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Five ways to include Yoga Philosophy in your life
For me personally I really like use the yoga philosophy of Swami Vishnudevananda as a guideline on a healthy life. He has clearly defined the five points of yoga.
His purpose was to make the Hatha Yoga philosophy simple and understandable for western students who didn’t know the proper meaning and purpose of Yoga.
The 5 points of Swami Vishnudevananda:
1) Proper Exercise
Make sure you practice the yoga asanas regularly for a healthy body and mind. Yogic physical exercises are designed to develop the body, calm the mind and to lead to spiritual growth.
With the goal to increase the spine flexibility, strengthen the muscles and improve the concentration.
2) Proper Breathing
Most people use only a fraction of their lung capacity for breathing (20% of their capacity). They breath very shallow, mostly only till the chest. Their shoulders are hunched, they have painful tension in the upper part of the back and neck, and they suffer from lack of oxygen. Due to office jobs, people sit in a wrong manner. They sometimes even forget to breath.
In order to improve breathing people can do pranayama exercises. People can practice Yogic breathing. It brings air to the lowest and largest part of the lungs. It ensures that the body receives its supply of oxygen. It prevents painful muscle tension in the body, headaches and breathlessness. Controlling the vital energy of breath, Prana. Pranayama breathing exercises help to calm and control the mind.
3) Proper Relaxation
Even while trying to rest, the average person wastes a lot of physical and mental energy through tension. In the course of one day, our body usually produces all the substances and energy necessary for the next day. But it often happens that all these substances and energy may be consumed within a few minutes by bad moods, worry and unnecessary tension. This leads to tiredness, headaches, and exhaustions and over a long period it may lead to serious illness.
During proper relaxation, there is practically no energy being consumed or expended. Only a little of the energy is used to keep the body in normal condition while the remaining portion is being stored and conserved. This relaxation recharges physically, mentally and spiritually and leads to more abundance and vitality. So rest and sleep enough!
4) Proper Diet
As anyone knows the diet has profound effect on the physical, mental and spiritual body. And they say what you eat is what you become. The quality and nature of food affects the body as well as thoughts directly. The unhealthy diet brings disease, laziness, inertia and negative thinking.
The yogic diet consists of vegetarian, pure, simple and natural foods, which are easy to digest. The purpose of eating is to supply the body with the life force, the cosmic energy “Prana”. The best nutrition plan for a yoga student is the simple diet of natural, fresh foods, avoiding foods which are overly stimulating like meats, fish, eggs, onions, garlic, coffee, white sugar, tea (except herbal), alcohol and drugs.
5) Meditation
In order to achieve true and lasting state of happiness and peace we must first learn to calm the mind, to concentrate and go beyond the mind. All happiness achieved through the mind is temporary and fleeting. By turning the mind’s concentration inward, upon the self, we can deepen that experience of perfect concentration and feel long lasting peace. This is the state of Meditation”. The goal in meditation is not to become thoughtless but to ignore, stop or control the thoughts arising from our five senses.
