India to hold biggest Yoga fest in China next week

India to hold biggest Yoga fest in China next week

India will hold the biggest Yoga festival in China next week where the iconic Indian spiritual and physical art form has become a rage with millions of health-conscious Chinese making it part of their routine.

More than 1500 people are expected to take part in the Yoga Summit — the second such festival to be held in China in recent years — that will be held from July 7 to 12 at the picturesque city of Dali in Yunnan Province.

Indian Embassy and Indian Consulate in Guangzhou is organising the event as part of the ongoing year-long Glimpses of India festival being organised across China to expose the Chinese public to popular Indian ancient dance and art forms.

The Sangeet Natak Akadami dance troupe which is currently touring China is scheduled to perform at the festival. Geeta S Iyengar, daughter of the famous Yoga guru B K S Iyengar, along with 17 top Yoga exponents would take part in the event.

B K S Iyengar, who visited China in 2012, has become a popular ambassador of the art form among millions of Chinese practitioners and his works were widely translated into Mandarin.

The art form has become a rage with almost every gym across China having Yoga instructors. Specialised teaching centres like YogiYoga, run by Yoga exponent Mohan Singh Bhandari and Yinyan, a Chinese journalist who previously worked for Elle Magazine, trains over 8,000 would-be teachers.

Yoga is also considered as a million-dollar business in China where it is seen as a more of potent physical exercise. There is, however, criticism about the certification of teachers being churned out by many institutes.

The Yoga Summit which is being advertised all over China is expected to draw large audience, Indian officials said. Indian Ambassador Ashok K Kantha and top local Chinese officials were expected to take attend the festival.

Source: samachar


Ekpada uttanasana — an asana to improve digestion and tone your tummy

Ekpada uttanasana — an asana to improve digestion and tone your tummy

Ekpada uttanasana also known as the one-leg-raised yoga pose, is one of the best asanas to help tone the muscles of your abdomen and upper thighs. Apart from that it is a great pose for people suffering from asthma, as it opens up the chest – invigorating the entire respiratory system and supplying fresh oxygen to deprived parts of the body. This asana also helps with flexibility, making your hip muscles more flexible and strengthens your lower back. Considering how the pose is done, ekpada uttanasana also helps improve digestion, and massages the organs directly related to your sexual health; ensuring that you have a healthy libido. Moreover, if you suffer from menstrual disorders, this asana is just what the doctor ordered.

Steps to do this asana:

  • Lie down on the floor with your legs stretched out and your hands by your side.
  • Make sure your entire body is relaxed at this stage.
  • Now, stretch out and point the toes of your right leg and tighten the muscles of the entire leg.
  • Next, inhale and raise the leg so that it is perpendicular to your body.Do not jerk up the leg since you may end up injuring your back.
  • Hold this position for about six seconds while holding our breath.
  • To go back to the starting position, slowly exhale and lower your leg simultaneously. Rest for six breaths and then do the same exercise with your left leg.

Source: the health site


Smart yoga mat can be used as personal trainer

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This smart yoga mat has been developed by a Munich-based company Lunar Europe. The mat dubbed Tera is embedded with sensors and a constellation of LED lights.

The embedded sensors would help in tracking pressure and shifts in body movement while the data is used to cue patterns in the lights, designed to guide stance and posture.

According to a report, an app connects to the mat through Bluetooth, cueing up lights along the way.

The mat is designed in a circular shape, which helps to accommodate the natural radius of human motion, making transitions between poses and keeping up the flow of the practice easier.

Tera can accommodate yoga meant for weight control or strengthening back muscles.

Source; post


Try Vajrasana to improve digestion

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This is a simple pose that is great to relax the mind and improve digestion. It is believed that a good digestive system is the key to a healthy body. Therefore this asana is ideal to improve hair growth. Vajrasana also massages the kanda spot about 12 inches above the anus that is the point of convergence for over 72,000 nerves.

Steps to do this pose: All you need to do is place a yoga mat on the floor. Kneel on the mat, and let the top surface of your feet touch the mat such that your heels are pointing upwards. Now gently place your buttocks on your heels. It is important to note that your heels are on either side of your anus. Now place both your palms on your knees, facing downwards. Close your eye and breath in deeply at a steady rate.

Source: The health site


Yoga can ease stress for pregnant women

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Practicing yoga during pregnancy can help you reap health benefits like stress reduction and a decrease in a woman’s fear of childbirth, according to researchers.

A new report from Manchester University researchers finds that it can ease stress and reduce women`s fear of childbirth by a third. In addition to its many other health benefits for pregnant women, including reduced cortisol levels, less difficult birth plus more full term and healthy weight neonates, pregnancy yoga is a low cost intervention too.

