6 yoga for stress management

Published bySwami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana

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YOGA FORSTRESSMANAGEMENT

Contents

Ch.no. title Page no.

1 Introduction

2 Body Systems in Improving

Physical Stamina

3 Physiology of Muscle Action

4 Physical Stamina According to Yoga

5 Yoga Practices for

Physical Stamina Development

Yoga for Stress Management | 7

Yoga in Education for Total Personality Development SERIES - 0

INTRODUCTION

Stress has become one of the biggest challenges of the world. In spite of millions of dollars being spent for development of manage-ment programme to deal with stress, we are no where towards solv-ing even the pinch of the problem. If in early seventies stress used to be in the executive world only, today it has spread everywhere. Even small kids, small students, small children come and say oh Maa I am so stressed up, I am so tensed up, I am so bored. In a multi ethnic society like Australia 30% of the youngsters, teenagers suffer from depression. The Federal Government is very concerned. Why we have not been able to tackle the problem of stress? I consider there is a fundamental reason for that. That is the knowledge base. The knowledge base that we have is essentially limited to the physi-cal world around us. Modern science started emerging. The goal of modern science was to find reality. Is there a fundamental reality from where this whole creation has come, became the search. Natu-rally when Newton and Deccan looked at the world at large, they were bewildered. They said we cannot understand this multi vari-ous most complex bewildered creation. They said let us start with things which are very small fundamental and simple, like how an object falls down, how the lightening occurs, how the rain falls. So once we complete the study of physical world around us we will now go further to things which are beyond. Best of the brain, best of the wise people put their heart and soul into it to understand the world

8 | Yoga for Stress Management


around us. After four centuries we are in a fundamental position where we understand almost everything about the physical world. We know that every object is made of molecules and atoms, which in turn are made out of neutrons, protons and the electrons and fun-damental particles. What are these fundamental particles made of? The fundamental particles are made out of energy, packets of energy called photons. So we know that everything in the physical world is nothing but energy. We can precisely calculate how much energy is there in a given matter E=MC2. Then we also understood the laws that govern them. The laws of the physical world are pronounced by Newton mechanics, Pascal mechanics. Newton’s Law of Motion that we all studied in high school days. But as we enter into special dimension, extremely high speed like electron wheeling round the nucleolus, Newtonian, Pascal mechanism cannot explain. One need to go to the quantum mechanics. Now having understood the physi-cal world the time has come that we have to go beyond. Now we have reached a stage that we understood the physical world and we are in a transition to go beyond to understand prana, mind, emotions and consciousness and it is in this region of subtlety that we have to move.



UNDERSTANDING STRESS

In this chapter we study factors which are regulating stress, factors which can influence stress and how Yoga can be very helpful tool in managing stress. Before we go on to any of the other details, let us try to understand what stress is all about. All of us keep hearing this terminology Stress most commonly. Somebody gets stress phys-ically, somebody gets stress mentally, somebody feels heavy emo-tionally and express that it is highly stressful. It is very commonly occurring phenomenon in every one’s life. Let us try to understand what exactly stress is all about. In simple terms Stress can be defined as ‘non specific basic response pattern which prepares an individual for a demanding situation’. This involves activities at physiological level, activities at the behavioral level and emotional level. Let us see how the whole event of stress takes place.

A stress producing factor what is called as a stressor can intervene an individual either as an external agent or as an internal agent. Ex-ternal agent can be physical in na-ture. It can be due to emotions. It can also be contributed from the society. At the same time it can also be a combination of the above three mentioned factors. When we are looking at the factors which



can contribute us as stressor, it is important for us to understand how we can regulate them. This is where Yoga comes into picture in help-ing us to understanding stress producing factors. Yoga also helps to give us different methodologies and techniques to manage them.

Let us see how this whole concept of stress can influence our body. As was mentioned, it involves three different systems to function at a given point of time. This whole process has been divided into three phases. Phase one, an alarm response, phase two where by an individual settles with the stressful situation whereas stage three is exertion. What the Neuro Scientists believe it as general awareness syndrome. In this basically an individual in the first stage undergoes series of changes physi-ologically. This part is called as Basic Stress Response or the Flight or Fight Response. Most of us have encountered this in different ways. Some of us might have just encountered early in our life whereas some others might have encountered it little later in our lives. But stress response has become a mandatory to each and every indi-vidual. Let us see what happens when you interact with this Flight or Fight response. Basically whenever you come across a stimulus which demands a response from you, body prepares itself to handle that demanding situation in the form of physiological as well as be-havioral responses. For example, imagine you are just taking a walk in a park. Suddenly you see a snake. You have any one of these two choices with you. Either you attack the snake or you run away from the snake. Another most commonly observed phenomena are whenever you are going for a walk, you have been chased by a dog. So you have once again two options. Either fight with the dog or run away from the dog. In both the cases your body has to prepare itself



to handle the situation. Let us see what all happens will happen in the body when you are in such a situation.

