NO compromise on your Attention Currency

We live in the world of information overload age. We are constantly bombarded with a huge flood of information, the moment we wake up till we go back to the bed. The information is bombarded from many different sources such as mobile, laptop, SMS, whatsapp, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

Value of the information: Clearly, most of the information exchange tools such as whasapp, Facebook come free of cost. But, in return, they take our attention and make money out of our attention. The apps or platforms that trigger people to visit very often to their platforms make the most money. In other words, we are selling our attention in order to get the free apps/software platform.

Since, the platforms come at no cost; we tend to send information mindlessly. The value that we attach to the exchanged information between people diminishes. Simple examples are those forwarded messages. The information overload is due to the mindless means of transacting the message without giving due consideration to the human value of those at the receiving end.

Consider the amount of messages that you receive and the amount of knowledge /result that you have achieved on a given day. Except with few exceptions, most of the days are spent in reading or transacting the accidental messages.

Research : Consider a simple whatsapp message such as, “can you tell me your availability?”. This seemingly insignificant distraction causes you to deviate from your focussed activity and takes 23 minutes before getting you back to the same intensity of work of your focussed activity. One develops a self-interrupt habit as he is continuously bombarded with such distractions over days, weeks, months & years. Self-interrupt is a habit where one is compelled to interrupt himself in the middle of his focussed activity and do something irrelevant such as checking email, SMS before proceeding to his regular activity.

Attention: With the distractions mentioned above, we have lost our ability to focus and stay attentive with our work. We have now something called ADT (Attention Deficit Trait), a kind of disease common to the entire human mankind. Attention is our ability to focus on a particular task & it is a real currency in this given adverse situation. This currency of yours is taken by others.

So, if you feel that you are all over the place then it is good to check and see where you spent your energy throughout the day. If you are attentive on the activities that are not inline to what that really matters to you in life then it is good to make a conscious choice to train the mind to stay focussed.

Technique: A simple technique of spending 5 minutes of your day on focussing on your breath helps to train your prefrontal cortex and enhances your ability to stay attentive. Simply, observe the rise and fall of your breath and feel the natural rhythm of your breath. Discard the distractions caused by the internal/external world of yours and develop the habit to stay focussed. This simple technique helps the brain to become attentive.

Remember attention is your currency to have a clear thought process as well as your overall wellbeing & do not compromise this skill in this information overload age.

Monitoring Points of your Health

Health Definition: As per World Health Organisation, health is defined as follows.

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease”

Being fit doesn’t mean that you are healthy. Mere absence of disease doesn’t mean that you are healthy. Health is a balanced holistic state of your being at the physical, mental & emotional levels. Any kind of practice that follows this protocol takes you to a true healthy state. Obviously, yoga is one such practice which gives the practitioner an opportunity to lead to an internally calm balanced state called Homeostasis.

Homeostasis: Human homeostasis is the process that maintains the stability of the human body's internal environment in response to changes in external conditions. This includes controlling of your body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar level etc.

As an engineer, I always equate this process of homeostasis to the function of the PLL (Phase Lock Loop). The incoming signal is superimposed by the feedback signal that comes from the error detector and sent as an output signal. The output signal is monitored by the error detector to generate the feedback signal. So, the final output is always in a stable state irrespective of the errors caused due to the external factors.

Fortunately, our entire involuntary systems such as digestive system, circulatory system, excretory system and so on work in homeostasis without our involvement or our conscious effort. But, at the conscious level when things are not taken care in a balanced way then it has its own influence on our involuntary systems. This is the cause of the disease. So, to be healthy, it is important for you to stay balanced at the conscious level.

Indicators of Health: What are the indicators or monitoring points to know that we are in a healthy state and leading a balanced lifestyle? Here are four areas that summarise your current health state.

a)      Sleep pattern: A strong deep sleep pattern puts your system in a state of relaxation & body rework mechanisms kick start in this deep sleep state. Brain scientists call this state of brain as Theta & Delta State.

b)      Bowel Movement: Mother of all disease is constipation. Your entire digestive track is subconsciously programmed to work without any conscious effort. Good digestive system is a good indicator of your health.

c)       Mensuration cycle: Balanced hormonal system is the necessity for your perfect health. Periodic mensuration is a good indicator.

d)      Self-Talk: Free mind is a source of our creativity. Mind chattering centred around the negative emotions such as worries, fear, doubts etc. is a bad indicator of health.

So, look for the four of the above indicators and see where you stand for you to know your current health state.

Manage your Mind - Simple Technique

Mind becomes a powerful instrument if one knows how to handle the mind. In case, if one does not know how to handle the mind then mind starts to handle you. One becomes prisoner of his own mind in the latter case. Unfortunately, many live under the control of mind full time. This is not an optimal living. A person can clearly see the mind from a platform if he knows the technique to surface above the mind and resides in a platform. Now, it is easy for him to manage the mind.

There are multiple ways to do this & I’ll explain here in this blog one such powerful technique using our eyes.

Neurology of Eyes:  First, I would like to highlight 3 different aspects of the eyes. We all know eye is a sense organ for our vision. We see through our eyes. And, also eye is the only organ which is a direct extension of the brain. During the embryonic phase, the brain undergoes a growth process inside the womb. All the structures of the brain get completely embedded inside the skull except the part of the brain that extends out to form the eyes.

So, by playing with the eyes, we are indirectly playing with the brain. Now, you know the reason why the doctors apply torch in your eyes when they want to examine the pressure in the blood capillaries of the brain. Through eyes, the doctors can see the brain.

Secondly, eye is just a sense organ & we are not seeing by eyes. We see the projection of the image that is beamed from the eyes in the visual cortex of the brain. Yes, we see through our brain & not through our eyes.

Thirdly, left eye is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain & right eye is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain.

Eyeball movement: Just observe a restless person & watch his eyes. You may see his eye ball moves randomly everywhere. Also, you observe the eye movement of a very stable confident person in a conversation. His eye is fixed and connected straight into your eyes. This means that his mind is stable with a single thought & he is simply transferring his thought to your mind through the eyes. So, if one needs to control the mind, it is important to control the movement of the eyes. In other words, simply GAZE at one single point.

Just, try out yourself gazing at a single point and focus on the act of seeing & feeling. You will be amazed to see the reduction in the speed of your mind.

Gaze Point:  Here is an exercise that you may want to try with someone. Ask the following question to your friend, “what where you doing last Sunday morning?” & see his response. While recollecting the Sunday morning event, he may start to gaze upward to recollect the event from his memory. This is a natural automated response of all. We tend to look upward when we want to recollect some incidents. So, an upward gaze allows us to get connected to our deeper SELF.

