Yoga aims at the union of body, mind and soul.

The path of yoga will bring insight into your limitations and strengths; you get more in touch with your body and mind and – by practicing- in tune with your whole being, fully inhibiting your body and mind.

You will get to know your body by yoga asanas and breathing, and your mind and soul by yoga meditation.

All these practices may move you out of your comfort zone. The asanas might prove difficult to master, balance hard to maintain, movement limited and suppleness insufficient. You might be confronted with a kaleidoscope of thoughts and emotions when sitting for meditation. Breath suspension might be unpleasant for us.

We will come to recognize these (unwanted) things and our response to them. We learn to observe our body, behavior, emotions and thoughts and note any resistance to these. Over time, we will learn to accept and include all these aspects into our being. We will create more tolerance to extreme and unpleasant situations and become more accepting of them. We will recognize the flow and fluctuations of pleasantness/unpleasantness and be better able to balance, incorporate and embrace them. The need to resist and avoid unpleasant situations will diminish.

Yoga asanas will not only bring you more in touch with your body, how it works, what its limits are and how to be patient and compassionate with yourself (and thereby with others), it also has countless physical benefits. Different asanas will positively impact your posture, strength, suppleness, circulation, vitality, and energy levels. There are postures to aid digestion, help regulate hormone production and secretions, facilitate easier childbirth, conserve energy, calm and tone the nervous system, clear sinuses and unblock noses, supply fresh blood to all body parts, improve lymph flow and more.Yoga breathing is used to establish healthy breathing habits, the effects of which will be carried over in daily life. This has a positive effect on your physical and mental health.

You can use breathing exercises to lift you out of fatigue, when you need to be energized or need to overcome anxiety or fear. It boosts courage, relaxes and vitalizes you.Every organ and body part is made up of cells. When all the cells function optimally, the organs work effectively and you will be healthy and have plenty of energy.

Cells need adequate oxygen to function properly.

By deep and healthy breathing you will increase your oxygen supply.

Good oxygen supply is essential for proper functioning of all your cells and organs.

Oxygen is needed in the cells for converting glucose into ATP (Adenosine TriPhosphate). ATP is the essential ingredient for all cellular activity.

In a nutshell:

ATP is the energy needed to maintain the delicate mineral balance in and around your cells: ATP charges the cell frame and (via involved processes in the cell) ensures hydro-electrical currents. This electricity is the energy the cells need to perform their tasks. When you produce sufficient ATP, there is enough electricity and you have adequate energy for proper functioning.

With out sufficient ATP the hydro-electrical pumps ‘switch off’, and there will be no electrical potential to keep cellular processes and functioning going. The cells then stop functioning.

Therefore it is crucial to have an adequate oxygen supply for the production of ATP.

Oxygen moves throughout the body in your bloodstream. It is transferred from the blood to the cells, which will then use it for ATP production, as described above.

This transfer of oxygen happens when the tissues are in a Dry State: the situation where cells are tightly packed and there is no excess fluid between them. The cells lay against the blood capillaries and lymph vessels and oxygen and essential nutrients can move quickly and effectively from the capillaries to the cells.

This tightly packed state of cells is known as the Living Dry state. Oxygen can reach the cells easily and can convert glucose to ATP. This ensures there is enough electrical potential to keep the cell functioning properly.

In short, the Dry state is the optimum state for cells and organs to work effectively. It is the state in which health and energy are abundant. Anything that changes the Dry State will stop the cells from functioning optimally, and you’ll experience ill health, pain and the loss of energy.

So what is it that changes this optimal Dry State?

This is caused by trapped blood protein.

Blood protein moves in the blood and maintains the water levels there, by holding water.

They do leak out of the blood through pores in the capillaries to the spaces between the cells, where they also hold water. When this blood protein doesn’t get taken out by the lymph and gets trapped there, it causes a build up of fluid around the cells, making them float in water. The Dry State has changed into a Wet state.

The oxygen and nutrients can’t reach the cells because of the excess fluid, and cells become oxygen deprived.

Glucose will then get broken down without oxygen.

When 1 molecule of glucose is broken down with oxygen, it makes 36 ATP

Breaking down glucose without oxygen only produces 2 ATP.

Basically, without oxygen much less ATP will be made, and the mineral balance can not be maintained. Without enough ATP the hydro-electrical pumps will ‘switch off’ and there is no more energy for the cell to work.

And, after cascading events, water will leak out of the cells.

The cells in turn react to this by blocking their pores, to ensure no further loss of water occurs. However, this also means that no more nutrients and oxygen can reach the cells either.

In effect; cells without oxygen will stop functioning and eventually die.

Furthermore, glucose conversion into ATP without oxygen will produce lactic acid as a by product.

This will create an acidic environment. Basically the glucose ferments.

Fermenting glucose will build up with trapped blood protein and excess fluid and create mucus. This provides a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, viruses and parasites, which love an oxygen depleted, acidic environment.

It is the perfect breeding ground for infection and disease – including cancer.

It is therefore essential that trapped blood protein is taken out by the lymph to change the Wet State back into a Dry State.

How does his happen?

The trapped blood protein needs to be removed from between the cells, thereby taking out the water that they hold as well and restoring the Dry State.

The lymph system removes this trapped blood protein, damaged and worn out cells, metabolic waste and cellular toxins and poisons. These are neutralized in the nodes and ducts before the lymph is returned to the bloodstream.

Lymph fluid doesn’t move by aid of a pump, like the blood does.

It moves through skeletal and muscular movement, that compresses your tissue and squeezes the lymph from one little chamber in the lymph vessels to the next through one-way valves.

This skeletal and muscular movement happens when our bodies move, and can be greatly improved by the movements you make through practicing the asanas of Hatha Yoga.

However, movement is not adequate enough to effectively pump the lymph from the ducts back into your bloodstream.

For this we need the Thoracic pump. Every time you breathe deeply, your chest expands and lymph is pumped out of the ducts and back into the bloodstream.

Without this, the lymph stagnates throughout your whole body.

In this situation, blood protein can’t get removed from between the cells. By shallow and inadequate breathing you in essence don’t move and clean out your lymph, don’t retrieve blood protein and maintain the Wet State around your cells.

Deep breathing ensures proper movement and drainage of the lymph. The lymph can then remove trapped blood protein that holds intercellular water. Thereby it restores the Dry State, in which oxygen can reach the cells freely, where it can get used for APT production and maintain the hydro-electrical power cells need to keep functioning.

In short: deep breathing makes sure there is proper lymph movement thereby ensuring that cells get/remain in the ideal Dry State. This enables oxygen to reach the cells and for the cells to reach their full potential, resulting in a healthy body and abundant energy.

Deep breathing will also supply sufficient oxygen for ATP production.