School of yoga

How to learn to hear your true desires

5 ways to help you get to know yourself.
Often we are faced with the fact that we do not understand what we really want. Sometimes even the choice of the movie for viewing becomes that still a task and instead of solving, we ask for the help the Internet or we trust the choice to the partner.
And did you have such a situation? Come to visit, and you are offered a choice: tea or coffee; a full lunch or just dessert. You immediately start to get lost, shrug and mutter embarrassedly: "I don't care"/"I won't do anything, thank you." And wait when the owner will decide what you bring to the table.
In this way, we shift the responsibility for our desires to someone else, it is better for him to know how we will be better. The problem is, no one will ever get to know us better than we do. The inability to hear and follow our true desires makes us very vulnerable.

What can be done about it?
I offer you some interesting ways to get to know yourself.
Meditation "Who am I?"Before making any choice, stop, take a deep breath and mentally ask yourself the questions: "Who am I?"Where am I?"; "What is happening to me now?"; "What do I want at the moment?"Answer them honestly to yourself.

Dive deep into your body, feel it, listen. This meditation should be performed several times a day, in the morning before Breakfast and in the evening before bedtime, and preferably throughout the day. Your task is to bring this exercise to automatism and learn how to make an informed choice.
The "nice" list. Make a detailed handwritten list of what activities you enjoy, what food you prefer, what genres of movies and literature you are most attracted to. Thanks to this, you get acquainted with yourself again, analyzing your taste preferences and realizing them. Our brain is more receptive to writing on paper by hand, so I call for this method.

Interview with yourself. Imagine someone decided to interview you. What questions would you be asked? Write them down on a piece of paper and answer them.
Visit the perfume shop. Which perfume do you like more? Do you prefer sweet or pungent smells? Why? Maybe it has something to do with your character? One question pulls a number of others, making you think about the features of your perception of the world.
Arrange a date with yourself. Go for a walk in the Park, have a Cup of tea in the cafe. Do not suffer from loneliness, but try to enjoy this moment and the opportunity to be alone with your thoughts. Breathe, see this world, make friends with it.

Pratyahara is the fifth stage in classical yoga. It involves the concentration of mental abilities and the elimination of feelings from the influence of external factors. That is, it is a kind of step towards freedom, liberation from the shackles of matter.
The human mind is by nature pure and unaffected by any fluctuations. Meditation helps the spiritual development of man.
It eliminates unnecessary automatic reactions to surrounding objects.
With its help painlessly refuse sensual pleasures. The mind and senses stop following objects. The mind gets the opportunity to see the thin line in the multidimensional space. The soul adapts to light, purity and perfection. Religious people learn to see God behind every object of the material world.

Features of the development of practice
Mastering the practice of Pratyahara is gradual, step by step. There should be no rush, bustle and internal discomfort.

It is not recommended to force the mind to work too much.
Duration and frequency of exercises are selected individually. If there is a feeling that the occupation brings discomfort, the pace should be reduced. The process of implementing the exercise can be divided into four parts:
Physical. The energy from the senses is sent to the brain.
Mental. The vibrations of the waves of consciousness calm down.
Intellectual. The mind is being brought to the brain stem.
Spiritual. The power of mind and consciousness passes to the seat of conscience.
After all the stages of work a person begins to see the dazzling light of his soul.
Long practice of asanas and pranayama is required. Yogi, who was able to master this practice, later conducted meditation on the battlefield under the roar of guns and other weapons.

It is best if a separate room is used for classes. So, it will be possible to get rid of unnecessary stimuli. The most comfortable asana is accepted and the eyes are closed. In the process, practice "starvation" of the senses.
Food should be consumed in moderate amounts, it is necessary to rid yourself of excessive talk. It is recommended to eat 2-3 hours before the start of work.
It is necessary to try to turn off the most powerful, in the opinion of the practitioner, feeling. Then, the stage-by-stage study of the rest is carried out. The deeper the immersion into the process, the more difficult it is to perform the exercise further.
Once all emotions and experiences are under control, the soul finds peace and harmony. The body ceases to respond to stimuli of the internal and external world.

Recommendations for the exercise
Before starting the lesson, it is recommended to get rid of the factors that act as the main obstacles:
eating in large quantities;
nervous, physical exhaustion;
hidden desires or experiences that keep you from finding yourself.
Having mastered the practice, a person begins to look at the usual things in a new way, his body is filled with positive energy. The yoga sutras strengthens the spirit, the will.
During the exercise, it is important not to be distracted by extraneous conversations, overly fuss or think about work. This leads to the fact that the forces of practice are wasted. Thoughts should be devoted to the high, divine.

