Looking around the world today, there are many yoga centers everywhere, especially in cities in North America and Europe. It seems that people take yoga classes everywhere, including a large number of world-class celebrities. They have made great achievements in different fields such as politics, business and art, but they all long for yoga. For example:

1, rock poet sting, 45-year-old pop music leader Madonna, publicly demonstrated difficult yoga moves.

2.200 1 year, Time magazine of the United States took yoga as the cover, and introduced this healthy trend sweeping across the continental United States.

Prince Charles of England used yoga to cure back pain, and more than 500,000 people in Britain also studied yoga.

4.IBM uses yoga practice to charge employees, which is full of creativity.

Singer Donna uses yoga to balance her emotions, and martial arts star Cynthia Khan uses yoga to recover.

6. Diving star Tian Liang

7. At the end of 2005, a medical institution of Indian military stationed in Ladakh, Indian-controlled Kashmir, began to teach yoga to 100 soldiers, which is at an altitude of 3,350 to 4,570 meters.

Indian military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel batalla said that yoga stretching is a good way to train soldiers in high altitude mountainous areas, because other training methods are not feasible, and even running in the shortest distance can make people breathless. Not only that, because soldiers are stationed in conflicts frequently? High pressure area? Yoga can also help them stay alert. ? Yoga helps soldiers turn negative pressure into positive energy, which is necessary to stay vigilant. Here, whether you are alert means life and death. ? Lieutenant Colonel Batra said that the yoga class has achieved remarkable results. The soldiers have given up smoking and drinking. They are healthier? .

What is the magic of the ancient sports that originated in the mysterious East? What exactly is yoga?

Yoga is a very ancient energy knowledge cultivation method, which integrates philosophy, science and art. Yoga is based on ancient Indian philosophy. For thousands of years, psychology, body and spirit have become an important part of Indian culture. Ancient yoga believers developed the yoga system, because they believed that by exercising and regulating breathing, they could completely control their thoughts and emotions and maintain a healthy body forever. Yoga is a Sanskrit word (yoga), and the root of the word yoga originally meant to put horses and cattle on the axis. Photo printing? Or? Combination, unification? It also means core and pith. How to understand the popular yoga: Yoga is a philosophy originated from ancient India, and the yoga we are practicing now is an effective fitness method, including gymnastics, psychological adjustment, mental development, personal hygiene and healthy diet.

Second, the formation of yoga

Archaeologists unearthed a well-preserved pottery in the Indus Valley, depicting the meditation form of yoga figures. This pottery has a history of at least 5000 years, which shows that the history of yoga can be traced back to longer.

In primitive society, people lived in groups and hunted for a living. In this process, people refer to the characteristics of all living things and create many static postures. Just like the famous hua tuo wuqinxi in China, Introduction to Hatha Yoga has only 84 postures, and it is said that there are 8.4 million postures spread so far. These operations are classified according to their characteristics and can be divided into:

1, imitating the posture of animals and plants, such as snakes, cats, dogs, tigers, trees, etc.

2. Imitate the posture of human landscape, such as skyscrapers, antennas, magic chairs, airplanes, etc.

3. Imitate the posture of sports, such as diving.

4. Imitate the postures of actions in life, such as stretching arms and grinding beans;

5. Postures named after Indian gods, such as Kirshna, Webster's Slave and Ha Numan.

Yoga postures should be smooth, comfortable and relaxed, including the following categories:

Stretching actions such as: warrior first style, magic chair style, etc.

Buckling and compression actions such as garlands, shells, etc.

Torsional movements such as spinal torsion. ;

Balance movements, such as: warrior third style, bird king style, etc.

Inverted movements such as head-to-hand handstand, scorpion pose, etc.

Support actions such as: sloping board, two-handed snake, etc.

Third, yoga goes to the world.

Yoga is not a religion, but an exercise involving body, mind and spirit. Many churches in the world have borrowed from yoga and promoted its development.

65438+In the 1990s, at the World Expo held in the United States, Vivekananda, an Indian yoga master, showed yoga to the world and was the first person to go out of India and introduce yoga to the world. From then on, Americans began to know and practice yoga, which influenced the whole western countries and even Asia.

The earliest knowledge of yoga in contemporary Chinese mainland should be the yoga teaching films broadcast by Zhang Huilan on CCTV 1985, which is the beginning of many people's understanding of yoga. Yoga was first developed in coastal cities and regions of China, and has become popular in inland cities in recent years. China has the largest number of yoga practitioners in the world.

In China, there is a misunderstanding in practicing yoga, that is, yoga is a woman's patent. In fact, many yoga masters in the world are men. In the past, women only took their children to do housework, and men were allowed to practice yoga.

