How I Have Seen Yoga Enriching Lives in Very Real Ways

Cooper Hospital Yoga Workshop
Most of the time, I like to share information about my deeper exploration into the world of yoga via this blog. I enjoy finding out about concepts related to yoga and how they work with physical activity to enhance quality of life.  Today I want to share with my readers my experiences with yoga classes in Mumbai and elsewhere. Apart from my regular yoga class in Bandra west ...
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A Look Back, and Forward to New Beginnings in 2017

Yoga in the New Year
I’d like to wish all my readers and fellow yogis a very happy new year, with the hope that you all had a wonderful and safe start to the year. I don’t want to bore you with a New Year resolution list here, but I do feel that we can all find inspiration in the New Year and in new beginnings. This time of year can be an opportunity to reflect on past misgivings while focusing on ...
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Sankalpa in Yoga – The Importance of a Firm Resolve

Sankalpa in Yoga
We all understand the concept of sankalp as that of making up one's mind about something; about a definite intention or a firm resolve. The concept of Sankalpa in yoga is about harnessing the power of the mind; using one’s will power to make things happen at several levels: in the world around us as well as inside within the body. This firm resolve is meant to unify the compl...
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Happy Diwali: Deriving the Benefits of Yoga Despite Our Lifestyle

Yoga Rangoli Design
Here’s wishing a very happy and healthy Diwali and a wonderful year ahead to all our readers and fellow yogis! What with the need to keep it all together on the professional and home front as well as having to carve out quality time to spend with the family, there are literally hundreds of demands on our time. There is so much to do and only a limited amount of time to do ...
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Yogic Ways to Improve Concentration

Yoga for Concentration
Adults tend to have a thousand different things to get done – work, home, kids, aging parents could all need attention and care – concentration is difficult and seems to get more difficult as time wears on. For children as well, the distractions are many – electronics, TV, playing with friends and outings – concentrating on academics and other pursuits seems difficult if not im...
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Tapa and Self Discipline in Yoga

Persistence
Tapa is what you and I usually understand as the strict ascetic life (or tapasya) followed by the rishi-munis in their quest for a higher truth. We think of it as the process by which characters from the Ramayana and the Mahabharat caused the Gods to appear and grant boons to them. Tapp or Tapas means to heat; it refers to spiritual practices, solitude, privation and ascetism. ...
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Ahimsa as One of the Limbs of Yoga

Compassion with Yoga
Ahimsa or the concept of nonviolence is arguably one of the noblest and most evolved of concepts that India has presented to the world.  By employing nonviolent means to secure independence from the British yoke, Indians won a moral victory and demonstrated to the world how ahimsa can yield results where violence will not. In the process generations of thinkers and leaders the ...
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Pratyahara – Withdrawal is a Limb of Yoga

Pratyahara
A wise individual once said, When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. It is this thought that encapsulates the concept of Pratyahar. Pratyahar or Pratyahara is one of the eight stages of yoga as mentioned in the 2nd century BC text, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. It is the stage of withdrawal of the senses; the stage where the yogi works towards ultimate enlightenment and...
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The Concept of Samadhi in Yoga

Samadhi and Yoga
Though we understand Samadhi as a form of leaving the mortal body and also call the resting places of great souls as their Samadhi, the term has many other connotations. While many understand Samadhi to be the destroyer of death and the achievement of supreme bliss, it is also closely associated with the discipline of Yoga. In one sense Samadhi is actually the ultimate aim of...
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Sthira Sukham Asanam – The Meditation Pose

Sthira Sukham Asanam
Sthiram Sukham Asanam, also known as the Sthira Sukham Aasan, literally translates as the still or unmoving, happy or contented position. Many yoga experts and practitioners interpret the Sthiram Sukham Asanam to denote the physical position most conducive to meditation or dhyaan. Not only is this position the ideal one for meditation, over time it improves one's posture and ...
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