Pranayama - Basic breath understanding

Any practise towards pranayama has to begin with awareness of your breath. Deep abdominal breathing is the starting practise. Steps to do the practise
Lie down on your back with the knees bend, feet on the floor, knees together. Make sure your position is comfortable, the feet need not be together.
place your right palm on your belly button. left hand on the floor resting.
Now, pay attention to the way your abdomen is moving up and down with your breath. As you inhale, the abdomen rises, as you exhale if drops in towards the spine. If the reverse is true for you, start trying to follow this pattern. Be gentle, the body will learn soon.
Once you have connected with your breath, start to relax and deepen the breath. Slowly raise the abdomen to inhale and gently allow the abdomen to go towards the spine as you exhale. Do not bloat the stomach during inhaling or push it in while exhaling.
When this gets comfortable start doing equal inhaling and exhaling time. Count 1 to 4 for inhaling and same count for exhaling. Do 10 rounds of this.

Yogic tip

If you're headed to bed or want greater relaxation, try extending your exhalations by one second for every breath. So, for a four-second inhalation, exhale for five seconds. It will immediately help slow your heart rate.

The Power of Love

We are meant to have an amazing life. I cant tell you how much i am grateful to Rhonda Bryne. She has brought so much joy in my life through her wonderful books. The secret helped a lot, however its "The Power" that gels with me. It seems that I had forgotten how to feel deep, genuine love. I smile a lot but to feel it so intensely i have just rediscovered. So what am i sticky to now is
"Your job is to love as much as possible everyday"

Just believing & trying to live from this truth is wonderful. My viewpoint has changed.

Dhanurasana

Dhanurasana is one of my favorite poses. It creates a sense of openness & freedom. It is also a great indicator if my hip is aligned properly, since ive dealt with this issue for a long time.
One of my students develops headaches when she practises this asana. So first we avoided its practise. Then after a while i made her practise it & she had no problem. However, the headache returned. so i was all confused. Loving challenges being my nature, i went about investigating :) Well, several causes here
1. Extending the neck causes muscle tightness leading to lack of air supply to brain.
2. Fear from doing the asana causes tightness
3. Lumbar region of spine flattens out causing headaches.

It could be any or all of the above reasons. But one thing is for sure. whatever causes us trouble we are wary of it. This fear sticks to us. Its the same when some of us cant practise headstand after a fall. Or any other asana. And the only way to get out of this thinking is to breath deeply, calm the mind, with awareness try again. And again if you fail. But always respect the body signals & the boundaries it creates. The idea of yoga is to stretch these boundaries, but only with love, care & awareness. Provide the safe environment for any practise; failures or success then becomes a smaller thing. The openness to oneself is what builts trust within. Thats yoga. Love & trust yourself first.

Office yoga- simple things to relieve stress

Simple practices to bring awareness to body. This shows where we are holding tension. Any tightness indicates stress being held in that area. Try these
1. Neck stretches
2. Stretch fingers & then make fists.
3. Make fists of hands & rotate wrists clockwise & anti clockwise.
4. Point & flex toes.
5. Rotate ankles clockwise & anti clockwise

These can be done standing or sitting. In sitting keep your straight & relaxed.

These help circulate blood to the extremities. This allows energy to flow to them, away from thoughts that create tension. Relax & breath throughout the practise. Do each 10 times.

Pottery & yoga

Last week, on my visit to Noida, I stopped over Delhi to spend time at the Delhi Blue Pottery Trust. It was my first visit to a proper studio with baking kiln, glazing facilities & everything to do with expressing yourself through clay. I simply loved it. From the kick wheel, the director of the studio to the assistants around. It all seemed magical & i decided there & then to further my interest by learning professionally. Here in mumbai its more like fun pottery. But i want to do it all. Somewhere it overlaps with yoga. Its pure meditation.Im contemplating joining a school at manali or pondicherry. The problem is that the waiting period. And i just cant wait. Now it seems thats the life i want to live. Now.

Eye flu

Got the pink eye - conjunctivitis, so have been spending a lot of time in pain & asking myself what did i do to bring this on. Both equally draining activities. Thats when it hit me - perhaps its the Almighty's way of telling me to spend more time loving myself. I realise im highly self critical, as are so many of us. even when others appreciate, praise me im not really believing them or let myself enjoy that moment. well, then you can imagine how unlikely it is to appreciate myself.
So, canceling all work, I did what i do best- ca some asanas, some pranayama but meditatively. 4 asanas in 30 minutes, just the lying down ones. Anuloma viloma. Honestly, i felt i had a spa treatment done :) I actually felt lighter, definitely happier & very very peaceful.

Moral of the story - any physical disease is a call to spend time with yourself. Do what ever gives you joy - read, watch movies, sip tea ....... but listen to your inner voice , its talking to you, always