So what is Life?

the most dominant answer defines life as the length (of time) between the 1st breath and the last breath. Because of a strong correlation between  the number of heart-beats and the number of time units (years) in a life there are some who initially said that each individual (race) has a specific number of heart-beats given. Then because of the strong correlation between the heart-beats and number of breaths, they concluded that actually each race, specie of a living entity has its life counted in number of breaths (either its a plant, animal or human).  To extend this basic definition of life i’m adding also the stock, the number of stem cells one individual has.

Then.. how to extend Life?

by simply reducing the number of breaths and what is consuming our body, our cells (that eventually then need to be replaced).

How?

Well here is were Yoga has some interesting answers confirmed by its devoted practitioners which in average they can easily reach 150 years old (e.g. hatha yoga).

Never the less, before we venture in some of the yogic topics, there are also some external things that depend to nourishment of the body which one can approach – doesn’t mean that some of them are not included in yoga, but they known universally to have this effect from different cultures. I’m not going to name all of them, but few enough to deliver you the concept behind the scenes.

Everything that stresses less the cells, give them proper space to receive nourishment, eliminate residual products and sustain a healthy membrane – reflects in a prolonged life of the cell and with it the entire body. Let’s take these 3 elements:

nourishment –  so.. some things have to arrive to the cell, let’s take the most common element, the Oxygen. In order to have this delivered we need a good peripheral circulation – now let’s thing who gives us that? 🙂 well for one hand everyone heard about Gingko Biloba
and I’m also inviting you here to share me more from your knowledge and experience 🙂

good residual elimination – i don’t want to dive to much here to talk about what we eliminate so I’ll pick the comfortable CO2, i would say that something that reduces the stress (not only the stress of elimination) is an interesting support.. for e.g. the   nor-adrenaline (norepinephrine / NE) hormone which has as effect the blood vessels constriction is a triggered by a stress event.

healthy membrane – cell membranes are mostly made of phospholipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol. Lecithin is the most common source of phospholipids (soybeans are great sources of lecithin) and please stay away from the processed fats.

and since we are talking about cells, let’s include a bit the stem cells… sugar is one of the fast-cell-killers or the one who drains you out of the stem cell stock. Pregnant women have some special conditions that they can lets say “refill” some of these cells during this specific time.

we can also talk about the alkaline body – that is a stress-less form of the body – and here all the specific way of nourishing, sustaining and transform into such a body will prolong the *current expectation* of lifetime..

is the care of this few principles enough? well.. the body has automatically defined one job for itself, to always be healthy, so if you give him that freedom.. he will be happy, healthy and long lasting 🙂

so the most longevity persons we know, as a majority, they live at the harsh conditions, the Eskimos have their diet purely based on fats, then the Gingko Biloba is native to China.. but the ones who not only are alive but seem like they are still living the life with a great body force and stamina are the yogis (in majority native to India).

How can Yoga extend your Life?

There is a deep understanding of this nourishment and elimination in yoga. The concept of having these processes very efficient is the aim. We are looking also very closely to the energy that is linked to them, known as Prana and Apana. We dive into what the correct space (shuka) means for these forces, for these energies of life to freely communicate.

On the body level we reduce all impediments with the help of Asanas & Kriyas, removing all blockages is again the aim, then we sustain the purification. With Pranayama we arrive in controlling this Life Energy, then we expand our vessels, our bodies to sustain more. While the Yamas and Niyamas we start observing ourselves in the medium (social) and private, then with the help of Pratyahara we gain control in our senses we continuously reduce all exterior and interior stress factors.

This is why simply and grossly Yoga with no dependency to any drug or exterior factor has as one of its fruits an *extended* life (expectancy).

Let’s simply take very few examples.

Asanas

reduces the tensions in the body, they are either at the bone, muscular or fascia – their incorrect manifestation on the body changes the circulations of everything.. the breath, the digestion, the nourishment of the body.

 

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Pranayama

this techniques go deeper, “regulating the regulator”, rhythmic breath affecting the blood circulation (tension, heartbeats), also activating the para-sympathetic nervous system the digestion and all body recovery functions will sustain a longer lifespan of the organs / systems. As also it will affect the production and balance of the hormones in the body.

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Pratyahara

controlling all senses, their information produced into you, will give you time and power to decide (if you want to [re-]act on them or not), reducing stress factors as also the fear.

 

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There are more chapters that we can dig into in respect of this idea, as for the ones briefly mentioned above, being so popular, one can easily find a spring of answers by itself.

This effect of yoga is popular enough between its practitioners, that the question is not how to extend ones life but how to live it!