Yoga : Mudra

In Sanskrit the word mudra means "stamp". In "Gherand Samhita" explains 45 wise and bandh, many of which can be done only under the supervision of an experienced guru. Twelve of them are particularly important, as some of them were described above. 

Mudra benefit and body, and spirit, although used primarily for the awakening of the spirit. They adjust to the serious yoga and meditation are used for the control and direction of pranic energy in the body. 
Flank mudra ( "rolled-wise") 

1. Lie on your back, lift your legs together and Touch them to the floor behind the head. This "attitude plow" (halasana). 

2. Now Slide the feet about the width of the hips. Bend your knees and lower hips toward the chest until your knees do not touch the ears, shoulders, and sex. 

3. Firmly connect the hands behind the knees, breathe deeply and slowly, concentrating on the breath of the navel. 

4. Hold the press, until it causes you discomfort, then log off and relax. 

Try not to strain your back muscles. Do not exercise if you suffer from sciatica, high blood pressure or detached retina, as well as during the menstrual cycle. 

The benefits of this mudra is that it calms the nerves, stretches the back muscles and stimulates the nerves of the spine. It also massages the abdominal organs and tones the sexual organs. 
Ashwini mudra ( "horse seal") 

This mudra is so named because that. empty, the horse several times expands and compresses the anus. 

Phase 

1. Lie on your back and bend your knees, prying apart the feet about the width of the hips, put your feet on the floor. Hold back to the floor. In this position, the abdomen is relaxed, and now you will be easier to move to the next stage. 

2. Now, squeeze and relax the anal sphincter (which is located in the rectum). 

Repeat the contraction and relaxation a few times, then relax completely. 

Phase 

1. Now take a comfortable meditation position, close your eyes and relax. 

2. Take a deep breath and hold your breath. 

3. Squeeze for a few seconds of anal sphincter. 

4. Exhale and relax the sphincter. 

5. Relax for a few seconds, then repeat the whole process Ashwini mudra few more times. 

Stage 

1. Continuing to sit in meditation, take a deep breath and hold your breath. 

2. Rapidly and continuously tighten and relax anal sphincter as the largest possible number of times until you are able to hold their breath without much discomfort. 

3. Stop and breathe. 

Perform three cycles Ashwini mudra to 30 contractions in each, gradually increasing their number to ten to 60 contractions in each. Try not to strain. 

Benefits Ashwini mudra: 

- Strengthens the base of the pelvis and prevents prolapse of the rectum and uterus; 

- Prevents hemorrhoids, toning blood vessels in the anus; 

- Prevents constipation by stimulating peristalsis; 

- Tones the testes and the pelvic nerves; 

- Enhances mulabandhu and sends prana upward. Note that mulabandha differs from Ashwini mudra: printing does not involve the alternate compression and relaxation of the sphincter.

Mahabandha (triple lock)

When mahabandhv all three bandhas - mulabandha, Uddiyana-on and Jalandhara Bandha Bandha - made simultaneously during external respiration delay during Pranayama. 

1. Sit in Siddhasana or Siddha Yoni Asana, putting his hands on his knees. 

2. Take a deep breath and a deep breath. 

3. Make mulabandhu, Uddiyana Bandha, then Jalandhara Bandha. 

4. Hold your breath, hold three locks, while it does not cause you discomfort. Do not strain. 

5. Remove locks in the following order: Jalandhar Uddiyana, mulabandha. 

6. Slowly inhale and relax. Mahabandha updates all the prana body, stimulates the flow of spiritual energy, and combines all the advantages of three gang

Jalandhara bandha (chin lock)

"Jal" means "network" or "interlocking" (in the neck has a network of nerves and arteries, ascending to the brain). "Dhara" means "upward movement". 

When Jalandhara bandha internal and external carotid arteries, located on both sides of the neck and carry blood to the brain, under the pressure of compressed. Jalandhara is also pressure on the sleepy axillary nerve. All this affects the blood pressure, slows the heartbeat and the movement of nerve impulses to the brain, which calms the soul. 

Jalandhara Bandha follow this: 

1. Sit in a comfortable position, preferably in Padmasana or Siddhasana (see Chapter 8) (useful it will firmly rest against his knees on the floor), and put his hands on his knees. Close your eyes and relax. 

