3 posts tagged “meditation”
I went to my first relaxation Yoga class last night and it was fabulous in a quiet, understated sort of way. There were a few things that struck me as being my own personal 'barriers' in terms of thinking about relaxation:
* I can't relax I should be doing something ...
* Relaxing is being lazy ...
* I can relax after I have finished <fill in the blank>
* It takes too much time ...
What's the point ...
I probably inherited some of my compulsive, 'need to be accomplishing something' personality and then went on to really make it my own - but I have recognized for some time, holding onto the constant thrum of busy-ness does me no favors at all.
Fact is, relaxation doesn't take oodles of time - 10-20 minutes in the morning, 10-20 minutes at night would be incredibly restorative and 'enuff'. I probably spend at least this much time aimlessly trying to figure out what to do next! It also doesn't take long to see a result - I have to say from the very first time I allowed myself to practice relaxation - I felt better for it.
If you need a little harder evidence, a new landmark study showed that after just 5 days of practice students using an integrative mind-body meditation session showed greater improvement in attention and overall mood, and lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue, than students who did not. Good stuff - and relaxation is not difficult or painful.
Last night in my class we began by looking at our breathing. The objective is to learn to breathe into our abdomens - apparently tummy breathing is not something most of us are good at. I know that I was guilty of doing a lot of shallow, upper chest breathing - which keeps the body in a state of arousal (like the flight/fight response).
When I started doing yoga again, I'd be coached to take a deep breath and I would feel like I couldn't breathe at all - it was like there was a wall just above my diaphragm and no air was gonna be allowed below. I was worried that maybe my days as a smoker had somehow damaged my lungs and that I would never be able to take a deep breath again!
In actual fact, I had habituated myself to shallow breathing. The more consciously I work on my breathing, the more natural deep, slow breaths feel - and the better I feel as a result. Simply altering the breath provides nearly instant relief from anxiety and tension - and if it can work for me, believe me it can work for anyone!
Want to try it out? Lie on the floor in a comfortable position (make sure your back and neck are aligned and that you don't feel any lower back tension. If you do, bend your knees and put your feet on the floor. Now place your right hand on your upper chest, and your left hand on your tummy. Notice your natural breathing - which hand lifts? Do both hands lift or just one?
What we want to see happen is slow breaths deep into the abdomen - our hand on our abdomen lifts but the hand on our chest does not. Try doing 10 rounds of this deeper abdominal breathing. Count your breaths: inhale - 1-2-3-4 and exhale 1-2-3-4 = 1 round.
See how you go and how you feel afterward. I feel almost an instant shift in mood and tension. If you want to extend your practice and experiment with savasana check out the iYogaLife guide below.
1. Set a timer for 20 minutes (20 minutes is best, but even 5 or 10 will help if you are pressed for time) and lie on your back on the floor with two bolsters or three pillows under your knees. Raising your knees takes pressure off your spine, allowing the disks and muscles to release tension, and helps circulation get into tight areas.
2. Place your arms near your sides with your palms facing the ceiling or bend your elbows and place your palms on your stomach.
3. If you have neck tension, use a thin pillow under your head, which will realign your head so your forehead and chin are level.
You can do 20 minutes or so in savasana posture - listen to a guided meditation tape if you like, or some soothing music - or just lie in a quiet space and listen to your breathing.
Peace. It costs nothing but the time to be still.
* I can't relax I should be doing something ...
* Relaxing is being lazy ...
* I can relax after I have finished <fill in the blank>
* It takes too much time ...
What's the point ...
I probably inherited some of my compulsive, 'need to be accomplishing something' personality and then went on to really make it my own - but I have recognized for some time, holding onto the constant thrum of busy-ness does me no favors at all.
Fact is, relaxation doesn't take oodles of time - 10-20 minutes in the morning, 10-20 minutes at night would be incredibly restorative and 'enuff'. I probably spend at least this much time aimlessly trying to figure out what to do next! It also doesn't take long to see a result - I have to say from the very first time I allowed myself to practice relaxation - I felt better for it.
If you need a little harder evidence, a new landmark study showed that after just 5 days of practice students using an integrative mind-body meditation session showed greater improvement in attention and overall mood, and lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue, than students who did not. Good stuff - and relaxation is not difficult or painful.
Last night in my class we began by looking at our breathing. The objective is to learn to breathe into our abdomens - apparently tummy breathing is not something most of us are good at. I know that I was guilty of doing a lot of shallow, upper chest breathing - which keeps the body in a state of arousal (like the flight/fight response).
