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An India Today special broadcast on International Yoga Day explores the diverse health benefits of yoga beyond basic stretching. The team travels to Bangalore to experience various practices, including water meditation, which helps cool the body and calm the nervous system.
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00:14Yoga is actually for everyone.
00:16At the age of 63, I had a major fracture.
00:24During my work career, so I got more engaged into televisions and the mobile phones.
00:29I was not able to understand what is happening, why is this happening to me.
00:36Nowadays, doctors are also advising yoga.
00:39If you practice yoga regularly, you can stay much fitter, you can have a much healthier
00:44lifestyle.
00:46It's not an emotion, it's a pure science.
00:49I am much, much better than what I was.
00:51Now to be frank, I don't even use my Instagrams, any of my social medias.
00:57It literally did wonder in my life.
01:00Yoga, you know, if you practice yoga for a long time, surely you are going to live a
01:03long life.
01:03There's no question about it.
01:07Hello and welcome to our special Yoga Day celebration.
01:11Now the world comes together on International Yoga Day for stretching, for calming our minds
01:16and our bodies and for proving that touching your toes is the true superpower.
01:23Yoga is ancient, but it's never old fashioned.
01:26It's traveled from India to different parts of the world, helping people stay fit and fabulous.
01:32Think about it, when life gets tangled like earphones in your pocket, yoga helps us untangle
01:38our thoughts and find that balance.
01:41And the best part, unlike other health and wellness trends, yoga doesn't require any fancy gadgets,
01:47expensive subscriptions.
01:48All that is needed is a little bit of space, the right intention and a lot of deep breathing.
02:15So, to get our alignment right and our sanity restored, we flew down to Bangalore to experience
02:21Purantha.
02:22Where we got a warm welcome and bohat sara piyaar.
02:47time to get up, no time to drown yourself in coffee today or do screen time in the morning.
02:55Because it's yoga day and we need to get started on doing yoga, getting some meditation in and just
03:07fast waking up.
03:17Let's get started.
03:19It's 5.30 in the morning roundabout, I'm feeling awake, maybe a good way to start the day would
03:27be to do some yoga.
03:31Water meditation is what I'm being told is going to be done today.
03:35So that sounds like fun.
03:36The weather is good.
03:38I love being in water.
03:39It has a calming effect on the body.
03:42And of course, meditation works wonders for folks like us, always immersed in our phones and drowning
03:51ourselves in coffee first thing in the morning.
03:53So maybe this start is going to be a better one to calm our nerves down the moment we get
04:00up and to
04:01deal with the cortisol spike first thing in the morning.
04:05So all of us carry a lot of body heat inside, I'm told.
04:09And I think that is also kind of visible in the way our body responds to it.
04:15Once that's there, it's important for the body to cool down.
04:19And that's the reason why water meditation becomes very important.
04:23Now in ancient times and you know, you just only data to show that, but even your anecdotal experience
04:30would show that getting inside a water body or swimming or having some time in water, a cold shower, calms
04:40you
04:40down like nothing else does.
04:42And that's what I'm about to experience right here.
04:45Well, first I'm going to go into the changing room, get into something else and then try this out right
04:52here.
05:13And after a nice cold plunge and salutations to Surya Devata, I asked Himalayan yoga guru what water meditation means
05:21and why was it important to
05:23for crazy, impatient folks like me?
05:30In our training, we don't see water as dead element.
05:34So when I say water is life, we really mean it.
05:37There is life in the water.
05:39So more you spend time with water, more energy you get.
05:42You may have the experience that sometimes people, they have stomach ache.
05:46They go to the doctor and they do the diagnosis, but they are not able to identify the reason.
05:52So then you go for experimental medicines.
05:57In our experience, in our training, we find this that as people they go deep with these water meditation practices
06:05or all the techniques related to water, they are able to come out from these problems.
06:13Namaste.
06:14Namaste.
06:15How are you?
06:16Namaste.
06:16Namaste.
06:16Very good.
06:17Please, come.
06:20Lie down.
06:26Later on in the day, he also helped me fix my alignment and spoke about tightening of glutes
06:32and keeping my core tight, which made me miss my coach a little.
06:35it also helped me realize that the essence of any exercise is the same, posture, mobility and movement
06:48When you have to take alignment, what is this?
