Hair Care Tips in Yoga ( Prevent Hair Fall or Reduce Hair Loss.or Improve Hair Growth )

Certain asanas can help you look like a million dollars. It will give your hair a shine and your skin a glow. Over a period of time, if you master these asanas and do them regularly, you wouldn’t ever fear hairloss.

It all started when girls around me wouldn’t stop complaining of hair fall and were feverishly rubbing their fingernails in the hope of better hair growth.

First things first! Let’s zero in on the four major culprits of this beauty menace – stress, hormonal imbalance, digestive problems and inadequate nutrition. Please note that using amla, reetha, henna or any other home remedy for that matter will not drive away these culprits. Instead of weird home-made concoctions or the super expensive hair treatments in the salon, we turn to yoga and nutritious food for help. Because not only do they promote healthier hair, they will also add glow to your skin and give you a fabulous bod! 

Let’s start with yoga first: Don’t let stress kill your hair… Instead kill stress with some breathing exercises. Pranayam is considered to be the God of stress-busting exercises. I recommend “Especially anulomvilom where you breathe in from one nostril and breathe out from the other is excellent for relaxation.” 

• Anulom Vilom Pranayam Procedure

The elixir for your hair… Is blood circulation to the scalp. Three asanas for that are: 

• Sirshasana – balancing your entire body on your head.
• Sarvangasana – balancing your body on your head and shoulders by placing your hips on the palms of your hands. 
• Ustrasana or the camel pose – wherein you bend backwards as you kneel and clasp the heels of your feet with your hands.

These asanas boost circulation to your scalp, face and thyroid thereby promoting super healthy hair and glowing skin. Please note that none of these asanas must be performed without expert supervision unless you want a broken spine!

Constipation is bad for your hair too! Yes, that’s true! If your tummy suffers, your scalp loses hair. Talwalkar says, 

• Pawanmuktasana: helps cure constipation. Lie on the floor and breathe in and as you breathe out, hug your knees to your chest. 
• Ustrasana along with Pawanmuktasana is very good for digestion and metabolism.

Practice these asanas over a period of time and your hair will look and feel divine. But not without some healthy food… Deficiency of certain vitamins and fat (that’s right, dieting is bad for your hair) cause hairfall.

Nutritionist Naini Setalvad says, “If you are on a low-fat diet, you risk losing hair because fats are necessary for absorbing Vitamin A and E which are a must for healthy hair. Other essential nutrients are – Vitamin B complex, B12, 

Vitamin C, proteins and carbohydrates.” She lists these foods which are rich in the above mentioned nutrients:

• Vitamin A – pumpkin (richest in Vit A), dried apricot, carrot and spinach.
• Vitamin E – wheat germ, almond, avocado and coconut (therefore coconut oil is good for hair).
• Healthy fats to absorb Vit A and E – Kachi ghani tel also known as coldpressed oil like extra virgin olive oil, mustard oil, and coconut oil. Omega 3 fatty acids like flax seeds, walnuts and oily fish are also very good.
• Vitamin B – complex – Available in most food items rich in carbohydrates like wheat and rice.
• Vitamin C – berries (like amla), lemon, oranges and guavas (these have four times more Vitamin C than any other fruits).

Last but not the least, if you have been in the habit of vigorously rubbing the tips of your fingernails against each other in the hope of having healthy hair, acupressure specialist Omar Farooque reveals, “There is no science that proves that doing so will promote healthy hair. Rather this practise is a belief, since the tips of our nails have reflex points that stimulate blood flow to the eyes, sinuses and head onwards.

Sex & Yoga

A branch of yoga called Kundalini Yoga is specifically concentrated about sex and asana for harnessing the sexual power. Yoga through its various asanas and breathing techniques help one redefine one's sexual life. It is also very necessary in relieving stress and relaxing one's body, preparing one for a healthy sexual life and relationship. Read on to explore more…

How Is Yoga Beneficial In Your Sex Life?
Yoga is very beneficial in improving your sex life. Here are few reasons…

Improved sensitivity
Yoga helps in improving one's sensitivity. Its breathing exercises help a person overcome his anxiety and participate in sex with a fresh vigor. When a person is relieved from tension and stress, he/she will actively participate in sexual activity. Other than this yoga helps in improving better understanding of self and surrounding leaving a person more understanding and emphatic about other's need.

