When you see another person clearly, sometimes you realize that the relationship needs to change to match what you can actually count on. This goes two ways: a relationship that's bigger than its real foundation is a set-up for disappointment and hurt, while a relationship that's smaller than its foundation is a lost opportunity. In both cases, focus on your own initiative, especially after you've made reasonable efforts to encourage change in the other person.
For example, you usually can't make a coworker stop being dismissive of you, but you can "shrink" the relationship-- so it's closer to the size of its true foundation--by minimizing your contacts with him, doing an excellent job on your own, building up alliances with other people, and arranging for the quality of your work to be seen widely. Conversely, if there is a large foundation of love in your marriage but your mate is not that emotionally nurturing, you can try to "grow" the relationship on your own by paying particular attention to when he expresses caring through his actions and soaking that into your heart, by drawing him deeper into situations with a culture of warmth (e.g. dinner with friends, certain kinds of live music, meditation group) and perhaps by being more emotionally nurturing yourself.
-- Buddha's Brain, p.152-153
The practice of yoga has a vast, ancient foundation. We grow our relationship to yoga by practicing. We grow our relationship to the poses by paying attention, breathing in them, sensing, moving in and out of them slowing, making them our own, etc.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Intentions and Strength
The neuroaxis has two hubs: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala. The ACC-based network manages top-down, deliberate, centralized, reasoned motivation, while the amygdala-based network handles bottom-up, reactive, distributed, passionate motivation.
The two networks-- metaphorically the head and the heart-- can support each other, be awkwardly out of sync, or struggle in outright conflict. Ideally, your intentions will be aligned with each other at all levels of the neuroaxis: that's when they have the most power.
At all levels of the neuroaxis, the intentions-- the goals and related strategies-- at work in your life operated mainly outside of your awareness.
Usually the longer the view, the wiser the intentions.
Strength is often quiet, receptive determination rather than chest-thumping pushiness.
Get in the habit of deliberately calling up a sense of strength-- not to dominate anybody or anything, but to fuel your intentions.
-- from Buddha's Brain, pp. 100-108
The two networks-- metaphorically the head and the heart-- can support each other, be awkwardly out of sync, or struggle in outright conflict. Ideally, your intentions will be aligned with each other at all levels of the neuroaxis: that's when they have the most power.
At all levels of the neuroaxis, the intentions-- the goals and related strategies-- at work in your life operated mainly outside of your awareness.
Usually the longer the view, the wiser the intentions.
Strength is often quiet, receptive determination rather than chest-thumping pushiness.
Get in the habit of deliberately calling up a sense of strength-- not to dominate anybody or anything, but to fuel your intentions.
-- from Buddha's Brain, pp. 100-108
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Two Wolves in the Heart
I heard a story once about a Native American elder who was asked how she had become so wise, so happy, and so respected. She answered: "In my heart, there are two wolves: a wolf of love and a wolf or hate. It all depends on which one I feed each day."
-- Buddha's Brain, p.121
-- Buddha's Brain, p.121
Equanimity and Steadiness of Mind
With equanimity, your initial reactions to things-- reach for the carrot, push away the stick-- are left in a mental mud-room so that the interior of your mind remains clear and clean and peaceful.
With equanimity, what passes through your mind is held with spaciousness so that you stay even-keeled and aren't thrown off balance. The ancient circuitry of the brain is continuously driving you to react one way or another-- and equanimity is your circuit breaker.
Equanimity is neither apathy nor indifference: you are warmly engaged with the world but not troubled by it.
The primary point of equanimity is not to reduce or channel that activation, but simply not to respond to it. This is very unusual behavior for the brain, which is designed by evolution to respond to limbic signals.
Since your brain doesn't naturally stay engaged with neutral stimuli, you must make a conscious effort to sustain attention to them. Through sensitizing yourself to the neutral aspects of experience, your mind will become more comfortable staying with them, and less inclined to seek rewards or scan for threats.
Buddhism has a metaphor for the different conditions in life. They're called the Eight Worldly Winds: pleasure and pain, praise and blame, gain and loss, fame and ill repute. As you develop greater equanimity, these winds have less effect on your mind. Your happiness becomes increasingly unconditional, not based on catching a good breeze instead of a bad one.
