Review > Why Everyone Needs to Have the Bihar Yoga App

There are plenty of yoga apps out there. Some are free while others come at a nominal cost. You can take your pick from guided yoga routines to detailed instructions for specific poses, relaxing meditations and even asana based workouts for weight loss, strength training, core building et al. But my affinity to the traditional teachings of the Bihar School of Yoga led me to their app: Bihar Yoga.

The seemingly simple interface includes a wealth of information in print as well as guided practices, chants and meditations. Most of the printed text is from the bestselling book Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha. Even if you possess the book it is just very convenient to have it on your phone/tab for a quick reference. But what I love most about the Bihar Yoga app are the guided practices of Satyananda Yoga Nidra and Meditation. These are crystal clear recordings in the voices of Swami Satyananda Saraswati and Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati. Available in English as well as Hindi I really think these are priceless!

Satyananda Yoga Nidra was devised by Swami Satyananda Saraswati as a deep relaxation technique. This simple practice has a profound transformative effect on practitioners, inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. Available in different variants for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced practitioners I would highly recommend everyone to take the time out to just lie back and follow the guided talk. Especially in today’s times when most lifestyle diseases stem from stress and inadequate sleep, Satyananda Yoga Nidra proves to be a very powerful antidote. Even if you feel that kicking back with a book or watching television with the family are relaxing activities, they are mere sensory distractions. In Yoga Nidra, the state of relaxation is reached by turning inwards, away from outer experiences.

For more details about this powerful technique you may buy the book, Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. But for now let me suffice by saying that enough research has gone into proving the therapeutic effects of sleep. Yet, unless you are free from muscular, mental and emotional tensions you can never truly relax. The practice of Yoga Nidra is the scientific method of removing these tensions. During the practice of Yoga Nidra, one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness, leading you to the state of dynamic sleep. It is thus a more efficient and effective form of psychic and physiological rest and rejuvenation than conventional sleep.

I could go on and on about the benefits of this fantastic practice, but I hope you are already inspired to experience its wonderful effects on yourself.

Healthy Practice > 7 Ways to Get Healthy in 2015

Here is a story that I wrote for Better Homes and Gardens, Jan'15 issue on simple ways to get healthy this year. Do give it a read and incorporate at least some of these easy-to-follow practices in your daily routine. 

Healthy Practice > Single Step Stress Buster

Someone once told me that according to her a sign of success is "being busy professionally as well as personally".  This statement does make sense to me in a way because given that you enjoy your work and the social company that you keep, plenty of involvement in both can be quite fulfilling. But no matter how much you enjoy all that you do, staying very busy comes with a downside.

Even if you perpetually choose activities that you enjoy, you're bound to get stressed if you don't take quiet time out for yourself. Even if you don't feel mentally stressed, over a period of time, the body starts accumulating stress physically. Being by yourself is when you can assimilate all your dissipating energy.

So, a single step stress buster is breathing. You've heard this plenty, I'm sure. Yet, how often do we remember to practice deep, diaphragmatic breathing? Of course, we all breathe, constantly. We wouldn't be alive if we didn't. But this is just a reminder to breathe fully. More often than not we take quick, shallow breaths, and also hold our breath without realising, when we are stressed out. An obvious physiological effect of that shows in the tension that we hold in our muscles. It could be the abdomen, the chest, neck and even our limbs. When you inhale deeply and exhale fully through your nostrils, squeezing your abdomen slightly on a full exhalation, you will feel the tension melting away. On repeated deep breaths you may possibly even realise the amount of tension you were holding on to.

While we can get aware of the tension in our muscles, it's difficult for us to tell on our own what this tension does to our internal organs and the circulatory system. We all know the effects of wearing tight clothes that constrict an easy blood and lymphatic circulation. Can you imagine the effects of holding on to tension internally, where we literally tighten our veins and arteries and the lymphatic and energy channels?

There are many types of pranayam to suit various conditions and body types. But I am talking about simple deep breathing. Deep breathing does not involve much technique or force. Like I mentioned above, just focus on exhaling completely and your inhalation will automatically become fuller. Do this a few times a day to feel rejuvenated, connect with your body, release tension and start realising what holding on to stress feels like. It's important to become aware of stress first before letting go of it.