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I am well. I welcome you all to our seminar hall. If it becomes difficult, I will step out. Very good. Thank you so much. Do we have some time left? Yes, we have a few hours. Otherwise, I have a great deal of time. Thank you. You’re welcome. So, it’s me? Yes. Okay. I am very happy to be with you. You may know that I spent many years in India and the last four in Vancouver, Canada. While in Vancouver, I had the idea to create a program for the eyes. I thought it would be a short program. I then compiled everything we know from Swāmījī and everything we have in yoga and daily life. I was amazed. My lectures are usually about two hours, and the practical session—this one being the longest—will be more practical than theoretical. We will cover both theory and practice. May I ask at the beginning, who among you practices yoga? So, everyone, more or less. And who among you has actual practical problems with eyesight? Good, but this information is useful regardless. You will see how many exercises we actually have. Since the program often takes up to three hours and we only have two, I will begin straight away. We have different types of exercises in yoga that can help our eyesight. The first type is, of course, what we also do in a yoga class: āsanas. We do not have one specific eye āsana, but we have a whole group, a whole category of āsanas. I will demonstrate them. Or would you like to do them? We can do them together, just as a very short overview. There are six types of āsanas. The first is forward bending. Let’s just do like this and bend down. Then we come up. This is the first type: forward bending. The counterpose is usually backward bending. To make it easy, we will do everything in a standing position. The next is side-bending. Exhaling to the side. Inhale, exhale to the other side. Inhale, exhale to the other side. The fourth type is twisting. It’s like this. You twist to one side, inhale to the middle. Exhale to the other side, and we come back. This is just to give you an overview of the different categories. The fifth one is balancing. Let’s try to stand on one leg. That’s just you looking at one point. Okay. Now, the sixth type is part of the exercises which are good for the eyes. This is when the head goes down. This is called inverted exercise. Here we will go a little deeper. The first and easiest is Śaśāṅkāsana. Sit on your heels. I will demonstrate a little more so everyone can see properly. We sit in Śaśāṅkāsana. Everyone who knows Kaṭhūprāṇa knows it; it is actually the second posture from Kaṭhūprāṇa. In level two, it is the first exercise, but you stay a little longer. Inhale. Expand your chest. Then exhaling down. Keep your hips down on the legs. The hips down; the hips are not in the air. Go with your hips down, please. If possible, place the head on the ground. Elbows and legs on the ground. If it is okay for you, then stay a little. Feel how gently the blood flows to the head. If the head is not on the ground, you can support it with a fist. Always both fists, if necessary. Then, with an inhalation, come up and stretch up again. Now I must say one thing: these inverted exercises are quite strong, depending on how far the head goes down. You see, in this exercise we have maybe an angle like this. This is quite mild, but when we go higher—for example, in the headstand—we are completely inverted. This type of exercise is really special because the blood and the energy, also the Prāṇa, flows to the head. First of all, it is actually a mental exercise. It is good for our brain and all mental functions, like concentration or memory. And of course, when the blood flows to the head, all organs in the head benefit. That means also the eyes and the ears, and there we are. That is what we are looking for today, so this is a good sight. The downside is that it is not good for everyone because it can be quite strong. If someone has high blood pressure, then this type of exercise is not so good. Is there someone here with high blood pressure? Medium or very high? Okay, so then maybe what you should do is not stay too long in the exercises and avoid the stronger ones. As I said, Śaśāṅkāsana is quite mild. But we will now proceed to other types of exercises that might be too strong for you. So if you have high blood pressure, be a little careful with this type. Also, it can happen that in these inverted exercises you get dizzy, so be careful. Unfortunately, those who already have a real eye disease cannot do these exercises. That means, for example, if you have glaucoma—too high pressure in the eye—then you cannot do this. Also, if you have a cataract, or if you have maybe already had an operation on your eye, then it is too strong. So these exercises are good as prevention and for those who have mild problems, like near-sightedness or far-sightedness, but for those with serious problems, it is too strong. We will now go quickly through them, and we will not do everything together. I will give more demonstration because there is another problem: you cannot do too many inverted exercises. It is the same as how you cannot do forward bends all the time; you must have a counterpose. If you do many inverted exercises one after the other now, that is too strong. That is why in our yoga system, you will not find a set where you have only one inverted exercise after another. That is too strong. But you will find some inverted exercises in every set. Today it is more meant to make you aware of these exercises and to say, "Aha, here is a good exercise for me, there is a good exercise for me." But do not do too many now. Very similar to Śaśāṅkāsana