Asanas for men
Men usually have more strength and endurance than women. Therefore, it is quite easy to provide power postures, simple balance postures on the hands, lying down asanas, which strengthen abs and back. The situation is more complicated with flexible poses, as well as with asanas for twisting. Therefore, choosing a sequence of yoga exercises, it is advisable to pay attention to postures to develop flexibility and breathing. At the same time, keeping a balance between strength and flexibility. Basic asanas for men is Vrikshasana, virabhadrasana, trikonasana utthita, uttanasana, Adho Mukha of svanasana, baddha of konasana, Salamba Sarvangasana.

Asanas for women
Women gibkosti easier to perform asanas. However, over time, any body is enslaved, so the classes often come girls and women of all ages, which is difficult to perform the basic yoga asanas. This applies both to asanas for strength and flexibility. Basic yoga asanas for women are the positions in which all the systems of the body develop harmoniously, the hormonal background and the functions of all internal organs improve. Asanas are important for women's health. For example, the baddha of konasana, upavista of konasana, paschimottanasana, viparita karani mudra.

Asanas for pregnant women
For pregnant women are more suitable sitting asanas and a variety of soft dynamic ligaments, which improves blood circulation in the pelvic organs. For example, marjariasana, baddha konasana, upavishta konasana. As contraindications during this period, there are deflections, inverted asanas (in the first trimester of pregnancy), exercises on the press, any asanas lying on the stomach.

Asanas for a healthy bowel
To improve peristalsis of the bowel is usually recommended for twisting and inverted asanas. One of the best twists for a healthy intestine is jathara parivartanasana. By the way, this position is very helpful to lose weight and get rid of belly fat. There are also asanas that will help to get rid of constipation. These include utthita trikonasana, uttanasana, pavanmuktasana – this provision removes gases from the intestines, Ardha matsyendrasana, as well as any lay in the supine position.

Asanas for the spine
If you have a healthy spine, there are no contraindications for yoga practice. You can perform asanas standing, sitting, lying, any balances, inverted poses. However, if there are any diseases of the spine, hernia, protrusion, scoliosis, it is very important to study all the contraindications and, of course, contact a specialist in yoga therapy, in which it is your problem. It is important to remember that for a healthy spine you should not abuse exercises for flexibility: do a lot of deep deflections and other beautiful asanas that can aggravate your disease. The most important is the formation of a muscular corset, strengthening the muscles of the back. Classical asanas for spine and back strengthening – urdhva Chaturanga Dandasana, shalabhasana, utkatasana. Safe gibkosti posture, which also helps to relax the muscles of the back and pulling the spine: marjariasana, Ardha of Bhujangasana, paschimotanasana.

Asanas for joints
Dynamic sequences of asanas are very important for healthy joints. Various combinations of asanas, transitions from one pose to another well warm up the body and relieve the load from the joints. It is very important to combine all movements with breathing. The combination of movement and breathing makes yoga practice much more effective. Asanas that help to work the joints of the feet is Agni stambhan, gomukhasana, Virasana, baddha of konasana. It is important to remember about the joints of the hands. In this case, to strengthen well perform Chaturanga Dandasana, bhuja pidasana, bakasana, and for the development of flexibility fit swastikasana, Eka bhuja Padmasana, Eka bhuja Virasana.

Questions, doubts and difficulties faced by beginners:
Complex and incomprehensible names of asanas. Each asana has a Sanskrit name. There are many books on yoga that decipher and translate these names into Russian. Therefore, if you are confused or repelled by the names in Sanskrit, you can attend classes where yoga poses are spoken with translation. Good books with the list and translation of Asan yoga are "Yoga Dipika" (author B. K. S. Iyengar), "Asan Alphabet" (authors teachers of the club oum.ru).
Is there any special benefit to asanas? The benefit of asanas is that they help to overcome various health problems (for example, problems with the spine, joints, internal organs). It is also believed that the practice of asanas can affect the energy of a person, change his state of mind, get rid of depression and negative emotions such as anger, resentment, jealousy, greed, envy.
There are a lot of asanas in yoga. How to choose the ones that are right for me?

Asanas are yoga poses. How to choose asanas for practice?
Starting to practice yoga, we study thematic literature, attend seminars and master classes on self-development. One of the first words that we find in all the sources that are associated with Hatha yoga is the word "asana".

The most common are the following translations and explanations of this concept:

Comfortable and stable body position
This definition is based on one of the primary sources of yoga, namely the text "Yoga Sutra Patanjali". The author writes here about the asana: "Posture gives stability to the body and balances the mind."

