Part 21: Toes and Fingers
21 Yoga Practices For Body Flexibility
Toes and fingers are the extremities of our legs and hands. They play an important role in our daily activities. While the co-operation of fingers is essential to hold any object or to perform a surgery, on the other hand, the toes are responsible for balancing the body while walking and to maintain the gait.
Any injury or chronic ailments like arthritis in the body or uric acid crystal accumulation in the fingers or toes could result in pain and discomfort. There could be swelling also.
Since the first remedy for any pain is taking rest, we can reduce the pain by dipping the fingers and toes in hot water with rock salt. Though there is no complete cure for pain due to arthritis, the pain can be managed and the fingers and toes can be kept functional with flexibility by stretching the toes and fingers with breath.
Rhythmic stretch with breath along with oil application will help in the mobility of the organs.
A ball can be of much help to those who do not have grip in their hands.
Please find the demonstration of a simple yoga therapy practice for the fingers and toes.
Pallankuzhi is a traditional indoor folk game of Southern India. It is played on a rectangular wooden board with 2 rows and 7 columns. We can find 14 pits in the board. Shells or small stones are distributed to all the pits by the players. The game is played by 2 players. The players may capture the shells as permitted by the rules of the game. The game ends with any one of the players capturing all the shells and thus declared as winner.
This game is popular among the kids and senior citizens of rural India. It has the potential of imparting quick math in children, and hand eye co-ordination in children as well as senior citizens.
Also, natural massaging to the finger tips happens while distributing the shells to the pits.
It is a simple game that will help the kids bond with elderly people in the present lifestyle. Alas, playing of this game seldom happens even in rural areas due to the reach of gadgets and video games.