Better orgasms
Yoga helps in achieving better orgasms. Most importantly, it helps in a strengthening one's pelvic floor muscles and sex organs. Several Yoga asana are also helpful in harnessing better sexual powers. As Yoga also helps in relieving stress, it also enables to liberate muscle strain, which in turn helps in gaining flexibility.

Enhanced energy level
Yoga is very helpful in accumulating energy. Several yoga asana are extremely beneficial for energy harnessing as well as gaining more endurance and fortitude. Body with endurance can retain long in sexual activity without getting tired. Thus yoga provides one with more energy to deal with sexual activities.

Improved Fitness Level
Yoga makes one feel more active and fit. It also makes one aware of his potential capacity. Apart from giving vigor and endurance, it helps in improving posture coordination and balance. The muscles are also greatly toned during yoga and respond more positively during intercourse leaving a better experience with sex.

Knowing And Experimenting More Positions
Yoga helps in knowing about several sex positions. However many of them can't be performed with a stiff and flabby body. Later toned muscles and flexible body achieved through yoga help you experiment with these positions also.

Yoga asana beneficial for sex

•     Lotus posture
•     Halasana
•     Matsyasana
•     Supine Pelvic Posture
•     Viprita Karani
•     Sarvangasana
•     Sirhasana

Simple Tips For Healthy Weight Loss

Maintaining a healthy weight can be hard enough, and healthy weight loss can be a real struggle. Adding to the difficulty is the large quantity of fad diets and quick-fix plans that tempt and confuse us and ultimately usually do not work.

Weight management not only makes you look and feel better, it influences your future health. A healthy weight decreases your chances of developing serious health risks such as heart disease or diabetes.

If it happens that your last diet attempt was not a success, or some occasions have caused you to gain weight, do not be discouraged. The solution is to find a plan that works with your body’s individual needs so that you can avoid common diet pitfalls and instead make lasting lifestyle changes that can help you find long-term, healthy weight loss success. Try these tips for you to be able to have a healthy weight loss for long.

Eat fruits and veggies. Because of its high water and fiber content in many fruits and vegetables, they are ideal for healthy snacking and incorporation into meals. Add veggies to your favorite main courses to make your dish go further. In addition, vitamins and nutrients in fruits and vegetables can help your overall health and vitality.

Improve your carbohydrates. Switch from plain to composite carbohydrates. This means eating fewer products like white bread and white rice and eating more whole grains such as whole wheat bread, whole grain brown rice, millet and barley. They give you long-term energy, and have high-fiber content so you feel full longer.

Experiment with protein. Protein keeps you full longer than carbohydrates. In addition, animal protein often comes with high amounts of fat. Figure out how much and what type of protein is the right amount for your body. Choose lean, high quality protein or vegetarian options like beans and nuts.

Drink more water. You can easily reduce your daily calorie intake by replacing soda, alcohol or coffee with water. Thirst can also be confused with hunger, so by drinking water, you may avoid consuming extra calories, plus it will help you break down food more easily.

Take a multivitamin. This will help you be sure that there are no nutrient gaps in your diet. But remember that it does not substitute for eating a healthy well balanced diet.

Get plenty of exercise. It not only burns calories, but can actually improve your resting metabolism.

Get proper sleep. Get proper sleep. People with improper sleep have a much higher risk of obesity.

Turn off the TV. You actually burn less calories watching television than you do sleeping. Cook your own meals. Cooking meals at home allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sodium, fat, and calories than food cooked at home, plus the portions sizes tend to be larger.

Eat early, eat often. If you start your day with a healthy breakfast, you can jumpstart your metabolism. And will help to keep you from binging later in the day. Likewise, craving on healthful snacks like fruits, veggies and protein-packed almonds, and eating 6 small, healthful meals throughout the day, rather than the standard 3 large ones, can help keep your metabolism going and ward off snack attacks.

