Art of Living is a foundation dedicated to enhancing your Physical, Mental and Emotional well-being. It was founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, more popularly called as Guruji. According to Wikipedia, it is a non-denominational, educational and humanitarian non-profit organization. The Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) has its international headquarters in Bangalore, India at Veda Vignan Manahvidyapeeth or VVM campus (usually referred to as the Bangalore Ashram)and has regional centers in more than 140 countries.
So one of my friend suggested I *must* attend their course so I decided to try it out. It was nice change from my daily routine and all the stress which a person can expect to go through in the Bay Area. We did some small physical exercises to relax ourselves, some yoga asanas and some breathing exercises. I realized how much your breathing can relate to your emotions and your physical being. The instructor was a nice guy and helped us understand the relation better. He encouraged us to join the complete course (Part 1), which is basically for 5-6 days and you learn a lot of breathing exercises to control your emotions, relieve stress and make yourself happier. One of the most advanced techniques of breathing called Sudarshan Kriya is what is taught in that course. Surprisingly a little research on this technique (including wikipedia) shows that this technique has been under controversies and has been criticized by many. I still feel it may be an interesting thing to learn. Sometimes these techniques may or may not work for you based on your interest level, your focus and of course your stress level.
Next tuesday (03/22/2008) I plan on going for Stress, Breath and You. I will update once I learn more.
Here is a video to inspire rest of you:
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