The Power of Yoga: Transform Your Mind and Body to Radically Improve Every Part of Your Life

By Jay Siva

Begin the journey from the mystical to the practical with this book, and completely transform your mind, body, and view of the ancient art of Yoga as you explore its contents. In this easy to follow guide you will learn the core truths of Yoga practice and you will discover how you can use them to radically improve every part of your life.

Realize dreams and goals, improve your looks and health, unlock creativity or trapped energy, and create the strongest version of yourself that you ever imagined. Making your way through the pages you will soon uncover the simple truth - there is no secret to Yoga. Instead, there are practical techniques, poses, and meditations that steer you towards remarkable improvements in your emotional, spiritual, and physical life.

You will not be transformed over night, but you will be transformed permanently, and for the better, when you follow the many guided sessions contained in this work. Each chapter introduces you to foundational concepts and then gently instructs you in their use. This approach guarantees that you have complete understanding about the background and development of each activity, and this ensures success.

Whether you hope to learn how to do complex bends and bridges, how to stand on your head, or how to meditate for great lengths of time, this is THE book to help you get started. It is equal parts educational/informational book and step-by-step instruction manual. It explains the history of common asanas or poses and then shows you how they are done. It offers details about why certain poses, tactics, and approaches are used, and this makes you more and more powerful with each session.

Just imagine...not only can you begin to immediately practice things like the three most effective "bandhas", but you will also completely understand just what they mean, why they have evolved in the way they did, and how to combine them for the best results.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781623093037

Book preview

Summary

Introduction

In the world of modern cuisine there is a wonderful word at work…this word is fusion. It is the process by which we can enjoy something as grand as Thai Curry or something as down home as Taco Pizza. Thus, fusion cooking is simply a blending of great things that are representative of other diverse backgrounds, but which harmonize nicely. It is also a way of cooking that allows the chef to intuitively mix together things that they know will work or merge effectively.

Yoga can work this way too. It can rely almost entirely on your knowledge and intuition, but only after you have come to understand the most basic principles. You can study it enough to see how to fuse different approaches into a system that works for you. The primary difference between intuitive Yoga and intuitive anything else is that Yoga demands that you take the time to learn about the different steps and tactics. And then, you can skillfully decide which flavors give you the best results.

Yoga is something that can be called secular or spiritual, or both. Some people view it as their religion (or something equivalent to a religion) and others view it as a form of physical fitness. It can have a tremendous amount of routine or discipline, but it is also something that is meant to be far more fluid and as expansive as the individual desires. This means that Yoga provides anyone with a unique opportunity for personal transformation.

Just consider that there are some people who do Yoga on a daily basis strictly for strength and flexibility, and then there are some who do it to experience all of their levels of being. These are people who use their daily Yoga to tap into their intellect, their bodies, their energy levels, their imagination, their personal or inner stillness, and more.

In this book, we are going to take a broad look at Yoga, a bit of its history, the many forms in which it is practiced, and then discover how you can begin to use your knowledge intuitively. We are going to rely on a training or tuning approach that warms up your body and your mind. This is going to incorporate meditation and physical movements into a personalized practice meant to bring you peace and clarity, even if you have a busy schedule or hectic life.

The power of Yoga is real, and in this book, you will discover how to transform your life using Yoga exercises that require mental, physical and intuitive or inner skills. It is impossible to remain unchanged when you have mind and body coordination. That is precisely what Yoga and meditation provide, and you will discover that you receive an enhanced sense of mental clarity and physical capability after even a small amount of effort.

We'll begin with a look at the most common styles of Yoga along with a bit of history. We'll then explore some essential and preliminary concepts that focus on asanas (poses), pranayama (breathing) and meditation. As we do these things, we are going to discover that conscious movement and inward thinking deliver tremendous benefits. For example, we will consider things like the following equation:

Consciousness = Thought;

Thought = Action;

Action = Change in one's life and/or World.

Thus, we will discover that Yoga practice is meant to integrate ALL of the levels or layers of our lives. Doing Yoga will lead to physical, mental, emotional and life changes.

We will conclude by ensuring that you understand how to put all that you have learned into action. We will learn effective poses, practice mindful breathing, and begin learning the steps necessary to calm and clear the mind. After that, we consider a structured system for using all of this to begin reshaping your life in an organized and measurable way.

What we want to emphasize is that you should never get caught up in the vocabulary, the practice, and the systemic methods of Yoga because that defeats its purpose. Don't become dogmatic and insist that there are only a set number of ways that Yoga can work. Instead, keep your mind open to the ways that it can work FOR YOU at the current time. You will discover that the way you put your knowledge to work might change over time simply because all people change throughout their lives. And it is great to already be flexible in your view of Yoga (as well as in your moves) if you want to use it to help you remain balanced, happy and healthy.

If you're ready, we'll take a look at some basic facts about Yoga.

Chapter One

Yoga Basics

Did you know that Buddhists compare the human mind to a monkey? They use the visual of a monkey swinging aimlessly through the trees, behaving in random ways, and basically wandering all over the place to describe how we think. This, say the Buddhists, is the human mind - and it must be tamed. The key to the Buddhists' approach is that Yoga is used, and that means that the taming is done with love and compassion.

Why not just force yourself to focus? Because it doesn't really work that way, and no matter how many times you