Look Beautiful, the Natural Way

Yoga is the art of meditation aimed at training a human soul the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility. It is basically achieved through the three paths- the path of actions, knowledge and devotion. Though yoga is always popularly recognized with fitness and health concerns, the art of Yoga hardly untouches anything on earth. Be it health, weight loss, devotion, concentration, spiritual enlightenment, ego-shedding or beauty, yoga is effective in each of them. Many famous personalities in the health and beauty industry swear on the names of yoga. Read on to explore that how yoga can redefine your beauty.

Yoga: The Real Aura Of Beauty

Yoga is a wonderful art that brings a perfect blend of physical strength and gracefulness in your life. Also, the beauty attained through Yoga is not an artificial and temporary achievement like cosmetic surgery and other such means. Yoga helps you lose all the flab in a right manner to the right extent. Apart from this the enlightenment achieved through yoga brings a shine of confidence over one's face. Yoga also acts as a stress buster which is in it self a very wonderful method to avoid ageing. The flexibility attained through Yoga also makes one feel good and thus look good.

How to attain beauty through yoga?

• The first and foremost principle of Yoga is that until you do not feel good, you can't look good. Thus yoga through its asana like Sukhasna and Shavasana aims to provide complete relaxation to your body.
• Yoga helps you gain physical fitness, helps in the healthy maintenance of mind and body. It also acts in removal of toxins from the body and increases flexibility of your body making you look younger. The Dog and Cat Pose of Yoga is certainly helpful in gaining flexibility and vigor.
• Yoga helps improve the efficiency of the immune system. Through regular Pranayams like Kaplabhati and Anulom- Vilom, you can easily avoid little daily problems of health. Yoga is equally active in thyroid and weight loss leading to perfect shaping of the body and thus making you beautiful.
• The perfect oxygen dose which we get through various Yoga Asanas and Mudras also helps in skin glow.
• Regular yoga brings contentment in your life which reflects on your face.
• Yoga helps you in delaying ageing. A regular yoga practitioner remains young and active for quite longer than others who do not practice yoga.

Yoga asanas to maintain slim body (Video Links)

Navel Power Kundalini Yoga by Ana Brett and Ravi Singh

Beautiful Yoga

Shilpa Shetty Sexy YOGA

Weight Loss using Yoga

Yoga has become a mainstream practice in the West, as many have discovered the holistic health benefits that have been practiced in the east for centuries. Yoga very help to loose your body weight.

Yoga is renowned for its capacity to reduce stress, enhance flexibility and improve muscle tone and strength. But it’s not typically associated with helping you lose weight. Yoga isn’t typically your first thought when it comes to burning off calories. That’s why many people are surprised to find that it’s a great way to help you lose weight.

At the core of yoga is the discipline of both your body and mind. This should lead to stronger motivation to stick with your fitness routine and to eat healthfully. A core tenet of yoga is to develop the relationship between your mind and body. Therefore you feel more motivated to care for your body. This is very helpful for people who want to lose weight but have trouble getting motivated.

Here some of the more common kinds of yoga.

Vinyasa Yoga:

Vinyasa yoga is centered on shifting from one asana, or pose, to another while concentrating on your breathing. There are lots of different poses that you might recognize the name of, including the Sun Salutation. This style of yoga is typically performed in an overheated room so that you sweat profusely.

Yoga Sun Salutation- Vinyasa Yoga with Dashama Demo

Ashtanga Yoga:

Ashtanga yoga is an intricate approach to yoga, integrating six series of individual poses, or asanas. The moves become progressively more difficult, so you have to learn them in the correct sequence so you can slowly develop the skills necessary to handle the more complex positions.

Astanga Yoga video demo

Power Yoga:

This modern adaptation of yoga mixes active, high-speed actions with yogic breathing.

These yoga techniques offer more of the heart healthy benefits of aerobic exercise than the usual kinds of yoga. You won’t experience the full benefits of an aerobic workout. However, you still get the dual advantages of aerobic fitness along with the muscle toning and flexibility of yoga. Your weight loss program will surely benefit. As well, these yoga routines are ideal if you’re too time pressed to handle more than one kind of workout.

