“Pancha Kosha is a Philosophical Yoga term derived from Sanskrit.” The word “Pancha” means “five” and “Kosha” means “sheaths”. The idea of Pancha Kosha arises from “Tattiriya Upanishas”- “Yajur Veda”, a chapter explaining the means to achieve Brahman or the highest universal principle. Pancha Kosha helps us to learn about the dimensions of the human personality and the self.  Pancha Kosha is a concept that believes in that there are five layers in the soul or the atman. Atman is at the centre of these five layers. It is also known as the self.  The five layers of pancha Kosha has to be in balance to discover the ideal self within us.

What are the five layers of Pancha Kosha?

1. Annamaya Kosha

The Annamaya Kosha is also known as “The Food Sheath”. “Anna” means food. This particular sheath defines our physical self, including the bodily organs. Our body is essentially the food we consume. The food sheath consists of the five elements – Earth, Water, Air, Soil, Fire – and is the outermost layer of the self. The food sheath consists of ingested food which will also turn into food for other plants and animals upon a self’s death.

2. Pranamaya Kosha

The Pranayama Kosha is also known as “The Breath Sheath’. “Prana” means energy. The breath sheath is most important as it is what gives life to the self. It has five different prans which include prana, apana, udana, samana and vyana. Each prana functions differently to give life to the physical self. It is vital to life to think and to show movement. The energy transmitted through prana can be mental, physical, psychic and spiritual.

3. Manomaya Kosha

The Manomaya Kosha is also known as “The Mind Sheath”. “Mana” means mind. The mind appears in three levels, which includes The Conscious Mind, The Subconscious Mind, and The Unconsciousness Mind. Where the unconscious mind is the atman, the subconscious mind collects the experiences from the surrounding and the conscious mind connects the self to the outer world. This manomaya kosha is responsible for our thoughts, feelings and emotions.

4. Vijnanamaya Kosha

The Vijnanamaya Kosha is known as “The Intellectual Sheath”. “Vijnana” means subtle knowledge and wisdom. Through the intellectual sheath, the self reaches a higher level of consciousness by being indifferent to the body and the mind of the self. We question our wisdom to achieve a truthful soul and consciousness. We take decisions and become responsible for our actions.

5. Anandhamaya Kosha

The Anandhamaya Kosha is also known as “The Bliss Sheath”. “Anandha” means bliss. The bliss sheath connects us to the unconscious or the superconscious mind. When the soul does connect to the unconscious or the superconscious mind it is considered to have attained to a higher level of presence to the senses. This is the peak of vibration, and happens when one realizes the self or the God and the self would have attained liberation.

What are the benefits of Pancha Kosha?

Pancha Kosha Meditation and Yoga helps one to calm the mind and improves concentration. It helps the thinking and creative skills of the mind. There is a high level of clarification in one’s communication and consciousness. This type of meditation guides us to relax and rejuvenates the physical body that makes you aware of all the levels of existence within oneself.

Santhi Yoga International Teacher Training and Research Foundation helps you discover yourself in the deepest aspects of the mind and the self. Contact us to know more about Santhi Yoga Meditation and Yoga Courses.

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Wait! Before you call your boss to call in sick, pause and think for a second. You are almost going to turn a healthy, productive day into a lazy, dry day.

You can get rid of this laziness pretty easily. To keep your body alert and warmed up, it’s important that you give sufficient supply of healthy foods and fluids to your body along with proper and timely exercise.

• Start your day with Yoga

Studies have proved that morning Yoga help to keep your body energized throughout the day. So, start your day by being conscious of your breathing and state of spirit.

While meditating, breathe slowly and let your emotions guide you for a while. Remember, morning yoga is also about taking slow but deeper breathes so that your lungs are happy and stress-free first thing in the morning. Practising yoga in the morning also helps you with increased blood flow and keeps your metabolism up.

• A hot cup of green tea

There is nothing better to get you energized like a hot-poured, perfectly blended cup of green tea in the morning. It is not only a healthier alternative to coffee or even milk tea, drinking green tea in the morning will help you to shed some extra pounds. The antioxidant properties of green tea will make your skin look radiant.

• Focus on Nutritious Diet

Laziness may also point towards your body’s reduced energy level. To overcome this it is important that you provide your body with a fixed amount of sufficient nutrients, every day, like carbohydrates, fats and proteins, through which the body derives its energy.

• Drink water

Dehydration, mild or not, is enough to get you all dreary and dull.  This can even lead to sleeplessness and fatigue. So, grab a glass of water or two, every time you feel thirsty.

• Add some Green to your life

A houseplant can help you filter the pollutants like volatile organic compounds and ozone. The plants are even capable of eliminating those harmful chemicals out of your room that can have both long-term and short-term effects, like energy-draining allergies and headaches.

• Smile!