Three physiological processes work in conjunction to bring out a response. They are (1) The Nerves System, (2) The Endocrine Sys-tem and (3) The Muscular Skeletal System. The parts of the Nerves System which involve in regulating stress and different endocrine mechanisms will be detailed little later, before that let us understand how the whole process happens.

In the first part, Flight or Fight Response, here the body prepares in three different ways. (1) It gets all the alarming inputs and it pre-pares the body to handle all these situations in a way so that you can manage it effectively. What happens basically is at the physiological level whenever there is a demanding situation, your body prepares in the form of stimulation. Stimulation makes you ready to natural situation. For this process Nerves System, Endocrine and the Mus-cular Skeletal System have to prepare. The whole Nerves System has been divided into three parts. They are the Central Nerves System, Peripheral Nerve System and Autonomic Nerves System. What we are interested to look at is Autonomic Nerves System which controls the involuntary functions. For example, the heart beating even when you are sleeping, the respiration continues and the digestive activi-ties goes on even when you are sleeping even when we are not con-scious of these functions.



PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGESDUE TO STRESS

Before we go on to any of the other details, let us try to understand what stress is all about. All of us keep hearing this terminology Stress most commonly. Somebody gets stress physically, somebody gets stress mentally, somebody feels heavy emotionally and express that it is highly stressful. If it is very commonly occurring phenom-enon in each one of our lives, let us try to understand what exactly the stress is all about. In simple terms Stress can be defined as ‘non specific basic response pattern which prepares an individual for a demanding situation’. Having been prepared, it regulates it, makes you work at different levels so that you can handle the demanding situation. This involves activities at physiological level, activities at the behavioral level and modifications at the emotional response pat-tern level.

A stress producing factor what is called as a stressor can intervene an individual either as an external agent or as an internal agent. Ex-ternal agent can be physical in nature. It can be due to emotions. It can also be contributed from the society. At the same time it can also be a combination of the above three mentioned factors. When we are looking at the factors which can contribute us as stressor it is important for us to understand how we can regulate them. This is where Yoga comes into picture of helping us to understand stress



producing factors to begin with and then different methodologies and different techniques to manage them.

Let us see how this whole concept of stress can influence our body. As has been mentioned it involves three different systems to function at a given point of time. This whole process has been divided into three phases. Phase one, an alarm response, phase two, where by an individual settles with the stressful situation whereas stage three is exertion. What the cognitive Neuron Scientists believe it as gen-eral awareness syndrome. In this, basically an individual in the first stage undergoes series of changes physiologically. This part is called as Basic Stress Response or the Flight or Fight Response. Most of us have encountered this in different ways. Whenever there is stressful situation here the individual’s response starts in the form of Arousal of Autonomic Nerves System whereby a Sympathetic Nerves Sys-tem takes a lead. Basically the heart starts beating faster. One starts breathing quicker in order to take more oxygen to supply to the de-manding parts, pupils dilate so that visual perception becomes more



sharper. The blood supply to skeletal muscles increases so that the muscles are strong enough to handle the situation. At the same time other systems like the Digestive system etc., they withdraw their functioning in terms of reduced blood supply etc. To do this task you need more energy. Hence the glucose in the blood increases whereby it is available to handle the situation. So overall there is an Arousal. The muscles are ready, heart will be beating faster so that more blood goes there, more oxygen is available in terms of breath-ing. Vision becomes sharper. Everything is ready to handle that stressful situation.

Imagine if this continues for a long duration, the body cannot cope up. Instead if there is a withdrawal of stressful stimulus the body slowly comes back to its base line. As was mentioned earlier, sup-pose one has been chased by dog, now what happens suddenly be-cause he person appear to be stronger, the dogs run away. So now the body understands that there is no more threatening situation. So you can relax yourself. It comes back to its base line. Having been come to base line, now the life continues. Imagine if this repeats again and again that is what has been observed in the present day that we undergo stressful situations quite frequently say that we are not giving our body enough time for it to come back to its normal base line, hence resulting in the phase of exertion. Taking care of all these three phases of Stress will lead to a positive stress which can be used for developing better skills. If the three phases of stress are not taken care, they can lead to chronic stress.



