Yogic Detoxification

Part of the 300 hours Yoga Teacher Training course

 

Beginning shankhaprakshalana...

 

Over the past four weeks, our 300 hour students have studied Ayurveda, nature cure, and holistic health, and have also cultivated increased body and self awareness.  Additionally, they undertook intensive investigation of the various cleansing techniques, the shatkarmas and kriyas, as described in yogic literature. While some of us may turn a skeptical eye towards claims such as heavy metal toxicity, it is undoubtedly true that we all encounter some toxins in daily activities as a result of industrialization and pollution.  The body can remove some of this waste on its own, but much of it remains in our systems, clogging and bogging us down. Therefore, an entire module of our 300 hours YTT course is devoted to learning and practicing a variety of cleansing techniques.

Fun with vamanadhauti, for Stefano at least

Beginning with review of the techniques learned in the 200 hours course, such as jalaneti and karnrandhradhauti, they continued with theoretical exploration of further techniques, sagely espoused by our visiting teacher from Indonesia, Stefano Notarbartolo.  He also shared his practice of nauli,  kapalabhati, and other abdominal and breathing techniques, which were to prove instrumental in the coming days. With this strong theoretical foundation provided by the Gheranda Samhita and Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the students progressed to practice of sutraneti, vamanadhauti, and even shankhaprakshalana.

Catheters for sutraneti

Trying to find the sutra

Each of these techniques aims to cleanse the internal body of mucus, filth, and other contaminants collected during daily life. Coming from a Western society in which, for example, the nose is only blown when one is ill, these practices proved surprisingly beneficial for day to day activities.  Even the basic practice of jalaneti, or nasal water cleansing, clears and opens the nasal passages remarkably and with little effort.  With this potential in mind, our students dove into the new practices, beginning with sutraneti -- nasal cleansing with string/catheter. As shown above, a sterile rubber catheter was used for this practice. The sensations experienced while inserting this into the nostril, passing it through the nasopharynx, and out the mouth are interesting to say the least, and certainly an exercise in patience and acceptance. 

Sutra successfully inserted! Time to floss

Also valuable from this is the direct experience of anitya -- impermance -- with the knowledge that the sensations, while somewhat strange, were only temporary.  Sutraneti proved even more powerful in mucus elimination than jalaneti, and breath flowed smoothly and easily afterwards, lighting up each student's face.

Glug..glug...glug... while Stefano demonstrates nauli

Stefano chugs his 1.5L very salty water...

Smiling as they oversee the purging students

Vamanadhauti, cleansing of the stomach and esophagus, was the next technique explored which, in addition to further new sensations, involves the consumption of a large quantity of saline water in order to cleanse the stomach and upper gastroesophageal tract.  Theoretical investigation of the process as well as uddhyana bandha and nauli techniques were practiced, which facilitated the cleansing experience.

After becoming aware of the body during morning meditation, and on an empty stomach, 1-2 L of saline water is rapidly imbibed to fill the stomach completely.  The urge to purge naturally arises, and vomiting of the saline-mucus mixture soon commences (aided by nauli and/or manual stimulation). 

Success!

This is actually a fairly pleasant form of vomiting, as one is doing so consciously and not involuntarily due to food poisoning or other illness.  Students reported feeling lighter, cleaner, brighter, and more energetic afterwards, though for some it may be a physically tiring practice.

Stefano provides close supervision throughout.

Shankhaprakshalana, the full intestinal wash or master cleanse, was investigated over several sessions, as were the less intense variations of lahgoo shankhaprakshalana (short intestinal wash or partial cleanse) and TTK solution (brief intestinal cleanse). Once more after meditation and on empty stomachs, students consumed saltwater -- though in smaller quantity and of lesser salinity than for vamanadhauti.  A routine of five specific asanas was then performed, followed by further saltwater intake.  This routine was repeated several times in order to flush and squeeze the saltwater throughout the entire digestive tract, fully cleansing every surface of mucus and contaminants.  After several rounds of saline-asanas-saline, students attempt to void their bowels of the accumulated fluid by gradually building up internal pressure until evacuation was achieved. 

