Ashtanga Yoga (The Eight-Limbed Yoga)

Yoga is surrendering to the Supreme Lord and constantly remembering him. It is not an exercise process which people are portraying.

Yoga originated in India over five thousand years ago. Yoga history can be traced to the Vedic period, approximately 3000 BCE, and specifically to the Rig Veda - the oldest written book in the world.

Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian Philosophy. The date of its origin is difficult to pinpoint, as the actual era from which this knowledge came is much less important than the knowledge itself.

The word “yoga” is a Sanskrit term that has many meanings. The word is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj” – to yoke or harness.

One would bring an ox under control by harnessing it to a wagon in India. Similarly, yoga can be viewed as training and uniting the body, mind and spirit. It has been practised over the centuries in many different forms.

Ashtanga yoga literally means “8 limbs yoga. ” These limbs are defined in the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The following are the 8 practices or limbs:

1. yama (moral restraints) – how we relate to others

2. niyama (observances) – how we relate to ourselves

3. āsana (posture) – how we relate to our body

4. prāṇāyāma (breath extension) – how we relate to our breath or spirit

5. pratyāhāra (sensory withdrawal) – how we relate to our sense organs

6. dhāraṇā (concentration) – how we relate to our mind

7. dhyāna (meditation) – moving beyond the mind

8. samādhi (meditative absorption) – profound realization and inner union

The "Yamas" or the first limb consists of five parts: ahimsā (non-harming), Satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), bramacharya (directing one’s energy towards the Divine), aparigraha (greedlessness, non-hoarding).

The "Niyamas" the second limb also contains five aspects: śauca (purity), santoṣa (contentment), tapas (purifying practices), svādhyāya (self-study, and the study of sacred texts), Īśvara praṇidhāna (surrender to the Divine, Universal Self).

The "Āsanas" we practice have been given to us by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois who believes it necessary to enter into the 8 limbs through the physical postures.

The first four limbs are often called “external yoga,” and the last four are called “internal yoga.” The fifth limb, pratyāhāra, acts as a bridge between the external and internal limbs.

As students of yoga we are able to actively practice the external limbs, believing the internal limbs are the fruits of a sincere and continual practice.

These final limbs of our practice are a manifestation of grace that arise spontaneously, and are not something we can bring about through our own efforts.

The eight limbs are interconnected and not separate steps along this path. Whether one starts by practising the physical postures, breath awareness, or mindfulness in the daily practice of the yamas and niyamas, each limb encourages growth in the others.

As the body becomes steady and at ease, the breath comes under control, and the mind begins to experience moments of clarity, and peace.

SEVEN WAYS TO BE MORE AUTHENTIC AT WORK

The way I see it, there are two reasons we women travel through life losing sight of ourselves. Our diffuse awareness and our other-focused prioritizing. We aren’t likely to change, but when we get conscious and intentional, we make huge shifts in the balance of our priorities.

Generalizing wildly, we women have one beautiful pair of traits that opens the door for these huge shifts: we dream and we implement. We see the big picture and then we go about pinching the devil out of the details.

Before I give you the 7 Actions that will aid you in collaborating and delegating those details, I want to tell you a little story about Jane Doe the CEO (you, that is).

You were born with an inny.

Your parents swaddled and adored you and gave you nicknames like princess and honey love pot and sweetness.

They gave you Barbie dolls and you liked them. Mostly. Your mom told you that the world was your playground and that you could be and do anything you imagined. You built sand castles and mud pies with daisy frosting, and you punched Joey for cutting in front of you in the lunch line on pizza day.

You got straight As in math even thought you couldn’t imagine how it was relevant to, well, anything.

And then you were eleven.

E-leven. The boys were stronger, but you could still hold your own on the flag football team because you were a foot taller and ran like a cheetah. Boys were noisy and loud and gross, demanding the teacher’s attention and wiping their noses on the inside of their elbows, and life was way better when you circled up with the girls in solidarity and sniped out stiletto barbs that could cleave a life in two.

And then you were 15 and nothing made sense.

A yearning something yanked you into imperfect friendships and furtive dalliances. You excelled and failed in equal measure, wished people expected more of you and loathed yourself when they asked for more than you could give.

At 17 the yearning something transformed into direction, flanked equally by doubt and desire. You found your activism and your g-spot almost simultaneously, and for a moment, one excruciating moment, you considered raising chickens, throwing pottery, writing like Jane Austen and birthing babies like you might flip pancakes.

Somewhere in your late 20s, after the B.A. and the Master’s and the year in Costa Rica counting turtles and the job coup of a lifetime, you ran into yourself at an intersection. You had your feet on the ladder, a ring of promise on your finger and endless eggs cueing up to nest in your belly. The light turned green and you gunned it.

You knew you could do it all.

