The word kapaalbhaati accurately means ‘skull-shining’.  Kapaal meaning skull and bhati means shining.  Regular practice of kappalbhaati reduces stress while helping to calm the mind. Over a period one develops a healthy natural glow on the face.

Kapalbhati is not difficult; it can be practiced by novice yoga practitioners also.  One can learn it within 2-3 instructional sessions from a good yoga teacher. One needs to focus on exhalation.  Inhalation should be normal whereas the exhalation should be made with force. The force should be equivalent to what the individual can manage repetitively while exhalation. It has great relaxing and physical benefits. But, most practitioners perform kapalbhati for weight loss. It stimulates the respiratory system and the abdominal muscles, helping one tone out abdomen muscles which also helps improve body tone. Kapalbhati clears the respiratory passages which minimize risks of infections and allergies in the respiratory system. Due to the vigorous breaths of kapalbhati, the allergens and the infectious materials in the lungs and the respiratory passages are blown away which help in cleaning the body.

The Kapalbhaati technique helps improve the flexibility of the diaphragm. Because of the breathing technique used for this yogic kriya, the diaphragm gets ample of exercise and it becomes suppler and improves capacity of the lungs. As the diaphragm becomes stronger and more flexible, the risk of developing hernias also reduces radically. This pranayama is very effective in curing stomach disorder, obesity, digestive disorder and many problems related to stomach.

Kapalbhati practice helps improve blood circulation, especially in the lower half of the body hence it helps improve the functioning of the entire body. The technique also helps in increasing the lungs capacity and improves respiratory efficiency because it making more oxygen available to the body. When more oxygen flows into the body, the tissues and cells become more able to perform the cleansing. While practicing this pranayam you can feel very energetic both physically and mentally. Your concentrations power increases and you feel less tired.

How to practice Kapalbhati?

1. Sit straight with your spine straight with crossed legs on floor.
2. Keep the right palm on right knee and left palm on left knee.
3. Take in a deep breath and exhale quickly and repetitively, making a hissing sound. Focus on exhaling powerfully and not on the inhalation.
4. When you exhale think that your disorders are coming out of your nose.
5. When you exhale, draw your abdominal muscles inward concurrently. Your abdomen should rise when you inhale and fold when you exhale.
6. Continue for 10 breaths and then take a break. Repeat the exercise two more times.

Kapalbhati is described as the cure-all remedy available to mankind that works by balancing all bodily functions. Please try with every exhalation your intention for letting go of the unwanted emotions such as anger, disgrace, low confidence, jealousy, resentment etc. You will experience more clarity and peace. Since it works on the Heart Chakra (Anahat Chakra) and associated organs and systems of that region, it improves respiration, lung capacity and blood circulation.  Kapalbhati thus helps cure associated diseases of this region such as asthma, bronchitis etc. It works on the Manipur Chakra also. The associated diseases of this region are – indigestion, gas, diabetes, etc.

Words of caution: the side effects of Kapalbhati:

While kapalbhati has many plus points to improve body tone and relaxed mind, it is not recommended for everyone. Experts believe that certain diseases and disorders may become intricate if kapalbhati is performed regularly and unsupervised. Kapalbhati is not recommended for people who suffer from cardiac problems, hernia and spinal disorders. In addition, those suffering from severe respiratory infections, colds and nasal obstruction should also not perform this breathing and cleansing technique. Physicians usually ask people suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes to refrain from performing kapalbhati. Those with abdominal ulcers should also avoid performing the technique. Therefore, it is advisable to consult your doctor before starting practice; please start it only after consultation with your doctor and a qualified yoga instructor. It is best to avoid performing it on your own. Please remember that though kapalbhati pranayama steps are usually very simple, please ensure that you perform it properly or you may end up hurting physically.

Another study led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that leisure-time physical activity is associated with longer life expectancy. This holds true even at relatively low levels of activity and regardless of body weight. The study was published in November 2012 which stated that people who get engaged in leisure-time physical activity had life expectancy gains of as much as 4.5 years.

Moderate exercise vs vigorous exercise: Moderate aerobic exercise includes activities such as brisk walking, swimming and mowing the lawn. Vigorous aerobic exercise includes activities such as running and aerobic dancing. Strength training can include use of weight machines, your own body weight, resistance tubing, resistance paddles in the water, or activities such as rock climbing. In general, we all should aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity every day. If you want to lose weight or meet specific fitness goals, you need to exercise more. We should reduce sitting time which is most important. The more hours we sit each day, the higher is risk of metabolic problems. It is advisable to take a walk or climb staircase, or spot jog for 2-3 minutes after every half an hour.

Brief activities: Many experts say that even brief stretches of activity offer benefits; for example, if you can’t go for 30-minute walk at stretch, try three 10-minute walks instead. What is important is making regular physical activity as a part of your lifestyle. In other words, doing any physical activity is better than doing none. The healthiest tip is to do a moderate amount of physical activity to stay healthy. If you not practiced doing moderate exercise before, it is never too late to start. Start doing moderate exercise and gradually you may increase.