Close tally is kept to track each student's progress

Twisting, squeezing, and compressing the abdomen

Timing varies depending on individual physiology, health, and mental/emotional state, ranging from 1.5 to 4 hours for our students, but eventually the water will be passed through the body, ferrying toxins and refuse out and leaving it fresh and new, having shed its old and sullied protective mucosal lining.  Thus, physical rest along with specific dietary limitations must be observed after performing shankhaprakshalana in order to allow the digestive tract to regenerate a new lining and resume normal function.




The staple food for the first few days after completion if khichri, a mushy porridge-type mixture of moong dal and rice mixed with a small quantity of turmeric and a generous helping of ghee (clarified butter).  This dish is a classic in Indian cuisine, and is said by Swami Shivananda to be the only meal recommended by yogis due to its simplicity and completeness.  It offers a balanced combination of easily digestible carbohydrate, protein, and fat from sattivic ingredient, which makes it agreeable and acceptable to the developing digestive system, though it is typically prepared in daily life with other spices and vegetables for a more bountiful dish. Additionally, the ghee aids the digestive tract by providing a temporary protective lining while the body regenerates.

"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food." -- Hippocrates

After consumption solely of khichri, the diet is gradually transitioned to include other foods, beginning with boiled vegetables and thin soups.  Day by day this is expanded to include soft vegetables and dals, and eventually raw fruits and vegetables as the lining strengthens.  Careful observation of the body, including physical and mental conditions, energy levels, and digestive habits are maintained throughout to assess the condition and health of the body.  After approximately one month, regular diet may be resumed though with continued awareness and observance of dietary and digestive habits.

Freshly prepared khichri.  Bon appetite!

Students also investigated theory behind numerous other cleansing techniques, though actual practice is reserved for later studies.  However, the techniques practiced and performed during the 300 hours YTT course here have proved immensely beneficial to the health of each student, with reports of increased body awareness, lightness, digestive function, purity, and heightened sense perceptions.  With proper instruction and guidance, these techniques can all be performed safely and beneficially by nearly anyone at any time, though shankhaprakshalana just once per year. 

If you would like to learn more about these techniques or about our 300 hours Yoga Teacher Training program, please visit our website or the WLYA Facebook page for further details. May you all be happy, well, peaceful, and skillful.  Namaste!

Yoga Relaxation in Everyday Life

Imagine yourself in a peaceful Ashram environment— deepening your yoga practice day by day, surrounded by positive energy and beauty, eating three delicious, organic meals a day, and finding balance within yourself.  Feel your mind and body start to relax.  Relaxation helps release tension in the muscular and nervous systems, quieten the mind, and increase concentration.  Many of our problems stem from our inability to relax fully.  People typically wait until vacations and weekends to try to relax.  But what about in our day-to-day lives?  How do we relax in a highly stressful and emotionally charged world?

There are various forms of relaxation techniques in yoga, many of which are simple yet incredibly powerful.  Visualization, as you sampled at the start of this post, is one of them and can be very effective.  In the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Course in Thailand at the Wise Living Yoga Academy, students learn to lead relaxation yoga sessions.

Nishpandabhava

During the relaxation session, students perform a sequence of asanas.  The main ones are Nishpandabhava (No Movement Feeling), Dradhasana (Firm Pose), and Shavasana (Corpse Pose).  In Nishpandabhava, students recline against a wall with feet comfortably apart and hands loose on their thighs.  They then direct their attention to sounds around them but without any reaction or judgment.  They remain passive and motionless, thereby promoting introspection and countering anxiety and the need to control their surroundings.