Yoga teacher Natasha Harding has two children that she delivered naturally using her skills in the art. “Yoga is a wonderful exercise to try during pregnancy, when you naturally want to take it a bit easier. It’s ideal to ease many of the ailments that women suffer from when they’re pregnant such as backache, sciatica and general aches and pains,” she said.

“By maintaining a regular yoga practice during pregnancy the positions will become second nature with the aim being that the woman can have a more active labour with less intervention.

“My second baby was born in 51 minutes. It was because of the fact I did yoga every single day and felt so strong during the birth,” he added.

Harding`s five favourite yoga poses to try every day while you’re expecting:

* Butterfly (Badha Konasana): This position allows the baby to move down into the pelvis and uses all the muscles that a woman draws upon in labour. The yoga guru BKS Iyengar claims if a woman practises this pose every day it will take the pain out of child-birth.

* Wide Legged Seated (Upivista Konasana): Stretching your legs in this position will encourage your hips to be more flexible which is clearly vital during labour. It’s a great position to do every day if possible and leaning forward will gently stretch the back too and towards the end encourage the baby into a good birth pose.

* Staff (Dandasana): Staff pose is wonderful to sit in and circle your ankles and legs each day which will help with any puffiness you may be experiencing. When you combine breathing work too. you’re helping to release your shoulders as well as creating much needed space in your abdomen and chest. It’s a good one to try if you’re getting heart burn.

* Cat (Marjariasana) with arm and leg lifts: Being on your hands and knees is wonderful for any pregnant women as it relieves symptoms of backache and encourages the baby into a good birth pose – our mums would have been told to wash the floors. By lifting the arm and leg you stabilise the pelvis which is vital during pregnancy.

* Down Dog – adapted for pregnancy (Adho Mukha Svanasana): A lot of women find their back aches a lot during pregnancy and Down Dog is a great stretch to try. When you’re pregnant though you shouldn’t do the full pose, so using the wall instead will give a similar stretch but it’s much safer.

Source: zee news


New studies offer evidence of the mind and body benefits of yoga

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The idea that yoga is beneficial is not new. But new studies continue to advance our understanding of the health benefits attained through yoga practice. Three studies reported in the April 2014 issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine show that yoga can improve balance and reduce fear of falling, helps to reduce and regulate blood pressure and can improve important aspects of cardiovascular health.

As we age, it is common to experience a loss of balance and an increased risk of injury due to falling. Yoga, with its great emphasis on enhancing overall balance, demonstrates the capacity to reduce age-related imbalance and the tendency for fall-related injuries. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined 152 studies on yoga, identifying 15 that assessed balance-related issues. Among these, 11 studies showed that yoga practice can enhance balance, reduce the incidence of balance-related falls and reduce fear of falling – a common issue among seniors.

The balance study was not based on one style of yoga or on one particular practice, but on several styles, and on a number of methods aimed at improving balance, especially one-legged standing poses.

Yoga is low impact and can be adapted to meet the abilities of most people. Yoga practice shows no negative interactions with medications and improves body awareness, a factor in loss of balance. The bottom line of this study was that yoga can improve balance and reduce falls that lead to injury. For seniors, this is a significant gain.

The second yoga study, conducted at the University of South Carolina College of Medicine, examined the effects of Hatha yoga on blood pressure among a group of young people. Hatha yoga is the most commonly practiced of yoga styles. The study involved a group of 28 seventh-graders. Half of the group participated in school-based yoga practice for three months, while the other half attended a music or art class. Among these students, some were pre-hypertensive, meaning they exhibited standard clinical signs of early-stage high blood pressure.

Overall, the students who practiced yoga had lower resting blood pressure and reduced a-amylase activity, a determining factor in high blood pressure, as determined by a variety of tests. Researchers concluded that Hatha yoga helps to decrease resting blood pressure and regulate important nerve and hormonal factors that can lead to blood pressure disorders. This finding is consistent with other assessments of blood pressure among those who practice yoga. Given that high blood pressure is a common problem that can lead to other health complications and increase mortality, this benefit is significant.

The third yoga study, conducted by researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School, examined a group of Tibetan yogis who engage in an extreme yoga practice known as Tumo, or Tum-Mo, at very high altitude in the freezing Himalayan cold. This technique seems to enable the yogis to maintain normal body temperatures at very cold temperatures, apparently without harm.

Dum-Mo has been studied and filmed by American cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson, who founded the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In Benson’s film, the yogis, clad only in loin cloths, sit on the freezing ground melting iced sheets wrapped around their bodies, while members of the film crew huddle in heavy down-filled mountaineering gear.

