Yoga is an art of living life with health and happiness. By practicing Yoga on a daily basis, you stretch your muscles, limbs and the whole body in a set of prescribed postures. Pathanjali Yoga Sastra is an ancient scripture of India, while researching the lives of Saints, who were living in blissful seclusion away in the forests, purposely to avoid noise of daily life.

This ancient script Pathanjali Yoga Sastra describes various Yoga Asanas (Poses) from the ones that can be done easily, to the ones which are difficult to perform by beginners. “Gomukhasana” falls in the second category, since the posture is somewhat difficult to adapt, and you have to learn methodically from a learned Yoga Master.

The name “Gomukhasana” is derived from the Sanskrit word (Pathanjali Yoga Sastra is written in Sanskrit). “Go” means cow; “mukha” means face; and “asana” means posture. While performing this Yogasana, your body resembles the face of a cow in sitting posture, and hence the name.

See the picture above. The person is sitting. Her right foot is slid under the left; the left leg is crossed over the right; both foots are stretched out beyond the hip. The body weight is put evenly on the legs. This pose can be changed alternatively also, when doing it regularly.

The right arm is tugged behind her torso and the left forearm is pulled up from downwards. The inhalation is deep and the chest is propelled to the front.

Here only the general idea is given for Gomukhasana; and you are cautioned not to try this without proper personal supervision and guidance of a Yogic Guru.

Now think about the body muscles you are using in this difficult posture. You will realize that your legs, thighs, knees, buttocks, hips, shoulders, ankles, triceps, hands, wrists and backside of the body, including your spinal cord are put into use, by stretching and straining the muscles. Needless to say that all your above parts get blood circulation hastened warmly everywhere, which can bring forth vital oxygen to your body-cells in these muscles.

Whenever you feel tired and fatigued, worried and tense, you can do this to get complete relaxation to your body. The medical benefits of Gomukhasana are immense. Kidney function gets stimulated to work right; removes pain in the back, hips, and lower side of the body; sciatica and rheumatism patients can get blissful relief; diabetes, high-blood pressure and the relative problems get reduced; the pelvic area gets the exercise and so sexual malfunction can get corrected, without your knowing it.

On top of everything, your breathing gets regularized to relieve you from so many breathing-related problems. If you want to learn more about Gomukhasana go to Vydya.com!