MyLifeYoga

Researchers at Harvard Medical School looked at how yoga may help those suffering from Insomnia. In this small study of 20 participants researchers recruited those suffering from Insomnia. These included those who suffered from both primary insomnia and secondary insomnia. In case of a primary insomnia patient sleeplessness develops on its own. In case of secondary insomnia patient sleeplessness is a result of some other illness. Researchers asked participants to maintain a sleep journal for two weeks. Participants recorded the following in their journals:

Total sleep time
Time it took to fall asleep
Total wake time after sleep onset
Sleep efficiency.

After two weeks participants were given a single yoga class. They were then asked to continue with the yoga practice for another 8 weeks on their own and asked to continue maintaining their sleep journal. Participants were allowed brief in person follow-ups or follow up by phone. When the journal for the 8-week period following the yoga class was compared to the journal for the two-week period prior to the yoga class, researchers found statistically significant improvement in all sleep measures.

A more recent study that recruited postmenopausal women aged 50 to 65 who suffered from insomnia found a similar result. The study found that the reduction in insomnia for the group that did yoga was significantly higher than that those who did simple stretching or those who had no intervention.

There have been similar other small studies all with the same result: Yoga seems to help those who suffer from Insomnia.

Sleep is a critical component of our wellbeing. Lack of proper sleep has been linked to obesity and weight gain. Inadequate amount of sleep has also been linked to a shortened life span. It is therefore important to pay attention to the quality of our sleep and use tools like yoga to improve it.

Related:
Seven Sleep Surprises
Waking Up To Sleep’s Role In Weight Gain

Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah. This has been inspired by this article.

The pursuit of nothingness is a radical transformation of the way we think and behave. It is a transformation bought out by strict discipline that leads to more freedom and creativity. The pursuit of nothingness happens when we resolve to stop feeding the ego. This frees up huge stores of trapped energy that allows us to do more than we ever thought possible. But changing our behavior so radically is not easy and usually does not happen overnight. This short video lays down a path on how to get there. This is definitely worth watching and sharing!

Related: The Choice Is Ours

This is a story of a couple that went to watch a movie. The movie was good and enjoyable but there was somebody in the back seat constantly making a rustling sound with his paper bag of popcorn. Somehow this prevented the couple from getting fully engrossed in the movie and enjoying it fully.

This story is a metaphor for our lives. In our case the problem is different. We get too engrossed in the “movie of our life”, so much so that we forget that it is only a movie and the show will end one day. What we need in fact is somebody in the back seat making a gentle rustling sound to remind us of this.

There are some who have suggested that the shock of grief and the pain of suffering in our life plays this role. It is equivalent to the rustling sound in the back seat that reminds us to keep ourselves separate from the movie and not get too engrossed in it.

But why get so engrossed in the movie that an on-screen tragedy causes us to shed real tears? Why get so intoxicated in the movie experience that we forget who we really are? A better way to remind us of our true identity is yoga. Yoga can be equivalent to the rustling noise coming from the back seat that allows us to keep our distance from on-screen happenings. Yoga can allow us to remove our attachment from the ego and its drama. It can allow us to focus our energy in being who we really are.

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Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah. The metaphor of the rustling paper was something that was first evoked either by the sage Ramana Maharishi or one of his prominent followers.