STRESS MANAGEMENT

In the last Chapter we discussed how stress is multidimensional and Yoga can offer a solution to this multidimensional challenge. Because Yoga works at the Body level, Prana level, Mind level, Emo-tional level and the Intellectual level. The highly developed, system-atically developed Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Karma Yoga work at all these levels to bring solutions to the challenge of stress. An Integrated Yoga Module that is developed is the one that combines the whole wisdom base of our country and applied with yoga techniques judicially to bring the results. Thousands and thou-sands of people have got the solution from their stress problem. The Integrated Yoga Module that have presented is based on the Mun-dokapanishad and the commentary is written by Gowda Pada and the Mandookya Karika. That Karika Shloka is:

Laye sambodhaye chittam Vikshiptam samayet punahaSakashayam vijaniyat samapraptam nachlayet

What does it mean? When the mind goes into drowsiness, sleepi-ness, lethargy, stagnation, saturation, awaken it. Don’t allow that to sleep off. Stimulate a sleeping mind. Then what is going to happen? The mind is going to go haphazard. When the mind goes random, calm down the mind, silence the mind and allow the mind to en-joy. If you do it once, the habit will die hard. Therefore we have to



do it again and again, again and again. Punah, Punaha, vikshiptam kshamayet he has added stimulate, relax, stimulate, relax that takes us to deeper and deeper levels of growth. Takes us to deeper levels of our inner dimension of silence and deep rest. Then he says under-stand the deeper levels of stress. Initially we start getting all the ben-efits in relaxation of the body, slowing of the growth and your face will be relaxed and you will start getting wonderful results of normal sleep and others. Then the Karika tells that you have to go deep and observe those stresses which are in the settled form sakashayam vijaniyat and it is the deep rooted stress, it is the deep rooted imbal-ance that brings about the distortion of our behavioral trends and the changes in your personality. So one has to go deep down and change those personality traits which we call as Samskaras Vasanas. There are imbalances at the deeper levels of our sub consciousness in the Manomaya kosa. We have all the techniques of Yoga for cleansing using the meditation, using pranayamas and using the techniques of stimulation and relaxation. When we start using it we start going deeper and deeper and bring out all those dirt which we have ac-cumulated for years and centuries and births and cleans ourselves. A person who was practicing the stress Yoga module said after the practice, Sir today I had such a wonderful great blissful experience unparallel in my life. First time I had such a blissful experience when you said that you merge with that totality with all pervasive beautiful sky. Yet another person came and told, Sir today I started enjoying very well nicely getting relaxed when you came now relaxed nicely of the facial muscle, temple muscles and the forehead muscle and the whole face is something triggered in me. I suddenly became very angry. What are these things? This is called the Kashaya. They are called the dirt. The dirt which is accumulated in our subconscious will all starts coming out and we start getting purified. I told all these



people that this is what is happening. Please continue the practice, allow that to come out, allow that dirt to vanish and you will get pu-rified. Thus continue the practice one month, one and a half month. This is the total personality transformation that takes place when you start reducing the stress. Therefore the Integrated Yoga Modules that we are offering here consists of a judicious combination of Asana, the Pranayama and the Meditation which all help us to go deeper and deeper. This removes the blocks, knots, obsessions, fovea and grow to greater heights by developing sensitivity on one side and aware-ness on the other side. An expanding awareness and a depth of per-ception brought harmoniously. The module works wonderfully.



