Yoga for Health
By Dr.Aruna Shukla, Indian Cultural Centre, Bali

This is the last practice of all yoga for beginners from number 22 to 25. Hopefully all practice start from beginning to the end can harmony your body and mind to get a healthy life.

22. KAPALABHATI
This is one of the six cleansing processes of Hath yoga. This is related with the respiratory system. Sit erect in padmasana, half padmasana, or in any comfortable position. Put both hands on respective knees, exhale forcibly through both the nostril, simultaneously abdomen will be drawn in. Soon after completing exhalation with jerk, take the breath in and bring the abdomen in previous position.
Benefits- This is very useful in asthma, cold and constipation. This makes the respiratory rhythm constant. Limitations-Those suffering from high blood pressure should not practice it.

23. UJJAYI PRANAYAMA
Sit erect in any meditative posture. Closing your mouth now slowly take the breath with both nostrils in such a way that while inhaling the touch of air is experienced in the throat and the some sound produced. After completing inhalation slowly exhale.

24. SURYABHETHAN PRANAYAMA
Sit erect, fold your index and middle finger of right hand towards the palm. Now thumb should remain towards right nostril and ring finger and little finger should be towards left nostril, closing the left nostril with the ring finger and the little finger, inhale through the right nostril. After inhalation close the right nostril with thumb exhale slowly through the left nostril. This one round of suryabhethan pranayama. Benefits- The practice of pranayama regulates the respiratory system and increases the lung capacity.

25. CHANTING OF OM
OM is formed of three letters "A", "U", and M, "A", and "U" when pronounced together becomes "O" while chanting OM. One should pronounce "O" for a short period followed by "M" prolonged as long as possible. At the beginning on should take a deep breath and then should start exhaling with the pronunciation of "O" slowly tapering it into "M"….and continuing it as long as the breath lasts. OM is a prolonged exhalation, hence it gives relaxing effects. During recitation of Om, attention is focused on the prolonged sound. Longer the sound, longer becomes the attention span. Long attention spam means increased concentration of mind. Daily practice is more beneficial them intermittent practice. It is the continuity that is more important than the intensity of the practice. Start your practice slowly, progress, gradually, and stop at the point of discomfort.

Monte Swims Lake Batur for Peace

October 16, world record ocean swimmer Monte Monfore made the first recorded swim across holy Lake Batur, in the highlands of Bali. The Bali Swim for Peace and Against Poverty supported two major events: Dewa Sraya, a Bali Hindu ceremony and the United Nations Stand Up campaign.
Following permission to enter the sacred water the 45-year-old Californian was blessed by a Bali Hindu priest at the lakeside Pura Jati temple prior to the historic swim. In a pre-swim announcement the endurance athlete dedicated his swim to "the beautiful Balinese people".
Despite high winds and the frigid mountain water the swimmer made the three-kilometer crossing in just under an hour (58 minutes 25 seconds). In a post swim announcement Monte sent a message of peace around the world and said, "Here on this beautiful island of Bali, peace is not just a word, it’s a way of life."
The swim was part of the global, UN-sponsored Stand Up Against Poverty and Stand Up For the Millennium Development Goals event held on 15 and 16 October. More than 23 million people participated worldwide, including some 300,000 in Indonesia. The swimmer and participants, from boatmen and children to gamelan musicians and priests, all wore white wrist bands as a symbol of commitment to the Global Call to Action Against Poverty.
Monte concluded speaking about his island home, "Bali is no longer only a place of transience for surfers and holiday makers. It has evolved into a place of substance. More than 20,000 foreigners live here. Many, like me, are planting roots and intending to spend the rest of their lives on the Island of the Gods."
"Bali is one of the most spectacular places on the planet. It has one of the richest cultures and most beautiful people in the world. This place is a tropical paradise with incredible scenery, fantastic beaches, and great surf. There’s a reason readers of international travel magazines continually vote Bali the most beautiful island in the world and I encourage everyone to visit this magical place."
A Bali resident since 2004, the marathon swimmer holds numerous channel crossing records throughout the region. This was his third United Nations-related event in six months. Earlier this year he contributed to two World Food Program efforts. In May as part of the worldwide Walk the World/Fight Hunger campaign the athlete swam a double crossing of the four-kilometer Bali Strait. In June following the devastating earthquake in central Java Monte’s 12.5-kilometer Yogyakarta Earthquake Relief Swim raised awareness and support for victims and publicized WFP emergency relief efforts. Bali Swim for Peace and Against Poverty event footage was sent worldwide by Reuters Television and Associated Press Television News. Contact Monte at: montemon4@hotmail.com. For more information please search Monte Monfore online. Keep Swimming Monte! (BTN/*)