Yoga posture uses ancient and easy-to-master skills to improve people's physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual abilities, which is a kind of exercise method to achieve the harmony and unity of body, mind and spirit. Ancient Indians believed that man could be integrated with heaven, and they insisted on it with different yoga practices: morality, selfless action, stable mind, religious responsibility, no desire, meditation and the nature and creation of the universe.

Fourth, the elements of yoga

Six elements

(1) Yoga postures (movements and postures) balance fitness has three main points: softness, muscle strength and cardiopulmonary function have been improved and strengthened. When we often practice these stretching exercises, we will find that: 1, yoga posture can make us more aware of the health signals sent by the body and let us interpret these signals more accurately;

2. Greatly improve the comfort of the body.

(2) Yoga breathing and deep breathing can wash and condition our bodies. Yoga breathing is done with the nose. When inhaling, enough oxygen enters the lungs, and every cell in the body can get the oxygen needed for activities; When you exhale, the waste in your body will be expelled. Not only that, the body can also communicate with the solar plexus in the energy storage area through breathing, so as to obtain abundant energy and make people younger physically and psychologically.

(3) Yoga Diet Yoga advocates a simple and natural diet, and vegetarianism is the most respected food for yogis.

(4) Yoga Relaxation It is very important to have a good rest and relax. If the body and mind are overworked or stressed for a long time, the operation efficiency will be reduced, and excessive fatigue and stretching will cause serious harm to the body and mind. Rest and relaxation are the most natural ways to recharge your body. Yoga relaxation techniques can exercise the mind and muscles, and have achieved complete relaxation.

(5) Yoga mindfulness and meditation can make people's minds clearer, their attention more concentrated and their thinking efficiency higher. The cultivation of mindfulness helps to purify people's thoughts and make them have wisdom and inner peace.

(6) Correct Lifestyle Yoga aims at shaping healthy physical and mental vitality. The correct way of life includes: a positive attitude towards life and good principles of life, being kind to all aspects of life, not hurting any living thing in thoughts, words and manners, and living in harmony with everything around.

Five, the main schools of yoga

According to the Bhagavad-gita, throughout Indian history, the following yoga schools are important:

(a) raja yoga is also known as raja yoga.

This is the way of meditation. Through the eight branches of yoga, the strength of the whole mind is condensed, and this yoga is also a way to control the mind. It consists of eight famous branches of yoga. The important classic of raja yoga School is Yoga Sutra. Known as the only way to the spiritual world. Emphasis on thought and pranayama. Lotus is generally used to wait for some asanas to meditate. Raja yoga actively advocates eight branches of yoga, namely, prohibition, obedience, posture, pranayama, restraint, inner awakening, meditation and samadhi.

Eight branches of yoga:

1, Yamaraja (Yamaraja) They don't kill, cheat, steal, commit adultery or be greedy. These commandments are the norms of social and personal morality. If they are not observed, they will lead to chaos, violence, deception, theft, debauchery and greed.

2. In Ma Niya, prohibition is a universally applicable moral code, while compliance is a code of conduct that binds individuals. Personal code of conduct: lead an honest and clean life, be contented, be ascetic, introspect and respect God.

3. Pose can bring stability, health and lightness to limbs. A stable and pleasant posture can bring spiritual stability and prevent impetuousness.

Need a well-ventilated place, a blanket and a determination, yoga posture practice does not need the help of equipment, because

Yoga believes that human limbs have provided conditions for gravity and anti-gravity. By practicing yoga posture, we can improve the agility, balance and durability of the body and increase the vitality of life.

The name of yoga pose reflects the law of yoga evolution for centuries. Some gestures are named after plants, such as trees.

Lotus style; Named after insects, such as locust type and scorpion type; Named after aquatic animals and amphibians, such as fish, turtles, frogs and crocodiles; Named after birds, such as peacock style and swan style; Named after quadrupeds: dog type, camel type and lion type. Some of them are named after heroic missions, such as Hanuman and Krishna.

By practicing yoga poses, the dual thoughts of gain and loss, victory and defeat, honor and disgrace, body and spirit will disappear.

4. pranayama means breathing control.

The life span of yoga practitioners is not measured by days, but by the number of breaths. So, follow the right rhythm and breathe slowly. These rhythmic breathing patterns strengthen the respiratory system, calm the nervous system and reduce the craving for substances. Incorrect breathing control exercises will lead practitioners to introduce some diseases into the body, such as burping, rheumatism, asthma, headache and so on. It takes a long time to master the slow stretching and stabilize the correct breathing method.

