TV Channel

Hari Om! Hari Om! Today we will continue with āsanas. First, we will practice very easy āsanas, not like the morning's Marjari. We will again start with the first level: Sarvahitā āsanas. It is very important to practice Sarvahitā āsanas correctly. If we begin by practicing āsanas correctly, especially movements involving the neck or lower back, all other āsanas will develop from that foundation. Our spinal column has a double-S shape. In the neck, we have lordosis. Down in the chest area, we have kyphosis, and also down toward the tailbone. When people usually practice āsanas, they often do so incorrectly. They practice positions that, when we have this lordosis in the neck, create more movement in that area. Practicing āsanas in such a way will lead to more neck problems. That is why doctors often say that bending the head back is not good if you have neck issues; it can cause dizziness and many other problems. But if you practice correctly, you will not have these issues. What does correct practice mean? Imagine you have something like a mobile phone. I joke that we will make "mobile phone yoga practice." First, imagine you have something on your head. Imagine that after a car accident, you have a neck brace (kravata), and all the time, imagine that somebody is pulling you up from the top of your head. When you imagine this, usually we do this and the chin goes up, which is not good. The chin must be parallel with the floor. Imagine somebody is pulling you up from here. You have a fixation here. Inhale and exhale. Imagine you know how long your neck is. Bring the chin toward the chest, not into the hollow of the throat. Inhale and exhale all the time. When we have kyphosis, what does it mean for this area? What do we do? Yes, we usually see this on the train, tram, or street. But when we correct this area, we will immediately feel something here, and our kyphosis will become less and less. The same applies to the lower back. This morning I explained this movement. Usually, people... It is painful and dangerous. No. Imagine that somebody is pulling you up from here. You are looking up, but not with open eyes like a bird waiting for water. We have this here, and we look up, but not with a correction of the pelvis. You will see this very nicely in the book Yoga for Spinal Column. Inside, it is always said that your pelvis must be fixed when you practice this āsana. It is always said: imagine your pubic bone moving toward the navel, and imagine your tailbone stretching down. Not too much, just a little. When you have a little stretch, you will have an inhalation. What is important is that you do not practice the lordosis here and here too much. When we realize these two points, we will immediately understand all other āsanas: Bhujaṅgāsana. What is Bhujaṅgāsana? Bhujaṅgāsana starts with the neck, and we also make mistakes with the neck and here, and here in the low back we have something like this. If you force it, you will break your finger. But you must go in this way. What does it mean? Stretch the neck in the chest area because we have kyphosis here. The whole day we are in this position, working on something, and we need to go back. Just a few things: low doses, key forces. Low doses with the neck go like this with the chest area, not in this way. Halāsana and all other āsanas from the 5th level will create more problems. It is important to go back here, not in this area, but in front, completely as if you have a broomstick. Okay, now we will practice. Please, it is much easier when I show somebody. It is easier to speak, please, to see everything. Sit in Daṇḍāsana. We will all practice, you know, from the neck. Imagine. Imagine that you have something. Also, when we sit—please, you must sit on the other side. Leg on this. Yes. Also, when we sit, we have our hands in this position. Why? To have the shoulders, and we are not leaning back like on the beach; this is Daṇḍāsana. And what it means is that the stick is here, and I will show on him where my mobile is. And you know, all āsanas, back and front. First, we will start, and I will also practice with you. Please. Yes, thank you. Sit in Daṇḍāsana, but not just in a position. Every position is psychosomatic. You know, when you sit in a position, if you sit like a king, you feel like a king. Not with the nose up—that is too much ego—but if you sit, you feel like a king. If you sit, you feel like a beggar. How are you feeling? Good, and you have such a feeling because of that. Āsana is not only correction of the body and a little pain in the body, but āsana also makes a correction in your mind, in your attitude. Because of that, we need Sarvahitā āsanas, āsanas from the first level. Now we will practice. We have enough space. Hands back. First, we will start with the head slowly going back, inhale, and exhale, chin on the chest. Two, inhale, exhale. Three, inhale, and you feel your chest is going up. Exhale. Exhale, four, inhale. It is not only good for the neck, but also against kyphosis. Exhale, and once more, inhale, and exhale. And now, in the middle. Now we will go with the ear to the shoulder. Usually, people practice chin to the shoulder, but that is not correct. Imagine again, stretching. Your chin is in the middle of the body, not chin up, but parallel. Jaw parallel with the floor. And now, inhale in the middle. And exhale to the left side, ear to the shoulder. You will feel it on the right side, ear and whole muscles. Inhale. And exhale on the other side. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale, exhale, but stretch up. Inhale, exhale, stretch, and here to the shoulder. Inhale, and exhale, and now in the middle. And now, my favorite: rotating the head. You know that usually people rotate in such a way. And on the other side, always in school, in the gym, everywhere. If you make movements in such a way, it is only in the atlas, the upper part, and you will hear inside a terrible noise. When you hear such a noise, it is not good. If you do not want to hear such a noise, a few things: stretching up, yes, it is better, stretching up. Second, not only up but from down. Everything we practice now, left, right, same exhale. And now, usually people practice chin to the shoulders and again chin to the shoulders. If you have a problem with the carotid artery and it is blocked, these movements... It is terrible, completely blocked, and people get dizzy or fall down. But if you practice in the right way, you will not have a problem. Stretch up, and chin to the neck, and now ear to the shoulders. Back is inhale, ear to the shoulders. And chin to the chest and hold. The time is the connection with the body. Three times on one side and three times on the other side together. First, relax down. And now, slowly inhale, ear to the shoulders, shoulder back. Exhale, ear to the shoulders and chin to the chest. Two hands are beside the body. Why? Because they give stability to the body. If we have hands on the thigh muscle, the whole body will move, and they will think, "Oh, I am great. I make a good movement." No, the whole body is fixed, only the neck. And now, slowly, on the other side, hold the thigh. Stretching, it is not so quick. It is slowly, a completely full round, and now in the middle. And now be aware of how you feel your neck. If you feel nice, like you have two magnets, and this force is like something, nothing is here. It is completely free. It means that you practiced well. Now we also have a problem with kyphosis. Why? Because we do not have very strong muscles, and we must strengthen the muscles which are pushing and not pulling the shoulder blades to the spinal column, and also have a nice opening of the chest. And we usually have a problem with the pelvis: either too far back or too far forward. But also, we have a problem with the shoulders, or like we are up. Because of that, we always say relax your shoulders, but usually, like a ball, we have a problem with the breathing. And every year, kyphosis becomes more and more, and lordosis in the neck more and more. Because of that, we have so many nice āsanas. Here is better. Hands, it is much easier to, and now inhale slowly, go up and exhale, but not like you are greeting somebody on a boat. When we go up, try to close your ear. And exhale three. Inhale, exhale four. Exhale five. Exhale six. Exhale seven. Exhale eight. Exhale nine. But stretch your legs. Exhale ten. And now. Fingers on the shoulders. Again, not in French. Close your eyes, ears, and exhale two, exhale three, exhale four, exhale five, exhale six, exhale seven, eight, nine, exhale, and ten, and exhale, and relax, but not in Ānandāsana. Now we will practice with the toes. It is very important to practice with the toes. If you look in yoga magazines around the world, you will see so many things to buy: buy a pillow, buy this, buy that, everything. But why buy? We must practice. For practice also, separate not only by this silicone stuff and having half an hour, no. You must practice. When you practice, you will work on all these muscles, and it will be excellent against flat feet. And it is not only for the feet, but also when you practice this, put your fingers under the knee, and immediately when you separate and go back, you will feel all these muscles, and again this. And it is not only good for the toes, fingers, all other stuff, but for the knee it is excellent. Nem csak a lábuljaknak jó, hanem a térnek is kiváló. Okay. One. Egy. Összehúzás. Two. Kettő. Three. Három. Four, but sit correctly. Négy, de helyesen üljél. And five. And now, friend, and back. And then forward and back. Two. Three. Back. Hátra. Four. Four. Five, and back. And now, rotation. When we rotate, usually, to show how not to rotate, we make, like, you know, in a car, when