It is very informative that another well-known yogic text "Hatha Yoga Pradipika", in the section on asanas, reports: "the Practice of asanas gives stability to the body, frees from disease and gives lightness to the whole being".

The body position for practicing the techniques of pranayama or meditation
In the yogic texts there was no detailed description of the whole variety of asanas and guidance for their correct implementation. Some researchers are still convinced that when Patanjali defined asana in the shloka "Sthiram Sukham Asanam", which some translate as "Asana is a comfortable and stable posture", he spoke only about the position for meditation. However, we have all seen various poses performed, including Indian yogis, which can hardly be called comfortable even when fixing for a few minutes, and from a longer stay in the majority of those involved there is a very strong discomfort.

There is a more neutral explanation that the definitions of "sthira" and "Sukha" refer to peace and stability within us, to peace of mind. The development of such qualities can be achieved under static load with the help of power and flexible asanas of Hatha yoga.

The third stage of Hatha yoga
We have already mentioned the name Patanjali above. In the text "Yoga sutras" he applies to describing yoga word "Ashtanga", that literally means yoga "eight steps" (Ashta – eight, Anga – part of, fist). We are talking about the following eight steps:

Yama (rules of interaction with the surrounding world),
Niyama (regulations in relation to personal discipline),
asana (achieving harmony of the body and mind by performing different poses),
pranayama (control of vital energy through breath control),
pratyahara (control of the senses, their distraction from various objects),
Dharana (concentration of mind),
Dhyana (meditation),
Samadhi (the state of unification of one's personal consciousness with absolute consciousness or in other words self-realization).

In this article we will tell you how to restore the health of your back and spine, strengthen muscles and start living a new full life.

Charging for the spine
About the benefits of charging for the back and spine written a lot. And it is no coincidence, because the spine is the basis of the musculoskeletal system of the human body. Moving away from the vertebrae the nerve endings, which connect the bodies to each other. The function of the spinal column can not be overestimated. Many, rather, underestimate it, not giving special importance to the maintenance of the spine in a normal, healthy state until the first bells ring in the form of pain in the back, lumbar region or neck. Yes, many for some reason the neck does not relate to the spine. This is quite strange, if you know the anatomical structure of the human body. Moreover, what is even more surprising is the recommendations of the attending doctors, aimed exclusively at the correction of the vertebrae in the cervical spine, ignoring the rest.

No destructive change in one or another part of the spinal column occurs by itself. Often, overstrain, improper sedentary lifestyle, inadequate weight distribution during training, etc. lead to the fact that the load falls on the spine. If one Department can bear the load, it is due to the fact that the other suffers, less hardy. Thus, if you pay attention and restore only one Department, in the long term, one way or another you will need to pay attention to the entire spinal column. Otherwise, a small problem can turn into big trouble in the future.

Before it's too late, work on strengthening the muscles of the back and stretching the spinal column. Why the vertebrae are overstretched? Because the spinal muscles in most people are not developed. This is largely due to the way of life that people lead in the age of advanced technology. If the muscles of the back were strong, then the spine would be much less load, i.e. the weight and tension would be evenly distributed.

Unfortunately, this is not the case, and the lion's share of the load falls on the vertebrae. But with regular exercises for the back and spine, you can develop spinal muscles, stretch the spine, make it more flexible, which will not only strengthen the back, improve posture, favorably affect your weight, but also normalizes the work of internal organs. After all, the state of the spine depends on the state of the internal organs. If there is even a slight curvature of the vertebral column, this inevitably leads to a change in the location of those internal organs that are located next to this vertebral Department.

It is no coincidence that many of the problems with digestion may occur because of a change in position of the spine. However, it is true and the opposite statement that problems with the digestive system after a while lead to curvature of the spine. Or, for example, underdeveloped abdominal muscles can also have a negative impact on the spine. In this part of the spinal column there is an excessive load, because the abdominal muscles are undeveloped and the spine is deprived of support from this side. This explains why we see problems with the lumbar region everywhere. This is definitely not the only cause of lower back problems, but one that people tend to underestimate.

Meditation as stopping the inner dialogue
To find out how the reunification with the spirit is achieved, let us turn to one of the authoritative ancient treatise on yoga: "Yoga sutras" Patanjali.

It clearly says:

yoga is the cessation of uncontrolled States of consciousness. Or in other words: yoga is the cessation of mental activity, the stopping or silence of the mind.

But it is not just the stopping of the mind or the stopping of thoughts, it is the stopping of all States of consciousness, that is, our entire psyche, both conscious and hidden in the depths of the subconscious.

Or even say stop the internal dialogue.

That is, we do yoga only if we stop this internal dialogue and it does not matter what you do and what kind of yoga you use. Do you perform the asana, breathing pranayama or anything else. I said above that yoga is done by one who follows the spiritual path.

