Karma Yoga - in service to others

Kanyas Kitchen

How much did you spend this Christmas on gifts, food, drink etc? How much can you afford to give?

Karma yoga is the yoga of action. In karma yoga we devote our actions for the benefit of others and the world or, according to our beliefs, we dedicate the fruits of the work to God (or our universal spirit). It is selfless service, where we expect no reward. We move towards 'non-attachment' to the results of our actions. Eventually we may experience that we are not the doer but that the work is done through us.


It was the avowed intent of Swami Satyananda , who passed Dec 2009, that no child in his panchayat (district) would go to bed hungry. He said, on many occasions, that he would feed every child at least once every day.

To this end, a vast warehouse was bought and renovated by the Satyananda ashram in India to be the dining hall & store (and kitchen) to feed 1500 boys and girls, who would otherwise go hungry Named Kanya Kitchen, the project is now fully operational. Here, the 1500 kanyas (girls) and batuks (boys) who already receive ashram care, education and training, are fed daily.

Sw Satsangi with the children

Sponsors are needed to maintain this activity. It costs between Rs25,000 and Rs100,000 (£360 - £1430) per day, depending on the menu. For an ‘average’ meal, comprising rice, sabje (vegetables), dahl, pappadom and a sweet, the cost is in the region of Rs60,000 – Rs70,000 (£860 - £1000).

As an ongoing tribute to the life and works of Sri Swamiji, I am dedicating all the monies from my January yoga class to help raise the funds required to feed these children for three or more days. All funds raised through yoga will be matched with a donation from my PR business, effectively doubling the donation.

PLEASE attend the January class, and bring your friends and family too, by doing so you are helping to save children's lives and performing your own Karma Yoga.

I will give the money to Satyaprakash at SYC Birmingham , who will be travelling to Rikhia in February 2011 and will carry the donation by hand (thus safe arrival at destination is guaranteed).

If you have the means, you may wish to give directly the money needed to feed the children for one day - I will gladly advise on how best to do this.

What is your relationship with food?

We are getting fatter: fact. Men are doing worse than women, in the UK they have put on 16lbs over the last 15 years. Why? We are eating too much. More than we need to function. More than we can burn off with the exercise that we don't do. We are eating to satisfy our appetite not our hunger. We have forgotten what hunger is.

Our appetites are the abnormal cravings we have, 'perverted' tastes - for food or alcohol etc. Hunger is the normal demand for food. Hunger is about nourishment: food means nourishment. Appetite is felt in the belly - an emptiness, a gnawing, an 'all-gone' feeling. Hunger is felt as a sensation in the mouth, throat and salivary glands. The nerves here, at the thought of wholesome food, manifest a desire to get to work. We have forgotten what hunger feels like (but just think back to the 'food mother used to cook', the delight of hunger when we were little children).

I teach yoga. Often I teach a very slow, mindful form of yoga. People say 'I can't lose weight doing that!'. And they give up class. But with movements that are simple, slow and controlled, the emphasis is on awareness - awareness of the breath, awareness of the body, awareness of feelings in the body, awareness of space in the body. We focus on feelings in the body - knowing that many people (especially those with weight 'issues') deny the existence of their body.

We are often constantly caught up in our head, consumed with the embarrassment and discomfort of being overweight. But this is the very essence of yoga (particularly satyananda yoga) - bringing awareness into each and every action and reaction. Slowly students learn to become attuned to their body - to the feelings of tension, the feelings of heaviness and the tingling sensations. By moving mindfully into postures, they can feel the stretch of muscles, the pattern of breath and even feel their heart beating. It re-connects them to their body - re-defines the whole relationship they have with their body-  so that they see themselves as more than a 'fat, amorphous lump'.

Eating is our first line of defence against pain - the pain of feeling vulnerable. We eat too much to numb the pain. But yoga (and other mindfulness practices) open us up to this in a wider awareness, so that we can absorb into it and move through it. And through this we reach joy, gratitude and wholeness.

And then to our surprise find that we don't eat so much, our appetites have lessened. We eat more slowly and mindfully, perhaps uncsonsciously aware of the prana or energy that our tongue, mouth and teeth are absorbing from the food in our mouth. We are drawn to foods that have stronger energy - natural, wholesome foods (and feel more and more sick at the though of a McDonalds meal!!). And our system is more efficient at absorbing the energy from food, and we need less anyway.

How much food have you eaten this Christmas? How much did you need? How much do you need to give up?

Why Connection Matters

Watch this video: it may change your life! Connection matters: we are neurobiologically wired to function for this, it is our purpose, why we are here. Just listen when you ask people about love, they tell you about heartbreak; when you ask people about stories of belonging they will tell you about when they have been excluded. Many of us are disconnected. Recent research indicates that people just don't care about other people any more; whilst the researchers conclude that this is due to social isolation or perhaps not reading enough fiction. I believe it is down to our inability to feel connected.