STRESS MANAGEMENT

Yoga for Stress. Stress is something that we find every day and everybody is talking about stress today. What is this Stress? How do we understand stress? Why it is becoming a major issue in the present day life style? Let us try to understand this, find techniques and learn yogic techniques of helping ourselves to be free from this what could be called as monsters of present day life style. What is Stress? As soon as I ask you what is Stress, you will start wondering have you heard Stress. Yes. I have had lot of stress in my life. What are your stresses? May be your office, may be your child, difficult husband, difficult mother, difficult family, difficult politics. So we tend to relate our stress to a mental state, a reaction, an emotion, an uncomfortable feeling that is evoked by these different situations. But stress is not just that uncomfortable feeling. Stress by definition is a necessary helpful mechanism that is set into our system to be able to cope up with demanding situations of life. It is a produc-tive mechanism. So stress is not basically a disease. Stress is not basically only a distress. Stress is a coping helping mechanism to evoke to manage emergency situations. So for example, you are all seated here. Suddenly fire alarm comes. What have we to do? It is a dangerous situation. The sound of the fire alarm falls on your ear, it goes to your mind, you recognize it as danger and immediately a big surge of electrical activity comes down from the brain and stimulates all activities of the body. To make that escape from the danger, we



have to activate even if you are drowsy and sleepy. You are woken up and you are very alert and then you start moving your limbs very fast, your heart rate goes up, breathing goes up and just escape from the danger. After you have escaped from the danger, or you have gone and fought the fire, what you will do? My god, I have escaped from danger. You sit there, you relax, you rest and now you will start feeling how your heart was beating, how your breathing was so very fast and how your mind was throbbing and your head was throbbing and how all your muscles had become very tight and now you starts sweating away so that all the heat in the body starts re-ducing. After another 5/10 minutes you start feeling hungry. Then you want to sleep, rest, relax, rejuvenate and restore the system and this is a nature’s protective mechanism a Stress Adaptation Response which nature has provided for us to protect our organism from any dangerous life threatening situation. Nature has not only provided this response software, response pattern, response programming for only physically demanding situation, but it has provided the same type of response to emotionally demanding situations also. Like we saw a office tension or a difficult family, difficult calamity or a difficult situation, finance crisis we get tensed up, we react, we get heightened alertness and the heart starts beating, pressure goes up, all these changes. You have to go and face the exam, face the inter-view. So these are emotionally demanding situations. So to these sit-uations also nature does the same type of response. First at the mind level where we get anxious or tensed or angry or worry and this is a psychological emotional response which makes our mind very alert and then percolates into the body to bring about all these changes that we saw in the accident fire alarm episode and once the danger is over and the situation is over, we just restore the system. Nature has provided a beautiful nerves and chemical mechanism to help us



cope up with and that goes on very nicely. So when we want to get alert, excited, stimulated, there is one set of nerves called Sympa-thetic Nerves System which activates increases the heart rate, Blood pressure, increases the muscle tone, increases the blood glucose level and makes our mind very very alert and increases the sweating rate, decreases the blood that goes to the intestine so that the intestine can wait digestive activity until we escape from danger and once we are out of danger, Para Synthetic Nerves System takes over and then it restores, rejuvenates, relaxes, reduce the heart rate, reduce the blood pressure, improves intestinal motility, improves secretion of diges-tive juices and makes our system come back to base level of working. This is a beautiful balancing mechanism. Imagine if this system was not there, all the time heart only functions at a level which never increase when required and decrease when not required. This is not what our system wants. We want to activate and rest and relax and rejuvenate when the system demand is over. So this process of stress adaptation is called SAS or Stress Adaptation Syndrome, Stress Ad-aptation Mechanism which was beautifully described and elaborated with lots of understanding by two doctors in 1960. The famous doc-tors Shelly and Levy worked on this stress adaption mechanism and made us understand Psycho Neuron Physiology. What are all the changes that happen in our system when we get stressed up and that makes us understand how this stress is a useful adaptation mecha-nism.

Then why do we call stress a dangerous thing? What is happening in the present day life style? Let us see, we activate the system. There is a demanding situation that activates, heart rate goes up, blood pressure goes up, alertness goes up and we have no time to get back to normalcy. Again another demanding situation right from morn-



ing till evening until you wake up, from the time you wake up until you go to bed. Whole day demand and these demanding situations are the one’s which provoke our Synthetic activity to do its job and we have no time for the Para synthetic to rest the system, to restore the system, rejuvenate the system, relax the system, come to base level of activity. Even after hectic day in the evening and when you come home, you cannot just go back to sleep because the whole day eight hours, ten hours, fourteen hours your system was working at high level of activity. You come back home, you want to go to bed, sleep does not come. Why? Because the mind is so alert a habit of activated system is the whole of the problem that in a present day life style, the fast way of life, the demanding situations packing up one after the other, no time for restoring the system and lead to a habit formation and that can lead to stabilize blood pressure which remain high, stabilize heart rate which remains high, stabilize glucose which becomes high which can declare as Diabetes, hypertension etc., etc.