In Dradhasana, students lie on one side using the arm on the same side as a pillow and draping the other arm on top of their bodies.  When done on the right hand side, this pose aids the natural flow of the digestive process and is especially great after a meal.  Students relax in this pose before rolling over onto their backs for Shavasana.  The leader guides them to focus on different parts of the body, starting with the toes and moving up to the crown of the head: “Give awareness to your toes, and relax them” and so on.

A 200-hour YTT student guiding others in Shavasana

Asanas for relaxation help practitioners let go physically, mentally, and emotionally.  They become aware of body parts that may be neglected or hold too much tension throughout the day and then consciously relax them.  Practitioners are encouraged to practice relaxation at home or even in workplaces, and start to notice positive changes in their energy levels and mood.

Stay tune for more information on Yoga philosophy and practices! Namaste!
WLYA Team

Shavasana for Stress Management

Shavasana for Stress Management

A significant number of working professionals are showing adverse effects of stress on their physical and mental health that result in emotional disturbances, faulty eating habits and overall lifestyle disorders. Long term stress is also the cause of several diseases along with personal and family problems.

Yogic techniques for relaxation are very practical techniques to restore balance and rejuvenate the body and mind. Shavasana which is a conscious relaxation technique which is done by relaxing each and every body part, one by one, can be done in a time span of 20 to 40 minutes.

There are so many stressful moments that we have to face daily. Catching a flight, taking an important decision, managing the finance and with such other responsibility we often feel drained and dry. Along with these wrong eating habits, inadequate rest, faulty time management, lack of physical exercise can enhance the stress. In this way we start to accumulate negativity over a period of time. Therefore it is very important to release this negative energy on regular basis and replace it with positive energy. The reason we often feel depressed, lazy, confused and fatigue is that we haven’t learnt to relax.

The concept of relaxation is highly misunderstood. We may think that watching T.V or just lying in the couch is a form of relaxation, but it doesn’t really help you to ease and loosen your contracted muscles, neither it’s a form of a conscious relaxation that will calm down your breathing and cool down your mind. May be it can help you to some extent but when you relax with Shavasana you are actually messaging your mind to get inwards and consciously feel your body and release the stress from each and every body part.

With our own experience I can say that whenever we have given this technique to my students, it has shown tremendous results in their health and behaviour. Serious problems like insomnia, migraine, blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety and asthma have all got under control. Other complaints like headaches, muscular tension, and back pain have got cured. After Shavasana our students have reported that they feel healthy and completely fresh and full of life. I strongly recommend this technique for all the working professional on regular basis.

In the beginning the student will need the support of the teacher for at least one month. For the beginners it is essential that the trainer gives them complete instructions verbally during the practice every time they practice Shavasana. It is normal that initially a person would not be able to relax because of the accumulated stress, but with the practice the technique will get easier.

It also possible that the person may fall asleep during the instructions, which is not expected. This can happen a few times when the person has not completed his sleep. But with gradual practice, a person will start to feel more and more calm, confident, happier and relaxed. This will bring a positive change in the personality and increase memory, concentration, decision power and emotional stability. Erratic eating habits, anger, fear and other negative traits will also get under controlled.

You can also give a chance to your employees to experience these techniques. It can be easily done at office premises after lunch or at the end of the day.!

Namaskar!!

Yoga Education - Part 2

How does one select the right type of Asanas?

The Yogi borrowed heavily from Nature because of his proximity to forests, mountains and caves. However he was judicious in his selection. He preferred to learn from the relaxed crocodile rather than from the rabbit or the inquisitive dog (although these postures are there in Yoga nowadays). He imitated certain birds, animals and natural objects. The selection of  postures (Asanas) was based on an overall approach to the physical, mental and moral well-being of an individual.

Methods

The Asana practices were carried on for a longer duration. This provided a chance for prolonged mental participation, synchronization and direction. Thinking precedes action and unless the mind is well under control, merely developing the body may later weaken it. The Yogis therefore took into account the psychological aspect of our personalities. The well-known physiologist Matveyev said: “The Yogis demonstrate pronounced endeavour to consciously direct the activity of certain organs, even of certain glands and internal secretions and maintain that they scored along the line.”