You’d been doing it all since you learned to walk. Promotion lead to partnership, and partnership lead to authority and in between the meetings and the diapers and the arguments and the invitations and the accolades, you realized your weekends with loved ones were spent shopping for cake mixes and power tools and suddenly you’re 43 and just like 15, not one thing makes sense, and your Jane Austen self sits on the curb where you left her, waving at you.

“Who am I?” You Ask

You’re Jane Doe, the CEO of everything, and nothing’s wrong. You’re in the right place at the right time for the right reason. And babe, it’s time to get your life back.

It’s no wonder we women find ourselves here. Even if we were blessed with parents and mentors who helped us discover and navigate the sweet waters of purpose-filled living, we have been aided and abetted by our culture. A culture that doesn’t much understand pause and reflection and stepping away from the madding crowd. A culture that still struggles to come to grips with equality and feminine leadership; a culture that is still fearful of the power of women. And sometimes we’re the last to know.

Navigating the Pivot Points

No matter if you’re household executives or house keepers, freelancers or entrepreneurs, cubicle expats or c-suite brainiacs, or a micro business owner raising goats and selling vegetables in the market in Kenya, we all reach at least one pivot point in our lives in which we question who we are and what our lives are missing.

How well we navigate this passage depends on our willingness to give ourselves what we need. To pause and reinvent. To open our mouths and ask for what we want. To recognize that everything is a negotiation and we’ve been doing it since we were born.

And We’re Good at It

But because we’ve been socialized to be nice and accommodating and selfless and giving; and because we’ve been trained to modulate our voices (read suppress) lest we be found bitchy, strident, bossy or mannish; because men approach negotiation factually and women approach it emotionally, we do our best to avoid it all together. We resist learning and training in the subject of negotiation because we compare ourselves to the way men do things and tell ourselves we can’t compete.

Getting the Keys to the Castle

What this all means is that we have to start where we are and become more like ourselves, not less. We have to know what we value, and in turn, we must learn to bend toward our intrinsic values in all relationships—work, family, community, neighbors, etc. As we begin to consciously live from our value(s) we naturally begin to make choices that express our value in the world, and in the work we do everyday. We’ve built the scaffolding for asking for what we want, and we’re beginning to notice negotiation opportunities everywhere.

It’s here, at this point, we find the keys to the castle and begin the process of transformation. It’s here that we finally see that negotiation is just a conversation. A conversation leading to agreement. A conversation leading to a different world. And it all started by talking to and negotiating with yourself.

So Jane Doe, as you unravel the who am I now question, it might be a good idea to let yourself off the hook for landing here, right now, with a big question mark on your forehead. Give yourself a break for having a philosophical moment, a pragmatic pause. Forgive yourself for dithering in quicksand. You didn’t get here because of some fundamental flaw in your nature. You got here because you’re awake, and listening, and ready to shift the balance in your life. Your whole life.

Seven Actions for Becoming More Like Yourself in 2012

1. Create 5 Daily Practices. One for self nourishment; one business or career-enhancing strategy; one thing you want to learn, one behavior you want to replace with another, better one; and one core value you’ll be mindful of daily to underpin your agreements in 2012.
2. Say no to most everything that doesn’t connect to #1.
3. Ask for help. As soon as you hit a roadblock, or ask yourself the question that begins with, “How do I…” ask for help. Get direction. Hire a coach.
4. Learn the grammar of negotiation so you can understand and strategically repeat what you’re already good at: having conversations that lead to agreement.You know where to go for that.
5. Start a mastermind group for the purpose of putting #1 in action. (Here’s a great guide to getting started.)
6. Implement daily productivity habits to keep your practices front and center. You need to keep your busyness temperature low, and your delegating and collaborating temperature high. If you need a resource for that, my absolute favorite productivity Diva is Sara Caputo of Radiant Organizing and she has a fabulous ebook worth every penny.
7. Choose the life you have. The only way to keep your agreements with yourself and make major shifts is to choose your imperfections and flaws—and choose to regard them as highly as you do your values and strengths. You are a complete package, as is, right now.

Be more like yourself in 2012, and you’ll like yourself more.

WHY MORE WOMEN SHOULD OPEN BUSINESSES

The Entrepreneurship Gender Gap Isn’t Shrinking

Women still start fewer businesses than men and are less likely to achieve business success, according to a comprehensive new international survey

Drawing on interviews with more than 175,000 adults and multiple sources of data, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2010 Women’s Report, released earlier this week, is the most comprehensive study to date of women’s business activity, says Donna J. Kelley, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College and lead author of the report. Evaluating 59 economies, it found that more than 104 million women ages 18 to 64 were actively engaged in starting and running new business ventures, and 83 million women were running businesses that were more than three years old.

Despite the impressive numbers, the report reveals a persistent gender gap. Kelley spoke this week to Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein about the findings and the policy implications of the report. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

Karen E. Klein: This GEM survey is the first to look specifically at women entrepreneurs since 2002. What’s changed?

