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Benefits Of Yoga

July 31st, 2009

The benefits of yoga are extensive. Not only does yoga affect the physical aspect of the body, it addresses the mind and spirit as well. Daily exercises are a great way to help relieve the stress of your day and can bring a sense of well-being to your life.

1. Stress Relief : Yoga can help reduce the effects of stress on your body. One of the benefits of yoga is that it encourages relaxation and can lower the amount of cortisol in your body.
2. Pain Relief : Daily exercises of yoga can help ease the aches and pains of the body. Many people with very serious diseases have reported less pain after these daily exercises, such as asanas or meditation.
3. Better Breathing : You will learn to take deeper, slower breaths with daily exercises of yoga. It will help to increase your lung function and set off the body’’s relaxation response. This can be one of the most powerful benefits of yoga.
4. Flexibility : You will notice your level of flexibility will increase, which will help with your range of motion. Sometimes in the yoga daily exercises, people cannot even touch their toes. The benefits of yoga will include lengthening the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your body to help you become more flexible.
5. Increased Strength :Yoga poses use all the muscles in your body and help you increase your strength level from head to toe. The benefits of yoga and daily exercises will help you strengthen your muscles close to the bones, which increase the support of your skeletal system as well.
6. Weight Management : You will see the benefits of yoga begin to affect your scale. Daily exercises are always recommended, but yoga helps reduce the level of cortisol in your body. This aids in weight loss and fat burning.
7. Improved Circulation :Yoga will help improve your body’’s circulation. In turn, with daily exercises, you will see the benefits of yoga with lowered blood pressure and pulse rates.
8. Cardiovascular Conditioning :Even the most gentle style of yoga will help to lower your resting heart reate and increase your overall endurance. This is one of the important benefits of yoga to help improve the amount of oxygen taken in during the daily exercises.
9. Focus on the Present : You can have greater coordination, memory skills, reaction times, and improved concentration skills by utilizing yoga for daily exercises. These benefits of yoga will extend far out of the yoga center.
10. Inner Peace : What more could you want. This is one of the primary reasons that people do daily exercises of yoga. This is one of the most important benefits of yoga and is also one of the more easy ones to attain.
11. Complete Detoxification : By gently stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny as well as providing nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life.

Yoga Health Benefits versus Exercise Benefits :

- Yoga Benefits
* Parasympathetic Nervous System dominates.
* Subcortical regions of brain dominate.
* Slow dynamic and static movements.
* Normalization of muscle tone.
* Low risk of injuring muscles and ligaments.
* Low caloric consumption.
* Effort is minimized, relaxed.
* Energizing (breathing is natural or controlled).
* Balanced activity of opposing muscle groups.
* Noncompetitive, process-oriented.
* Awareness is internal (focus is on breath and the infinite).
* Limitless possibilities for growth in self-awareness.
- Exercise Benefits
* Sympathetic Nervous System dominates
* Cortical regions of brain dominate
* Rapid forceful movements
* Increased muscle tension
* Higher risk of injury
* Moderate to high caloric consumption
* Effort is maximized
* Fatiguing (breathing is taxed)
* Imbalance activity of opposing groups
* Competitive, goal-oriented
* Awareness is external (focus is on reaching the toes, reaching the finish line, etc.)
* Boredom factor

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Posted in Yoga, benefits, stress

Yoga – Unity or Oneness

July 31st, 2009

Yoga is a scientific system of physical and mental practices that originated in India more than three thousand years ago. Its purpose is to help each one of us achieve our highest potential and to experience enduring health and happiness. With Yoga, we can extend our healthy, productive years far beyond the accepted norm and, at the same time, improve the quality of our lives.
Yoga is a science of right living and it works when integrated in our daily life. It works on all aspects of the person: the physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual. The word yoga means ‘unity’ or ‘oneness’ and is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘yuj’ which means ‘to join’.
The word Yoga automatically calls to mind Sage “Patanjali” the founder and father of Yoga. He lived around three centuries before Christ, and was a great philosopher and grammarian. The aim of Patanjali Yoga is to set man free from the cage of matter. Mind is the highest form of matter and man freed from this dragnet of Chitta or Ahankara (mind or ego) becomes a pure being.