Right and Wrong Directions

Talasana or Palm Tree Pose
(focus on the synchronization of
breath and movement)

With the practice of the third step, the Asanas, we overcome unsteadiness, inertia and other impurities. We might even perfect the steadfastness (Siddhi) that involves the mind even further (Samapatti) but this is an exception. We must not aim at too many things at the start.  In fact, each step of the Eight-fold Path (Ashtanga) has only a certain strength to impart.

All that we should concern ourselves with, during the Asana practice, is imparting a wider meaning to our activity. The act of breathing is a good aid in holding our attention. Also directing our mind to different parts of the body. Synchronization of breathing with movements of the body during the practice of Asana in a fixed measure was introduced by Shri Yogendraji in 1917 and is now popular among many Yoga teachers and schools.

There is, in fact, much to learn from Asanas.  However, a practitioner must possess:

(i) a strong commitment,

(ii) a disciplined mind,

(iii) introversion and tranquility when one begins the Asana practice, and

(iv) synchronization of breathing.

If one has achieved the above conditions, one will succeed in uplifting one’s thoughts to a higher level of consciousness.

Steadiness

We have just discussed that steadiness is vital to the performance of an Asana. How do we achieve this steadiness? Secure the feet correctly, sit upright, have a good base (Sthirata), avoid hurry, agitation and speed. Cultivate solemnity, commitment, decisiveness, etc. To remain for a certain length of time without agitation is in itself an achievement.

The next step is the achievement of relaxation while carrying out conscious movements. You will ultimately reach a state of profundity or the so called “let go” sensation. Full composure and control is necessary. One must not collapse into a final position. One must consciously seek out areas of relaxation – some sensitive zones in the body.

Matsyasana or Fish Pose
(focus on relaxation through awareness of
the movements of the abdomen while breathing)

Relaxation

The state of relaxation is very valuable in therapy. Coordinated breathing aids in bringing the mind to this state. Otherwise, the chances are that the mind strays away from the Asana into other areas. You must lead your mind to areas such as the abdomen in Matsyasana (Fish Pose) and create the sensation of “let go”, or the chest in Talasana (Palm Tree Pose). This directing of attention and concentration on breathing will achieve a good deal of relaxation. These poses are many other Yogic techniques are very well examined during our Yoga Certification Course in Thailand.

When one works systematically one experiences a change in one’s thoughts, behavior, action etc. Usually these conditions come in a flash and are lost. There are usually so many external distractions and constraints that restrain a person from achieving relaxation.  In Yogic Asanas you are with yourself and can perfect these attitudes by self-training. In the end you can achieve a perennial state of stability (Ananta Samapatti). 

The postures you do every day need not be very difficult, but your attitude while doing the postures must be sustained. You should thus understand the deeper significance of the Yoga postural training: steadiness (Sthira) and contemplation on fixity (Anantasamapattibhyam).

Photos: taken on location - The Yoga Institute of Santacruz, India. Daniel Fonseca performs two simple, but effective, postures advocated by Shri Yogendraji for a daily course of Yoga postural training.

Source:

Excerpts of the book Yoga and Total Health in Schools - published by The Yoga Institute of Santacruz.

What is Classical Yoga or Traditional Yoga?

Understanding Yoga as on of the Indian systems of philosophy;

Understanding Yoga as a path for Self-realization;

Understanding Yoga as way of life;

Understanding Yoga in its entirety (not just taking one part of it).

All of the above is meant when we say Classical or Traditional Yoga.

Raja Yoga can also be called as Ashtanga Yoga or Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga.

So lets understand what is Raja Yoga or Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga in brief:

Raja literally means 'king' or 'royal'.

Raja Yoga may refer to one of the paths of Yoga amongst the 4 valid paths; the other 3 paths being Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.

But in reality it is the culmination of all Yogic disciplines and efforts. So Raja Yoga actually refers to the highest states of Yoga.