The fear of disconnection reveals itself in the emotion of shame. 'I'm not worthy of connection' or 'I'm not good enough'. Which gives us a catch 22 situation: because to be connected as a human being and feel a strong sense of love and belonging, we need to open ourselves to 'excrutiating vulnerability' (sic). For connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to really be seen.

In Rene Brown's research, the 'wholehearted' as she refers to those who have a deep sense of connection, love and belonging, have one simple difference to those who really struggle for this: they believe they are worth of it.  It is our fear that we're not worthy of connection that keeps us out of connection.

To become 'wholehearted' all you need is:

1. Courage - its true meaning being 'whole heart', and the courage to be imperfect
2. Compassion - but be compassionate with yourself first, and only then can you have compassion for others
3. Connection - but this only comes from a willingness to be your authentic self, a willingness to let go of who you should be and be who you really are (can you see why you need point 2) above first!!)
4. Vulnerability - and fully embrace it! believe that what makes you vulnerable, makes you beautiful

This means that you need to have a willingness to say 'I love you' first: even when you don't know the outcome. To be willing to invest in a relationship that may not work out.

Vulnerability is the core of shame and fear but it is the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging and love.

But we have the most elaborate defences. We numb ourselves to stop ourselves feeling vulnerable, and to help ourselves deal with it we eat too much or drink too much .... But in doing this, we numb joy, gratitude, happiness and then we feel more miserable so we eat or drink more!

We also use blame. We blame others and take secret delight in attributing blame, because blame is a way to discharge our pain and discomfort. (just watch political discourse in action to see this!).
And we pretend that what we do, doesn't have a huge impact on others.

And we do all this because we want to make the uncertain, certain. We can't live with grey, or 'neti neti' (not this, not that). We need black and white, we need 'I'm right, you're wrong'.

When all we need to do is to let ourselves be seen - deeply and vulnerably. To love with our whole hearts even though there are no guarantees. To practice gratitude and joy as an everyday experience.

And to believe that we are enough.

What Lies Beneath: Panic Attacks

"Anxiety is the state of twentieth-century man." Norman Mailer

If this is true, perhaps panic disorder is its 21st century progeny? Panic attacks are horrible: they come on suddenly, for no apparent cause, characterised by a severe fear that can peak within 10 mins. This is accompanied by symptoms such as excessive sweating, nausea, disturbing thoughts about harming oneself or others, fear of loss of control or that you are becoming insane.

For me, the Edvard Munch painting 'The Scream' - pictured right - epitomises this condition, which both men and women suffer and which can have a negative effect on a person's life. Many sufferers struggle with this condition for many years, and can give up hope of ever getting better or refuse to believe their condition is treatable. In many ways this is understandable, when this disorder has you in its grip, it is a very scary place to be.

Nevertheless, this is the most treatable mental disorder. And treatment is very effective. When I am working with my clients, regardless of what condition they have, I tell them 'it won't last'. Of course, I know they will get better, but often people experience rapid changes in a session or two, and can get very 'attached' to this change. And of course, such change indicates that 'the system' is learning. Whilst changes do happen quickly, it is important that people know that the system has a mind of its own that needs time and practice to make lasting change. Otherwise, they will too easily become disheartened.

So What Lies Beneath Panic Disorder/Attacks?
Rather than a 'mental disorder' this is a disorder of our system. A fault in the operating system, like a virus on the hard drive. It is a product of living in a chronic emergency mode of attention: the sympathetic nervous system is in permanent overdrive. Like a car that has the accelerator stuck to the floor. Sometimes this chronic engagement in the 'fear, flight or fight' mode is the 'system's' way of keeping fearful or high-intensity memories and feelings at bay. And often the cause of panic attacks is routed in a highly stressful or traumatic event.

When the accelerator is stuck to the floor like this, we live in a state of chronic narrow focused attention. Our brain is in overdrive, with high intensity thoughts that are one tracked, tunnel vision thinking, focused on the fear. Our body is flooded with the stress hormones of cortisol, noradrenaline etc which shut down non-essential blood supply, such as that to higher regions of the brain. So we are actually less able to think 'big picture' and therefore less able to problem solve and put things in perspective. And this narrow focus keeps us in the high state of anxiety; we literally can't see the wood for the trees.

Treatment
But the nervous system is very malleable and these chronic symptoms can be reversed. In order to release the long-held anxiety we need to educate our system into moving into a softer, more 'open focused' way of being. This involves sedating the sympathetic nervous system and tonifying the parasympathetic nervous system.

