Yoga Cures: Simple Routines to Conquer Over 50 Common Ailments and Live Pain-Free (8 page)

Try it now:
Sit comfortably and just notice your breath. Don’t try to steer. Just be easy with it and yourself. If your attention wanders, just bring it back gently.

Long, Deep Breathing

This is the breathing you’ll want to do when you’re actively practicing yoga. When you take long deep

inhales and exhales, your muscles can work efficiently and your mind can calm. Allow your movements

to come out of your long, deep breath, and then everything you do with your body can flow with more

ease. Try to avoid pushing or forcing your body. If you notice that you are pushing, your breath will

probably shorten. When your breath shortens, simply guide it back.

Try it now:
Sit up tall, sit comfortably. Close your eyes and begin to rest your attention on your breath. Lengthen and deepen your inhales and exhales, setting a full, deep, and even pace of breathing.

Continue breathing at this pace for a few minutes. How do you feel?

Darth Vader Breath

Ujjayi breathing, dubbed Darth Vader breath because when you do it you sound like Darth Vader,

focuses the mind during yoga and meditation practice and also specifically stimulates the vagus nerve,

which sets off signals in the body that make you happy.

Try it now:
Sit up tall, wherever you can sit comfortably. Close your eyes and begin to rest your attention on your breath. Lengthen and deepen your inhales and exhales, setting a nice, full, deep, and

even pace of breathing. Constrict the back of your throat slightly so when you inhale and exhale you are

making a soft hissing sound. Continue breathing this way for a few minutes. How do you feel? Any

different from the exercise prior with just the long, deep breaths?

Alternate Nostril Breathing

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Alternate nostril breathing calms the nervous system, eases anxiety, clears congestion and leaves you

feeling pretty happy … even after just a few minutes of inhaling and exhaling. It’s great to practice

alternate nostril breathing every day, if only for a few moments. If you are headed into a meeting or an

event that you are anxiously anticipating, do some alternate nostril breathing a few moments before to

ease the stress. Alternate nostril breathing is also perfect to practice before meditation to center your

body and focus the mind. When you have a cold, allergies, or any congestion, do it every day that you

are experiencing these not-so-nice symptoms.

Try it now:
Sit up tall, making sure you are also sitting comfortably. With your right hand, curl down your index and middle finger into your palm. You’ll use your ring finger and your thumb, which is a

perfect space for your nose to rest between. This hand position will help you alternate between nostrils

as you inhale and exhale.

Press your ring finger over your left nostril and inhale for four counts through your right nostril.

Close off your right nostril with your thumb so both sides of your nostrils are closed. Hold all the air in

for four counts. Release your ring finger and let all the air out your left nostril for four counts. Reverse

this pattern starting with inhaling through the left nostril, holding both closed, and exhaling out the

right side. Repeat this breathing pattern for three to five minutes.

Bellows Breathing

Bellows breathing is great to clear out your entire system both physically and mentally. You’ll take

short and fast exhales through the nose, letting the inhales come naturally. Bellows breathing gives your

circulatory and nervous systems a quick cleanse, along with a boost of energy.

Try it now:
Sit up tall, and sit comfortably. Take a long and deep inhale. Exhale sharply through the nose, let the inhale follow naturally and repeat at a medium pace for a few seconds. If you feel

comfortable start to pick up the pace until you are exhaling pretty rapidly. Try to continue for thirty

seconds to a minute. When you are ready to finish, slow down your exhales gradually until you can

resume normal, deep breathing.

Breath of Fire

If you are ever cold and need to get warmed up quickly, breath of fire is the technique for you. Breath

of fire generates heat and increases your level of energy. After a few seconds of this breath you will

feel rejuvenated and energized. Performing breath of fire oxygenates your blood, helping it detoxify and

remove waste more effectively. It also balances the nervous system, massages the internal organs, and

improves the digestive system.

Try it now:
Sit up tall and straight, and sit comfortably. Take a long and deep inhale. Exhale all your air out. Begin to breathe rapidly in and out through the nose like really fast sniffing.

During those moments that we are resting our attention on the breath, we are removed from the way we

experience time throughout the rest of the day. Time literally will seem to slow during meditation, and

when you come out of these breathing meditations the amount of time that did or didn’t go by may

surprise you. Have you ever had an experience where time seemed to slow down greatly or even stand

still? Athletes talk about this phenomenon as being “in the zone.” After Michael Jordan scored thirty-

five points in the first half of one game he said, “I can’t explain it. It feels like time stands still. This

bucket is huge, it’s like I can’t miss. I’m in the zone.”

We all have the ability to get in this zone by cultivating a regular meditation practice. And the best

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part is it only gets better. The more you practice, the more zoned in you will be!

