Shavasana for Stress Management

A significant number of working professionals are showing adverse effects of stress on their physical and mental health that result in emotional disturbances, faulty eating habits and overall lifestyle disorders. Long term stress is also the cause of several diseases along with personal and family problems.

Yogic techniques for relaxation are very practical techniques to restore balance and rejuvenate the body and mind. Shavasana which is a conscious relaxation technique which is done by relaxing each and every body part, one by one, can be done in a time span of 20 to 40 minutes.

There are so many stressful moments that we have to face daily. Catching a flight, taking an important decision, managing the finance and with such other responsibility we often feel drained and dry. Along with these wrong eating habits, inadequate rest, faulty time management, lack of physical exercise can enhance the stress. In this way we start to accumulate negativity over a period of time. Therefore it is very important to release this negative energy on regular basis and replace it with positive energy. The reason we often feel depressed, lazy, confused and fatigue is that we haven’t learnt to relax.

The concept of relaxation is highly misunderstood. We may think that watching T.V or just lying in the couch is a form of relaxation, but it doesn’t really help you to ease and loosen your contracted muscles, neither it’s a form of a conscious relaxation that will calm down your breathing and cool down your mind. May be it can help you to some extent but when you relax with Shavasana you are actually messaging your mind to get inwards and consciously feel your body and release the stress from each and every body part.

With my own experience I can say that whenever I have given this technique to my clients, it has shown tremendous results in their health and behaviour. Serious problems like insomnia, migraine, blood pressure, diabetes, anxiety and asthma have all got under control. Other complaints like headaches, muscular tension, and back pain have got cured. After Shavasana my clients have reported that they feel healthy and completely fresh and full of life. I strongly recommend this technique for all the working professional on regular basis.

In the beginning the client will need the support of the trainer for at least one month. For the beginners it is essential that the trainer gives them complete instructions verbally during the practice every time they practice Shavasana. It is normal that initially a person would not be able to relax because of the accumulated stress, but with the practice the technique will get easier.

It also possible that the person may fall asleep during the instructions, which is not expected. This can happen a few times when the person has not completed his sleep. But with gradual practice, a person will start to feel more and more calm, confident, happier and relaxed. This will bring a positive change in the personality and increase memory, concentration, decision power and emotional stability. Erratic eating habits, anger, fear and other negative traits will also get under controlled.

If you feel that you need to relax and rejuveanate your body and mind, please write to us or contact us on +91 9821 231306 or +91 9821 505029 to experience a Yogic relaxation session. You can also give a chance to your employees to experience these techniques. It can be easily done at office premises after lunch or at the end of the day.!

I will be back with some more interesting articles for the Corporate. Namaskar!!

Sevagram Tour Report

Hurrayyyyyy!!! The Sevagram Tour of Butterfly Yogi was a complete success!
We surely can say that each one of us have returned with “something” else from there.. and we’d like to express here our thanks to Madhuri, Maíra and Bruna for letting us guide them throughout this amazing journey.

In brief this Tour was a great experience for all the participants to learn about Indian history and spirituality, enchanting nature, Yoga along with rejuvenating Naturopathy treatments. Visit to Gandhiji’s Ashram and Museum was an eye opener of Gandhij’s life, philosophy and achievements in the political, social and spiritual fields. It was a fortune to be present there watching the people spinning the hand spun spunk and participating in the evening prayers.

The atmosphere served as a tranquiliser to our senses and mind. It really seems that Gandhiji has left his influence there. Its not an exaggeration to say that one can really experience that how divine and pure a life can be there in Sevagram. The setting of the traditional cafeteria serving some fresh juices out in the green was so cute!!

We also had a great time at Magan Sanghralaya where we witnessed the cotton processing at the factory, and, the Khadi and the Village Industry took us to a ride to the rural technology of bee-keeping, bamboo, stone, metal and palm leaf handcraftism, natural dye, natural soap industry and the list goes on.

Seeing the village women spinning the thread was indeed a treat for both mind and heart, after knowing what Khadi represents for the poor of the Indian villages.

Pavnar Ashram and exquisite Geetai Mandir revealed the great personality of Vinoba Bhave the "Walking Saint" as he became known during his "Boodhan Yajna" or the "Land-Gift Mission" for the poor farmers.

That was not all. Then followed a visit to the Buddhist Stupa and Japanese Temple in the begining of the evening.

There is much more to share which was the best part of the tour. The nature walks in the 220 acres of fields during the sunrise was a delightful experience for us. Bird watching, visiting the Goshala (cows home), walking through the flowery pathways and experiencing the early morning mist seemed like a beautiful episode in a quiet and green village life.

Philosophical studies took place before lunch including discussions on the different streams of Yoga, being those: Karma Yoga (Path of Action), Bhakti Yoga (Path of Devotion), Jñana Yoga (Path of Knowledge) and Raja Yoga (Path of Psychic Control) also known as Ashtanga Yoga (Patañjali Eight-Fold Path) and how they relate with the main aspects of Gandhiji's Philosophy and Life. Also took place a general introduction on Bhagavad Gita and Vinoba Bhave's Life.

All the days our participants practiced Yoga Asanas and Pranayamas after a short morning walking. And till then they were all prepared and hungry for a nutritious breakfast with hot herbal tea. Followed by this were naturopathy treatments.

Above is Maíra doing Jalaneti Kriya and below facial massage.

Mud bath was loved by our participants and a new experience for each one of us!

Something suprising was the laughter session in the last day of practices. Madhuri and her husband Dr. Madan Kataria are the founders of Laughter Yoga with laughter clubs spread all around the world. If you want to know more about this check out the session "Friends & Partners" of this blog.

It was pleasure to relish the delicious lunch and dinner which was made in a Maharashtrian style served with nutritious chutneys. What more can you ask for?

It was unbelievable that we all turned to be so good photographers.

Below images of our last day sightseeing including another Buddhist Stupa and visit to Bor Dam.

At last during the visit to Bor Dam, hills and trees, lush green forest and the large expanse of calm waters didn’t want us to return from there.

We also want to give our special thanks to Dr. T. karthickeyan for receiving us in Arogyadham and giving so much attention to our group during our stay in Sevagram.

Before our return we stuffed our bags with some Khadi products, books of Gandhiji and kilos of fresh Amla from the fields. With lots of knowledge, sweet memmories and some gifts we had to finally depart…

That's it for now. Hope see you guys next trip! Namaskar!!