Healing with yoga: 7 stories of resilience and hope

  The quality of your life depends directly on the state of your mind. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if when life throws you curve balls, instead of getting bogged down with uncertainties and questions, you could bounce back fighting stronger than ever? Most of us do manage to do this, in varying degrees, almost every day, but sometimes, it seems like our minds are infested with those annoying “can’ts” and “won’ts” and “maybe not”s . So how can we learn to spend more of our time thinking, “Yes, we can!”? Yoga has a unique approach to the state of doubt. Doubt is just a lack of prana – the vital life force or energy. We gain prana from four sources – food, sleep, breath and  meditation . So yogis, who are very smart doubt-busters, include plenty of these sources in their lives. When you start to sense a slight negative attitude in your thoughts, just get up and do something to increase your prana! It takes some practice to catch oneself before a negative train of thou...

Pregnancy is one of the most beautiful experiences gifted to a woman. Yet this nine-month journey brings with it a variety of changes and emotions to juggle with. Yoga can help you cope with this journey, making it smooth and enjoyable! As is evident in the case of Meghana Bragta, yoga enthusiast and first-time mother, as a would-be-mother she was better able to accept the changes during the nine months. She shares, "Sahaj Samadhi meditation helped me a lot, especially in the last trimester. It helped me accept my body and all the changes happening. Nadi Shodhan Pranayama (Alternate Nostril Breathing) helped me relax and handle anxiety. I would practice Butterfly Pose and in the latter half of the pregnancy, when my feet would swell due to water retention, I practiced some yoga postures lying on my back." Like Meghana, you can use yoga and meditation as effective guides for your journey. Here are a few quick yoga tips on how you can include yoga in your other 'must-dos...

Diabetes – a name that is no longer foreign. These days, this condition can happen to anybody, irrespective of age, place, or genetic history. Yet, there’s nothing to fret about because the condition can be controlled with a little awareness and care. Good food, regular exercise, and a few minutes of yoga practice everyday – the three golden rules to remember if you are a diabetic. But how to first find out whether you do have diabetes or not? Simple. Just look out for these common symptoms: Are you unusually losing weight? Do you need to pay frequent visits to the bathroom to urinate? Do you feel hungry or thirsty too often? If the answer to these is ‘yes’, it is quite likely that you have high blood sugar, either due to low production of insulin in the body, or lack of response from the blood cells to the insulin produced. In either case, it’s always good to consult a doctor at the earliest. Diabetes can be classified as Type 1 or type 2 or it can even be gestational - occurrin...

  Kartik, 30, is a software engineer by profession and a photographer by hobby. His average week comprises a 45-50-hour work schedule. Although a fitness enthusiast, his hectic schedule leaves very little time for him to keep his body in shape. Due to the long hours spent in front of the computer, bare-minimum breaks, and stressful deadlines, Kartik is now a victim of backache, fatigue, and constipation. At an age where one is expected to work dedicatedly, we often end up compromising our health. While many people would agree that a good fitness regime helps keep such risks at bay, it may just not be good enough. Choosing and following a good and healthy diet should also be taken into account. Irrespective of how hectic one’s life is, we can minimize the risks by selecting the right food. But is choosing the right food enough? The answer is a resounding no. Along with the right food, we must also learn good eating habits. While there are no set guidelines to follow, here are a few ...

  Adho Mukha Svanasana Asana (Downward Facing Dog ) Yoga Pose Adho – Forward; Mukha – Face; Svana - Dog The asana is  pronounced as A-doh MOO-kah shvah-NAS-anna Adho mukha svanasana posture  replicates a dog bending forward , hence the name  downward facing dog pose. This asana  can be practiced by any beginner  too and with all its benefits, one should include it as a part of  daily yoga practice. 6 Easy steps to do perfect Downward Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) Come onto your fours. Form a table such that your back forms the table top and your hands and feet form the legs of the table. As you breath out lift the hips up, straightening the knees and elbows, form an inverted V-shape with the body.  Hands are shoulder width apart, feet are hip width apart and parallel to each other. Toes point straight ahead. Press your hands into the ground. Widen through the shoulder blades. Keep the neck lengthened by touching the ears to the ...

  It is a few minutes past 5 a.m., the beginning of my daily yoga practice. My right leg is lunging forward, the right foot pointing to the front. My left leg is placed straight and solid behind me. I breathe in and raise my arms, stretching them slowly out toward both sides. I look over my right hand, all of its fingers stretching themselves in one line away from my right shoulder. This is Virabhadrasana, or the Warrior II yoga pose. I feel good. Bounding into the Yoga Pose A relationship is like a yoga posture. Getting into a relationship, everything is rosy bliss. The stars glitter in one another’s eyes. You feel like the glorious hero of an action movie who has just saved the world from a great enemy. Sunlight is like the beloved’s warm embrace, rain is liquid happiness. There is a story to Virabhadra’s yoga pose. As told in the Mahabharata, the great Hindu spiritual epic, Lord Shiva’s beloved, Shakti, happened to be the daughter of his enemy, Daksha. Shakti’s father openly ref...

  Are there days when you want to pull your hair apart, grind your teeth, and tighten your fist? Well, tighten your fist more. In fact, tighten your whole body. Breathe out, squeeze your stomach in, frown and purse your lips together. And now, let go with a 'haa' sound. What did you enjoy more? Did you enjoy keeping the fist closed or letting go? The above is one of many Sukshma Yoga (subtle yoga) techniques. The differentiating quality of these yoga for  relaxation techniques  is that they are simple, short and subtle. And you can also do them on days when you don't feel like pulling your hair. "This is one of the fastest ways to relax yourself," says Pallavi Joshi, a regular practitioner of  Sukshma Yoga . "You can do it anytime and anywhere - sitting at home, at your workstation or while travelling in a car, bus or as  airplane yoga ", says another Sukshma Yoga lover. Sukshma Yoga takes no time or preparation. These little exercises open up subtle ene...

Mountains, tumbling into headstands, suddenly converting into speeding cycles. Bridges collapsing into roaring lions, cocooned caterpillars turning into beautiful butterfly. These amazing pictures are nothing but scenes from any normal household. Watch a child and you will know! The natural postures of a child are yoga asanas. It is what the body is capable of – simple regular yoga asanas, and they are part of a child’s body language from the minute s/he is born. An infant instinctively does most of the yoga mudras (hand postures maintained during meditation). If you observe a sleeping child, its thumb and the index finger slightly touch, to form the ‘Chinmudra.' Have you seen a six-month- old baby lying on its back with its legs up? It kicks its legs and sometimes pushes his/ her head up, practicing abdominal exercises without any expensive machine to help. Bhujangasana or cobra posture is their favorite, and when they are six months, they get into the pose without any prompting. ...

  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – this is a phrase we all have heard growing up. While the essence of this phrase was to emphasize on having a fine balance between working and enjoying your life, some might feel otherwise. For a select few, playing is all that there is to life. They can literally eat, drink, pray and sleep sports. Amongst this fine class of sports enthusiasts, a new breed has sprouted in the past decade or so. The couch is their arena, the headphones their headgear, and game controllers their accessories. Unless you’ve been living under the rock, there is a fair chance that you’ve come across the new age gamers who love spending hours in front of a TV or computer, and join clans across the globe with complete strangers, to wander off on dangerous quests. Well, the list is pretty much endless. Game On! Video games and online gaming is immensely engaging, entertaining and almost surreal at times. Whether you love playing FIFA on your PlayStation or God o...