We rarely think about how we should treat the body. Being carried away by everyday life and pressing problems, we often ignore the body’s reactions to our actions and lifestyle. Reaching the critical point, the body begins to suffer, signaling us about its needs. At such moments, we are not able to think about anything else until we restore our health. How can we learn to show love and care for the body so that it is healthy and does not distract us from the fulfillment of our cherished goals?
Most people in their youth are in good physical health, and they are not bothered by illness. However, if we lead a sedentary lifestyle or, on the contrary, regularly give the body the same type of excessive load, then we do not allow the body to develop fully. So gradually the body starts to have diseases. During illness, as a rule, we realize how good it is to be healthy and feel our body is mobile and flexible. After recovery, we make a promise to ourselves to maintain good health by giving the body optimal physical activity. But when we feel good again, unfortunately, we delay the fulfillment of our promises, or even forget about them completely.
It is much easier for us, without additional efforts, to entrust the care of our health to a pill, that is, a set of chemical elements that have a number of side effects. However, we forget that pills only relieve the symptoms, but do not cure the cause of disease and they only help for a certain period. Whereas To achieve lasting effect you need to use an integrated approach: overcome laziness and eliminate the cause of the problem. There is no universal pill for all diseases! No external influences can replace direct physical work with your body.
What does ancient knowledge say about the importance of body movements?
The body gives us unlimited opportunities to love, create, give birth, rejoice and be sad. We should be grateful to the body. Our gratitude can be expressed in providing the body with healthy sleep, food and a certain amount of regular daily movement. These movements should not be too little or too many. Both excess and lack of movement will equally negatively affect the health conditions. Yoga is harmony and rejection of extremes.
“Say no to extremes, they have no result!” The Story of Hatha Yoga
How to optimize the number of movements?
The Yoga system provides a set of different tools for solving this task. Physical yoga can be practiced separately and in combination with other types of yoga.
Kriya yoga is dynamic yoga, the yoga of action, it contains all the movements that are necessary for the body during the day. Kriya yoga exercises are called circles of kriya that are performed in a certain sequence, one after the other. By Practicing for just one hour, we provide ourselves with the necessary number of movements for the whole day and even with a small amount for the future.
Hatha yoga is static yoga consisting of many asanas, which are motionless positions of the body. Asanas can be performed in any sequence convenient for the body. Stay in each asana as long as your body is comfortable. This type of yoga nourishes the joints and stretches the muscles and ligaments, as well as calms the mind.
Prostration yoga is a system of so-called prostrations. This type of yoga is considered a variation of Hatha yoga. During the practice, a large number of asanas are performed in a minimum amount of time. This yoga is good both as a warm-up before the main practice, and as a full-fledged separate practice. We will talk more about this type of yoga in the next article.
How to restore the balance of movements during excessive loads?
The load on the body must be harmonious. If your activity involves the same type of excessive loads, then they must be compensated. Yoga also helps with that. You need such an individual set of exercises that is right for you in order to relax the tight muscles and give a load to the body where it is not enough. The main thing is to remember and follow the basic principles of yoga practice..
Basic principles of yoga practice
1. All exercises must be performed without self-violence. If it seems to you that violence is the only solution for solving the problems, then you will get paid back the pain by such an attitude towards your body. If there is violence, pain and discomfort, then this is not Yoga!
2. We should not care how we look from the side. Many have the misconception that yogis must bend beautifully and perform some difficult poses to impress the audience. Good flexibility and stretching is just a supplement in yoga. During the practice, all our attention should be directed to inner feelings.If we practice to please someone and ignore our inner feelings,ignore our breathing, then there will be no harmony, and therefore there will be no yoga.
3. Whatever exercise we do, it is important that there are three joys:
1. The joy of doing the exercise with the method of Energy, when we approximately assume a pose so that there is no discomfort, and stay in this position for a while. We trust our body and wait for it to “ask” to bend it more, and enjoy as much as possible from being in this pose.
2. The joy of doing the exercise by the method of Consciousness, when we make an effort without violence, and we enjoy overcoming ourselves. By the very fact of performing a pose, we make this pose perfect.
3. The joy of rest: sooner or later the body will give a signal to rest; after the effort, you will have a state of joy and thoughtlessness, that means: “You worked hard, now have a good rest!” As soon as the thoughts come back, this tells you to do a second set of this pose or the next one.
These subtle components of Yoga are impossible to describe in words, they must be felt through the experience of personal practice.This is not some kind of innovation, but the good old classical yoga, which was practiced several thousand ago, but is very rarely understood nowadays.
“I realized LIfe is so short and precious, you should do things that make you feel inspired,that push you and teach you something. I’d rather not have a big house,a huge closet of clothes,diamonds and a private plane, and instead have a body of work that I’m proud of…” Gwyneth Paltrow
A healthy body allows us to live an active life and lays the foundation for stress tolerance and successfully overcome life’s challenges. A healthy body will not divert our attention from the assigned tasks and goals, including self-knowledge, our subtle structures and the entire Universe around us.
Regardless of age, body build and lifestyle, the body must be provided with the optimal number of movements. Yoga gives us simple and incredibly powerful ways to work on ourselves. Once you’ll overcome your laziness and start to take care of your body, it will thank you with health and many years of a fulfilling life!
Love your body, take care of it and be happy!
Article author: Tamara Povrakova
Author of the drawing: Vita Krim
Editing: Mirra, Olga Belous, Eva Rati, Yulia Volyevskaya, Inna Shakti
Project curator: Kerigona
Translated by: Larysa Skybina, Avlaada