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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Yoga for your eyes
Melissa Dcosta, Times of India, 26 Jan 2012
Yoga expert Shameem Akhtar shares exercises that can keep your eyes healthy
In alternative therapy vision care assumes that the muscles of the eyes, like the rest of those all over the body, must be exercised to remain healthy. We naturally did that as children when we played games, like ball games, running etc. These involved complex eye movements. However, these days, with even children confined to the desk, TV, or media (computer, electronic games) that involve only a confined strain by the eyes the muscles within the eye socket are not worked out. Reworking them, even with gentle movements, including peripheral ones, can help contain degenerating sight.
A few poses that may be safely practiced to help maintain eye sight:
Trataka (Yogic focusing exercise)
Hold your right hand in front of you. Extend the thumb, folding back other fingers lightly. Ensure hand is at eye level. Look at thumbnail. Then switch focus to nose tip. Back at right thumbnail, then switching focus to nose tip. This is one round. Rest your eyes. Do palming (see above). Do up to five rounds. Then switch hands, to do for left hand. Do palming after each round.
Benefits: This helps with the eye's ability to switch focus from distant to close viewing. Most problems, according to yogic occur when the eye muscles slacken and do not accommodate this important skill. Unlike with reading a book, staring at a computer screen reduces our vision skills, creating eye problems. This exercise rectifies this. Plus, when done regularly can boost mental focus. It is also advised for insomniacs.
Avoid: If having glaucoma or cataract.
Palming
Rub palms together. Place them gently on closed eye-lids so the cups of the hand cover the eye-lids. The palms should feel the eye socket. This would ensure that your holding the hand over the eye in a correct position. There should be no pressure. This is called palming and may be practiced several times during the day for a quick rest, not just for the eyes but for the mind too. If the duration of the final hold (of palm over eyelid) is lengthened and if palming is done several times during the day, it is believed that eye problems will be controlled.
Benefits: It soothes eyes strained by an effort to see. Also, keeping the eyes in a dark, soothing mode creates a healing impact by tweaking the master glands, like pineal gland, which reacts to excessive exposure to light or artificial lighting by hitting sleep etc. In yogic eye exercises palming is seen as the most important of healing exercises.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/fitness/Yoga-for-your-eyes/articleshow/9149079.cms
Monday, January 23, 2012
Success is to do what you want to do, and to be what you want to be…
The first question is do you know what you want? Do you want anything at all? Do you really need that thing? The second is why you want that thing. The third one you should ask yourself is what's stopping you from getting it….to be what you want to be. Truth is now and here. You don't have to wait. Dale Carnegie rightly said "The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore."
Rāma Bāni Jan 22, 2012
RĀMA BĀNI January 22, 2012
Self discipline is very important for achieving one's goals. The amount of self discipline one has depends on self awareness and one's ability to live the reality. Discipline is difficult to master as it calls for attention to one's thoughts and behavior and willingness to sacrifice the lower goals for the higher ones. Unless a person has tremendous faith in himself, it is not possible to be disciplined. A person who sees himself in poor light, one who is often critical about his abilities, often comparing himself with others or looks at himself through the eyes of others can not generate enough self faith to produce the spirit of self sacrifice and discipline. Therefore, the key to self discipline is accepting and approving of oneself with open arms.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Secret of My Longevity- by Khushwant Singh
Sweet and sour
Coming on to 98 years and still earning more than I did in my younger days, people ask me how I manage to do it. They regard me as an expert on longevity. I have pronounced on the subject before: I will repeat it with suitable amendments based on my experiences in the past two years.
Earlier I had written that longevity is in one's genes: children of long-living parents are likely to live longer than those born of short-lived parents. This did not happen in my own family. My parents who died at 90 and 94 had five children, four sons and a daughter.
The first to go was the youngest of the siblings. Next went my sister who was the fourth. My elder brother who was three years older than me went a couple of years ago. Two of us remain. I, who will soon be 98, and my younger brother, a retired Brigadier three years younger than me and in much better health. He looks after our ancestral property. Nevertheless, I still believe gene is the most important factor in determining one's life-span.
Devise ways
More important than analysing longevity is to cope with old age and make terms with it. As we grow older, we are less able to exercise our limbs. We have to devise ways to keep them active. Right into my middle eighties, I played tennis every morning, did the rounds of Lodhi gardens in winter and spent an hour in the swimming pool in summer. I am unable to do this anymore.
The best way to overcome this handicap is regular massages. I have tried different kinds of massages and was disappointed with the oil drip and smearing of oil on the body. A good massage needs powerful hands going all over one's body from the skull to the toes. I have this done at least once a day or at times twice a day. I am convinced that this has kept me going for so long.
Equally important is the need to cut down drastically one's intake of food and drink. I start my mornings with a glass of guava juice. It is tastier and more health-giving than orange or any other fruit juice. My breakfast is one scrambled egg on toast. My lunch is usually patli kichri with dahi or a vegetable. I skip afternoon tea. In the evening I take a peg of Single Malt Whisky. It gives me a false appetite! Before I eat my supper, I say to myself "don't eat too much".
I also believe that a meal should have just one kind of vegetable or meat followed by a pinch of chooran. It is best to eat alone and in silence. Talking while eating does not do justice to the food and you swallow a lot of it. For me no more Punjabi or Mughlai food. I find south Indian idli, sambar and grated coconut easier to digest and healthier.
Never allow yourself to be constipated. The stomach is a storehouse of all kinds of ailments. Our sedantry life tends to make us constipated. Keep your bowels clean by whatever means you can: by lexatives, enemas, glycerine suppositories —whatever Bapu Gandhi fully understood the need to keep bowels clean. Besides, taking an enema every day, he gave enemas to his women admirers.
Impose a strict discipline on your daily routine. If necessary, use a stop-watch. I have breakfast exactly at 6.30 am. lunch at noon, drink at 7 pm, supper at 8 pm.
Try to develop piece of mind. For this you must have a healthy bank account. Shortage of money can be very demoralising. It does not have to be in crores, but enough for your future needs and possibility of falling ill. Never lose your temper. It takes a heavy toll and jangles one's nerves. Never
tell a lie. Always keep your national motto in mind: Satyamev Jayate - only truth triumphs.
Give away generously. Remember you cannot take it with you. You may give it to your children, your servants or in charity. You will feel better. There is joy in giving. Drive out envy of those who have done better than you in life. A Punjabi verse sums up:
Rookhi sookhy khai kay Thanda paani pee
Na veykh paraayee chonparian Na tarsaain jee
(Eat dry bread and drink cold water
Pay no heed or envy those who smear their chapatis with ghee.)
Do not conform to the tradition of old people spending time in prayer and long hours in places of worship. That amounts to conceding defeat. Instead take up a hobby like gardening, growing bonsai, helping children of your neighbourhood with their homework.
A practice which I have found very effective is to fix my gaze on the flame of candle, empty my mind of everything, but in my kind repeat Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti, Aum Shanti. It does work. I am at peace with the world. We can't all be Fawja Singh who as 100 runs a marathon race, but we can equal him in longevity, creativity. I wish all my readers long, healthy lives full of happiness.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything Rama Baan 120112
"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence", said Robert Frost. An educated person respects the diversity of opinion. He enters into an argument with an open mind not to prove his point but to add a new perspective to his understanding of the issue. He has the ability to integrate seemingly contradictory ideas to form a holistic picture. This provides better insights into the nature of the problem and its complexities.
Vineet 'Ramananda'
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