It's Time to Sigh

I figure we could all use a maha (great) therapeutic sigh right about now. It may appear a simple response to our current complex experience. Yet before you reject the idea of sighing, know it’s highly underestimated – sighing is actually mighty for detox + relief.

With all the sophisticated yoga breathing practices you may be astounded to learn, sighing is one of yoga’s easiest + most valuable breath practices as it capitalizes on the beneficial outward cleansing flow of energy called Apana Vayu.

When Apana Vayu is not therapeutically flowing we feel more anxious, heavy, stagnant, confused, doubtful + simply unwell. This may feel COVID familiar!

In yoga when we invigorate Apana Vayu energy we eliminate the excess mind-body waste that’s been weighing us down, leaving us to now feel refreshed, secure, grounded, open + simply healthy.

Metaphorically, sighing is clicking the trash icon on your computer. In a very real way, it can swiftly help you eliminate the built-up mind-body stress from the last several months without investing huge time or effort.

Seriously it’s time to sigh. Don’t hold back on getting relief. Pour your whole self into this honest to goodness opportunity to let go of stale air + simply feel better.

The Art to Yoga Sighing

o   Inhale through the nose slow long - an inhale that fills lungs w/much air as the lungs can hold – without straining yourself - yet allows your chest, belly + back to expand

o   If it helps you can begin with a normal breath, then take a second inhale before you exhale

o   Your welcome to pause at the top of your inhale if its’ comfortable for you

o   Exhale is through the mouth with a long smooth gentle sigh sound. Exhale until you feel all the air has left your lungs

o   It’s not a sigh of exasperation but rather a blissful sigh of relief.  With a sliding pitch that starts high + then slides down to a lower note

Danger + Opportunity

Here we are together experiencing an extraordinary moment that none of us could have predicted. One where life + the world as we know it rapidly shifts before our eyes. It leaves us at times shaking our heads in disbelief, other times on the brink of tears + still more times anxiously grappling for how to be in all its uncertainty. 

 We will most likely not collectively experience another crisis like this one in our lifetime. One that leaves us nailed to the present moment sitting face to face with ourselves mightily trying to navigate intense feelings of fear, grief + frustration, while our familiar coping paradigms of going, doing + distraction are no longer available or just simply not sufficient to handle the magnitude of this crisis. 

I recently learned the Chinese word for crisis has 2 symbols. One for danger the other for opportunity. If we are honest our inner + outer landscapes have sent repeated warning signals that danger was lurking at our doorstep. Danger has now swooped intimately into our living rooms, holding us close to the magnitude of that reality. It is incredibly hard. Yet if we dare to face the danger of the crisis it equally holds us to its opposite reality – the opportunity for change.

 Interestingly, the young women I recently supported in Kolkata, India live intimately in daily danger. I expressed awe at their resiliency to survive in this reality. Yet what I now humbly admire is their courageous capacity to be vulnerable in the face of danger while awake to their faith of opportunity.

I am inviting you to find balance in the crisis by personally waking up to your opportunity with self reflection. To take an honest look at yourself  + you in the world. What are you really afraid of? Have you been happy? What beliefs are working for you? Which ones are not? How do you see yourself emerging from this crisis? The same? Different? In what way?

As we are learning no one will get through this by themselves. Its collective. We will all require support + guidance as we navigate the uncharted waters without a reliable historical compass to lean on. I encourage you to keep actively reflecting with in yourself + in relationship with others. It will take time. Yet it is how you + I will  effectively take charge to consciously change direction.  

 I am here to help. Here to help you heal. Here to help you securely face the crisis. Here to help find courageous vulnerability. Here to help you answer the compelling call for change.

It’s a privilege to extend my professional skillset which includes Self-Inquiry Process. I sincerely hope your able to seize this keen opportunity to soundly evolve into your new way of being...

Vichara Inquiry Here

Keep the Resolution Faith

I am writing this blog for the 80% (indicated by research) who fail to keep their NYR. Seems grim I know. Yet let’s not go down that rabbit hole just yet!

Rest assured your intention to make change is bona fide. Like yourself, every New Year I devoutly desire to be more fit + feel healthier among other things. Yet sticking to a NYR is strangely hard. Over the years it has left the majority disillusioned + quizzical – how come we cannot be faithful to this good will endeavor?  

Winter (December, January + February) is realistically NOT the time to make change! Winter is defined as a season governed by dormancy + stillness. It is a period of introversion + contemplation, where time is spent gaining clarity as we crystallize our inner workings. In this season even with heroine effort when it comes to making change it’s like swimming against a strong current – it IS hard.

