“If we are to transform the world for the better,
we must first transform ourselves.”
To live the life of a yogi means to live a life of intention, focus, inner humility and grace. A dedicated yoga practice inspires a powerful yet peaceful state of being that can influence every area of our lives.
“Anti-aging” yoga incorporates the many forms of yoga as a way of life. We awaken our cellular consciousness through posture, breath, meditation, and by choosing life-giving actions and relationships.
The Most Familiar Forms of Yoga Include:
Hatha (poses)
Bhakti (devotion)
Karma (one’s work)
Dharma (one’s sacred path)
Mudra (power of hand gestures)
Mantra (power of intonation)
Raja (love)
Prana (breath of fire - spirit)
Kundalini (serpentine energies rising inspired by
dynamic breathing & meditation).
A dedicated yoga practice can stimulate the spiritual and emotional elements in your life. It puts you in touch with yourself from the inside out. Yoga’s lessons and benefits can filter into all other elements of your life.
HATHA YOGA
“Hatha” Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root words; “Ha” which stands for the sun, and “Tha” for the moon. Hatha yoga involves a series of physical poses (asanas) and counterposes to balance the feminine (left-yin) and masculine (right-yang) sides of our body. It is designed to both strengthen and create flexibility in the skeletal and muscular systems. Yoga’s sustained postures increase energy (chi) in the body’s vital organs while balancing the nervous system and increasing blood circulation. The postures combined with the power of the breath are practiced not only to achieve a state of balance and well-being, but as a preparation for meditation.
To goal of “youthing” through yoga can be accomplished by practicing a sequence of postures that specifically nourish and flush out toxins from each of the body’s vital organs. By doing so, your body’s intelligence innately attends to areas seeking the balance, nourishment and regeneration.
PRANAYAMA (The Power of the Breath)
“Pra” means “first” and “Na” means “unit. There is a universal energy that pervades all of living and non living matter. Heat, light, gravity, electricity, magnetism-the special qualities that exist in the air we breathe are all forms of prana. Prana represents the breath, and Yama means “stretch or “extend”. Pranayama represents the control, harmonization, and integration of prana through regulating the breath.
Pranayama increases oxygen intake which permeates deep into every cell of the body. By focusing on the breath, the mind becomes calm, stress begins to fall away, and the body’s healthy cellular activity enhances healing, well-being and ultimate longevity.
THE POWER OF MEDITATION
Meditation accompanied by proper breathing (pranayama) has been scientifically proven to change human biology. It can transform a dull or agitated state into a peaceful state of awareness. Peaceful awareness results in a number of health benefits including lower incidences of hypertension, heart disease, anxiety and depression. It also can reduce dependence on life-damaging habits such as cigarette, alcohol or drug dependence, while also improving the immune system.
Studies have shown that people who meditate actually score “younger” on biological age tests, perhaps due to decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, and a natural increase of the youth hormone DHEA within the body.
Meditation also clears the mind to support a more restful sleep. Efficient sleep provides a time when the immune system, hormones and all vital functions within the body renew themselves.
TRANSFORMING BIOLOGY: To better understand how meditation affects our biology, let’s take a look at the 3 brains that are stimulated by our personal levels of evolution:
Brain 1: Reptilian Brain: This brain governs our basic survival needs such as safety, hunger, temperature control, fight-or-flight fear responses, territorial needs, etc.
Brain 2: Limbic System: This brain governs our memory, mood, and hormone activity (the thalamus also governs hormone activity but is located in the reptilian brain).
Brain 3: Neo (Frontal) Cortex: Unique to primates, this brain is described as the “rational” brain. In humans, the cortex has grown to a huge size through the evolution of language development, intelligence, intuition and higher creativity. Long term meditaters are known to have more developed frontal cortexes. Therefore, with increased meditation, the power of your own intuition and creativity can become a more dominant force guiding your life. Here’s how:
Effective meditation requires that you still your mind and empty yourself of mental preoccupations. It is then that you can tap into the frontal cortex of your brain to stimulate your imagination “eye-magic-in-action”. You can move your awareness from the reptilian brain to the frontal cortex. Through creative visualization and the power of the diaphragmatic breath, you can nourish your limbic system and begin to change your human chemistry. You can transform your magnetic energy field to positively influence the circumstances in and around your life. You can flush out stress in the body and fill your cells with flickering, buoyant light! Your once heavy, lethargic body will resonate with a higher frequency which propels the process of “youthing”!
This in part, represents the science of Alchemy - “changing the base metals of consciousness into gold.” Although you are not in complete control of life’s circumstances, you can use meditation and right mindfulness to significantly affect the qualities you attract into your life and your responses to them.
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