Yoga for Holiday

Everybody wishes to have a wonderful holiday on their vacation and making Yoga a part of their holiday (Yoga For Holiday) adds excitement.

As People experience depression in different ways. It may interfere with your daily work, resulting in lost time and lower productivity. It can also influence relationships and some chronic health conditions.

Himalayan Yoga Academy will provide you the chance where you can integrate yoga in your holidays. Since Yoga will help in improving your physical and mental health. Yoga consists of postures, breathing, techniques and meditation. So Let Yoga join your holiday joy.

Nepal is a very beautiful country. It’s geography is so diverse. You may enjoy hills, mountains, rivers, lakes and many more natural gifts In this small landlocked country.

Here in our HYA Retreat. We teach you Hatha yoga, Astanga Vinyasa yoga, Sivananda yoga, Iyengar yoga, and Restorative yoga. Kapalbhati, Anulombilom, Bhastrika, Bhramari, Shitali, and many more breathing techniques are in our course of study. Since Meditation has become so important in managing our daily life. So, you will be able to learn how to do different meditation techniques like Vipasyana meditation, Buddha meditation, Mindful meditation, guided meditation, etc. 

Yoga practices can utilize any or all of the 8 limbs. They generally involve relaxation (shava asana), physical postures (asana), breathing regulation techniques (pranayama), and meditation (dhyana). While there are different schools of yoga, some common schools include Ananda, Anusara, Ashtanga, Bikram, Iyengar, Integral, Kundalini, Kripalu, Power, Prana, Sivananda, and Vinyasa. Types of yoga include alignment-oriented yoga, fitness yoga, flow yoga, gentle yoga, hot yoga, specialty yoga, and spiritual-oriented yoga.

So, during your holiday, if you choose yoga as one of your holiday retreats. Then you will feel changed from various perspectives. While you return to your work, you will have a new way of doing it. You can practice yoga for 1-2 hours a day, which will bring very good results in your daily work. So, we believe yoga for the holiday can be a very good choice if you wanna enjoy your holiday to the fullest and earn many things during your holiday as well.

Shatakarma (Six Cleansing Acts) is the first unit of Hatha Yoga or one of the Saadhaanaa among Sapta-saadhaanaa according to Ghreranda Samhita. Under this, one of the major cleansing process is Shankha Prakshalana or Master Cleansing.

Shankha Prakshalana is the process by which one can cleanse oneself in the same way as a conch is cleansed by pouring water form one side and throwing out from the other side. In this process salty warm water (also with lemon) is taken from mouth, and then we do some of the stretch and twist exercises. Water flows out from the rectum. Thus, total indigestible food particles in alimentary canal is cleansed.

Five Asana of Shankha Prakshalana

1. Tadasana: Stand erect keeping your feet together. Raise your arms overhead with the palms upward. Inhale and lift your heels and stretch as much as you can. Return slowly the heels to the ground. Repeat upward stretch five times.
2. Triyaka Tadasana: Take Tadasana position. Bend to the right and then to the left. The movement is from the waist. Bend five times each on either side. Breathe deeply.
3. Katichakrasana: Stand erect with your feet about a meter apart. Stretch the arms side ways at the shoulder level. Twist the upper part of the body to the right, bringing the left hand to the right shoulder and wrapping the right arm around the trunk in a smooth motion. Repeat on the opposite side. Five times each on either side.
4. Udarajarshan Asana: Sit in Utkatasana (Squatting Pose) with hands on the knees. Bend the right knee to the ground while turning the trunk to the left. Look behind the body keeping the hands on the knees. Return to starting position. Repeat the same procedure, twisting the body in the opposite direction. Five times each on either side.
5. Triyaka Bhujangasna: Take the final position of basic Bhujangasana. Twist the upper portion of the trunk and head to one side and gaze at the heel. Do it on the opposite side of the body. Repeat it five times for each side.

Note

1. Take light food on previous night.
2. Do not take bath for 2 hours after Shankha Prakshalan take rest in Shavasana for about 30 minutes.
3. After completing the Kriya of Shankha Prakshalan take rest in Shavasana for about 30 minutes.
4. Take only moong dal Khichadi and rice with 100 gm ghee during the day.
5. Don’t drink water and sleep up to 3 hours.
6. Don’t take milk, curd, sweet , cold drinks, cold items, pickle for few days.
7. No meat products, no alcohol for at least 3 weeks.
8. Do rest full day.
9. If you have high blood pressure and have suffered heart. Attack, please don’t do this kriya.
10. Should be performed under the guidance of a yogacharya.
11. Do it after 6 months when the season changes.

Benefits of Shankh Prakshalan

1. Cleanses alimentary canal.
2. Increase digestive power and improve good appetite.
3. Helps to prevent and cure headache, ear and eye diseases, pyorrhea, mouth disease tonsillitis, heart diseases, diabetes, asthma, piles, menstrual disorder Etc.
4. Activates the intestines.
5. Removes kidney stones, constipation, acidity, gas and other digestive disorder.
6. Rejuvenate your health and life.

Himalayan Yoga Academy in Nepal has been established as a school where students get enlightened with asana, spiritual knowledge, and other life engagements. As a true yoga school in Nepal, it offers specified and standard courses to the trainee to conduct teacher training programs. Himalayan Yoga Academy in Nepal has courses that are designed to make your dream come true. We don’t think that after taking the courses, you have to be the trainer or link with yoga. Being the best yoga teacher training school in Nepal, we provide these courses, which may be beneficial for you. We brought the comprehensively designed courses, which will be conducted by highly experienced and dedicated teachers. The training and services that we provide are:

• 200 hrs Yoga Teacher Training Course
• 300 hrs Yoga Teacher Training Course
• Yoga Retreat in Nepal
• Reiki Training in Nepal
• Singing Bowl Training in Nepal
• Ayurveda Training in Nepal

Courses Provided

Since Himalayan Yoga Academy is the Best Yoga Teacher Training School in Nepal, we have many students who attend the class or course. We provide the best services, clean rooms, spa services, hiking services, and spiritual environment, healthy foods, and Nice classes with experienced gurus as the requirement of the course and students.

Missions of Himalayan Yoga Academy

Yoga in different forms can help with so many problems that are in our society. So our main goal is to help society get a ride from all these, and others are:

• Conduction of advanced and authentic Yoga training based on philosophical & Traditional footing and boosting the intrinsic needs of human life.
• Provision of eastern knowledge and philosophy to world people with the motive to unite Sanatana (ancient) and Modern wisdom through the science of self.
•  Improvement of well-being, health, happiness, and harmony through knowledge of yoga and spiritual science developing the platform of the International yoga Community.
•  Make well-experienced in specific features of Nepal, like natural and cultural beauty. Nepalese lifestyle, introduce the festivals and feasts, and traditional practices, and make all know “People’s Unity owns Cultural and Natural Diversity.
• Resolution of keeping our focus on spiritual tourism further ahead, however, we initiated this karma. Especially the promotion of Spa since 1999 and Yoga continuously since 2007 A.D in this field till date.
• Acknowledgment of real traditional yoga all over the world in modern contests where people, even yoga Masters, and practitioners are misunderstanding knowingly and unknowingly, doing just the business, not trying for the transformation of self.

Here are Yoga Teacher Training Books

1. Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha

Asana Prana Yama Mudra Bandha is recognized internationally as one of the most systematic yoga manuals today. Since its first publication by the Bihar School of Yoga in 1969, it has been reprinted seventeen times and translated into many languages. It is the main reference text used by Yoga teachers and students of Bihar Yoga/Satyananda Yoga within the International Yoga Movement, and many other traditions as well. 

This comprehensive text provides clear illustrations. step by step directions and details of chakra awareness. It guides the practitioner or teacher from the simplest to the most advanced practices of hatha yoga system. A therapeutic index is provided for use by doctors and yoga therapists incorporating recent information from research into yoga. This edition successfully brings the exposition of yoga practices to the standard of a university text.

2. Patanjali Yoga Sutra

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali form the basis of classical Yoga. Encompassing both philosophy and practice, the Sutras provide indispensable instruction for all serious students of yoga. This study guide is for the second of four books, Sadhana Pada (On Yoga Practice). It explains the practice of yoga and teaches the direct means of attaining the goal of perfect peace.

The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are a collection of 196 Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the theory. Philipp A. Maas assesses Patañjali’s Yogasutra’s date to be about 400 CE, based on tracing the commentaries on it

3. Gehendra Samhita

Gheranda Samhita (IAST: gheraṇḍasaṁhitā, घेरंडसंहिता, meaning “Gheranda’s collection”) is a Sanskrit text of Yoga in Hinduism. It is one of the three classic texts of hatha yoga.

 The text teaches a seven-limbed yoga, in contrast to eight-limbed yoga in Patanjali’s Yogasutras, six-limbed yoga taught in Goraksha Samhita, and four-limbed yoga discussed in Hatha Yoga Pradipika. It declares its goal to be the perfection of an individual’s body, mind, and soul through a seven-step lifelong, continuous self-development. The means of this goal include self-purification, thirty-two asanas in detail for building body strength, twenty-five mudras to perfect body steadiness, five means to pratyahara, lessons on proper nutrition and lifestyle, ten types of breathing exercises, three stages of meditation, and six types of samadhi.

