Suchitra's Life Journey

 What is Savasanna ? Why should one do it at all ? Image credit: Alice Noir It's so boring to lie down in between or in the end of the entire yoga Asana practice. When you first start practicing Savasana, it can be a struggle to relax in the pose; you may lie there feeling tense and staring at the ceiling. Or, like some students, you might fall asleep the moment you lie down. The essence of Savasana is to relax with attention, that is, to remain conscious and alert while still being at ease. Remaining aware while relaxing can help you begin to notice and release long-held tensions in your body and mind. Savasana is a practice of gradually relaxing one body part at a time, one muscle at a time, and one thought at a time.When you do this practice day after day, it conditions the body to release stress and can improve your sense of physical and emotional well-being.

Yoga Sutra:  2.47 prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam २.४७ प्रयत्नशौथिल्यानन्तसमापत्तिभ्याम् Meaning :- This Yoga Sutra says “there should be no effort that leads to strain and trembling of the body”.  Imagine if a rubber band is pulled very suddenly - it will strain and break. But if it is stretched little by little everyday, it will expand slowly without breaking. This is how our body should be improved with Yoga asanas. Image Credit: By Sabine Voigt Yoga is not to be done with comparison or to prove that you can do an asana. This is one the main causes why students over-stretch or strain and may even harm themselves while doing yoga asanas. There are some asanas that I can do well. Some you can do better with practice. As per different body types and constitutions, each individual can do certain asanas better than others. This is normal. We don't have to compare ourselves with others.  Our body changes its flexibility when we do asanas slowly. One has to do slowly...

Prerequisites for OnlineYoga Sessions Yoga mat:   A yoga mat is required to cover the ground on which you do asana. It helps avoid slipping while doing asanas. If the ground is hard, during some asanas, it may hurt your knees or back. To avoid this, you may choose a suitably thick mat which offers support. Cotton blanket:  Get a clean blanket which will be used to cover the Yoga mat. This is useful when doing asanas where the face / body is on the floor. So that when you are sweating, it does not fall on the rubber/yoga mat and you may not slip.  Face towel: A thin face towel to keep your face and nose clean.  Sash:  A cotton belt or sash about 1 meter in length and 1 inch width. During forwarding bending asanas or stretches, a sash aids beginners to get optimal stretch and retain the asana-positions without strain. Pillow:  In sitting asanas such as vajra-asana, swastik-asana, siddha-asana etc, a beginner needs support of a pillow. Select a hard pillow / ...

Prayer Your browser does not support HTML5 audio :( योगेन चित्तस्य, पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन । योऽपाकरोत् तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिर् आनतोऽस्मि ॥ yogena chittasya, padena vachan malam sharirasya cha vaidyakena | yo'pakarot tam pravaram muninan patanjalim pranjalir anato'smi || I bow down to him who: purifies the impurities of the mind by Yoga, purifies the expressions of speech through grammar (pada) purifies the impurities of the body through medical science (vaidhya)  He who is an expert in removing the impurities of the mind, speech and body, to that most excellent of Sages (muni): Oh Patanjali !!!  I bow down with folded hands.

  When our children were home-schooled, I was lucky to visit the Konkan belt. The beautiful greenery, the simple and tasty cuisine enticed me. I just fell in love with the people, the wilderness, the tribals, the Sahyadri range and the clean flowing water which we could just drink without care; Just about everything. Just speaking about this brings back lovely memories and puts a smile on my face. We visited Angadi-Bail (a tiny village at the edge of a forest, river, and the sea) and we were hosted by Savitha Uday of BuDa Folklore . Savitha is a wonderful person. As an educationist, she hosts children and gives them the experience/ interaction with the locals, tribals, forest, river, sea, santha. Her place is off the grid and if I start introducing Savitha I will forget that I started with the refreshing Sol Kadhi. But who ever wants to know her can check out her BuDa Folklore  blog.  I got introduced to a wonderful fruit called the Kokum. People in the Konkan belt make s...

  Yumm if grown organically..  That is one of my bhindi plant in my garden. Learning a lot on planting, dealing with pests, rats... Its joyous to be able to grow even a single Bhindi. We can turn up a lovely salad or tasty chutney to have with piping hot rice or masala bhindi or simply fry it up with some salt and chilli powder. Here in Hosur I have a wonderful farmer uncle Karunakaran about 65+ years old retired from airforce who just loves to grow tomatoes , Bhindi, beetroot, chillies and so many other varieties. Some fail, some work out. Whenever I meet him he is always happy to have discovered something new and how to grow vegetables better. Well, I just thought of sharing some quick mouth watering dishes made with bhindi. 1. Bhindi Salad Ingredients:-  1/2 kg bhindi, slit length wise in 4 and cut in 2 inch pieces one handful small onion peeled and finely chopped 2 amlas juice salt to taste pepper as required I used a cast iron kadai for this. Added some coconut oil ,...

Yesterday was lockdown and today the vegetable van did not arrive. With just a few onions and chillies was wondering what should I make. So I wandered into my garden and looked around. Did not find any vegetables . But saw my papaya tree full of unripe papayas.  Had heard that, one can make some delicious curries with them.Have never tasted Papaya curries. So that is my Papaya tree has quite a lot of fruit. My maid covered half of the low hanging fruits to avoid an evil eye. Something new to me again. Well, so I made up my mind that I am going to cook papaya.Using a sharp knife cut out one from the upper branch, dropped it into my small bucket to avoid the sap all over me. Next I went on to do some research and was surprised to find some interesting recipes by different states of India. So I chose a recipe from Bengal and one recipe by vah re vah chef. 1) Kancha peper ghonto  from Bengal 2) Raw papaya fry  by Vah re vah Chef Care taken:- While peel...

Today morning I was assisting the main chef in making sandwiches. Sandwiches were being made with toasted wheat bread, cucumber, tomatoes, mashed potatoes, grated paneer, steamed finely sliced beans and butter saute lady's finger. The entire making needed some spicy sauces. So we decided to whip up two spreads. A tangy spicy thick white sauce and green mint spread ( which i will share later ).  So we thought and created this sauce in the following way. Ingredients:-  To Saute:-  1 medium sized onion 1 whole bunch of garlic 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt  1 tbsp butter For Grinding:- 1/4 cup crisp cashews 1 red chilli 75 gm paneer ( roughly 1/3 rd of a 200gm paneer block ) 1 tbsp butter 3 tbsp thick curds 1/2 lemon 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary / thyme ( one can used dried about a tbsp of it ) 4 leaves of fresh chives ( optional ) salt to taste First saute one finely chopped onion in butter added 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp salt, added one whole bunch of finely chopped garlic, saute w...

Creating a Blog on International Yoga day to share my journey.

Beginning My journey with yoga began at the age of 39. My body made me realize that I need to pay attention to it. I had low blood pressure, knee pains, thyroid imbalance and constant tiredness. I would be awake on some nights due to anxiety attacks. I went to Tirupati from Dubai in 2014, July to be with my Mother. I met a neighbor who was attending yoga sessions with a therapist for her health issues. I started with attending these sessions, it was so beautiful that i started attending twice a day. On observing my zeal, teacher Srinivas suggested that i do the complete course of Yoga therapy at the Rashtriya Samskrit Vidhyapeeta. I took up the one year P.G Diploma course with them. Registered and got the material. I carried my material back to Dubai in august 2014. My Journey with my Guruji K.B Madhavan at Dubai. Looking for solutions, talking to friends, I came across a Yoga Guru K.B Madhavan ( whom I am still in touch with )back in Dubai. I would attend his sessions at the Deira cre...