you try to clean the water, and we have this movement. What do we do? Nothing. But if the thigh muscles and knee are fixed, we have movements in the ankle joint. And you will feel all these muscles. And it is good for the ankle joint, but it is also excellent for the knee. But also try slowly. If we practice quick movements, it will create anxiety in us, but slowly—not too slow, but nice movements. And now, on the other side. And once more. And now, relax palms on the thigh muscle. And now, try to feel circulation. You feel now circulation in your foot, but also try to feel circulation in the legs also. You will feel. Here, thigh muscles circulation, and that is a very crossing vein we have here. And also, you have a feeling here and also circulation. Do you feel something like this? If you practice in the good way, you will feel this, and because of that, the first level Sarvahitā āsana is for me the most important āsana in yoga, not yoga in daily life, but in yoga. You know the story about the three piglets, yes. The first piglet built a house from grass. The second from wood. And the third from bricks, and the wolf comes. And first, he comes to the piglet who made a house from grass. And he blew, and the house immediately fell down. And the piglet ran to the second brother in the wood house. The same wolf came, and with a little more effort, but that third piglet who built the house from bricks. He needed more time to build a house, but his house was stable. And in that story—it is not an Indian story, it is not a European story—it means if we have a little more effort and if we have a foundation, we will have success when some problems come in our life. And the first level is this foundation. And without foundation, nothing is possible. Okay, and now we will practice Marjaryāsana again. But not slowly up and slowly down. Not okay. I think you do not need to, when you practice Marjaryāsana, please make a Marjaryāsana up slowly, up. And this second position, down. Usually people just stay in this position. Usually people make Marjaryāsana and go up and back. You saw this, and also make these movements, you know, these movements? Yes, this movement, and that is not yoga. It is only nice looking, but for Marjorie, we need two shoulders and hip joints that are fixed or committed on the floor, and all the time it is fixed. Only we have inhalation up, but imagine your neck because of that. We start with this more, more, more up, and exhalation. Thank God, he is the boy. It is possible to do this. Imagine up, and also, isn't it? And again, inhale, same neck, and exhale. It is good for the spinal column, but it is also excellent for complete yoga inhalation and exhalation. Here, just stay. When we are in this position, we have complete exhalation. Even our abdomen is a little, like the navel is going a little in. And now, first, what we will do: relax the abdomen completely. And inhalation starts with the lower chest, abdominal breath. And now, start inhalation. This chest area. And if we want to make clavicular inhalation, and it is good for our upper body, the head must be in this position. If the head is not in this position, if the head is inside, you know, He is perfect. You do not know how to practice wrong. But you know, if your head is in this position down, shoulders up, yes. What is usual? We are laughing, but we are practicing in such a way. But if we practice in such a way, we are not able to inhale with this chest area. We inhale only with the abdomen, and this chest, not clavicular, sorry, with the clavicular area. With the clavicular area, we start when we go up, and more with this, and that is the Marjari. Now we will together practice. Sit in Vajrāsana. But in the correct way, not so slowly like this morning, but in the correct way: one, inhale; two, exhale. First, head, chest area, and a little, little, little abdomen relax. First, abdomen, and start inhalation up, four. Exhale, five, six, seven, eight, nine. And slowly sit, and we hear our knees. If we practice in the right way, the position from Vajrāsana in Marjārī, Uṣṭrāsana, Ardha Cakrāsana, all other āsanas, what we start from the Vajrāsana, in the same way like Marjārī. We will not have problems with the knees, or we will have little problem with the knees, but everything that we learned from the first level, Sarvahitā āsanas, is with us our whole life. Not only is Marjari practiced in that way, but when I am on the second or third level, I will forget this. No, all asanas, when you are beginning from Vajrāsana, you must go up. Practice in such a way every day, and you will have good thigh muscles and little problem. Second thing. We said that Vajrāsana is excellent for complete yoga inhalation and exhalation. Also, we said that Marjari is excellent against stress. And we said that when we synchronize movements with inhalation and exhalation, that