-- All notes taken from Buddha's Brain, pp. 109-117
With equanimity, what passes through your mind is held with spaciousness so that you stay even-keeled and aren't thrown off balance. The ancient circuitry of the brain is continuously driving you to react one way or another-- and equanimity is your circuit breaker.
Equanimity is neither apathy nor indifference: you are warmly engaged with the world but not troubled by it.
The primary point of equanimity is not to reduce or channel that activation, but simply not to respond to it. This is very unusual behavior for the brain, which is designed by evolution to respond to limbic signals.
Since your brain doesn't naturally stay engaged with neutral stimuli, you must make a conscious effort to sustain attention to them. Through sensitizing yourself to the neutral aspects of experience, your mind will become more comfortable staying with them, and less inclined to seek rewards or scan for threats.
Buddhism has a metaphor for the different conditions in life. They're called the Eight Worldly Winds: pleasure and pain, praise and blame, gain and loss, fame and ill repute. As you develop greater equanimity, these winds have less effect on your mind. Your happiness becomes increasingly unconditional, not based on catching a good breeze instead of a bad one.
-- All notes taken from Buddha's Brain, pp. 109-117
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Parasympathetic nervous system
The most powerful way to use the mind-body connection to improve your physical and mental health is through guiding your autonomic nervous system (ANS). Every time you calm the ANS through stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), you tilt your body, brain, and mind increasingly toward inner peace and well-being.
You can activate the PNS in many ways, including relaxation, big exhalations, touching the lips, mindfulness of the body, imagery, balancing your heartbeat, and meditation.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 96
You can activate the PNS in many ways, including relaxation, big exhalations, touching the lips, mindfulness of the body, imagery, balancing your heartbeat, and meditation.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 96
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Whitman quote
I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness.
-- Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road"
Negativity bias of memory
Your brain preferentially scans for, registers, stores, recalls, and reacts to unpleasant experiences…. Even when positive experiences outnumber negative ones, the pile of negative implicit memories naturally grows faster. Then the background feeling of what it feels like to be you can become undeservedly glum and pessimistic.
The remedy is not to suppress negative experiences; when they happen, they happen. Rather, it is to foster positive experiences-- and in particular, to take them in so they become a permanent part of you.
-- Buddha's Brain, p.68
The remedy is not to suppress negative experiences; when they happen, they happen. Rather, it is to foster positive experiences-- and in particular, to take them in so they become a permanent part of you.
-- Buddha's Brain, p.68
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Hafiz darkness quote
I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness
the astounding light of your own being.
Hafiz
Thursday, October 23, 2014
You can't know
See, the thing is this: you can’t know. You can’t know if it’s going to work. You can’t know if it’s good, or has the potential to be good. You can spend days, weeks, years, working on something that you will end up throwing away, or, in the more gentle way of phrasing it, putting it in a drawer. It’s a lot like the rest of life, in that way, We want to know. Will this relationship work out? Will our children be successful and happy? Will this risk pay off? We fall in love, we have babies, we take risks. The alternative is cowardice. We show up—for life, for writing. We act like brave people, even when we don’t feel like brave people. And so we begin to lay down the words. We fill the page with them.
-- Dani Shapio, Still Writing
"rest and digest"
"Kinesthetic reeducation of developing ease in the body"
-- line taken from Liberated Body podcast, episode 21
The PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) conserves energy in your body and is responsible for ongoing, steady-state activity. It produces a feeling of relaxation, often with a sense of contentment-- this is why it is sometimes called the "rest and digest" system, in contrast to the "fight-or-flight" SNS (sympathetic nervous system). These two wings of the ANS (autonomic nervous system) are connected like a seesaw: when one goes up, the other one goes down.
The cooling, steadying influence of the PNS helps you think clearly and avoid hot-headed actions that would harm you or others. The PNS also quiets the mind and fosters tranquility, which supports contemplative insight.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 59
The idea is to keep the ANS in balance…..
- Mainly parasympathetic arousal for a baseline of ease and peacefulness
- Mild SNS activation for enthusiasm, vitality, and wholesome passions
- Occasional SNS spikes to deal with demanding situations from a great opportunity at work to a late-night call from a teenager who needs a ride home from a party gone bad
This is your best-odds prescription for a long, productive, happy life. Of course, it takes practice.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 60
How do we calm the SNS during the day?