06:52What is this alignment? Because in whole life we are using only one side of the body, suppose if I
06:57am a right-handed person, so I use only right
07:00Left, even though it is working parallelly, but there is some difference, that's why you see sometimes right hand is
07:06more powerful than left
07:07True
07:07So as per the training and culture of MLS, we believe that both sides need to be trained properly
07:12Okay
07:13Your left toe is few centimeters it is out
07:18Okay
07:19So what can we diagnose with this? There will be some issue with the stomach
07:26There is some tissue?
07:28Issues with the stomach, we will have some issue with the stomach
07:31Issues with the stomach all the time
07:32Yeah
07:33Hmm
07:34Is it there?
07:35It is
07:35Yeah
07:36The whole body is like a machine
07:39So I need to tap or I need to stimulate the tissues
07:46Okay
07:47Okay
07:48Yeah
07:48So this is nothing actually
07:50Yes
07:50It goes deeper
07:52It goes deeper
07:52It goes deeper
07:53It goes deeper
07:53It goes deeper
07:53It goes deeper
07:55Here
07:56After realizing that I have several nuts and bolts loose, I decided to try my hands in yoga
08:01And to my surprise, I saw sticks and ropes instead
08:20Well many people say that yoga is just about stretching and building some flexibility but the fact that the matter
08:26is that it is so much more it's also about strength training and endurance building and using props becoming extremely
08:34important for you to do that.
08:35for the practice and that's the reason why all of these folks behind me are using these ropes and
08:41these dicks as you can see so i'm about to go and try out and what this really is about
08:46and
08:46pass that myth that yoga is just about stretching
09:12so whoever said yoga is just about stretching really needs to think again
09:38well right behind me this work that's happening on defense focus coordination and balance
09:44extremely important for day-to-day life and that's the reason why it's important
09:48to learn what is being taught right now this is stick training let's go find out what it really
09:54means stick stick is external object and when something not part of your body comes in your
10:01hand how you balance it how you use it and how the movement is all those things they they require
10:09more presence of your more mind more intelligence so that's what helps us to these things helps us to
10:17achieve special goals okay then we got an experience at the akhada where my endurance
10:27was tested to an extent that i really wanted to kick myself but beyond what i couldn't do
10:33there was fair amount of stuff that i could like this
10:44many argue that earthing is pseudoscience but there is solid research which has been peer
10:50reviewed that speaks volumes of how earthing walking bare feet in this fashion on earth mud or grass
10:57actually has great therapeutic benefits i'm going to go find out how that really feels like
11:07well here's a fun fact this practice when you walk barefoot on grass or mud your body connects
11:14directly to the earth the earth is like a huge store of electricity so any extra static charge on your
11:22body can flow into the ground this removes built-up static electricity and brings your body back to a
11:29neutral state in simple words barefoot contact with soil or grass which is earthing helps your body
11:36release extra static electricity into the earth a few push-ups more love shown to earth then we move
11:43over to do our asanas yoga mats rolled and everyone is set well we saw practitioners bend it in ways
12:00like no one can imagine
12:04this is
12:07is
12:39You know, a lot has said about the fact that many people say that yoga is not for me.
12:46You know, I wanted to talk to us about how yoga is actually for everyone.
12:51Yoga goes with age and that's why we say yoga is for everyone.
12:57If you don't know which asana is for you, then of course you will get into some kind of trouble.
13:04What happens mostly with us, as we grow, we are not able to understand that if my age is 60,
13:10I am not 20 now.
13:11I push my efforts the same way how I was practicing before.
13:16So that creates trouble. Otherwise, yoga is part of our life. Yoga is like the way how blood flows in
13:23our body.
13:24These yogic asanas, pranayama, mudras, meditations, they are tested and proven.
13:30So if you have bloating with your stomach and you are in Vajrasana, in 5 minutes you will start seeing
13:37the results.
13:37So how it happens, it's not just the word of, you know, that yoga is working with you.
13:44The calf muscles, they are getting pressure. Your nervous system is stimulated, activated.
13:49The blood flow is changed. All these things put together, they transform your health, they transform your life.
13:57So we met men and women, boys and girls who are bending in and with a banger.