Patanjali, was a great sage who systematized the entire path of Yoga in his 195 sutras. And, in this way he has contributed to the human society this great work on spirituality and human psychology. Raja Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga consists of eight parts, often called as eight-limbs-of-yoga. Yoga traditionalist and scholars devote their entire lives in studying, learning and practicing the Yoga sutras of Patanjali.

Our beloved Guru Hansaji had once said to me that "the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali serve as a path for the humans to help themselves to come out of the turmoil of life".

It is a highly organized path, giving precise directions and guidelines to humans who are interested in spiritual and self-development.

So the eight disciplines of Ashtanga Yoga are:

1) Yama - Universal ethics; the don't(s) - five in total

2) Niyama - Personal observances; the do(s) - five in total

3) Asana - Physical postures

In a systematic and traditional path of Yoga, it is highly essential to place ethics and observances before physical postures. The first two steps empower a human to sublimate his negative tendencies, freeing the mind from many negativities. Then only, a deep awareness and control on the body can be gained. A total understanding over the body can be achieved when our thoughts, our behaviour, our entire lifestyle is pure. Otherwise, as our Gurus say "asanas will also become a materialistic way, to show off, to compete". Asanas will lose their deep spiritual purpose without the practice of Yamas and Niyamas.

4) Pranayama - Training of the bio-energy

5) Pratyahara - Sense withdrawal from sense objects

6) Dharana - Concentration

7) Dhyana - Meditation

8) Samadhi - Deep absorption in consciousness state.

To really understand Yoga, one has to experience it. It is an experiential science. It is a way of life, a very profound philosophy which needs to be put into application. It leads to an overall transformation of the human personality on all the planes.

Our entire Yoga Teacher Training course 200 hours and advanced 300 hours is based on Raja Yoga. It is a Classical Yoga training, with a traditional approach. 

All the techniques practiced in our center are scientifically taught. Here the students get to understand Yoga from the scratch, from its very roots. We get many students from different walks of life, some who have not practiced any Yoga, no yoga asanas. On the other hand, we also get so many students who had been doing Bikram Yoga, Hot Yoga, Ashtanga ‘Vinyasa’ Yoga, Power Yoga and such styles of physical practices. There are just so many styles. Today so many fancy names are put in front of Yoga.

But these are just some 'styles' of doing an exercise.

If it is not done with the right attitude, it is actually not 'Yoga'.

Even a style of asana has been now called as 'Ashtanga Yoga', but it is only an exercise style and many a times it can get confusing for a person who does not know the real meaning of Ashtanga Yoga. 

Yes, Yoga has a part called Asanas, which is important. But the other parts are equally important and cannot be neglected. A good routine, healthy food, natural environment, healthy inter-personal relationships, personal hygiene, daily exercises and body cleansing, breath work, meditation, and so many other things all make up Yoga. This is what we are committed to pursue and teach. In order to help yourself and to help others, we highly recommend that you choose to study and practice Yoga in its entirety. That would be Classical Yoga or Traditional Yoga :-)

--/--

Wise Living Yoga Academy is authorized to impart Yoga Teacher Training Courses on the tradition of The Yoga Institute of Santacruz in Mumbai, India – the world’s oldest organized Yoga Institution. The residential programs are held regularly in Bali (Indonesia), Chiang Mai (Thailand) & Minas Gerais (Brazil) throughout the year and are accredited by the Yoga Alliance USA, allowing the graduates to teach Yoga in any part of the world.

The 200 hours courses and the Advanced 300 & 500 hours Yoga Teacher Training Courses are conducted regularly in our new permanent Yoga Center in Doi Saket, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Please follow the links to know more about all the scheduled
Yoga Teacher Training Courses (YTTC)  in 2013:

- Yoga Teacher Training Course in Minas Gerais, Brazil

- Yoga Teacher Training Course in Bali, Indonesia

- Yoga Teacher Training Course in Chiang Mai, Thailand