Yoga has something for everyone. It begins by making you focus on your breathing, which plays a crucial role in helping you cleanse the body, mind and soul. What work in tandem are the many flexibility-enhancing, muscle-building, fat-blasting postures that fortify the stamina and up your fitness level. Watching yoga gurus and experts performing some unnerving poses can get intimidating but the truth is that everybody starts from scratch.The meditation technique, which is practiced in both a group setting and at home, includes a series of sequential, rhythm-specific breathing exercises that bring people into a deep, restful and meditative state: slow and calm breaths alternated with fast and stimulating breaths. “Sudarshan Kriya yoga gives people an active method to experience a deep meditative state that’s easy to learn and incorporate in diverse settings,” said Anup Sharma, research fellow at University of Pennsylvania, who led the study. Past studies suggest that yoga and other controlled breathing techniques can potentially adjust the nervous system to reduce stress hormones.In the study, researchers enrolled 25 patients suffering from MDD who were depressed, despite more than eight weeks of antidepressant medication treatment.The medicated patients were randomised to either the breathing intervention group or the “waitlist” control group for eight weeks.During the first week, participants completed a six-session programme, which featured Sudarshan Kriya yoga in addition to yoga postures, sitting meditation and stress education.With a mean baseline HDRS score of 22.0 (indicating severe depression at the beginning of the study), the group that completed the breathing technique for the full two months improved scores by 10.27 points on average, compared to the wait list group, which showed no improvements. Patients in the yoga group also showed significant mean reductions in total scores of the self-reported Beck Depression (15.48 point improvement) and Beck Anxiety Inventories (5.19 point improvement), versus the wait list control group.For weeks two through eight, participants attended weekly Sudarshan Kriya yoga follow-up sessions and completed a home practice version of the technique. Patients in the Sudarshan Kriya yoga group showed a significantly greater improvement in Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) scores compared to patients in the wait list group. The basics are always of the utmost importance in order to master any art.
If you have not been to a yoga class yet and can’t muster the enthusiasm to do so, here are some of the easiest poses that can safely be done at home.
The Basics
As mentioned earlier, breathing plays a pivotal role in yogic practice. While practicing it, we perform Ujjai or the victorious breath. You begin by making a soft whispering noise with long and even breaths while the air catches the back of your throat. Ensure that your lower belly is drawn during inhalation as well as exhalation. This breathing technique helps enhance the movement in the diaphragm and lengthens the spine. It also facilitates increased oxygen supply to the body which will leave you feeling relaxed and rejuvenated post practice.
The Postures
1. The Downward Dog
Start on your feet, then push yourself down to make your hands touch the ground, pushing your back and hips up. This way you will make an inverted ‘V’ with your body. You can try pedaling out your feet bringing the heels back to the floor one at a time. Eventually, the heels will come back to the floor. You should be looking back between your legs and ground with your palms on the floor. Focus on lengthening your arms and keeping the shoulders broad. Repeat the posture after other postures, hold it for 5 breaths.
2. The Dolphin Pose
The pose is a departure from the Downward Dog, in the sense that here you come down onto the elbows. Push into the floor with your forearms and keep lifting your hips up. The posture works on your shoulder girdle and prepares you for more advanced postures and transitions.
3. The Rag-doll Pose
This is great for a gentle hamstring stretch. Stand with your feet hip width apart. Now, gently rock your upper body from side to side holding the elbows. Make sure that your upper body hangs loose and is relaxed. Your head and neck should not be tensed. Bend your knees in case you find it difficult to get into the pose. Don’t stand up with a jerk, roll up one vertebra at a time, with your head coming up at last.
4. Tree Pose
There exists a range of yogic postures that are great for balancing. Tree pose is excellent for beginners. Start by taking your hands in prayer position. Transfer your weight onto one leg and slowly pick up the other foot resting the sole against the other leg. Now, take your hands over your head. Practice on both sides, count for 10 long breaths and release. Try to keep the mind calm and focus on your breath and one fixed point in front of you. This pose involves a great deal of balancing, and is therefore imperative for the mind to be calm and at peace. You can take support from the wall.
5. The Sphinx Pose
Various yoga postures work on different parts of the body. From gentle stretches to backward and forward bending poses, twisting postures and others, the idea is always to let your body explore the unknown. Backward bending poses are great for the stomach. They enlarge the diaphragm and help release tension from the back. The sphinx pose is one of the easiest postures to try at home.
Begin by lying flat on your stomach and bring your elbows directly underneath your shoulders. Bring your chest up and forward. Hold for 10 breaths and release.
6. The Cobra Pose
This pose involves your arms to rest on the floor with hands resting by the armpits. Stretch your legs and lift your torso up, don’t use the power of the arms. This pose actively engages the back muscles.
7. The Bridge Pose
This one involves you to lie flat on your back. Bend your knees with your arms resting on the side. Shoot your hips up with your head and shoulders on the floor. Clasp your hands into a fist underneath you.
All backward bending postures are great for the health of the vertebra, the spine and the general strength of the back.
Every pose has a counter posture. It is important to release the tension by making your body stretch and bend the opposite direction to achieve maximum benefit.
