Daily Health Gyan: Was cleaning up my home ( oh, I cook the food at home, clean my house up, potter about the garden, do all the chores around the house -- I believe this gives a certain aura of love about the home which is very important.. I also constantly check the mood with which I do this -- since if you are irritated or rushed or angry while doing it, you create a different sort of energy.I also believe if you leave any corner of your house unattended for long, it gets a dead, moronic feel. I am convinced about it -- though Karan Johar will not agree seeing he made that irritating Rani-SRK film where he created the character of Rani as a bored OCD perfectionist who enjoyed cleaning the house and having an affair with another cranky ingrate as played by SRK ... But even if the great man does not agree I do believe that everything you create about you comes from your thoughts while you do things.... and that sort of energy is very palpable about people... u can feel them as lively, dead, stimulating, joyful, anxious or rushed...

Any case, while cleaning my home I discovered a book I did not know I owned. Have yet to start reading it through. But found a few interesting points that may grip u also: it says food sensitivity is often an undiagnosed reason behind weight gain.
Most people already know that this can also cause problems like headaches and migraines (they are indeed two different things). Other problems? Fluid retention, aches, depression, anxiety, hyperactivity, brain fogginess, cramps, digestive disasters, arthritis, skin problems .. (Bodywise, By Dr John Briffa)

U agree?

Yoga natya: a snippet

Oh, hi to all of u regulars. I started the Sivananda course today, a ten-session one. I got four participants... After distribution of 6000 pamphlets, mailers to all numbers/names in my data base, and great announcements in the leading papers like the Times and Mid-day! Only four? Mmm ... Am I devastated?! Hell, no... I cribbed a bit to my husband, I confess, about how tough it was to be a yoga teacher and the rest of the blah. But u know, you cannot preach Ishwar Pranidhana (submit to the will of god) which is one of the yogic tenets and then crib when life lands you a lemon. As far as I am concerned, I did my best in promoting it... and then, if this is the response, then I am ok with that. Next time, I need to rework how I promote it-- is all I have learnt. Of the four participants all are eager yoga learners -- what more does a teacher want?

Just today, another would-be participant called to say that she was an yoga expert and wanted to know what more I could teach her ... She gave me a list of all the insts. and persons she has been through and I told her -- in the dark moment when I was cribbing to my husband (I confessed, na?) -- that the list indicated that she was technically not-hands on! What a cranky, nasty person I could be... !!! After the call, wisdom dawned (as usual, a bit late, but not so late). When I felt, that I was being a nasty cow and that I was not adhering to the sense of Ishwar Pranidhana. And in that expansive mood -- deciding to accept whatever happened and feeling really like having accepted it, I walked into Health & Glow shop in Inorbit to buy a simple coconut oil bottle and got free samples of a great product worth more than Rs 2500. The sales girl kept giving and giving!! Felt like somebody up there felt a spark love for me:) And now I am more cosily settled in a state of Ishwar Pranidhana... (and not because of the samples, dears:)

Above u see the Dance yoga video... a bit shaky and too dark.But if you sit through it, u will notice that all participants got all the moves just so right. And then, we had so much fun...

Happy sadhana!

Daily Health Gyan: Dr Robert Svoboda, ayurvedic expert says, that when u feel sluggish, have a thick coating on your tongue, have foul smelling urine/excreta, or feeling flatulent then it is a sign of ama(toxic residue from what u think, what u eat) u must skip a meal to feel light and allow the body to rid itself of its toxins... (From the excellent book Prakriti, published by Motilal Banarasidass, Rs 175, available at all leading bookstores like Crossword/Landmark/net shops).

The Dance Yoga workshop

I had a great time with the latest Dance Yoga workshop -- we had ten participants and by the time we came towards the last eighth session, three had dropped out. For whatever reasons. But the rest were very dedicated. Sonia in particular had the sequence right. Archana even practised it dedicatedly, and says, and for which I will stand guarantor, that she was losing weight steadily with it. The other Sonu, who is a yoga instructor from China, was also trying to get the nuances right,while Alpa, another instructor, too got it pat. Pankaja, yet another instructor, along with one of my oldest students Sabrina also actually helped me with the Free Dance Yoga workshop I did for the Bandra Festival this Sunday. What you see in the album is the slideshow of that event. I think there were 20 participants at this event, and of which there were three men who gamely tried every move including what would seem essentially feminine steps. I will upload the video of that tomorrow, when I am launching my basic Sivananda yoga class.

