Decompressing the spine

Find a table or a bed in your home or office that is higher off the floor than the height of your torso. Then lay face down on the edge of the bed or table so that the tops of your thighs are supported while your entire torso hangs to the floor. Relax your back, your arms, and your neck. Allow your body to go completely limp. Breathe deeply and remain for several minutes. When you emerge, you'll feel taller and less tense in your spine. You feel more energetic due to the rush of blood in your torso and head.

This technique is very useful for people who have to sit or stand for long hours. Excessive sitting creates a compression in the back which aggravates the already stressful conditions. People with blood pressure and vertigo should exercise caution while doing this (remain for lesser time).

ps: not good with paint brush, have tried to explain. hope you all understand.

Two monks and a lady

Once 2 monks were traveling together on pilgrimage by a route that took them across many rivers & villages. One day when they were walking on the bank of a river, they came across a beautiful young girl. She was distressed as she wanted to cross the river & didn't know how.

"We are unable to help you", said the first monk keeping his eyes downcast & kept walking. The second monk stopped and asked "do you know how to swim?". "No sir", said the lady. "Then you must lean on my back & I’ll carry you across", offered the monk. After putting the girl on the other side, the monks continued towards the temple upstream where they planned to stay overnight.

That night, unable to restrain himself, the first monk asked, "how could you carry that girl over the water on your back, we monks don’t go near females, especially young & lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you carry that girl?? Why did you do such a thing?" The monk simply looked at his companion, "I dropped her 10 hours ago on the other side of the river but you are still carrying her!!"

Moral - Learn to practice detachment, letting go. In life, when we have small quarrels, tiffs with various people, we don't forget. (At least we can't complain of having a bad memory :-)). But can't we be objective and look at things in a broader perspective?

The Bible of Yoga

This book is a must buy for yoga teachers and serious practitioners of yoga. It is a very humble looking book and comes nowhere close to the beautiful, colourful yoga books with glossy pictures, but is quite the opposite when it comes to the content. It is quite in-depth as it describes a technique / asana with instructions, breathing, benefits, contraindications, chakras and variations. The practices are also aptly classified as beginner, intermediate and advanced, thereby letting us advance systematically.

Published by the Bihar School of Yoga, you can order the book on the net as well as get it from good bookstores.

Start building your own yoga and health library....

An Inconvenient Truth

"By far the most terrifying film you will ever see"

I watched this movie a few months back in Mumbai (Bombay). It came & it went and hardly got noticed by many. It was not even released in most of the tier 2 cities and below. In this world of mass media, awareness, education it's really sad to see people ignore these meaningful, eye opening movies and go about their daily lives using and wasting as many resources as they possibly can. There surely has to be an end to human greediness, or there might be sooner an end to this "beautiful" world we've created for ourselves.

I urge you all to go and watch this movie, to ruffle a feather in our calm demeanor as to what possibly we are heading towards in terms of climatic changes, disasters, mass extinctions. Time has come not to propagate about global warming, not to write, read about environmental issues BUT TO TAKE SOME ACTION.

I promise this new feature of 'earthcare' that i have started today will feature a lot more, will focus on steps we can take in our own ways to help. We don't live in a particular country, state, city, area and street, but on this planet. And if we don't realise that my friends, IT MIGHT BE TOO LATE.

So for starters, at least go & watch the movie. While you are reading this, you may also want to surf through its website, http://www.aninconvenienttruth.co.uk/

PS: I feel it should be a 'must watch' for all. Schools and colleges can have special screenings organized for their students.

Health Queries

Various health conscious people have in past been asking me questions and queries relating to their health either through emails or on the blog which has helped me read and research more. So i thought of sharing the same with you so as to get more inputs regarding the same and enhance our learning. Therefore, i am starting with this new module on 'Health Queries'.

Q: "Salomi, i have a question.Not about this particular article.While doing yoga, we usually start with Sukshma Kriyas. I get more cramps in both my toes when i rotate my feet.Somebody told me that rock salt may be the result. As i use rock salt since a month. Can you find out the salt details of rock salt and whether it has any connection to the cramps."

Firstly i think it's best to use rock salt or any other which is organic and in its natural form. Table salt or common salt is processed. It is zapped of its nutrients and various chemicals, bleaching agents are added to get the fine powder. Salt is a very important part of the diet of all living beings. Even animals instinctively invade salt pans and lick salt to compensate for their mineral loss. You can read the first two articles here.

As regards to your toe cramps i feel there can be many reasons for it, one of which being lack of salt in the body. But there are various ways of compensating for that by using rock salt in your food, salads, juices, )provided you don't have blood pressure), having more of fruits and certainly not changing back to common iodized salt. Here is a nice article on cramps. Specially on the day you get cramps, analyze your diet for the past 2 days.

To alleviate toe cramps, you can do special exercises designed to strengthen the muscles. Try standing on tiptoes and raising your body up and then down repeatedly, using your toes to support you. Hold each position for five seconds. Another good one is to pick up marbles with your toes and relocate them to another spot on the floor. Walking on sand strengthens toes, massages feet and exfoliates the skin … a great workout for feet!

I hope it answers your question. Cheers!!!

Are you breathing right?