So, it is not only gazing is a requirement but also an upward gaze of above 45 degree. So, to skip the mind, just look at your eyebrows. This simple gesture allows you to expand your awareness more than your present perceived boundaries.

Focus: As explained earlier, eyes are connected to the opposite side of the brain. When one focuses on the centre point between the two eyebrows, the left and right sides of the brain balance each other. This integration helps to expand his range of awareness. So, focus on the space in between your eyebrows.

Gazeà Upward à Centre point

Try this practice daily for five minutes & experience the powerful effect of this practice.

Why willpower does not work?

We take resolutions to change ourselves for good. The resolutions may be many such as: get your ideal weight, build good relationship, earn certain amount of money etc. Unfortunately, most of the resolutions will not find their ways to their respective final destinations. Typically, our New Year resolution that we take in January eventually dies by February.

In spite of this, there are few who can through this transition phase to reach out the final destination. So, what is the strategy used by this few to really see the smooth path and get into the end result that one deserves. I am writing here my own personal experience & the strategies that I used personally in transforming myself to my higher version.

Interplay: Before describing the strategies, I would like you to first understand certain basics. Our willpower plays a crucial role at the beginning phase. Let us say that we have made a resolution to become fit & we used our willpower to kick start the workouts regime. Remember, resolution means it is something new/unknown and hence we are trying to force ourselves out of our comfort zone. Our old habits that reside in the comfort zone are strong neurological pathways which prohibit the new habit/new neural network that we intend to develop through our new resolution.

Yes, there is an internal conflict between your old habits & your willpower. When the fight happens between these two entities, clearly always the dominant one wins & in this case, the winner is simply your old habits. We are forced again to lead the same lifestyle that we have been leading for years. There is NO change & hence no good transformation. Bottom line is to understand quickly that willpower alone is not good enough for the change to happen. It has to be accompanied with the rightful strategies to undergo the desired transition.

Minds: Willpower is part of the conscious mind & old habits are the design of your subconscious mind. As, we know subconscious mind is 95% active & conscious mind is active for 5% active for all our activities. So, old habits are always the winner.

Strategies: I have used these three key elements: Inspiration, Faith & Controlled ambience that aid me to undergo the transformation.

1.       Inspiration: We need to have some sort of role model who has already achieved the things that we look for. First important thing for us is to get emotionally attached to the goodness of the end results that the role model currently enjoys. Through good emotions, we get the ability to talk to the subconscious mind & make it understands our intention.

2.       Faith: We need to have great faith in ourselves, the tools that we use for the transformation & the person/team that is responsible in providing the tools & techniques to us. Importantly, our belief that the tools & techniques work 100% for you. More the faith, better we could clearly communicate to the subconscious mind.

3.       Ambience: We need to control and design our ambience that helps in achieving our goals. It is not ideal to have fridge full of junk foods when you want to get into your ideal fitness level. Instead, it is good to have some workout charts printed & kept in your vicinity, stuff the fridge with healthy foods, etc. So, designing of ambience is important to avoid the temptation that is driven again by our subconscious mind. 

5 effective points to deal with the PROBLEMS in Life

The points mentioned below create a right kind of mind set to deal with the problems in life.

1.       Combo: Understand that “Problem + No Problem” is a package that come us a combo in life. Life is boring without the problems. Growth in life can be obtained by the experiences in handling and resolving the problems. So, let us welcome the problems but the smartness lies in how one becomes resilient to the problems.

2.       Physical Result: Problem is simply an outcome in the physical world. It is a result that manifested in the physical world. It is an effect in your external reality. But, the causes are somewhere else in your internal world. Many of us have the tendency to focus on the problems, ex: weight loss. I want to lose weight; I have to get rid of those bulges etc. We have to shift our focus to the causes. Ex: what made me to gain the weight, was I like this five years before? , etc. So, focus on the causes to get rid of the effect.

3.       Mirror: A person true character gets reflected only in his adversity. When you are bogged down with the problems, you may have doubts, fear, worries, etc which are driven by the emotional centre of the brain. Your reaction to the problem is then based on the autopilot response that comes through the memories that hold your life experiences. This auto response is how you are defined as a person. The effectiveness in dealing with the problems is determined by the ability to switch and use the thinking brain instead of the auto response by the emotional brain.

4.       Solution Focus: A problem gets multiplied when one spent energy primarily focussing on the problems. Similarly, solution gets multiplied when one pay attention to the solutions. This is the fundamental of the Law of Attraction. You simply attract what you focus on. The effectiveness in dealing with the problem is the ability in quickly switching to the solution domain from the problem domain. An approach where one moves from the area of problem centric to the area of solution focus.

5.       One Micro step: The easiest way to move to the area of solution focus is to align your thinking or altering your mind set to take one simple micro step in getting a solution to the problem using your current resource capability. 

Habit formation – strategies

We are driven subconsciously by our habits. Yes, all our day today activities are majorly governed by our habits. These habits are ingrained in our nervous system for years. Habits are generally formed by repetition of the same activities multiple times.

We are comfortable to the activities that are familiar to us. Our habits work on those activities in an auto pilot mode. We don’t need to have a conscious effort to perform the action.

Habit change: At our conscious level, we know that we own both good and bad habits. Habits are hard to erase. It requires discipline and dedicated effort. This is because; you are attempting to change your own self. Change is not easy & brain shows resistance for the changes. Brain is designed to work in the least resistance path mode which is nothing but your comfort zone.

We need to have equally an opposite force of similar magnitude to go through the change phase. The duration of the change phase is usually within a month if we follow the protocols correctly.

Opposing force: When one wants to form a new habit or change the existing bad habit then he needs to go against the normal function of the brain. It is a process of establishing and rewiring the brain to the brand new neural path. This is an effort for the brain and it does not happen naturally.

One can supply the opposing force of parallel magnitude by his motivation. Motivation is a wilful action. But, in general motivation does not sustain for a long time for most of us. We are motivated to do workouts three times in a week after seeing an amazing fitness transformation of our neighbour. We start our workouts with lot of enthusiasm at the beginning but after few weeks, we go completely off track.

Reward based Motivation: For the motivation to sustain, it is important to get the motivation based on the rewards.  Somehow, the reward centre of the brain has to be activated whenever you attempt to build a new habit or change the existing habit. The brain has to experience the reward. In other words, we have to feel the rewards. Motivation based on the external trigger will not become sustainable like in case of neighbour fitness transformation example. Unarguably, it is a good start point to build a new habit but then we need to quickly work on our internal reward circuit to go through the change phase.

