.