Spring (March, April + May) IS divinely the time to make change! Spring is defined as a season that signals + powers us to grow. The environment around us is moving from dormancy to renewal, with rebirth happening on many levels. Spring IS an incredible energetic agent that propels change, making it a quintessential time to be gracefully carried by its strong current with the least amount of resistance or effort.

Invite yourself in 2020 to align with Mother Nature - listen to her sophisticated cues.  Discernibly use winter to pursue planting your change seeds. Contemplate what you would like to see change. And harness clarity on specifically how you will choose to go about it + in what why.  

Be present to winter like a skillful surfer, patiently waiting to catch momentum from the ideal spring wave, so when spring comes on the scene you’re exquisitely empowered to successfully act on birthing your NYR! It has revolutionized my resolution experience + keeping faith it will do the same for you!

Choose To Change

The tradition of New Years Resolutions dates far back to 153B.C. I am learning it all began with a mythical Roman king named Janus. He had two faces: one that looked back on the past and one that looked forward to the future. Thus he could look forward and back at the same time. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions.

 And so it goes in modern time that we do the same. Even though we don't have two faces we do reflect on the past year as well as look toward the future. We use this action of reflection as a means to make change in the future. It is in anticipation of new beginnings.

Yes it is that auspicious time to take an honest, kind yet firm look at yourself and see if there are any changes you would like to make. It’s a mighty time to harness the extraordinary collective power of the world celebrating new beginnings as well as the resolve to accomplish change.

As a yogi the purpose of cultivating your will is to give you the power to access your own divine essence  - ultimately to choose to live from your inner radiance all the time ~Swami Nirmlananda

From a yogic perspective the point of New Years is to CHOOSE TO CHANGE vs. making change. And deciding what to change is a conscious willful process called svatantra. Svatantra means you choose how your life goes - what a novel concept! Everything in life is a choice even your reactions. Every day every moment we have been gifted as humans with the unique power to make choices –yes even in those times when it seems like you do not have a choice.

Yoga goes on to say it is not about changing what is around or outside of you. It is actually a calling for an inner change in you. It is the inner change in you that makes everything happen. I often think of the infamous quote from Gandhi:

You must want to be the change you wish to see in the world. Change is an inside job! It starts with you choosing to shift how you live and breath on the inside. Once you change yourself all other change naturally flows outward.

New Years is truly the time to embrace change, as change is a powerful agent. And yoga is the ultimate agent for change as it changes you on a fundamental level. Each time you practice you go inside and have the experience of yourself as consciousness – your truest version of yourself. Each time you practice it’s like dying a piece of cloth. The longer you sit in the experience the more you are permeated with this color - this knowing. So much that consciousness is your experience all the time - it's yoga's promise. Take time in 2020 to choose to change!

Holiday Mood Influencers

Today Social Media Influencers have astonishing persuasive star power + so do your HANDS – you most likely expected me to say something else here but yes I did mean your HANDS!

Your HANDS are more than just a part of your body used to text, wave hello or feel if you have a fever. They stunningly have an intimate relationship with the brain on neural + subtle levels.

This means the way you hold your HANDS influences your mind/emotions. It is the sole reason yogi’s have long practiced HAND MUDRAS or gestures - to actively reshape the mind.

This holiday when you find the mind/emotions expressing depression, anger or anxiety, sweet-talk them with HAND MUDRAS. Evoke positive influence without suppressing feelings but rather by transforming them.

Cherish The Pause

If you’re looking for a quick self care fix to de-stress + find meaning all you need to do is PAUSE. I know it seems unfathomable yet here’s the spoiler alert it’s true!

 What I adore about the ancient yogi’s is their stellar realization that subtle practices have the most profound effect. In other words you don’t have to stand on your head to feel better – what a relief!

 In between phases of movement there is a subtle PAUSE that is pregnant (expectant + teeming) with meaningful possibilities. Inherent in the PAUSE is the still point, which just happens to be an entry point to relaxation, meditation + your deeper inner nature.

 Surprisingly this pregnant PAUSE experience is so present that it’s readily available to you in ordinary life circumstances

·      between sleep + waking states

·      right before a sneeze

·      the high point of a yawn

·      space between thoughts

·      space between breaths

 The most easy entry point is the Space Between Breath – between the inhalation + the exhalation. The secret is to consciously focus awareness in this fractional gap. Below is a short-guided exercise to finding the magic of the inner breath PAUSE.