Two step process: Recognising reward is a two-step process. During the beginning phase of the change process, you may not able to see the result or benefit. In case of fitness transformation, the body has an inbuilt intelligence with a time constant associated with it. It requires some adaptation period before the body undergoes a change. So, during the beginning stage, we need to use the visualisation or creative imagination. Picture yourself and use the creative imagination to see every details of your transformed body, say after three months. How would you feel as you go through this visualisation process? This is the first level of reward activation for the brain to stay motivated.

Secondly, do not look for the monumental changes when you want to see the changes that are taking place within you. Most of us do the mistake of looking for a big transformation. Instead, look for a simple minimal change/reward. That is good enough to trigger the reward centre of the brain and to keep up your motivation. So, work on the reward base motivation to change your habits!!

Build up your positive vibe –Festive Mood

Now, it is the festive occasion of Diwali. We exchange love & affection to the family members and friends. It is a powerful way of strengthening our relationship. Good relationship is the currency of our life. Lots of positive vibes spread around us during this festive occasion.

On this occasion, I happened to listen to a debate on the topic of leadership. The title of the topic for debate was “Who are great leaders? Men or Women?”. Men were arguing to support that women were the great born leaders while women were supporting the opposite sex. It was an interesting debate. One of the key men speakers listed down the qualities of the good leaders such as relationship building, storytelling skill, love & affection, good listening capacity, emotional intelligence and the list continued.

Qualities:  There is one common ground if we see all that leadership qualities mentioned above. The emotional centre of the brain or the right hemisphere dominance is the one that needs to be developed to become a good leader. Relationship building is nothing but spreading the positive emotions especially in the adverse condition. Story telling is a powerful skill of the public speakers and that requires creativity.  Good listening capacity can be obtained when one gets the complete bird eye vision of the topic under discussion. All of these qualities are part of the acitivty of the right hemisphere.

Balance: We have both feminine as well as masculine charismas in each one of us irrespective of our sex. That is why in our religion, we have Árdhanaeswaara god depicted as male and female halves as one single entity. In yogic language, yoga is defined as the merger of the potential energy ( Kundalini at Mulathara chakra ) and the kinetic energy ( Shiva at the shasara chakara). In practical term, it is a way to understand the individual power within (Potential energy) and bring to his own awareness ( Shiva) and use this power for his own growth as well as for the growth of others. In fact, a great leader is not either the males or females but the one who harnesses both the male and female powers that lie within him/her.

Message: We light up the house with the decorative lamps on this festive occasion. It is a way to symbolise removal of the darkness and bring light into our life. In other words, it indicates the removal our ignorance. Ignorance can only be removed when you have the right knowledge. Right knowledge can be obtained only when one understands the power within. Practice of yoga is a methodology to be aware of this intrinsic power.

Wishing you again a joyous Diwali to all!!

External Needs vs Internal Power

Our needs are motivated and driven by the external world around us. Our needs and wants are limitless. For example, travel to Antarctic, to have Arnold/Aishwarya body, to own a jaguar car, to fly in the microlight etc. Why do we have endless list of needs? It is simply because we are attuned to the five external senses and that is the way we experience the world around. Since, we have developed to the great levels of our external senses, we naturally get attracted to what we touch, feel, see, taste and hear.

There is nothing wrong in having endless list of needs and wants. But, unfortunately for many of us the needs are not met and fulfilled. The needs stay as everlasting needs throughout life & are not achieved in lifetime. Life is all about abundance and one needs to enjoy that abundance that life throws at him. For this one needs to understand the ways and means to tap this abundance of life.

Attuning to the Internal World:

 The internal world within us is as big and diversified as that of the external world. One can develop a sixth sense of connecting to the internal world, our feelings, emotions, mind and bodily sensations at the subtlest level. We are all connected to the above but only at the gross level. But, if we learn to centre to the core of the existence then we can tap the power within. This is a journey to the internal world .Practice of yoga sets the path to take up this internal journey to tap the power within.

Powerhouse: The infinite power is uniformly given to every single human in this world. It is up to the individual to find out the path to reach there. This is a pure source of energy that acts as a guiding light in life. In fact, all that good things that have happened in your life are due to this single source of power. Knowingly or unknowingly, each one of us tapped into this power momentarily when we experienced goodness in life.

Witness the conditioned system: Yogic techniques are clearly defined to set this path to access the infinite power within. From the point of reference from this power, one gets the ability to watch the pattern of the conditioned mind. It is one of the big advantages of accessing this internal power. Each one of us acts and behaves in certain peculiar way due to the conditioned mind. In most cases, this conditioned mind sets the limit on exploring the new things in life.

Reprogram the conditioned mind: So, for the needs and wants to become the reality, it is important to shatter the limits set by the conditioned mind. Conditioned mind works in certain specific way. So, we get those very specific results that we have been getting all these days. To get the new results, we need to act and work in a different way and hence a way to reprogram the conditioned mind.

Practice of yoga not only provides an opportunity to witness this conditioned mind pattern but also allows us to change the pattern. Because, once you are aware of the pattern then it is easy to manage the pattern. Otherwise, it is difficult to manage without this awareness that you have gained by yoga.

The change in the pattern in the internal world sets a new reality in the life. So, life is abundance and it is our right to enjoy this abundance. All, one needs to do is to develop a way to access the power within to reconfigure his limited conditioned mind. Harness the power and liberate!!.

Role Model – Define your growth path

Change is constant in life. We call it as our growth when the changes influence us in a positive way. The primary purpose of our life is to grow in a positive way and lead a meaningful & purposeful life. It is important to experience and feel the positivity of growth from time to time on a constant basis. Life becomes dull and monotonous when one fails to experience the positivity.

Growth: Positive growth can be achieved by two means. One is by contribution.

 Yes!! Contribution = Growth

Contribution: Your resourcefulness gets leveraged only when acquired resources are utilised for the benefits of others. This is called contribution and the contribution aids in allowing the energy generated by your resourcefulness to flow seamlessly.  The energy is blocked when your resourcefulness is not utilised for the purpose of others. For example, my resourcefulness of yoga skill has no meaning if I do not allow leveraging this skill for the benefit of others. Obviously, our contribution has positive impact on others and as well it aids in our own growth.

Secondly, growth can be achieved by enhancing the resources or by acquiring new skills. These resources/new skills should influence you in a positive way to lead a meaningful and purposeful life.