Embodied Living works initially on the somatic mind, using practices such as:

• yin yoga and yoga therapy - calming, nurturing and supportive practices
• breath work - re-educating the breathing system
• self-hypnosis and deep relaxation techniques
• mindfulness-based practices such as Open Focus and antar mouna - to help us shift our style of attention
• biofeedback - using heart rate variability and brain wave monitoring to coach the system into coherence

Once our body-mind and physiology have normalised, and the system is more in balance, we can then work on the cognitive mind. By working with NLP and cognitive behaviour techniques we can learn to change our thinking. And psychotherapy can also help us to understand the emotional causes of anxiety.

Simple Antar Mouna Meditation

Antar mouna is a guided meditation that take you through a systematic process of withdrawing the senses, focusing the mind and taking control of thoughts. Wonderful for stilling a distracted mind and gaining clarity and insight.



Read more about Antar Mouna here.

Why do we get headaches?

Headaches are often caused by muscle tension. Tension in the sternocleomastiod and scalenes in the neck as well as the upper trapezius will restrict the arteries that supply blood to the brain. Headaches are nature's warning that our brains are not getting enough blood supply and oxygen. That's why we often get headaches when we are stressed - emotional or psychological stress causes us to tense up our bodies, usually the shoulders and neck/jaw. Hence the headache.

So what can you do about it? Deal with anger

Emotional stress can lead to headaches, so what emotions are the culprits? A study done at Saint Louis University found that anger, particularly bottled-up anger, was more of a cause of headaches than either anxiety or depression (the latter two being very commonly linked to headaches).

If anger is your problem here's what to do:

1. relax your jaw and your neck muscles, sit tall and take deep breaths - this will help to dissipate your anger
2. practice a little self-study (svadhyaha) to found out what is making you angry
3. practice letting go of things that you can't control
4. practice forgiveness - forgiveness will not change the past but neither will anger. Learning to let go of resentment will change you .. for the better.

Yoga to help headaches

Any kind of yoga can be helpful because it heightens awareness of the breath whilst simultaneously exercising and relaxing the key muscles involved in causing tension. The practice should be well-rounded - and include standing, lying, and seated postures as well as inversions, backbends and balances. As well as active energising postures, a good sequence should include restorative postures such as yin yoga. Yin yoga postures are stretches that are held for up to 5 mins, and work on the deep fascial connective tissues and the energy meridians.

Try these yin yoga postures with deep breathing:

1. Anahatasana
2. Butterfly
3. Child's pose
4. Loose forward bend
5. Frog
6. Lying Twists
7. Savasana

Other considerations

Sinus pressure, associated with a cold or allergies, are another common cause of headaches. These can often lead to migraines. The best practice for this is neti. Neti is a yogic shatkrya (or cleansing practice) and if done correctly, using the right type of pot, can be a wonderful practice that refreshes and clears the head.

Be still clear mind

Did you know that the brain is only about 2% of the mass of your body yet it accounts for more than 20% of your daily energy requirement? Our brains spend most of the time distracted. It is busy distracting thoughts that take up this energy. The ability to get and stay focused is in short supply in this information intensive age that we live in. Perhaps that is why yoga, with its ultimate aim of stilling the mind, is more popular now than ever.

From the first chapter and verse of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjalis tome from 2,500 years ago, yoga is "Citta vrtta yoga nirodhaha". Yoga is the cessation of the fluctations of the mind. Yoga is the settling of the mind into stillness, so that the stirrings of consciousness (citta) become settled and we are able to abide in our true self.

This is a process of illumination, rather like the beacon of a lighthouse with its highly focused and constant beam, which illuminates and shows the path in the midst of darkness, so the process of yoga allows purusa (the true self, undisturbed mind) to shine through the fog of our clouded consciousness, which we mistakenly take for our true self.

We live deluded. And this causes our suffering. We don't see things as they really are (avidya) and our consciousness is clouded by our attachment to things that don't matter. When the mind becomes still and clear, even if this way of being is something that we only catch microsecond glimpses of, we connect with a vast and deep connection within ourselves that is also connected to every other being. Yet the mind is easily disturbed. Like a glass of freshly poured orange juice, all the bits settle to the bottom if the glass is left, but once moved the liquid becomes cloudy once more.

So we need to allow our minds to settle. And we need to make more effort in turbulent times, where the mind can so easily become distracted and cloudy again. Yoga achieves this. The postures are meditation in themselves, but after practice of yoga we find it so much easier to settle into 20 mins of meditation. Yoga yokes the body and the mind and prepares us for the practice of meditation.

Try it! Even 10 mins a day will give you more energy, focus and wellbeing!

We'll see ...

This is one of my favourite zen/taoist stories about how our thinking creates our problems:

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbours came to visit.

"Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"We'll see," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.

"How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"We'll see," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

"We'll see," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

"We'll see" said the farmer.

In saying 'we'll see' the farmer was demonstrating one of the core principles of yogic thinking: vairagya. Vairagya means non-reaction; if we are able to function from a state of vairagya we have a refined discriminating awareness that doesn't get 'caught up' in reacting and judging.