When I started doing yoga again, I'd be coached to take a deep breath and I would feel like I couldn't breathe at all - it was like there was a wall just above my diaphragm and no air was gonna be allowed below. I was worried that maybe my days as a smoker had somehow damaged my lungs and that I would never be able to take a deep breath again!
In actual fact, I had habituated myself to shallow breathing. The more consciously I work on my breathing, the more natural deep, slow breaths feel - and the better I feel as a result. Simply altering the breath provides nearly instant relief from anxiety and tension - and if it can work for me, believe me it can work for anyone!
Want to try it out? Lie on the floor in a comfortable position (make sure your back and neck are aligned and that you don't feel any lower back tension. If you do, bend your knees and put your feet on the floor. Now place your right hand on your upper chest, and your left hand on your tummy. Notice your natural breathing - which hand lifts? Do both hands lift or just one?
What we want to see happen is slow breaths deep into the abdomen - our hand on our abdomen lifts but the hand on our chest does not. Try doing 10 rounds of this deeper abdominal breathing. Count your breaths: inhale - 1-2-3-4 and exhale 1-2-3-4 = 1 round.
See how you go and how you feel afterward. I feel almost an instant shift in mood and tension. If you want to extend your practice and experiment with savasana check out the iYogaLife guide below.
1. Set a timer for 20 minutes (20 minutes is best, but even 5 or 10 will help if you are pressed for time) and lie on your back on the floor with two bolsters or three pillows under your knees. Raising your knees takes pressure off your spine, allowing the disks and muscles to release tension, and helps circulation get into tight areas.
2. Place your arms near your sides with your palms facing the ceiling or bend your elbows and place your palms on your stomach.
3. If you have neck tension, use a thin pillow under your head, which will realign your head so your forehead and chin are level.
You can do 20 minutes or so in savasana posture - listen to a guided meditation tape if you like, or some soothing music - or just lie in a quiet space and listen to your breathing.
Peace. It costs nothing but the time to be still.
I am beginning to explore Buddhism/Yoga from a spiritual (pragmatic spiritual) place - as well as re-introducing yoga practice back into my life. Today I am thinking a lot about 'renunciation' - giving up of 'stuff'. On a surface level - this renunciation thing doesn't sound like too much fun ... what is it that I am meant to be giving up, and why should I do it?
Rolf Gates says [Mediations from the Mat p 14] that 'when the spiritual furniture of our lives has been moved we are forced to pay attention. There is a shift in perception". He talks about how life often sets the stage for renunciation - that it isn't like we have to pick through our treasures and give them up - quite the contrary.
What if it is true (as Rolf Gates again suggests) that long before we actually die to an old behavior (relationship, belief, possession, habit) the way is already being paved for a new one? "By the time we actually arrive at the decision to let something go - we shall be glad of another death" -- We experience renunciation as a birth of something new, rather than the death of something old.
I get to thinking of my last year which has been incredibly stressful and difficult - and ironically, has been a lot about renunciation - giving things up. Let me make a little list:
- I gave up my birth country, Canada (again) as I moved from England to Australia.
- I gave up most of the labels/roles I use to identify myself - particularly those associated with my career/independence.
- I let go of relationships in England.
- I have really learned a lot about possessions and home in the last year, and about renunciation.
- I spent unexpected months living in my new mother in-law's house (which involved a whole series of adjustments; living in the country, being without any sense of independence, mobility, being without the ability to manage my home, time etc, and control [I bet I come back to this word 'control' a lot in this post]
- When we did get our own apartment, I spent months living in it essentially empty as our belongings had been pirated by our shady moving company [Fleet World Wide Shipping ... errrr ...Pirates]. We had been in Australia for 8 months before I saw any of my possessions - outside those that were in my single suitcase I had when I arrived! No matter how I tried, I was unable to control this situation - to get my things back.
- We are missing at least a third of our belongings as they are STILL being hijacked by the FWW Pirates. I've given up (renounced) trying to control this - and have essentially bid goodbye to the rest of my belongings.
- With sadness and anger, I let go of all the things that arrived broken and had to be put into the bin.
- I gave up the freedom, control of getting about and mobility of owning a car and being able to drive.
- I gave up financial control and independence.
- I gave up my life as a single woman, and got married (this is what is often referred to as 'positive' stress!)
- I really changed my diet - first was letting go of sugar, gluten, yeast - later it was followed by becoming vegetarian. I still am really working on diet stuff - consciously choosing what is going into my body.
