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The 3 main benefits of the Legs-up-the-wall yoga pose

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

Would you like to know a quick tip for refreshing your tired legs, sore back and rebalancing your energy levels after a long day? Practice the Legs-up-the-wall yoga pose every day!

Legs Up the Wall Pose, also known as Viparita Karani in Sanskrit, is a restorative (passive) inverted yoga posture with amazing benefits.

The 3 main benefits of this pose

Firstly, it refreshes your legs especially after long hours of standing up or sitting down (especially if you are jetlagged). This happens as it assists lymph and blood circulation to flow from the legs towards the main body. Therefore, if you have swollen feet, varicose veins and tired legs, this pose will relieve and refresh you, give you a gentle boost, and rebalance your energy levels.

Secondly, it relieves headaches.The introversion of the pose with the head located lower than the feet and legs, wil help the blood to flow better to the heart, will lower the blood pressure and will increase blood circulation to the head. Therefore, it will lower the heart rate, quiet the mind and even relieve any headaches.

Thirdly, it relieves lower back pains.While the pelvis is placed against the floor, the lower back muscles will get stretched out and will be relieved from any pressure. Therefore, the pose will relax the lower back and relieve it from any pains.

How to get in and out of the pose

Start by finding a comfy spot next to a wall. You can either lie with your back on the floor or on a bed. If you choose to lie on the floor, you can place a yoga mat or folded blanket for extra comfort. Next, shimmy your hips as close to the wall as possible. Afterwards, stretch out your legs up the wall until your body is in an L shape. Make any adjustments if needed i.e. place a pillow under your head, rest your arms on your belly, out to the sides or behind your head.

At this point, focus on your breath; the best would be to try the belly breathing technique. For maximum results, try to keep the pose for at least 5 minutes.

To come out of the pose, bend your knees and simply let your legs lower to one side. When you completely lie on your side, push yourself off the floor and slowly sit up. Be careful not rush to get up quickly as your blood pressure has lowered and you might get dizzy!

Five top benefits of dry brushing

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

Have you heard of dry brushing?

Dry brushing is an ancient Ayurvedic technique which combines exfoliation and massage. It’s daily practice has many health benefits:

  • removes dead skin cells,
  • reduces cellulite,
  • improves skin texture and condition,
  • encourages lymphatic drainage,
  • increases blood circulation.

The most important benefit of dry brushing is the stimulation of the lymphatic drainage, also known as lymph node drainage. But why is this so important and why is dry brushing so effective?

First of all, our lymphatic system is responsible for eliminating cellular waste products. Thousands of lymphatic tubules collect waste and toxins from our tissues and then they transport them to our blood and kidneys for elimination. This process is known as lymphatic drainage. When our lymphatic system is not working properly, waste and toxins build up. This can lead to lymphatic congestion which is a major factor of inflammation and disease. This is why we need to stimulate our lymphatic system and help it release those toxins. And that’s why dry brushing is such a powerful detoxification aid.

Dry brushing should be incorporated in our daily routine, ideally before our morning shower. Firstly, choose a wooden, natural fibre body brush with a long handle. Start by using long, smooth stokes, and brush your skin from the feet upwards towards your heart. Then brush your arms, starting from the hands and again towards the direction of the heart. Include the shoulders and neck but not the face (facial skin is more sensitive and could be irritated). Overall you can dry brush for 5 minutes, then take a shower and finally use a moisturiser.

Photo by Cottonbro from Pexels

Walking meditation

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

Have you heard of walking meditation?

Walking meditation is a form of moving meditation. Precisely, it is a mindful walking practice that has its origins in Buddhism and can be used as part of a mindfulness practice that involves movement and periods of walking between long periods of sitting meditation.

It can be practiced regularly, before or after sitting meditation or at any time, such as during a lunchbreak, after a busy day at work or on a Sunday morning in the park. In walking meditation the experience of walking is used as the focus. Traditionally, there are several different kinds of walking meditation, such as kinhin, theravada and vipassana, if someone wants to get more into the practice.

Walking meditation is more than a simple stroll in the park as it is usually done in a much slower pace than a normal walk and it usually involves coordination of the steps with the breathing. Techniques can be as detailed as breaking down each step into 2,4 or 6 parts. The general aim, as in any mindfulness exercise, is to keep the mind in the present moment.

Walking meditation can make a difference especially for people who are doing seated work for long hours or those who spend extended periods of time for daily commuting. Some of the benefits are:

  • Boosts blood flow and raises the energy levels as the walking practice helps to get the blood flowing, especially to the legs.
  • Improves digestion (especially after a meal)
  • Reduces anxiety and depression as it is a form of gentle exercise which releases endorphines, the happy hormones
  • Improves sleep quality
  • Increases clarity and focus which in turn can stimulate creativity.

