Meditation is a good stress-reliever. It calms the senses, making the mind inactive and the body, passive. Meditation usually involves concentrating on an object - a flower, a burning candle, a circle, a sound or word, or even one’s own rhythm of breath. Over time, random thoughts peter off. Meditation could also be objectless - just sitting, doing nothing.
Ultimate spiritual benefit - The realisation that you and every other being in the universe are one! So you = me and me = you . Healing of the body, psyche and soul is one of the basic directions in the yogic activity and serves the whole psychobiological and spiritual restoration. Purifying, healing and rejuvenating yogic exercises can restore health, life force, joy and also lengthen the life span.
Breathing is so much a part of our lives that we tend to take it for granted. Ancient philosophers and yogis through their calmness and intellect discovered the powers of controlled breathing techniques. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide - each time we inhale the body receives oxygen which gets converted to fuel to charge or activate the body parts.
Bach Flower therapy is a unique medicine system that can change very subtle emotional and psychological states of being. Terror, depression, anxiety, irritability, intolerance, lack of confidence, hatred or selfishness... two drops thrice a day of the right remedy can uproot such deep-seated personality traits. And, in the process, heal the body.
Spirit Connections
Yoga
What is Meditation?
The ancient Yogis recognised long ago that in order to accomplish the highest stage of yoga, which is the realisation of the self, or God consciousness, a healthy physical body is essential. For when we are sick, our attention is seldom free enough to contemplate the larger reality, or to muster the energy for practice.
The masters of yoga also teach us that personal growth is possible only when we fully accept our embodiment and when we truly understand that the body is not merely skin and bones but a finely balanced system of energies.
Practising yoga regularly imparts great benefits, which are:
- Basic spiritual benefits
- Improved Concentration
- Regulated Breath
- Clarity in Mind
Advanced spiritual benefits
- Thought Control (Clear and one-pointed thought)
- Mind Control (Firm Will power)
- Psychic control (like telepathy, clairvoyance etc.)
Ultimate spiritual benefit - The realisation that you and every other being in the universe are one! So you = me and me = you . Healing of the body, psyche and soul is one of the basic directions in the yogic activity and serves the whole psychobiological and spiritual restoration. Purifying, healing and rejuvenating yogic exercises can restore health, life force, joy and also lengthen the life span. Laya Yoga practices serve liberation, salvation of the soul and its reconciliation with God.
Discover your breath - A major and important benefit you may notice with yoga practice is that you are more in touch with your breathing.
Yoga poses are practiced in harmony with the breath. One of the residues of this constant concentration on breath is that students tend to pay more attention to their breath outside of class. Most students' report they are surprised to learn that they find themselves holding their breath frequently during the day in response to stress. By learning to notice their breath holding they can begin to break the habit. When one breathes easily throughout the day, less tension will accumulate in the body.
Free your thoughts - One of the most important things you can learn from a yoga class is that your thoughts have the ability to affect your overall contentment and health. During the deep relaxation pose ( savasana ), one systematically relaxes every part of the body, even suggesting that the brain itself is 'relaxed'. During conscious relaxation, thoughts are experienced more as energy, which is associated with the brain than as the sum total of who we are.
We have thoughts, but those thoughts no longer take over our bodies and minds at large - triggering tension, anxiety or other responses. Yoga teaches us that consciousness and thoughts are not the same thing.
During relaxation we are able to let the thoughts flow through us without dancing away with them to the past or the future. We remain conscious, allowing the thoughts to come through us, but we learn not to interact with them. We can say to ourselves, "Oh, there's another thought of dinner, or of person 'X' or of fear about tomorrow's meeting." Then we can let go of that thought and return to the relaxation at hand. This is a meditative practice, which gradually over time allows us to 'dis-identify' with our thoughts. When thoughts are experienced just as thoughts, not as reality itself, then the path to freedom which yoga promises begins to unfold naturally. And that path is as sweet as a perfectly ripe mango.
