World Yoga Day

Where ‘Om’ meets ‘Ouch!’

NaMo Yoga

Why is out there so much buzz all of a sudden about International Yoga Day? Why has United Nations, with support of 177 nations declared 21st June, as International Yoga Day? Why Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi made a clarion call to the world community to celebrate Indian Yoga at the International level in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2014? Why famous celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Virat Kohli, etc., popularising it so much and dragging our attention towards Yoga? Why did 193 nations celebrate Yoga day? Is there a reason behind it? Do we, as individuals, need to be serious about it? 

Well, I think its an amazing initiative by Mr. Narendra Modi. Nature is wonderful, its creation is marvellous and its power, endless. Its like ‘electricity’. We cannot imagine our life without electricity. Its so powerful that even if we slightly mishandle, it causes serious damage. Similarly, if Nature’s kindness is exploited, it leads to serious natural disasters and drastic climate changes. Unfortunately, today due to global-warming, we are already witnessing the unkind behaviour of our Mother Nature.             

Nature is no more kind to us. Its time for us to be serious about being health conscious. Its time for us to adjust and prepare ourselves to the changing climatic conditions. We need to change our lifestyles in order to adapt to the climate change. Adopting Yoga (means ‘union’, also referred to as Yog) into our routines is the way to encounter climate changes and lead the path towards good health, prosperity and inner well-being. Yoga helps to achieve harmony between humans and nature. It embodies unity of our mind and body, thought and action, restraint and fulfilment. Yoga unlike regular physical workouts (exercise), helps to discover oneness with ourselves, oneness with the nature and the world.    

Practicing Yoga

We all are busy in our day-to-day lives, striving hard to earn for our livelihood, family and for a better life. In this busy routine, we often forget, if our body is fit, our mind is active and if our mind is active, there is positive energy, and with positive energy, we can achieve anything, we can easily get rid any kind of illness, stress, trauma, tension, etc. All this is possible through little bit of Yoga, each day. All we need is some INTEREST and TIME DEDICATION.

Taking out time from our busy schedule is difficult, but ‘Where there is a Will, there is a Way!’. I am not a Yoga Guru or someone who knows everything (all yogasanas, techniques, forms, etc) about Yoga. Definitely, Yoga has brought significant change in my lifestyle. Earlier, my life was full of stress, laziness, anxiety, nervousness and negativity. I travel 35-40 kms per day on my bike from office-to-home, and this routine used to completely drain me out by the end of day. I started getting backache and body pain. I started delaying my project deliverables at office. Take office tensions to home and vice-versa. Basically, I used to just not have any strength and interest in doing any activity. My life was totally pale and unhealthy.

Then, I discovered about Yoga and its benefits. I researched about it, attended couple of workshops, collected few videos on Upa Yoga (which is semi-yoga or pre-yoga) and yogasanas and started by yoga practice. Within a month, I started getting the benefits. All the stress, laziness, anxiety, nervousness, negativity, etc, no more encircled me. Now, I easily travel to office without any body pain. I am energetic throughout the day; performing very well in office; nicely balancing my office and personal life and so on. Basically, I feel healthier and balanced than earlier. This new routine has definitely given me a strong and stress-free life. So, when there are so many benefits of Yoga- why not make it part of our lifestyle? It really works!  

As per my experience, 30-60 minutes per day, should be sufficient to adopt Yoga into our lifestyle. It is also a proven fact that “Any habit practiced for 21 days continuously will become a lifestyle”. So, practice Yoga for first 21 days and it will be your new, healthy lifestyle.

Its easy to get started – there are numerous Yoga foundations, set-up by Yog Gurus, in every city. These foundations offer free yoga workshops or workshops for beginners (week’s duration) at a nominal fee. Just enrol for such workshops, learn, and get started.

For beginners, I think, its best to start with ‘Upa Yoga’. Upa Yoga is a part of ‘Hatha Yoga’ which offers simple yet powerful set of practices that activates the joints, muscles and the energy system. Practices such as directional movement of arms, neck practices, yoga namaskara, nadi shuddhi, nada yoga (yoga for sound and reverberation), shambhavi mudra and namaskara process are part of Upa Yoga. Once you have routinized Upa Yoga, you can move to other types of Hatha Yoga such as Yogasanas, Surya Kriya, etc. Correctly practicing few Yoga techniques (as per requirement) everyday should suffice to reap the benefits of Yoga. 

Always remember to take very good care of your health because HEALTH as we all know is WEALTH. Finally, I leave you with few yogasanas postures for your daily practice.

Wishing everyone a strong, healthy and fun-filled International Yoga Day - 2015!