Bhujangasana

Lie on your stomach and place your palms on either side of your chest. Raise your upper body till the navel. Look up. Hold for seven counts and gently come down. (Repeat this entire set seven times.) Caution: People with heart conditions and high blood pressure must not strain while performing these asans. It is recommended that all asans be learnt and practised under the strict supervision of an expert. For more information, you can visit the Dhyan foundation website (www.dhyanfoundation.com)

Pavanmukthasana

Pavanmukhtasana or the wind-relieving asana helps reduces gas, and improves digestion. While doing this asana the muscles of lower back are strengthened and it reduces fat around the abdomen and buttocks.

7 Amazing Reasons Why Partner Yoga Is Great For Your Relationship

Yoga means "union or unification", and that makes partner yoga a perfect recipe for uniting two souls. In 'partner yoga', you and your partner can do the traditional yoga postures together by helping and supporting each other. Whether you share a smooth sailing relationship or have currently hit a rough patch, Partner or couples yoga is an ultimate way to enrich your bonding with your partner.

What’s more? If you are looking for ways to heighten passion in your relationship, then again this is your answer. So, let us find out how practising partner yoga can work wonders for your relationship.

#1. Buries your differences

In partner yoga, you are working together to achieve that perfect posture. When you are working for a common goal, you surely keep your differences apart. And once you reach the desired pose, you not only feel confident about yourself, but also feel triumphant about your relationship.

Cain Carroll, co-author of Partner Yoga: Making Contact for Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Growth, talks about partner yoga and says, "Partner yoga is the medium for building stronger communication and intimacy between human beings in any relationship."

#2. Healing touch

A touch is the first and most primary aspect of partner yoga. It starts with a physical touch and ends with a healing and therapeutic touch. Some people might feel uncomfortable with physical intimacy, but in reality it is the touch that soothes, comforts and relieves pain in humans.

#3. Builds trust

Trust is like a stepping stone in any relationship and if there is no trust, there is no meaning to a relationship. When you attempt the difficult yoga poses, you have to become interdependent on each other. You need to trust your partner to help and your partner will have to trust you. This is exactly when the metaphor “made for each other” comes true!

#4. Unspoken communication

Can you understand what is “unspoken” between the two of you? Well, partner yoga helps you to bridge this divide and brings you closer to one another. Gillian Kapteyn Comstock, a certified yoga instructor, who has been teaching couples yoga for almost a decade says, “Yoga is an excellent medium of expression and growth.” She further adds, “Yoga poses increase the language of intimacy for couples by giving them nonverbal ways of expressing their feelings.”

To maintain the right balance, alignment and remaining focussed for a yoga posture with closed eyes requires emotional and mental unification with your partner. So, after practicing a few poses, you will realise that your dynamics of understanding as a couple has increased.

#5. Sheds ego

The crux of these exercises is to forget the self and amalgamate into each other. It is of prime importance to work together and not against each other. “You rely on each other for the very creation of poses. Postures are dependent on two people showing up for one another and giving equal effort," says Cain Carroll.

“It’s a great metaphor for the nut and bolt aspect of all relationships,” he adds. Thus, you have to work as a team and not as an individual when it comes to couple yoga.

#6. Relieves frustrations

You are likely to be affected by frustrations and negativities, which at times wreak havoc even in a perfect relationship. Partner yoga comes to your rescue and helps you deal with pent up annoyances and exasperations, and give way to a soothing and calming relationship.

"Postures and flow sequences are designed to bring communication into a tangible, physical form and help you witness the dynamic of relationships," says Cain Carroll.

#7. Stronger family connect

Partner yoga is something that can be done not only among couples, but as a whole family also. As yoga instructor, Laura Kasperzak, says, "The happiness and laughter that comes from doing something like this (partner yoga) is undeniable. It connects a couple, it connects friends, and it connects a parent with their child. Regardless of the outcome of the pose, it can’t help but make you smile."

During the yoga, partners laugh, joke and bond themselves with poses. We can then rightly say, “A family that exercises together stays together.”

Source: Yahoo News

Kapalbhati Pranayam

This pranayan helps your brain cells receive more oxygen, making it good for the nervous system. It also helps remove toxins from the body and beats obesity and diabetes.

Bhastrika Pranayam

It helps remove excess gas, bile and phlegm in the body and purifies the nervous system. It also preventing all kinds of diseases in the body.

Laughter yoga burns serious calories

Yoga The 12 steps of surya namaskar (sun salutation)

Types of yoga

1. Hatha yoga – A very popular type of yoga, hatha yoga is common in the West and is one of the easiest types to find if you want to locate a class. Hatha yoga mostly consists of asanas or postures. It is ideal for beginners and for those who want a moderate level of physical activity. It may not be the ideal choice for weight loss but can loosen muscles and leave you in a relaxed mode.
2. Ashtanga yoga – This important type of yoga that is available since olden times has eight sub types. It consists in doing a series of movements sequentially and in repetition but each time the sequence has to be performed in the same order without deviation.
3. Iyengar yoga – Made famous by B.K.S Iyengar who passed away in 2014, Iyengar yoga helps strengthen the muscles. Ropes, blocks and blankets are used to assist with body alignment which is considered very important in this kind of yoga. There is not much cardiovascular exercise but standing poses are common and it requires great mental as well as physical effort.
4. Kundalini yoga – This form of yoga believes that there are six chakras or psychic regions in the body and by opening the chakras, healing occurs. The chakras can be reached through pranayama, mudras and asanas.
5. Mantra yoga – This relies on chanting of mantras in a specific manner to attain mental and emotional well-being. As these mantras are very powerful, it is important to utter them in the correct manner and under the guidance of an experienced yogi. The vibrations produced when chanting the mantras can help healing oneself as well as realising their dreams.
6. Bhakti yoga – this type of yoga stresses on belief in God or a higher consciousness. This belief, if firm, can do wonders in your life; this is the premise on which Bhakti yoga is founded.
7. Bikram yoga – Doing yoga in a room heated to between 90-100 degrees, you will sweat a lot if you sign up for Bikram yoga. This helps in removing toxins from the body and stretching the muscles. It consists of 26 postures to be done and is ideal to increase flexibility and for detoxification. It can be practised by beginners and those who have reached advanced levels.
8. Hot yoga – A variation of Bikram yoga is hot yoga which is also done in an artificially heated room. As the series of exercise is slightly different, it is not exactly Bikram yoga and cannot be termed as such.
9. Raja yoga – Introduced by the sage Patanjali, Raja yoga has eight sub types which help the person to attain physical health and fitness. When the body is fit, the attention can be shifted towards mental and spiritual growth.
10. Kripalu yoga – The most relaxed kind of yoga, it urges the person to have the right emotions while doing yoga and less stress is placed on attaining the perfect poses. Three stages are described – learning the poses as well as realising the limits of your body, doing the poses and being aware of your body and performing one pose after another in a fluid manner without disturbing the mental thought process.

International Yoga Day - 21st June