No -  though none of the yogic text books tell ‘not to eat anything’ in the morning before practice, you will find emphasis on  “avoid overeating” coz this will lead to dullness and lethargy result you will have to push yourself for practice in morning which is against the Yamas and the Niyamas.

A light stomach helps you move in your asana and pranayama practice more easily.  You start enjoying your yoga.

Mitahara, moderate diet – is the ability to eat the right food at the right time.  And today’s yogi have got use to this new lifestyle of eating late night dinners and doing yoga empty tummy in the morning, result crashing and causing injuries.

Sorry my dear, Dinacharya- your overall life style plays the major role which includes light and  early dinners, sleeping on time, very good bowel movements ( early mornings). Say nutritionist Rujuta,   This isn’t instant noodles where all that matters is what you ate minutes before starting your asana or pranayama. Late-night binges or that fancy restaurant dinner after which you crashed in the car all lead to a dull and clogged gastro-intestinal tract—not conducive to asana practice and completely out of tune with yama or niyama.

So wake up, early dinners—that should be thy focus. A fruit in the morning will not make your system ‘heavy’, late dinners will.

1. Vyadhi-sickness which disturbs the physical equilibrium
2. Styana-languor or lack of mental disposition for work
3. Samsaya-doubt or indecision
4. Pramada-indifference or insensibility
5. Alasya-laziness
6. Avirati-sensuality, the rousing of desire when sensory objects possess the mind
7. Bhranti Darsana-false or invalid knowledge, or illusion
8. Alabdha Bhumikatva-failure to attain continuity of thought or concentration so that reality cannot be seen
9. Anavasthitattva-instability in holding on to concentration which has been attained after long practice

Dr.Mahesh Chandra Panda

Yoga Practitioner

In alternative therapy vision care assumes that the muscles of the eyes, like the rest of those all over the body, must be exercised to remain healthy. We naturally did that as children when we played games, like ball games, running etc. These involved complex eye movements. However, these days, with even children confined to the desk, TV, or media (computer, electronic games) that involve only a confined strain by the eyes the muscles within the eye socket are not worked out. Reworking them even with gentle movements including peripheral ones, can help contain degenerating sight.

A few poses that may be safely practiced to help maintain eye sight:

Yogic focusing exercise
Hold your right hand in front of you. Extend the thumb, folding back other fingers lightly. Ensure hand is at eye level. Look at thumbnail. Then switch focus to nose tip. Back at right thumbnail and then switching focus to nose tip. This is one round. Rest your eyes. Do palming. Do up to five rounds. Then switch hands, to do for left hand. Do palming after each round.

Benefits: This helps with the eye’s ability to switch focus from distant to close viewing. Most problems, according to yogic occur when the eye muscles slacken and do not accommodate this important skill. Unlike with reading a book, staring at a computer screen reduces our vision skills, creating eye problems. This practice rectifies this. Plus, when done regularly can boost mental focus. It is also advised for insomniacs.

Avoid: If having glaucoma or cataract.

Palming

Rub palms together. Place them gently on closed eye-lids so the cups of the hand cover the eye-lids. The palms should feel the eye socket. This would ensure that your holding the hand over the eye in a correct position. There should be no pressure. This is called palming and may be practiced several times during the day for a quick rest, not just for the eyes but for the mind too. If the duration of the final hold (of palm over eyelid) is lengthened and if palming is done several times during the day, it is believed that eye problems will be controlled.

Benefits: It soothes eyes strained by an effort to see. Also, keeping the eyes in a dark, soothing mode creates a healing impact by tweaking the master glands, like pineal gland, which reacts to excessive exposure to light or artificial lighting by hitting sleep etc. In yogic eye exercises palming is seen as the most important of healing exercises.