2. Take a deep breath and hold your breath. 

3. Without straining the neck muscles, Discharge head forward and press down firmly on the chin, the neck cavity between the collarbones. That's good stretches the cervical vertebrae, which, in turn, stimulates the nerve centers, relieve cranial nerves and beneficial effect on the thyroid gland. 

4. Hold the lock as much as you can without severe discomfort, then disconnect it, raising his head and exhale. Do this exercise ten times, gradually increasing the number of repetitions to twenty. Hold your breath until the lock is open and no head is not raised. 

Jalandhara Bandha should not be done without the guidance of professional people with high intracranial pressure or heart disease. 

When viewed from the esoteric point of view, then from the Sahasrara Chakra through the hole in the sky to the Manipura chakra flows and stomach burns with fire delicate nectar. Jalandhara Bandha prevents the nectar to disappear, so the body accumulates the elixir of life and life is prolonged. 

Jalandhara Bandha can also be done standing, legs apart by about 60 cm, bending the torso forward, resting his hands on his knees and straighten hands.

Bandhas

Bandha means "lock". This name also belongs to the postures in which some parts of the body are taken under control and compressed in some way. It is important to use bandhas at the highest levels of Pranayama, because without it you can harm the nervous system and may cause the body "Pranic short-circuiting. I do not accidentally quote a comparison with the electrical circuit. Electricity is on the chain, which can operate normally without causing any harm, as there are transformers, safety plugs, wires and switches. Without them, the current current can be fatal for us. 

Bandhas "locked" prana, to prevent its diversion to direct the flow of prana energy to the destination, which concentrated yogi. Bandhas also help unite Apana with Prana and send a powerful Pranic flow in sushumna Nadi to awaken the kundalini shakti. Apana - it prana (vital energy force), directed downwards. It operates in the area from the navel to the anus. Her role - give, throw, to send out, it controls ejaculation, defecation, urination, digestion and reproduction. In addition, Apana directs the Kundalini up in sushumnuddya reunification with prana. You can do so that prana can not flow upward due Jalandhara bandhas (chin lock) and Apana not be able to run down because muladkhara bandhas (anal lock). This makes the Prana and Apana unite and flow into Sushumna.

Offer your food to God

Being a vegetarian - so do good work, take a step to the purification of body and soul, but for the purification of consciousness is necessary to devote his food to God with love and devotion to God first tried it and blessed the food. It will also help you remember the day of God: "If someone presents me with love and devotion a leaf, flower, fruit or water, I will accept the gift" (Bhagavad Gita 9:26). 

Cooking - acts no less important. When we buy and prepare food deliberately, with care and love, then its preparation connects Prana. Obviously, between the taste of food cooked with love and food, which the cooking without love, there is a difference. 

Below I will talk about how to cook, how to offer it as a gift to God for blessings, and how glad she ate it. 

First Keep a few natural, high quality herbal products. Thoroughly wash your hands before you enter the kitchen. Wash fruits and vegetables. When cooking, always use only fresh produce: do not mix the remaining ingredients from fresh as well as those that you offer a gift to God, should not be offered to him again. Do not try to prepare food: now we are preparing for God, and he was the first to try the food. Finally, when the delicious food prepared with love and devotion, dedicate its source of life (God), Creator of all things. 

Now spread a nice meal and get ready for a meal. If you eat meals with family or spiritual friends, can join hands and meditate for a minute or two with your eyes closed. However, you can pay a prayer to God. 

Prayer, which I use for many years, I heard from my teacher Sri Kriyyanandy (disciple of the Paramhansy Yogananda). You can use it or think its: 

"Light up, Lord, His light food that we eat, because it - Yours, filled it with His love, His power, His divine life. Om, Amen. " 

By offering the gift of God, food, begin to eat it in silence. Eat slowly, chewing it before swallowing. Do not forget that digestion begins in the mouth. 

After graduating there, sit five or ten minutes in Vajrasana (on the heels with relaxed hands on his knees). This position removes blood from the legs to the stomach, promoting digestion.

Yoga Diet

Vegetarian diet is essential to those who seek a spiritual life. If you really want to grow spiritually and to rise from an ordinary material life to a higher spiritual consciousness, you need to observe a vegetarian diet. The fact that there is food, which contributes to a more subtle work of the mind and body, but there is also such that it reduces consciousness to the animal level. 

