The latest viral phenomenon on Facebook and Instagram is something called ‘Alien Yoga’ and it’s making people wow and cringe all at once. This mind-bending exercise makes the human abdomen take peculiar shapes and it’s making people all over the world drop their jaws open in amazement.
Little do they know that we desis have been practicing this ancient form of yoga for ages already.
What Instagram is calling ‘Alien Yoga’ is originally named nauli or kriya – an ancient yogic cleansing exercise that promotes digestion and helps strengthen the core. A yogi practicing kriya exhales entirely to isolate the abdomen and pull it completely underneath the rib cage.
The fascinating dancing movement that the abdomen appears to make is caused by the contraction and release of the abdominal muscles. And while it’s a fairly challenging exercise, kriya can be mastered by a practitioner of any age and level of experience.
‘Alien Yoga’ has only recently become a thing and the Western world seems to be falling pretty hard for it. But the practice has been around for a while. And by ‘a while’, I mean centuries!
Just ask Baba Ramdev!
So you may be a little late to the party yet again, West. But hey, der aaye durust aaye, amirite?