Video: Meditation Tips

Salambha Sarvangasana

Sarvangasana or Shoulder stand is an excellent pose that benefits the whole body. It is one of the safest inversion posture and has multitude of benefits.

Step-by-step

Lie down on your back and relax your body. Have your arms by your side, palms facing up.
From lying down, bend your knees with your feet still on the floor. Anchor in your shoulders by pressing your head gently on the floor, and strongly with your shoulders and arms. Make sure there’s space between your neck and the floor.
Now gently swing your legs up so that your knees come towards your chest. The buttocks will rise up a little when you life the knees up, immediately bend your arms at the elbow and bring them in to support your back.
Whilst you’re doing this, activate your pelvic floor muscles to help support and protect your back and neck. Your fingers will be pointing up towards the ceiling when your hands are on your lower back and buttocks.
If you are a beginner hold this posture for 5-8 breaths.
If holding this posture is comfortable for you, you can raise the hands along the length of your spine and bring them towards the shoulder blades, this raising up the shoulder stand.
The chest will be pressed against the chin at this stage. If the shoulder stand is steady and comfortable you can try to hold it for one minute.
If this is also comfortable , you can slowly raise the arms along side the body one by one carefully keeping the body balanced.

Shoulder stand should not be done if you have the following:
• You’re in the midst of menstruating
• You have high blood pressure
• You have a migraine or tension headache (your neck will be too stiff)
• You have neck or shoulder problems (for the same reason)

Opening the Deeper States of the Mind

[Guest post by Veena from Bangkok]

“After attending “Finding YourSelf “, workshop with Prasad in Oct 2006 in Bangkok, I was introduced to Yoga Nidra. For 3 weeks after the workshop, I was still pondering over this question, “What is Yoga Nidra? Why do I have to do it when I am already meditating? Do I really need to incorporate another technique to my bag of destressing tools?”

Quite confused, I finally emailed Prasad asking, “How do I include the yoga nidra in my daily routine? I tried your Yoga Nidra CD for the first time. The result was phenomenal and definitely the benefits are different from meditation. Do you suggest I do it once a week, more than once or ……? can’t decide.”

His reply on 21st Nov, 2006 was as follows: “I am glad that you are looking at yoga not as something to do, but something to explore. Yoga is a very powerful tool, it is like a torch which helps us remove the darkness of ignorance and relieve tensions. In turn we discover the True Reality which lies within. Read more…