Yogi prefers such food, which updates almost no body loads of slag and stress, giving the soul a calm, clear and exalted state. Cleansing the body and soul goes hand in hand with spiritual rebirth. Vegetarian diet contributes significantly to lofty thoughts, meditation on the divine, as well as meditation and compassion. 

Yogi shows compassion and respect for all living things, as described in the Bhagavadgita: "The humble sage, by virtue of their virtuous knowledge is equally applicable to pundit (teachers, clergy), cow, elephant, dog and hog dogs (pariahs). 

Yoga diet consists of foods that grow in natural conditions - it is vegetables, herbs, fruits, nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and some dairy products. Yogi uses these products either in its natural form or in that which makes them suitable for easy digestion with minimal disruption to your prana (life force).

Children Yoga : The habits of sitting in our childhood

In the course of life, we also accumulates habits - harmful, beneficial, different. Yet precisely those habits that are laid into us with a small age, shape our character, attitude toward themselves and the outside world. 

Good Habits - a pledge of harmony with oneself and others. All parents vigilantly monitor the health of their child, and, of course, everyone would like to see as an adult, our children with the same vigilant about their own health. 

Immunize your child a good habit - yoga. In your power to do so. After all, you teach him every day to brush your teeth, wash and do a lot of other necessary things. Let exercise that will provide invaluable benefit to health, will also become an integral part of his regime of the day, part of his personal hygiene. 

An illustrative example in this respect may serve China - a country where the sport has a leading role in shaping the health of the individual and a healthy nation as a whole. Perform the exercises of qigong and wushu friendly company in the courtyard of his home for the Chinese as commonplace as for us to sit on the bench, watching the child. 

Through yoga you teach a child to control his body and control the thoughts. This yoga will develop body and mind in harmony. 

- Inspire a child to engage in something possible only through the game, and certainly not in the role of an observer! - Tells kids yoga instructor Natasha Volkova. - In a lot of yoga asanas, depicting various animals and birds: "Fish," Stork "," Crocodile "," dog "," kitty ". Children are interested, it is easy to arouse interest in studies. At the same time, it is useful dynamic and static asanas of yoga. The child is in fact no matter how valid or that asana on the body, but it increases its interest in the outside world, develop powers of observation. Of course, children's yoga is more soft and playful, adapted for the perception of a certain age, individual characteristics of the child. The simplest example - a small change in the title poses: child nicer to perform a pose "grasshopper" than "locusts". The meaning remains the same, but for the perception of pleasant and cheerful. 

In the classroom Natalia is asking children ages 5 to 9 years of age to concentrate on deep breathing, basically they breathe at random. 

- During the implementation communicate, exchange experiences with your child, be on equal terms. It is under this condition, you will be easier to use a competitive time, which operates smoothly - Natalia advises parents to independent home exercises. - Follow the general rules simple: move on to lessons on an empty stomach or after a half or two hours after eating. To drink, if not milk and its derivatives, can be 30 minutes before class. Execution time of each posture can vary depending on the abilities and temperament of the child. But (!) Never let your child be in a position longer than this time, because posture can cause strain. Take breaks to relax. It is not necessary to perform the lotus position, stand on his head and other difficult poses, such as upside-down, which are contraindicated for children with breach of intracranial pressure. Be responsible - do not be lazy to consult a doctor. The body of the child grows, develops, and we must understand clearly how to perform exercises. From simple to complex in yoga can go for years! If you are not confident in their knowledge of asanas, ask for help from the instructor. 

Today we offer you two postures to develop flexibility. Do not forget, we carry out together! 

Cat Pose 

1. Stand on all fours, hands and feet shoulder-width apart. 

2. Breath, bent his back and draw in the belly, but omit the head between hands, tyanemsya chin to the chest. 

3. Exhale and sags in the back. Raise the head and look up. 

All three movements are one. Clearly adhering to the sequence, make up to five times. Slowly, without jerks or sudden movements, like a kitten. 

In addition to strengthening the back, spine, this exercise charitable impact on digestion, toning muscles. 

Crocodile Pose 

1. Lie on your stomach, legs wide apart in the most part, the foot turned outwards, arms straight and extended forward. 

2. Ruki put under his head. 

Repeat up to 5 times. Therapeutic effect of posture: soothes breathing, massages the abdominal cavity, which again is well affect digestion. 

Develop and improve your child, instilling in him a love for physical exercise in childhood, and then the sport will be an integral part of his life. Health to you and your children!