STRESS MANAGEMENT

We have understood that stress is not an abnormality if it is used in the right way. It is the nature’s protective necessary mechanism, a reflex, a software programming that is set into our system to help us cope up with the demanding situation, elevate the blood pressure, heart rate etc. to cope up with the demanding situation with height-ened activity of the Sympathetic Nerves System and once the situa-tion is over, get back to normalcy which is done by Parasympathetic Nerves System and we also understood that it is the habit of being activated all the time that is creating the problem. What can happen if the mind is all the time stimulated? First at the mind level. At the mind level we start losing sleep. One day it is OK, you had many greatly demanding situation, you will lose sleep over a very anxious situation. The next day you will sleep off extra. That is the system gets rejuvenated. But what is happening in the present day life style? You are not at all getting the time to get back to sleep. Through-out the week, there is a demand to work eight hours, ten hours, fifteen hours. The more you are growing, the more you are achieving, the more you are progressing, more the demanding situation, more the problem, more the anxiety, both in the family and in the office. So this can create lot of demand on our nerves system. So this can lead to a habit of the nerves system. So the very first manifestation of stress is shown up in the form of Insomnia, sleeplessness, difficult to start sleep. You go to bed; you switch off the outside light, switch off all



the outside sound, cover yourself so that all the skin input becomes off. You are warm inside the bed, but if you want to switch off the mind it won’t switch off because whole day’s activities, whole day’s stimulation, whole day speed up set of mind in which you keep your mind has become habituated to think. What is that you need to do to switch off the mind and sleep?

First, we go to bed, put all the lights off. Remove all the stimuli from all parts of the body, then tell yourself, let me now sleep. That is enough of an input, a thought in the mind which helps you to slow down the mind and then naturally gets switched off. The sleep cen-tre gets stimulated. But you are not able to do that. Initial sugges-tion doesn’t work. I want to sleep, I want to sleep, I cannot get sleep, that happened, this happened, this happened in the morning, that happened in the morning, Mind becomes very active. Because there are so many unsolved problems there are many pending thoughts. So mind becomes over active. You start worrying about what hap-pened in the morning. Somebody insulted you, somebody hurt you and some suppress feeling or worrying about the future. Tomorrow morning I have this to solve, I have to solve that. So divert your mind before going to sleep. We use to teach special techniques to all our patients who come here to learn yoga therapy. Most of the people whether they have anxiety or back pain or neck pain have this sleep difficulty. So what we tell them is first before you go to bed before you switch off the lights and get into bed do little fast jagging so that your energy get diverted to lower parts of the body. Then do a little fast breathing about 10 to 15, then one deep slow breathing and then one om kar and keep on repeating that, if need be use an audio tape of recorded instructions of relaxation or auto suggestions yourself. Start from head. Relax my head, relax my forehead, let me give rest



to my mind, relax my shoulders. Like this, go downward from head to toe. Relax, relax. So this way keep on doing this inside your bed clown. Then some way you will reach about lower parts of the body you would have slept out. It is a beautiful trick to consciously help ourselves to get out of this sleeplessness problem. It is a very first manifestation of stress.

Then comes other problems related to stress. If you have slept enough for few days and you can start becoming irritable, anxious, worry, indecisive then go on to frustrations and depression also. In depression another major problem with sleep is that you wake up too early in the morning and then you cannot go back to sleep. This also can be handled through this sleep special technique. Then all the irritability, anxiety, fear, agitation, excessive excitement, impul-sive behavior, a person who is always smiling and then will now start becoming very angry everybody in the office start noticing, now a day’s our boss has become more stressed out keep saying by looking at your reaction. So for these problems Yogic Pranayama, Meditation and these techniques that you are learning in this Stress Management Programme will be very useful to help you to come out of these psychological reactions. So this is the understanding of how stress can be a major problem that is causing many of the health related problems and today we find that we have, we can use this cell corrective self management of extensive tension techniques which has been handed over by our sages to overcome these problems.



YOGA PRACTICE FORSTREES MANAGEMENT

STEP-I: STARTING PRAYERLie on your back. Relax and collapse the whole body on the ground

legs apart, hands apart, palms facing the roof, smiling face, let go all parts of the body. As you repeat the prayer feel the resonance throughout the body.