Obviously for the free workshop I did a smaller snippet from the sequence I had choreographed -- this had to be essentially standing  poses since we did it at a park, a cute little isolated one called Malla Park, just off St Anne's Church, from the lane adjoining the famous Bagel shop, between Carter Road and Pali Mala Road.Very peaceful. This is the first time I am attempting an open air Dance Yoga workshop, in a park. And that too to a mixed crowd.. but it was good fun experience.

Everybody seemed to have picked up the steps fast too,  including the three expats -- Sivananda ATTC graduate  Kasia, and two Santa Cruz yoga inst instructors.
We had fun, I believe:)
Sheela, who does amazing rope yoga and continues to train with the incredible teacher Uday Deshpande, was also there. Before we wound up, Biki Bora, Muay Thai instructor, did a  graceful Waikru (a Muay Thai dance which is presented by warriors before tournaments to identify his school of training). I will provide the link to that tomorrow, once the video gets uploaded. It shows that strength needs to go with grace -- and such traditions embed that us in our psyche.
Then, while we wound up, and the lights were switched off, and the moon shone silvery, we saw a white owl fluttering into the night. That was nice: our dance had not interfered with the bird's night out:)

Sleep and lack of it

Daily Health Gyan: Sita am going to post an audio version of the maheswara stotra. I have only heard it in the cd I mentioned, the Times one, Shiv Shambo. Otherwise, I have not heard it elsewhere. So I would not know much about it.

Btw. here is a chain mail doing the rounds. Just thot to post it. You may recall the death of the young and dynamic CEO Ranjan Das recently, of a heart attack. His death had shocked many because he was really a health freak and he was coming out of the gym when he collapsed of a heart attack.

So, here is an article I got in my mail box.

What killed Ranjan Das and Lessons for Corporate India



A month ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was the CEO of SAP-Indian Subcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India. He was very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner. It was common to see him run on Bandra's Carter Road. Just after Diwali, on 21st Oct, he returned home from his gym after a workout, collapsed with a massive heart attack and died. He is survived by his wife and two very young kids.
It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India. However, it was even more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid marathoner(in Feb 09, he ran Chennai Marathon at the same time some of us were running Pondicherry Marathon 180 km away), the question came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age.
Was it the stress?
A couple of you called me asking about the reasons. While Ranjan had mentioned that he faced a lot of stress, that is a common element in most of our lives. We used to think that by being fit, one can conquer the bad effects of stress. So I doubted if the cause was stress.
The Real Reason
However, everyone missed out a small line in the reports that Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program 'Boss' Day Out':
http://connect.in.com/ranjan-das/play-video-boss-day-out-ranjan-das-of-sap-india-229111-807ecfcf1ad966036c289b3ba6c376f2530d7484.html
Here he himself admits that he would love to get more sleep (and that he was not proud of his ability to manage without sleep, contrary to what others extolled).
The Evidence
Last week, I was interacting with a well-known cardiologist on a talk about ‘Heart Disease caused by Lack of Sleep’. While I cannot share the video nor the slides because of confidentiality reasons, I have distilled the key points below in the hope it will save some of our lives.
Some Excerpts:
· Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night. Paper published in 2009.
As you know, high BP kills.
· Young people (25-49 years of age) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.
· Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks. Paper published in 1999.
· Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP),the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!
· Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis andheart disease. Paper published in 2004.
· Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.
Ideal Sleep
For lack of space, I cannot explain here the ideal sleep architecture. But in brief, sleep is composed of two stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding. During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times.
The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type.
For you to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep, you are mentally irritable throughout the day (lack of REM sleep). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours, your body is in a complete physical mess (lack of non-REM sleep), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down (I’ve been there, done that L)
Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.
If you want to know if you are getting adequate sleep, take Epworth Sleepiness Test below.
cid:image001.jpg@01CA6459.1B495C60

Interpretation: Score of 0-9 is considered normal while 10 and above abnormal. Many a times, I have clocked 21 out the maximum possible 24, the only saving grace being the last situation, since I don’t like to drive (maybe, I should ask my driver to answer that line )

In conclusion:
Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper food, exercising (marathoning!), maintaining proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours. In my opinion, that killed him.