Priya, who is supposed to be a sarva guna sampana bahu, upholding traditional values (bado ka aadar, choto ko pyar, duniya bhar ka uddhar) checks with the bansi kaka if the husband is being sent “coriander – spinach juice, cut fruits, sprouts and salad”. Come on Priya, you are a school teacher, right? Didn’t you learn that fruits and vegetables lose their nutritional value when their surface area increases (like when they are squeezed into a juice) and in the absence of carbs, proteins and fats (wholesome diet), a human being cannot function? Much less do any business.

She even made her husband trade his stuffy, suffocating suit for a cooler cotton blue shirt, ‘more appropriate for our climate’ is the explanation. Doesn’t this ‘appropriate for our climate logic’ apply to food too? Or are we only middle class on the surface, scratch it a bit and we are all juice drinking, salad munching, wannabe memsahibs? What happened to the traditional, time tested roti sabzi, dal chawal, kadhi, lassi, dahi, nimbu pani, etc as food or tiffin items? Why all of us who otherwise pat our backs for our sabhyata and sanskriti turn our backs on the food that’s an integral part of our sabhyata and sanskriti?

So, as “good girls”, we look after ghar grahisti, husband, mil, fil, kids, washing, cleaning, cooking, etc, but how much of it is a well thought out and understood action? Are we constantly aspiring for approval? And if the current trend or norm is to cut calories, then we just comply? Or are we truly rooted in our culture where we value and celebrate our cooking legacy and the wisdom handed over orally from generation to generation about food. Priya (I don’t mean Sakshi Talwar, I mean all of us middle class housewives bearing the brunt of our husbands’ over spilling waists and deteriorating health), the same sabhyata that made your husband’s health your personal business (its not actually), also taught you to eat local, seasonal and fresh food. It also taught you to celebrate food, offer it to your body as a blessing and not count calories.

So next time when your dadi gushes over the benefits of ghee, pay attention and listen. Or else you will be eating ‘clarified butter’ 10 years later, after it wins approval from the west and the ‘high society’ and you, my dear girl, will simply comply, once again.

The Chinese eat rice with every meal, breakfast included, and the average Chinese on the street is thin, if not skinny. In our country, however, we are getting skeptical about rice and yes, we are all getting fatter. We either give up rice or replace it with wheat or ‘brown’ rice. What is wrong with this approach?

Replacing rice with wheat is not a good idea since it means reducing your intake of amino acids (protein’s building blocks) and Vitamin B. As for brown rice, it has the outer layer (husk and bran) intact thereby making it high in fibre. Now of course we want fibre but if your rice has more fibre than you can digest, brown rice will only cause indigestion. On the other hand, rice that emits blinding whiteness may not be the best source of nutrients either.

Thus, to get the best of both worlds, polish your rice to the extent that helps it retain its nutrients (proteins, Vitamin B and fibre) and looks brownish or reddish. Remove the outer bran but allow the rice grain to show off its brown/red strains. Don’t worry, this won’t compromise the taste and yes, you can eat basmati rice with the brown/red strains as well.

The protein in this rice (red-rice or hand-polished rice) is absorbed much better by your body than in brown rice. It is also way easier to cook and digest as compared to brown rice. It is easy to digest, easy to absorb, easy to assimilate proteins from and easier on your excretory system too. This is exactly how the farming community of India eats its rice.

In fact, Ayurveda uses ricebased diets in treating various imbalances in the body.

Dal-chawal is a nutritious meal, possessing the entire spectrum of amino acids, vitamins and minerals. It also accelerates fat burning. In fact, the essential amino acid methionine found pre-dominantly in rice helps mobilize fat from the liver. As India is dominantly vegetarian, getting proteins from rice, especially the essential amino acid methionine and the conditionally essential amino acid (becomes essential under conditions of stress) tyrosine is crucial for us. Diabetics should also eat rice since they need these proteins.

Know that rice is not a bad thing. The bad thing is when we mindlessly decide if one thing is good for us and that if we do it a lot, it becomes only better. We do that with rice so often now. A humble dal chawal meal is so satiating that it makes you eat slower and improves your chances of eating the right amount (the cornerstones of fat loss or accelerated metabolism, good digestion and health itself).

