Source: MSN

There are hundreds of yoga poses, or asanas, that strengthen, detox and balance your body. Here are a few of those poses, linked together by your breath. Together, they’re called Sun Salutation A (Surya Namaskara).

These poses tone your inner organ ring (liver, pancreas, spleen and kidneys), stretch your low back and hamstrings, strengthen your abdominal muscles, develop upper body strength, and activate the energy that grounds you to the earth. Oh, and they all feel pretty incredible, too.

Mountain pose (Tadasana)

The benefit: Learning how to stand is the foundation of your practice and your relationship to the ground, to gravity and to your spine. In this pose, your spine lengthens while your torso, chest and shoulders open. Just as trees and plants send roots down into the earth and branches up to the sky, you will press your feet to the earth and rise tall.

How to do it: Begin by standing with your feet together. Press into all four corners of your feet. Lift your toes. Drive your legs and feet down into the earth. Lift your chest to lengthen your spine while rooting your lower body down. Find neutral pelvis by rocking it forward and backward, tucking your tailbone under and then sending your tailbone back.

Rock your pelvis back and forth to see if you can find a place right in the middle, a place that feels “just right,” where your pelvis is just floating. Pull the tops of your shoulders back and broaden your shoulder blades across your back. Allow your arms to hang by your sides, palms facing forward, in a gesture of receiving. Gaze forward. Stand like a mountain.

Upward-facing hands pose (Urdhva Hastasana)

The benefit: This pose opens your torso, neck, chest and shoulders. With hands overhead, this pose relieves gravitational compression on your body.

How to do it: From mountain pose, inhale as you sweep your arms up and out to the sides, reaching overhead, shoulder-width apart. If comfortable, bring your palms together. Straighten your elbows if possible. Take your gaze upward.

Standing forward fold (Uttanasana)

The benefit: Standing forward fold pose is a resting pose for your heart, because when you’re in it, your head is below your heart. Use the pose to stretch and relax your upper body. Like all inversions, it clears and balances your mind. If your hamstrings are tight or your lower back is weak, bend your knees softly.

How to do it: From Urdhva Hastasana, fold forward, hinging at the hips, bringing your palms to the ground. Press your chest toward your thighs and bring your chin toward your shins. Draw the crown of your head down toward the mat. Allow your neck to be long. If your palms don’t reach the mat, put a soft bend in your knees. Take this pose twice more, resting for two breaths in between.

Half forward fold (Ardha Uttanasana)

The benefit: This pose stretches your hamstrings, elongates your spine and engages your abdominals.

How to do it: From standing forward fold, keep your fingertips on the mat. Inhale as you lift your torso halfway up, keeping your back flat and neck long, bending your knees if necessary. If your hamstrings are tight, you can also bring your palms to your shins. Bend your knees as much as you need in order to keep your back flat. Gaze at a spot on the floor 6 inches ahead of your toes.

High push-up (Plank)

The benefit: This pose builds both upper and lower body strength while coordinating and integrating the entire musculoskeletal system. Plank pose strengthens your abdominals, chest, arms and legs.

How to do it: From half forward fold, exhale as you step back so that you’re at the top of a push-up. Stand on the balls of your feet. Stack your shoulders over your wrists, spread your shoulder blades apart and pull them down your back. Lift your kneecaps up to engage your quadriceps (thighs).

Draw your navel up to your spine and hollow out your belly. Set your gaze between your thumbs to lengthen your neck. If this pose places too much strain on your shoulders, wrists or core, lower your knees to the mat, keeping a straight line from your knees to the crown of your head.

Low push-up (Chaturanga Dandasana)

The benefit: Low push-up contracts your core abdominals, releases your low back and develops your upper body strength. This pose engages the entire musculature, activating and developing a connection between your core, your legs and feet, and your arms and hands. It can be challenging for yoga beginners; in that case, lower your knees to the mat for a modified low push-up.

How to do it: From high push-up, exhale and bend your elbows, drawing them backward close beside your ribs. As you lower your torso toward the floor, move your upper body forward and hover over the mat until your elbows are bent at 90 degrees. Draw your navel to your spine and hollow out your belly. Hug your elbows in by your sides and pull your shoulders away from your ears. Gaze forward.

Upward-facing dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)

The benefit: Upward-facing dog lengthens your spine and strengthens your back and arms, while expanding your entire front torso.

How to do it: From low push-up, inhale, press down on your hands, and scoop your chest forward. As you lift up your torso, roll over the tops of your toes and move your torso forward. Press the tops of your feet down into the mat. Engage your quadriceps to lift the tops of your thighs off the mat. Pull your shoulders down your back, squeezing them together, as you press your chest forward and up. Gaze forward so that your neck is in line with your spine.

Downward-facing dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

The benefit: Downward-facing dog is one of the most important poses in yoga, connecting your body, mind and spirit. It lengthens your spine, extends your legs, strengthens your ankles and develops your upper body and leg strength, while easing stiffness in your neck, shoulders and wrists. Holding this pose reduces fatigue, restores energy and calms your nervous system, creating grounding energy in both your hands and feet simultaneously.

