Basic Yoga Postures and their Variations

1. THE COBRA Do this in easy stages. Lie down, face prone, legs tightly together and stretched back, forehead on the floor. Put your hands, palm down, just under your shoulders. Inhale and raise your head, pressing your neck back, now use your hands to push your trunk up until you are bending in a beautiful arc from your lower spine to the back of your neck. You need go no further than this. However, if you are supple enough, you can now straighten your arms completely, bend the legs at the knees and drop your head back to touch your feet. Even if your head goes nowhere near your feet, drop it back as far as possible and hold the posture with deep breathing. Come out of the posture very slowly, returning to the face prone posture. Relax with your head to one side. Repeat.

2. THE BOW This is also an extreme version of the simple bow. It is surprising how many children can do it immediately. Take it, once again, in easy stages. Lie face prone on your mat. If you are very slim have a nice thick, padded mat for this one. Inhale and bend your knees up. Stretch back with your arms and catch hold of your ankles, keeping fingers and thumbs all together on the outside. Inhale and at the same time raise your head and chest, pulling at your ankles and lifting knees and thighs off the floor. Breathe normally, trying to kick up your legs higher and lifting your head up. You are now bent like a bow, balancing the weight of your body on your abdomen. You can stop right here but if you can still stretch further, then slide your hands down your legs, lift them higher, keep the knees together and pull back as much as you can. Hold for a few normal deep breaths, then relax back to the face-prone position, head to one side.

3. THE SHOOTING BOW In Sanskrit this is known as Akarna Dhanurasana and one leg is drawn up like a shooting bow. Sit with both legs stretched out in front and back straight. Reach forward with both hands and clasp your feet, catching the right foot with the left hand and the left foot with the right hand. Inhale, bend the left knee and pull the foot across the body, close to your chest, pointing the elbow up and twisting the body slightly to the right. The left hand stays firm and tight, holding the right foot. Hold posture with normal breathing, release slowly, and relax. Repeat on other side. In the beginning it is enough to hold the bent left leg with the right hand. When this is easy, stretch down and hold the left foot with the right hand. Continue to pull on the left foot, lifting it higher on each exhalation.

Ease Your Way Into Yoga and Meditation

Many people buy books on yoga and meditation, but never get into the regular practice of these methods. It is not only true for yoga, there must be millions of self-help and self-instruction manuals of all types gathering dust on shelves around the world. So if you are in this position, don't feel bad, you are not alone!

But it is not enough to feel content knowing that others, like you, are also hesitating in doing things that will improve their lives. It is possible to break out of the procrastination phase and actually start doing something. It is all a question of attitude and approach.

What should be our attitude? We should remember the words of a Chinese sage who said that "the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step." Instead of thinking how hard it will be to reach the end of the journey, start with the single step. And keep taking those single steps until you arrive at your destination.

Remember the old fable of the tortoise and the hare? The hare got off to a quick start in a race with the slow moving tortoise, but he lost his sense of urgency and, after a while, went to sleep. The tortoise just plodded along until he reached the finish line and was the unexpected victor in the race.

I have seen some yoga students get off to a quick start and they began by practicing everything for a while and then lose interest and fade away like the sleeping hare. The best students are those who start off slowly but keep continuing for a long time.

So what does this mean for you? Open your instruction book, whether it is for yoga or for language learning or anything else that will improve your life, and commit yourself to a few minutes of reading and practice each day.

In the case of yoga, do one exercise. It will take only a few minutes. You can surely do it. For meditation, sit for a few minutes in silence, and don't worry about the results. Once you do it for a few days, gradually add a bit more. Do another yoga exercise and extend the time of your meditation to a few more minutes.

For meditation, it is best to build up to 30 minutes per session. 30 minutes? Yes, 30 minutes, because the longer you sit the deeper you will go. But if you are not ready don't try to sit for 30 minutes right from the start. Do a few minutes but do it regularly and extend the time gradually.

So, your attitude should be to take everything one step at a time and to start practicing, today itself, keep practicing and keep adding a bit to the practice on a day-by-day basis. Continue in this slow but steady pace, and you will, like the tortoise, win the race.