5.Pratyahara If a person's reason succumbs to the senses, he will lose his way, but if he breathes moderately and the senses are not the object of outward pursuit of desires, but turn inward, then he will be freed from the bondage of sensory desires, thus reaching the fifth stage of yoga, namely sensory control. At this point, the senses are under control. (Consciousness control

6.Dharana When the body is tamed by asana training, the brain is exercised by the fire of breathing control, and the senses are controlled by sensory control, yoga practitioners enter the sixth stage, which is called Dharana. At this stage, they are completely focused on one point or one task.

7. Dhyana When the spirit meditates on a thing, it will become the form of that thing. For example, when we see oil flowing from one container to another, we can see the uninterrupted flow of oil. When concentration lasts, people enter a state of meditation. Yoga practitioners gain spiritual consciousness through meditation practice.

Samadhi is the ultimate goal pursued by yogis. At the highest stage of meditation, it is like a state of meditation. At this time, the body and senses are at rest, just like sleeping, while the spirit and reason remain alert and exceed the general state of consciousness. (detached and selfless)

(b) Hatha Yoga, also known as Jutuo Yoga.

This is a way to keep fit, using posture and breathing in yoga to keep fit and enhance Qi energy. Hatha Yoga stresses physiology, which is a system of body cleaning, breathing and various physical exercise methods.

(3) Wisdom Yoga is also called Jina Yoga.

This is the way to enlightenment. Wisdom yoga focuses on philosophy, which is a philosophical speculative system to explore the issues of truth and unreality, constancy and temporality, vitality and matter. Advocate the cultivation of knowledge concept, get rid of ignorance and reach sacred knowledge in order to look forward to the unity with Brahma.

(d) Industrial yoga is also called practicing yoga.

This is the way to purify the mind. This is a system of selfless activities and work. Yoga advocates paying attention to the inner world and guiding more perfect behavior through inner spiritual activities. Do this voluntarily, without expecting anything in return, and be kind to others.

(5) Bakkun Yoga is also called Ai Feng Yoga.

This is the way of love. Through the cultivation of religious sentiment, we know that the essence of truth is love, and only when the heart is full of love can it be integrated with the ultimate truth.

We learn according to the true meaning of yoga regardless of factions, because no matter what kind of yoga is a tool for practitioners, there are naturally many sources for different methods, but the purpose of practicing yoga is the same, that is, physical and mental exercise, so all genres of yoga are extremely rich property for yoga practitioners.

Sixth, the characteristics and effects of yoga

(1) Seven rounds and Three Veins of Yoga

Submarine chakra, reproductive chakra, umbilical chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, eyebrow chakra and crown chakra.

Left, middle and right veins

(B) the characteristics of yoga

1. The most remarkable features of yoga are its regulating effect on the mind, the unity of body and consciousness, and the role of yoga in changing the mind, which is also an important reason why modern people accept and love it. Yoga pays more attention to the practice of body posture to achieve the purpose of practicing the mind.

2. Yoga is safe and gentle, suitable for a wide range of people and can avoid sports injuries. In yoga class, the music is soothing, the teacher speaks softly and slowly, and the students' body and mind are exercised in a quiet state.

3. Yoga postures can stretch and stimulate the body smoothly, symmetrically, softly and continuously, and after each movement is completed, there will generally be corresponding relaxation movements, which will play a good role in stretching and relaxing the body and make it comfortable and smooth.

4. Yoga is not limited by venue, time and economic conditions. It just needs a quiet corner, a clean mat and a pure heart.

5. Yoga can play an auxiliary medical role in all-round adjustment and exercise of the body, not only exercising external physical strength, but also adjusting and improving endocrine, microcirculation and internal organs. The most valuable thing is the internal organs, scalp and back muscles that can hardly be exercised on weekdays? Sports blind spot? Yoga also has a posture method to take care of it one by one. Therefore, yoga can play an indirect or direct role in the prevention and even treatment of diseases.

6. Yoga also has a complete system, including yoga diet, yoga cleaning, yoga breathing, yoga relaxation, yoga meditation and meditation, and yoga lifestyle and concept. With extensive practice and theoretical system, yoga has long gone beyond the scope of general sports.

(C) the efficacy of yoga

(1) can gain strength, flexibility and balance, and improve cardiopulmonary function.

(2) Effective fat reduction and body shaping.

(3) Effectively relieve stress and tension.

(4) Effectively improve physical energy and the ability to worship God.

(5) Effectively detoxify and beautify.

(6) Effective prevention and treatment of diseases.

(7) Effectively increase vitality and prolong life.

(8) Effectively develop creativity and enhance memory.

(9) Effectively improve thinking ability and concentrate.