As Rudyard Kipling wrote in his famous poem, If:

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

This is both a Buddhist and a yogic concept - of course, both have similar roots.

Yoga for Anxiety

Watch this 15 min video to practice yoga to help relieve and manage the symptoms of anxiety:

Breathing and Anxiety

Recently I have been working alot with clients who have a high degree of anxiety. Their symptoms range from panic, over worrying, phobias, chest pains, blurred vision, impaired ability to think clearly, headaches, inability to focus, loss of memory, muscle pain, dizziness and sleep problems.


The funny thing is that these symptoms are also the result of hyperventilation (over breathing) and other breathing disorders. When we hyperventilate, we are breathing mainly through the chest.


Test yourself:

• sit in a comfortable position on the chair or on the floor


• place your right hand on the centre of your chest, the heart area, in between the nipples


• place your left hand on your belly, just below your navel


• begin to breathe in your own way, your normal breath

Do you feel the movement more beneath your left or right hand? If the right hand is moving more you are chest breathing.

Chest breathing results in a shallow breath. As the breath is shallow too much carbon dioxide is exhaled and body becomes more alkaline, this (alkylosis) triggers the neuro-hormonal, physiological responase which increases breathing rate and also the anxiety itself.

An initial activating event (a conflict with your boss, perhaps) may have caused the breathing response (and the initial anxiety) but the breathing then propagates the anxiety. Thus we have entered a vicious circle of anxiety.

How we breathe, and how we feel are intimately connected in a two-way loop. Which means that we can change the way we feel by chaning our breathing.

However, before I move on to that it is also important to know that chest breathing can cause tension and pain because it uses the wrong muscles, such as the sternocleidomastoid and upper trapezius in the neck, pectoralis and latisimus dorsi in the trunk. These muscles soon get tired and weak, because they are not designed for primary breathing, and this can lead to aches and pains in the neck, shoulders and upper back.

The diaphragm is the main breathing muscle and produces 80% of the inhalation. The diaphragm is attached to the ribcage and the lumbar spine. When we breathe using the diaphragm, the belly moves; it moves out on the inhale and releases back as we breathe out.

Diaphragmatic breathing has many benefits over chest breathing:

• it massages the internal organs and reduces the symptoms of IBS and other digestive problems (common with anxiety)
• it activates the vagus nerve and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system and reduces the release of the stress hormone cortisol, so that we feel less anxious and more relaxed
• as the diaphragm is connected to the heart, it acts as a second heart and means that less stress is put on the heart when we use the proper breathing muscle to breathe

Learn how to practice diaphragmatic breathing with this short podcast.

Beautiful Women

Age 3: She looks at herself and sees a Queen.

Age 8: She looks at herself and sees Cinderella.

Age 15: She looks at herself and sees an Ugly Sister (Mum I can't go to school looking like this!)

Age 20: She looks at herself and sees 'too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly'- but decides she's going out anyway.

Age 30: She looks at herself and sees 'too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly' -- but decides she doesn't have time to fix it, so she's going out anyway.

Age 40: She looks at herself and sees 'too fat/too thin, too short/too tall, too straight/too curly' -- but says, "At least I am clean' and goes out anyway.

Age 50: She looks at herself and sees 'I am' and goes wherever she wants to go.

Age 60: She looks at herself and reminds herself of all the people who can't even see themselves in the mirror anymore. Goes out and conquers the world.

Age 70: She looks at herself and sees wisdom, laughter and ability, goes out and enjoys life.

Age 80: Doesn't bother to look. Just puts on a purple hat and goes out to have fun with the world.

Maybe we should all grab that purple hat earlier!!

What is Anxiety?

Think about it: you still have your job, but several of your colleagues have lost theirs so you are having to work that little bit harder perhaps, juggle and prioritise more. Perhaps on its own that would be ok, but you listen to the news and you pick up the fear on other people's faces and you spend a lot of energy worrying about your own job. And you worry about your partner's job or perhaps you live on your own, and how on earth will you cope if you lose your job (s)? Then you get sick, and have to have a little time off work, this makes you even more anxious and worried. Now you can't get to sleep very well, and you get anxious about not getting enough sleep .... and on it goes.

The primary emotion behind anxiety is fear. We worry about what might happen (whether these worries are realistic or imagined) and become fearful, apprehensive and overwhelmed. Whilst this is a normal reaction to threatening or dangerous situations, most of our anxiety is in the mind i.e. imagined dangers that actually have a low chance of happening.