is Yoga Mudrā. I will demonstrate quickly, and if you want, in between you can do a little too. Yoga Mudrā like this. There is a variation where you have the arms on the ground. And there is a variation in level six where you have the hands at the heels. Look at me. This last one is already stronger because the hips go higher. So we could call this the Yoga Mudrā group. Maybe it is better you look at me so that you have it in your mind and can practice at home. The next group I would call the mountain group. We have in level two the Catuṣpādāsana, where one goes with hands on the ground, the heels on the ground. Here you see the head is not yet very low. Then we have the mountain, the Catuspāda, the heels are up. So you can see it is already stronger. And in Kaṭhūprāṇa, we have the variation with the heels on the top. That is quite strong. You could stretch here for the hamstrings, but also the head goes quite down. Then we have some exercises from a standing position. In level one, we have a very gentle one: forward bend, and slowly you go down. Then we have in Kaṭhūprāṇa, remember, when we come forward, we have the sprinter, and then we come to this position. It is called basically Pādahastāsana. And we have another variation in level two, Dvikonāsana. Okay. Then we have level four. This one. That is already a little stronger: back āsana, the crow. Then we have Śīrṣāṅguṣṭhāsana, which is quite strong. You need a really wide step. So these are already more demanding exercises. Then we have some exercises preparing us for the headstand. There are other exercises that prepare us to stand on our heads. One looks like this, from the fourth part. Then there is also the first part of Vṛkṣāsana, also in the fourth part. Then, in the sixth part, Pādaprasāraṇa Pūrṇottānāsana. I was thinking, I think it means legs wide apart, head completely down. So that means you hold your head on the ground and hold your feet. This, of course, is then preparation for the completely inverted exercises. One of the best exercises for that purpose is Viparīta Kāraṇī Mudrā. There are two exercises which are often confused: Sarvāṅgāsana and Viparīta Kāraṇī Mudrā. In Sarvāṅgāsana, the whole body is completely vertical. That is of course very strong; it is already like a headstand. With the exception of the neck, you have a very strong bending of the neck. Because of that, you should not do this exercise too long, and you definitely must do a counterpose afterwards, which is then the backward bending Matsyāsana or the other one, Sub-vatsāsana. I will give you a demonstration. This Viparīta Kāraṇī Mudrā is somehow better for our pelvis because the position is like this. The legs are vertical, but the body is in a diagonal position. So you do not have such a strong bending at the neck. Because of this, you can stay longer in this position, and also you do not really need a counterpose necessarily. I will try to demonstrate to you now, first the Viparīta Kāraṇī Mudrā, and then I will go into Sarvāṅgāsana. So this is Viparīta Kāraṇī Mudrā. It is a very good position, and you can stay longer in it. And now, Sarvāṅgāsana. In Sarvāṅgāsana, you see, it is a very strong bending here at the neck. For our purpose, we actually do not really need that. After Sarvāṅgāsana, you definitely need to do a counterpose, and that would be Matsyāsana. And then we come to the headstand. One can either start from the position we already have, Vṛkṣāsana. Then you have three points on the ground: the hands and the head. From this position, you go up with the legs. It is easier to get up, but it is not so comfortable to stay for a longer time. The other way is used, where you have better support on the ground. So you have both forearms on the ground and the top of your head. And then you can do variations if you want. Now it depends on what you know and what you can do. If you want, you can lie down for a minute and relax. Please, with your head in this direction here. Now, please, no more practice. Just lie down and relax for a minute. Take a deep breath, stretch the arms overhead. And then slowly come up and sit. Good. This was the first part about āsanas which are good for the eyes, and basically good for everything in the head: the eyes, the ears, the brain, the mind. But please do not go into extremes; do not do too much of these. Now, let’s come to the prāṇāyāma. There are two prāṇāyāma techniques which are specially good for the eyesight. One is called Śītalī Prāṇāyāma. It is a special prāṇāyāma which is not directly in our yoga system. It is special because it is a cooling prāṇāyāma. So you should not do it when it is cool. In India in the hot time, it is very good. Here now, I feel it is also quite warm. Can you open the window so we can get a little bit of air in? Can you do it? Make a tube from your tongue. Śītalī means cool, cooling. So it is a prāṇāyāma which has, first of all, a cooling effect. The special thing here is we inhale through the open mouth. Usually, we never inhale through the mouth. That is the specialty of this cooling prāṇāyāma. Then we close the mouth and gently exhale through the nose. For us, it is not so much about the cooling, but it also has a good, soothing—you can say relaxing, calming—effect for the eyes and the ears. Those who can do it can maybe try now a few times, with slow, relaxed breathing. Inhale through this tube. You can feel already how the air becomes cool through this, no? Then close your mouth and gently exhale through the nose. Let’s try. Keep the eyes closed. I see that not everyone can do it. So for those who cannot do this prāṇāyāma, there is a second one, the second cooling prāṇāyāma. It is