Yog and meditation go hand in hand . One who indulges in Yog gets the glimpse of meditation in life and while slowly transcending into inner journey will help in cutting out from outwardness .

Yog is the combination or joining of ourselves with our consiousness. What we see today is that the more we are progressing in todays world, the more we are gaining wealth,the more we are getting medical benefits ,the more we are eating , we observe that more mentally and physically unhealthy we are becoming .

Someone has to ponder over it.

Think, Initial days we used to have one doctor among several villages and now we have doctors at every junction.

Then ,we used to indulge in more social networking but now it is restricted to televisions and mobiles.

We are becoming more empty and alone.

We have become helpless at the hands of technologyand moresoever…………………………………………………………………………………………………. ourselves..

Yog brings discipline in life .

As ashtanga yog says we have eight limbs in understanding yog .Yama niyama asana pranayama pratyahara dharana dhyana samadhi.

These are the sequential order of Yog that Maharishi Patanjali gave to us . Before we start indulging in meditation practices we must be doing ADHISHTANA ie being able to stay undisturbed in one asana or position.

When we practice yog asanas we practice being in harmony with our physical body. When we do pranayama we get to be observant on what is happening inside our body.

Playing with the breath is a balancing game which helps us to be in sync with our senses .

The longer we inhale and exhale the flow of the thoughts become lesser. Not to forget the magic of breath . We started our journey with breath and end with breath .

To get into meditation:

The wonderful journey of meditation starts with breath awarenes.

When the breaths are moving in and out and then cease to appear there we start with meditation where our body becomes free of mind and thus creating a magical aura around us. In a nutshell meditation means no concentration . It’s a subtle state of mind and eventually utter sense of relaxation seeps in.

The mind becomes relaxed so is the body .

Few researches:

This age old indian tradition has taken the entire world by storm.

Be it yog or practices like cleansing etc or meditation etc people around the world know now that this is the only path to holistic healing.

Regular practice of yog:

• Promotes strength ,endurance,flexibility,and facilitates characterstics of friendliness,compassion and greater self confidence while cultivating a sense of calmness and well being .
• Produces a psychological state opposite to that of flight-fight stress response and with that inturruption in the stress response a sense of balance and union between the mind and the body can be achieved.
• Helps in stresss management ,anger management,improves sleep patterns,overall well being .
• Mental health issues such as anxiety and depression are solved with meditation practices.
• Helps in achieving tranquility of mind and create sense of well being.
• Yog creates balanced energies which is vital to the functions of immune system.
• Improved flexibilty and build muscle mass.
• Yog lowers the resting heart rate ,inverted poses encourage venous blood flow.

Research suggests that that yog can produce an invigorating effect on mental and physical energy that improves fitness and reduces fatigue.

Also stress has a negative impact on the immune system and prolonged exposure increases susceptibility to disease and leads to physical and mental health problems such as         anxiety and depression.

According to Buddhist philosophy    the roots of addiction are in the mind and the practice of mindful meditation encourage addicts to accept the basic impermanance of human experience and helps them to develop a detatched awareness of thoughts .

Thus Yog and meditation practice can exert positive influences on people. Also helps in personal growth ,health and well being.

Himani Gairola Yog therapist Noida