From the development of spirituality and using meditation to relieve the stress induced by daily life, to a simple weight loss strategy, yoga is practiced for all sorts of reasons. Not only is it an inexpensive form of exercise serving a multitude of purposes, it is also truly effective and has proven its ability to realize all the claims it makes. As a result of this the interest in yoga and the influence of the same has grown over the last twenty years or so.
Teenagers, corporate /working personnel, housewives, the elderly, expecting mothers, everyone can benefit from yoga especially the latter.
Many hold the belief that pregnant women should not exert themselves as both the mother and the child are in a very vulnerable state. Though excess activity or exertion in such condition is not advisable, it’s exceedingly unhealthy to be cooped up in one place without any kind of activity at all.
Prenatal Yoga is specifically designed to cater to the needs of pregnant women and can be used to ensure physical and mental fitness during pregnancy. In this state the ligaments stretch and pull with the growth of the foetus, stressing the body. During labor the body tightens up further due to the added tension and excitement, intensifying the pain as it has already reached its maximum capacity.
Since it’s a form of exercise that gently stretches the muscles without pulling them beyond their limits, yoga increases your core strength which helps in carrying the child. It relieves the pressure and tension associated with the weight of the baby, thus ensuring a relatively easy birth.
It also uses breathing exercises to relieve stress and tension which in turn, relaxes the body and increases circulation of oxygen. These techniques are well worth the effort as they increase flexibility and strength, which minimize the intense pain to mild controllable pain during labor.
A woman goes through a great deal of emotional turmoil during pregnancy and studies show that rising stress levels increase the risks at this time. Yoga encourages meditation which resolves these common fears and conflicts, inducing “yoga nidra” or yogic sleep which relaxes the mind and maintains a more positive outlook, thus ensuring a healthy pregnancy. The meditative state also brings about an incredible awareness which helps you to connect with your child.
Yoga is a very safe exercise and can be taken up in any phase of the pregnancy, even the last trimester and is recommended as it increases your chances of having a healthy pregnancy and a comparatively easy childbirth.
But don’t drop the habit once the little one has arrived! Postnatal yoga can not only help you shed the extra weight, it can also give you the much needed relaxation.
Consult with a doctor before taking up any form of exercise and practice yoga before, during and after your pregnancy, to stay in the best of health and spirits during the most beautiful phase of your life.
The best possible position for Deep Relaxation, as you may have guessed, is the Savasana, the Death Pose. And the best place is the floor. Lie flat on your back, using a rug or folded blanket to protect yourself from the cold boards. If for some reason it is impossible for you to use the floor, then choose a hard bed, preferably one with a bed board. A soft bed will never be completely satisfactory, for as it sags under your weight, certain muscles will inevitably tense up. Moreover, a soft bed might lull you to sleep, and sleep is _not _what you are after at the moment.
You will probably not feel entirely comfortable when you first try lying like this: The floor will feel too hard, you will find yourself tempted to shift positions. But this you must not do, for in order to relax muscle by muscle it is important to lie quite still. Just remember that every body movement, every shift, however slight, means a tensing of one or another group of muscles. To avoid this, make sure that you are lying comfortably, with your weight fairly evenly distributed.
Once settled, take a few deep breaths from the diaphragm, as you have learned in the previous chapter; then allow yourself to breathe normally again. The next step is to get acquainted with the _feel _of your muscles so that you may better control them. Pretend you have just swallowed a tracer substance, and that your muscles are channels through which you are watching it flow.
Now send an order along one of these channels. Move an arm, stretch a leg. Stretch hard, making all the muscles along the way contract--and study what is happening. You will feel muscles quite far removed from the area with which you are experimenting contract in sympathy. If you clench your fist, for instance, you will feel contractions all the way up your arm and into your shoulder. If you flex your toes, ripples of movement will tense the muscles of your thigh.
Now hold the stretch a moment, while you trace your sensations in detail. Memorize them: next time you give your arm an order, you will be able to check whether or not it is being followed.
And now let go. Repeat the process limb by limb, until you have a nodding acquaintance with the various groups of muscles through your body.
Now start the stretching all over again, but this time in slow motion. Build the stretch up, slowly, like a cat arching its back. In the meantime let that imaginary tracer substance show you, as clearly as possible, every muscle you have put into play. Observe and note your sensations for future reference. Hold the pose until you are thoroughly aware of what is happening. Then, once more in slow motion, let go.
It is this letting-go process that is the actual mechanism of true relaxation. Think of yourself as a puppet without any strings to hold it up any longer--could anything be more limp? That is the stage you are trying to reach--relaxation so complete that you lose all feeling of alertness. This is your goal.
As has already been said, you are not likely to achieve such a state on your first attempt, nor even the second. Most people make better progress in the end if, instead of trying to relax the entire body at once, they concentrate on some one part. Start, for instance, with an arm.
Pretend it is a length of old rope. Let the shoulder fall inert, heavy, on the floor. Let the rest follow, all the way down the arm, until inertia has traveled through elbow, forearm, wrist and palm and the fingers feel like the rope's limp, raveled ends.