That's the way. Because stopping the internal dialogue is a mysterious universal mechanism or algorithm of revealing the spirit, the soul, and therefore following the spiritual path. Why?

Let's go back to Patanjali.

He writes that when uncontrolled States of consciousness cease, "the Seer in his essence remains."

"Sighted" is our true essence, the soul, which is connected with the spirit, God, the Universe, the whole nature. The yogis claim that everyone has it inside of us, but we do not notice it because of the constantly switched on mental noise, that is, it is hidden under the cover of the ego.

They were right.

The fact is that our consciousness consists of two main parts: the psyche or still say ego, the mind, which is always on the surface and true awareness. It is the last real awareness or the soul says, the present Self is hidden deep inside, but it is the main consciousness that determines everything that happens to a person.



These are the roots of his character, deep and incomprehensible mental impulses, inner aspirations. A person who was able to get to the depths of his consciousness, that is, revealing his soul, is capable of the incredible. It is there that love lives, sublime feelings, the ability to understand everything without words, intuition, paranormal abilities, the craving for feats, where we are driven by what is stronger than death.
It is true awareness, the soul is connected with the spirit. The discovery of the soul in itself is the way to the spirit, spiritual development. And how to come to the spirit. Yes, it is very simple, because Patanjali wrote it in just two sentences. Stop the uncontrolled mental noise, then the "Sighted" will come to the surface.

The noise of the mind or internal dialogue is the work of our psyche, and when it stops, we come to a real awareness, and therefore spiritually develop. Only by stopping the work of the lower consciousness does the higher consciousness come to the surface.

And to do yoga means to stop your inner dialogue, to strive to open your soul, to come to the spirit. There are many ways to do this. All directions, branches of yoga aspire to this goal, only then it is real yoga.

Meditation

And the best means of finding the silence of the mind, stopping the internal dialogue, which was invented by yogis is of course meditation. It should take the main time of classes. Only then will you be able to come to the spirit, which means to tell yourself that you are now doing yoga and nothing else.

In one of the most ancient excavations of India found an image of a man-a deity who just sits and meditates. He does not perform complex asanas, does not stretch, does not develop flexibility, he just sits, trying to stop his mind. Thus he attains the Highest.

Yoga is divided into stages and directions. All of them serve the main purpose, that is, help to come to the spirit. Let's look at them. But also you will learn how to distinguish the real stage or direction from its parody or misunderstanding, in order not to get into any school, where instead of yoga is taught who knows what.

Why modern man needs yoga
But if yoga is a spiritual teaching, why do yoga for those people who do not believe in the existence of subtle matters, or who believe, but do not want to go on a spiritual path.

It turns out that the use of a universal algorithm for the disclosure of the spirit in itself, gives such bonuses to a person that he did not even dream of. And it can be applied by any person: an atheist or a believer. After all, our consciousness, body, mind are arranged in the same way, regardless of views and beliefs.

That's just the modern variety of all kinds of schools and trends, this desire to apply the knowledge of yoga for different purposes. Improve health, get rid of mental problems, forget about stress, increase vitality, control your body and mind, understand the meaning of life and so on.

Indeed, by taking a piece from the whole system of yogic teaching, a person solves some of his low-lying problems. For example, starting to engage in Hatha yoga, improves his health. But it's not that simple.

The girl is engaged in asanas

It is important to understand that a person in this case is not engaged in real yoga, but only a small part of it.

And also, without applying the universal algorithm, which I mentioned above, even Hatha becomes not a small piece of yoga, but only a banal exercise, stretching exercises, simple ex*****on of some complex poses.

Nutrition of a healthy and active person
This is perhaps the most painful question among beginners. Many, starting to lead a healthy lifestyle and play sports, rush to the extreme and sit on a strict diet. This leads to the fact that a poor and boring diet affects the health, mood and overall motivation. It turns out, like Faina Ranevskaya: the face becomes smaller, but sadder. About a week later, Maura starves, the newcomer can not stand it and breaks down. At the same time he breaks not for an extra portion of meat, but, as a rule, a bowl of dumplings, a huge pizza and cake. This is due to an unbalanced diet. Our body is very wise and strong. When the proportion of carbohydrates in our menu is below the critical level, the brain gives a signal that something needs to be solved, and solves it in the best way – fast carbohydrates. In a result – disruption and loss of faith in themselves. Therefore, it is important to make sure that you receive the necessary amount of proteins, fats and carbohydrates every day. The absence of any of the nutrients for a long time, can lead to serious health problems. Therefore, it is important to provide yourself with a full and varied diet