Yogic practices and their benefits

Upa-Yoga is a simple yet powerful system of exercise that activates the joints, muscles, and energy system. Based on a sophisticated understanding of the body's mechanics, Upa Yoga dispels inertia in the body's energy and brings ease to the whole system.
Upa Yoga essentially means "sub-yoga" or "pre-yoga". Because of its many immediate and evident benefits, the word Upa Yoga in Indian languages is commonly used to denote "usefulness".
Within the human system, the energy flows along 72,000 pathways called nadis. At the joints, the nadis meet and form nodes, making the joints storehouses of energy. Upa Yoga activates this energy and also lubricates the joints, creating an instant sense of alertness and liveliness. Article: Yoga for Children

Practice requirements:

• Suitable for ages 7+
• Moderate-level intensity
• No prior experience of yoga necessary

Benefits of Upa-Yoga:

• Relieves physical stress and tiredness
• Strengthens the joints and muscles
• Rejuvenates the body after periods of inactivity
• Negates the effects of jetlag and long travel

Surya means "Sun" and Shakti means "Energy". Surya Shakti is a complete process, which is largely physical in nature. If you do 108 cycles of Surya Shakti, it will make you fit and you will not need any other form of exercise. Surya Shakti builds the physical body-it makes the sinews and ligaments of your body strong. In Yoga, we give importance to sinews that holds the skeletal system and whole body together. When we do any yogic practice, which is physical in nature, the focus is mainly to strengthen those, not to pump up your muscles. Strengthening the sinews of the body is what will endure for long time and keep you well. Surya Shakti does this in a tremendous way. Surya Shakti is a dynamic form of the Sun Salutation which is an ancient yogic practice with a powerful sequence of 18 postures.

Practice requirements:

• Suitable for ages 7+
• Moderate-level intensity
• No prior experience of yoga necessary

Benefits of Surya Shakti:

• Brings about physical fitness and overall wellbeing
• Makes the sinews and the ligaments of the body strong
• Increases mental alertness and focus
• Creates a basis to move into higher states of energy
• Increases physical strength & stamina
• Realigns the musculoskeletal system
• Increases energy levels

Angamardana is a system rooted in yoga that offers everyone the opportunity to invigorate the body and reach peak physical and mental health. "Angamardana" means gaining complete mastery over the limbs, organs and other parts of the body. This practice revitalizes the body on all levels including the muscles, blood circulation, skeletal structure, nervous system, and the basic energy system. It strengthens the spine, builds physical strength, fitness and tenacity, taking years off the body. Designed by Sadhguru, Isha Angamardana needs no fitness equipment. It involves only the body and floor exercises that can be practiced anywhere, even during travel. More.

Practice requirements:

• Suitable for ages 8+
• High-level intensity
• No prior experience of yoga necessary

Benefits of Angamardana:

• Strengthens the spine, skeletal system, and muscular system
• Builds physical strength, fitness, and tenacity
• Invigorates the body, bringing a sense of lightness and freedom in the body
• Prepares the body for Hatha Yoga
• Revitalizes the body including the muscles, blood circulation, skeletal and nervous systems
• Helps in weight-loss

Surya Kriya is a potent yogic practice of tremendous antiquity, designed as a holistic process for health, wellness, and complete inner well-being.
"Surya" means "sun," and "kriya" means "inner energy process." Surya Kriya activates the solar plexus to raise the samat prana, or solar heat, in the system. It also balances a person's left and right energy channels, leading to stability of the body and stillness of the mind. This strong foundation becomes the basis to explore higher dimensions of life.
Traditionally available only to select groups of yogis, Surya Kriya is being offered by Sadhguru as a comprehensive spiritual practice that is ideal for the hectic pace of today's world. Article: What Activating the Sun Within Really Means

Practice requirements:

• Suitable for ages 14+
• Moderate-level intensity
• No prior experience of yoga necessary

Benefits of Surya Kriya:

• Develops mental clarity and focus
• Remedies weak constitutions
• Boosts vigor and vitality
• Balances the body, mind and energies
• Rejuvenates all the major organ systems including balancing hormonal levels
• Supports one to become meditative and experience peacefulness and joy