- I quit smoking
- I reduced drinking alcohol to the point where I am v nearly alcohol free - I think this is an 'in process' renunciation.
- I gave up being sedentary; I've started to walk regularly for an hour and a half or so each time; I have added yoga into my life. [Bonus, I am in my 'skinny jeans' again!]
- I am choosing to look at issues of family (birth, extended, family by marriage - the whole big ball) estrangement and with this, come some of the biggest renunciation lessons ever.
I'd like to be able to say as these changes have happened, I have been graceful within them.
I have not been graceful.
Perhaps this has something to do with my perception of not consciously choosing to let go of many of the above things. When we actively choose to let go of something - it implies a readiness to do so. When choice feels it has been wrestled from us, and the "Universe' does the clearing - we lose our point of power. Renunciation in many instances has felt a lot like it is about giving up my attachment to outcomes - to wanting things the way I think things ought to be.
I have experienced losses very much as 'deaths' - not as births. The life I have been living doesn't much at all resemble life as I think it ought to be - or as I thought it would be. I have felt angry, resentful, very frightened by my perceived lack of control and power. I have ached with sadness for the losses - I don't remember ever feeling so alone, isolated and disconnected. I have raged and I have cried and I have been depressed.
We have been in Australia for a year (October 22nd was the day!) It is only now that I am beginning to feel something new is being born - that the losses are paving the way for something new. It is only now I am able to 'let go' of 'stuff' -- and I am not talking about this "letting go" as a Completed Adventure - only saying I am consciously choosing to let go - to better facilitate the creation of something new.
Today I am curious, and optimistic. I have a sense of hope and openness that has not been present for some time.
I wonder, if a year from now, I will be able to see these places of renunciation in context to the changes in my life - and have the loss make sense. More to be revealed.
I will end this post with wise words from my favorite (so far) Buddhist, Sogyal Rinpoche.
"Renunciation has both sadness and joy in it: sadness because you realize the futility of your old ways, and joy because of the greater vision that begins to unfold when you are able to let go of them. This is no ordinary joy. It is a joy that gives birth to a new and profound strength, a confidence, an abiding inspiration that comes from the realization that you are not condemned to your habits, that you can indeed emerge from them, that you can change, and grow more and more free."
Breathing ... it is essential, we all do it ... but we don't often do it mindfully. Prana, is a Sanskrit term and refers to the energy around us. It also relates to breathing and the way we do it. Many people learn (and practice) to focus on the
moment-to-moment act of inhaling and exhaling and experience this practice as a powerful way
to connect with the world. Such people are also reported to be substantially less agitated and anxious than those of us, who don't.
I've slipped away from my meditation practice at a time in my life when I need it more than ever. (Why do we do things like that?!) Instead I reach for ingrained coping patterns I've watched my mother use (yuck) and that I have perfected my own versions of (yuck). Here I am, on the other side of a glass wall - I can't reach out, and no one gets in. It would be more understandable and less disturbing if I was not so very conscious of what is happening.
Breathing, its a simple thing. Control the breath, control the mind.
Yoga Magazine recommends (simple version) the following:
To calm anxiety, for example, you can purposely lengthen your exhalations; to alleviate dullness and fatigue, you can lengthen your inhalations. And to lift yourself out of an emotional pit, it's most effective to equalize the lengths of your inhalations and exhalations.
If you'd like to read (or breathe more) you can read about it HERE
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go, as Faith Hill would say .... 'just breathe'.
I've slipped away from my meditation practice at a time in my life when I need it more than ever. (Why do we do things like that?!) Instead I reach for ingrained coping patterns I've watched my mother use (yuck) and that I have perfected my own versions of (yuck). Here I am, on the other side of a glass wall - I can't reach out, and no one gets in. It would be more understandable and less disturbing if I was not so very conscious of what is happening.
Breathing, its a simple thing. Control the breath, control the mind.
Yoga Magazine recommends (simple version) the following:
To calm anxiety, for example, you can purposely lengthen your exhalations; to alleviate dullness and fatigue, you can lengthen your inhalations. And to lift yourself out of an emotional pit, it's most effective to equalize the lengths of your inhalations and exhalations.
If you'd like to read (or breathe more) you can read about it HERE
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go, as Faith Hill would say .... 'just breathe'.
My Groups
-
Poetry Updated: 4 minutes ago
-
Writer to Writer Updated: 5 minutes ago
-
The Green Life Updated: 22 minutes ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
