- Finish what you start
- Do beyond expectation
- Spend your energy wisely
During the first week of YTT, Master Sree asked what is yoga? I was pretty blown away. I never really thought about what Yoga mean. My answer was perhaps, is a type of exercise which can work on each part of your body and brings you inner peace in both mind and heart.
So, let me ask you, what came to your mind with word “Yoga”? Is it just another form of exercise? Is it a religion, a philosophy, an ideology? Or is it something else entirely? I cannot give you a certain answer to it. As there is no absolute right or wrong answer to these questions.
Basically, ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’
Therefore, Yoga literally means “union”. And the practice of Yoga leads to the union of individual consciousness with that of the Universal Consciousness, indicating a perfect harmony between the mind, body, and nature.
After going through YTT, I now can truly understand the meaning of “Yoga is an art, a science, and a philosophy. It touches the life of man at every level: physical, mental, spiritual. It is a practical method for making one’s life purposeful, useful and noble.” – B.K.S Lyengar
Yoga is like building blocks. Step by step, one by one build yourself up, experience your very own yoga journey. If you ask me, is yoga suitable for everyone. The answer is an absolute yes! Very much like life, you go through your own life journey which only you can answer for it and nobody else can. You create your own kind of life that you want, and no one should judge it or even compare with it. Just like yoga, we can never compare who is better as there is no ground for comparison to begin with. As our body are all different when we are first born. It does not matter what happened in the past about you, all is matter is the future. And what you do in the present brings the kind of future you want.
We are all unique individual who going through our own karma and kriya. We will get better at whatever we are practising if we do not give up and keep doing. I believe the end of YTT is the true start of my yoga journey. Thankful for such eye-opening experience within me, life changing.
Human body is always in a constant state of change. Heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature all change in response to what we do and our surroundings. Our body has systems that constantly monitor these and other vital functions. Not only must these systems monitor changes but also respond to the changes and help the body to restore balance.
One of the systems is pituitary gland which is the know as master gland because it controls the function of most other endocrine glands. They release hormones into the blood stream which have a wide range of effects on growth and development, sexuality and reproductive function, metabolism, the response to stress and overall quality of life. Therefore, the pituitary gland is at the anatomical and functional crossroads of the brain, mind and body which is what yoga does as well.
We have 7 chakras and their positions coincide with important glands, nerve centres and blood vessels known to modern anatomy. However, do note that chakras are not identical to these organs but rather intimately linked to them. Here we are only going to talk about the Ajna Chakra which has a connection to the pituitary gland. Both have the same ability whereby they are the “master” of group as they controls others. Ajna chakra governs all other chakras, so when it is out of balance, all other chakras cannot come into perfect alignment.
When Ajna is imbalanced we may experience poor memory, eye problems, headaches, or nightmares. We may also have an excess of energy that we are unable to channel towards any one goal or productive outcome. When this chakra is in balance, we can tune in to our inner knowing, trusting our intuition, and tapping into our creative imagination. A balanced Ajna chakra allows us to integrate logical thinking with intuition so that we may move through the world better able to make balanced decisions. Very much like pituitary gland, balance hormones in our body allows us function normally and make good decisions.
When the dynamic energy of the third eye chakra is activated and balanced, the rest of the brain functions optimally, making this chakra particularly interesting in breathing exercises and meditation. The properties associated with the third eye chakra are transparency in the internal as well as the external vision, higher intuitive perception, wisdom, spirituality, and creative intelligence.
From anatomical point of view, it makes good sense that we should be able to access the pituitary gland by closing our eyes and “looking inward”, because the two large nerve fibres of the eyes cross each other exactly in the area where the pituitary gland is located. By focusing awareness and energy on the third eye chakra you can manipulate the pituitary gland and its activities.
What would you do if I told you sitting in silence and active meditation can be hugely beneficial for your brain? In recent studies, there appears to be immeasurable benefits in our most important organ with the practice of meditation: from changes in grey matter volume to reduced activity in the “me” centers of the brain to enhanced connectivity between brain regions.
1. Your Brain “Ages Slower” with Meditation
Findings from a recent UCLA study indicated that participants who’d been meditating for an average of 20 years preserved more grey matter volume throughout the brain than their non-meditating counterparts, despite older meditators having some volume loss compared to younger meditators, it wasn’t as pronounced as the non-meditators.
2. Puts A Leash On Our Wandering Minds
When our minds wander, it is often associated with being less happy, or worrying about the past and future. In a study conducted by Yale University, it was found that mindfulness meditation helps to reduce activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN), which is responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts. When our minds wander from thought to thought, the DMN is ‘active’ and we are not thinking about specific things – when the mind wanders, meditators are better at snapping back out of it.
3. Meditation – A Dear Neighbor to Antidepressants
Researcher Madhav Goyal and his team found that the effect size of meditation was moderate in the treatment of depression – 0.3, this comes on the same level as the effect size for antidepressants (also 0.3) which is astounding. Though meditation isnt’ a magic bullet for the treatment of depression, keep in mind that no treatment is. Meditation is, after all, an active form of brain training, the training of the mind to increase awareness.
We just explored the full practice of Meditation and Yoga Nidra at my YTT course today which makes this the perfect time for me to learn about the benefits of meditation. I can’t wait to continue with the practice!
DID YOU KNOW that Yoga was a purely male-centric practice until 1937?
Let me introduce you to Indra Devi (or Mataji), also known as The First Lady of Yoga. Formerly known as Eugene Peterson, Eugene was born in 1899 in Russia. Her journey with Yoga began when she moved to Germany in 1917 in the wake of the revolution in Russia. It was in Germany that she trained as an actor and dancer and became a part of a theatrical troupe that toured all over Europe.
During the course of her travels, she met the renowned philosopher and yogi J. Krishnamurti, and grew fascinated with India. Initially, though obsessed with visiting India, Eugene didn’t possess the means to do so. A stroke of luck led to a wealthy banker to propose to her, and her saying yes only on the condition that he paid for her trip to India before the wedding. He agreed, and soon she was on her way to India. 3 months upon her return, and her first meeting with her fiancee, she returned her ring.
In 1928, she sold all of her possessions and booked a one-way ticket to India. Soon, she became a Bollywood movie star, taking on the name ‘Indra Devi’, and found great success. But she always felt that something was missing, and prayed for direction.
In 1937, what presented itself as an unfortunate turn of events where she suffered from a cardiac illness and was directed to take treatment from the renowned yogi Krishnamacharya, was truly an answer to her prayers. However, it didn’t come easy – he’d refused when she first visited him for treatment. But upon observing her dedication, Krishnamacharya eventually offered to hone her into a Yoga Teacher, and Indra Devi ended up staying with him for a year, being possibly the first westerner taught by Krishnamacharya to be a Yoga Teacher. She was taught the gentle style of Yoga – given that she was recovering from a heart condition.
From then on, Indra Devi played a tireless role in spreading the art of Yoga all over the world. Today, the female to male ratio of Yoga Practitioners 72% to 28%. Given her contribution to Yoga, she is referred to in modern day as The First Lady of Yoga.