We all want to wake up with a big smile every day. In this modern world of deadlines and traffic, having a happy heart takes effort. Practising yoga during the morning is said to help you relax your tensions and will leave you with a positive effect on the rest of your day. There is no better cure for your dullness other than a good laugh or a hearty smile.  

Do you feel too depressed getting out of bed? Have a cup of green tea. Theanine (amino acid) present in the tea leaves relaxes your nerves and helps you to stay happy.

• Take a cold shower

Researches have shown that a three minute long, cold shower will help to counteract even chronic fatigue. A cold shower in the morning will get you all fresh and ready for the long day ahead.

As Benjamin Disraeli said, ‘Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.’

Even though feeling lazy is natural and common, if not taken seriously, it has the potential to completely consume us. So, instead of allowing laziness to drain you, make your mind up to fight it.

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The way each of us connects with yoga will be different but profound. Whatever your reason to practice yoga might be, the real intention of yoga lies in becoming free, whole and alive at the same time.

For me, it is to stand on a yoga mat with absolute awareness of breath and body. It is to feel the gross physical weight of the body through my feet and to be open to what is going to happen next.

Waking up to yoga is when you stop looking for anything, any gain or any reason, where awareness is the practice itself.  This process of awakening is called yoga.

Wake up to the breath

Breath is what ties us to the present.  Focusing on the breath allows the mind to be in the present moment.

Most of the ancient yoga or meditative traditions focus on the breath as a tool for their contemplation.

‘I see me, I see my breath.’

when I say ‘my breath’, I am associating the breath to be mine. When in reality, breath is just breath. Once you stop identifying it to be your’s, our sense of separation will go away. You will wake up in a space where your previous notion of breath falls away. You are no longer what you identified yourself with. You don’t just breath, you become breathing.  

Each time you breathe you are entering life. You are creating ways to see yourself and the world clearly by letting go of the identity of who you are.

It can take years to come to the awareness of identifying breath as just breath. The key is to practice focusing on the breath until it becomes a rhythm through which the experience of yoga unfolds.

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Not one precedes the other.

Detox drinks/water is the easiest way to ensure that our system is spick and span and healthy. They are easy to prepare, easy to store for multiple days, and can be made using simple ingredients. Start with recipes that include lemon, celery, cucumber, honey, berries, green tea or fruits.

Importance of detox drinks
Flushing out toxins out of your system is an important part of living healthy because even with a healthy diet, toxins might still get into your system in the form of stress, environmental factors and tons of other issues that can increase toxin levels in your body. Detox drinks help you keep the toxins out of your system.

Here are some of the best and easy to make detox drinks to help you clear out your system.

• Honey-lemon-ginger

Ingredients
Lemon juice: ½ lemon
Ginger: 1 tbsp of fresh ginger juice
Honey: 1 tbsp
Turmeric

Mix ginger juice (anti-inflammatory) with a dash of turmeric. Add lemon juice (vitamin C) to the mix. Add raw honey (antioxidant property) right before you drink your detox.

You can store the ginger extract in your refrigerator and squeeze fresh lemon juice and honey before you drink.

• Celery leaves-cucumber-lemon smoothie

Ingredients
Celery leaves: A bunch
Lemon: 1/2

Cucumber: 1

Wash and clean celery leaves (excellent source of beneficial enzymes and anti-inflammatory) and add sliced cucumber (hydration) to it. Squeeze lemon juice (vitamin C) to the mix and blend it all together to have yourself an amazing smoothie.

• Pomegranate-beetroot-aloe vera

Ingredients
Pomegranate juice – 2 cups
Beetroot chopped – ½ cup
aloe vera – 1 fresh leaf (2 tbsp)

In order to take the aloe vera gel (anti-bacterial), carefully peel off the rind and the yellow layer beneath the rind from the aloe vera leaf using a knife. Add pomegranate juice (vitamin C & antioxidant) and chopped beetroot (fights inflammation) to a blender and blend. Clean the aloe vera gel and add it to the mix. Give it a whiz before drinking.

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The truth is even for an experienced yoga instructor, certain yoga poses can be hard. There will be poses that you handle elegantly, and then there will be poses that you can’t handle that well.

Yoga is not about dreaming of something different from what reality presents us. It is about letting yourself go and accepting you the way you are. Don’t push yourself to perfection. Practice mindfulness, perfection will follow.    

To make this process easier, there is a little something that I did, which helped me.

1. Connect with your breath

Breathing is life itself. Yet it’s surprising how less we connect with it. When was the last time you were truly curious about your own breath?

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

There are two types of breathing – unconscious breathing and conscious breathing. As the name suggests, unconscious breathing is the normal involuntary state of breathing, something that we hardly notice. Whereas, conscious deep breathing is controlled by the cerebral cortex. It engages your brain more effectively and has the power to alter even your emotions.