Donna J. Kelley: We continue to see consistently that fewer women become entrepreneurs than men. In some economies you have ups and downs in entrepreneurship and women follow those trends. But in general, fewer women participate in most of the world’s economies.

In our 2010 data, only one country had more women than men involved in entrepreneurship and that was Ghana. What we see there and in many developing countries is that women participate out of necessity because they need to create income for their families and they have few other job possibilities.

Which countries had the highest participation rates for women entrepreneurs?

The Latin American economies and the sub-Saharan African region had more relative participation from women compared to men and there are higher entrepreneurship rates overall in those countries as well. In the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Northern Africa, we see both lower entrepreneurship rates overall and less participation by women.

What about Asia?

That’s interesting. Korea has the lowest participation rate for women relative to men even though the country as a whole has pretty good entrepreneurship rates. Japan also has low participation rates for women, and low entrepreneurship rates overall. China has both high rates of entrepreneurship overall and pretty good participation rates for women, with 16 percent of the male population engaged in entrepreneurship and 12 percent of women.

What kinds of factors determine how many women participate in business ownership?

There are a lot of factors, including the availability of employment options for women and the availability of child care. It’s hard to identify specific reasons in specific countries, but culture is really important. Talking with some of my Korean colleagues, they say there are definite role expectations for women and fewer day-care options. In China, women typically have their parents take care of the children so they are empowered to go out and work.

Read the rest of this article after the break at Businessweek.com

வெற்றிக்கனி உங்கள் கையில்

என்ன வேலை செஞ்சு என்ன பிரயோஜனம்! கஷ்டப்பட்டு உழைச்சேன்! பத்து பைசா வருமானம் உண்டா! உம்...'' என்று பெருமூச்சுடன் "உச்' கொட்டுபவர்கள் ஏராளம். இப்படிப்பட்ட நபர்களைப் பார்த்தார் ராபர்ட் ரிப்ளி என்னும் எழுத்தாளர். அமெரிக்காவைச் சேர்ந்தவர். "பீலிவ் இட் ஆர் நாட்' (நம்பினால் நம்புங்கள்) என்ற பெயரில் ஒரு புத்தகத்தை எழுதினார். அதில் அவர் சொல்கிறார். நான்கு பேர் ஆளுக்கொரு இரும்புத்துண்டை 250 ரூபாய்க்கு வாங்கினர்.  ஒருவன், அதை ஏதோ சொந்த உபயோகத்துக்கு பயன்படுத்தினான். இன்னொருவன் அதை உருக்கி, குதிரைக்கு லாடம் செய்தான். அதை 2500 ரூபாய்க்கு விற்றான். இன்னொருவன் தையல் இயந்திரத்துக்கு தரமான ஊசிகள் செய்தான். அவை 2.5 லட்சம் ரூபாய்க்கு விலை போயின. இன்னொருவன் அதையே சக்தி வாய்ந்த இயந்திரம் ஒன்றுக்கு ஸ்பிரிங்குகளாகச் செய்து இரண்டரை கோடிக்கு விற்று லாபம் சம்பாதித்தான். ஆக, இரும்புத்துண்டு ஒன்று தான். அதை விதவிதமாக வடிவமைக்கும்போது, அதன் மதிப்பு பலமடங்கு பெருகுகிறது. இரும்பை வாங்கிய ஒருவன் அதைப்பற்றி சிந்திக்கவே இல்லை. எதற்காக வாங்கினானோ, அந்த வேலையை மட்டும் செய்து விட்டு ஒதுங்கி விட்டான். அதேபோன்ற இரும்புத்துண்டை வாங்கிய மற்ற மூவரும் அவரவர் சிந்தனை, திறமையைப் பொறுத்து ஆயிரம், லட்சம், கோடிகளாக மாற்றினர். நம் எல்லாருக்கும் திறமை ஒளிந்து கிடக்கிறது. அதை நாம் தான் வெளிப்படுத்த வேண்டும். சிந்திக்கும் திறன் மட்டும் வாழ்வை மாற்றிவிடாது. சிந்தனையை தைரியத்துடன் செயல்படுத்துவனே வாழ்வில் வெற்றி பெறுகிறான். இதற்கு கடவுளின் அனுக்கிரகமும் தேவை. எனவே, காலையில் எழுந்ததும், ""நான் இன்று இன்ன வேலை செய்யப்போகிறேன், அதை நிறைவேற்ற நீ என்னோடு இரு,'' என்று கடவுளை வேண்டியபிறகு பணிகளைத் துவக்குங்கள்! கடவுள் உங்கள் பக்கம் நிச்சயம் இருப்பார். நீங்கள் வெற்றிக்கனிகளைப் பறித்து தள்ளூவீர்கள் V.VISHWANATHAN.