Role Model: Role modelling is one such ideal way to build the new skills/new resources. First step is to identify the role model depending on the level of interest in the field where you want to build your new skill/resource.  If you believe that running marathon will influence in a positive way which improves your health and fitness level then it is important to anchor this idea, right away. Obviously, right now, you do not have the right kind of resources to achieve the end result but you seek to build the resources by adopting the qualities of the role model.

Anchoring: The best way to anchor the virtues of role model is to take the printout of the photo of the role model & write down the list of qualities that you want to build over the period of time. Stick this photo and qualities that you want to build in your bedroom or drawing room. Whenever, you see this photo, it acts as a reminder to achieve this goal. Then, all that you need to do is to mimic the successful patterns of this role model. Over the period of time, you can able to produce similar result as that of your role model.

Bridging the gaps:  In our culture, a person who has achieved greatest heights in any particular field is titled as DEVA. Yes, they are equated to God. For example, Sachin Tendulkar is considered as a cricket god. Here, we are trying to reproduce his success pattern. While attempting this, the first start point is to understand your present resource capabilities and mindfully bridging the gap between your current patterns to that of the role model.

This involves a three steps process. a) Understand our present resource capabilities b) understand the success pattern resource requirements c) mindfully bridging the gaps between these two patterns.  Most of us do the mistakes in not understanding clearly our own resource capabilities or simply overstepping into our unknown discomfort zone that eventually causes the damage.

So, anchoring is a powerful tool and a clearly defined process as explained above is important in avoiding those commonly made mistakes. Let us GROW and HELP others to grow!!

Long distance running: A Test platform

Yesterday, I ran the second edition of the Bengaluru half marathon. It was an incredible experience to feel the energy of the seventeen thousand participants across the different categories. The atmosphere was really electrifying & wonderful.

Since, I didn’t practice well for this event; I was bit reluctant to participate. But, the sheer thinking on the kind of energy that gets generated in such events forced me to go for the event. There are couple of points that I would like to highlight in this blog.

Test Platforms: After that I achieved my desired health & fitness level, I was looking for some test platforms to monitor my fitness condition on consistent basis. So, as my age ticks every year, I know exactly how healthy & fit am I. I have integrated such test platforms in my personal life such as long distance running, horse riding, hiking etc. Primarily, long distance running helps to check the endurance level and a good test to check the cardiovascular as well as the respiratory systems. I use horse riding mainly to check my postures and spine stability & flexibility. Now also, I am on the lookout for many such test platforms to keep me fit & healthy.  I feel that all these activities are simply the extensions of yoga & to see how the mental, physical and emotional skills that one developed in yoga can be applied and tested.

Performance:  When it comes to the performance of my running skill, I am nowhere near to those who are on the top of this activity. I feel that top 10% of the runners are the real and serious performers. This is true in any other fields as well. Even in our career, if we are not in the top 10% then we will have to go through some scuffle & there will be a sense of incompleteness in our career life. My policy in life is to be in the top 10% in those areas where we seriously invest our energy or otherwise, take enough effort to reach that bracket. Rest of the 90% of the people are part of the crowd.

My performance is now in the top 25% to 30% bracket. I would like to invest sufficient time & energy to push to less than 20% in the coming months. I am banking on the yoga skills that I developed over years such as my deep breathing, flexibility of the body, efficient cardiovascular system etc.

Misconception: Some of the clients as well as the yoga practitioners believe that it is harmful to run long distance especially after the age of forty years. They think that the knees and ankles will get stressed heavily. They also think that yoga and running are mutually exclusive activities and can’t be done together. In my experience, yoga is not a practice to keep your mind calm, keep you fit & flexible and keep your stress level at minimum. It is much bigger than these. Yoga is something which really shakes the core of your being and changes the way of living that provide an opportunity to explore and expand the different dimensions of life (health, wealth, relationship & spiritual development). So, if one experiences yoga in true sense then he will not equate yoga to mere physical & mental workouts.

So, just go for all theses activities such as long distance running which not only serve as test platforms but give tremendous opportunity to explore the abundance of the life.

Upgrade: All the skills that you have learned by practicing yoga are to upgrade to your higher self. You feel and see yourself in your growth path on day today basis. The ultimate purpose of yoga is to realise the inherent power within ( Shakti- Kundalini) , bring it your consciousness ( Shiva ) and use those powers for the benefit of others. So activities such as running are simply a validation process to reach your higher self. I know made it almost like a ritual to participate on annual basis those mega running events of the country such Mumbai Marathon, Bengaluru Marathon & TCS world 10K. That is my commitment for my health & fitness. Would you like to join me ?

Build the right energy circle

We are influenced by the environment and also we influence the environment. Being a social animal, each one of us influences the society in some way or other and also we are influenced by the society. No one can stand and live alone. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are always in constant connect with the environment. Even as you read this blog, if you notice now, your feet is in contact with the earth element, you breath is in constant contact with the atmosphere and so on. We are in constant contact with the nature and the environment & we can’t isolate from this bonding.

Because of this bonding, there is always an energy circle built around us. This is not a random or discrete energy ring forced upon. In fact, this energy circle can be designed. Yes!! The good news is that one can consciously build this energy circle that helps in his growth.

Essential components: The essential components of this energy circle are the nature elements, the society in which we live, the family members, friends, the technology & gadgets, the virtual internet space, office colleagues, the living place, the lifestyle enhancing tools such gym, physical activities and the list goes on. Each of the above components creates its own energy field and it shapes your energy circle.

Open up the channels: For the energy circle to manifest in a beautiful balanced way, it is important to open up consciously all the possible energy channels. Say for example, if you are not a very social person and you do not have close friends then it is important to make a conscious effort in opening up this channel.  A deliberate attempt in building up the relationship with the friends circle is important even if it is limited to one or two friends. But, the channel should be opened up.

Bidirectional flow: For the sustainment of the energy flow, the first and foremost criterion is that the energy should be bidirectional. If you are drawing some help from your friend then this should be reciprocated back your help to him even if it is not at that given time space but in some other time space. Then this energy channel acts as a sustainable source of energy. If you are drawing some knowledge from the internet source, say for example by reading this particular blog then do not stay passive. Reciprocating energy can be created by some simple acts such as leaving a comment to this blog, saying thanks to the author etc.