WHAT YOGA IS NOT ?
There are too many misconceptions clouding the science of Yoga. People perceive it to be some kind of black or white magic, sorcery, physical or mental debauchery through which miraculous feats can be performed. For some it is an extremely dangerous practice which should be limited to only those who have renounced the world. Few others think it to be a kind of mental and physical acrobatism that is compatible only to a Hindu mind.

PATHS OF YOGA
* Raja yoga involves mastery of the mind and senses in Samadhi; essentially the advanced aspects of Patanjali’s astanga yoga.
* Hatha yoga is the yoga of the will which involves cultivating ones energy to arouse Kundalini primarily by means of asana and pranayama.
* Mantra yoga involves reciting sacred syllables to reach perfection.
* Laya yoga involves absorption in god to experience ultimate bliss.
* Bhakti yoga requires absolute devotion to god to achieve the ultimate goal.
* Karma yoga achieves this through selfless work without thought of personal reward.
* Jnana yoga is the yoga of knowledge cultivating the discrimination between spiritual reality and the illusion of the material world.

YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI
* Yama – Universal ethics: Non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, sexual restraint and non-acquisitiveness.
* Niyama – Principles of self conduct: purity, contentment, intense dedication or austerity, study of self and scriptures and self-surrender.
* Asana – practice of the postures.
* Pranayama – Breath control.
* Pratyahara – withdrawal and control of the senses.
* Dharana – concentration.
* Dhyana – meditation.
* Samadhi – a state of higher consciousness where the sense of self (ego) dissolves in the object of meditation and the individual self exists in its own pure nature.

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Infant Jaundice – Natural Home Remedy

July 30th, 2009

Many babies develop a mild form of jaundice two to four days after birth. The skin has a golden, sun-tanned appearance and the eye whites have a yellowish tinge. Newborn jaundice is due to the build-up of a yellow pigment in the blood (bilirubin) normally broken down by the liver. It occurs because the liver is not yet fully matured. Jaundice is more common in premature babies and in babies bruised during birth.

A bilirubin level of 12 or more which continues to increase after the third day and a baby that is dehydrated and lethargic is an indication of pathological jaundice. This is a condition could be related to blood group incompatibility or a damaged liver and the help of an experienced professional healer is very likely necessary for effective infant jaundice treatments in this case. If untreated this type of infant jaundice can lead to brain damage. The two other types of infant jaundice, physiologic jaundice and breast milk jaundice require little to no treatment and will disappear within a few weeks on their own.

Treatments to lower the level of bilirubin in your baby’s blood may include:
- Light therapy (phototherapy). Your baby may be placed under special lighting that emits light in the blue-green spectrum. The light changes the shape and structure of bilirubin molecules in such a way that they can be excreted in the urine and stool. The light isn’t an ultraviolet light, and a protective plastic shield filters out any ultraviolet light that may be emitted. During the treatment, your baby will wear only a diaper and protective eye patches.

- Sunlight will also help break down the bilirubin. So another effective infant jaundice treatment is to undress your baby and, while shading her eyes, give her a sun bath in the early morning or late afternoon sun for five minutes.

- Breastfeed your baby frequently. Plenty of fluids are needed to flush away the bilirubin.

- Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). Jaundice may be related to blood type differences between mother and baby. This condition results in the baby carrying antibodies from the mother that contribute to the breakdown of blood cells in the baby. Intravenous transfusion of immunoglobulin, a blood protein that can reduce levels of antibodies, may decrease jaundice and lessen the need for exchange blood transfusion.

- Exchange blood transfusion. Rarely, when severe jaundice doesn’t respond to other treatments, a baby may need an exchange transfusion of blood. This involves repeatedly withdrawing small amounts of blood, diluting out the bilirubin and maternal antibodies, and then transferring blood back into the baby — a procedure that’s performed in a newborn intensive care unit.

If you suspect breast milk jaundice you can stop breastfeeding for a short period of time (no longer than 48 hours) to see if the bilirubin level drops without breast milk.

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Posted in Infant Jaundice, causes, cure, home treatment, jaundice, natural home remedy, symtoms

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