Laye Sambodhayet Cittam Viksiptam Samayet Punah.Sa Kasayam Viajániyat Samapraptam Na Calayet

Meaning: In the state of oblivion awaken the mind, when agitat-ed pacify it, in between the mind is full of desires. If the mind has reached the state of perfect equilibrium, then do not disturb it again.

STEP-II (A): INSTANT RELAXATION TECHNIQUE (IRT)

Bring your legs together; join the heels, toes together, palms by the side of the thighs. Keep your face smiling till the end. Gently bring



your awareness to the tip of the toes. Stretch the toes, tighten the ankle joints, tighten the calf muscles. Pull up the kneecaps. Tighten the thigh muscles. Compress and squeeze the buttocks. Exhale and suck in the abdomen. Make the fists of the palms and tighten the arms. In-hale and expand the chest. Tighten the shoulders, neck muscles and compress the face. Tighten the whole body from the toes to the head. Tighten….. tighten…..tighten….. Release and relax. Legs go apart, arms go apart, palms facing the roof. Assume the most comfortable position, let the whole body sink down. Let all the groups of muscles beautifully relax. Collapse the whole body. Enjoy body. Enjoy the relaxation.

STEP-II (B): LINEAR AWARNESSNow slowly bring the left hand over head along the ground. Slowly

turn over the left side. Place the head on the left biceps. The right leg on the left leg. Right palm on the right thigh. Let the whole body relax. The entire weight of the body coming down to the ground through the left side. Fine linear awareness. Slowly start coming up to Tādāsana. Let all the movements slow down. Let the breathing be deep, slow, and continuous. Eyes are kept closed. Carefully feel the changes in your body as you reach the vertical position. Feel the flow of blood down the heart. Feel the heartbeat and the pulse. Let us chant Bhrámarè to generate 3D awareness. ‘MMM’ Feel the whole



body resonating. Feel the fine massaging effect.

STEP-III: CENTERINGNow centering. Slowly lean forward. Feel the weight of the entire

body on the toes. Feel the pointed awareness. Slowly lean backwards. Feel the weight on the heels. Surface awareness. Come to the center. Lean to the right. The weight of the entire body is on the right edge of the right foot. Linear awareness. Lean to the left. Come to the center. Fine surface awareness. Now the whole body is centered, the weight of the body is equally distributed throughout the soles of the feet. Collapse the shoulders, arms hanging freely down. Smiling face. Feel all the changes taking place throughout the body.

STEP-IV: STANDING ÁSANAARDHA KATI CAKRÁSANA (AKC)

• Now we pass on to the first set of stimulation and relaxation.

• Ardha Kaûi Cakrásana, the half wheel pos-ture.

• Slowly start raising the right arm sideways upwards, 45º raise the arm further slowly and continuously to horizontal position, en-joy the movement. As the right arm reaches the 90º position twist the palms at the wrist. Pointed awareness and glide the right arm up to 135º position. Beautiful pointed aware-ness on the deltoid muscles of the right arm. As the right arm reaches up the vertical posi-



tion feel the nice stimulation in the shoulder muscles. The right biceps touching the right ear, feel the beautiful surface awareness. Feel the blood gushing down the arm. Smiling face. Stretch the right arm from the tip of the finger of the right palm. The entire right portion of the body gets stretched, but not the face. Face al-ways smiling and relaxed. Slowly start bending down to the left. Left palm sliding down along the left thigh. Fine movement of surface awareness. Enjoy the fine stretch of the waist muscles on the right side and compression on the left side. Observe all the changes taking place in your body. Slowly start coming back to vertical position. Feel the blood flowing down, the nerve impulses throughout the body. Again stretch and pull up the right arm and the entire right portion of the body stretched from the toes to the tip of the fingers. Slowly start bringing the arm right down to 135º gliding down smoothly. Feel the pointed awareness at the shoul-der as you reach horizontal position and at the wrist as you slowly turn the palm downwards. Further bring down the right arm to 45º. Feel the tingling sensation at the tips of the fingers. Continu-ously glide down the hand by the side of the thigh and hang it freely. Have a glance of the whole body again from toes to head. Entire right portion of the body is beautifully charged with nerve impulses, light and energized.