- pause and take deep breaths
- move more slowly, literally
- sit down for meals and eat them at regular times
- do one thing at a time
- sit and drink tea
- limit screen time and email checking
- take a bath
- receive or give massage
- spend time outside
- go to bed when you are tired, don't wait for a "second wind"
-- line taken from Liberated Body podcast, episode 21
The PNS (parasympathetic nervous system) conserves energy in your body and is responsible for ongoing, steady-state activity. It produces a feeling of relaxation, often with a sense of contentment-- this is why it is sometimes called the "rest and digest" system, in contrast to the "fight-or-flight" SNS (sympathetic nervous system). These two wings of the ANS (autonomic nervous system) are connected like a seesaw: when one goes up, the other one goes down.
The cooling, steadying influence of the PNS helps you think clearly and avoid hot-headed actions that would harm you or others. The PNS also quiets the mind and fosters tranquility, which supports contemplative insight.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 59
The idea is to keep the ANS in balance…..
- Mainly parasympathetic arousal for a baseline of ease and peacefulness
- Mild SNS activation for enthusiasm, vitality, and wholesome passions
- Occasional SNS spikes to deal with demanding situations from a great opportunity at work to a late-night call from a teenager who needs a ride home from a party gone bad
This is your best-odds prescription for a long, productive, happy life. Of course, it takes practice.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 60
How do we calm the SNS during the day?
- pause and take deep breaths
- move more slowly, literally
- sit down for meals and eat them at regular times
- do one thing at a time
- sit and drink tea
- limit screen time and email checking
- take a bath
- receive or give massage
- spend time outside
- go to bed when you are tired, don't wait for a "second wind"
Simulated experiences
The brain has a wonderful capacity to simulate experiences, but there's a price: the simulator pulls you out of the moment, plus it sets you chasing pleasures that aren't that great and resisting pains that are exaggerated or not even real.
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 48
How do we stay in the present?
- watch our breath
- listen to the sounds around us
- soften our faces
- slow down
- do one thing at a time
-- Buddha's Brain, p. 48
How do we stay in the present?
- watch our breath
- listen to the sounds around us
- soften our faces
- slow down
- do one thing at a time
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Look for the good
Our brains have an evolutionary bias towards fear, anxiety, negativity, etc
"Only we humans worry about the future, regret the past, and blame ourselves for the present. We get frustrated when we can't have what we want, and disappointed when what we like ends. We suffer that we suffer. We get upset about being in pain, angry about dying, sad about waking up sad yet another day. This kind of suffering-- which encompasses most of our unhappiness and dissatisfactio-- is constructed by the brain. It is made up. Which is ironic, poignant-- and supremely hopeful."
Buddhas's Brain, p.12
Change your brain by looking for the good in the moment. When you land on something, practice staying with it for 3 seconds, 3 breaths. Bask in the good. Soak in the pleasurable feelings.
"Small positive actions every day will add up to large changes over time, as you gradually build new neural structures. To keep at it, you need to be on your own side."
Buddha's Brain, p.19
-- Buddha's Brain, by Rick Hanson, PhD
"Only we humans worry about the future, regret the past, and blame ourselves for the present. We get frustrated when we can't have what we want, and disappointed when what we like ends. We suffer that we suffer. We get upset about being in pain, angry about dying, sad about waking up sad yet another day. This kind of suffering-- which encompasses most of our unhappiness and dissatisfactio-- is constructed by the brain. It is made up. Which is ironic, poignant-- and supremely hopeful."
Buddhas's Brain, p.12
Change your brain by looking for the good in the moment. When you land on something, practice staying with it for 3 seconds, 3 breaths. Bask in the good. Soak in the pleasurable feelings.
"Small positive actions every day will add up to large changes over time, as you gradually build new neural structures. To keep at it, you need to be on your own side."
Buddha's Brain, p.19
-- Buddha's Brain, by Rick Hanson, PhD
Sunday, October 5, 2014
David Whyte's essay on Rest
Rest is the conversation between what we love to do and how we love to be.
To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we put it right.
We are rested when we let things alone and let ourselves alone, to do what we do best, breathe as the body intended us to breathe.
To rest is not self-indulgent, to rest is to prepare to give the best of ourselves, and to arrive at a place where we are many times able to understand what we have already been given.