Hatha Yoga stems from a deep understanding of the mechanics of the body, and uses yogic postures, or yogasanas, to enable the system to sustain higher levels of energy. By practicing this profound science, one can change and enhance the way one thinks, feels, and experiences life.
Isha's Hatha Yoga program offers a comprehensive set of yogasanas which require no special physical agility or previous experience of yoga. It is a very subtle process of changing the energy in the system, which in turn straightens out physical and mental imbalances. Regular practice of Hatha Yoga not only improves health and wellbeing, but also significantly enhances the experience of kriyas and meditation. At Isha, Hatha Yoga is imparted not as a physical exercise, but in its full depth and dimension, enabling a person in the most fundamental way, to flower into his ultimate potential. Article: Yogasanas – Creating Health, Joy and Blissfulness

Practice requirements:

• Suitable for ages 14+
• Moderate-level intensity
• No prior experience of yoga necessary

Benefits of Yogasanas:

• Relief of chronic health conditions
• Evolution of body and mind towards a higher possibility
• Stabilization of the body, mind, and energy system
• Deceleration of the aging process

The system of yoga called Bhuta Shuddhi, meaning purification of the elements, is the fundamental process that underlies every other yogic practice. Simple yet powerful Bhuta Shuddhi processes are offered as a part of Isha Hatha Yoga programs, allowing one to cleanse the body and prepare for more powerful sadhanas.
The basis for all creation, including the physical body, is the group of five elements: earth, water, wind, fire, and space. The wellbeing of the body and mind can be established by purifying these five elements within the human system. This process also shapes the body into a stepping stone towards one's ultimate wellbeing. Article: Bhuta Shuddhi - A Comprehensive Guide on Its Significance, Benefits and Practices

Practice requirements:

• For ages 14+
• Low-level intensity
• No prior experience of yoga necessary

Benefits of Bhuta Shuddhi:

• Keeps the system in harmony and balance
• Prepares the system to handle powerful states of energy
• Enhances the capabilities of the physical body, mind and energy system
• Creates the basis to gain complete mastery over the human system

Practice requirements:

• Age: 14+
• Intensity: Low
• Experience: Beginner

Benefits of Jala Neti:

• Helps with the diseases of eyes, nose, throat
• Removes excess mucus and pollutants from nasal passages and sinuses
• Helps relieve insomnia, tiredness, improves the quality of sleep
• Prevents and helps with respiratory tract diseases like asthma, pneumonia, bronchitis
• Relieves cold, allergies, sinusitis
• Helps with tonsillitis, allergic rhinitis, hay fever
• Relieve migraine and headaches, anxiety, stress release and brings tranquility
• Helps with epilepsy

Bhastrika Kriya is a powerful kriya, which purifies the blood and increases lung capacity. It can be of assistance to people with asthma, allergy, sinusitis, hormonal imbalance and skin disease.

Practice requirements:

• Age: 14+
• Intensity: Low
• Experience: Beginner

Benefits of Bhastrika Kriya:

• It purifies the blood and makes breathing better
• Improves lung capacity and relaxes the system
• Benefits those with the following conditions: asthma, allergy, Sinusitis, Diabetes, Hormonal Imbalance, Skin diseases

Shanmukhi mudra is a simple but subtle practice that brightens and rejuvenates the face and eyes and brings about a state of balance leading toward increased awareness and meditativeness.

Practice requirements:

• Age: 14+
• Intensity: Low
• Experience: Beginner

Benefits of Shanmukhi Mudra:

• Improves vision
• Brightens the eyes and face. It improves the aura in the face. People concerned about their beauty can do it, actors can do it.
• Helps turn a person inward, prepares one for pratyahara.
• Rejuvenates different parts of the face, including helping with ailments related to nose ears, eyes.
• Helps relieve vertigo and tinnitus
• Enhances awareness
• Brings about mental balance

Eye-care practices we offer are a natural way to improve vision related issues which many a times stem from routine patterns of sitting in front of computers, televisions, phones etc.