Nevertheless, our bodies feel the effects of what our mind is worrying about: heart rate goes up, digestive system slows down (IBS, constipation), breathing is shallow, clammy hands, breathlessness, chest pains, headaches (the list is long!). The chemistry of our bodies is altered: more adrenaline/noradrenaline and cortisol are sent out (the stress hormones), and our body's pH balance is altered. These chemical changes are picked up by chemoreceptors and nerve signals are sent to the brain which increase the feelings of anxiety and panic. In this way, we can get stuck in a vicious cycle of anxiety.

Some of us are more vulnerable to anxiety than others: personality, upbringing, beliefs and values all are important. But we can change this. We can learn how to change our minds (thinking and beliefs) through techniques drawn from cognitive behavioural modalities such as neurolinguistic programming (NLP). And we can learn how to change our bodies to change our minds - by doing yoga.

More on yoga for anxiety in the next blog post.

Don't forget the mind

We know intuitively that emotional suffering can be experienced as physical pain, but many times it is difficult for a person to sort out how emotional distress plays a role in the experience of physical pain, and if it does, what to do about it.

The words "to feel" are used to describe both physical and emotional phenomena. Our nervous system feels physical sensations of temperature, pain and pressure, as well as the emotional sensations of pleasure, fear and grief. However, what often happens is that we have a feeling in the body (physical sensation) and then, seconds later or over time, the cognitive mind translates that into emotional sensations (emotional feelings).

Our Western doctors will try to fastidiously separate the physical and the emotional but leading edge neuroscientists are finding the concept of "psychosomatic unity" abides. This means that psychological and physiological processes form one unit. What we feel in our bodies affects our emotions and perceptions (our consciousness). This means that objective experience of sensations (of pain) can not be accurately assessed without integrating information about the subjective experience (emotion associated with that pain).

Therefore for us to feel well, we must deal with the pain and the emotions associated with it. For example, a 35-year-old woman had low back pain. She had suffered a severe horseback riding accident at 19 while attending college. Her low back area was sensitive and jumpy, making it difficult to practice yoga; she would become upset and tearful when she tried to do yoga.

When we looked at the emotional issues and blocked energy surrounding the accident, we attempted to connect the tension in her low back with her memories of the circumstances at the time of the accident.

She relived the experience, which revealed that she actually broke her back and nearly died after the accident. An additionally traumatic and emotional part of the incident was that her parents, who lived just 800 miles away, never came to see her while she was recovering in the hospital.

When she had worked through the emotions connected with the injury, and could then focus on the physical healing of her body, which had never been fully addressed. Thereafter, when her low back muscle and ligament injuries were worked on, her body could accept the treatment and her condition improved significantly.

Psoas secrets of low back pain

We all recognise the feeling of low back pain. The somatic (bodily) feelings range from dull ache in the bottom of our backs to acute pain radiating down one side and into the leg. It might be tempting to look for the cause of the pain in the back of the body - the low back itself.

However, a common cause of low back pain is found in the front of the body in the psoas muscle (pronounced 'so-as'). The psoas is a long thick muscle that runs along the edge of the lower back (lumbar spine). This muscle attaches to each of the 5 lumbar vertebrae (see diagram left) and then also connects to the thigh; it connects the lower back to the upper legs. It actually has two parts - the iliopsoas - the iliac muscle joins the psoas part way down.

The psoas has two primary functions:

- When the leg is free to move, as when walking, it is a strong flexor of the thigh at the hip joint.

- When the leg is planted firmly, as when standing or sitting still, it bends the lower spine forward. This action is used to maintain the balance of the trunk when sitting.

Those of us with more sedentary lifestyles who sit at desks or in cars for hours, can foreshorten this muscle. In this way poor posture, or lack of proper use can tighten this muscle.When this muscle becomes tight it can put a strain on the lumbar back and cause lower back pain.

With some lower back pain, by lengthening and releasing this psoas muscle the pain in the back is cured. However, running so deep in the body and being such a strong, long muscle, it can be tricky to treat.

Test for Tight Psoas


The psoas is part of a group of muscles called hip flexors, and is partly responsible for tight hips. People who have low back pain when lying flat on the floor in savasana often have tight psoas.


If you have tight psoas muscles this might be causing your low back pain.

Here is how to test for tight psoas muscles (see picture on right):

• Lie supine on the floor (legs extended along floor and back straight).
  



• Bring the Right knee bent and over the chest holding around back of knee with hands
  



• Keep the Left leg extended - toes pointing upwards.
  



• If you cannot keep the Left leg extended during the test you have a tight left hip (left psoas is tight)
  
  Repeat on the opposite side to check the Right hip and psoas.

How Yoga Can Help

In yoga we work hard to stretch and release the psoas in a gentle way. This is done through careful build up and lying and seated hip flexor work and then working towards postures such as Warrior I, pigeon, bridge, dancer etc which all unilaterally or bilaterally stretch and release the psoas if practiced over time.