• Now let us perform AKC from the left side. Slowly start raising the left arm sideways upwards. 45º. Gliding smoothly upwards to horizontal position, palm twisted upwards. Beautiful pointed awareness at the wrist. Left arm beautifully moving up to 135º. Then to vertical position. Left biceps touching the left ear. Now stretch up the left arm from the tip of the left fingers. Entire left portion of the body gets stretched up but not the face, face smiling and relaxed. Slowly start bending to the right. Right palm sliding



down the right thigh. Movement of surface awareness, beautiful stretch of the left waist muscles. Enjoy the changes going on. Feel the heart beat, the nerve impulses spreading throughout the body. Slowly start coming up to the vertical position. Feel the nerve im-pulses from the tips of the fingers of the left palm. Pull up the left palm. Entire left portion of the body gets stretched up. Slowly bring the left arm down to 135º, then further down to horizon-tal position. Twist the wrist downwards and enjoy the pointed awareness. Glide your arm down further to 45º.

• Continuously glide down the hand by the side of the thigh and hang it freely. Collapse the shoulders. Have a glance of the whole body again from toes to head. Entire left portion of the body is charged with nerve impulses, energized and light. Enjoy the sense of well being. Check the centrifugal. Both the sides of the body are equally energized.

STEP-V: QUICK RELAXATION TECHNIQUE (QRT)

Now slowly sit down and then lie down to Ùavásana from the right side. Let all the movements be slow and continuous. The entire right arm stretched, head on the right biceps, left leg on the right leg, left palm on the left thigh, the weight getting transferred to the ground from the right side, beautiful sharp linear awareness. Slowly turn



over, the muscles of the back collapsing on the ground, bring down the right arm along the ground. Legs apart, arms apart, palms facing the roof. Assume the most comfortable position.

Phase I - Observing the abdominal movementsBring your awareness to the movements of the abdominal muscles

moving up and down as you breathe in and out. Recognize the hap-hazardness and jerky movement of the abdominal muscles. Do not manipulate the breathing, let it be natural, simply observe the ab-dominal movement. Count yourself five rounds mentally, one inha-lation and one exhalation forming on round.

Phase II - Associate with breathingSynchronize the abdominal movements with the breathing. While

inhaling the abdomen bulging up and while exhaling the abdomen-sinking down. Inhale deeply and exhale completely. Continue up to five rounds.

Phase III-Breathing with feeling• As you inhale, the abdominal muscles are coming up feel the whole

body getting energized and feel the lightness. As you exhale, feel the whole body collapses and sinks down nicely, releasing all the stresses and tensions completely. Inhale deeply and exhale com-pletely. Continue up to five rounds.

• Bring your legs together and hands by the side of the body. Come up straight with the support of the elbows to the sitting legs stretched relaxation position Sithili Dandāsana. Let all the movements be slow and continuous without jerk. Legs apart take the support of the palms backwards. Relax the neck muscles. The



head hanging freely down backwards or resting either one of the shoulders. Feel the changes throughout the body.

STEP-VI: SITTING ÁSANANow we pass on to the next set of stimulation and relaxation. Va-

jrásana, Ùaúánkásana and Ardhaustrásana / Ustrásana combina-tion.

VAJRÁSANASlowly fold the right leg backward and then the

left leg, sitting on the heels, coming to the Vajrásana position. Palms on the thighs and keep the spine erect. Enjoy the effect of harmonizing, the beautiful balance. Recognize all the changes in the body.

SASÁNKÁSANANow slowly start taking the arms behind. Hold the right wrist with

the left palm. Star feeling the pulse at the right wrist, feel the heart beat. Now slowly start bending down forward for Ùaúánkásana. The abdominal and chest muscles pressing on the\ thigh, beautiful surface awareness. Now collapse the forehead on the ground. Fine surface awareness. Collapse the shoulders. Observe all the changes

going on, the increased flow of blood into the head and feel the heaviness in the head region. Inhale and chant M-Kara, MMM’



Feel the resonance throughout the head, 3D awareness. Slowly come up to Vajrásana. Carefully follow all the changes in the head region. Feel the lightness in the head. Feel the heart beat, fine 3D Aware-ness throughout the body. Slowly release the arms place them on the thighs near the knees.

