Updated on: 25/11/2021
Fear is simply because you are not living with life, you are living in your mind. Your fear is mostly about whatís going to happen tomorrow. That means your fear is
always about that which does not exist. And if your fear is about the non-existent, your fear is 100% imaginary. And this is termed as insanity.
Fear can be one of the biggest inner roadblocks in your spiritual path, if not treated correctly. When you run from fear and take false refuge, you miss being in the very place where genuine healing and peace are possible. So if you want to eliminate your fears you need to first learn to work with them. You should first move into your fears and try to explore its various layers of your body and mind.
The best way to explore your fears is through Meditation. It is a journey through the
layers of your psyche. As you move deeper, you’ll travel past the fairly superficial level of your conscious mindówith its mental chatter, problem-solving tendencies,
and the like. You’ll also encounter your subconscious, with its insights, feelings of blissfulness, waves of irritation, volcanic pits of anger, or swamps of sadness.
Sadness is interconnected with your fears. Whenever you think about anything that makes you afraid or fearful, you are bound to become sad the very next moment.
When you are fearful, you will not have a sense of abandon. You canít sing, you can’t dance, you can’t laugh, you can’t cry, you can’t do anything that is life. You can only
sit here and grieve about life and all the risks of life. Hence, it is really important to abandon and overcome your fears.
By following these five steps, you can mindfully befriend and conquer your fears on and off your Yoga Mat.
1. Identify your Fears
The preliminary step to overcome your fear is to identify it, and even write it down. While noting them down, also note your physical reactions to them. Unravel the roots of your fears and discover exactly what you are afraid of!
Writing dissipates your fears and anxiety by itself.
2. Evaluate and Analyse
Once you have a list of your fears and the things that trigger them,
contemplate and evaluate each one. Check and analyze whether the fear is irrational, or justifiable. Also, think if you can overcome the fear with your current abilities and the effort which would be required to pacify it.
3. Create a plan and Visualize success. Once you have assessed the fear which you are willing to conquer, next is to prepare a plan on how to skillfully and consciously make progress on overcoming it. Visualizing yourself doing the steps in your plan will prepare and train your body and mind for success.
4. Strengthen your Yoga practice
Through this process of conquering your fears, keep your yoga and meditation practice strong to maintain calm, focused and centered mind. Practicing Yoga
regularly will build an inner strength and will help you follow your plan to face your fears.
Pay attention to your breath and practice breathing exercises and meditation to keep you focused, calm and sorted.
5. Take Action
The last step in this process is to take an action just face your fear! If you follow the above steps, you will feel that your fears have begun to diminish.
Remember to take things slow, honor your feelings, and conjure up your bravery, willpower and confidence.
Once you master fear on your Yoga Mat you can then take these same
techniques to conquer fear, worry and anxiety in the world around you.
Source: https://yogascape.uk/exile-fear-with-yoga/
admin
Posted on May 26, 2021
The benefits of Yoga are well known to everyone who has ever tried the discipline but if you are new to Yoga let me recap. Yoga is a fantastically popular and effective way of strengthening you physically as well as mentally and spiritually. This last ‘spiritual’ aspect may turn some people off, but it’s not something that needs to be associated with religion. Really the best alternate word for the spiritual strength of Yoga is contentment or happiness. It allows you to be a calmer person and more happy with yourself. Put like that it sounds pretty great doesn’t it?
So you’ve probably heard a little about Yoga and wondered what it’s all about. you probably have a few preconceptions and maybe an image of an old man with a long beard sitting in the lotus position springs into your head in automatic association with the word. Let’s go through step by step what you can expect in a typical Yoga session.
The Introduction and Preparation
Most Yoga classes begin in a standing position. There are both mental and physical reasons for this and they are closely connected. The standing position is the most natural Human position there is. Leonardo Da Vinci produced a famous scientific picture of the symmetry of the human body when it is in it’s natural standing position. The outstretched arms and legs can have a perfect circle drawn around them and this is true of everyone regardless of their height or weight. What this means is that a standing pose comes naturally to us – we are not worried about getting it wrong and we can concentrate of the state of the body. Breathing exercises will be a key part of the warm up stage for your routine. This is the only time in your life you will be ‘taught’ to breath and it’s a skill which allows people to restore calm to their bodies and thoughts.
The Main Routine
This is the art of your Yoga session which will vary the greatest depending on what forms of Yoga you are learning. While the individual exercises you will be doing are going to be quite different, the nature of them will be very similar. This will mean moving into certain poses and positions and holding those poses to allow the body to stretch out muscles and muscle groups that in many cases haven’t been given much attention during the week. Some Yoga teachers will talk to you about energy points of chakra’s. These are important junctions in your body where congestion occurs and stretching them out allows energy to flow freely around your body.
Ending the Session
While the main session is about releasing pent up energies, this stage of your Yoga workout is all about allowing that energy to flow around your body. Many people have trouble with thinking about some strange mystic force that is flowing through you and driving it to certain parts of your body. If you are one of them just mentally substitute the word ‘energy’ with the word ‘blood’. We know that the job of blood is to carry nutrients and oxygen around our body, and we know that if any part of our body is lacking in this supply that we will become ill, so it’s not a huge stretch to think of blood as the mystic energy force that brings health around our body, and exercises such as Yoga as being the method of ensuring the smooth and successful flow of that blood.
