Asana is more than just isometric training .It is a complete protocol of healing that works at the very root of the mental formations that give rise to the possibility of psychological pain. A comparison between exercise and asana will shed light on the multi dimensional approach of Yoga towards healing the body and mind.  

EPISODE 4 - SEGMENTS

1. Who’s The Boss
2. Vritti. The Root Of All Things Psychological
3. Exercise And Asana . A Comparison 

It may seem counterintuitive to have to keep the heart rate low during an intense exercise. Well, that must be just our conditioning because the body seems to want it. A steady and relatively lower heart rate is conducive to fat burn. These are also the ideal conditions for healing. 

EPISODE 3 - SEGMENTS

1. Why We Love Fat
2. Keeping The Heart Rate Low
3. Messing With Signals 

EPISODE 2 

Survival is a daily struggle for energy. The body does not mind fighting and paying a price if it could secure its energy source. There is a price we pay in terms of oxidative stress that has a corrosive effect on every cell. Can this be avoided? Can we train the body to extract the highest quality of fuel from its reserves without paying the price? The answer seems to be a resounding ‘yes’. 

EPISODE 2 - SEGMENTS

1. The Daily Trip Towards Order  
2. The Drive For Energy
3. Lighting A Steady Fire

In parts 1, 2 and 3, we have seen that mental illness can occur when we experience chronic stress due to a sedentary lifestyle, but this occurs only because we ignore the signals; pain is a purely physical danger signaling mechanism to help us avoid harmful experiences, but in daily life we experience psychological pain even when there is no danger to our existence, and this seems to be at the root of both chronic health conditions and mental illness.

Exercise can be more effective than medication as lasting cures to mental illnesses, but low levels of motivation poses a serious hurdle. There is a difference between doing regular exercise and leading a physically active lifestyle and both are equally vital; one cannot be a replacement for the other. We need to live active lifestyles and we need to exercise. What kind of exercise? Isometric exercise is best suited for healing. 

In part 4 we will see isometric contractions are an essential part of physical culture. We will draw up a comparison between exercise and asana and discover how the science of yoga comprehensively covers mental wellbeing.

EPISODE 1

Any effort at change requires some kind of action - physical, mental or both. Every action leaves an impact trail apart from helping you achieve a goal, an action also increases the chaos in the body and brain. Without healing, this condition can build up, leading to inflammations, wear and tear and toxicity which leave you vulnerable to mental disturbance, illness and disease. 

EPISODE 1 - SEGMENTS

1. The Electrical Imprint Of Our Mind States  
2. Healing. The Other Half Of Action 
3. Free Radicals. The Elephant In The Room
4. The Art Of Doing Nothing
5. The Chaos Factor

In conclusion, we point out that Asana seems to take care of the question of how to stay motivated in our quest to become mentally well and heal.  

We close on this note; which sets the stage for part 4 where we then plunge into Asana, the fourth limb of Ashtanga Yoga. 

EPISODE 5 - SEGMENTS

1. What Gives Meaning To Your Life 
2. For The Wisdom To Bloom
3. Self Monitoring. The Art Of Healing  

EPISODE 4

We see athletes, film stars, soldiers and a small band of people who exercise regularly. Is it because they have found a way to stay motivated? 

We will see that to successfully lose pain our lives, we need to not just have goals but  enter into what we can call the “goal state”.

EPISODE 4 - SEGMENTS

1. The Goal State
2. The High
3. A Motivating Error
4. Right Here And Now .. The Many Faces Of Happiness
5. Enjoying The Ride 

In spite of all its benefits, most people find it difficult to be motivated to exercise regularly. We will ask the question; is it because we are not naturally made to exercise ? If yes , then what is the answer? 

EPISODE 3 - SEGMENTS

1. The Insight Of Exercise .. Physical Healing Is Mental Healing 
2. Do We Really Like To Exercise
3. An Active Life
4. Exercise. A Recent Concept
5. Out Of Sync With Our Genes
6. A Form Of Compensation 
7. Can’t Force Happiness
8. Not Made To Be Couch Potatoes
9. Rahil. A Case Study 

Exercise is now beginning to be considered as the wonder treatment to mental illness. In this segment, we look at all the benefits of exercise; we touch upon the three kinds of exercise and then go in depth into isometric training as the best suited for healing the body and mind.

EPISODE 2 - SEGMENTS 

1. Exercise .. A Formal Engagement
2. Three Kinds Of Action 
3. The Three Philosophies Of Exercise
4. Energy For Exercise
5. Isometric Exercise .. The Healing Hand 
6. Body And Mind Affect Each Other 

Part 3: The Mental And The Physical 

In parts 1 and 2, we saw that mental illness at its core is a disturbance of the mind. This means that every time we are disturbed, we could say we are temporarily mentally ill. 

Pain is intended to be a purely physical danger signaling mechanism. We need physical pain to avoid danger to our body.

In a state of mental equilibrium, we experience happiness; but a disturbed state of mind takes over this pain mechanism and creates psychological pain which results in illusionary fears, defenses and pain patterns. This could lead to physical conditions, forcing the brain and body into ill health. This is due to the agency of ‘asmita’ - the quality of our mind to confuse what we experience with who we are.

In Part 3, we explore what we can do to avoid experiencing psychological pain

EPISODE 1 

We begin with exploring the premise set forth by the ancients that the problem is not ‘in’ the mind but the mind itself is the problem.

From here we see how after over a century of probing, science is now opening up to the possibility that at the root of mental illness is a lack of activity and a sedentary lifestyle. 

EPISODE 1 - SEGMENTS

1. Not The Problem In The Mind .. But The Mind Itself
2. The Divided And The Whole
3. The Answer That Was Always There  
4. A Prescription We Carry 

EPISODE 3

Just like we might learn a joyous activity such as skiing or gardening, we learn our illnesses too. The psychological component of pain is all about teaching our nervous system to react in a particular way to a set of circumstances. By implication, we can teach our nervous system to forget or unlearn psychological pain and experience its impact of our physical pain.

EPISODE 3 - SEGMENTS

1. Pain Can Be So Wrong
2. Chronic Pain .. The Beginning 
3. Losing Control
4. Chronic Means Mental
5. Learning An Illness
6. The Need To Unlearn
7. A Resolve