synchronization will just free us from stress. But not in the way that we are practicing Marjaryāsana. No, in Marjaryāsana we just forget to breathe. In Marjaryāsana we are not breathing. In Marjaryāsana we are just practicing movements, and if we are completely relaxed, movements will make... That air is coming in, and air is coming out, going out. And because of that, in the end, the little, little navel is going back. And first, other movements are relaxed. The abdomen is going up. Imagine that you have a sponge, and the lungs are the same as a sponge. The lungs are not able to inhale and exhale. Muscles around make them become bigger and smaller. In that way, air is coming in and air is going out. With muscles, diaphragm, between the ribs, and this clavicular area. And if we practice in the good way, Marjorie, we will have slower movements, more air, complete yoga inhalation, exhalation, breathing, and maybe in one or two rounds, we will be completely without stress. And try now not to influence the breathing process, but just make movements and allow that air comes in and out. Second round. Sit with a relaxed abdomen. When you go on YouTube and you see many people who practice āsanas, you will see that they have six packs and their stomach is completely hard, so that it is impossible. How will you breathe with the abdomen? First, relax your abdomen. We must have strength in the muscles. And very strong abdomen muscles, we know with the Swāmījī, when we practice on the stomach, on the back, but in the Vajrāsana, just relax your abdomen and be aware that your navel is going up and down. One, inhale. Two, three. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Slowly go up, and ten, sit. We have only ten minutes more, and we will practice two āsanas more. Now, just please watch. It will be Catuṣpādāsana. Please stand up. When—I think up is much better—when we practice Catuṣpādāsana, you know, when we go with the hands up, not in this area that is going back and up, but also the abdomen is relaxed. Second, if we practice in the wrong way, not like we have a stick here, but just in the wrong way in the chest area, but it is also usual a little more. Yes, now it is a nice bed position. Now imagine that you have two lines. One is going from here. One is going from here. And there are two lines crossing. In this area is force. And we will have a problem. Also, we will have problems here. Because of that, always when we go down first without a wrong position, without this, but in the good position, how will we also, when we saw others practice, how will we know the wrong position? We will see here: leg is going here, is going in, and again starts, stomach growing is going, just inhale. Stretch a little up, but head in the nice position, and now slowly go down, but head must be in the good position. Yes, you must see, head must be in the good position. Why? Not only because of the neck, but if his head is in a good position, air will go here in the clavicle area, and because of that, we said that this āsana is good against the problem with bronchitis, and the spinal column is nice. You feel stretching in muscles, abdomen is nice, relaxed. Movements, it is good for the kidneys, but especially it is good if you have a problem with the veins. And again, when we go up, head and exhale, and after that, you have a feeling like you are taking some menthol, open air. He must have said yes. Now together, we will practice. And after that, we will relax in Ānanda Āsana. Yes, excellent. Now inhale and exhale slowly, go down. And another very important thing: the distance between the shoulders and hip joints is the same as the distance between the feet and palms. Just practicing. And we are enjoying this position. It is excellent when you are sitting a long time. And now, slowly go up with inhalation and exhalation. If you go again, inhale and exhale down. If he will go a little farther, not too much, only a few centimeters. Now, try to go up. More is good, but it is very hard. But you will find a nice way when you are in the good position. Easy. If you go a little far, you must go in such a way, and you will know which is the right position. That easy. Go up, down, and up once more. Inhale, and exhale. Be aware of the position of your head and neck. Feel your legs, nice stretching. Oh, he is nice. And now, inhale and exhale. And Ānandāsana. Now, relax in Ānandāsana. You do not need to cover your body. Because we will not be half an hour in position. Before we had a yoga nidrā, now it is time for practicing. You do not need to cover your body. Just relax. A few inhalations, exhalations. Feel the heaviness of your body, and now try to feel what happens in your legs. We said that yoga is a science. We always hear from Swamījī that Yoga in Daily Life is a scientific system. What this means is that we practice and we observe our body. Many