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International Yoga Day 2019: Healing body, mind and soul

As the world gears up for International Yoga Day on 21 June, here’s a look at the benefits of yoga and why one should take time out to incorporate it as part of the lifestyle.

International Yoga Day 2019: Healing body, mind and soul

(Photo: IStock)

Spiritual form of science: Yoga is a spiritual form of science that had originated in the ancient provinces of India. Popularly practiced by sages and saints, the word ‘yoga’ had been coined from a Sanskrit word, Yog which means ‘to harness with’. Yoga enables us to join our souls to immortal divinity and helps us to entrust the control over our physical and mental health.

It has been proven to play an important role in keeping our hormonal balances, which helps us to lead a better, healthy and rejuvenated life every day. Yoga with music therapy promotes mental peace and calms our mind by relieving our stress.

Yoga is not always what we think it to be; a compilation of physical exercises and poses. Yoga possesses Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyanaand Samadhi. Yama signifies and symbolise the application of morality and discipline in our soul. Niyama states control over mind and to grow ourselves in such a way, that we indulge in self-exploitation and abuse. Asana possess different physical exercises with practicing different postures that we find in the nature. It not only helps us to stay healthy but promotes confidence and endurance.

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Pranayama is concentrating and controlling our breath. This provides oxygen in our brain, which gives us power, positivity and peace. It is also helpful in fighting respiratory diseases and bronchial asthma.

Pratyahara is the withdrawal of senses; or the part of yoga which helps in the awakening of your conscience and internal sense, which we metaphorically call ‘The sixth sense’. Dharana and Dhyana are intense concentration and successive meditation which takes us to the Samadhi, which connects your soul to the supreme divinity or ‘Paramatma’.

Yoga helps in stress management and energises us. This Indian ancient art where sciences and spirituality syndicate together has been appreciated by the world and is felicitated as a noble skill. It is being incorporated as a mandatory part of students’ curriculum in a number of schools.

To keep ourselves healthy we should at least set an hour or two for practicing yoga, which will give us better concentration, life style, academic progress, better command over our physique, better thoughts, better control over mind set up and peaceful, intellectual and meaningful life. Some Asanasand Pranayamasthat should add to our daily routine are; Padmasana, Vrikshasana, Surya Namaskar, Natarajasana, Sirsasana, Kapalbhati, Bhramriand Anulom-Bilomamong others.

Yoga is beneficial to us in myriad ways. Meditation plays an important role in analysing ourselves destructively, which nevertheless, not only help us to keep calm but also help us to develop personal initiatives that add to our personality.

It also enhances our immune system to defeat acute as well as chronic diseases.

An ancient art: We are all concerned about the wellbeing of our body and mind. Medical science testifies that many of our diseases are due to the disharmony between the body and mind.

There are many socio- cultural and religious practices across the globe that targets the holistic health of an individual. Yoga is one such popular practice. We celebrate International Day of Yoga on 21 June. With a strong spiritual and meditative core, yoga offers a variety of physical exercises that lead to both physical and psychological well-being.

The idea to observe 21 June as Yoga day was first proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech at the United Nations general assembly in September 2014. On this particular day we experience summer solstice that is we have the longest day of the year.

From Yoga’s perspective, this time is a transition period which is a better time for conversion. So, this date is regarded as International day of Yoga. The aim of Yoga is not only to heal our body but also to purify our mind, body and soul. It facilitates a connection between us and Mother Nature.

The United Nations has recognised Yoga’s universal appeal and has initiated measures to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga. The theme for this year is “Climate Action” and our government this time will promote the use of eco-friendly products

An exercise of the mind: In an age of smart phones and social media, life has become fast and turbulent. People have numerous desires. Our lifestyles have been affected by our changing society.

To accomplish tasks in our daily lives in a proper manner, such that by the end of the day there is no anxiety or tension in our souls, we must have our minds trained to control our bodies and desires. Everyone knows what’s wrong and what’s right. But only few people care to do things the right way

Yoga teaches us to calm our minds and connect with our soul. This in turn enables us to connect with our surroundings making us achieve a higher state of awareness. Breathing in and breathing out in a calm manner helps in the proper functioning of our circulatory system by supplying great quantities of oxygen to be exchanged in the lungs. Oxygen is used up by every muscle and every tissue in our body.

And in order to ensure that every part of the body can perform up to their optimum levels one only needs to ensure that sufficient quantities of oxygen can reach every cell in the body

The exercises help us achieve this with its effective and unique induction of cardiac cycles. We must remember that no matter how much we focus on going to the gym and body building and think of arms and ammunitions as our greatest weapons, the truth which shall always prevail is that the most powerful thing on earth is the human brain.

The idea to invent something originated inside a human’s brain first. Hence, it is essential to nourish the body to keep the brain active. When yoga attempts to heal the body, what it actually does is, it heals the mind to better heal the body. All of that is done by yoga through the induction of minute mathematics within every moment of our lives. Mathematics is about patterns; it’s about causality, which ultimately determines the fate of the universe.

Causality governs every moment of our lives. Everything that happens to us is simply a node in the long chain of causality. When one understands this fact and acts accordingly in an orderly and logical manner, major problems, which have to do with one’s personal actions, disappear. Yoga is way more than a way to a healthy lifestyle. It teaches you to keep your mind and body in proper alignment so that you can drive your life instead of drifting away.

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