4. Light on Yoga by BKS Iyengar

Regarded by many as the Bible of modern yoga, this book  is the definitive guide to the philosophy and practice of yoga. The book includes classic photos and instruction on asana and pranayama, a 300 week practice and development programme and yoga sequences to help heal a range of illnesses and conditions.

Throughout his life, BKS Iyengar devoted himself to his lifelong practice, study, and teaching of yoga, becoming the greatest exponent of yoga the world has yet seen. One of his most famous pupils was the world-renowned violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and it was Menuhin who invited him to teach in the West. More than anyone, Iyengar is responsible for bringing yoga from the East to the West. Teaching until his mid-nineties, a remarkable and inspirational feat in itself, BKS Iyengar remained a student until the end. He was known affectionately to his students as Guruji.

He believed wholeheartedly in yoga for all, irrespective of sex, race, class, or creed. In 1966, he published this ground-breaking book ‘Light on Yoga’ to bring yoga out from the darkness. He went on to write a vast number of inspirational books in which he explored diverse aspects of yoga.

5. Yoga-Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Yoga Nidra is a simple yet profound technique adapted by Swami Satyananda Saraswati from the traditional tantric practice of nyasa. The Text explains the theory of Yoga Nidra in both yogic and scientific terms and includes class transcriptions of the practice. It also presents the various applications of this versatile technique, which has been used for deep relaxation, in stress management and therapy, to enhance the learning process in education, to harmonize the deeper unconscious and awaken inner potential, and as a meditative technique. A research section is also included. 

The Cobra pose or Bhujangasana (भुजंगासना)  is one of the gentle backbends that helps relieve backache. It also helps in improving digestion and the overall health of the spine. Cobra pose is often used within a sun salutation or vinyasa as a transitional pose in a collection of asanas.

Cobra Pose Steps

The procedure to do Bhujanagasana is very easy. Follow the given steps below without any jerk and stretch as much as you can in the Bhuajangsana yoga. Let us check the steps

1. Lie down flat on your stomach with your head on the floor, legs straight and feet together.

2. Try to raise your head and body to your navel with slow inhalation. You have to set both hands on the ground.

3. Now, slowly stretch your whole body.

4. Stay in this pose at least 15 seconds and come back to the ground by slow exhalation.

The pose can be practiced as a low cobra (nearest to the mat or floor) or a high cobra (with the upper body moving higher, almost into a full upward-facing dog pose), and is easily adjusted based on individual needs.

Benefits of Cobra Pose

1. This asana strengthens your spine.

2. It helps to heal asthma.

3. It helps to make our heart and lungs healthy.

4. Helps in menstrual and gynecological disorders.

5. Eases constipation.

6. Good for stimulating the appetite.

Cobra Pose Contraindications

1. If you are suffering from back pain you have to avoid this pose.

2. People suffering from hernia, peptic ulcer, hyperthyroidism, or intestinal tuberculosis should do it under supervision.

3. Pregnant women should avoid this pose (asana).

Cobra Pose is done in the given video of Sun Salutation. Learn Cobra and other poses with the help of Swami Yog Subodh ( The person in the video below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXEcIi29JtU&t=124s

Ganesh Kriya (Dhauti) is a process that helps to eliminate common complaints like partial or dissatisfying bowel evacuation, hard stools, erratic, difficult, or painful bowel motions, constipation, and forceful evacuation etc. Nevertheless, anyone can perform this kriya to experience its usefulness. Before going to the toilet in the morning, lubricate the forefinger of your left hand with some castor oil, ghee, or sesame oil. Apply this lubricant around the anus from outside and inside. This is Ganesh kriya. 

Technique: Ganesh kriya

Dip the index finger of the right hand in castor oil/ mustard oil. Insert this finger in the rectum. And turn it on all sides and remove the faucal matter. Wash the finger and repeat it. Remove all the present in the rectum. This kriya should be done after cleaning the bowels daily.

Repeat 3 to 4 times, proceed to the next kriya. Contract and relax the anal muscles in a manner just like the horse does while passing excreta. Repeat the contraction-relaxation cycle 10 to 12 times. 

Note

• Cut nails before performing Ganesh Kriyas properly.

Ganesh Kriya Benefits

1. Stregthens internal and external muscles of the rectum which prevents constipation and other diseases.
2. Removes piles due to clearing the rectum.
3. Beneficial for Constipation.

The lubricant used for Ganesh kriya slowly reaches the intestines due to Ashwini Mudra that follows. This results in effortless evacuation of bowels and relief from constipation.

Sluggishness of the organs diminishes and one becomes swift and energetic like a horse.