Active interaction: For the energy to get multiplied, it is important to have an active interaction. Say for example, you want to relax yourself and hence want to play some sort of computer game. You might opt for a single user board game. Obviously, it allows you to relax but then the interaction here is passive in nature. As a slave, the game does what you really want from it. Instead, if you opt for a multiusers game, then there is another human playing opposite to you then there prevails an active interaction & hence, an opportunity to multiply the energy.

Supporting structure: In case if any of the essential components of the energy circle drains then you need to have some sort of supporting structure which acts as a substitute energy source. For example, if you are not a social person then your energy drains when you are not comfortable in a social gathering. This does not mean than you need to shut down this channel. It is simply, you need to find out an alternative channel that substitutes. You may consider having a limited close friend circle who can substitute this source of energy.

So, build the right energy circle where the inflow and outflow of energy is seamless. We then act simply as a medium where the energy goes in and out effortlessly.

Reconfigure : Experience the abundance of the life

Our experience of the external world is determined by the way how our internal world is configured. We are an integrated system where the body, mind, emotion, intelligence and ego work together to experience the life. Yes, one can experience the abundance and the positivity of the life if he knows how to train and reconfigure himself to tune to this abundance.

Many years before, I was introduced to the practice of “forgiveness”& “gratitude” exercise by one of my spiritual friend. I did not buy the idea of practicing this exercise as it was not at all convincing and compelling to me. But, he insisted me to practice for at least a month and he said, “The practice has the ability to reconfigure the brain to act and think in a positive way that helps in observing the abundance of the life”.

After few days of the practice itself, I started to witness the shift in the way how I was experiencing the life. Now, after seven years of the practice, I can confidentially say that this is one of the greatest gifts given to me in my life by my dear friend. This practice has the ability to assign a powerful meaning to your life experience and the way how we perceive the event in a positive framework of mind.

Practice method:  Now, I have integrated this practice at the end of my daily yoga practice session. As a process, it takes just three minutes of our time.

Forgiveness: Just, recollect on the previous day of at least three such events/experiences that really hurt my feelings. The first step is to bring to my awareness the person or group of people who are responsible for the event. Next step is to simply forgive them and also ask for the forgiveness from them in case if I have done something wrong unknowingly without my conscious knowledge. Simultaneously, pay attention to the bodily sensation and our emotional state as we go through this process.

Gratitude: Same like “forgiveness” practice, just recollect from the previous day life experiences, three such events that make you to feel happy.  Again, get the person or group of people who are responsible for such events in our mind and simply say, “thank you” for creating such a happy experience to us. Simultaneously, pay attention to the bodily sensation and our emotional state as we go through this process.

My experience:  We are given two buckets of people. One bucket is for the people to show our forgiveness and another bucket is for the people to show our gratitude. In the initial days of my practice, the number of people in the forgiveness bucket were more (at least ten times) than the ones in the gratitude bucket. This scene had changed within a month of practice where the count in the forgiveness bucket was going down and there was an increment in the gratitude bucket. Now, after many years of practice, I can confidently say that the people in the forgiveness bucket are negligible whereas the gratitude bucket is full & overflowing with the people.

Now, we are suddenly surrounded with many good people and eventually, we start to experience the goodness within and around us. So, practice & enjoy the abundance of the life!!

Exercises: Do we need varieties?

As the evolutionary species, we undergo changes and also we need changes. In association to this, the exercises for the purpose of our health and fitness need to have varieties. There are two phases to the exercises namely the experimental phase and operational phase. There is clear distinction between the phases while one progresses through the exercises.

Experimental Phase: As a beginner, the first phase involves in getting many different varieties of the exercise formats. This is an experimental phase where one is testing the suitability of the exercises and the following benefits that one gets out of the exercises. Also, the varieties in the exercises keep the person to stay motivated to try out all the different exercise formats.

The drawback with the experimental phase is that the body is subjected too many variables. There is a high probability that the body gets confused by the varieties. A systematic training is the key element for the body to get trained.

An important aspect for the sustainability during the earlier days of the exercise regimes is to stay motivated. So, to stay motivated, it is good to work on the varieties of the exercises during the experimental phase.

 Operational Phase: Body has an inbuilt intelligence. The intelligence and hence the body can be trained when the exercises follow certain protocols such as regularity, timing of the exercises & the emotion that one attaches to the exercises. In this phase, the set of exercises is fixed. The external variability is stopped with the fixed set of exercises. This now gives an opportunity to see the variables within you, your internal elements such as your feelings, bodily sensations & your thought process.

Now, the fixed set of exercises acts as a mirror in which one sees himself, his own internal world. Every day, the set of exercises are the same but the way how one feels with the exercises are different as the internal state of the person depends on his mind, emotion & body corresponding to the corresponding day.

Exercises have now become a monitoring tool to witness our own internal state. This enabled awareness plays a vital role in bringing one to a balanced healthy state.

You are clearer to yourself with the fixed set of exercises. Exercising has two paths. First path is related to the actions that we do in moving the body and second path is related to the feelings that we get out of those actions. The actions are voluntary whereas the feelings are involuntary. With voluntary conscious actions, we gain access to our involuntary subconscious internal system. Such is the power one gets by fixing the exercises routine.

Boost up your Metabolism

Some of us do religiously regular workouts, having complete control on intake of their diet; provide good rest to the body and having proper sleep. Still they struggle to maintain their body weight in spite of all the good things that they have done. Also, there is a different set of people who don’t pay attention to any of those above activities. There is no doubt that this set of people will have poor metabolic rate. But, what is wrong with those who do regular workouts, proper dieting but still can’t maintain the weight? Why the metabolic rate is not balanced?

Agni: In simple term, metabolism is a biochemical reaction that governs the energy intake and further utilisation of the energy effectively to all the cells of the body. There should be an optimal flow of energy to every cells of the body. Metabolic disorder occurs when there exists in the body certain diseases such as diabetes,  thyroidism etc. In yogic language, AGNI is defined as the fire that governs the metabolism as well as the digestion process. The strength of the Agni determines the digestive ability. Disruption in the Agni is the primary reasons for the diseases.

24 x 7 firing: An hour workouts performed in the gym helps in activating the Agni for certain period of time. But, rest of the day, if it is going to be a deskbound job then your metabolism slowly moves to a stagnant mode. This is the problem with most of us who are basically stuck to the chair in the office. We have to flip the switch in order for the Agni to light up all the time during the day. Otherwise, the workout is effective only for few hours & hence, your efficiency of the metabolism drops down during the rest period & hence , have the difficulty in maintain the weight.

