By Staff Reporter

Toronto

 Yoga is rising in popularity all over the world because of the health benefits it offers to enthusiasts. According to yoga practitioners, health benefits of yoga are both physical and mental, bringing immediate long lasting effects to those who practice it.    Yoga contributes directly to human happiness, says Satish Thakkar, Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Yoga Day Canada (IYDC)

“In the 21st century, happiness index has also emerged as an important parameter of economic development, and here again yoga contributes directly to human happiness,” he says.   “It is time for a change in the approach to health care by paying more attention to prevention.  The advocacy of yoga as an alternative form of health care can bring about a substantive change in reducing health care costs and promoting overall wellbeing of Canadians. Equally, yoga is directly instrumental in enhancing productivity thereby contributing to economic progress.”

With this in mind, the third International Day of Yoga is being celebrated at the International Centre in Mississauga on Sunday, June 25, 2017.    World renowned Yogrishi Baba Ramdev, who has taught and touched the lives of over 800 million followers all over the world, will lead the practice of yoga in the morning and Sister Shivani, with a following of over 200 million, will lead the meditation in the evening.  More than 10,000 people are expected to participate in the IYDC celebrations, says Thakkar who himself does 60 minutes of yoga every day.

“Yoga’s rising acceptance among the masses is because it is inexpensive and inherently simple to practice. All it requires from the practitioner is discipline and dedication. Pertinently, by involving the mental faculties as keenly as physicality, yoga transcends from being a mere exercise routine and transforms into an instrument to alleviate both body and mind. Yoga is at the root of the mindfulness and wellness endeavours that advocate a holistic approach to the understanding one’s existence both by knowing one’s minds and one’s body,” says the Yoga proponent, the chair of IYDC,  the not-for-profit organisation formed in 2015 to promote yoga in Canada.

Organizations with a global footprint engaged in popularising and propagating the virtues of yoga are collaborating with the IYDC for the program.

According to statistics, yoga has grown by over 70 percent in the United States in the last five years, indicating a spiralling popularity of an ancient form of self-purification and self-actualisation technique which originated in India. Purely from a commercial standpoint, in the United States, yoga is estimated to be over $30 billion industry.

In Canada, says Thakkar, the healthcare system is under a severe strain already and the financial burden of a rapidly aging demographic is expected to grow exponentially in the near future.   The population of seniors are outnumbering youth, a situation that has major implications on health care budgets. Continue reading “Yoga practitioners propagate long term health benefits for enthusiasts”

The vedic rishis were the masters of physical and the spiritual, super beings who controlled prakriti and all its manifestations. The physical body comprising of the five mahabhutas (elements) had been completely mastered by them.

From the masters of the vedic era to the present-day doctors of modern and alternative medicine, all are engaged in finding a solution to somehow stop, or at least, slow down the body clock. Many on realizing that they are ageing, lose their mental balance. A lot accept it as the inevitable. Some get stressed and fearful, and it is these vulnerable people who fall prey to business-minded companies selling anti-ageing creams, tonics, rejuvenating serums which at best camouflage the symptoms, addressing just the periphery while the core goes unnoticed. With time, the core emerges revealing the facts, but by then the precious years have been lost and the damage is now irreversible.  Continue reading “Anti Ageing- Arrest Ageing Naturally!”

– by Yogi Ashwini

The human body is the reflection of one cell. This cell is conceived in the womb and it gives rise to the various organs and tissues of the body on forming of the baby. Ageing works at different levels, with signs first appearing at the elementary level of a cell. It is the cell in which heaviness accumulates and, depending on the
dosha type, the disease – whether obesity, depression or heart trouble originates.

The day the baby is born the process of ageing sets in the body. This ageingbegins because of the breath, which is taken in. Every breath results in the production of energy and the equal and opposite effect is the ageing of the cell due to the production of toxins, called ama  in Ayurveda. This same breathing process results in the loss of skin elasticity, reduction in the ability of the five senses and wrinkles, all of which are a sign of ageing. Continue reading “TACKLE AGEING AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL”