The Yoga rules

By Robin Brain

As pointed out earlier this is actually a variety of Viparitakarani mudra. It is popularly called the head stand as in it one stands on the head, which is called 'shirsha' in Sanskrit. Sitting on the seat with the feet behind and knees in front, the head is lowered down. The fingers of both the hands are interlocked into each other, and keeping the elbows on the seat a comfortable distance apart, the head is placed on the seat supported from behind with the hands. Care should be taken to see that the top of the head and not the forehead touches the ground. This is essential because otherwise the neck would bend when the body is held inverted, which may cause undue pressures on the cervical vertebrae. After setting the head, hands and the elbows on the seat, the knees are brought as near the head as possible, making the back erect in an inverted position. The hips should be raised slowly. Now the knees are raised from the seat without any jerk, keeping the legs folded. This is. most important stage which must be mastered completely before proceeding further.

Balancing the weight of the body on the triangular base with the head at the apex, and keeping the legs still folded at the knees, the thighs are now raised slowly until they become perpendicular to the ground. When steadiness of balance is achieved at this stage, the legs may be stretched ultimately, so that 'the body stands erect on the head. Some persons try to learn the procedure with the help of a wall. But that is not necessary at all. If one proceeds stage by stage, not hurrying up impatiently to throw the legs up at once, the posture can be learned and kept steady in a short time. While coming to the starting position the legs should be folded first, then the thighs should be lowered, and ultimately the knees may be kept on the seat. It is not necessary to stand up and remain standing for some time after completing the posture as is advised by some yoga teachers.

Holding the body upside down helps the veins to carry blood to the heart by the force of gravity, and also helps to remove congestion from the limbs and abdomen. Circulation of blood in the head is promoted. Ordinarily a time of two minutes may be ideal for this pose. One should begin with ten to fifteen seconds and increase the time gradually.

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By Sherri Nickols

Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.

--B.K.S. Iyengar

When I was going thru the emotional rollercoaster of my divorce the number one thing that brought me peace and sanity, besides loving and supportive friends, was yoga. I found it helped me bring forth my feminine essence and true inner beauty.

Although I am in a much better place today I still rely on my practice to take out the trash in my mind and connect me with the purity of my soul.

My yoga guru, Govindas, explains the meaning of yoga to be the total balance of mind, body and spirit. Well no wonder this is the absolute best fix for a woman going thru any mind mania - especially divorce where you tend to feel like your life is spiraling out of control and you desperately need something to hang onto and anchor your spin-out.

The seven greatest benefits of yoga are as follows:

" Peace - getting into a quiet environment and staying present for the length of the class will guarantee a peaceful mind. Staying focused eclipses all negative thoughts. Thank the Lord!

" Connection - this is an opportunity to connect with your spirit and feel your power. Realizing your inner strength is very empowering.

" Balance - the aggressive thoughts and actions that come into play with divorce are masculine drivers. Yoga allows you to align with your feminine energy and let go of your masculine energy creating blissful balance.

" Strength - every pose requires physical strength, which in turn gives you emotional strength.

" Flexibility - many of the poses offer the opportunity to stretch and gain flexibility in your body - which again benefits your mind. If you carry rigid beliefs, or are hard on yourself, yoga seeks to awaken a far more gentle approach with yourself.

" Centeredness - dynamic breathing and its ability to bring mind, body and spirit into alignment is the #1 gift of a yoga practice.

" Clarity - all that focus and breathing clears out the garbage, freeing your mind of confusion. Set your intention to have clarity and you will have solutions to the problems that plagued you prior to your practice.

So if you find yourself in need of some mental cleansing and inner balancing get yourself to a mat today - don't wait to give yourself the gift of this discipline.

You are valuable. Honor yourself and start living fully in your true power now.

If you would like to learn more about yoga and balancing of mind, body and spirit please visit http://yogaempowersnow.com

And now I invite you to join our free community calls for more clarity, peace and happiness.
http://www.sherrinickols.com

Authored by Sherri Nickols - Inspirational Coach to separated and divorced women wishing to overcome adversity and build an exciting new life.