So if you currently do no physical activity, it’s never too late to start. Start by doing some, and gradually build up to the recommended amount. Remember this, if adults follow physical activity guidelines, medical facts suggest that it could result in reduced risk of all cause mortality by 30 per cent, cardiovascular disease by 35 per cent, breast cancer by 20 per cent, colon cancer by 30 per cent, and type 2- diabetes by 42 per cent and depression by 30 per cent. Follow this rule strictly: avoid prolonged periods of sitting and carry on muscle strengthening activities at least two days a week.

Avoid high intensity exercise: Experts also warn that high-intensity exercise is not appropriate for everyone and a medical clearance is required before starting. You need to have a better than average level of fitness to do this type of training safely at the intensity required.

A health survey which had more than 63,000 respondents (people), conducted in England and Scotland found these conclusions and observations: 1. people who said they exercised only one or two days a week lowered their risk of dying early from any cause by 30% to 34%, compared to people who were inactive. But what was more remarkable was, that people who exercised most days of the week lowered their risk by 35%: not very different from those who exercised less! 2. The findings support the idea that moderate physical activity—even if it’s less than what the guidelines prescribe, helps avoid premature death. Researchers saw benefits for people who squeezed the entire recommended 150 minutes per week into one or two days, as well as for people who didn’t quite meet that threshold and exercised less. 3. Exercise is effective at reducing the risk of heart-related death. The people who exercised regularly and those who exercised a couple days a week both cut their risk by about 40%. Again, the frequency of exercise didn’t seem to matter. 4. The same is true for risk of death from cancer. Those who exercised, whether it was every day or only a few days, lowered their risk of dying from cancer by 18% to 21%, compared to those who didn’t exercise.

So friends its better late than never. This proverb is often expressed with a degree of sarcasm, apparently saying something positive but in fact merely remarking on someone’s lateness. If you haven’t begun your exercising regimen yet, make a beginning now.

Taking a walk a day keeps the doctor away, because both physically and mentally it keeps you fit. The early morning walk is power packed with first rays of the sun which are the reservoir of energy, which is why people who take their morning walks are most energetic, productive and cheerful throughout the day. We all are aware that walking helps from helping lose weight, getting de-stressed to lowering blood pressure and reducing risk of many chronic diseases. Walking shores up your bones. It can stop the loss of bone mass for those with osteoporosis. Walking lowers Alzheimer’s risk. A study from the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville found that men between the ages of 71 and 93 who walked more than a quarter of a mile per day had half the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, compared to those who walked less.

For women post menopause, 30 minutes of walking each day reduces their risk of hip fractures by 40 percent. Walking supports your joints. The majority of joint cartilage has no direct blood supply. It gets its nutrition from synovial or joint fluid that circulates as we move. Impact that comes from movement or compression, such as walking, squashes the cartilage bringing oxygen and nutrients into the area. If you don’t walk, joints are deprived of life-giving fluid, which can speed deterioration. Just a caution for what is called a brisk walk: it is a relative term, since “brisk” for some, is either slow or quite speedy for others, depending on levels of fitness. One measure to quantify brisk walking is “steps per minute,” and 100 steps per minute is considered moderate intensity or brisk walking. A precious advice to all is: listen to your body, your body keeps giving the signal for slowing down, warming up or speeding up.

Walking is free, all it requires a good pair of shoes. Besides great physical benefits, walking improves creativity in human.

Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple, was known for his walking meetings. Jobs used to invite people to walk with him, various matters were discussed during the walk and post walk decisions were informed to the concerned people. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has also been seen holding meetings on foot because he believes that pacing back and forth on occasion has tremendous good ideas coming to mind. A new study by Stanford researchers provides an explanation for this. Creative thinking improves while a person is walking and shortly thereafter.  The study found that walking indoors or outdoors similarly boosts creative inspiration. The act of walking itself, and the environment is the main factor. The study found that creativity levels are consistently and significantly higher for those walk compared to those who simply sit. Walking helps improve learning, memory and cognition.

Albert Einstein the great theoretical physicist and father of modern physics, who was also a prolific writer of non-scientific work, often felt like he needed to take a long walk on the beach to introspect and work out complex problems in his head. He was advised by his doctors in the late 18th century that living by the beach to improve overall health. Einstein used to love his beach walks, because it helped to solve a lot of complex problem.

Friedrich Nietzsche is known as one of Western culture’s most influential philosophers. And he did much more than just philosophize. He was also an accomplished classical scholar, professor, poet and avid author. The secret of his creativity was – he used to walk each day and during those walks he used to get inspirational thoughts, on which he created classical writing.

Charles Dickens is known for his attention to detail in his lengthy novels. A lesser known fact is how Dickens got to know London inside and out- twenty-mile-long speed walks in the middle of the night! His walks served him for more than data-gathering. Dickens claimed that writing didn’t come easy to him and it put him under immense stress. He would go on five-hour-long walks to relieve this anxiety. His walks grew so long that his friends thought he was mentally ill. After writing from 9 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon, he would go for a long walk almost a 20- or 30-miles. This was routine for him. When Dickens couldn’t sleep at night, which used to happen frequently, he would go strolling on London’s streets until dawn. Dickens walked so much that his worried friends felt he had a mania for walking. But clearly, the walking worked; Dickens was prolific, writing more than a dozen major and well-regarded novels, several short story collections, a few plays, and even some non-fiction books.

Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher, empiricist, and pupil to Plato, conducted his lectures while walking the grounds of his school in Athens. His followers who quite literally followed him as he walked were even known as the travelers. Really, it’s so inspiring to know the great minds utilized the cognitive benefits of walking while thinking, and it’s so incredible. Imagine walking with your teacher, while listening to his teaching.

It’s so very inspiriting to know that the poet William Wordsworth walked nearly 175 thousand miles throughout his life while preserving a prolific writing career! He managed these two seemingly opposing habits for two reasons. First, for writing poems requires shorter time than novels but poems require rhythm, which he would get with his style of walk with a tempo.   Second, Wordsworth’s walking was writing, in a way, he believed the act of walking was inseparable from the act of writing poetry. Both writing poetry and walking are rhythmic, both acts engaged meter (meter is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats. It is also called a foot) and walking is counted in the unit of meter. Wordsworth needed to walk in order to write.

Back to importance of walking: a recent study has found that changing the way you walk can change your mood and boost happiness. While it’s long been known that our mood can affect our posture, as people who are sad often slump their shoulders, and those who are happy tend to have a bounce in their step, researchers have found that the reverse is also true. A slumped, sluggish gait might indicate sadness or distress, while someone with a bounce in her step is clearly in high spirits. But after walking for few minutes, mood boosts up.

Just 30 minutes of walk every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power and endurance. It can also reduce your risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, memory loss and some cancers. Research shows that regular walking actually modifies the nervous system so much that the walker experiences a decrease in anger and hostility. Walking helps increasing social life, because you get to know new people around – a neighbor, or a good friend, with whom the interaction helps feel connected. What are you waiting for? Put on your shoes and go for your walk because all truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.

Do you crave for buying things which you really don’t need urgently? Do you always shop until you drop? I have seen so many people around me who are anytime, any hour, anywhere ready for shopping. Even when they just think of shopping, their eyes glitter. They are happy and just zap out from their seat to shop.

A lot of times people spend over their budget and get into deep financial trouble, spending more than their income. And they don’t regret their decision of unwarranted shopping. They can go all over the mall, and keep shopping.

Some people are such addicted buyers that when they go to buy one handbag, they will end up buying 10 handbags and come out of the shop. And some people will spring out and go on buying spree when they are emotionally low; such people are called ’Compulsive shopaholics’.

‘Trophy shopaholics’ are perfectionists by nature. They want to buy everything that perfectly suits them. They are sticklers. One day I went with a friend of mine for shopping just to kill time; and  got so exhausted; she bought pink, blue, green upholstery, mugs, glasses, pillow covers, bed sheets, linen and what not just to suit her occasional change of wallpapers!

Some guys want to be seen as big spenders. They get a kick out of it. They want to be seen as ‘generous’ spenders. But, such people like ‘flashy’ items. They will buy very gaudy things to show off their wealth.

Whereas, ’Bargain Seekers’ are people who are obsessed with sale; they feel high with discounts, and buy one get one/two/three free kind of schemes. They will purchase items they don’t need, still go for the sale because things are sold cheaper.

And the ’Bulimic shoppers’ are the ones who get trapped in a sadistic cycle of buying and returning items. They will go on haggling with shop keepers about exchanging items they have purchased.

Some are ‘Collectors’ or ‘Connoisseurs’ who are never happy with the number of items stored by them on a typical collection such as wine, rum, perfume, watches etc. They never feel complete unless they have more and more addition to their collection.

“Compulsive shopping and spending are defined as inappropriate, excessive, and out of control,” says Donald Black, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University Of Iowa College Of Medicine. “Like other addictions, it basically has to do with impulsiveness and lack of control over one’s impulses. In most of the nations in world whether progressed or under progressed, shopping is embedded in the   culture of mankind.

There are certainly a lot of commonalities among shopaholics and other addicts. A research says about 10 to 15 percent of the population of world is shopaholics. They are confirmed addicts and they are liked by the marketers. Why not? The shopping addicts make up for half the sale of any brand.

In my opinion the ’Innovators’ and ’Early Adopters’ are typically shopaholics. They are described as curious, adventurous consumers who buy first, talk fast and spread the word to others about the pros and/or cons of what they have purchased. According to Everett M. Rogers in Diffusion of Innovations, the landmark 1962 textbook that popularized the study of how new ideas and technologies spread through societies, early adopters make up 13.5% of the consumers who will adopt an innovation.

You might have some shopaholics in your family; they might be your siblings, kids, and spouse, parents anybody. It is important to note that going a shopping spree once in a while does not mean you are a shopping addict. However, there are several signs and symptoms shopping addicts display that you must watch out.

And, if you are one, please don’t feel shy; visit a shrink before you are gripped with it.