Cobra Pose

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

Kapalbhati is a breathing exercise for cleansing the respiratory system. It also means shining the skull. It is part of the Eight Limbs of Yoga as compiled in the Yoga Sutras by Sage Patanjali. Practicing Kapalbhati keeps you healthy in mind, body, and spirit.

Kapalbhati Technique

Sit in Padmasana/Siddhasana or any other comfortable pose. Perform quick exhalation with very short inhalation. With succession of inhalations and exhalations the abdominal muscles are pushed back and forth.

To start with, practice ten expulsions followed by deep inhalation. Then retain as long as you can comfortably do so. Then exhale slowly. Take breaths.

Benefits of Kapalbhati Pranayama

1. Enlightens the brain.
2. Beneficial for the lungs and heart.
3. Improves blood circulation
4. Purifies the brain.
5. Destroys kapha accumulated in wind pipe.
6. Strengthens the liver, intestines, pancreas, and digestive system.
7. Brings heat to the body when it is cold.
8. Reduces wrinkles and brings glow to the skin.
9. Mobilizes the fat by regulating the metabolism of body.
10. Helps to clean the sinus and respiratory passages.
11. Fills more oxygen into the lungs.
12. Lends elasticity to the diaphragm and increases the capacity of the lungs.
13. Stimulates and tones the abdominal muscles.
14. Purifies the blood by redirecting it to the lungs for oxygenation.
15. Improves the memory.
16. Helps to reduce headache and giddiness.
17. Improves circulation of blood.

Kapalbhati for Skin Health: Kapalbhati has shown great results for skin. It’s practice cleanses the body from the inside, which results in the excretion of all impurities and dirt. Thus, we can see clear and glowing skin. It works strongly for those who continuously face acne and wrinkles.

Kapalbhati Benefits for Heart: Kapalbhati controls all the factors that are harmful to the heart. It controls the High Blood pressure problem and balances and removes all the toxins present in the body in any form. It works on stress and depression, which are highly responsible for heart attacks.

Why yoga in student life?

Yogic Journey:
O……….M………..3 times “AUM HREEM AIM HREEM SARASWATAI NAMAH” -3 TIMES

Normally, children don’t have any problems in their lives like adults, but they need to do yoga for their academic improvement, stress management, and healthy body and mind. All students from class 1 to graduate need to do yoga in their life for their study as well as for physical, mental, and psychological health development.

Health + Happiness + Harmony = Union = Yoga

Some of the students are under the stress of their family condition and other psychological problems. If they do yoga, they can be free from the stress from outside the classroom, and they can concentrate on their study. Why yoga for students?

Many types of research have shown that yoga can improve the concentration and memory of students. Hence, Yoga for students is essential to improve students’ study and health. There are a lot of benefits of yoga in student life.

Why yoga for students?

1. Academic Improvement

Research over the past years has shown that Yoga can provide stress-relieving powers on students, paving the way for improved academic performance with the practice of asanas, meditation, and breathing exercises. Students talked of decreased stress levels and being more at peace to study, resulting in an increase in GPA.

2. Boosting Memory

With stress, anxiety, and negative thoughts sidelined through meditation, Yoga brings forth thoughts that you need to be focusing on. Studies have shown that Yoga has better results than brain training.

Historical wisdom has now combined with scientific studies to show that Yoga is a recommended therapy for students as well as adults.

3. Longer Attention Span

Active children might have a tough time sitting down to focus on studies. With regular yoga sessions of 20 minutes a day for a period of four weeks, children can focus longer on subjects.

The yogic environment and principles encourage the mind to focus and concentrate on one thought while gently setting aside distractions. Children with ADHD have also shown to have prolonged attention spans with regular practice of yoga.

4. Improved Posture

Sitting hunched over a desk for long hours leads to chronic pain and reduces breathing capacity. That’s why Yoga will make you more aware of your body and train your muscles to align correctly.

Correctly aligning the body allows the body to function with a minimal amount of energy. Yoga poses aimed at balance, flexibility, and stamina, strengthen muscles and connective tissues enabling good posture.

The practice of Yoga will bring a positive change in mood and attitude, increased energy levels and the ability to focus on what is required by setting aside distracting thoughts in a student.