By Robin Brain

Human mind has ever been a thing of great concern to the philosophers, thinkers, and masters of yoga. Guided by the maxim "healthy mind in a healthy body", we have tried to show in the earlier chapters how yoga practices involving control of muscles and breath can help to make the mind healthy and peacefu1. In the present chapter we shall inquire into those yoga techniques which are useful in tackling the mind in a direct manner. A questions that we must answer at the outset would be why should the mind be made silent at all? An answer to this question is found in the Amritabindupanishad, where in it is said that, "the mind has two parts: one impure, the other pure. The impurities of the mind are made by desire and passion. Mind itself is thus the cause of bondage and liberation; it binds the individual when it is overtaken by desire for enjoyment, it makes for mukti when it becomes peaceful and silent". We shall first try to understand here the nature of mind according to yoga, before proceeding to see how it is made silent.

As explained by the great Shankaracharya (VivekaChudamani), the mind (which is known in Sanskrit as antahkarana) gets four different names according to its functions: it is called manas for the activity of resolving and doubting; buddhi, when it comes to a decision or judgment about anything; it derives the name asmita from the fact of consciousness of its own existence; and lastly, it comes to be known as chita by the event of remembering previous experience. It is customary to compare the mind to a river. Just as a river is nothing but a huge mass of innumerable drops of water, mind is a vast collection of thoughts and traces of past experience. Water is observed to flow always to a lower level; so, too the mind, which always gets attracted towards one or other object of enjoyment.

Traditionally it is believed by all the branches of Indian philosophy (except perhaps the solitary example of the Charvaka school of thought) that the mind of every individual is, at any time, full of traces of experience gathered in all the past lives through which one has passed. According to this belief, one's mind at the very moment of birth, may be looked upon as a vast river of samskaras gathered over countless past lives. Many samskaras out of that vast collection are supposed to be wiped out due to enjoyment of their fruits in the present birth, but many more are also being continually added throughout the present life, due to the various acts one does from birth till death. This is known as the law of karma, which states that the various events one comes across in the present life are the fruits of what one had done in past lives, and secondly, that the mind of an individual contains, at birth, the whole collection of past samskaras. It may be pointed out that science seems to disbelieve both these statements.

Whether the mind is full of traces of past experience at birth or not, it is true that the mind of most of us is ever engaged in activity that is the outcome of desire to be something or to obtain something. As explained in the Mahopanishad, "mind is always unstable, and it is almost impossible to get rid of the instability of the mind, because it is a quality as basic to the mind as is heat to fire. When the mind becomes devoid of this instability, it attains moksha." Our mind may be compared to a horse that is free to run wherever it likes. Like an uncontrolled horse, the mind of an individual always runs from one object of enjoyment to another. We find the mind to be continuously engaged in some kind of thought. Whenever it is not engaged in any event actually happening. it either remembers some past event or contemplates some future event. It is at very rare movements that the mind may be found to be still. We find a very lucid description of the mental activity of an individual in the Kathopanishad. It is said that, "the body is like a chariot of which intellect (buddhi) is the charioteer. Mind works like the reins; the senses are the horses, the objects of experience being their field of operation. The individual endowed with mind and senses is the enjoyer of all that happens. The senses act like bad horses out of control of the charioteer when the mind is not steady. When right knowledge is attained by steadying the mind, the senses act like good controlled horses. Such an individual reaches the other shore of samsara, that is the highest state."

Yoga philosophy recognizes five factors as being basic to the mental activity of an individual. These are called the five kleshas, because 'they are the root cause of human misery and sorrow. They are named respectively avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, and abhinivesha. Avidya means false knowledge or ignorance of one's own nature in relation to the objects of experience. Various schools of Indian philosophy are observed to have different views regarding what avidya means, but they all agree that it is a fundamental fact underlying human behavior. Asmita means the ego feeling. According to the yoga view, the soul is, in fact, completely different from the body. But due to avidya, it starts taking the body to be its own, or rather, it gets identified with the body, and thus gets affected with pleasure and pain. Asmita is thus an immediate consequence of avidya. The next three kleshas are also looked upon as consequences of avidya (e.g. see Yoga Sutra). Raga means liking for pleasurable experience, that is, the desire for enjoyment. Dvesha is the opposite of this, namely, aversion for pain. The last, klesha, indicates the desire to live, i.e. the fear of death.

Yoga philosophy thus tries to derive all human behavior from these five innate and universal tendencies. It is believed that these five basic tendencies are present in the mind of an individual right from the moment of birth. They are the motivating agents which guide the behavior of an individual in various situations. These five innate tendencies are looked upon as impurities of the mind. Their presence in the mind makes for unsteadiness and instability. The mind can, therefore, become steady and peaceful only when these impurities are completely washed away. There are two ways of making the mind clear of impurities, namely, Pranayama and Dhyana.

