All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy – this is a phrase we all have heard growing up. While the essence of this phrase was to emphasize on having a fine balance between working and enjoying your life, some might feel otherwise. For a select few, playing is all that there is to life. They can literally eat, drink, pray and sleep sports. Amongst this fine class of sports enthusiasts, a new breed has sprouted in the past decade or so. The couch is their arena, the headphones their headgear, and game controllers their accessories. Unless you’ve been living under the rock, there is a fair chance that you’ve come across the new age gamers who love spending hours in front of a TV or computer, and join clans across the globe with complete strangers, to wander off on dangerous quests. Well, the list is pretty much endless.
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Game On!
Video games and online gaming is immensely engaging, entertaining and almost surreal at times. Whether you love playing FIFA on your PlayStation or God of War on your PSP or Halo on your Xbox, you know how difficult it can be to part ways with the controller and step away from the screen. While researchers around the world have said that playing video games helps build your analytical skills, motor skills, improves decision making ability and also makes you more creative, it may not be a great idea to get your virtual character to do all the physical activity. Prolonged hours of playing involve sitting in one place with almost no movement and can cause serious health issues like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, obesity, constipation, fatigue, irritation in the eyes, neck pain, and backache amongst others. Investing some time in a physical regime like swimming, jogging or working out at the gym will ensure that your body stays fit while you get all the action in the game. But if you really have difficulty parting way with your game console, you can take up yoga right from the comfort of your living room!
Gear Up!
Yoga is a highly popular form of workout that stresses on the use of breath to balance the body and calm the mind. Though quite ancient, yoga has come to be trusted as one of the best natural physical fitness and therapy techniques in the recent times. To get you started, these simple yoga poses should help alleviate stress, relax the body and calm your mind:
Adho Mukha Svanasana
Sitting crouched at one place can stress the shoulders and also cause backache. This asana lengthens the spine and brings strength throughout the body. It also increases the circulation of blood to the brain and calms the mind, relieving headache, insomnia and fatigue.
Veerbhadrasana
Being a highly effective asana for people who have sedentary or deskbound jobs, gamers too would find this asana quite useful. This asana relieves stress from shoulders, increases stamina and brings balance in the body. It also strengthens and tones the arms, legs and lower back.
Setu Bandhasana
Munching while playing your against your rival soccer team may be fun, but little or no movement during the gameplay may hinder the digestion process. Use this asana to deal with digestion issues, and to relieve your back of tiredness. Doing this asana also helps calm the mind, reduce anxiety, stress, and depression and further helps in reducing thyroid related problems.
Viparita Shalabhasana
If you fancy a chiseled six-pack ab like that of your favorite fighter from Street Fighter, this asana will serve you best! This asana helps tone the abdomen and lower back, while massaging the spine and keeping the back supple – an ideal thing for those long RPG soirées. You can also look forward to better blood circulation with this asana.
Use your Mana
Other Useful Asanas
- Shishuasana
- Ustrasana
- Padmasana
- Utkatasana
- Vrikshasana
- Shavasana
- Yoga for eyes
Unlike the 8-bit games in yesteryear, the feel of today’s games and the characters in them is almost realistic. The virtual reality is so lifelike that it can drastically affect one’s mind and personality. Games that involve simulation, role-playing, sports, and adventure can improve various skills like teamwork, cognitive ability, creativity and concentration. On the other hand, playing games that involve war, bloodshed and violence may lead to stress, spike in blood pressure, sudden outbursts of anger, tendency to act violently and even trauma. Yoga poses open the different energy centers in the body and calm the mind, thus keeping stress at bay. Meditating a few minutes every day also helps harmonize the brain and keep a leash over your emotions. It also helps improve concentration and can aid you in better coordination skills while playing a RPG.
Level Up!
With yoga as your guiding light and meditation as your inventory, you can easily improve your game. Practicing yoga and meditation regularly will help you stay fit, keep your calm through gaming competitions and make your mark in the virtual world!
[“source-Artofliving”]