USTRÁSANASlowly rise up to stand on the

knees for Ardhauûrásana, the back bending camel posture. Standing on the knees, observe all the changes in the head region. Slowly slide the palms up along the thighs, fingers together and support the waist with the palms, fingers pointing forwards. Slowly start bending backwards from the waist. Relax the neck mus-cles; head hanging freely down. Beautiful stretching of the abdominal and thoracic muscles. This is Ardhauúûrásana. Those who can, go further down to uúûrásana by placing both the palms on the soles of the feet. Have a beautiful smile on the face. Inhale and chant an A- kára, AAA Slowly return by re-leasing the arms and placing them on the waist. Feel the avalanche of nerve impulses throughout the body. Feel the heartbeat. Slowly come back to Vajrásana and place the palms on the thighs. Feel all the changes and let the changes continue. Fine 3 dimensional awareness throughout the body. Unfold the right leg and the left leg. Assume the leg stretched position. Head hanging freely backward or resting on either of the shoulders.



STEP-VII: DEEP RELAXATION TECHNIQUE (DRT)

Slowly slide down to Ùavásana with the support of the elbows. Legs apart, hands apart, palms facing the roof. Let the whole body collapse on the ground. Let us make ourselves comfortable and relax completely. We will now go for DRT:

Phase-IBring your awareness to the tip of the toes, gently move your toes

and relax. Sensitize the soles and relax, relax your feet, loosen the ankle joints, relax the calf muscles, pull up the knee caps, release and relax, relax your thigh muscles, buttock muscles, loosen the tip joints, relax the pelvic region and the waist region. Totally relax your lower part of the body. R..e..l..a..x….. Chant A- kára, AAA….. Feel the vi-bration in your lower parts of the body.

Phase-IIGently bring your awareness to the abdominal region and observe

the abdominal movements for a while, relax your abdominal mus-cles, relax the chest muscles. Gently bring your awareness on your lower back, relax your lower back and loosen all the vertebral joints one by one. Relax the muscles and nerves around the backbones.

Relax your middle back, shoulder blades and upper back muscles, totally relax. Shift your awareness to the tip of the fingers, gently move them a little and sensitize. Relax your fingers on by one. Relax



your palms, loosen the wrist joints, relax the forearms, loosen the el-bow joints, relax the hind arms-triceps, biceps and relax your shoul-ders. Shift your awareness to your neck, slowly turn your head to the right and left, again bring back to the center. Relax the muscles and nerves of the neck. Relax your middle part of the n body, totally relax. R..e..l..a..x….. Chant U-kára, UUU….. Feel the vibration in the middle part of your body.

Phase-IIIGently bring your awareness to your head region. Relax your chin,

loosen your lower jaw and upper jaw, relax your lower and upper gums, lower and upper teeth and relax your tongue. Relax your palates-hard and soft, relax your throat and vocal chords. Gently shift your awareness to your lips, relax your lower and upper lips. Shift your awareness to your nose, observe your nostrils, and feel the warm air touching the walls of the nostrils as you inhale. Observe for a few seconds and relax your nostrils. Relax your cheek muscles, feel the heaviness of the cheeks and have a beautiful smile on your cheeks. Relax your eye balls muscles, feel the heaviness of eye balls, relax your eye lids, eye brows and the space between the eye brows. Relax your forehead, temple muscles, ears, the sides of the head, back of the head and crown of the head. Relax your region totally relax. R..e..l..a..x….. and chant M-kāra, MMM….. Feel the vibration in your head region.

Phase-IVObserve your whole body from toes to head and relax, chant AUM

in a single breath A…..U….M…. Feel the resonance throughout the body.



Phase- VSlowly come out of the body consciousness and visualize your body

lying on the ground completely collapsed.

Phase- VIImagine the vast beautiful blue sky. The limitless blue sky. Expand

your awareness as vast as the blue sky. Merge yourself into the blue sky. You are becoming the blue sky. You are the blue sky. Enjoy the infinite bliss. E..N..J..O..Y.. the blissful state of silence and all perva-sive awareness.

Phase-VIISlowly come back to body consciousness. Inhale deeply. Chant an

Om-kára. Feel the resonance throughout the body. The soothing and massaging effect from toes to head.

Phase- VIIIGently move your whole body a little. Feel the lightness, alertness

and energy throughout the body. Slowly bring your legs together and the hands by the side of the body. Turn over to the left or the right side and come up when you are ready.

STEP-VIII: CLOSING PRAYER

Sarve bhavantu sukhinah Sarve santu niramayahSarve bhadrani pasyantu Ma kascit duhkha bhagbhavet

Om Santih Santih Santih.

Meaning: May all be happy. May all be free from disease. May all see only things auspicious. May none be subject to misery.

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