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By Karen Wheeler Hall

In 1996 Kerrie Hamner was shocked to learn that a harmless-looking mole on her left thigh was actually melanoma. After surgery to remove a large area around the melanoma, the doctor assured Kerrie that she was now cancer-free. But two years later, when she was just 25 years old, Kerrie learned that the cancer was back and had probably spread throughout her entire body. For the next three months, Kerrie underwent intensive bio-chemotherapy treatment that ultimately wiped out the cancer, but also left her physically debilitated.

But sometimes adversity brings with it the most incredible revelations. During the treatment Kerrie watched her body deteriorate, but inside her heart, mind and soul were growing and opening in leaps and bounds. Kerrie was being prepared to make what would be a life-changing discovery for her - yoga.

After her treatment ended, Kerrie took a yoga class and began practicing yoga at home. Still incredibly weak, Kerrie was only able to practice yoga for five minutes a day. But she stuck with it and gradually got stronger. Soon Kerrie was strong enough to take an Ashtanga class at Yoga Yoga in Austin, Texas, where she especially relished the after-class inspirational readings about the eternal nature of our souls. Kerrie continued her rapid progress and became an instructor at Yoga Yoga.

Kerrie credits yoga with bringing numerous benefits into her life, such as awareness and control of the breath, which helped her to control her state of mind and stay in the present moment. Yoga brought out Kerrie's innate strength and self-discipline, both mentally and physically, and helped to make her whole again. Yoga has been a tremendous healing light in Kerrie's life, one that she would never have found had it not been for the cancer.

Kerrie recently passed an important milestone - cancer-free for five years! She willingly shares her experiences with other cancer patients, offering healing words of hope and encouraging them to stay positive. Kerrie's inspiring story reminds us that devastating circumstances can actually be the catalyst for profound and positive changes in our lives.

ฉ Karen Wheeler Hall - All Rights Reserved

Read the full story of how Kerrie beat cancer and discovered yoga in Illumination - Inspiring Stories about Finding the Silver Lining by Karen Wheeler Hall, available from http://www.FindMoreJoy.com/ Download your copy of Karen's FREE eBook Positively Incredible! by visiting http://www.FindMoreJoy.com/

By Robin Brain

It is the experience of almost everyone of us that whenever we try to concentrate the mind on an object or an idea, the mind immediately starts wandering. It is very difficult to keep the mind steadily concerned about a single thought. This difficulty has been expressed even by such a superior disciple as Arjuna, even when there was such a highly capable guru as Lord Krishna to instruct him. After hearing carefully the description of yoga from the mouth of Lord Krishna (Gita), Arjuna had to confess that he could not understand it properly, because of the instability of his mind. He expressed that control of the mind was even more difficult than control of the wind. On this, Lord Krishna has said something which is important for everybody who wishes to bring the mind under control. Krishna declares in clear terms (Gita) that although there is no doubt that the mind is a very difficult,. cult thing to be brought under control, it can, nevertheless, be made silent and steady, by a two-pronged attack, that of vairagya and abhyasa. He does not fail to warn that yoga is impossible for those whose minds are not steady and controlled. Patanjali, the author of the Yoga Sutra, has also emphasized the importance of these two means for making the mind silent. We may say that these two qualities make the very essence of yoga. We shall, in the remaining pages, make a detailed study of these two. The former quality constitutes what we may call the behavioral aspects of yoga, the latter is concerned directly with steadying the. mind.

Mind usually is like a disturbed pond containing many impurities. For cleaning such a pond, we have first of all to stop the inflow of fresh impurities, and then to remove existing impurities. The mind has similarly to be tackled in two ways, and these are the ways of vairagya and abhyasa. Vairagya is the cessation of raga, and means an absence of the urge or longing for enjoyment. It indicates a complete lack of the tendency of mind to be swayed away by objects of experience. It means a total lack of ambition or desire for achievement.It is,however, a very rare quality.Our minds are usually overtaken by the process of desire-desire to attain success, to become Important, to have power, and soon. We usually get caught up easily in an endless circle of achievement and further achievement. Vairagya can dawn only upon a mind which has come to realize the futility of the process of desire and achievement. There are three techniques in yoga in terms of which the state of vairagya may be analysed. They are respectively called yama, niyama and ptatyahara. We shall describe these three aspects of vairagya in brief at this stage.

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