It's true that most of us living in cities have become addicted to busyness. We don't like to sit idle doing nothing. We are constantly on the move either in the mind & body. And hence we have even forgotten to breathe right!!! (something that we have been internally programmed to do) Isn't that ironical??

Check for yourself. When you breathe in does your abdomen expand out or retreat in? For many of us it retreats in which means that we are breathing shallow. We are not utilizing the lower lobes of the lungs which have the capacity to hold maximum volume of air. Therefore, because we breathe in wrong, there is less oxygen leading to less availability in the body for its functions which ultimately causes lack of energy.

Breathing from the abdomen is the correct way to breathe and is referred to as the yogic breathing. It utilizes and expands lung capacity, relaxes the body, calms the mind, exercises the diaphragm and gently massages the abdominal organs. You can do conscious yogic breathing for a few minutes daily or whenever you feel stressed.

Have you ever seen a child breathing? Observe it's stomach rise & fall as it relaxes into it's breath. It's time we started learning from children.

Banana date shake

Take about 3 medium sized bananas & cut them into pieces. Cut and soak 5-7 dates in water till they are a little soft. Add bananas & dates in a blender with a little water, cumin seeds and black salt (to taste). Blend it and your healthy, energy giving shake is ready. It tastes absolutely yummy and makes you last a couple of hours. The best thing to have before or after a workout.

Ummmm........delicious......

Think before you Drink

At a competition in Delhi University a few years back, the "winner" died on the spot. The event was "who can drink the most coke?" the winner drank up 8 bottles which produced too much carbon dioxide in the blood and not enough oxygen to live.

Sure, not everyone drinks 8 bottles at one sitting, but doesn't that make you wonder? Can 8 bottles of fruit juice kill? certainly not. Isn't it surprising then that a 'soft drink' can be so hard and even fatal on our body.

I had also received a forward saying, a tooth got totally dissolved within 10 days in a bottle of Pepsi. So did a nail. (We can certainly try it at home :-) ) In fact our teeth and bones are the only parts of our body that stays intact for years after death.

The average PH of soft drinks is 3.4! This acidity is strong enough to dissolve bones and teeth. It is also high enough to be a cleaning agent. Try using coke / pepsi for the following:

- Cleaning a toilet

- Removing greasy stains from clothes

- To loosen rusty bolts

Diseases flourish in an acid medium - all cola drinks are highly acidic. The bubbles and fizz are not just sparkle - they can burn human insides by the phosphoric acid & carbon dioxide. Carbonic acid in aerated drinks is instrumental in ruining eye sight.

And then there is sugar. Around 4 tbsp per bottle leeches body of essential nutrients.

Most cola drinks also have about 40 mg of caffeine. Caffeine is addictive and also raises the blood sugar by stimulating the break down of glycogen.

Cola drinks have zero nutritional value. They do however have colour additives, flavouring ingredients, acidifying - buffering - foaming - emulsifying - stabilizing chemicals, preservatives...... chemical formulas, synthesized as food!

Yes indeed, Taste the Thunder, enjoy! But think before you drink!

This article has been taken from resources at the Health Awareness Centre (Dr Vijaya Venkat)

Yoga for Weightloss

Who says that yoga can't help to reduce weight. True that it should not be used for that but getting in shape is surely one of the benefits of yoga. Yoga works in a holistic way even though you might shy away from admitting or might not have noticed. Apart from the physical benefits (like toning, flexibility, improved strength) it also has other benefits to offer which are very important and play a major role in weight reduction:

• Helps in getting rid of waste better. (FYI humans can store up to 7 kilos of waste in their bodies, we are walking, talking warehouses..........)
• Improves our physiological working - better digestion, circulation, proper working of the endocrine system etc. A lot of problems are related to the improper hormone secretion which can lead to weight gain
• Better metabolism
• Improved and informed food choices. Believe me if you practise yoga regularly, your food choices will improve automatically. It just brings in that instinctive awareness.
• Better routines, better sleep, relaxation etc

PS: I am also talking with my own experience. Try different yoga classes and select one which best suits you.

There are a host of celebrities who have taken to yoga in a big way - Madonna, Jennifer Aniston, Yana Gupta, Mallika Sherawat, Kareena Kapoor, Aishwarya........ the list is endless.

Cheers to YOGA!!!

Lighting 'Diyas'

This diwali, make better use of the diyas you light. As you are lighting them, include a bit of meditation with it. Sit facing your gaze at the flame and stare at it for 2-5 minutes. It'll help you calm and centre yourself. A nice meditative practice for those of us who are yet to take a proper leap into meditation.

Health Tip - Eating Fruits

It is a well established fact that fruits should be an important part of ones' diet. But they should be eaten alone, not with any other food. So if you have been having fruits after meals, it's time to stop. Here's why: fruits are predigested and are required to be in the stomach for only 20-30 minutes. They have high water content & thus help the body in cleansing. If it is eaten on top of other foods it creates a lot of problems. The meal has to remain in the stomach for a long time whereas the fruit you had with eat needs to go but has to stay there. In the meantime the fruit ferments and the entire mass of food begins to spoil. The whole thing turns acidic and creates a lot of problems for us. Perhaps you have experienced it.

In any case, try it for yourself....... Leave the fruit alone.