Beautiful Beautiful Yoga

Beautiful Yoga & personal growth

The subject of personal growth (and Self-realisation) is vast and rather difficult to negotiate and most of us are just beginners trying to find our way so we need a simple, workable starting point. Too often we have High Ideals which we cannot fulfil and then we become confused and lose our inspiration, but if we take the basic first steps and practice them until we get them completely right, then the next few steps will be revealed to us. 

Beautiful Yoga reduces conditioning
You can succumb to your conditioning unknowingly, or, you can become alive to the effects of it in your everyday life - and take steps to countermand some aspects of it.

How aware are you of the conditioning and other influences around you?  How affecting are these influences?  What have you accepted and/or discarded because it suits you? What have you held onto even when it doesn't serve you? How able are you to redefine yourself as you want - and need - to be?

Beautiful Yoga & the affectionate heart

The yoga of affection is known as bhakti yoga.  The first practice in bhakti yoga is to become kinder and more affectionate in your dealings with yourself and others. This affectionate kind of love cultivates optimism, and, slowly, knowledge of the Divine.

The second practice is to become aware of being contented, or thankful, in each moment. 

The third practice is to look beyond yourself with your heart to the plight of others and act on their behalf where possible.

Moola Bandha beautiful yoga

Moola bandha seems to be good for everything ... and it is also harmless. Cannot be overdone.

In Moola Bandha,The Master Key by Swami Buddhananda,  the term psychotherapeutic is coined to describe the benefits of moola bandha.  Psychotherapeutic meaning therapy for the body and mind. Two other phrases are psycho-physical and psycho-emotional.

The mind and body cannot be treated separately because both are majorly dependent on the functioning of the endocrine and nervous systems - and all other systems - for health. To have wholistic health i.e. health in the physical, mental and emotional bodies, one has to flood the pranic channels with lots of beautiful, vitalising, harmonising energy which supports each of them.

The flow of prana supports the flow of the body's chemistry and all the processes which are needed for optimum health.

While all body systems interact together, the nervous, immune and endocrine systems play major roles and coordinate together, and, subtle though it might be, according to Sw Buddhananda, "moola bandha helps to integrate the neurological and endocrinological function of the body by manipulation of the body energies."   

It is often taught that moola bandha is the contraction of all pelvis muscles, when in fact it is so subtle that it is more of a psychic practice (non-physical practice), than physical. Anyone trying to hold this psychic contraction experiences the contraction like quicksilver. If one is able to hold the physical contraction for a long period of time it is most likely that they are performing 'kegels' or pelvic muscle contractions as opposed to moola bandha.

In Moola Bandha, Sw Buddhananda says:

"The nervous system is coordinated with the endocrine system by way of a mid-brain structure, the limbic system. Within this lies the hypothalamus which controls the autonomic component of the nervous system as well as the endocrine glands."

What we can understand from this is that the state of our nervous system and endocrine system influences our personality, as we know hormonal balance or imbalance in PMT or menopause can affect our daily life. But hormones are affecting our personality in a wide variety of ways, daily, influencing how our body functions - and how our minds function.

Moola bandha fires prana upwards from mooladhara and swadhistana chakras, along the sushumna nadi, 'burning' and disintegrating tensions as it goes. Moola bandha is subtle, it is barely noticeable when being practiced.  It is a secret weapon. It is a practice which goes to war on imbalance. It is related to the chakra of groundedness.

Moola bandha activates the sensation of being deeply earthed and profound (mooladhara), whilst also activating light and wisdom (ajna). When the prana which has been fired upward from mooladhara and reaches ajna chakra.  All chakras are activated during this journey.

Prana is pretty special - it contains power, love, light and pure intelligence - it's us! And its potential is locked away until we learn how to find it. Closing the opening to the kundalini power, is a pranic knot, which has to be loosened and uncoiled for deep personal security to be actualised. This is Brahma granthi. It contains power, love, light and pure intelligence related to security and surrender. Moola bandha gently helps with this uncoiling, safely and systematically, if used systematically.

 **Moola Bandha, The Master Key by Swami Buddhananda.