The pace of walking meditation ranges from slow to extremely slow. You can let your hands and arms swing loosely by your sides, hold them behind your back or clasp them in front of your body around the height of your navel. Your gaze should be looking towards the ground just a few feet in front of you.

You can start by choosing a path or setting a time that you won’t be disturbed or you will have to rush. Once you decide the route, you can stat by observing your body and how it moves, then setting a slow walking pace. Afterwards, you can focus on your breath and synchronise your steps with the inhalation and exhlation. For example, you inhale and perform two steps, you exhale and perform another two steps. Gradually, you slow down your breath and inhale while performing for four steps, then exhale for four steps. Later on, you increase to six steps during inhalation and another equal six steps for the exhalation. The more often you practice, the more mindful you will become and you will start noticing the benefits of this wonderful yet simple mindfulness exercise.

Image by Tobi from Pexels

Belly breathing aka diaphragmatic breathing

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

Photo by Metadata

Breathing is the function that keeps us alive. Since ancient times, different spiritual practices have considered breathing the connection of our body-mind-soul and what brings our awareness to our bodies and the present moment.

Diaphragmatic breathing is the proper way to breath. Also known as belly breathing, it is a fundamental bodily function that mammals do instinctively. The process of breathing is facilitated and relies mostly on the thoracic diaphragm, the dome-shaped muscle located just below the lungs and heart, which contracts and expands continually during respiration.

During inhalation,the diaphragm contracts (flattens) so that the lungs fill with air. During this contraction, the diaphragm pushes down the abdominal internal organs causing the belly to expand. During exhalation, the diaphragm relaxes, thus the organs go back to their initial position thus the belly contracts. This bodily function is mostly done involuntarily.

However, because of several circumstances in our daily modern lifestyle, we unfortunately disrupt this natural process and we have developed a shallow breathing habit during which the diaphragm doesn’t move to its full capacity and the breathing is done with expanding the chest instead of the belly. Consequently, this causes several health issues such as stress, anxiety, panic attacks and even depression and severe mental health issues.

So what causes shallow breathing?

First of all, bad posture! For most of us nowadays, daily life involves sitting down in front of a computer. Even while using mobile phones, we tend to lean our hear down to look to our phone instead of lifting the phone higher to our eye level. Bad posture causes the shoulders to drop, the head to lean forward, the chest contracting and putting enormous pressure on the lungs and the heart. Consequently, as we cannot take deep breaths in, we start breathing shallow and faster which causes our heart rate to increase as well as the cortisol (the stress hormones) levels in our body. Moreover, we are inhaling less oxygen so our brain gets less oxygen too which lowers our concentration levels and while increases the possibility of headaches and migraines.As mentioned above, having a habit of shallow breathing creates chronic stress and anxiety disorders, even leading to mental health issues.

To reverse this shallow breathing and bring back the harmony and balance to our body-mind-soul, we simply need to connect to our breath. There are several ways to practice and relearn how to breathe properly. For a daily practice on your own, dedicate 5-10 minutes. Focus on your breath and your belly:

  • take a deep and slow breath in from your nose
  • let your belly rise/expand
  • count for 10
  • take a deep and slow breath out from your mouth
  • let your belly flatten/contract
  • count for 10

This can be practiced any time in the day, especially when you feel stress and you need to reconnect with your body and mind.

If you like to further your practice, you can start with holistic practices such as hatha yoga, meditation, taichi, chikung or/and internal martial arts which teach this principle as an essential practice for our energy system and overall welbeing.

The healing power of silence

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

“Listen to Silence. It has so much to say.”

Rumi, 13th century Persian poet
Photo by VisionPic from Pexels

Since ancient times, ascetics from different spiritual practices have spent significant amounts of time in silence and isolation, either with prayer or meditation. Even nowadays, monks and spiritual practitioners retreat themselves for days without socialising or talking to anyone. Throughout history, artists and musicians always had the tendency to spend time on their own in order to connect to inspiration and creativity. Nowadays, many meditation teachers advise that frequent meditative pauses throughout the day have poweful healing effect to our body, mind and soul regardless of our spiritual beliefs. So what is the significance of silence in our lives?

Modern science has proved that noise is destructive to us while silence is healing us. Various studies have shown that noise has a powerful physical yet destructive effect on our brains, because it causes the release of stress hormones. Actually, not only our brain, but our whole energetic field, our aura, receives noise as disruptive sound waves. Even when we are sleeping our body receives noise as intrusive and threatening to our system, therefore it reacts with releasing stress hormones. Consequently, living in a consistently noisy environment causes high levels of stress and can even lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, tinnitus and insomnia.

