1) Empty stomach conditions

While practicing yogasanas, you should not only be on an empty stomach, your bowels should be empty. Anything that is not the body should be out of the body if you want to move your energies upward. 

 

2) Closed eyes 

For a human being, the visual apparatus are the most dominant. When you close your eyes, the world disappears – unless you have your own false world in your head! The eyes will naturally close for any internalization because the visual apparatus engage us with the outward.

 

3) Cold water

Before beginning your practice, it is always best to be immersed in or to allow a certain volume of water which is about five to eight degree centigrade lower than room temperature to flow over you. If this happens, the pores between the skin cells open up, and that’s important for practicing yoga because we want the cellular structure of the body to be charged with a different dimension of energy.

 

4) Frequency of your pratice

The Yoga Sutra says – sukham sthiram asanam. The goal is to achieve a state where your asana is comfortable and stable; if you remain like this for any number of hours it stays the same way without causing any disturbance internally. This is when your perception becomes bigger and bigger.

The point is not about doing yoga every day or twice a week, the intention is to knead the body in such a way that we can re-mold it. So, how much time do you have, to do the necessary work upon yourself – that much time you must do it.

 

5) Mirrors

There should never be a mirror or music when you practice Hata Yoga. The culture of using mirrors has come from body-building and gymnasiums because they want to admire their bodies. In yoga, that should not be the attitude at all. If you look at many yogis, their physical structure is not like that of an athlete – they are quite ordinary. Many of them are even pot-bellied because they never look at a mirror.

 

6) Speaking

If you speak, so many things change dramatically, not just physiologically but in the energy parameters also. So, not talking during the asana is not just a norm, it is a rule. You must never, ever speak in postures because your focus, breath and what happens to your energy system are most important; otherwise you will disturb the system.

 

7) Drinking water during yoga

When you practice yoga, you are systematically raising the ushna in the body. If you drink cold water, the ushna will rapidly fall, and this will cause various other reactions. You will become more susceptible to allergic conditions, excess mucus and such things. If you are doing intense asanas and you suddenly drink cold water, you may catch a cold immediately. So never drink water when you are doing asanas. And never go to the bathroom during practice time because you should work out the water in the form of sweat.