The Eastern Virginia Medical School study examined various cardiovascular factors of both non-yogis and yogis in sub-zero temperatures. As expected, the non-yogis were not capable of generating inner body heat, and had to be warmed to maintain a healthy body temperature. The Tum-Mo practitioners stayed warm without shivering. Analysis of heart rate, blood pressure and numerous other factors resulted in the conclusion that this mystifying practice somehow enables the Tum-Mo yogis to activate brown fat and generate heat, increasing overall blood flow greatly and decreasing peripheral vascular resistance.

The Tum-Mo study left many questions unanswered, but it showed yet again that yoga can exert profound changes in normal physiological activity – in this case, keeping Tum-Mo yogis warm at temperatures that would typically lead to death by hypothermia.

Deriving from India, China, Nepal and Southeast Asia, yoga practices of various types have gained popularity because they are adaptable to people of all ages and most levels of fitness, and impart significant benefits on both body and mind. These three recently reported studies support the salutary effects of yoga, and clearly show that practice can positively affect health in significant ways.

Source: fox news


12-Year-Old Becomes Youngest Yoga Instructor In Us

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Jaysea DeVoe is a yoga instructor who has the challenging job of teaching fidgety preschoolers the ancient practice, but once her charges get going, she says, “they really start to focus and listen.”

DeVoe knows a thing or two about childhood and focus, for she is only 12 years old and just recently became a certified yoga instructor after completing 200 hours of teacher training. She is believed to be the youngest certified female yoga instructor in the United States.

In addition to her pint-size students aged 4 to 6, DeVoe teaches teens and fellow tweens in her California beach town of Encinitas and is about to start a family yoga class. Oh, and she just told her dad she wants to look into making eco-friendly yoga mats.

“I feel like I want to do this for a long time because I love teaching so much,” says DeVoe, the picture of a California beach girl, with long blond hair and long legs to match.

But Jaysea is not alone in her entrepreneurial zeal. Her twin brother is a sponsored competitive surfer and works at a surfboard fin manufacturing company. Her 15-year-old brother is a “professional water man,” a spear fisherman, rod and reel angler and surfer who also teaches and has sponsors.

Encinitas, 25 miles north of San Diego, happens to sit at the junction of laid-back beach life, high-octane sports and entrepreneurial gumption. Skateboarder-turned-businessman Tony Hawk and Olympic gold snow boarder Shaun White are both based in Encinitas.

With so much opportunity around, the DeVoe parents, Rick and Julie, decided less time should be spent at school and found an accommodating institution for their kids’ plans.

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“They only go to school three days a week and we told them ‘You have to figure out what you want to do and you’ve got four days to do it,'” says Rick, who manages bands and surfers. “‘And hopefully by the time you graduate high school, you have a career path chosen.'”

Jaysea told her father she wanted to teach yoga and when she said it was 200 hours of training, “We were like ‘Whoa.'”

“She was just adamant about doing all the homework and never wanting to miss a class,” Rick says. “We were just really thrilled and very honored that they allowed her to do it and that she pulled it off.”

Source: Fox news


Harvard yoga scientists find proof of meditation benefit

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Scientists are getting close to proving that yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease. Scientists are getting close to proving what yogis have held to be true for centuries—yoga and meditation can ward off stress and disease.

John Denninger, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, is leading a five-year study on how the ancient practices affect genes and brain activity in the chronically stressed. His latest work follows a study he and others published earlier this year showing how so-called mind-body techniques can switch on and off some genes linked to stress and immune function.

While hundreds of studies have been conducted on the mental health benefits of yoga and meditation, they have tended to rely on blunt tools like participant questionnaires, as well as heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. Only recently have neuro-imaging and genomics technology used in Denninger’s latest studies allowed scientists to measure physiological changes in greater detail.
“There is a true biological effect,” said Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of Harvard Medical School’s teaching hospitals. “The kinds of things that happen when you meditate do have effects throughout the body, not just in the brain.”

The government-funded study may persuade more doctors to try an alternative route for tackling the source of a myriad of modern ailments. Stress-induced conditions can include everything from hypertension and infertility to depression and even the aging process. They account for 60-90% of doctor’s visits in the US, according to the Benson-Henry Institute. The World Health
Organization estimates stress costs US companies at least $300 billion a year through absenteeism, turn-over and low productivity.

Seinfeld, Murdoch

The science is advancing alongside a budding mindfulness movement, which includes meditation devotees such as Bill George, board member of Goldman Sachs Group and Exxon Mobil Corp., and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. News Corp.  chairman Rupert Murdoch recently revealed on Twitter that he is giving meditation a try.

