MyLifeYoga

Yoga beginners face a bewildering array of choices. This article provides “Five Golden Rules” that beginners can use as a guide:

1. No pressure

Most of us have an action oriented and goal oriented mindset. We want results. We set mental targets to achieve some level of competence by certain date. With yoga you have to leave all this behind you. The only “push” you need is the one that gets you on the yoga mat. After that nothing else matters. Yoga is non-competitive and it does not matter if the person next to you is an “Olympic level” yoga practitioner. It is fine if you are practicing yoga for 10 years and you are at the same level as you started. Everyone progresses at their own pace.

2. No pain

While practicing yoga you should not experience any sharp pain. In the initial stages you may find that there may be some mild soreness that may result due to yoga. But this should not in any way hamper your daily activities. Sharp pain is a clear signal that either you are doing the posture wrong or you are pushing yourself beyond your current capabilities. Serious injuries may result and you want to quickly back off. Too much soreness or swelling is also an indication that something is wrong.
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Ronnie Cahana suffered a severe stroke that left him with locked-in syndrome: completely paralyzed except for his eyes. While this might shatter a normal person’s mental state, Cahana found peace in “dimming down the external chatter,” and “fell in love with life and body anew.” In a somber, emotional talk, his daughter Kitra shares her father’s spiritual experience.

Luckily we do not have to suffer a severe stroke like what Ronnie underwent to replicate his spiritual experience. All we have to do is still our mind and withdraw ourselves from external stimuli. This is achieved in meditation. The practice of yoga postures and breathing exercises also help improve our meditative experience.

You may also like: Yoga Has Rewired My Brain!

Yoga is supposed to have great benefits. But what exactly are they? This article provides a quick summary:

1. Great hamstring stretch
I spend more than 90% of my waking hours seated in various chairs. Apparently this is the norm for increasing number of people. However the downside of this luxury is that the seated posture causes our hamstrings to tighten. Eventually this can cause pelvic misalignment that can then cascade to lower back and knee issues. This can also make us prone to injuries and lead to development of a poor posture. One great way to counter this is to practice Yoga regularly. Yoga has great postures that allow us to stretch our hamstring muscles.

2. Back strengthener
Most of us have notoriously weak backs. This is the result of doing much less physical labor than our forefathers. This makes us prone to back injuries and also leads to chronic back pain. A healthy back and spine are key to a productive life and millions are deprived of this. Yoga is one of the best known ways to strengthen your back and spine and it is known to help people with chronic back pain.

3. Improved posture
Posture is a great predictor for both longevity and success. Working most of the day in front of monitors gets us all hunched up and our posture suffers. If we are not careful about how we sit, this too causes a slow but sure degeneration in our posture. Unfortunately posture correction is notoriously difficult to achieve by conventional means. One great way to do it is by practicing yoga regularly. It may take time but yoga counteracts the slow downward spiral of our posture and eventually it can cause noticeable improvements in it.
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