Rested we care again for the right things and the right people in the right way.
- from an easy by David Whyte on rest
To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we put it right.
We are rested when we let things alone and let ourselves alone, to do what we do best, breathe as the body intended us to breathe.
To rest is not self-indulgent, to rest is to prepare to give the best of ourselves, and to arrive at a place where we are many times able to understand what we have already been given.
Rested we care again for the right things and the right people in the right way.
- from an easy by David Whyte on rest
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
To relax is not to collapse
To relax is not to collapse, but simply to undo tension. This tension has been accumulated in the body and in the mind by years of forceful education. Tension is the result of will, effort, and prejudice.
We have been trained, during the first part of our lives, to struggle to achieve. Now we have to work in the opposite direction, by letting go, giving place to a different action (if we can call it action), an "un-doing action". This will stop the habitual process of doing which has become mechanical.
The body in itself is healthy, but it has been ruined by all sorts of negative, destructive, guilt feelings. If one can avoid going in this negative direction, a positive attitude will take over and the body will then be able to start its recuperative function, its natural way of existing. There is nothing to be done. It is not a state of passivity but, on the contrary, of alert watchfulness. It is perhaps the most "active" of our attitudes, going "with" and not "against" our body and feelings.
There is beauty in the acceptance of what is.
Scaravelli p. 54
We have been trained, during the first part of our lives, to struggle to achieve. Now we have to work in the opposite direction, by letting go, giving place to a different action (if we can call it action), an "un-doing action". This will stop the habitual process of doing which has become mechanical.
The body in itself is healthy, but it has been ruined by all sorts of negative, destructive, guilt feelings. If one can avoid going in this negative direction, a positive attitude will take over and the body will then be able to start its recuperative function, its natural way of existing. There is nothing to be done. It is not a state of passivity but, on the contrary, of alert watchfulness. It is perhaps the most "active" of our attitudes, going "with" and not "against" our body and feelings.
There is beauty in the acceptance of what is.
Scaravelli p. 54
Gravity relaxes the brain
When the abandonment to gravity comes into action, resistance ceases, fear vanishes, order is regained, nature starts again to function in its natural rhythm and the body is able to blossom fully, allowing the river of life to flow freely through all its parts.
Scaravelli p.115
Gravity relaxes the brain. This will be possible only if you let the pull of gravity reach the top of your skull.
In this process the many nerves along the channel of the spinal cord will also find relief.
p.123
therapeutic yoga podcast
http://www.liberatedbody.com/bo-forbes-lbp-017/
This is a great podcast about the benefits of adding mindfulness to a yoga practice. It has a lot of information about ideas I use to create the classes I teach.
This is a great podcast about the benefits of adding mindfulness to a yoga practice. It has a lot of information about ideas I use to create the classes I teach.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Curves
The importance of curves in our daily practice.
We have to avoid angular movements and adopt circular, spiral ones. Do not attack the point you want to attain in the pose, but rather find your way to it by circling in small, light little curves (as flies and bees do when centering down, while they want to descend, aiming at a definite spot).
This kind of "spiral-circumferic" gesture penetrates in depth and can bring about unexpected results.
There are no beginners or advanced students-- the first step is the last step. This means the fundamental principles, such as this one, are the same in all the asanas. However, they have to be clearly explained by the teacher and fully understood by the pupil.
- Vanda Scaravelli p.50
The Song of the Body
There is a way of doing yoga poses that we call "asanas" without the slightest effort. Movement is the song of the body. Yes, the body has its own song from which the movement of dancing arises spontaneously…… This song, if you care to listen to it, is beauty. We could say that it is part of nature. We sing when we are happy and the body goes with it like waves in the sea.
- Vanda Scaravelli p.28
- Vanda Scaravelli p.28
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Be kind to your body
You have to learn how to listen to your body, going with it and not against it, avoiding all effort or strain and centering your attention on that very delicate point, the back of the waist (where the spine moves in two opposite directions). You will be amazed to discover that, if you are kind to your body, it will respond in an incredible way.
- Vanda Scaravelli p.16
- Vanda Scaravelli p.16
Not pushing and pulling
Each of the yoga poses is accompanied by breathing and it is during the process of exhalation that the spine can stretch and elongate without effort. We learn to elongate and extend, rather than to pull and push. Elongation and extension can only happen when the pulling and pushing has come to an end; this is the revolution.