Why is this so important? Because of the domino effect that comes with such mindful attention to

ourselves. Keep reading. Before we get to the cures, I’d like to securely connect a few more of these

yoga dots into the whole that is a healthy life.

THE DOMINO EFFECT

With a regular yoga practice, we can manage stress as well as learn to let go of the things that build it

in the first place. We can cleanse the body and mind on a regular basis. We can prevent so many

ailments from ever becoming issues, and deal much better with ones that do.

The more we practice yoga and meditate the more we become sensitive to the foods that are good for

us. A really transformative thing that happens very frequently when someone begins a regular yoga

practice is that cravings actually shift from foods that weren’t the healthiest to those that are nourishing

and healing.

REAL-LIFE CURES: Leslie’s Bacon-to-Broccoli Transformation

Leslie walked into the yoga studio and decided she was going to do yoga every day for two weeks. She had just been laid off and wanted to start a routine that made her feel good in her body and mind. Her eating habits weren’t the best. At home she would snack on bacon in between meals, and at regular mealtimes eat a lot of fried and salty foods. She mentioned after just one week of yoga that her cravings had changed drastically. She noticed when she left class that she wanted to eat something fresh. She started making salads and greens for herself. She also felt an urge to prepare her own food, not grab it on the go while eating out every day, which was her habit pre-yoga.

Leslie’s bacon-to-broccoli transformation isn’t so shockingly unique either. Practicing yoga draws your attention to how you feel and what you need to feel good. The body and mind want healthy fuel. We don’t treat ourselves to

what we actually need a lot of the time because we are so out of touch with what
we
actually want.

The more yoga we do the more we’re drawn to other healthy practices. Not only will you naturally

start to crave healthier foods, you’ll want to treat yourself better, spend more quality time with friends

and family, and even become more sensitized to life’s daily wonders. All of that breathing and paying

attention works wonders.

TIME TO MAKE THE YOGA: WHAT HABITS ARE HELPING/HURTING YOU?

You’re going to need a piece of paper and something to write with for this exercise. Take a few

moments to reflect on the age-old cures that you have adopted and made use of in your life. It can be a

yoga practice, reading, a type of exercise or artistic activity, long walks with friends, or a fantastic tip

that a close friend or family member passed down to you.

On one side of your paper list all of the healthy living practices and habits you integrate into your life

that benefit you on a daily basis. It doesn’t have to be anything super serious. It can be as simple as

taking a hot bath to unwind at the end of a long week.

Now on the other side of the paper write down habits you have that aren’t the best, ones you’d like to

change in your life. The list could include items like unwinding from stress, eating fewer processed

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foods, and drinking less alcohol, or bigger issues like stopping smoking or finding alternatives to

prescription drugs, if possible.

Now that you have your list, observe without judging which side is longer. Is it the healthy habits or

the habits you’d like to change? Simply look at it without judging.

Now that you have your habits right there in front of you, it is time to get to work. If you have a lot

of things listed on the healthy practices side, decide how you are going to keep them integrated into

your life and add even more if possible. Be specific, like “I will meditate for ten minutes before I go to

sleep tonight” or “I will cook a healthy dinner of broccoli and quinoa tonight.” Think of ways to share

your healthy habits with people close to you. We need to keep these positive behaviors alive by passing

them to others.

Now if your list was heavy on the habits you’d like to change, that’s okay too. We start where we

are, and as I’ve said, we’re always right where we need to be. So let’s make a plan.

Starting right now, decide on one thing you would like to change. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. It

can be as simple as promising that for the rest of the day whenever you feel yourself getting stressed

you will watch your breath for five long, deep breaths. Or maybe, for today, you will not eat any

processed foods, and you try the same for tomorrow. Whatever your challenges are, decide to take one

on today. Breathe new life into it and you’ll transform it into something beautiful … just like you’ll

transform yourself.

ZENSPIRATION

Take a deep breath. The present moment is where everything is always happening and where you need to be. Each
breath brings you right into the present.

Part 2

The CURES from A to Z

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When we’re already experiencing pain, careful attention is needed to navigate through it and begin to heal.

One great thing about yoga: its focus is on us, rather than simply on our problems. We are treating our entire selves, not an illness. When you cure with yoga, you are curing the root of whatever is in the way. It’s not simply a matter of masking the problem without touching the cause, an approach that too often leads to more problems and side effects springing up elsewhere.

The yoga poses, movements, and breathing techniques are designed to heal your body, creating intricate patterns that correct imbalance in the nervous system on a cellular level. The poses are designed to regulate your thyroid, blood flow, digestive system, and even brain activity. Yoga helps you rebuild and reinvigorate yourself from the inside out. Who doesn’t deserve that? Healthy and happy. It works for me … but that’s because as I’ve said it