The Science of Yoga: Living the Good Life

The Science of Yoga: Living the Good Life

I lived “the good life,” and discovered that it wasn’t “good,” and that I needed to help others find the good in their lives.

Of my research with slumkids I posted some of my happiness sessions online. I was not expecting this but was pleased when it did. I was invited. To present and talk of my work I had to send an abstract, was one of the 5 people selected from the world, for Yoga Therapy Research Conference, in Texas. Alternative yoga therapist is what i got to be called, was new to me then.

Deborah, a therapist said "In the western world, we tend to associate yoga with exercise. People go to a gym, or a studio, and they often expect to sweat, stretch and strengthen their muscles." She did not know in India, having forgotten our ancient heritage, we do the same. 

But yoga, in its original context, is more a way of life, ethics with positive transformative powers. Thousands of years ago, the sage, Patanjali, wrote about yoga. In the Sutras, he referenced yoga asanas (postures) just a few times. 

What Patajanali made clear were rules for living, lifestyle. The first is Ahimsa, meaning non-violence, or do no harm. Other key yogic principles described in the Sutras are contentment, selflessness and eliminating greed and desire.

To live the life of a yogi, you need to follow these commandments, known as yamas and niyamas. They presede pranayam, yoga asanas, and meditation. in today's day we are jumping straight to pranayam, asanas with a kin of non-awareness of the personal and social conducts to be followed to ready us for "yoga".

My goal and practice has been to live these life rules. Along with compassion and empathy as guiding factors.iA social worker i gave social assistance but as an inventive therapist i give out positive personal wellbeing and therefore a social one in community. My life is an unusual or Anusual one. Born in India, the land of spirituality, i turned a high end super model and actress, traveling all over the world.

I went away from the city in self imposed exile for 12 years doing advanced Buddhist meditation, tantra, karma and hatha yoga and sufism. In the hinterlands of the Himalayas, I realized the nature of actual enlightenment, I realized I needed to get back to my tribe and share what I had learned.

Yoga came and so did dhyan and tantra, that helped later to turn me into a self-healed yogini.

Medically i am a miracle, called a Stanford research case study myself. After recovering from 29 days in a coma and a total temporary loss of memory, i self-healed holistically through mind based therapy, neuroplasticity, and began research of it in the slums of India. Following another yogic principle, detachment, I sold my house and chose to live a life of service. Karma Yoga.

I chanced upon an NGO sheltering kids in the slums of Mumbai. “It was one of the most depressing things I saw,” says Anu. “Kids eight to 16 years old were completely energy-less. Response-less. Dead. Like living dead. I went in and started talking to them. I told jokes. No one laughed. I didn’t even know if they heard me,” i had told a group of yoga therapists in South Texas in a talk at a SYTAR conference, 2014.

i knew she could transform the children’s lives simply by sharing wholistic or holistic tools of yoga therapy.

At first, I faced great resistance. The director of the NGO was focused on the essentials: food and shelter. She told me that the children didn’t need yoga. So I converted the director into my first student so that she could understand the transformational elements of yoga therapy.

I inherited the belief that we all need to be happy and we are happy beings. I wanted to bring happiness to these kids. I saw what yoga can do. I started teaching them fun yoga. First with the animal poses. I got their mind off their depression. Within a month, they were laughing, smiling, jumping.

Before I got them laughing and jumping, I brought them into deep levels of silence. Mindfulness stress reduction. I drew upon my experience living as a sadhu or wandering ascetic when I didn’t talk for four years. “The tongue is the easiest organ to move,” is my half-joke.

I practiced Yoga Nidra with the children. Although nidra means sleep, and one hour of nidra is equivalent to four hours of sleep, Yoga Nidra is a mindfulness practice. Under a veil of sleep, one remains awake and aware listening to guided meditation that produces a deep relaxation. Numerous studies have proven Yoga Nidra’s effectiveness, in particular for those with PTSD or sleep disorders or migraine and other mental ailments.

I also incorporated Ayurvedic music therapy. When a rock band was visiting from Hawaii,I shared body mind modalities with the children. i was happy to see within a year of my yoga therapy, the kids were positively transformed.

We live in a world today rampant with aggression, stress, ill health and depression. Despondency is not limited to the forlorn adolescent kids from low-income groups in slums. The emerging coalition of Holistic yoga and neuroscience has a vast scope in treating these ailments by working on the neuroplasticity of the mind. 

Yoga is the ultimate connection with the supreme self. I’m not the same person I was. There was a girl called Anu Aggarwal. A superstar traveling the world I am a higher version of, have evolved, I still travel the world but it was spreading the good, transformative word through presentations and talks. 

My non-profit is called Anu Aggarwal Foundation which works on bringing a positive inner transformation in individual minds and therefore the community. A non profit NPO we welcome volunteers, run solely on donations and make sure that while you get tax exemption on the amount you donate, we run on a transparent principal where we take extra care to see the donations coming in are accountable for and used wisely for the upliftment of society.

For more information, visit www.anuaggarwalfoundation.org