Practice requirements:

• Age: 8+
• Intensity: Low
• Requirement: Must be practicing either Upa-Yoga, Angamardana, Surya Shakti, Surya Kriya, or Yogasanas

Benefits of Eye-care practices:

• Strengthens the eye muscles
• Improves eyesight
• Helps relieve eye strain from prolonged exposure to computers, bringing relaxation to eyes
• Recommended for those with Myopia and Hypermetropia

Practice requirements:

• Age: 7+
• Intensity: Medium
• Experience: Beginner

Benefits of Yoga Namaskar:

• Activates the lumbar region of the spine in a tremendous way
• Strengthens the muscles along the spine giving it a reinforcement so that as one ages, the collapsing of the spine which causes pinching of the nerves does not happen.
• It is the best way to regenerate the spine
• A very simple and complete process by itself offering all round benefits for the entire body

Practice requirements:

• Age: 3+
• Intensity: Medium
• Experience: Beginner

Benefits of Thoppukarnam:

• Exercises the body
• Activates the brain
• Brings balance between right and left brain
• Leads to neurological alertness
• Enhances thinking capacity, concentration and memory
• Releases tension and brings ease
• Helps with mild depression and anxiety
• Beneficial for those with diabetes
• Beneficial for children especially those with disabilities like autism, dyslexia, ADD, adults with Alzheimer's etc

A powerful Yogic process to boost immunity and enhance lung capacity. Sadhguru is offering this simple but powerful practice to help boost immunity, strengthen the respiratory system and enhance lung capacity.

Practice requirements:

• Intensity: low
• Experience: Beginner

Benefits of Simha Kriya:

• Enhances the lung capacity
• Enhances immunity
• Builds Samath Prana, that builds an armor, or Kavacham for oneself against negative impacts

Everything that human beings have created on this planet was essentially first created in our minds. So how we organize and focus our minds will decide the direction our life flows. Using the power of the mind to create what one wants in his life is called Chit Shakti. The Chit Shakti guided meditations will help you to manifest love, health, peace and success in your life.

Isha Kriya is a simple yet potent process rooted in the timeless wisdom of the yogic sciences. Offered by Sadhguru, it has the potential to transform the life of anyone willing to invest just 12 minutes a day.

Benefits of Isha Kriya:

• Develop mental clarity and focus
• Create mental stability
• Create peace and wellbeing

There is a beautiful story in the yogic lore that describes how when Adiyogi utters three AUMs, a whole new creation comes into being. The story is a dialectical expression of the possibility of the sound AUM. Known as the universal or basic sound in the existence, AUM is a combination of the three primordial syllables - "Aaa", "Ooo", and "Maa". AUM chanting is a powerful practice that aligns the three fundamental aspects of the system - body, mind and energy - leading to a more profound experience of life. It helps stabilize the body and mind, thus eliminating psychological disturbances and alleviating chronic ailments. AUM chanting creates a powerful basis for further inner exploration.

Benefits of Mantra Yoga:

• Helps stabilize the body and mind
• Helps come out of psychological disturbances
• Relief from excessive fear, nightmares, unstable mind
• Remedies attention disorders
• Helps bring resolve in life

According to modern science, the whole existence is a vibration. A vibration is fundamentally a kind of sound. This essentially means that the whole existence is an amalgamation of sounds. In the yogic system, a few of these sounds have been identified as keys to access deeper dimensions life.
Nada Yoga uses the power of sound to activate a particular kind of energy in different parts of the body, bringing a lasting sense of inner pleasantness. This science of benefiting from certain sounds is a powerful possibility, which when transmitted with the necessary basis and sanctity, creates tremendous wellbeing.

Benefits of Nada Yoga:

• Nada Yoga uses the power of sound to activate a particular kind of energy in different parts of the body, bringing a lasting sense of inner pleasantness.

Yogic practices are tools to help one reach his best possible version. It would be beneficial for the children to know the possibilities of yoga. Some of the Isha Hatha Yoga practices can be taught to ages 4+ and 7+. These offer children the possibility to enhance their vigor, vitality, attention and joy.