Yoga & You series with Dr. Hansaji Yogendra

“Yoga believes in relaxed, yet active movements. Yoga isn’t about asanas but a way of life. How one lives, is yoga.” Hansaji reveals what yoga essentially means.

"It is imperative that one keeps their body fit and fine. One should respect time; live their life like an emergency”.

“Yoga is a way of Life and has to be lived. If someone can maintain a routine, even for a minute everyday, one can achieve a lot through being motivated and disciplined.” These are the key points thorough which one would stay healthy.

Mindfulness is a practice of everyday. It is a practice of complete awareness of ones mind and body in everyday life. “Where our body is, our mind should be; where our mind is, is where our emotions should be. Where our emotions are, is where our faith should be. Our faith is our confidence. When all four things work together, a state of mindfulness would be achieved.”

“Women should be self-reliant, especially emotionally”. For women who have hormonal disorder, she suggests that they should do asanas that involve lying down on their stomach and adequate rest.

Most of todays problems rated to the body are due to the lifestyle one leads, the solution to this is to identify what is causing these issues. “Your body itself will tell you what to do when it is in trouble” Small things that one does daily, helps the body to be more efficient, keeping body pain at bay. One should also be observant to what one eats and how their body responds to it, diet should be what one is comfortable with and is healthy.

A flexible body is a physically healthy body. Yoga helps is gaining flexibility and there are asanas to enhance ones flexibility.

It is said that the root of all problems is in the stomach. Yoga has a specific way to eat, “A person should fill only half of their stomach with food, now quarter for water and the other quarter for the gases in the stomach” this not only helps the stomach to function well but also keeps illness at bay.

“Fear has to be overpowered by Faith” One has to face their fear to realise that it is a construct of ones mind, and to do so, one has to have faith in oneself.

Anxiety is an emotion and it needs to handled with intellect. When emotions waver, ones intellect needs to be strong. If a person does not control anxiety, it would lead in panic attacks. That is very harmful. Simple methods in coping with anxiety attacks:"Stop thinking and think about positive things in ones life. Start watching and counting ones breath, take long breaths. By breathing better one is relaxing better." Instead of zooming in on problems that cause anxiety, one should start looking for solutions.

Sleeping is a natural pattern and if that natural pattern is disturbed, one is doing a mistake in their life. “Getting tired and sleeping is not a good approach, person should be agile. If one is tired, on should release that fatigue.” Doing Shavasana and Pranayama helps is getting sleep and relaxing oneself.

Meditation is the thing that would remove all obstacles in ones life. Through meditation, one learns to focus and become aware the mind. Concentration is the beginning of meditation, and prolonged concentration is a kind of mediation. It helps in integrating ones mind and ones heart, through devotion and faith.

“A human should do four types of activity in a day. The first one pertains to ones duty, as a woman, a man, a child, as member of society etc, if one does not do their duty, there is chaos. The second is, one should earn their own money and should be self-reliant. One should respect money and should earn it in clear ways. The third is, one should learn how to channelize our emotions, to have productive outlets for our emotions. The fourth is, to be selfless, to think and do things for others.” When all these are done, one would achieve a balanced state of mind.

An empty mind is a devils workshop - keeping the mind focused and busy is a productive way to not think negatively. The mind functions in five ways, the logical way, the belief way, the imaginary mind and the mind of memory, all these function together and we have to keep alert not to slip into a negative mode of thinking with these - keep these functions of mind productive and positive.

For living a content life, Dr. Hansaji has a very simple answer. “One should train ones mind to see good in life. Broaden ones outlook and look at the world with eyes open. Be thankful for what has been given to you."

Love and charity are in-born within us, in giving the joy and feeling worthwhile that we get is tremendous. Wherever help is required, we should give help to them, by giving time, space, whatever possession that can be disposed

The first thing to be happy is to find purpose in life, to have a concept of duty in ones life. Constructively occupy one life. Second area is energy, energy is increased by doing physical activities, staying active, doing yoga, meditation and while one is doing this one should reduce activities that take away ones energy. The third is too nurture good thoughts and remember those thoughts. When one is useful to someone, when one empathises, one is truly happy.

To be motivated, a person should not be lazy, to make ones time more useful and productive. One should balance out what one has to do and what one wants to do. To keep goals and steadily keep increasing those goals in ones life.