It is not so much the performance of the exercises that matters, but rather the way we are doing them.
- Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening the Spine p. 10 and 24
It is not so much the performance of the exercises that matters, but rather the way we are doing them.
- Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening the Spine p. 10 and 24
Sunday, July 20, 2014
three frinds
We have three friends: gravity, breath, and wave (connected with the supple movement of extension along the spine). Theses three companions (fused in one) should be constantly with us.
From Awakening the Spine, by Vanda Scarvelli p 24
1991
Health Advice for 2012- Katy Bowman
What (health) advice would you like to give yourself for 2012?
Dear Katy,
You're taking on too many projects. Or, you need to not be overwhelmed by them. Do what you can do. Look at what is truly important to you and let the others go. Make sure that ANY project you take on supports your greater interest in wellbeing. If a project causes you stress, it's working against your internal desire to be stress-free. Let it go.
Oh, and take a nap at least once a week. The only one keeping you from doing that is you. I promise, nothing great is going on during that one hour anyways.
Love,
Me
From Alignment Matters, by Katy Bowman p 358
Dear Katy,
You're taking on too many projects. Or, you need to not be overwhelmed by them. Do what you can do. Look at what is truly important to you and let the others go. Make sure that ANY project you take on supports your greater interest in wellbeing. If a project causes you stress, it's working against your internal desire to be stress-free. Let it go.
Oh, and take a nap at least once a week. The only one keeping you from doing that is you. I promise, nothing great is going on during that one hour anyways.
Love,
Me
From Alignment Matters, by Katy Bowman p 358
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Rumi quotes
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.
Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are thousands of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
Keep looking at the wounded place-- that's where the light gets in.
This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say. I don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
poem
I love transformations in the outline of a tree in strong wind.
Early poets, half shaman, half sibyl, spoke for this flow of our transformation into
animals, kinds of weather.
Light slants through fir trees onto this leaf, twig, spiderweb with magnetic
significance.
I'm interested in the resonance of disjunction, of one thing next to another, blue
mountain at sunset and yellow air.
The glow is an inner informational process connecting, moment-to-moment, in a
kind of spontaneous karmic outline, crow in wind, elms.
I mean peripheral vision, field dynamic like shapeshifting in my perception of
green butterflies and other shadows on grass.
I step off the path for blueberries, lean against mossy granite, my head brushing
low leaves, and see a thrush sitting high up.
The next phenomenon is not of my perceiving:
I am one with the bird's thoughts, patterns of leaves, the sanctuary of its unseen
comings and goings weaving around the tree live texture I can sense like a force
field, field of vision, its soul within the tree in the present.
Birdsong exists in realizable terms; if I were deaf, song is still possible, or on my
walk at night, green.
It's how I describe what I see, as I move along the surface layer of experience.
-- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
from Hello, the Roses p. 45
Early poets, half shaman, half sibyl, spoke for this flow of our transformation into
animals, kinds of weather.
Light slants through fir trees onto this leaf, twig, spiderweb with magnetic
significance.
I'm interested in the resonance of disjunction, of one thing next to another, blue
mountain at sunset and yellow air.
The glow is an inner informational process connecting, moment-to-moment, in a
kind of spontaneous karmic outline, crow in wind, elms.
I mean peripheral vision, field dynamic like shapeshifting in my perception of
green butterflies and other shadows on grass.
I step off the path for blueberries, lean against mossy granite, my head brushing
low leaves, and see a thrush sitting high up.
The next phenomenon is not of my perceiving:
I am one with the bird's thoughts, patterns of leaves, the sanctuary of its unseen
comings and goings weaving around the tree live texture I can sense like a force
field, field of vision, its soul within the tree in the present.
Birdsong exists in realizable terms; if I were deaf, song is still possible, or on my
walk at night, green.
It's how I describe what I see, as I move along the surface layer of experience.
-- Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
from Hello, the Roses p. 45
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Hildegaard
"We cannot live in a world that is not our own. In a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening. To use our own voice. To see our own light."
- Hildegaard, 12th c mystic, writer, and musician
- Hildegaard, 12th c mystic, writer, and musician
Sunday, May 4, 2014
equanimity
Equanimity is not coldness, indifference, or apathy. You are present in the world but not upset by it. The spaciousness of equanimity is a great support for compassion, kindness, and joy at the happiness of others.
