Simple tips to live life peacefully

This month I decided to embark on daily routine of Bikram Yoga and the count so far is 24 days and yoga 14 times. Little did I know that apart from the physical benefits I would also reap tremendous mental benefits?

Before we discuss what I discovered lets have a small brief on Bikram yoga itself

Bikram yoga is a 90 minute class consisting of 26 postures and two breathing exercises. It is open to all levels of practitioners.

The sequence of 26 postures was scientifically designed to systematically and progressively work every muscle, ligament, tendon and joint in your body, moving fresh oxygenated blood round 100% of the body, into each and every organ and fibre, restoring all systems. Every posture prepares you for the next one and every following posture gains from the previous one, resulting in incredible benefits such as improved posture, muscle & joint mobility, concentration, boosted energy and overall rejuvenation.

The studio is heated to 105°F/41°C to help loosen the joints and improve the elasticity of the muscles, which allows for safer and deeper stretching. It also promotes sweating, resulting in an amazing detoxification. This might sound like hard work but once you finish the 90-minute class you will be signing up for the next

To add to the 90 minutes and the heat, there is the time you take to come home and refresh so say overall it is 3 hours commitment.

MENTAL BENEFITS

Benefit 1:

I learnt about the two voices in my head lets call them Wise Voice (WV) and Bad Voice (BV) and here is how the conversation would go

WV: I got to go yoga today; it will be nice to go every day.

BV: Well it is late already; you will not get there in time

WV: I do not have anything else to do I better go and do some exercise

BV: Imagine, you need to go there and then do the class, the catch two buses and then go home, take a bath and then go to sleep.

….

You get the idea right, well so I got more comfortable with both voices, learnt to recognise both of them. And I learnt to ignore the BV and listen to WV. I learnt that it can be practiced and I do not have to give into one voice or other, I choose and I learnt how by going to yoga almost daily. I developed the mental muscle and (believe me) this is a lot different from will power.

Benefit 2:

Judging Myself: - judging voice

JV: Wow, this girl next to me had her head on the toes, how does she do it and look at me I cannot even bend my back properly

WV: You are where you are, how does it matter what the girl next to you is doing. Maybe she has been practicing for years and you have been practicing only for days

JV: Yesterday I could twist my spine and today I cannot even twist my neck

WV: You have had a rough day; it is not possible to do the same every day. The only thing which is permanent is change.

Benefit 3:

Power of Intention:

This idea of doing yoga the whole month is not something that I just dreamed up, I tried yoga sometime in march and then the thought came up of why not do it every day. It was the thought and I think I fed emotional energy into it until it came true and now that I am doing it on a regular basis it does not require much thought, but can see how my thoughts feed into what I do. I wake up with a thought of yoga and the whole day I am thinking about it.

These are the main benefits that I can think of, I am sure there are lots of other that keeps accruing which I will realise later at some point in my life. So if we take up a activity and then do it there is lots more that we gain. It can be anything even something as simple as doing 25 sit-ups every day – the sit up do not matter that much , it is the process you doing them every day.