In 2006, physician Luciano Bernardi studied the physiological effects of noise and music. He surprisingly made a very important discovery. During the study, the participants were not only exposed to noise and music, but also to random stretches of silence in between. These pauses were far more relaxing for the brain of the participants than the relaxing music. In fact, these ‘irrelevant’ pauses became the most important aspect of the study as they had the most powerful and relaxing effect.

In 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that the root cause of 3,000 heart disease deaths in Western Europe was due to excessive noise.

All these facts and other important studies and practices are a proof that taking time to switch off is crucial to our wellbeing and our lives in general.

According to the “attention restoration theory”, when we are in silence, the brain can recover some of its cognitive abilities. Moreover, according to Imke Kirste, a Duke University regenerative biologist, two hours of silence per day can initiate cell development in the hippocampus, our brains center of our memory and senses.

Unfortunately, in our modern digital world, our brains have minimal time to switch off as we are exposed to enormous amounts of information. Modern life demands our brains to be in constant attention and consequently a lot of stress. This mental overload leads us into difficulties with making decisions, solving problems and daily functions. However, when we switch off and ideally spend time alone in silence, our brain is finally able to relax, release this constant focus and start its healing process.

To conclude, silence replenishes and nourishes our cognitive powers, raises our concentration levels, increases our motivation and helps us connect with our centres and balances us emotionally. Hence, as ancient spiritual masters always taught, silence is healing as it connects us deeply into ourselves and balances our body, mind and soul. The simple yet ancient practice of silence might be the healing balm we all need to cope with our modern lifestyle.

The five beneficial ingredients of golden milk

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

Have you heard of golden milk and its amazing health benefits?

Photo by flockine from Pixabay

Golden milk is a traditional Indian drink (called haldi doodh) that has its roots in Ayurveda. Basically, it is a blend of hot coconut (or almond) milk, ginger, ground turmeric, honey, coconut oil and black pepper. Nowadays it’s also known as Turmeric Latte. Traditionally it is drunk in the evening as it promotes restful sleep.

Golden milk has numerous health benefits due to its ingredients:

  • Turmeric, it’s main ingredient, has been used as an Ayurvedic medicine in India for thousands of years. It has anti-inflammatory properties and is very healing for conditions such as breathing problems, joint pains, fatigue and digestive issues. Modern research also suggests that turmeric is a potent antioxidant with antimicrobial and anticancer effects.
  • Ginger is well known for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial benefits.
  • Coconut oil for an addition of healthy fat which makes the turmeric more available for our bodies to absorb because it is fat-soluble.
  • Honey is widely known for its many health benefits but mainly for its antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal properties.
  • Black pepper also makes the curcumin in turmeric more bioavailable, so it’s an important addition as well.

How to make it!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of coconut or unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon of turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon of raw honey (or coconut syrup if vegan)
  • 1 cinnamon stick or ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  • a small pinch of ground or fresh ginger
  • a small pinch of pepper

Instructions:

  1. Add the almond milk to a small pot and heat on low temperature.
  2. Add the turmeric, cinnamon stick, raw honey or coconut syrup, and pepper and stir frequently for about 3 minutes until the milk is warm, but not boiling.
  3. Remove from heat and take out the cinnamon stick, if you used one.
  4. Add more raw honey or coconut syrup for taste, if needed.
  5. Add raw cocoa for a more chocolaty taste!

Enjoy and namaste!

The benefits of Epsom salt baths

Posted on by Fiora Touliatou

Article by Fiora Touliatou

Did you know about the benefits of Epsom salt baths?

Photos by Nono Bayar, Craig Adderley and Castorly Stock

Generally speaking, having a bath in warm water both relaxes you physically and emotionally. By adding 2 cups of Epsom salt and submerging yourself for at least 15 minutes, the process becomes even more healing. Firstly, on a physical level, the salts draw toxins from your body. Secondly, on an energetic level, their healing properties cleanse your entire energy system (your aura) and also they help you release stress and negative emotions.

 In case you don’t have a bath, there is also the alternative of a foot soak which is equally powerful. Just add warm water and epsom salts in a plastic container and immerse your tired feet while you sit on a chair. This therapeutic soak will both ground your energy and relieve your tiredness at the end of a long day.

You can add this healing ritual into your weekly self-care routine. Baths are both meditative and destressing so it is a perfect “me time” break. Apart from salts, you can also add essential oils and herbs such as lavender which has relaxing properties. In the end, remember to rinse away so nothing is left on the skin after the bath.