- from Buddha's Brain, by Rick Hanson p. 117
- from Buddha's Brain, by Rick Hanson p. 117
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Third chakra
When we are busy trying to control ourselves, others, or our environment, we cannot experience joy.
Solar plexus
Yellow
Power, control, will
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Heart chakra
"A heart that is ready for anything"
"Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are thousands of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." Rumi
Our hands are in service of our hearts. What we do in the world ideally reflects deep love in our hearts.
Color: green
Element: air
Poses: shoulder stretches, chest widening poses
When air element is grounded, we are creative, spontaneous, ready for anything.
When air element is not grounded, we are anxious, scattered, fearful, busy, etc.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Third chakra TED talk
This TED talk on Success talks a lot about third chakra issues. I highly recommend it.
Check out this great Podcast: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510298
Check out this great Podcast: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510298
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Root Chakra, cont
"If yoga is to make us more healthy it is because it coheres us more closely to our environment." Matthew Remski
Poses for the first chakra include:
those that stretch feet and legs: calf stretch with blanket, hero's pose, ankle circles, dancer, tree
those that are very low to the ground: locust, child's pose, reclining poses
forward bends of all kinds
squats
First chakra is related to the time we spend in the womb and to the first year of life.
- our relationship to our mother
- our survival instincts: warmth, comfort, food, the feeling of being welcomed into existence
"The child learns that a body well-fed, loved and cared for is pleasant to live in, as is the world around it."
"Trauma, abandonment, physical abuse, hardship, hunger, or physical difficulties damage the first chakra. Our basic survival program is built on mistrust. Pain and trauma teach us to override our body's needs, to ignore them, sublimate them. Energetically, the child pulls his energy upward in his body, away from his roots."
quotes taken from The Sevenfold Journey, by Judith and Vega
Poses for the first chakra include:
those that stretch feet and legs: calf stretch with blanket, hero's pose, ankle circles, dancer, tree
those that are very low to the ground: locust, child's pose, reclining poses
forward bends of all kinds
squats
First chakra is related to the time we spend in the womb and to the first year of life.
- our relationship to our mother
- our survival instincts: warmth, comfort, food, the feeling of being welcomed into existence
"The child learns that a body well-fed, loved and cared for is pleasant to live in, as is the world around it."
"Trauma, abandonment, physical abuse, hardship, hunger, or physical difficulties damage the first chakra. Our basic survival program is built on mistrust. Pain and trauma teach us to override our body's needs, to ignore them, sublimate them. Energetically, the child pulls his energy upward in his body, away from his roots."
quotes taken from The Sevenfold Journey, by Judith and Vega
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Root Chakra
"Very little grows on jagged rock. Be crumbled. Be ground. So that wild flowers will grow up where you are." Rumi
Chakras are spinning vortexes of energy that correspond to nerve plexuses in the physical body. There are seven major chakras, starting at the base of the spine and travelling up the center of the body to the crown of the head.
Learning about the chakras offers us more tools with which to balance the body/mind.
The first chakra is called Muladhara and is located at the base of the spine. Its corresponding color is red, and it is related to the element Earth.
Muladhara is related to the legs and feet.
Muladhara is related to our feeling of security, safety, rootedness, and being at home. It is related to our family/tribe, and, especially, to our mother.
When the first chakra is balanced, we feel secure, safe, and at home in ourselves.
When the first chakra is out of balance, we feel insecure and fearful.
To make an altar for the root chakra, consider placing rocks, gems, sticks, pictures of family, potted plants, red candles, etc. If concern over money is an issue, you could place a checkbook on your altar.
One of the ways to balance the first chakra is to feel your connection to the earth. In asana practice, come back again and again to what is touching the ground. Feel the security and rootedness that comes with being steady and connected to the earth. Hold poses longer than usual, and focus on standing poses. Poses which are low to the ground and spread out on the ground are also useful to connect with the energy of Earth.
In anxiety, our awareness moves up and out in the form of spiraling thoughts. Find security and calm by bringing your awareness down to the earth.