Power Yoga Strength for Beginners

Yoga exercises for Better Eye Sight (Youtube video's)

First Exercise

Second Exercise

Final Relaxation Exercise

How to Improve EYESIGHT by YOGA

The yoga practitioners attach special importance to eye exercises, for two reasons.

Firstly, a lot of eye problems in later life are due to a loss of tone in the eye muscles. These muscles become rigid, and this loss of elasticity reduces the ability of the lens of the eye to focus at different distances. It also causes the eyesight to become weaker. These exercises tone the eye muscles up and keep them elastic. If you already have eye problems when you begin these exercises, you will find your eyesight improving after a few months.

Secondly, any eye tension present will tend to produce a general feeling of tension, due to the eye's connection to the brain via the optic nerve. What happens is that eye tension produces an increase in the nerve impulses in the eye muscles. This increase in nerve impulses travels along the optic nerve and bombards the brain, causing a general feeling of tension and anxiety. The eye exercises will reduce tension in the eye muscles, as well as reduce general tension.

It is best to do these eye exercises while lying down after you've finished the asanas. This way you're resting after the asanas and doing the eye exercises at the same time, thus reducing the time taken to do your yoga routine.

When doing the eye exercises keep your eyes open and don't move your head.

Sitting (as in the exercises for the neck given above), open your eyes, then check on your posture. Is your spine erect? Hands on the knees? Body relaxed? Head straight? That is how you should always remain while doing eye exercises. The whole body must be motionless; nothing must move except the eyes.

Raise your eyes and find a small point that you can see clearly without straining, without frowning, without becoming tense and, of course, without moving your head. While doing this exercise look at this point each time you raise your eyes.

Next, lower your eyes to find a small point on the floor which you can see clearly when glancing down. Look at it each time you lower your eyes. Breathing should be normal. In other words, you don't have to do deep breathing.

Exercise 1

Move your eyes upwards as far as you can, and then downwards as far as you can. Repeat four more times. Blink quickly a few times 1 to relax the eye muscles.

Exercise 2

Now do the same using points to your right and to your left, at eye level. Keep your raised fingers or two pencils on each side as guides and adjust them so that you can see them clearly when moving the eyes to the right and to the left, but without straining.

Keeping the fingers at eye level, and moving only the eyes, look to the right at your chosen point, then to the left. Repeat four times. Blink several times, then close your eyes and rest.

Exercise 3

Choose a point you can see from the right corner of your eyes when you raise them, and another that you can see from the left corner of your eyes when you lower them, half closing the lids. Remember to retain your original posture: spine erect, hands on knees, head straight and motionless.

Look at your chosen point in right corner up, then to the one in left corner down. Repeat four times. Blink several times. Close the eyes and rest.

Now do the same exercise in reverse. That is, first look to the left corner up, then to the right corner down. Repeat four times. Blink several times. Close the eyes and rest.

Exercise 4

This exercise should not be done until three or four days after you have begun eye exercises given here.

Slowly roll your eyes first clockwise, then counterclockwise as follows: Lower your eyes and look at the floor, then slowly move the eyes to the left, higher and higher until you see the ceiling. Now continue circling to the right, lower and lower down, until you see the floor again. Do this slowly, making a full-vision circle. Blink, close your eyes and rest. Then repeat the same action counterclockwise.

Do this five times then blink the eyes for at least five seconds.

When rolling the eyes, make as large a circle as possible, so that you feet a little strain as you do the exercise. This stretches the eye muscles to the maximum extent, giving better results.

Exercise 5

Next comes a changing-vision exercise. While doing it you alternately shift your vision from close to distant points several times.

Take a pencil, or use your finger, and hold it under the tip of your nose. Then start moving it away, without raising it, until you have fixed it at the closest possible distance where you can see it clearly without any blur. Then raise your eyes a little, look straight into the distance and there find a small point which you can also see very clearly.

Now look at the closer point-the pencil or your finger tip then shift to the farther point in the distance. Repeat several times, blink, close your eyes and squeeze them tight.

