Control Your Mood Wings with Yoga

In the ancient times, yogis have researched and studied a lot on the human body and it’s functioning by observing and analyzing the animal body postures and movements in different situations. They also studied how different postures help animals to move and attack fastly on the prey. For example, a tiger will shift its weight onto its hind legs before attacking its prey. Not only does this posture keep the required muscles active and powerful, it also presses on the adrenal glands, increasing the level of adrenaline in its body so that it moves at the highest speed possible.

They concluded that if similar postures and movements are developed for human being to practice in the form of yoga, then humans can get their hormonal balance and other benefits of health.

When they further studied the mental and emotional state of human brains, they found that If we can balance or stimulate the production of hormones, we can drastically alter our moods and their fluctuations. This is possible only with the help of yoga. Endocrine glands that control the Courage, fear, love and creativity and other human mood swings are activated when we practice yoga. The ultimate goal of yoga is to stimulate the pineal gland which is known as the ‘Agnya chakra’ in yogic terminology and helps us to live in a blissfully high state 24 hours a day when stimulated. However before this can occur, the blockages present in the lower level chakras (which correspond to our endocrine glands) must be cleared first, or else a man might go crazy with an energy level too high to be handled by the physical body. In simple words, you cannot pass a very high electric current through a very thin wire.

We are describing here some simple exercises to control our anger, frustrations and restlessness so that we can achieve a calm and undisturbed emotional and mental state. These yogas are helpful to bring about a change in your state of mind so that we can live in a state of acceptance towards life.

Exercise 1

• Kneel on the floor, knees together.
• Sit back on your heels, keeping back straight.
• Inhale and raise your arms above your head.
• Exhale slowly and bend the body forward so that forehead rests on floor, palms face downward.
• Hold position breathing normally.
• Inhale, come up. Exhale and resume start position.

Exercise 2

• Lie flat on back, arms by side
• Slowly raise legs to 90 degree position.
• Lift hips and support them with hands as shown.
• Hold 10-30 seconds.
• Breathing normal.
• Slowly come back to start position.

Exercise 3 Jalandhar Bandha

• Sit with legs stretched out, back straight.
• Bend one leg, place ankle on opposite thigh close to groin. Bend other leg and place ankle on thigh of bent leg, close to groin. Place your hands on your knees.
• Inhale deeply. Keeping chest high, hold your breath and lock chin against chest.
• Hold for as long as comfortable.
• Release chin, look up and exhale.
• Repeat only 3 times.

Exercise 4

• Sit as above.
• Exhale completely, pull up the genital space and close the anal space. Keep abdominal muscles tight.
• Relax the lock and inhale.
• Repeat 3 times only.

Exercise 5

• Sit as above. Rest your arms on the thighs.
• Lean forward slightly and exhale forcefully.
• Suck in your stomach to create a hollow space.
• Hold as long as you can hold your breath comfortable.
• Release contraction and breathe in.
• Repeat only 3 times.

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