If you are not getting enough sleep (7 hours), you are playing with fire, even if you have low stress.
I always took pride in my ability to work 50 hours at a stretch whenever the situation warranted. But I was so spooked after seeing the scientific evidence last week that since Saturday night, I ensure I do not even set the alarm clock under 7 hours. Now, that is a nice excuse to get some more sleep.
Unfortunately, Ranjan Das is not alone when it comes to missing sleep. Many of us are doing exactly the same, perhaps out of ignorance. Please forward this mail to as many of your colleagues as possible, especially those who might be short-changing their sleep. If we can save even one young life because of this email, I would be the happiest person on earth.

ps: Incidentally, just as human beings need 7 hours of sleep, you should know that cats need 15 hours of sleep and horses need 3 hours of it. So are you planning to be a cool cat or a dumb horse?

Daily Health Gyan:  Hey, here is a fresh take on the urinary tract infections -- very intriguing.

Dr Swami Karmananda in this book Yogic Management of Common Diseases (published by the Bihar School of Yoga) writes: “Resistant and recurring infection of the urinary and genital systems, for example, may frequently occur following a stage of personal evolution when instinctive life devoted to the passions and their fulfillment has been a ruling and predominant influence in life.” The reverse of this, caused by repression of our instincts, may also compromise this system through the negativities such as fear, guilt and inadequacy.  Louise L. Hay, the famous alternative healer, also believes problems in this area may erupt frequently due to anger with a sexual partner.

Yoga for the uro-genital system

Here is a snippet from an article I wrote. Actually, I remember writing a lot of articles for on yoga for the sexual glands for the Times Pune and other places, like Savvy mag. My articles where rather clinically written. Yet, some sad male will get excited and send me ridiculous emails on his size, his imagined woes, and more such sad details.. So much so my husband advised me, when I started this blogspot, not to write on this topic-- just so to keep such silly stalkers away.

Any case, this glandular system is like any other despite our own tendency to get excited about... So read the article on, for what yoga says on it

What causes problems here:
Some of the common causes that yoga addresses are as follows: misguided exercise programmes that may slacken your pelvic muscles, contributing to incontinence. Bad dietary habits – such as excess meat, spices, fats – which can compromise kidney health. Clothes that may contribute to regular infections of the urinary tract – such as G-strings which are infamous for passing on fecal bacteria to the vulnerable urinary tract in women; tight or thick pants; synthetic underwear that trap bacteria and do not allow sweat to evaporate freely.

Sedentary life-style and overuse of certain gadgets, including the laptop which, according to some surveys, is known to reduce sperm count in men. Obesity too reduces pelvic tone. Stress can cause hormonal yo-yos, while heavy exercise can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle severely and steroidal abuse can overtax kidneys in men.

How yoga helps:
A dedicated yoga programme nips the causes while alleviating symptoms. Any yoga programme with simple sequence should do the trick. However some asanas and practices are particularly powerful while dealing with and strengthening this sensitive system. These include poses that work on the hips (Poorna titali or the full butterfly), the pelvic region (like vajrasana or thunderbolt), the leg-stretching poses (like supta padahastasana or lying hand-to-leg pose), leg wide angle poses (like upavista konasnaa or leg apart poses), standing twists (like trikonasana or triangle) and forward bends that apply a massaging effect on the abdomen (like uttanasana or standing forward stretch) and meditative poses that reduce stress (like shavasana or the corpse).

At the emotional level, yogic seers have linked problems with this area to an inability to create the right bridge between our instinctive and emotional selves and our own personal evolution.

Daily Health Gyan: Mmm I put lemongrass in my bath oil and since I bathe nights also, this meant some times, when the lemon grass drops were more, I used to be wide awake. Last two weeks, I have spent two nights completely and widely awake! Each of the next day, early mornings I had classes back to back...
The lemon grass effect was so strong that it circumvented the lavendar in my aroma pot, the ylang ylang on my pillow cover...
I checked it and found, yes, if you want to stay up late meeting deadlines or studying, and keep your mind super-alert, you must use lemon grass... Better than coffee, esp if you have an exam the other day or a presentation, where a coffee overload can make u really trip with anxiety too...

