Yoga, for youthfulness and flexibility

Flexible body is living with life and stiff body is living with death:

by Panchamee Hewavissenti

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"If you like to stay in this Ashram, you should be clean. Trim your hair filled with lice and dirt ". Said monks to a beggar who came to stay in the monastery where the Buddha was staying.

Losaka, the beggar, looked from top to bottom of the two monks and thought to himself. " They are wearing saffron robes and meditating. They have shaven their heads bold, not a single hair on the head, but looks appealing. They appear more clean when no hair is on the head".

Anjou Weerasinghe, a famous actress, now one of the rare Yoga teachers in Sri Lanka. As Losaka thought to himself, I too had the similar thoughts when I glanced at the pretty actress. She appears much prettier than earlier.

The charming smile, serene face and tranquil behaviour are more attractive and give a peaceful sensation to whoever she talks. She was right after her Yoga observance when I entered her house,she was wearing a yellow T- shirt and a white trousers. When I asked about her dress code she said "This is the uniform of the Sivananda Yoga Vedantha Danwanthari Ashram, where I studied Yoga in India".

The veteran actress, now an emeritus trainer in Yoga meditation shared plenty of valuable guidance exclusively with the Sunday Observer.

Yoga is quite strange to Sri Lanka. Where has its origin taken place?

Yoga is believed to be descended from Shankarachriya. It's as old as human civilization. The origin of Yoga took place in India. Yoga has been introduced to Sri Lanka quite a long time ago, but it took little long time to be popularised among Sri Lankans.

The physical perimeter of Yoga was familiarised at the beginning and the meditative side of it still remains unexplored among the public. One thing I should tell if people know the tremendous benefits of Yoga, they will never leave Yoga unpractised.

What are the advantages of Yoga?

Advantages of Yoga are immense. Simply it helps to get rid of many an illness. If a person already has a sound health he can maintain it throughout his life. I will cite an example of my own. I had a knee injury for quite a long time and had problem in walking like signs of arthritis.

So I did some Yoga exercises with the master Shihan Nandasiriwardene. I am delighted to say that the difficulty got disappeared after I started practising Yoga. I learned Yoga in order to maintain a sound health condition, because I experienced tremendous benefits of Yoga.

There is a vast meaning of the saying "The flexible body is living with life and the stiff body is living with death". It's easy to break a stiff drumstick but how difficult it is to break a tender drumstick? Our body is also like that.

Our spine becomes enormously flexible and strong through constant practice of Yoga. The importance of having a flexible spine is that. Flexibility is the determining factor of maintaining a lively body.

Pranayama is a very important Asana in Yoga which allows a each and every cell to breath. It will stop the accumulation of Lactic acid in muscle cells. The supply of oxygen is numerously increased through Pranayama.

Lactic acid causes fatigue in muscles. A person who observes Yoga can experience the relaxation due to the removal of lactic acid from muscle cells. A person might also feel that he is floating and kind of feathery feeling.

Another importance of Pranayama is that it helps controlling diabetes. Pranayama promotes an excellence blood circulation in the body. A diabetic person who practices progressive Yoga exercises shows a significant improvement of glucose tolerance.

If a person starts practising Yoga at a very young age numerous benefits can be reaped. Yoga is also recommended for people those who suffer from illnesses such as high cholesterol, arthritis and blood pressure.

Pranayama taps the energy which is stored in solar plexus. Therefore it helps to eliminate obesity. It's a good remedy for insomnia, tremors and even hallucinations.

Yoga meditation helps a person to maintain a sound mental health. Yoga meditation is one of the remedial therapy for illness mostly caused by mental disturbances such as stress, depression and emotional imbalance. Also for mental retardation and memory disfunctions.

Can a person practice Yoga on his own or should he get trained under a guidance of a couch?

It is advisable for a beginner to always seek guidance from a coach in order to be familiarise with the fundamentals of Yoga. Once the person undergo an initiate training then it is no problem practising on his own. But it is not a good practice that if a person looks at books and observe Yoga at initial stage.

It is recommendable to be trained under an experienced Yoga Guru in order to avert untoward effects of Yoga.

How can a busy person observe Yoga with his busy ventures?

Emeritus Yoga Gurus postulate that the best time to practice Yoga is Brahma Murthi. That is from about 4.00 am to 6.00 am. A busy person can always wake up early in the morning and practice Yoga for one to two hours. That amount of time will be more than sufficient per a day. That also rejuvenates the mind of the observer of Yoga and helps to cope with stressful life.

What are the suggestions you make to familiarise Yoga among Sri Lankans?

Although Sri lanka has excellent Yoga Gurus, they are not given sufficient publicity. The media has a vital role to play in familiarising Yoga among the public.

The problem we currently face in familiarising Yoga is that we do not have enough well trained Yoga Gurus in Sri Lanka. I am hoping to start a programme to train Yoga Gurus here in Sri Lanka.

The programme is conducted under the patronage of Norwegian Embassy. We hope to conduct classes on provincial basis. At the beginning we select candidates from rural areas and train them to spread all over Sri Lanka.

Can you give any health advice for nowaday's people who always depend on fast food?

Yes, I would like to advise parents to take great care of their children's health. They should be more concerned on food that children eat. Parents buy for their children mouth watering fast food because they love their children. But what should I say is that if they truly love their children they should not get their children used to so called fast food.

If parents can prepare healthy meal for children it is really valuable than letting them have fast food which brings more health problems. Oily and savory food should be avoided as much as possible in order to make the future younger generation more healthier and vigorous.

And getting younger generation accustomed to sound living habits such as good diet habits and exercises such as yoga are vital to produce a productive younger generation.