Yoga in the Office

For those of us with office-based jobs and more sedentary lifestyles, we can easily spend up to 12 of our 16 waking hours sitting. Whilst the human body is designed for sitting, the way we sit causes tightness and misalignments in our bodies.

These postural problems are a big cause of musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs) which includes neck pain, back pain, sciatica, frozen shoulder etc).

Common postural problems caused by sitting at desk or PC:

• The head hangs forward off the neck, and the neck loses its curve
• Rounded or sloped shoulders, stooped posture
• Eye and jaw muscles tighten up
• Sitting on the sacrum and loss of lordosis (curve) in lower back (rounding of the back)
• Breathing becomes more rapid and shallow
• Hands/wrists held in one fixed posture (performing repetitive keyboard operations)

If they are not corrected, these postural problems can result in neck pain, back pain, headaches, tiredness, wrist pain and carpel tunnel syndrome, poor circulation, digestive problems, increased anxiety, stiffness in hips shoulders etc.

Yoga can help you self-correct and catch these misalignments before they cause you long-term harm. Yoga postures can be modified into a set of exercises that you can do at your desk.

Watch a 10 min video of Office Yoga Exercises.

By practicing yoga regularly, and doing these exercises for 10 mins everyday at your desk, you will reduce your risk of coronary heart disease and MSDs and significantly increase your overall health and wellbeing.

For more information on yoga and yoga classes/personal tuition visit: http://myyoga.org.uk/index.htm

Antar Mouna: essential preparation for meditation

Whilst it is important for us to have a meditation 'technique'. Technique (and effort of any kind) can only take us so far. Meditation is a process of 'allowing'. It is one way we can stop the incessant struggle that is living, stop fighting with ourselves and stop categorising our world into good or bad, this and that.

A perfect practice uses 'what is', the stuff of our lives to develop our meditative expertise. And the practice of Antar Mouna does this particularly well.

Antar Mouna, or inner silence, focuses on the 'everyday stuff' of life as the object of attention. By allowing the senses to be - to notice the kids playing, the drill hammering, the TV in the other room, the smell of drains! - we allow them to withdraw from the external and be more and more internalised.

In the practice of Antar Mouna, which should be guided by a good teacher, a preliminary process of settling, preparation and stilling is followed by a process of 'noticing'. You notice how your body is: sensations, feelings, taking awareness carefully and mindfully around the body.

Increasingly in this simple practice, the miracle is when the witness consciousness begins to develop: that part of us that simply observes, without judgement or attachment.

Then whatever is 'out there' this day, is noticed: sounds that come to the ears; listening from all directions, moving from sound to sound. Tastes are noticed. Lingering tastes inside the mouth. Then smell. Then even colours behind the closed eyelids.

The practice is done either seated or lying and with closed eyes.

By allowing sensations and the senses, they eventually become unimportant, they cease to be the focus and the senses are drawn inward for the most important work to begin!

Antar Mouna is an essential preparation for any meditative practice.

Find out more about meditation on MyYoga website.

What meditation isn't

For people who are new to yoga they are almost certainly new to meditation, and meditation is the ultimate aim of yoga. Meditation is essentially the 7th limb of yoga - dhyana - where the mind is in a state of one-pointed focus. But this does not imply it is only something you can do after you have mastered the other six limbs!

So what is meditation? It might be easier to say what it isn't! Meditation isn't effort. Meditation isn't a striving for enlightenment or transcendence. Meditation isn't an ego-driven desire of becoming a 'better' meditator or more spiritual person. Meditation isn't about getting into the lotus position. No ultimately meditation isn't effort (in terms of will or ego) at all.

Meditation is effortless effort; well ultimately, because at first meditation can seem like a lot of effort. But when you have been practicing meditation for a while on a regular basis, there is a letting go of effort, a non-striving that allows one to simply be. In this respect we can relax back into our awareness and re-connect to a sense of our pure self.

When the mind is in a state of deep meditation the brain is in a deeply relaxed state (waves are in theta and gamma). This means that there is an absence of the normal electrical activity that the brain is always so busy doing: thinking, worrying, planning, judging etc. The mind is still. And when the mind is very still, consciousness clears enough for us to see the pure awareness that rests below consciousness. And this is a blissful place indeed.

Techniques - Concentration

Many people get meditation confused with concentration. But on the progression to meditation we do need to learn how to a) withdraw the senses (the 5th limb of yoga pratyhara) and b) concentrate or focus the mind (the 6th limb of yoga dharana). The mind is like a crazy monkey running wild in the trees. We need techniques that will firstly tame this wild monkey. These techniques include:

• visualisations
• breath awareness visualisations
• counting breath meditations
• mantra meditations (focus on a repeated sound - this is essentially what the 'trendy' transcendental meditation or TM is)
• yoga nidra

These techniques serve as a support, crutch perhaps, for the mind as it learns how to become still and focused.