What a yoga teacher has to do ....and where all she has to go...

That is the strip of traffic island off Bandra station. I am there at 5 am this morning, having left home at 4.30 am. To distribute my pamphlets, I go the vendor and hang about to ensure that each pamphlet is placed inside the newspaper of my choice.

A yoga teacher's life, contrary to popular perception, is a lot of work.  But it is amazing in that I have grown with the workload. I do not now get het up about getting het up. I take the phones calls individually. If it is a cranky yoga lover, I try to give him a perspective. If it is a regular stalker, a piece of my mind. If a guy trying to flirt, I put him down firmly. If a yoga instructor calls just curious about my style, or what I charge, I give my usual gyan. I am all things at once, and nothing in between. A perfect onion:)

Every yoga event u launch is a lot of work. And in a city like Mumbai, your effort may just sink, since people have so many things to do, and yoga goes into the bottom list of everybody's priorities. And even amongst those who have paid up for classes, so imagine how tough it can be:)

But this is a fun space for me. Suddenly, all edginess about being a dedicated yoga teacher is gone. I don't have any more expectations from any of my students in terms of even simple formality any more -- or any courtesy. Earlier I used to get upset if students did not maintain the formality of this relationship -- pay the fee, inform me if they were dropping out, inform me if they were not coming, bargained, or try rest of the things that in India is not considered rude, but is, univerally.
But that sort of silly expectation is all gone. I have decided the lack of courtesy, from even the best of my students, will not stop me from my own way of being courteous.  The sense of teaching is also gone. This was a big load, the sense of being a teacher, a yoga teacher, with a certain way of living and teaching. My yoga practice and my teaching, initially, had merged. Now I have separated the two. This has freed me considerably. I am less of a missionary. I don't get excited about sharing some aspect of yoga any more. I realise that is a big folly. It exhausts me, because I am, after the gyan, rather convinced (and I think I am right there) what I am saying about yoga has slid off most's people's understanding without making any impact. So now I am just someone sharing something I love and also getting paid for it. So I keep it at the level of super formality wrapped up with a sense of joy I normally exude.  

And also, before a workshop I do my usual promo with a high intensity ... and continue to find ways to keep improving the system I have. But when I arrive at the venue of the workshop, I am completely without any expectation what it will throw up in terms of numbers or types of participants. This used to earlier set me up on a high-alert mode. No longer. I am not a teacher or anything... I am, at the end of the day, a yoga practitioner trying to empty myself of everything... including a sense of the self as a teacher or whatever... In that sense, this complete state of uncertainty this career gives me is constantly eroding into my ego... and that, is what being an instructor ultimately means to me, that losing of the self... no teaching or whatever, but a constant remembrance of being nothing... going nowhere...:) Even if that sends me to the vendors at 4.30 am in the morning....What other perfect way can there be, going towards nowhere!

Daily Health Gyan: It is painful and very very irritating when somebody slams a psychic take on your illness...The worst is when people, mostly self-congratulatory smug types who pick up books like Louise Hay's best-seller (am I talking of myself?:) and discuss what is a physical event for you. The sort of wisdom or even intuition Louise Hay is displaying comes from meeting, empathasising with people who have such problems. These days, however, everybody wants to be some haloed creature called the `healer', so it is rather embarrassing to bump into such types (mirror, mirror, on the wall....)
Any case, one ailment that keeps coming up often is vertigo -- for some reason a bigtime affliction with women -- according to Hay, it comes from scattered, flighty thinking...

Well.....

One-legged peacock tail pose

I actually don't know if this version is a take off from pincha mayurasana (peacock tail pose) or the scorpion (vrschikasana). The way I do it, seems more of the first one.

I would I think work more on that the leg position: to keep the knee out in front than sideways. That is not so clear when you go up and bend the knee and it is just a matter of tweaking it here and there:) I love that I can do this... such a high. I started on such versions of the scorpion after attempting the duck pose in the scorpion, the legs folded into the lotus... so cool. Then daily I do the easy cross legged pose in the scorpion, just to ensure I do not lose the practice in such pose.What I am working towards however, is the floating the legs down, from the scorpion... still a matter of abdominal strength.

