Y Is For Yogic Practices
My grandfather was a regular practitioner of yogic practices such as Pranayama and Asanas. Since childhood I have watched him follow a routine of spending 15-20 minutes daily practicing asanas and 10 minutes of Pranayama.
Though I started practicing Yoga only before 6 years but I have watched him and while I started writing this post, I realised that I have so many memories of practicing Yoga along with him during my summer vacations. He did teach me deep breathing but I kind of didn’t continue it as a daily routine. However, this childhood memories and him being very healthy until he turned 80, was one of the primary reasons that I started practicing Yoga when my body started showing signs of change when I turned 35.
Although I started practicing Yoga and continued it over 3 years but then I went back to the gym. I enjoy strength training and cardio workouts more so wasn’t very consistent with practicing asanas.
However, since the past 2 months practicing Pranayama has brought lot of peace and content to me. It has made me channelise my thoughts and made be a calmer person. Also, practicing Suryanamaskar whenever I feel angry or sad has helped.
Since the last month, I have had repeated nightmares wherein I see strangers barging into my home. I have woken up sweating. When it happened the third time, I started doing the Anulom-Vilom Pranayama immediately. It is the best way to reduce anxiety and stress. I am not sure if it is better to practice it in the morning, but I practice it sometime before sleeping now and it does help me in getting a restful sleep.
Meditation is also one of the yogic practice which I have now imbibed. Practicing meditation is an on going process. After doing it regularly since 2 months now, I am now able to concentrate on my breathing without losing focus for around 2 minutes. This is good progress for me because I have a very restless mind. There are quite a few apps for practising meditation but that didn’t work for me so I wake up at around 4:30 A M and practice meditation when there is complete silence. I go back to sleep most of the times and then wake up again at 7:00 AM. This is the method that has best worked for me.
After my workout daily, for 5 to 10 minutes, I practice various yoga asanas for stretching. This helps my body to stay flexible because lifting weights and high intensity workouts tend to make the body stiff. Ending my workout with Yoga Asanas prevents soreness of muscles as well and that boosts my workout for the next day.
Yogic practices have a healing power and it has certainly brought joy in my life during such stressful times.
I am participating in #BlogchatterA2Z .
To read what else gives my joy click on :
A Is For A Game Of Badminton, B Is For Breathing
C Is For Create , D Is For Dark Chocolates
E Is For Exercise, F Is For Female Friendships
G Is For Gazing At The Night Sky, H Is For Heart To Heart Chat
I Is For Ideas That Bring Joy In Everyday Life
J Is For Join A Course, K Is For Keep A Diary
L Is For Learn, M Is For Make A List
N Is For Netflix, O Is For Organising
P Is For Pamper, Q Is For Quotes
R Is For Reading Daily, S Is For Solitude
T Is For Trekking Trip , U Is For Unplug