Kanika Vasudev
“Today’s Youth is tomorrow’s future” and we need to make sure that this future should have the energy and brightness of the sun to enlighten themselves as well as their coming generations. In order to make a brighter future a holistic approach of physical, mental and emotional well being is required.
But in today’s era, younger generation’s mentality related to health or well being is confined to their physical outlook, their body appearance, muscle tone or in short their outer look. The youth today is more inclined to 22 inch biceps and 8 packs. To achieve their perfect physical look they rush and knock the door of gym and start WORK OUT.
The question arises here is, Do we really need to go for ‘WORK OUT’ which means spending energy, cutting energy, that ultimately drains our physical as well as mental energy to give shape to our body or we should go for ‘WORK IN’ which means adding energy that ultimately recharges our physical as well as mental health to have complete state of well being and happiness. So we need to widen our vision from Work out that is just paying attention to BMI (Body Mass Index) to a holistic term Work in that is paying attention to BMI (Body Mass Index) as well as BPI (Brain Performance Index).
WORK IN MEANS YOGA
Yoga, a highly developed science based on deep inner study of human body and intense practices of our Ancient Rishis is the only way to work in on ourselves.
If we go back in time to the gurukuls of ancient India , the centre of learning, when a student goes there one of the most fundamental thing the student was taught was Self Enquiry, he was taught to explore his thoughts, his emotions, discover his different traits that make up his composite being through yoga ,meditation and everything was built around this as the foundation but today our education system has gone so far away from this that we are taught everything about the WORLD OUTSIDE but really so little about the WORLD INSIDE us .
YOUTH AND WORK IN
It is a common misconception that “older people are uniquely suited for Yoga “.But my dear friends in a country like India, where youth population is much more than older ones, where youth are working hard to give shape to our country by trying, working, discovering, struggling etc. and are facing many problems which is exhausting them physically as well as mentally, here yoga becomes need of the hour .Some of the problems with Yoga as a solution are discussed here:
Peer Pressure
Most of the youth, individuals are living a life influenced by others and often fall prey to peer pressure and indulge into dangerous habits like drug addiction, alcohol abuse, smoking etc.
Yoga as solution: As Yoga is a holistic science as well as preventive in nature. It has been proven through researches that Yoga help reduce stress and asana like Shavasana, guided meditation are very easy to practice and rejuvenates the senses so that they do not come under influence of others and can become the master of their own lives.
Obesity and Unhealthy Food Choices
Today’s youth especially living in the cities and urban areas are becoming unhealthy because of overuse of packaged foods and fast foods. This ultimately leads to obesity and brings with it lots of disease like diabetes and thyroid that are becoming common with youth girls.
Yoga as a solution: Yoga infuses the required energy and stability in Indriya (senses) through various Yoga asana practice. Through Yoga the concept of AHAR (balanced Saatvik diet) and VIHAR (balanced actions) becomes clear which ultimately leads to healthy food habits.
Bullying at educational institutes
Education institutes are integral part of every young individual’s life and fear of getting bullied are nightmare reality.
Yoga as solution: Yoga coordinates mind, body, senses and spirit and teaches self restraint and how to build healthy relations. It teaches the art of concentration and focus which is the main aim to study at education institutes.
Insecurities leading to Anxiety and Depression
Today our educational system has gone so far away from that we are taught everything about world outside but really do little about the world inside us. As a consequence we tend to look for ourselves how we appear in peoples mind, we have insecurities related to each and everything and that eventually makes us mentally sick and exhausted. Branded clothes and latest iPhones are status symbol of today’s youth. Youth are slowly losing touch with their inner consciousness, their inner worlds but very conscious about outer lifestyle choices. This causes depression, anxiety leading to addiction and alcohol abuse
Yoga as solution: The greatest benefit you can receive on mat is self acceptance, self love which over time gives confidence to live life to fullest. Yoga teaches self reliance and not to depend on good to feel good.
So Yoga as work in is much more than a physical exercise. Practicing Yoga allows one to connect with their body and mind in a way that is hard to do while running on treadmill or lifting weight.
According to Shri Aurobindo famous poet and visionary defined Yoga as “accelerated evolution” Yoga means anything that we do to speed up the rate at which we grow to become more today than what we were Yesterday, to break free our limitations all would come under umbrella of Yoga.
LET’S START WORK IN
* Make every day a Yoga day.
* Young generation should actively participate and start WORK IN on them, so that they can work on their family, then their society, then city and subsequently their nation.
* Awareness among people about treasure of Yoga should be on peak.
* Some movements like YOGA and YOUTH MOVEMENT that can be abbreviated as YO-YO Movement must be started.
* Find Yoga class in your vicinity, some non profitable Yoga classes are successfully running and changing life of people for better like one of them is Arogya Bharti.
* Schools and colleges should give their part and start their day with 20 minutes Yoga session. This 20 minutes Yoga session will do wonders in developing brighter, healthier future.
So finally we have to make Yoga our lifestyle. The country which gave whole mankind gift of Yoga and Ayurveda must show the power of Yoga and Ayurveda by working in and adopting it as a lifestyle.
(The author is Arogya Bharti Yoga Trainer)
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