What is difficult about this?
Balance, clearly.
Strength to stay in place while making the switches.

What is fun?
A superior form of high, that is beyond words. The trick is to expand the duration in such poses (even if it means clicking such pix in auto mode, set to ten seconds:)


Happy sadhana!

Push the envelope in yoga -- there are so many spaces in your own mind u can explore. The adventure is humungous....

Daily Health Gyan: Interesting fact is a lot of women feel a mild (or even severe) case of dysentery before their periods. One of the reasons is the (in yogic parlance) the apana or downward flowing prana sets off the release of waste build-up. It could be a good thing, since it disposes of all the accumulated crap (literally) in the colon... (constipation is also a culprit in colon cancer). This may explain why even though many of us think god is a man (otherwise why would he give periods to only women:) it could be that since women naturally detoxify(gossiping also, so they can hyperventilate), they tend to live longer than men. Any case, was checking out what Louise L. Hay has to say about the psycho-somatic link with loose motions -- she says it reflects  fear and a great need to run away... Mmm..  a lot of women do experience panic attacks while menstruation (or even before it)... Wot say?!!

For stammering and shyness : yoga cure

Free MySpace Animations!

In nada yoga, Maheswara stotra (which is compilation of all 52  sounds from Sanskrit alphabet) are used like a tongue-twister. This is also used as therapy for those with stuttering and problems of self-consciousness. It also provides clarity of thought, often affected by extreme fear or shyness.You will find this in the Times Music album Shiv Shambo -- the entire Side one is devoted to this stotra -- excellent to recite since it is really a tongue-challenging one...

Other yogic cure for stammering and shyness -- all balancing poses. Oh, I was so shy, if anybody asked my name I would turn a beet red and completely swallow my words. Only after they left would I have found my tongue back... It was a real pathological case of shyness. Even now, I don't feel butterfly wings, but dinosaur wings, in my belly:) But I can deal with that, and I believe, that is due to yoga truly.... I have gone up and given speeches, done talent shows, done what else, tv shoots (torture for a shy person:) but my shyness does not bother me. In fact, I think often it makes me tune to the whole group far better than someone who, not shy, gets carried away by his or her voice they don't hear the yawns:)

Free MySpace Animations!

So, just stick to a practice. Decide what pattern you want to break. Yoga really reaches u where u want to go....

Daily Health Gyan: The latest distressing thing I heard, while with a old nurse with a clinic, was her complaint that these days gynaecs immediately suggested bed rest to women early into their pregnancy. Part of the reason, the lady revealed, was that this meant the woman became nervous, became sedentary, and thus a prime case for a caesarean op:( An active woman can expect and work towards a normal delivery. But since this means the hospital does not gain much (a C-section means longer hospitalisation, more charges, more medicine, more earnings). Also, another distressing new trend in Mumbai, she said was, the woman was told that she needed a stitch there to prevent any untoward mishap (that vague thing frightens women, esp since some plan deliveries later than our mothers and grandmothers did). So, this again meant some earnings for the gynaec/hospital.. The stitch was again removed before the actual delivery... Very frightening all this...
There was a time when there were medical reporters, though even they only did hospital stories... Nowadays everybody is so into PR giri write-ups that such issues are not being addressed by the media at all... The Indian media will be one of the prime causes for our own medical illiteracy:(

Inclined plane: advanced versions on one hand

Here you see various versions of the inclined plane or setu asana. The first three are all displaying the same Manduksetuasana -- the frog inclined plane, while the last one is just a simpler version of the Kashyap pose/Rishi Kashyap's pose.

These poses used to give me a lot of trouble early on. But today I seemed to have suddenly got it. It must be those muscles:) Oh, yes, I still get a lot of comments on those muscles, mostly from envious women whose surname is flabby:)

What is needed?
Any case the frog inclined plane is far easier, if your balance and upper body strength is good. But the second one, as u can see, is way off the mark for me ... the leg must fold in a neater, more compact half lotus. Plus the the arm behind should curve over the back to grasp the big toe of the bent leg... Here, the strength, balance and of course, flexibility, becomes a must. Must work on that:)

Happy sadhana!