Guide to Herbal Remedies

Pregnancy is a physical as well as mental experience. Women often becomes hyper aware of all the changes their bodies are going through. Yoga allows pregnant women to adapt to these changes more gracefully and to feel proud and a sense of appreciation for their bodies. Yoga exercises can increase flexibility, strength, circulation and balance. Many pregnant women find that regular yoga exercises help to reduce swelling, back and leg pain, and insomnia.
However, Yoga must be practised very carefully among pregnant women, as improper exercises will bring negative effect on both moms and babies. Here are some tips for pre-natal pregnancy Yoga practise:
1. The general yoga exercises are recommended for the first 2 months. You must consult your doctor and find very experienced Yoga teachers. With proper guidance, you can practice some yoga right into labor. If you new to yoga then you should start slowly.
2. Breathing exercises are beneficial if done twice a day. The breathing exercises provide more oxygen and energy both to the mother and the child.
3. Some yoga poses that can help a pregnant women dealing with the symptoms of pregnancy, ensuring smoother and easier delivery, and faster recovery after childbirth. Pregnant women should pay attention not to overstretch the body - the ligaments around the joints become loose and soft during pregnancy. The abdomen should stay relaxed at all times. Difficult and poses that put pressure on the abdomen and other should NOT be done during advance stages of Pregnancy. No any kind of pain or nausea should be felt during and/or after yoga. If this happens, you should stop yoga practise and contact your GP.
4. When carrying out standing poses with your heels to the wall or use a chair for support to avoid losing your balance and risking injury to both you and your baby.
5. Deep relaxation is crucial to give rest to body and mind, and you will benefit more from a good sleep. Deep relaxation helps the nerve system change from sympathetic to parasympathetic activity. Parasympathetic activity is associated with the restorative processes of the body, which is needed both by the pregnant woman and the child.

The five major elements that compose the world we live in are—Sky, Fire, Air, Water and Earth. Our body is also made of these same elements. There are 2 types of energy, one with which you are born and the other which flows in the body by eating, sleeping, breathing and exercising.
The one way to optimize energy is through practicing yoga, meditation and moderation. One can work on building the energy and maintain health and vitality by doing away with any blockage or depletion.
Channels of energy: Meridians are the channels along which the energy flows through the body. Every meridian is associated with an organ. When you press along the length of a channel that passes through a problem area, the flow of energy is stimulated. This helps the organ without having to actually touch it. Similarly when this meridian is stretched through these exercises, the body parts keep in good condition.
Breathing: A very important ingredient of energy is breathing. Our breath is our Prana which means life. It brings to us a tremendous amount of life force.
Hold your breath for a count of 5 and exhale of a count 5. Repeat for 10 minutes slowly accumulating more energy with every breath. You will experience an increase in energy level soon after practicing this.
Remain Calm and Positive: Remember every thought saps energy. If you think too much you may experience a feeling of being drained out. Energy is consumed in thoughts which cannot be put into action as they are repetitive, tiring and futile. Try living your life outside your brain. Remain calm, and you will feel relaxed.
The Hand: The fingers of our body represent the five elements. The thumb represents fire, the index finger represents air, the middle finger represents space, the ring finger represents the Earth and the little finger represents water. When all the above elements are in balance in our body, we experience good health. However, if there is an imbalance of any elements, one suffers corresponding ailments. Finger postures or Yog Mudras help a great deal in curing these ailments.
They are easy to practice, can be performed at any time, any place and by anyone without any side effects. The aim is to increase energy by stimulating the various channels of our body thereby keeping the vital organs in a good and healthy state.
Posture: The lower abdomen is an area that is a storehouse of energy. If we try to tap the energy from here, we would get less exhausted. Unfortunately due to bad posture we are unable to do so and land up depleting our source of energy. The first step to feeling energetic is improving the posture by sitting and standing straight.

Yoga, the ancient science of India, has a wide perspective, which includes not only the concept of achieving physical and mental fitness through different yogic exercises, but also establishing a tranquility of mind by their means, so as to realize man’s union with the supreme self, that is attainment of God-consciousness. The pattern of life today is fast. Man has no time to spare beyond his set pattern of life. He has no time to stand and stare. Hence, the importance of yoga and its exercises, the asanas, has increased in the present world of stress and strain. Work-load for man has increased so much that he cannot spare time even for a good walk, much less for a game or a sport. There are others, whose official position or position in society including that of the VIPs does not allow them to have a free outdoor movement. It is for such category of persons also that the practice of asanas is recommended. In an urban life, it is not possible to find an open and secluded place to perform yogic asanas to one’s satisfaction. Asanas afford the urban population some means to have exercised at home itself.
Another point is that, while the outdoor physical exercises develop the body’s muscles and improve one’s physique, they, however, do not involve particular movements of stretching and twisting of organs, like the stomach or the spinal cord. Outdoor exercises, rather, harden the body’s muscles and joints, instead of making them more soft, supple and flexible. Instead of lowering the blood pressure, they increase the supply of blood to the heart and raise the blood pressure, which is already on the higher side in some people. On the contrary, the asanas are complete exercises as a whole. They give gainful exercise of each and every limb of an organ, bending and stretching each digit of the spine and muscle of the stomach, etc.
Thus in the modern way of life, when indoor exercise has assumed importance, the need for the practice of yogic asanas or other yogic practices is being felt all the more. The baths, top, have the benefit of indoor exercise. Both baths and Yogic exercises are important constituents of Nature-cure treatment.