Yoke Hatha Yoga with the Raw Foods for Superb Health
Since writing my two books, Beautiful On Raw: UnCooked
Creations and Your Right to Be Beautiful: How to Halt the Train
of Aging and Meet the Most Beautiful You, about my exploration
and acceptance of the raw food lifestyle, I have added another
important dimension to my health regimen. Hatha Yoga. I firmly
believe that Hatha yoga practice has to be an integrated part of
the raw food lifestyle.
I discovered and converted to the raw lifestyle in an effort to
gain the peak of health, endurance and healing that I needed to
ensure that I would be able to maximize the results of my
upcoming surgical ordeal.
I was born in Russia with congenital hip problems that could not
be corrected. For 45 years, I lived with one leg shorter than
the other. I looked and felt like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
After immigrating to the United States, I prepared for the
surgery that would ultimately replace my hips and allow me to
walk without a limp. I was so accustomed to my tilt that when I
was at last straight, I felt as though I were going to topple
over at anytime.
I was thrilled with the results of the surgery and felt that
much of my ability to heal from such massive trauma was from
being on the raw food diet. I had to take private yoga lessons
that worked with my limitations but I have improved tremendously
and would not give it up anymore than I would go back to eating
cooked food.
Yoga and the raw food diet offer many similarities in the ways
they benefit the body. Yoga books describe the same euphoric
experiences I have found in the raw food diet. Both purify and
heal the body. Both offer powerful therapeutic effects in
dealing with physical and psychological problems. Both promote
radiant health.
Yoga is a systematic program whose sole purpose is spiritual.
However the unhealthy condition of the average human body is a
major obstacle to spiritual practices such as meditation, prayer
and self-realization.
Running, swimming and weight lifting are great for muscle
building but do little for connective tissue. It is the
flexibility of the joints and of the connective tissues that
gives us the feeling of ease and lightness in the body.
Think about that thin film running under the skin when you peel
back chicken skin. It is called fascia. Humans have it, too. It
runs under the skin throughout the body and even envelopes each
individual cell. All major systems of the body--the circulatory
and nervous systems, the muscular-skeletal system, and the
various organs are cocooned in connective tissue. Tensions
carried through the connective tissues are responsible for all
the movements of the body. Now imagine a young plant. It is
pliable and limber when it's young, but becomes hard, dry, and
brittle with age. So with the human body, which tends to stiffen
and tighten as we age. The body becomes choked in a net of
shrunken and rigid connective tissues like constrictive body
armor that is not only solidifying but shrinking by the minute.
Every system of the body, every organ, every cell is being
subjected to internal strangulation.
Connective tissues are tough and fibrous. Your connective tissue
doesn't respond to brief, repetitious stretches the way muscles
do. They stretch best when pulled with steady tension like
rubber band. Holding postures for a few minutes with moderate
stress will cause the body to develop longer and thicker
tissues.
Asanas increase your strength, stamina, and flexibility.
Combined with raw food nourishment, yoga postures release
tension and relieves pain even more effectively. You'll find
startling the resulting enhancement in your looks, improvement
in your posture, and your better skin and muscle tone. You'll
feel your vitality brought by Asanas to a new lofty height.
I owe all of my health-my transformation from distortion to
harmony-to a combination of the raw food diet and Hatha yoga. I
can now practice 90 minutes of serious stretching everyday. My
ability to recover and heal is the result of my raw food diet. I
am stretching the scar tissue and since it is stronger and more
resistant than regular tissue, I would never be able to practice
yoga daily without the miraculous benefits of raw foods.
Yoga postures and the raw food diet make you more alive. Each
practice complements the other, bringing many of the same
physical and mental benefits. Asanas and the raw food diet are
alike liberating, energizing, and exhilarating. As I practice
the raw food lifestyle with regular Hatha yoga, my sense of
feeling clean, good, and pure gradually becomes so prevailing
that it permeates every part of my life. My emotions undergo a
deep cleansing and healing paralleling similar changes in my
body.
Yoga postures gently stretch the connective tissues that encase
our joints, renewing our physical elasticity. Asanas lubricates
the body, increasing circulation and flexibility. Stretching,
twisting, bending forwards and backwards, vigorously massages
various organs. Holding poses combined with proper breathing
move stagnated blood that improve the flow of fresh nutrients
and drains away impurities. It relaxes tense, pained areas of
your body and strengthens weak areas. Both practices--asanas and
the raw food lifestyle--have their limits. For example, if the
ligaments or other fibrous connective tissues are shortened as a
result of injury or inactivity, raw food will definitely make
stretching easier. But your food won't do your stretching for
you. On the other hand, there are many people who practice
asanas regularly yet still struggle to achieve their optimal
weight. Adopting the raw food diet will make a world of
difference in that situation. Great as are the benefits of each,
they're finite benefits. For the best possible results, use them
in tandem.
Raw food will make your constriction less rigid, but it is Hatha
yoga that will stretch your tissue. Raw food furnishes the body
with the best material for optimal health. Hatha yoga helps the
body to make the most of it. "This article may be freely
reprinted as long as the entire article and byline are
included."