Subtle Exercise:
Pair poses warm up – Child Jump, Jogging

Some of Yogasanas for the students are here:

1. Cat-cow pose
2. Baby Rock
3. Lion Pose
4. Tiger Pose
5. Happy Baby
6. Staff Pose
7. Child Pose
8. Pigeon Pose
9. Cobra Pose
10. Tree Pose
11. Chair Pose
12. Lotus Pose
13. Seated Twist Tose
14. Garland Pose
15. Baby Play
16. Druta halasana

Pranayama:
Anuloma-Viloma, Ujjayi, and Bharamari Pranayama

Meditation Yoga:
Use of Seed Mantra recitation

Here’s tips to improve memory for students :

Ashtanga Yoga Kundalini Yoga for 20 minutes a day, with chanting can help boost memory.

OM Shantih! Shantih!! Shantih!!!

By Dr Subodh Simkhada

Pranayama is the process of Breath control. Pranayama means Prana + Aayama; where prana stands for Life force and Aayama stands for expansion. There are four stages of Pranayama, i.e., Puraka (Inhalation), Anatara Kumbhaka (Inner retention), Rechaka (Exhalation), and Bahira Kumbhaka (Internal Kumbhaka). Pranayama is also called Kumbhaka. Literally Kumbhaka is pranayama. Pranayama is not a breathing exercise, it is breath control or breath ethics. When we do only inhalation and exhalation, that is called the Breathing Acts (swasa kriya). When we do breathing with Kumbhaka (Retention) is called Pranayama, and with Bandhas (Lock), it is also called advanced Pranayama. Below, we explained the Methods of Pranayama.

“Pranayama Paramo Tapah” that means Pranayama is supreme spiritual practice. Pranayama is itself austerity.

For beginners and therapeutic purposes, we do only Swasa Kriya, and next level, we can follow the pranayama and advanced pranayama as well.

1. Deep Breathing
Sit in a meditative posture. First, exhale and use a light uddiyan bandha and mool bandha. Inhale slowly and deeply. The belly comes out. Exhale slowly. The belly comes in. Practice it for 3 to 5 minutes. Concentration will be on breathing or navel (Manipur chakra).

2. Anuloma Viloma Swasa Kriya (Pranayama)
Sit in a meditative pose. Close your eyes. Put the hand on the left knee. Put the left hand nostril with right thumb. Inhale slowly and evenly through the nostril, filling the lungs close to the left nostril with ring finger, and exhale through the right nostril. It is one round. Now repeat the process 5-10 times.

3. Naadi Shodhan Pranayama

Naadi Shodhana is the psychic network purification. It has four techniques. If somebody wants to learn this pranayama very well, it takes 42 days to learn Nado Shodhana in a literal way with a Yoga Guru.
Technique 1: Preparatory phase- Inhale and exhale through left nostril 5 to 10 times and through right 5 to 10 times
Technique 2: Inhale through the left nostril and exhale through the right
nostril. It is called Anuloma- Viloma ( Alternate nostrils breath
Technique-3: If you retain the breath, it becomes naadi shodhan pranayama. The ratio is IN: IR: EX = 1:4:2 = 10: 40: 20 second and starting from 1:1:1, for 20 rounds. After good practice ratio should be 1:1:2, 1:2:2, or 1:4:2. Repeat the rounds 5-20 gradually.
Advanced Pranayama: i. with Jalandhara Bandha, ii. with Jalandhara and Moola Bandhas
Technique-4: The ratio is IN: IR: EX: ER = 1:4:2:2 = 10: 40: 20: 20 second and starting from 1:1:1:1, for 20 rounds. After good practice ratio should be 1:1:2:1; 1:2:2:1; 1:2:2:2; 1:3:2:2; 1:4:2:2;. Repeat the rounds 5-20 gradually.
Advance Pranayama: i. with Jalandhara Bandha; ii. with Jalandhara and Moola Bandhas and iii. with Tri bandha

4. Plaviini prayama
Sit in any meditative posture. Place the hands on the knees. Keep the body erect. Close your eyes. Keeping the mouth in a round shape, start shipping the air in the same manner in which water is shipped. Let the stomach float with air. When the stomach is filled with air, close the mouth for a few moments and hold air, close the mouth for a few moments and hold the air inside. Keeping the tongue out and bending from the lumbar region. Exhale the air completely out of the lungs. Repeat this process three times or more.