Rice is auspicious in both China and India: the dead are offered rice to wish them good health for life outside their physical selves. It is sad then, that in India, even when we are still in our bodies, we make fads out of rice.

Nidra Yoga workshop conducted by Mr. Andre Riehl enthralled 53 practitioners.

Andre is the President, Federation of Yoga Europe, and is the scholar of yoga practicing for over 30 years. His expertise was not only understood but deeply felt by one and all in the session.

The session began with understanding the concept Nidra Yoga.

For many, drinking a cup of tea is a state of relaxation, for others reading newspaper or watching TV, but through practice of Nidra Yoga one understands that these are only sensory diversions. True relaxation is actually an experience beyond all this and for absolute relaxation one must remain aware.

After explaining the theory, the master gave the practical session. Though when you look at this pose it looks the easiest, actually it is one of the hardest to master. As the body learns to let go, mind is aware observing the relaxation.

Allowing the body to settle down is an art and then spending time working through the entire body, the muscles, the bones, the inner organs, section by section raises level of awareness.  As the body relaxes itself, it’s here one stop trying to do and let go of any psychological effort.

Mind is just at present moment observing, nurturing the moment now, and befriending the breath.

A journey of self-inquiry and self-study begins.

The important aspect is the practice of meditation. If you know how to practise, you can use it as and when you need it. If you don`t have problems, you can still meditate to grow and nurture spirituality of eternal joy and bliss.

Dr.Mahesh Chandra Panda

Though I couldn’t make up to the event today, but I started practicing “Surya Namaskara” for the past 10 days quite diligently performing around 40-80 rounds every day.

Today I began the practice at 7:30 AM and was able to complete 108 rounds in less than an hour (~ 45 Minutes).

Thanks to Dhrti for encouragement.

Kethan Valleru,

(Dhrti Yoga Practitioner)

The event began at 6 am with 3 OMs and shanti path followed by 11 rounds of Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra and 11 rounds of Gayatri Mantra. The practice of Surya Namaskara began with mantras being chanted by all in each and every round.

Thus keeping the energy following,  SURYA NAMASKARA CHAMPS completed 108 rounds in less than 75 minutes and were still energetic. They were honored with certificate as a token of appreciation, encouragement from Dhrti. Closing the session with sweets, shanti path, all dispersed with cheerful spirits.

Dhrti expresses heartfelt gratitude to Venkatesh, 6 pm practitioner, who made arrangements for the place, each and every participant performing Surya Namaskara today in community, and all those who continued with their practice at their place be in Bangalore  or other part of the world:-)

Congratulations to one and all. Let us make this day part of our daily routine from now on and continue with this Meditation In Action.

Now that winter has officially set in, want to snuggle up with a steaming mug of coffee or indulge in some bench-warming? Spare a thought for those creaky knees, stiff lower back and wobbly ankles. For that’s what will become of them if you continue sitting around and comforting yourself with tea, coffee or brandy (or any other form of alcohol).

Your bones and joints feel vulnerable in winter and they just don’t get any tender, loving care with inactivity. The sun sets early and sometimes doesn’t even seem to rise amidst the fog. Naturally, Vitamin D (crucial for calcium absorption) availability is rather low, as is the body’s motivation for activity. This double whammy, along with that cup of coffee, makes calcium absorption a challenging task. One way of providing some TLC is to create conditions within the body that make it easier for bones and joints to absorb calcium and stay strong, agile and lubricated.

Maybe that’s why our great grandmothers and their gang of boys and girls started the tradition of winter festivals, forcing us to move around to prepare for the festivities and also eat food that helps keep bone density high and aid blood circulation. Gajak, for instance, is rich in ghee, til and gur. It is for this reason that Spiti, which remains under snow for almost six months a year, has maximum festivals in winter.

I hope you get my point—our festivals and rituals may not be well marketed, but they exist for a reason. Even if the reason is to get the lazy bones to move and keep the body warm, it eventually adds to your well-being and makes you look and feel cool; cooler than those ads where you curl up with your cuppa.