 I find repeated PAUSE drop-ins during the day act like short doses of affordable mini- meditations.  They free my body from the compulsion to move, quell the laboring mind + give permission to cease living on the surface. Instead I get to tangibly experience my deeper conscious nature over + over. Teaching me how to live more from this inborn source of stillness, peace + purpose. Cherish the PAUSE!

Reflect: Is your Mind-Emotions Serving You Well?

Some days I would like to blame outside circumstances for my emotional stress or physical dis-ease. The empowering reality is the mind-emotions are more the culprit. They are the blueprint of personal experiences driving how we think, feel +behave in relationship with ourselves + others. Newsflash there is nothing wrong with your MIND! Yet the well documented mind-body connection behooves us to harness the disruptive MIND to serve us better.

Next time your feeling irritable or in a funk take charge, reach for Double Exhales to breath down the mind-emotion reactions. Life will become easier- it’s yoga’s promise.

Double Exhales
Gently adjusting the breath so your exhale is twice as long as the inhale

• Breathing in + out the nose find your normal breath rhythm

• As you breathe normally begin to gently adjust the breath so your breathing
  the same amount of time for the duration of your inhalation + exhalation

• Breathe in 2,3,4

• Breathe out 2,3,4

  After a few rounds of regulating the breath begin to lengthen the exhale

• Breathe in 2,3,4

• Breathe out 2,3,4,5,6,7,8

• If 8 count is uncomfortable start with a 6 exhalation count

• Continue in this way for 1-10 minutes
  Notice the effects

• Double Exhales slip you into the Rest + Relax Response firing on your
  Parasympathetic Nervous System + rewiring your mind- emotions to the
  calm channel.
  
  
  

REST – Your Unsung Health Hero

Have you ever stopped to mull over the significance of good old-fashioned REST?  Considered it’s influence on stress + wellness? Or even speculated it’s value in finding purpose?

Thankfully the yogi’s did thousands of years ago along with more recent scientific research. After recently being sidelined from pneumonia I personally got to experience the power of REST. Being a higher energy person it was not easy yet I must admit it rewired my relationship with REST where I now have a healthier Rest-Activity Balance along with a healthier Life-Work Balance.

So here’s my takeaway from one human being to another as a Yoga/Meditation Teacher + as a Clinical Social Worker…

Exercise is the 21st Century health buzz; raising our awareness to even pay attention to the number of steps we take in a day. And it’s rightfully so as movement is an essential part to our well -being. Yet it is not the whole equation. There is a silent counter part of equal value.

With all the movement hype REST has taken a back seat. We have lost touch with it being an equal vital requirement to health, to the point where REST is getting a bad rap. It’s perceived as lazy or as an unproductive use of time.  I find people embarrassed to even admit they took a nap!

We can all relate to how good we feel after a good night’s rest. Unfortunately there is not much today outside of sleep that points us in the direction of stillness so I began to wonder do we really understand what REST is or what it does….

REST is indispensable for the mind–body to recuperate, regenerate, grow, + learn. Research indicates our bodies require rest in order to rejuvenate muscle, repair tissue, restore immune, synthesize hormones, + relieve physical stress. Our mind requires rest to retain memory, concentration + establish a stress free emotional zone.

WAIT! That does not sound lazy or passive. REST is an active process, defuncting the perception of rest being unproductive (you can insert a hooray emoji here if you like!).

Uniquely REST offers an amplified repair moment. In REST the mind-body is in a state of stillness.  Here regeneration can a) solely focus on applying all the energy resource to healing + b) actively participate in fuller recovery, as the body is not sidetracked with sending energy to power movement. In REST your mind –body becomes like a super charged sponge keenly soaking up all the crucial REST benefits. 

You might now be wondering about sleep – doesn’t it do the same thing?

Research says 8hrs of sleep gives sufficient time for the mind-body to do its restoration job. But how many of us get 8 hrs? And how many more of us have disrupted sleep?

Here’s where the yogis come into the picture. They excel at practices that achieve an optimal REST state. They are a) not unconscious like sleep but conscious where awareness boosts the REST healing effects + b) artfully designed to tap us into our deeper healing conscious state that reveals your passion + purpose. 

So what if we introduced short power packed REST yoga bites into our day? Shavasana – Relaxation Pose is the queen of yoga’s REST poses. It is my sung health hero + hope it becomes yours too!

Try Supported Shavasana - place legs over a chair + prop under head. With knees high along with forehead + chin level your mind-body becomes more progressively peaceful.

 Recommended Readings:

1.     Daring to Rest by Karen Brody

2.     Living in Shavasna by Swami Nirmalanada