"Our bodies know that they belong to life, to spirit. It is our minds that make our lives so homeless." John O'Donahue
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Somatic Meditation
"The practice of somatic meditation, on the other hand, does bring us into a state of peace, but it is a profoundly somatic peace-- one that is inseparable from deep relaxation-- which permeates the body like a deeply satisfying, spreading, golden glow. We feel the peace, not in a primarily mental way, but more in a fully physical way. It is not our mind that is at peace, but rather our body that is deeply peaceful, relaxed, and at extraordinarily deep ease. Shamatha, when practiced in a somatic way, can lead to a deep sense of inner well-being and even bliss."
Touching Enlightenment, by Reginald Ray, p. 178-79
"We are so busy managing our lives as to cover over this great mystery we're involved with. What has happened to our wildness?" -- John O'Donahue
Touching Enlightenment, by Reginald Ray, p. 178-79
"We are so busy managing our lives as to cover over this great mystery we're involved with. What has happened to our wildness?" -- John O'Donahue
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Ocean class
"If you don't become the ocean, you will be seasick everyday."
Embodiment: rest your awareness on feelings deep inside and you will merge with the great ocean within you.
Water images, ocean images
Side bends, wave shapes, watery qualities in the practice
Backstroke, side angle, leaning tree, side bend over the bolster restorative
Embodiment, continued
"We begin to understand that distress itself is an expression of the "wisdom of the body." It is the body's way of letting us know there is work that needs to be done and life that needs to be lived-- and our discomfort shows us the way in. Discomfort, then, is always a message-- that we are holding on too tightly to our sense of self-- and an invitation for us to relax, open, and surrender to the fire of larger experience."
-- Touching Enlightenment, Reginald Ray, p. 83
Our bodies experience everything that happens to us and around us, whereas our minds are constantly filtering things. Experiences that our minds don't allow get stored as "unlived life" and will eventually show themselves as pain, tension, numbness, etc.
"We freeze so that we won't have to feel the intensity of what is occurring." p. 80
"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides." -- Malraux
"As with our traumas, so with virtually every moment of our lives-- the full range of our experience is not admitted, but is pushed back, jammed down, and walled off, where is abides in the body as conscious or unconscious tension." p.114
"Rather than try to actively "figure out" what happened and how it fits into our idea of "self", we simply abide within the body, in the sting and the pain, and perhaps the humiliation and confusion of what occurred. Abiding in that way, we let all of it work on us, in the shadows and in the darkness." p.114
In our culture we prize the thinking mind and hold sensations, dreams, images, emotions, intuition to be secondary. But our mind is constantly filtering and judging based on an idea of "self". Our body is open and porous, connected to everything. Our bodies contain wisdom and information to guide us.
"When we let go of what we think, we meet in our body a being or a kind of being that is informative, self-affirming, and satisfying." -- p. 154
New Year's Class
Let go of the resolution or intention you planned, and listen deeply to your body.
Meditate with your body. Allow your awareness to rest on sensation. Go towards feelings. Be interested in images and dreams.
"Buddhism invites us to take seriously our entire human existence, to take everything in our life "as the path". It proposes that everything that ever happens to us is part of our journey towards realization. There is finally nothing that leads us away, no possibility of true regression, no actual mistake; everything is learning, opening, and moving forward, even when the opposite seems to be the case. This leads to a kind of fundamental and boundless optimism about what human life is and why we are here, and an underlying trust that runs through life's most difficult circumstances."
-- Reginald Ray, Touching Enlightenment, p. 16
"We sense that our mediation has become an invitation for the body to begin showing us things."
"Thus it is that we find that we have a partner on the spiritual path that we didn't know about-- our own body." p.59
Meditate with your body. Allow your awareness to rest on sensation. Go towards feelings. Be interested in images and dreams.
"Buddhism invites us to take seriously our entire human existence, to take everything in our life "as the path". It proposes that everything that ever happens to us is part of our journey towards realization. There is finally nothing that leads us away, no possibility of true regression, no actual mistake; everything is learning, opening, and moving forward, even when the opposite seems to be the case. This leads to a kind of fundamental and boundless optimism about what human life is and why we are here, and an underlying trust that runs through life's most difficult circumstances."
-- Reginald Ray, Touching Enlightenment, p. 16
"We sense that our mediation has become an invitation for the body to begin showing us things."
"Thus it is that we find that we have a partner on the spiritual path that we didn't know about-- our own body." p.59
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