Keep Away from Stress by Meditation

Prior to setting forth to the practice of meditation, let’s get acquainted first with the meditation itself. The first question, what is meant by meditation? Meditation is not a concentration of mind. Similarly, meditation could not be translated into samadhi as used in vernacular terminology. Sitting silently for a couple of minutes or hours that currently refers to samadhi is not really a meditation.

Meditation is lifestyle. It should become the fundamental of one’s life, and then he’s entitled to bear a predicate as meditator. Concentration is the step heading for meditation. In essence, concentration will make you uneasy just as climbing the steps that make you tired.
Meditation equals to the expansion of awareness. Final proceeding of meditation is samadhi or balance. Having arrived at self-balance, you will no longer feel uneasy, scared and worried. As a matter of fact, you get down to the life when you have accomplished the self-balance (Anand Krishna, in ‘Seni Memberdaya Diri 1’ or the Art of Self-Empowerment 1).
These days, the demands of human life do not only concern with food and drink. In keeping with the development of time, it also keeps on increasing. If calculated in details there are at least four demands, namely that of personal, family, employment and environment demands.
Personal demands encompass the needs of having much money, savouring delicious food, enjoying sexual pleasure, sleeping soundly, living healthily, having good children, becoming an important person and experiencing magical matters. Family demands, those who have got married must have husband or wife. It means that other than satisfying the eight personal demands, there are eight more other demands that ought to be born together. They have not included one’s children, brother or sister-in-law and parents or parents-in-law. If they’ve done, just multiply them by yourself!
Demand of employment or profession, at workplace there must be a senior, fellow colleagues and subordinates. Here, one is obliged to make cooperation with others to satisfy the demand of his or her senior. Demand of environment, as human we have to be responsible where we live. It’s our duty to maintain the harmony, either with the fellow humans, animal and nature.
If you are capable of satisfying the four demands mentioned above it means that you live your life peacefully. However, in reality we are not capable of meeting the entire demands. This incapability can result in tension or stress. No matter what your profession is, you can not take away from stress.
Dr. Setiawan, a neurosurgeon, in his book Ilmu Medis dan Meditasi (Medical Science and Meditation) writes that under the stress condition the hypothalamus in the brain produces particular hormone and neurotransmitter passing through the current of blood and transmission of sympathetic autonomic nervous impulse, stimulates the suprarenal gland. As a consequence, it produces Norepinephrine (NE), Epinephrine (E) and Cortisol hormone. And the body consequently turns turbulent. This neurologist enlists the alteration suffered by body as follows:
· Contraction of skin, kidney, intestines and spleen.
· Accumulation of sugar at liver gets broken apart.
· Accumulation of fat gets broken apart.
· Activity of the heart increases so its beat is getting faster and stronger.
· Blood tension rises or even goes down, if the sickness is too acute.
· Rhythm of the lungs turns faster.
· Accumulation of protein gets broken apart.
In the condition of prolonged stress, it will transpire serious complications such as:
· Injury on the stomach and small intestines.
· Lymphous gland functioning for the bodily immune gets wrinkled.
· Physical stamina drops drastically.
· Damage on blood vessel.
· Hypertension.
According to Dr. Setiawan, solution to avoid stress is by controlling the mind. The only one way to control it is through meditation. Meditation has been entrusted for thousands of years to help achieve peaceful condition. Peace can keep one away from stress. (BTN/Made Suambara)