Most yoga exercises require a quiet place for practice but there are also a few exercises that can be performed almost anywhere. You can do these as you wait in the doctor's office, in your office chair and even while doing the grocery shopping! These exercises are authentic yoga 'asanas' and will tone your body and your mind just as well as any other yoga asana. Warning: a couple of these asanas may look weird to someone who does not know what you are doing so use your discretion!
Strengthen abdominal muscles
Stand up straight with your feet together and your hands by your side. Breathe in slowly, distending your abdomen as much as you can as you do so, then hold your breath for a few seconds. Slowly release your breath, drawing in your abdomen as much as you can, lifting up your rib cage at the end to suck in your stomach even more. Hold this pose for a few seconds, then repeat. You can do this about 3 or 4 times. This asana strengthens and tones the internal organs along with the abdominal muscles.
To improve concentration
Concentration is an invaluable skill and improves almost every aspect of your work and home life by calming the mind, not to mention your spiritual capacity. If you haven't tried to concentrate consciously, you will find that it is not easy. The mind is very difficult to control but we can use a trick to make it easier. It is relatively easy to control the eyes and the eyes can actually help focus the mind. So we choose a point or object to focus on. Keep in mind that real yogis choose a very significant 'point' to focus on, like a yantra design, a holy symbol or something similar but this is not compulsory. Then we sit down and look at that point for 10 minutes every day. If your eyes wander or stray from that point, gently bring them back to the object. Don't worry about the thoughts that flit through your mind and try to ignore any physical sensations that may come up. Just try not to take your eyes off that object. This will be difficult at first but practice makes perfect and you should be able to do it well soon enough.
The Lion Pose
This asana is done sitting on the edge of a chair and is based on Simhasana or the Lion Pose. It is invaluable for exercising the nerves, face, jaw, mouth, tongue, eyes and throat, all of which are rarely exercised in any other way. But we should, because exercising the face makes us look better and you will be pleasantly surprised by how good it makes you feel. Tense and spread out your fingers as far as you can while resting your palms on your knees and keep your head and back straight. Now open your mouth wide, stick your tongue out as far as it will go, open your eyes wide and stare intently at the tip of your nose. Hold this position for a few seconds before repeating four or five times.
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