Two Key elements: In order for the metabolism to stay active throughout the day, it is important to understand

 1. The seat of Agni ( manipura chakra) , the navel region. This is the centre of mass of our body. We need to activate this area.

2. The spine is the energy distribution channel and hence a consistent movement of spine is required for proper energy distribution.

Suggested Practices:  To start with, a simple abdominal breathing is sufficient to activate the centre of mass, the energy generator region. This practice should be performed frequently throughout the day to keep up the metabolism. Alternatively, certain technique such as Agnisara Kriya helps in boosting up the metabolism. In simple terms, it is a practicing of flapping the abdominal muscles by holding the breath after exhale.  Any body movement from the centre of mass such as a simple forward and backward bend helps in boosting up the metabolism too.

Also, the energy distribution channel can be optimised by giving simple movements to the spine. For example: Arching the spine backward and forward or simple twisting movement of the spine etc.

The suggested practices are simple but very effective in boosting up your metabolism and maintain your ideal weight.

“First step” a crucial factor in Change management

Life is all about changes. In fact, nothing is permanent in life except the constant changes. A positive change bounds to happen when the change works in your favour that aids in your growth. Being in the human development field, people come to me because they want to have a positive change in their life. Most of them have achieved what they really desired but not all of them. Here are few guidelines for those who really wanted to have “sure success” recipes to change their life for good.

Let the change that you deserve be in any particular dimension of your life. Say for example, better career, better health, wealth & better relationship management. What is more important is the way how you approach the change process. In particular, your “first step” for the change is a crucial element in determining the success.

Successful First Step: Your “first step” in your change process should always be successful.  “First step “is nothing but your first action in the change process. Let us assume that you wanted to have a great health. The first step is a simple movement to generate some energy in the body.  You need to pick up this movement in such a way that it is not exceeding your resource capabilities as well as not too small for you. In other words, it is a well-balanced selection of exercise appropriately selected for you.

Why we insist on the success? It is because; the experience of this exercise is stored in your memory which will have an impact when you repeat the exercise next time. The emotion attached to the exercise plays a key role in either continuing the exercise or discarding the exercise. A simple but successful pattern encourages us to perform exercise on regular basis. A wrong "first step" leads to a bad emotion that disowns the success pattern.

Pushing the Limit:  Growth can be defined as a change but is always happening in the positive direction. So, one has to step out from the comfort zone and step into the discomfort zone to experience the growth. The failure happens only when one overstep into the discomfort zone which really demands resource more than his present resource capabilities. This is one such typical pattern that leads to the failure. As a coach or trainer, it is the responsibility of the coach to take care of the clients to ensure that they travel in the path of the success pattern.

Brain circuitry: The motivational centre of the brain works based on the reward mechanism. Keep the exercises for the change neither trivial nor difficult so that the reward mechanism generates “feel good” hormones which motivate us to repeat the exercises. Repetition and regularity are the key factors to strengthen the neurological pathway. This neurological pathway eventually becomes our habits. This in fact is our success habit.

Law of accumulation: Big success can be easily achieved by adding up all the small steps of the successes. The exponential growth of success in fact is due to the effect of many different small actions but all are leading to their own minimal successes.

So, when you look for a change, it is important to understand your present resource capabilities and play the game where you step into your discomfort zone mindfully. Neither really overstepping nor underperforming but just setting the right balance. Do this continuously on a repeated basis to realise the big change.

Attention & productivity

There is a direct correlation to your productivity and your ability to pay attention to a specific task. Attention is one of the cognitive skills that can be developed by some simple practices. No doubt, pronounced productivity keeps us on the top in the field of our work. In other words, attention plays a crucial role to stay productive and to excel in the field of your work.

Current scenario: Recent researches show that the ability to pay attention to a specific task has dramatically have gone down in the recent two decades. We live in the information age and obviously, the information is abundant. We are bombarded with enormous amount of information each day in the light of technical advancement such as email, mobile, whatsapp, social media such as Facebook, twitter etc. Our present living condition is completely different than what we had experience few decades before. Distraction in the form of information overload is the main reason for the decline in our ability to pay attention.

There is also another research which says that we are attentive only 51% of the time and the remaining 49% of the time, our mind wanders on unnecessary random thoughts. Unknowingly, we have this pattern that happens on day today basis. Because of this, we literally waste almost half of our life time unproductively.

Tests: Here are few simple tests that can be performed right away to verify the above research facts.

1.       You would have taken probably a minute or two reading the content of this blog from the start to this point. Have you 100% completely engaged in this blog for the past one minute? Or were your mind engaged with some other thoughts irrelevant to the current task? 

2.       Here is another test .The test is to stay attentive but this time you are KOWINGLY testing yourself. The task is to stay focussed on one single thought for a minute. This thought could be anything related to something which happened at the start of today or even something that you will be doing tonight. But, JUST stay on one single thought for a minute. You would have noticed that the mind starts wandering after few seconds even though you wanted to stay focussed on that single chosen thought.

Default Network: Wandering mind is the default network of the brain. Attention is the activity from the prefrontal cortex of the brain. If you have failed in one or both of the above tests, do not get discouraged. This is quite NORMAL and in fact, majority of us fall in this category. The good news is that attention faculty of the brain can be developed by practice. Like any other skills, this skill is learnable & one can develop this skill.

Practice: Here is a simple practice to strengthen the attention muscles of the brain. Begin the practice to sit in upright posture & stay relaxed. Pay attention to your breathing preferably at your abdomen. Initially, try to have few rounds of deep breathing and switch back to normal automatic, spontaneous breathing. You might witness the rise & fall of your breath. As you inhale, your abdomen bulges out and as you exhale, abdomen sinks in. Just follow the natural rhythm of your breathing for five minutes. You would definitely witness the mind slowly starts wandering after few seconds or minutes after the start of the exercise. Once you become aware of wandering mind, gently bring your attention back to your breathing and continue to observe nonjudgmentally the natural rhythm. This five minutes practice every day strengthens your attention faculty & you will see a good change within a month in the way you pay attention to a specific task.

So, simply enhance your attention faculty by such a simple  practice, increase your productivity & excel in the field of your work .

Balancing the mind by contralateral movement

Few years before, I did a course on Neuroscience from the Duke University. Through this course, I really got an opportunity to get an insight into the structural & functional aspects of the brain and the associated nervous systems. The key aspects that I learned were the sensory and motor pathways. Sensory pathways are nothing but the sensations such as pain & pleasure and how those signals travel from the affected body parts all the way to the brain. Motor pathways are nothing but the signals that fire from the brain and how those signals travel all the way from the brain to the different body parts that are responsible in the motor actions or movements of the body parts.