Exercise 6

Close your eyes as tightly as you possibly can. Really squeeze the eyes, so the eye muscles contract. Hold this contraction for three seconds, and then let go quickly.

This exercise causes a deep relaxation of the eye muscles, and is especially beneficial after the slight strain caused by the eye exercises. Blink the eyes a few times.

Exercise 7

This exercise is called 'palming' and is very relaxing to the eyes. It is also most important for preserving the eyesight. Palming also has a beneficial, relaxing effect on your nervous system.

It's an ideal way to finish off the eye exercises.

Remain seated on the floor. Draw up your knees, keeping your feet on the floor and slightly apart. Now briskly rub your palms to charge them with electricity and place the cupped palms over your closed eyes. The fingers of the right hand should be crossed over the fingers of the left hand on the forehead. The elbows should rest on your raised knees and the neck should be kept straight. Don't bend your head. Do the deep breathing while palming your eyes.

If you are going to do the palming for longer than a few minutes, better sit down at a table, place some books or pillows in front of you to support your elbows so that you will be able to keep the neck straight, and palm the eyes in this position. If the palming is done for only a short period one can do deep breathing for half a minute or so at first, gradually increasing it every week.

Benefits:

This exercise helps to do away with eye strain, and tension. Your vision will get better and clearer as the ophthalmic, or eye, nerves receive a richer supply of blood. Some people use this to improve their vision.

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION LINKS:

Short Video on EYE sight improvement

Video demo for EYE CARE excercises

Yoga Asanas for Good Sleep

Breathing techniques and movements to induce relaxation

Tension which has built up through out the day can lock up your upper body and shoulders, neck and head. When your neck and shoulder muscles are tight, you cannot fall asleep easily as relaxed muscles are essential for this. Practice these simple relaxation techniques to help you sleep peacefully.


Caution: Those with cervical problems should avoid Exercise 3.


Exercise 1









(i) Sit with your legs stretched out, and keep your back straight. Bend one leg; place the ankle on the opposite thigh close to the groin. Bend the other leg and place the ankle on the thigh of the bent leg, close to the groin


(ii) Interlock your fingers at chest level, with the palms facing towards you, and keep elbows at same level


(iii) Inhale deeply as you turn palms out and slowly stretch your arms out in front


(iv) Exhale through the mouth as you turn palms in and slowly bring palms back to the starting position


(v) Repeat five times.
Exercise 2:














(i) Repeat steps one and two of the first exercise


(ii) Inhale deeply as you turn palms out and slowly stretch your arms, shoulders and chest upwards


(iii) Exhale through the mouth as you turn palms in, and slowly bring the palms back to the starting position


(iv) Repeat five times.




Exercise 3:



(i) Repeat step one of the first exercise


(ii) Place your hands on your knees


(iii) Slowly move the head as far back as comfortable. Do not strain


(iv) Slowly bring the head up and move it forward so that the chin touches the chest


(v) Repeat five to 10 times.




Exercise 4:

(i) Sit back on your heels

(ii) Place your palms on your knees

(iii) Keep your back straight, and close your eyes

(iv) Hold this posture for five minutes.

This is also called vajrasana which has digestion benefits also along with others. This will also build confidence and help to enforce the flow of blood towards head.

Exercise 5

(i) Sit in the padmasana position. Sit with your legs stretched out, keeping your back straight

(ii) Bend one leg; place the ankle on the opposite thigh close to the groin. Bend the other leg and place the ankle on the thigh of the bent leg, close to the groin. Place your hands on your knees

(iii) Bend the forefinger and middle finger of your right hand. Close your eyes and practice deep breathing

(iv) Close the right nostril with the thumb, and place the ring finger between the eyebrows and inhale to the count of five

(v) Close the left nostril with the ring finger. Hold your breath till you complete 10 counts

(vi) Raise the thumb to between the eyebrows, exhale slowly through the right nostril till you complete 10 counts

(vii) Now: breathe in again through the right nostril to a count of five. Close the right nostril with the thumb and hold your breath for 10 counts. Place the ring finger between the eyebrows and exhale through the left nostril for 10 counts

(viii) Repeat the complete cycle for two to five minutes.

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