As a psychiatrist specializing in depression, Denninger said he was attracted to mind-body medicine, pioneered in the late 1960s by Harvard professor Herbert Benson, as a possible way to prevent the onset of depression through stress reduction. While treatment with pharmaceuticals is still essential, he sees yoga and meditation as useful additions to his medical arsenal.

Exchange programme

It’s an interest that dates back to an exchange programme he attended in China the summer before entering Harvard as an undergraduate student. At Hangzhou University, he trained with a tai chi master every morning for three weeks. “By the end of my time there, I had gotten through my thick teenage skull that there was something very important about the breath and about inhabiting the present moment, he said. I’ve carried that with me since then.” His current study, to conclude in 2015 with about $3.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, tracks 210 healthy subjects with high levels of reported chronic stress for six months. They are divided in three groups.

One group with 70 participants perform a form of yoga known as Kundalini, another 70 meditate and the rest listen to stress education audiobooks, all for 20 minutes a day at home. Kundalini is a form of yoga that incorporates meditation, breathing exercises and the singing of mantras in addition to postures. Denninger said it was chosen for the study because of its strong
meditation component.

Participants come into the lab for weekly instruction for two months, followed by three sessions where they answer questionnaires, give blood samples used for genomic analysis and undergo neuro-imaging tests.

‘Immortality enzyme’
Unlike earlier studies, this one is the first to focus on participants with high levels of stress. The study published in May in the medical journal PloS One showed that one session of relaxation-response practice was enough to enhance the expression of genes involved in energy metabolism and insulin secretion and reduce expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and
stress. There was an effect even among novices who had never practiced before. Harvard isn’t the only place where scientists have started examining the biology behind yoga.

In a study published last year, scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles and Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn found that 12 minutes of daily yoga meditation for eight weeks increased telomerase activity by 43%, suggesting an improvement in stress-induced aging. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, shared the Nobel medicine prize in 2009 with
Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for research on the telomerase immortality enzyme, which slows the cellular aging process.

Build resilience

Not all patients will be able to stick to a daily regimen of exercise and relaxation. Nor should they have to, according to Denninger and others. Simply knowing breath-management techniques and having a better understanding of stress can help build resilience.

“A certain amount of stress can be helpful,” said Sophia Dunn, a clinical psychotherapist who trained at King’s College London. “Yoga and meditation are tools for enabling us to swim in difficult waters.”

Source: Live Mint


Mindfulness Meditation May Reduce Drug User Relapse

Many people who undergo treatment for addiction will relapse and begin using drugs again soon after their therapy ends, but a new study suggests that meditation techniques may help prevent such relapses.

In the study, 286 people who had been treated for substance abuse were assigned to receive one of three therapies after their initial treatment: a program that involved only group discussions, a “relapse- prevention” therapy that involved learning to avoid situations where they might be tempted to use drugs, and a mindfulness-based program that involved meditation sessions to improve self-awareness.

Six months later, participants in the both the relapse prevention and mindfulness group had a reduced risk of relapsing to using drugs or heavy drinking compared with participants in the group discussions group.And after one year, participants in the mindfulness group reported fewer days of drug use, and were at reduced risk of heavy drinking compared with those in the relapse prevention group. This result suggests that the mindfulness-based program may have a more enduring effect, the researchers said.

The researchers emphasized that mindfulness-based programs are not intended to replace standard programs for preventing drug relapse.

“We need to consider many different approaches to addiction treatment. It’s a tough problem,” said study researcher Sarah Bowen, an assistant professor at the University of Washington’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Mindfulness therapy is “another possibility for people to explore,” she said.

More research is needed to identify which groups of people benefit most from the approach, Bowen said.

Meditation for addiction

About 40 to 60 percent of people who undergo addiction treatment relapse within one year after their treatment ends, the researchers said.

Although 12-step and traditional relapse-prevention programs have value in preventing relapse, “we still have a lot of work to do,” Bowen said.

Mindfulness-based relapse prevention, a program developed by Bowen and colleagues, is essentially a “training in awareness,” Bowen said.

In this program, each session is about two hours, with 30 minutes of guided meditation followed by discussions about what people experienced during meditation and how it relates to addiction or relapse, Bowen said. The meditation sessions are intended to bring heightened attention to things that patients usually ignore, such as how it feels to eat a bite of food, or other bodily sensations, as well as thoughts and feelings.

The mindfulness program may work to prevent relapse in part because it makes people more aware of what happens when they have cravings.

“If you’re not aware of what’s going on, you don’t have a choice, you just react,” Bowen said.