How to do it: From upward-facing dog, exhale, curl your toes and lift your sits bones high to the sky, creating an inverted V with your body. Pull your shoulders away from your ears, then spread them out, and roll them down your back. Press your palms flat and spread your fingers wide. If your wrists begin to ache, press the knuckles of your index fingers down to balance your weight and protect your wrists.

Contract your quadriceps to redistribute your weight onto your legs and off of your wrists. Draw your navel up and press it back to your spine. Hollow out your belly. Take your gaze up to your thighs or navel, if you can. Remain in downward-facing dog for five complete breaths, inhaling and exhaling with long, fluid breaths.

Step, jump or float forward to complete sun salutation A

The benefit: This motion links one pose to another and brings your feet back to the top of your mat.

How to do it: After five breaths in downward-facing dog, inhale and exhale one more time. As you exhale, press all the air out, lift your heels, bend your knees and press your thighbones back. As you inhale, look at your hands and, using your abdominal muscles, shift your weight onto your hands and spring your feet forward to the top of your mat.

If this doesn’t work for you, walk your feet to the top of the mat for standing forward fold. Exhale. From standing forward fold, inhale. Lift halfway up with a straight back to half forward fold. Exhale and fold forward, hinging at your hips, to arrive in standing forward fold with fingertips pressing into the mat.

From here, use your abdominals to lift and lengthen your torso as you sweep to standing on an inhalation, extending your arms overhead to upward-facing hands pose. Bring your palms together. From upward-facing hands pose, exhale and bring your arms down by your sides for mountain pose. Relax your shoulders down your back and away from your ears. Soften your gaze. Repeat Sun Salutation A two to five times.

 

Source: Kooma

For many, meditation is simply a way to relax; a way to clear the mind of stresses and strains and focus on yourself. There are even health benefits associated with the practice. Meditation has been found to lower blood pressure, improve levels of concentration and is even recommended as a way to help combat depression.

However, for others, meditation serves a much deeper purpose. Many practice it in the hope that they will reach a state of enlightenment or achieve the Buddhist ideal of Nirvana. If you are looking to facilitate your spiritual awakening then it’s worth knowing how others have achieved this state. In order to do this, we need to look at the origins of meditation and the concept of Nirvana.

The story of the Buddha

Meditation has many forms and has been practiced by holy men and spiritual leaders for over a thousand years. Where the practice originated is the subject of some debate. The Hindus lay claim to it, as do the Chinese and even the Native American Indians used meditative forms in order to put themselves in touch with the hidden powers of Nature. However, the idea that meditation can be used to achieve a state of complete spiritual grace must lie at the hands of Siddhartha Gautama – otherwise known as The Buddha.

Although Siddhartha practiced meditation as part of his desire to achieve spiritual insight. According to the story, it wasn’t until he fell into quiet contemplation under a tree that he managed to achieve complete enlightenment. Although he had absorbed the teachings of countless wise men and practiced meditation on a daily basis, it wasn’t until this moment that he took the final step to Nirvana.

However, his spiritual awakening was so profound that he was unable to fully put it into words. Nor was he able to explain how this state is achievable for everyone else. What he was able to say is that Nirvana and enlightenment are achievable, through following a set of strictures: the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Four Noble Truths

The Four Noble Truths are a way of beginning to understand what life is, what role we play in it and our responsibilities to those around us. They are also things to be mindful of in meditation, as they guide our intent and remind us what it is we are truly trying to achieve. The Four Noble Truths teach that:

● Life is suffering.

● The suffering is caused by our ignorance of the true nature of the universe.

● The suffering can only be ended by overcoming this ignorance and any attachment to earthly things.

● Ignorance and attachment can be overcome by following the strictures of the Noble Eightfold Path.

The Noble Eightfold Path is a code of living that embraces all aspects of our existence. While they are incredibly vague, each Buddhist is free to interpret them in the way that makes them most pertinent; we are free to create our own path to Nirvana. All it really requires is the understanding that we understand our relationship with the natural world and are prepared to embrace the consequences of being conscious and mortal beings. The eight strictures of the Noble Eightfold Path are:

1) Right views

2) Right intention

3) Right speech

4) Right action

5) Right livelihood

6) Right effort

7) Right-mindedness

8) Right contemplation

The importance of meditation to achieving either Nirvana or enlightenment cannot be underestimated and it involves both the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. In the eyes of the Buddha, it is us who cause the suffering we experience, and that suffering can be tracked down to the Ego.

The Ego is the hub of all our doubts, fears, and flaws. These characteristics are the obstacles that are set in our way to fully understanding our purest reasons for being. Meditation is a way of learning to silence the babbling inside our heads, and to mute the ramblings of the Ego. Until our minds are clear, they will remain in a state of psychic frenzy, keeping our true natures obscured from us.