Usha Paan means Dawn drinking water, where Usha means dawn, and Paan means drink. When we talk about our biological rule, people should drink water early in the morning. In the early days, people used to drink water early in the morning through their nose/mouth to keep their minds cool and eyes sharp. But now in the modern era, tea is drunk first instead of water, which may cause lots of disorders.

Nature Science and also Ayurveda recommends waking up in Brahma Muhurta, which is around 2-3 hours before sunrise. Usha means dawn, which is nearly just before sunrise. So, there is around 60 minutes gap between the time of Brahma Muhurta and Dawn. So, Usha Paan should be done then.

Drinking water in the morning can prevent and help manage abdominal disorders, including constipation, malabsorption, and piles. It also helps with urinary disorders and blood disorders. It is also beneficial in diseases of the upper parts of the body, including the head, nose, ear, and throat. Usha Paan is highly useful in the prevention and treatment of skin diseases.

Usha Paan Technique

Put drinking water in mud pot if available, if not, in copper pot overnights in side of the beds. You can already add some tulsi leaves, or beal leaves  or rudraksh seed or Tripala to water. Drink this water next morning before sunrise or just after wake up.

After waking up, sit in Bajrasana, exhale few times through mouth and drink water on the bed and get down from the bed, walk few minutes freely, then can go to Toilet.

After morning cleansing acts, again drink lemon water or Tulsi tea or Mint Tea and can start the morning yoga session but not only the yogasana or exercise.

Take drinking water in a glass of water. Below the nose and clean the nasal passage. Keep the aim of the glass under your nostril and inhale very slowly and gently till you feel the water in the throat. It should be done under obeservation or after training. Now, you have to just go on drinking the water in the usual way. Drink it daily.

Precaution:  Don’t inhale forcefully.

Benefits of Usha Paan

Drinking water in the morning prevents and cures almost all diseases. Especially, it is helpful in piles, abdominal disorders, Grahani disease (irritable bowel syndrome), fever, obesity, and diseases of organs located in the upper part of the body (above the neck). It helps in diseases of the ear and improves longevity. It is also useful in urinary disorders and blood disorders. Some other benefits of Usha Paan are :

1. Removes worms from stomach of tulsi leaves are added to the water.
2. It prifies the blood and keeps the skin healthy and beauty.
3. Lowers blood pressure if Rudraksh is added to the water.
4. It removes the acidity and Gastrities by use of triphala.
5. For diabetes use bael leaves in the water.
6. If Agnisar and Udarakarshanasana are performed after the Usha Paan, the bowels become clear.
7. It protects from so many diseases.

Note

1. Don’t drink Usha Paan water in hiccup , wound and pneumonia.
2. Don’t take the water just after drinking castor oil. Increase the quantity of water gradually.

Fasting means generally not eating. But fasting is the state of reducing the excess things and increasing the essential things for natural life. It is both a science and an art. Fasting is a part of dynamic health and the process of spiritual perfection. For one day, a week, or a month. Fasting will prove a great health boon. Total abstinence from all food for a definite period to give rest to the stomach and intestines, but it is not starvation.

Wild creatures keep fast when they are ill and become healthy. Fasting is the best way to cure diseases, promote health, and transform the entire energy into spiritual awareness.

Water fast , juice fast, fruit fast, liquid fast, mano diet fast, no breakfast fast there are many types of fasts. Fast is included in religious activities called vrata. Mainly there are four types of fast religious, political, therapeutic and spiritual but we have to consider the second one to be happy  and healthy. Let everyone enjoy the fruit of health with fasting.

Benefits of Fasting

• Gives rest to vital organs like the heart, liver, kidney, etc.
• Stop the intake of foods that decompose in the intestine and poison the body.
• Empties the digestive tract and disposes of putrefactive bacteria.
• Allows organs of elimination to function efficiently.
• Re-establishes normal physiological chemistry and normal secretions.
• Promotes the breaking down and absorption of diseased tissues, deposits, and abnormal growths.
• Restores youthful conditions of the cells and tissues and rejuvenates the body.
• Increase the power of digestion and assimilation.
• Permits the conservation and re-channelization of energy.
• Skin texture and function is improved.
• Enhances the process of healing open sores, the repair of wounds, and broken bones.
• Blood volume diminishes in proportion to the decrease in size of the body. Red cells of healthy fasters are reported to show a decrease in white cells.
• The soft tissues of the body lose weight during a fast, as they waste away through the body’s resources. Biologically important organs are sustained at the expense of the less important ones.
• Prepare the foundation to have fasts. Relax your body and mind, eliminate laughter at fasting symptoms, and break the fast cautiously.

By Dr Subodh Simkhada