The program also teaches people how to “be with” or accept uncomfortable feelings, such as cravings, rather than fight them, Bowen said. In this way, people learn skills that they can apply to their everyday lives, and not just situations in which they feel tempted, which is usually the focus of other prevention programs, she said.

Addiction and emotions

Dr. Scott Krakower, assistant unit chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., who was not involved in the study, said people with addiction often suffer from other conditions that involve problems regulating emotions, such as depression, anxiety or self-harm.

Emotional problems, such as feelings of numbness with depression, can be a reason people turn to drugs, he said.

The mindfulness program helps teach people to “tolerate feelings of emotional distress, so when they feel like they’re going to use [drugs], they don’t,” Krakowe said.

Krakower noted that mindfulness meditation programs have already been shown to be useful for depression.

Future studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of the therapy for substance abuse over longer periods, Krakower said. But at the very least, it seems that the program can be helpful for people with emotional dysregulation, which is the majority of the substance abuse population, Krakower said.

The study is published online today (March 19) in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Source: Live science


Get rid of dark circles with these yoga asanas

Even with good skin and great make-up, a woman can look tired and fatigued due to dark circles. Thought to be caused due to stress, lack of sleep and in some cases due to constant ill health, dark circles are also known to form due to lack of oxygen and blood flow to the face. That is why Ayurveda and yoga practitioners believe that by increasing the blood flow to one’s face it can help resolve the problem. So instead of trying various chemical and cosmetic methods to get rid of them, here is an all natural way to zap those dark circles away.

Hastapadotasana: Also known as the standing forward bend pose, this asana is the first one you should perform in this series. Hastapadotasna stretches out the muscles of almost all parts of the body, invigorates the nervous system, resolves digestive disorders and helps increase the blood flow to your face. It is also know to help tone the muscles of the abdomen and relieve any stomach disorders.

Steps to do this pose: Stand straight with your legs shoulder width apart. Now, stretch both your hands forward and upwards, making sure you feel a stretch up your spine. Now start bending slowly until your palms are touching the floor and your head touches your knees. For most people touching their hands to the floor might be difficult, so don’t fret, keep trying till you start feeling comfortable. Once in this position, breathe normally and hold the asana for as long as you are comfortable.

Tip: Avoid doing this pose if you suffer from spondylitis, high blood pressure or heart disease.

After you have performed hastapadotasana, you can perform the other asanas in this series. Do not do the other poses before you do this asana.

Viparitakarani: Also known as the legs-up-the-wall pose, is great when it comes to beating dark circles. It not only increases the blood flow to your head and face but is also beneficial in stretching out the back, relieving lower back pain and calming the mind. One of this aasana’s greatest benefits is that it helps relieve cramps in the back and leg and calms the mind. According to Ayurveda lack of sleep and stress are the number one cause for dark circles and this asana targets exactly those areas.

Steps to do the asana: Lie down flat on the floor, near a wall. Now, raise your legs such that they are rested comfortably along the wall and the base of your back is touching the wall. Stretch your arms out on either side of your body and relax. You may choose to raise your chin towards the ceiling, but do not stress your neck while doing this pose. Close your eyes and breathe in deep allowing yourself to relax. Hold this pose for as long as you are comfortable.

Tip: Avoid doing this pose if you are menstruating, have serious eye disorders like glaucoma or suffer from high blood pressure.

Sambhavi mudra: Is a form of yoga practice that helps awaken the ajna chakra. Although it is called a mudra, this is a form of meditation that is meant to awaken the most important chakra in our body. Apart from that this mudra helps calm the mind, stretch the muscles around the eyes and relaxes those present between the eyebrows.

Steps to do this pose: Sit comfortably in a calm corner of your house and place your palms on your thighs. Make sure your palms are facing upwards so that there is an equal distribution of energy. Now turn both your eyeballs so that you are literally trying to look at the centre of your eyebrows. Breathe normally and hold this pose for five to six counts. To intensify the mudra you can choose to hum ‘Om’. This is not religious in any way but is based on scientific evidence that the word ‘Om’, when chanted produces a type of vibration throughout the body, that is very beneficial to massage the nervous system and activate the chakras. To stop doing the mudra, close your eyes and slowly bring your eyes back to their normal position. Keep your eyes closed for a short while and then slowly open them.

Surya Namaskar: Surya Namaskar has a deep effect in detoxifying the organs through copious oxygenation and has a deeper relaxing effect. It is a series of 12 physical postures. These alternating backward and forward bending postures flex and stretch the spinal column giving a profound stretch to the whole body. You can find out how to do the asanas correctly in our post about surya namaskar.

Source: health