Creating a path to enlightenment

However, it’s important to discern between clearing the mind and emptying it. Nirvana and enlightenment are not trance-like states; they are lucid and aware but allow us to exist on a different mental plane whilst still functioning on the physical one. In order to achieve this clarity, meditation must follow the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. Everything about your meditation must be considered, from your intent to your posture. You must put in the right effort and undertake the right contemplation.

However, given that the strictures of this sort of meditation are slightly nebulous, it means that you are given the freedom to create a form of meditation that is pertinent to you and you alone. Unless you are meditating under the eyes of a teacher, you are free to create your own path to enlightenment.

As the Buddha discovered, the path to enlightenment isn’t one that is guaranteed to take you where you want to go. Meditation isn’t a light-switch that you turn on and suddenly discover you’re spirit is awakened. Instead, it should be seen as part of an ongoing process. Through meditation you are creating the right environment within which enlightenment and Nirvana can be achieved, but you cannot decide or determine when it’s going to happen. Meditating towards the ultimate spiritual state isn’t just a thing you do when you feel like it; it is more a lifestyle choice.

Buddha himself had undertaken a lifetime of work and toil in his attempts to spiritually evolve, but it was only when the time was right for him and when he had laid down all the foundations that enlightenment took place. Reflecting on this, Buddha said that “enlightenment just happens; it is acausal. One can do all sorts of sadhanas but, ultimately, Spring comes when it comes; there is nothing you can do to bring it earlier. The flowers will bloom when they bloom; all they need is the natural conditions.”

Source: Spirit, Science And Metaphysics

There is an ancient and well-kept secret to happiness which the Great Ones have known for centuries. They rarely talk about it, but they use it all the time, and it is fundamental to good mental health. This secret is called The Fine Art of Not Being Offended. In order to truly be a master of this art, one must be able to see that every statement, action and reaction of another human being is the sum result of their total life experience to date.

In other words, the majority of people in our world say and do what they do from their own set of fears, conclusions, defenses and attempts to survive. Most of it, even when aimed directly at us, has nothing to do with us. Usually, it has more to do with all the other times, and in particular the first few times, that this person experienced a similar situation, usually when they were young.

Yes, this is psychodynamic. But let’s face it, we live in a world where psychodynamics are what make the world go around. An individual who wishes to live successfully in the world as a spiritual person really needs to understand that psychology is as spiritual as prayer. In fact, the word psychology literally means the study of the soul.

All of that said, almost nothing is personal. Even with our closest loved ones, our beloved partners, our children and our friends. We are all swimming in the projections and filters of each other’s life experiences and often we are just the stand-ins, the chess pieces of life to which our loved ones have their own built-in reactions. This is not to dehumanize life or take away the intimacy from our relationships, but mainly for us to know that almost every time we get offended, we are actually just in a misunderstanding. A true embodiment of this idea actually allows for more intimacy and less suffering throughout all of our relationships. When we know that we are just the one who happens to be standing in the right place at the right psychodynamic time for someone to say or do what they are doing—we don’t have to take life personally. If it weren’t us, it would likely be someone else.

This frees us to be a little more detached from the reactions of people around us. How often do we react to a statement of another by being offended rather than seeing that the other might actually be hurting? In fact, every time we get offended, it is actually an opportunity to extend kindness to one who may be suffering—even if they themselves do not appear that way on the surface. All anger, all acting out, all harshness, all criticism, is in truth a form of suffering.

When we provide no Velcro for it to stick, something changes in the world. We do not even have to say a thing. In fact, it is usually better not to say a thing. People who are suffering on the inside, but not showing it on the outside, are usually not keen on someone pointing out to them that they are suffering. We do not have to be our loved one’s therapist. We need only understand the situation and move on. In the least, we ourselves experience less suffering and at best, we have a chance to make the world a better place.

This is also not to be confused with allowing ourselves to be hurt, neglected or taken advantage of. True compassion does not allow harm to ourselves either. But when we know that nothing is personal, a magical thing happens. Many of the seeming abusers of the world start to leave our lives. Once we are conscious, so-called abuse can only happen if we believe what the other is saying.

When we know nothing is personal, we also do not end up feeling abused. We can say, “Thank you for sharing,” and move on. We are not hooked by what another does or says, since we know it is not about us. When we know that our inherent worth is not determined by what another says, does or believes, we can take the world a little less seriously. And if necessary, we can just walk away without creating more misery for ourselves or having to convince the other person that we are good and worthy people.

The great challenge of our world is to live a life of contentment, regardless of what other people do, say, think or believe. The fine art of not being offended is one of the many skills for being a practical mystic. Though it may take a lifetime of practice, it is truly one of the best kept secrets for living a happy life.

Source: How to Become Anyone

Ever heard of the Raikov effect?

 

It’s easy to employ, but incredibly powerful.In a nutshell, it’s a secret mental technique that enables you to step into someone else’s shoes.

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The technique was discovered by Dr Vladimir Raikov in the early 1960s.

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(SPECIAL: Secret European Experiment turns anyone into geniuses)

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