Meditation pure

Then the real job is non-doing. Meditation is doing nothing. It is sitting still, in the present moment, calmly abiding in the here and now, with a wide open awareness. It is mindfulness. The Soto Zen tradition embodies this. In the Soto school of Zen, meditation with no objects, anchors, or content, is the primary form of practice. The meditator strives to be aware of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. At some point in an advanced practice, thoughts themselves disappear.

Some useful reading on meditation:

1. Diamond Mind, a Psychology of Meditation. Nairn
2. Still the Mind. Alan Watts
3. Wherever You Go, There You are: Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life. Jon Kabat-Zinn
4. The Miracle of Mindfulness. Thich Nhat Hanh
5. Blooming of a Lotus. Thich Nhat Hanh
6. The Spirit of Meditation. Brealey
7. Meditation for Busy People. Groves

Yoga and the New Scientific Revolution

As we speak a revolution is brewing. The last bastions of the Western scientific approach to health are being broken down. Descartes' error has been fully realised and science at its most cutting edge is proving what the yogis and others have known for millenia. The mind affects the body and the body affects the mind - this can be for positive benefits to health and happiness (or negative).

In fact, neuroscientists, psychoneurobiologists and psychoneuroimmunobiologists alike have found that our body-mind system (particularly our beliefs) can actually switch genes on and off. This new field of 'epigenetics' - external factors that 'activate' our genes - is rapidly gaining momentum as the hottest new revolution in health and happiness.

Don't get me wrong: like any new breakthrough in thinking - paradigm shift - there will be people with a vested interest in holding it back. New thinking, new 'technologies' take about 15-20 years to hit 'mainstream' (take NLP for example!!). But the realisation of what epigenetics can offer human health and happiness is coming; and yoga is there already. When you do yoga you are your own 'epigenetic laboratory'!

"Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

And as the Buddha said:“What we think, we become.”

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP), a mental technology for re-patterning mind, has taught us that the 'components of existence' all interact to create consciousness - our thoughts and beliefs influence our attitudes and emotions which impact our behaviour and actions. But this also works in reverse: our behaviour affects our mind. This is why the postures of yoga can powerfully affect the quality of our mind (our thoughts and even our beliefs). Likewise the belief and behaviour system of yoga in the eight limbs of yoga (yamas, niyamas etc) can affect the body. For example, bramycharya - the yogic concept of moderation - can mean that we stop continually striving for more material or intellectual 'wealth' and have a better quality of life and therefore experience less stress in our bodies.

Now, however, there is scientific proof that our mind can directly affect our cellular structure and turn genes on or off. Our genes are not our destiny. We can control our biological fate! This means that through learning the yogic techniques that make our minds more peaceful (meditation, yoga nidra), we can avoid early death and illness through the likes of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Yoga asanas serve to work in the opposite direction. The asanas work deep into the fascia, the deep connective tissue of our bodies which connect the very nucleii of our cells to the outer skin on our bodies. The nadis that the yogis talk of, the 72,000 channels through which our prana flows (chi and meridians in tai chi and TCM) have been proven to be part of this fascial network. Tiny microscopic tubules, called Bongham ducts, have been found throughout the body: in blood vessels, major organs etc. And these tubules are thought to be the 'high speed broadband' of the body - perhaps this helps Damasio to explain the concept of body consciousness (and perhaps the body is the unconscious mind).

So yoga, by working on the mind, and also by its deep work on the body and the energy meridians (especially in teachers who combine yoga with meridian or acupressure work), can affect the genetic code and language of our bodies to ensure that we live longer, healthier and happier lives. The scientists are finally beginning to catch up with the yogis: though it is likely to take another 20+ years to find all the 'proof'. So I strongly advise you to keep working in your own laboratory - that of your body - with the instrument of yoga and reap the benefits now!

Further Reading

1. The Genie in your Genes - Dawson Church
2. The Psychobiology of Gene Expression - Ernest Rossi
3. The Psychobiology of Stress
4. The Feeling of What Happens - Antonio Damasio

Exhalation - The Secret of Relaxation

Relaxation is literally about letting go and this needs to happen on three levels for us to fully relax: on the physical, emotional and mental levels. Once we achieve this the benefits of relaxation are immense and include:

• more energy
• less 'dis-ease' and illness
• fewer aches and pains
• stronger immune system
• more resilient/able to cope with stress
• calmer and more confident
• happier, more content and more fulfilled

People often want to relax to move away from feeling on edge, tired, exhausted, but developing the ability to relax on each of these levels means that we can use relaxation as a route to achieving our goals in life such as performing at our best under pressure, being more creative, being a better leader.

But how funny is it that when you tell someone to 'relax' or 'chill out' - perhaps because they look very stressed - they have no clue as to how to do this. Good coaches or yoga teachers never tell someone to 'relax', if they knew how to do this they wouldn't be in class! Instead we show them techniques and behaviours they can use to achieve this for themselves.