14:03Ravi Nayak tells us that he is 65 and his doctor pushed him to do yoga once he was recovering
14:10from a collar bone injury.
14:1318 months ago, I had a major fracture while doing certain exercises.
14:20So I had an option of whether to go for a surgery or go with a conventional way.
14:27Since it was a shoulder fracture, my doctor and Guruji suggested that you should go for a conventional healing process.
14:36So with Guruji's advice and doctor's support, I did the yoga practice with weight training along with that.
14:49Now, after so many 15 months, I have become normal and I think I am far better than what I
14:58was earlier.
14:59The rehabilitation comes after the stabilization.
15:01So after the, when you got operated for any injury, any operation, you can start yoga like moving activities like
15:11flexibility to increase your flexibility to increase your mobility.
15:14So it will help you in providing the full range of motion of the joints.
15:17So some yoga asanas are there that can very, very helpful in these rehabilitation parts.
15:23I was studying architecture back in my college days.
15:26So we used to have a lot of drawing, sketching, drafting and because of which we would be in a
15:31very uncomfortable positions where you have to sit and draw.
15:34We have to stand, you have to lean forward because of which it affected my back.
15:39And I did try taking a lot of medication, tried a lot of different things, but none of it was
15:43really helping.
15:45And just one day when I thought, let's try yoga.
15:49So I went into a yoga class.
15:50It just changed my way of how I see yoga as a practice.
15:55So, and slowly when I started practicing all of it, that's when I started seeing the difference in my body.
16:00I slowly, gradually started seeing the difference in my back.
16:04And it also was helping me with my mental health.
16:07Yoga helps in various activities like flexibility, like mobility and range of motions.
16:1290% of the lower back patients are not getting operated.
16:16So they can be managed on the physical activities and the yoga activities.
16:20So the world is going crazy and digital addiction is the biggest health challenge that we are facing.
16:25And that really is no secret.
16:28But yoga to deal with that challenge, to help reduce your anxiety and get you rid of your addiction to
16:35gadgets.
16:36Well, that is something new.
16:38Yoga, we hear is also something that is helping a lot of people deal with our different kinds of anxiety
16:45and mental health problems.
16:47So I got more engaged into televisions and the mobile phones on lot of, you know, screen timings that I
16:55used to get involved in.
16:56Because this was more of mental related thing for me.
16:59So concentration and focus was something which I have to, you know, majorly work on.
17:05Now, to be frank, I don't even use my Instagrams, any of my social medias.
17:11Because I feel that I have, I use them only when it is required.
17:15So I don't use them on my phones.
17:17So I don't even feel like even I'm having it.
17:19I don't feel like using them.
17:21So problem I developed after post-patam, when I delivered the baby and the stress and anxiety level was very
17:31high.
17:32Because taking care of a child and, you know, doing everything alone, not used to for it, it was completely
17:39new for me.
17:40So yoga, meditation, it does because that made me very strong mentally.
17:49Physically, I was strong, but mentally, because I was practicing meditation, it does help me a lot to come out
17:56from that stress and anxiety.
17:58And very easily, I took care of my child and still taking care of her.
18:04Your screen time is high.
18:05Your level of, you know, stress is constantly on a higher level.
18:10At the same time, you're not getting proper sleep.
18:13And this automatically leads to, you know, further, you know, aggravation of stress.
18:19So this vicious circle needs to be broken, you know.
18:23Yoga, meditation, mindfulness, all of these things have to be integrated into daily life.
18:28And that leads to digital detox.
18:30So yoga isn't simply about fixing postures and getting rid of digital addiction.
18:34Yoga is also about helping blood movement in your pelvic region.
18:38And that's the reason why yoga is so helpful for women dealing with PCOS, PCOD and endometriosis.
18:46Pelvic blood flow increases because of certain yoga poses.
18:51This tends to normalize all the hormonal imbalances that can happen.
18:55Also, this relaxes by giving more vascular supply to the muscles.
19:02It relaxes the musculature around the pelvic floor.
19:06And that also helps in relaxing the muscles and also in the pain that the person experiences with endometriosis or
19:15in polycystic ovaries.
19:16Generally women ask that do we, are we allowed to do yoga during periods?
19:21I would say yes, definitely you should do yoga during your periodic cycle.