Crossover point: For every pathway irrespective of whether sensory or motor pathway, there is a specific cross over point in the midline of the spine for each of the pathway. The signals that fire from the left hemisphere of the brain cross to the right side of the body parts and the right hemisphere of the brain cross the left side of the body and the cross overs occur in the midline of the spine.

Two different Worlds: The left & right hemispheres of the brain work in different ways. The left hemisphere is dominant in logical, analytical reasoning, decision making etc whereas the right hemisphere is dominant in creativity, holistic, intuition etc. Some of us are right hemisphere oriented and some are left hemisphere dominant. To get a balanced state, it is good to use both the hemispheres of the brain in equal proportion.  This can be done by taking advantage of the cross over point. In other words , a balanced state can be achieved by doing certain physical activities that produce contralateral movement.

Contralateral exercises: Contralateral exercise works in the following way. An action in the right hand is fired by the left hemisphere and when the right hand is taken to the left feet, the practitioner is crossing the crossover point and the right hemisphere is activated as the right hand reaches the left side of the feet. This is the precise pattern of movement when the practitioner does  Parivartha Trikonasana , the twisted triangular posture.

So to get a balanced state, activate both the brain hemispheres simultaneously in equal proportion. Here is the list of few exercises that comes to my mind now.

Parivartha Trikonasana

Vakarasana

Artha Matsyenderasana

Garudasana

Matsyasana and many more such postures.

Anulom vilom , alternate nostril breathing also helps in balancing the mind.

Balancing the mind is a learnable skill and exercise involving contralateral movement is one such technique. 

Personal Transformation initial confrontation

Personal transformation is a conscious process of changing ourselves to our higher self. There is a healthier meaning and purpose to our life when we upgrade ourselves to the greater good. Transformation is a change process. By default, with the time .we undergo change physically, mentally & emotionally. My present physical, mental & emotional states are different than what they were few years before.

Two opposite forces: Firstly, change is an automatic process and it acts as a force upon us. This force can have the positive or negative influences. Personal transformation is also a change but produced by our wilful conscious action. This is a different type of force which is wilfully generated to upgrade to our higher identity.

The initial resistance is minimal when both the forces work in association with each other. The early struggle becomes greater when the forces are not in alignment. Unfortunately, most of us fall in the latter category & we have a struggle for the personal transformation to realize in our reality.

Automatic Force: This force is nothing but your old habits & present behavioural pattern. This is the sum average of our past experiences. This force is really strong as this has been originated, developed and established for many years.  The stories & excuses that come in our mind (which do not allow the personal transformation procedures) are the acts of this automatic force. The strength of our personal transformation force is not as strong as this automatic force. Hence, we have the initial setback.

Overcoming the initial glitches:  In order to overcome the initial glitches, I would like to highlight three important points based on my own personal transformation experience.

1.       See the micro results while moving towards the goals

2.       Value the procedures and practices

3.       Owning & Knowing: The experiential knowledge.

1.       Micro Results: During the initial period, we have the usual tendency to look for the big results. Say for example that you do daily an hour of workouts to lose weight then obviously you develop an expectation to lose, one kg of weight after a week practice. Instead, it is better to look for the small micro developments such as feel towards your body, your energy level during/after workouts etc. and register all those developments in a note book. When you look back the records after a month, you’ll definitely see monumental changes.

2.       Values: It is better to value the procedures and practices wholeheartedly. Do not doubt the procedures and practices. A negative wavelength is created when one doubts the procedures. Remember the saying, “The value has value when its value is valued”.  

3.       Experiential knowledge:  Most of us know the procedures and practices to become good. But, this is just an intellectual knowledge. It becomes our experiential knowledge when we experience the procedures and practices. We now OWN the skill that we KNOW. So the difference between Owning and Knowing is similar to the difference of the experiential and intellectual knowledge. So, pay attention to your experiences/feelings.

Mental Disposition & the state of Health

Our mental disposition plays a vital role in determining the state of our health. I am writing this particular subject based on my own personal experience. But, there are some scientific studies that support this idea too.

My faith and belief structures took a leap jump from where I was a decade before to where I am now. Obviously, the life experiences during this ten years period were instrumental in changing my belief system and hence my mental outlook. One of the major changes is the way how I associate myself with the diseases that are hereditary in nature.

In family, we may run family inherited diseases such obesity, diabetes, cancer etc. This may be passed on from one generation to next generation in the family by transmission of the defective genes. I am sure that every one of us would have seen this family inherited disease happening within our family or families of our friends, neighbours, colleagues etc.

Epigenetic: Obviously, we carry the blood that runs with the defective genes and without doubt that the defective genes play a major role in the transmission of the particular disease. In the recent times, a new field has evolved in the medical field which is called “Epigenetic”. To put it simply, the expression of the genes depends on the environment in which the genes thrives. Let us take an example of the family that runs with the defective diabetic genes. There is a probability that majority of the family members have diabetes manifested in their body while few of the family members do not have any sort of symptoms of diabetes. For the lucky few, the environment in which the defective genes survived is different than that of the ones with the diabetes manifested in the body. This is what exactly happened in my personal life and I am one of that lucky few.

Environment: Having understood that the environment plays a vital role in the expression of the defective genes, now the immediate question is to know how to handle the environment to work in our favour? The science says that the associated protein shape & structure play role in the expression of the genes. I do not comment on this because of my limited knowledge in this particular subject but from my personal experience, I can firmly say our mental disposition and the associated faith and belief structure play the major roles for the family inherited diseases to manifest.

Seed for the Expression: If one thinks that he may get arthritis because his mom had it at his age then this simple thought process when repeated multiple times become his newly formed belief structure. In day today life even when he has a simple knee problem, the newly formed faith has established so well that he automatically in all likelihood get a thought with the doubt that this pain could be an initial sign of the arthritis. Unknowingly, in no time, he is creating a breeding ground, a favourable environment for the genes to express & here, we have now a person with a new tag of the arthritis in his reality. Our belief and our thought process alone are good enough to create and get into the new diseased state. Such is the effect of our mental thought process in manifestation of the diseases.

So, believe in confidence that it is not necessary that you need to undergo the family inherited diseases even though you possess the defective genes running your blood. All, you need to do is to have a hygienic mental disposition and how you associate with the family inherited defies. I found out my path through yoga to gain such a fresh mental state. It is not only that I do not manifest any of my family run genes even though I carry those but also; it is a fact that I have never visited a doctor in that last eight years. Such, is the power of our mental disposition. May I know your path to get this hygienic mental state?