5. Ujjai Pranayama
Sit in any meditative posture or any other comfortable pose. Keep the hands on the knees. Close the eyes and mouth. Contract the lower part of the tongue, the glottis, and inhale in such a way that a sound is produced of a mild and uniform pitch like snoring (khanratey). Use light uddiyan bandha. Exhale slowly, inhale from the nostrils to the throat and then to the heart. Retain it with comfort. While exhaling, visualize the movement of the prana from heart to throat, from throat to nostrils. Exhale slowly.

6. Bhramari Pranayama

Sit in a comfortable posture. Put the index fingers into the ears. Close your eyes. Inhale deeply. Exhale through nostrils, emitting a buzzing sound like a black bee. Repeat it 5 to 10 times, and then breathe in deeply and retain as long as you can with comfort. The exhale slowly and resume normal breathing.

7. Bhastrika Pranayama
Sit in a meditative posture. Keep the hands on the knees. Close your eyes. Adopt the process of goldsmith’s bellows or like a panting dog. Inhale and exhale rapidly and forcibly. Close the left nostril with the two fingers of the right hand. Now close the right nostril and inhale and exhale rapidly. Do this 15 times for each nostril. After that, practice with both nostrils. Finish with outer kumbhaka.

8. Chandrabhedi Pranayma
Sit in a comfortable posture. Put left hand on the left knee in gyana mudra. Place the two first fingers of the right hand at the root of the thumb. Close the right nostril with the help of the right thumb. Inhale deeply through the left nostril with the help of the ring finger. Retain the breath in antrik kumbhaka. Perform the three bandhas while doing kumbhaka exhale slowly through the right nostril. Every inhalation will be through the left nostril and exhalation through the right nostril.

9. Suryabhedi Pranayama
The whole process is the same as chandrabhedi pranayama. The only difference is that inhalation is implemented through the right nostril and the exhalation through the left nostril every time. Repeat this 5 times in the beginning and increase the rounds gradually.

10. Sheetali Pranayama
Sit comfortably. Take out the tongue and fold it lengthwise like a tube. Draw in air through the mouth with a hissing sound the retain it as long as you can with comfort, keeping the mouth closed. Then, exhale slowly through both nostrils. Repeat this 6 times.

By Subodh Simkhada

Yama and Niyaman are the fundamentals of Ashtanga Yoga. They are the first two limbs. Yama and Niyama are the ethical precepts set forth in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras as the first and second of the eight limbs of yoga. They are the foundation of our practice, without which no spiritual progress along the path of yoga can be made. Many people come to yoga initially as a physical exercise and only later begin to understand the profound spiritual effect it has on our lives. 

The Yamas and Niyamas originate from the very well-known text ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’, which many yoga teachers or teachers-in-training will have attempted to decipher at some point. Patanjali is known as a sage, but it’s very unlikely that one man wrote these texts – and far more likely that the texts are the culmination of what a group of Patanjali’s disciples wrote over some time. 

I. Yama

1. Non-violence (Athimsa) means not to hurt any creature mentally or physically through mind, speech and action.
2. Truthfulness (Satya) is the presentation of a matter as perceived with the help of sense organs.
3. Non-stealing (Asteya) means not to covet and acquire physically, mentally, or by speech others’ possessions.
4. Cosmic Regimen (Brahmacharya): Brahmacharya is the self restraint to follow the code and conduct of Nature. It means the appilication of natural habit and explores true nature. It follows the biological cycle on need base, not a desires and expectations.
5. Non-acquisitiveness (Aparigraha) means abandoning wealth and means of sensual pleasures.

II. Niyama

1. Cleanliness (shauch) means internal and external purification of body and the mind.
2. Contentment (santisha) is a state of mind by which one lives happily and satisfied in a congenial or uncongenial atmosphere.
3. Austerity (penance/tapas) is the conquest of all desires or sensual pleasures by practicing purity in thought, speech and action.
4. Self study (swadhyana) means exchange of thoughts in order to secure in thought and accomplish knowledge.
5. Surrender to God (Ishwara Pranidhana)  consists of devotion to god and surrendering all actions to him.