19:25Because when you are doing yoga, it helps to, you know, the yoga posture, especially the cat and cow posture,
19:32the stretching exercises of the spine, the child pose.
19:35All of these help to relax your spinal muscles.
19:38It also helps to relax your lower abdominal muscles, easing out the pain and stress that happens during menstruation.
19:44What yogic asanas, they say that if you are able to stimulate your blood flow with its perfection, you will
19:54not know disease.
19:55So each organ should receive blood, but quality blood.
20:00And if you are able to provide that, you are happy, you are healthy, you are peaceful.
20:04So we miss that.
20:05Suppose we are sitting on the chair now from past, you know, 20 minutes.
20:09So because of this, my back, my glutes, my core, they are not the way how they are supposed to
20:14be.
20:14So immediately after this, I must engage them.
20:19And if I don't do this, after one month, two months, I will get the reaction.
20:23And that's what this, you know, the whole system of PCOS, PCOD, all hormone related issues.
20:31It's happening because of this.
20:32Your body is like a DJ on steroids, playing beats all day.
20:38Now what yoga really does is like a peaceful music director comes in and slows down the volume.
20:43Your mind is like a mobile phone with hundreds of apps and tabs open.
20:49Yoga quietly comes in and closes all the unnecessary tabs.
20:54There is enough evidence now to suggest that, you know, if yoga practice regularly, you know,
21:01can actually help heart in many ways.
21:05So number one is, you know, it helps improve the resting heart rate.
21:10The second thing is the blood pressure, you know.
21:15So people who practice yoga regularly have their blood pressures, you know, better controlled.
21:23At the same time, it also helps improve the autonomic activity of the body.
21:30You know, as a result, you know, you will see the heart rate variability, which is an important parameter.
21:39For stress busting, we tried our hands at meditation too, clumsily albeit.
21:44You know, as a result, you will see it.
21:46You know, as a result, you will see it.
21:55You know, as a result, you will see it.
22:31But honest feedback, deep breathing and meditation work a different kind of magic.
22:36I vouch for it.
22:44Some people say that they are scared of meditation.
22:46I get distracted.
22:48What do you have to tell those people?
22:50So it's very much like, you know, when you don't know driving, you start driving.
22:54So everything is dangerous.
22:56And if you're learning and you are an expert, then you can drive any vehicle and you'll enjoy that, you
23:02know, your journey.
23:03Some people say that too many thoughts in my mind during meditation.
23:07Yeah.
23:08So what do you have to tell those people?
23:09It's part of the journey.
23:10No problem with thoughts?
23:12Let thoughts come?
23:13You will not be able to stop thoughts.
23:16There are trillion and trillion thoughts in the universe.
23:20How you can stop?
23:21So meditation process or the system of meditation will never ask you to stop thinking.
23:29They will ask you to learn meditation techniques.
23:32And none of the techniques will say, don't think.
23:35It's wrong.
23:36Don't try so hard to focus.
23:38That's what they say.
23:39I can't focus.
23:40What are you supposed to focus on during meditation?
23:42Actually, there is no instruction like this.
23:44For example, if my weight is too much, you can't ask me to sit quiet for one hour and not
23:52to think anything.
23:54My weight itself is my tension.
23:57And because of this weight, I have so many psychological issues, so many hormonal issues.
24:02So for me, the training of meditation will be totally different.
24:06And there is proof as well.
24:08I was completely, totally stressed and confused in my life.
24:14So there, I thought that I need to do something for myself.
24:18Otherwise, I will never come out from this problem.
24:20And it got clicked there.
24:23And then I started doing meditation.
24:26Literally did wonder in my life.
24:31They say, yoga connects the body and mind.
24:35For some beginners, the main challenge is getting both to agree on doing the same pose.
24:39But after a lot of challenges, we did manage to do some asanas and resolve to do it more diligently
24:45when we get back home.
24:49So on that very positive note, ki yoga se hi hoga, we are going to wrap up this edition.
24:55Wishing all our viewers a very happy yoga day.
24:58Wishing you lots of asanas and deep breathing.
25:02Thanking you for watching in, for tuning in from the entire team of India today.
25:07And of course, this team putting together this show for you now totally obsessed with yoga.
25:15Namaste.
25:47Bye.
25:49Bye.
25:50Bye.
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