Ambience Design: Social Conditioning

We influence the external environment and we are also influenced by the external environment as well. If we live in a society where majority of us have the habit of going to the temples then there is a good likelihood that we develop a habit of going to the temple. Similarly, if we live in a society where majority are smokers then there is a high probability for us to become the smokers. Such is the influence of the society on the individuals irrespective of the merit/demerit of the influence.

By default, an ordinary person mimics and follows the pattern of the society. But, the ordinary person will become extraordinary the moment he becomes aware of the underneath force that operates in the patterns of the social conditioning. It is good to follow the ones that have positive influence on you and discard those which do not serve you. This is a conscious decision on our part where we filter and selectively pick up the patterns which aid in our growth.

Let us take for examples few of the commonly followed patterns.

Going for the regular medical check-ups to stay healthy

Taking eight glasses of water per day

Oats for the healthy morning breakfast

Yoga helps you to reduce the stress level

The above are the commonly followed patterns in the society. Since, the patterns are widely accepted; it is natural for an individual to mimic the patterns. But, we have a choice to work on each of the above patterns based on its own merits/demerits.

For example, going for a regular medical check-up was not a pattern followed in the society few hundred years before. This has evolved over a period of time and becomes a pattern now. People were healthy hundred years before without going for the medical check-ups. Even in the present times, there are group of people who have not visited the doctor once in their lifetime. Definitely, they operate on a different belief system which is stronger than the one imposed by the social conditioning. In fact, in my personal experience, I followed the pattern of visiting the doctor, a decade before. But, I dropped the pattern when I made a conscious decision based on the merits/demerits. Obviously, the deviation from the mainstream path is due to the change in my belief structure. I started to see the improvement in my health condition just by following certain yoga practices. Over a period of time, I developed a belief structure where prevention is better than the cure by means of health care management.

Again taking eight glasses of water per day is good or bad but nobody knows. It is just a concept imposed on to us. We need to test ourselves to work on the merits/demerits and make a conscious decision. There is no need to blindly follow because the books say it is good to follow it as a habit. For my body condition, this may work but may not be the case for someone else.

So, it is good to become of aware of all those patterns and make a conscious decision to filter out and adopt those which work in our favour. Simply discard the rest even though they are widely accepted and practiced widely by the society. By doing so, you are becoming responsible for your own health and obviously you are not only spawning a healthy lifestyle but you are consciously designing your own Health. You are the DESINGER of your OWN HEALTH.

Attention to the details: Yoga

One of the key factors that determine the effectiveness of the employees in the fast changing dynamics of the corporate world is their ability in paying attention to the details. This attribute is uniformly applicable to the entire gamut of the organisation starting from the entry level staffs to the top level senior executives.

Attention in today’s scenario:  In today’s information age, every individual is bombarded with millions of information in a day. Distraction is set in an individual due to the heavy volume of information handled. How to cope up with the distractions?

Awareness is an infinite field and attention is nothing but shifting the awareness to the specific task or information. Attention is just like a spot light in directing your awareness to a narrow region. Attention is the gateway to explore the finer details of the specific task or to gain entry into the internal world related to the task. Attention is nothing but the convergence of infinite potential of awareness.

A new world related to the task opens up with the intensified attention level which otherwise stays invisible in the normal circumstances. This gives rise to the opportunities to explore and move further. Now, the person thought, mind and his entire internal world are in perfect sync with the exposed world related to the task. In this mode, the external massive information become insignificant and fade away in the background. This perfect synchronisation generates the perfect results. Otherwise, in a normal circumstance, the massive information stays in the foreground acting as distraction.

Yoga & Attention: Yoga is a mind body practice where one develops the faculty of attention to the next highest level. Yoga practice is a journey of exploring one’s own internal world. Yoga practitioner systematically pays attention to the breathing, bodily sensations & his own thought process as well. Thus, a practitioner enhances and strengthens his attention faculty each and every time as he performs his practices on a regular practice.

In neuroscience, there is a law that states as “the neurons that fire together wire together”. This is the effect of regularity in the practice. As one repeats the practice, the neurons that relate to the attention faculty get fired and finally improving the attention faculty in the brain.

Now, the practitioner is in perfect tune with his own internal world with developed heightened attention faculty. When a task is given, it is natural for him to open up the internal world related to the task and get it aligned to his own internal world thereby generating the right kind of result.

Success of the Yoga Practices: DECODE

Each practitioner should get the maximum benefits of the practices such Asanas (static Postures) and Suryanamaskar (flow exercises) that involve the physical movement of the body. In this blog, let me decode with an example of the above practices .You will get good benefits if you know how to decode clearly a posture or flow. So, let us start the decoding now!!

Basics: I am sure most of you are aware of the breathing sequences, how to synchronise the body movement with respect to breathing, where to keep your awareness or your focus as you progress through the practices. It was covered separately in my earlier blog ( ref). In case, if you are not aware of the basics then I suggest to get familiarised with it before attempting to decode the postures.

Example 1: Let us take an example of prayer posture. One of the reasons for doing this posture is to elongate the spine. As known to you, spine is the main communication channel for the entire CNS (Central Nervous System). In yoga, the sushumna nadi , the main energy channel moves along the spine. So, this posture plays a crucial role in clearing the main energy channel and thereby increasing the energy level.

With the above points defined, we now know how to decode the posture. So, the intention is to stretch the spine. The condition is satisfied if one pays attention to points 2,3 & 4, that is to keep the butt closer to the heal, not dragging the palms towards the head & finally to keep the forehead closer to the floor.

A beginner may not able to satisfy all the above conditions at the initial stage. But, all he needs to do at the initial stage is to just become aware of the intention and the decoding points. Over period of time, you see the wonder of how your body gets transformed to a whole new level.

Progression Period: With the awareness on the decoding points, everyday one sees how the progression that is happening Say for example, the forehead may be few inches off the floor. One may mindfully get the head towards the floor without causing any major comfort. It is good to attempt for the progression ONLY during the exhale duration when the body stays at the relaxed phase.

Common mistakes: Many of the beginners try to keep a different intention of bringing the forehead to the floor. In that process, they drag their palms towards the head & raise the butt up the heels. By doing so, the spine no longer stays parallel to ground but inclines at an angle to ground. In this case, the main purpose of stretching of the spine is defeated.

I captured & decoded for many such practices including Asanas & flow exercises based on my experiences. I released the video to most of my clients too.