Source: https://yogascape.uk/
admin
Posted on May 23, 2021
Classical yoga has developed over time to include many different styles for a range of situations, needs and preferences. However the majority of Yoga styles still fall neatly into either the therapeutic or the meditative category. Both categories have many hundreds of different Asanas,(poses or positions) and all of these are designed to benefit both the body and the mind.
Yoga takes the five ‘prayer’ positions and uses a corresponding yoga position to activate the seven chakras in the body. A Chakra is a type of energy field or is sometimes thought as a key position in the flow of energy throughout our body. Each different type of Yoga and each different Yoga position will have a different chakra as it’s core emphasis. All of these positions, which we tend to think of nowadays in Western Yoga as exercises, were in fact originally the preparation for the Yogi to enter a state of meditation.
The actual positions or poses of Yoga are known as Asanas and they may seem complicated or difficult to a new Yoga student. It’s important not to forget that all of the basic positions of Yoga are designed to improve the bodies strength and flexibility, and as these characteristics are improved it also makes the positions more comfortable and easier to settle into. The deep stretching that is the basis of most Yoga positions is beneficial for trauma disorders, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow amongst others.
Before you begin you may find it beneficial to attain a basic knowledge of the philosophy and theory behind Yoga, however this is not a requirement or essential to your success. It does assist with being comfortable settling into and performing the poses associated with Yoga, and it should be remembered that if you cannot do this then you will probably not benefit from Yoga.
There is a common misconception about Yoga that it is only for the tremendously flexible who can contort themselves into weird and wonderful positions. Chanting is often also associated with a Yoga class in people’s preconceptions. Neither of these ideas is true. The Yoga positions are generally quite easy to get into but they do have several different depths in many cases. This means that a completely beginner can move into a position and still benefit from it at a great level after many years of Yoga. There are some advanced positions that a beginner should probably not bother themselves with. Just as you are not going to compete with top marathon runners on your first day jogging, but can still get benefits, you are also not going to be able to ease into some of the positions that an instructor is capable of. Likewise if you are pregnant or perhaps have an injury such as a bad back you should inform your Yoga instructor before you begin. There are some positions that can actually be detrimental to certain conditions. Twist exercises with a recurring back injury is one of these.
Yoga is something that is most beneficial in a comfortable environment, as the muscles will stretch better when they are still warm. It’s important to learn the discipline to enter and leave each new pose or position slowly. Not only does this help avoiding injury but also the movement from one pose to another is often part of the program. Don’t hold the poses and positions longer than is natural for you either. As you become more used to practicing the Yoga positions each day the benefits will allow you to hold a position with more ease for longer periods of time.
When practised correctly the benefits of Yoga are many. Lubrications of the joints, ligaments and the tendons will result directly from performing the exercises best suited to you. Posture will increase dramatically and you will also experience a sense of wellbeing. There is also a deeper spiritual level to Yoga (it actually has it’s own philosophy and code of ethics) that you will move closer towards and enhance each time you stretch and go through the breathing exercises.
Yoga Asanas: What You Need to Know
Yoga asanas, known as postures in English, are one of the major limbs of the classical form of yoga. It is simply a series of postures that are deemed to be so easy and comfortable to perform. However, the yoga asanas are not only executed simply by doing this and that. There is a deeper sense of balancing that involves in the movement, and that has something to do with the mind. Yes, each of the yoga asanas reflects a mental behavior recognized by the yogis as the behavior of the surrender and the act of amplifying the will. Not only that, the yoga asanas are also said to be potent for revitalizing the organs, the spine and the glands of the entire body.
Asanas and Their Names
The yoga asanas are typically recognized by its unique names. Some of them are patterned from animal names, like the cobra and fish posture. Well, one explanation for these derivatives is that the early yogis have devised the postures while observing the way the animals act in the wild. For instance, the yogis have noted that when the animals are sick they have the tendency to stretch their muscles in a number of different postures.
The yoga asanas are also named according to the human physiology and anatomy. They created the names by knowing exactly how the different positions might affect the systems in the body. For instance, the shoulder-stand pose can trigger the blood to flow to the thyroid gland.
The yogis who developed the asanas names are indeed smart enough to associate the human postures with everything about the nature and the systems of the body. Perhaps it is for their knowledge that the yoga asanas are proven to do wonders not only to the human body, but generally to health.
How the Yoga Asanas Work
The asanas generally work following certain principles of yoga. The first known principle to which the postures are patterned from has something to do with the use of gravity. The second is associated with the organ massage, while the remaining three are for stretching the ligaments and muscles in the body, for concentration and deep breathing. All of these principles are highly shown through the postures, and all are deemed beneficial for developing general wellbeing.
It is worth noting that all of the yoga asanas are highly considered as an important element of yoga. The yoga wouldn’t be called as such without the asanas. Simply put, it is the fundamental aspect of this ancient, yet continually growing practice.
Source: https://yogascape.uk/yoga-poses-and-asanas/