called Siddh Kari. Siddh is basically the sound, making the sound. This is when you bite the teeth. Then there are still some holes in between, no? So you have the lips slightly open. Now you again inhale through the mouth, through these holes between the teeth. That also has this cooling effect. No, no, not like that. Very calm, relaxed. A gentle inhalation and a gentle exhalation. You inhale through the mouth. The teeth are together, and the lips are slightly open. Then you close your mouth again and gently exhale through the nose. For those who can do it with the tongue rolled, it is better to do that. But for those who cannot, they can do this instead. But please, again, use your common sense. We are not in India. When it is cool, then please do not practice it because you might catch a cold. There is a second prāṇāyāma, and that is in every one of your nostrils. This is Nāḍī Śodhana. Let’s do just one minute, two minutes. Close one nostril, inhale through the left nostril still, in and out. After a few breaths, turn the other way around. Close with the ring finger the left nostril and breathe through the right nostril. Those who know the system can also do level 2, level 3, or level 4. Keep the head straight. Keep the body relaxed. Keep the face muscles relaxed. And most important, keep the eyes relaxed. How to do it on the other side if you haven’t changed yet? And then slowly. And then slowly. Those who do not know, please come to any yoga class, introductory course, level 1; you will learn it there. So Nāḍī Śodhana we have in level 1, 2, 3, and 4. Nāḍī Śodhana is the second prāṇāyāma which is good for the eyesight also, if you do it in the right way: gentle breath and very relaxed. As I said, relax the face muscles, relax the eyes, relax your mind, relax your body. Good. That was prāṇāyāma in short. Is it clear? With the cooling prāṇāyāmas, I said there are restrictions; be careful. But with Nāḍī Śodhana there is no restriction. Okay? Now we come to a more essential exercise, which is directly for the eyes. We could call them eye āsanas. When we have problems with the eyes, it has something to do with the muscles around the eye that move the eyeball. You see, what do we do in the normal āsanas? We use muscles, muscles which often are either not used or misused. Muscles and joints are meant to be used in a harmonious way. The best way to keep the body healthy is to do that. The same applies to these small muscles which move our eyeball. So now we will have a certain training for these muscles. The problem is, for example, when you look to the right side, how do you do that? Mostly, you just turn your head. That means your eyeballs are lazy. I can also look at her like this, but usually we do not do that. So we easily get lazy here. The other problem is nowadays with the computer. As I said, the eyes, everything needs movement. When you sit at the computer for hours and hours, what is the movement? The eyes always look in the same direction, always at the same distance. That is the best way to destroy the eyes. I speak from my own experience. I was in one company, and they had employees. It was a big company, an eye doctor. When he tested my eyes, he was amazed. He said, "From all people who were ever tested, you have the best eyes." I was at that time maybe 40 years old. Then I became a computer programmer. Within a few years, I could see how my eyesight became worse and worse, worse than average. So you must become aware that our lifestyle is very important. Do not sit all the time in front of the computer. Go out in nature. So many things are there to see, and so many different colors. So it is not just about some good exercises, but about changing, really, our lifestyle on the other side. Try not to become a slave of the computer. Now, during these eye exercises, we will not move our head and our neck. Only the eyeballs will move, and that is a little difficult if you now feel some stiffness here. So before you do these exercises, it is good to do a few exercises for the neck and shoulders. Of course, if you did your set of āsanas before, then you do not need that. Let’s do some neck relaxation. This is now not for the eyes; it is a preparation. Keep sitting, let the head sink down. Inhaling, stretch up, and then let the head sink to the head. Slow, controlled movement with the breath. Come to the central position, vertical. Now, on the exhalation, let the head sink down to the left, like the ear wants to touch the shoulder. Inhaling to the center. Exhaling to the other side. Let the shoulders relax. These are exercises from our level one. Just let the head sink. The cussed way. Do not force the head down. Keep your face down, especially your eyes and your forehead. The third is circling the head. As you exhale, your head goes forward and down. During inhalation, you roll through the back. But be careful; it can sometimes be a little painful. Opposite direction, but you need to move the neck, not the whole body. Keep your trunk in position. Okay, and let’s do a little for the shoulders. Fingertips on the shoulders. Elbows touching. Inhale, make big circles. Exhaling, the elbows come forward. A little deeper breath, and reverse. This is just an example of what you can do. Just do some exercises for the shoulders and neck to relax this area because afterwards, you will not move that. So now, in the following exercises, no movement in the body, only movement in the eyes. The first is moving the eyes up and down. That means you look up, and then your view goes down. To learn it, you can do it maybe with the finger first. Look at your finger, and without moving the head, now follow the finger.