Inhale deeply. Exhale fully and deeply. Welcome to living.

1. Learn your body positions

You don’t have to be a yoga expert to notice the position of your body. Take a conscious effort to notice your body postures as you do your daily chores; learn and perfect them as time goes.

So, next time when you are walking home from your work or while having dinner with your friends, take a moment to analyse what’s going on with the positions of your body.

If you are putting more weight to one side of the body, make a conscious effort to regain the position of balance. If you notice putting that extra unnecessary tension on your jaw, hands or shoulders, take a deep breath and free yourself from it.

There are many other ways yoga can reflect your life in a much better and balanced way.  

Follow us on social media and stay tuned for our weekly blogs. See you soon.

Love.

The post 2 Simple Steps to Reflect Yoga in Your Everyday Life appeared first on Santhiyoga.

The responsible person

“ In peace of mind, all sorrows of a human being disappears” Says Bhagavad-Gita. It is peace of mind and not pieces of mind! Peace seems so simple, yet, why a person don’t get it in spite of best efforts, is the question. The answer is, peace is always there, it is disturbed with one’s own mind! “ One should raise oneself by oneself, one should not demean oneself by oneself; One is one’s own friend and one is one’s own enemy” reminds Bhagavad-Gita.

The Intruders of Peace

The distracted mind is inefficient. Mind itself is efficient due to distractions, it creates a myth in you. The myth is that I am restless or inefficient. If you are aware of the whole mind, then there can not be any intrusions. intrusion can be sadness, fear, jealousy, hatred, egoism, lust etc., If you are able to bring the mind back from these emotions to dwell upon the Truth, which is awareness, then you are what you are!

You are the Owner of Peace

If you are aware of the intruding emotions or thoughts, then you are able to bring the mind back to the reality- awareness. All your emotions subsides in your awareness. Thoughts and emotions does not have an independent entity, which is very much evident from the fact that all of them dissolves in your awareness!

When you are aware of sadness, it disappears, when you are aware of fear, it loses its existence, when you are aware of hatred it is no more on your mind! All the functions like disturbing thoughts which happen due to mechanicalness of the mind and inevitable emotions lose themselves in your awareness.

How to be aware always is the million dollar question.

Yoga unfolds the solution.

The post Your search ends in yoga! appeared first on Santhiyoga.

The urge to possess

In the absence of the toy, the child starts to cry! In the presence of the toy, the child plays,laughs,hugs it and keeps it.The child finds security in the possession of the toy!

The child as a grown up adult learns more only to possess more. The same urge continues. Even though the toy doesn’t interest an adult any more, the urge to possess exists.

The education that enriches the person is considered as essential. The education to know more leads to possess more like house, car,and luxuries of life.

Possess the reality

In spite of the education and possessions, if a person finds an urge to know more, this time the urge to know the reality, the inquisite person is awaken in you.

If you inquired to acquire the reality of life, which are peace and freedom in you and only in yourself, then you are on the right place to seek these two purposes of life too.

The right place is Santhi Yoga international.

Confining the learning not only within four walls but also within a preconditioned mind prevents one from learning the realities of the world and the ”I”.

Possession for the life time

If you have the enthusiasm to possess, this time the reality of life that last for a lifetime, then you are going to possess something none other than yourself.

The well-informed teachers, the inquisitive student bring out the teachings of yoga in its full bloom! Not only the health of the body, fullness of the mind too.

This twin combination of mindful of peace and holistic health of the body results in freedom here and now!

Yoga a way of life

Each day is new when you start to practice yoga. Yes, yoga renews each day,each week, each year and this life!

Asanas agility

Santhiyoga teaches you not just physical exercises but postures called as Yoga Asanas positioning your body for health, the yoga way

Pranayama power

Santhiyoga helps you to breath to retain best possible energy through pranayama instantly enriching peace and health.

Toxins removed easily

We share the knowledge with you how to cleanse the internal organs of the body through six kriyas (shatkriyas).

Bandhas and mudras to lock and seal energy to overcome any physical ailments.

Yoga texts, the treasure house

The text on Yoga is your treasure now as Santhiyoga unfolds to you the gist and explanations of the text to you in just 4 weeks’ time.

Experience the richness of the intellect of the enlightened masters who lived for people like you. Yes, you are entitled for the learning of yoga from its source. The land of the yogis.

International yoga teacher training – made for you.

The four weeks of International Yoga Teacher Training (200 hours) is ideally suited to you. A busy executive needing to make a management decision, a teacher teaching students arts and sciences,an young employee, an entrepreneur, a student, home maker and a seeker of peace and freedom!

Come to take the Yoga Teacher Training course in 200 hours in Santhi Yoga International.

Walk in as a student of yoga!

Walk out as a teacher of yoga!!

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