times we practice the same āsana and observe the body, and we will feel what happens with our body. We will also see that other people have the same feelings. Now you feel your legs. You feel nice circulation in your legs. And we will say that it is excellent against problems with the veins. Also, it is excellent if you have some nervousness when you go to bed. When you feel in your legs some tension and nervousness. Make Catuṣpādāsana. Make an experiment, and you will see immediately that you do not have any more tension, and you will sleep like a baby. Make an experiment how tension in your legs in the van has influence on your mind and how you feel now. After this asana, not only physically, and now deep inhale and exhale. First, I will explain Bhujaṅgāsana a little, and after that, we will practice Bhujaṅgāsana. Just sit. When we practice Bhujaṅgāsana on your stomach, mostly you know how Bhujaṅgāsana looks like when you look in the books. And all others, try to make Bhujaṅgāsana the wrong way. It can be hard for you, but try to make it the wrong way. Yes, that is the wrong way of Bhujaṅgāsana, even a little up. Many people think if their hands are completely stretched... A little down, it is more in the ass, and everything is here. All tension is here, and you will have a problem. It is not important to stretch your arm. Also, neck in the wrong position, we have a problem here, we have a problem here, and slowly go down. But when we practice Bhujaṅgāsana in the right way, I always have a feeling like a turtle. You know, a turtle, when it tries to catch a leaf of salad, it stretches its neck and goes up. You saw a turtle when it tried to catch a salad? Never in this way. Always stretch the neck and reach the ceiling. Same thing. Imagine that it is stretching. Here is a mobile phone. And now, slowly go up in this area, with this area. Yeah. A little back, a little down, and more is here. Not here, but now. And the chest area is going. Front and up, and all this is on the floor. Pelvis, try to press on the floor, and it will be good for the lower back. And also, it will be good for your hands. And after that, slowly down for the picture. It is beauty if you are completely stretched your hands, but after, when we know how to practice. But in the beginning, if you completely stretch your hand, head is inside. And all pressure is here. We will have problems with the neck, with the back. Bhujaṅgāsana, but Bhujaṅgāsana, yes. Down. Now press with the pubic bone to the floor, and now slowly go up with inhalation. Neck, stretch your neck, chest area. Shoulders down, not up. Shoulders down, and breathe with the abdomen. We know from Swamījī’s book, Chakra and Kuṇḍalinī: Hidden Power in Humans, this āsana is excellent for svādhiṣṭhāna cakra, and if we breathe a little deeper with the abdomen. In this position, we will have more influence on the Svādhiṣṭhāna chakra. And now, slowly go down. Excellent. And once more, inhale. Shoulders down. Also, elbow near the body, and feel inhalation in the abdomen but also the chest area. It is excellent for the kidneys, it is excellent for the chest area. And slowly go down. We do not have, yes, Ānandāsana when we are in the tiger position. And relax, do not cover your body. It will be a few seconds. Do not lose concentration. With a covering or no covering, body, just relax. When we are relaxing on the abdomen after Bhujaṅgāsana, we will feel the kidneys, but it is very easy to feel the kidneys. But now, when we are in Ānandāsana, try to be aware of your liver. If you do not know where your liver is, it is no problem. Be aware of this area under the ribs, where the diaphragm is, and you will feel in one place a good circulation, and that is the liver. When we read in the book that Bhujaṅgāsana is good for the kidney, it is good for the liver, why? Relax after asana and feel your body, and you will immediately feel something, circulation. Now, just be aware of your whole body. Be aware of asanas, but when we relax our bodies in Ānanda Āsana, be aware. That your shoulder blades are on the floor, your shoulder is not up but down. What means that you need a little separate? Hands at home will be much easier, why? You always open palms up, shoulder blades on the floor, and you feel the opening of your shoulders because the chest area will be open, and it will be easier to breathe. When we are in stress, we have two possibilities. Fight or flight, and the same is your shoulder going up. Relax your shoulders. Your neck area will be relaxed, your heart will be open, and you will breathe normally. Second, separate your legs, and your pelvis will be relaxed. You will feel circulation in your pelvis and, in that way, circulation in your legs. Everything that we practice... Be aware of what we are practicing, and why we are practicing. Try to feel it in your body. With this, we will slowly finish. Carry on.