Yoga for a beautiful and healthy skin

Your skin reflects the state of your overall health. If you are physically fit and mentally calm, your skin will naturally be supple, flawless and glowing with life. If, on the other hand, you are suffering from some physical disease, or are mentally stressed out, your skin will also lack the luster of life.

Unhealthy dietary practices including intake of junk food and aerated beverages, exposure to various pollutants in water as well as air, and over exposure to sun are some of the most common factors that squeeze out the natural health of the skin and cause various types of skin diseases. A sedentary lifestyle devoid of physical activities compounds the problem.

If your skin has also started showing the effects of all these factors in the form of blemishes, wrinkles and other skin problems, it’s high time you paid attention to it. Yoga provides you with possibly the best integrated skin care regimen. It balances the secretion of hormones in your body and promotes the flow of oxygen enriched blood to your skin. This neutralizes the effects of all those factors that affect the health of your skin and leaves it glowing with natural health. Yogic practices nourish the skin at the cellular level and detoxify it. They activate all internal organs, particularly the endocrine glands, and optimize their functioning by stimulating them as well as by lowering the stress levels.

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Yoga to improve Memory Power

Memory: A Dynamic Process of the Mind

Memory goes beyond merely retaining information and recalling it when the need arises. It is a dynamic faculty of the mind that actively analyzes the assimilated information and processes it to be used by us, consciously or unconsciously. For example, out of the vast mass of information we come across daily in our lives, it sieves out the irrelevant part and retains only that part which is, or may be, useful to us.

Need to Train the Mind to Sharpen Memory

The importance of memory in our daily lives needs no reiteration. Every moment of our life floods us with new information, developments, happenings and facts that have to be taken into account. In order to cope up with all this, we have to train our mind in a way that strengthens the dynamic aspect of memory. However, most methods and techniques to improve our memory sorely fail in it, as their stress is only on the static process of retaining information.

Why Yoga Is the Best Way to Improve Memory

Yoga is perhaps the only method that takes into account both the static and the dynamic aspects of memory, thus strengthening all the faculties of the mind – retention, analysis, and recall. The asanas and other yogic practices bring about attention, sharpen the audio-visual perception, strengthen cognition, and facilitate the processing of sensory information. The yogic practice of hath yoga – a combination of asanas, pranayam, and various meditation techniques – stimulates blood supply to the brain. This facilitates overall health of the brain and enhances concentration. This results not just in better memory but improved cognitive abilities in general.

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Practising yoga at work

Work, as the saying goes, is worship. We all need to work not just to survive and support our families, but also to carry out our larger responsibilities towards the society. However, the nature of work today has made it an enemy to our health. Most of us spend hours locked up in offices, scanning files or keeping glued to computer screens. This puts not only our eyes but also neck, shoulder and back muscles to unwarranted stress, leading to gradual stiffness in them. This, along with hundred other stresses and tensions at work, may lead to headaches, backaches, neck pain, shoulder pain, mental fatigue and irritability. If left unattended, these myriad problems may adversely affect your efficiency at work, thus forming a vicious circle that may well make your life a hell.

While we cannot wish away our work, nor can we change its nature, we can certainly incorporate some techniques of Yoga at work that would not only prevent these health problems but also make work a pleasure. And it is never too late to start. Even if you have already developed some of these problems, techniques of Yoga in office can well alleviate pain and relieve other symptoms by facilitating release of tension from mind as well as the body, while strengthening muscles and increasing their flexibility at the same time.

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Shavasana: The Corpse Pose

Shava, in Sanskrit, means corpse or dead body. Thus, Shavasana is a pose that simulates a corpse. That is why it is also sometimes called Mrtasana, mrta in Sanskrit, means dead. It is often practiced at the end of a yoga session but can also be practiced at the end of each asana, or pose, to relax the body and prepare for the next asana. Some practitioners also practice it in the beginning of the session for better concentration and focus during the practice of various asanas. It can also be practiced as a standalone asana to relieve stress at any time of the day.

To practice Shavasana, follow these steps:

• Lie down on the back, spread arms and feet at an angle of approximately 45 degrees from the sides of the body. Slightly tilt the head backward to rest it comfortably. Make yourself comfortable. In winters, if you feel necessary, you can place a blanket over the body to keep yourself warm.
• Close the eyes and slowly deepen the breathing. Concentrate on the breathing and feel the whole body laying its weight on the floor and relax.

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Shrishasana: The Inverted Pose

Shirsha means the head, and Shirshasana is a pose in which the body stands inverted on the crown of the head, held straight with the support of the forearms. As a result of its immense benefits, it has earned the title of the king of all asanas, or yogic poses.

To practice this pose, follow these steps:

• Spread a comfortable mat or blanket on the floor. Fold double, if necessary, to provide extra cushion.
• Kneel down and interlock the fingers of both the hands; place the arms, joined at fingers, on the floor. Keep the elbows shoulder width apart, so that the arms look like the sides of an equilateral triangle.
• Place the head inside the hollow space created by the palms so that the crown of the head touches the floor while the back of the head touches the palms. Head should not be on the palms.
• Move a little towards the head, on the knees.

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