The secret to relaxation is letting go. Letting go of tension, letting go of effort. At every level - physical, emotional and mental - this can be achieved through the breath. Specifically through the exhalation. The exhalation is used in yoga asana work to move deeper into a posture or for the more strenuous postures: deep forward bends, strong backbends, twists are all moved into on the out breath. Somehow the body is more 'forgiving' on the exhalation; stretches are allowed more and are somehow facilitated.

The exhalation is a letting go because, unlike the inhalation, the out breath does not require muscular effort, simply a letting go of effort. So the intercostals, scalenes, trapezius etc - the key muscles of respiration - simply relax to allow the rib cage to relax. And the diaphragm, the king of respiration muscles, lets go of its hold on the lumbar spine and relaxes upwards and the air leaves the body through the natural process of letting go.

The exhalation is passive: it requires no effort. It is simply a surrender to gravity.

We can use the exhalation to relax and release in the body, which will help the mind to relax. As the body can relax into strong stretches on the exhalation, so the exhalation can be used to release tension in the body. The breath is the bridge between the body and mind: as the body releases so follows the mind.

In addition, by prolonging the exhalation we can activate the parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxation response) by enhancing vagal nerve activity. This slows the heart rate and increases heart rate variability (HRV) thereby calming and relaxing the whole body-mind system.

The opposite of relaxation is anxiety and worry. And the most amazing thing about the exhalation is that it can be used to reduce and even eliminate anxiety. It is the best technique for anxiety disorders.

How the Eight Limbs Support our Practice

Yoga is not simply the posture work that we are so obsessed with in the West: the postures (asanas) are one component of a system that comprises eight branches (or limbs). Those eight limbs, rather than being a hierarchical sequence, work like the spokes of a wheel all supporting and interacting with each other.

The full set of eight methods are designed to lead us towards self awakening and liberation. The eight limbs are yamas (behaviours and ways of being in the world, socially, with others), niyamas (personal codes of conduct), asana, pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses from the distractions of the external to the inner), pranayama (breathing practices), dharana (concentration), dihyana (meditation), and samadhi (awakening, liberation).

It has parallels with the Buddhist 'Noble Eight Fold Path', and of course Buddhism and Yoga have the same origins; as a complete system the whole thing is designed to reduce the kleshas (things that poison our minds) so that we can achieve self-realisation (or enlightenment). It moves us from Avidya (not seeing) to Vidya (seeing).

An important aspect of this is Ahimsa: sometimes referred to as non-harm, but having deeper connotations of compassion, kindliness and thoughtful consideration towards ourselves and others. Ahimsa (compassion) is a central concept in both buddhism and yoga. Ahimsa comes from a well-developed anahata chakra (heart chakra) and whilst some people are born with a deep sense of compassion and the concept of Ahimsa seems to find itself naturally with them, others have to work hard at this. On the path of yoga all eight aspects develop concurrently and in an interrelated way: the asana work or meditation, for example, can both help develop anahata chakra and our sense of Ahimsa.

"When an individual has achieved complete understanding of his true self, he will no longer be disturbed by the distracting influences within and around him." (Yoga Sutra 1.16)

Hyped Up and Shattered?

Have you ever found that at the end of a long day most of which has likely been spent sitting at a desk, you feel too shattered to do anything with your evening but too hyped up and buzzing to really relax?

This sense of feeling both tired and hyped up is common and it can be difficult to know how to deal with this state. But yoga is the ideal way to re balance.

In this hyped up state our mind and body are out of balance, the mind is over active and the body is depleted of energy. This is why we can't relax. Yoga brings the body and mind into balance.

In this hyped up state our mind is active and busy yet our body is tired. How come? Well mental activity uses a lot of energy and this consumes glucose. This is what leaves us feeling depleted. Our bodies are tired through use of this energy. So the first thing we have to do is rest the body.

Yin Yoga is a great way to do this: its restorative postures work on the deeper fascia of the body, encourage breath and energy through the system and are deeply renewing. A short series of Yin postures could include the pigeon posture (raja kapotanasana) shown above, the seated forward bend (paschimottanasana) shown left. Forward bends help to calm the nervous system and simple lying and seated twists revitalise the body, energise the nervous system and move stagnant energy to re balance your body. In Yin yoga the postures are held for anywhere between five breaths and 10 minutes.

Once your body starts to relax, you can bring your mind into balance and harmony with the body through doing a simple breath awareness practice. Start by breathing deeply and focus on releasing tension on the out breath, breathing in and out through the nostrils. On each out breath, let go a little more. Then focus your awareness on the movement of breath between the throat and navel, breathing in the breath rises from navel to throat and breathing out the breath moves from throat to navel. Simply follow the movement of breath with awareness.

Finally, be aware of your 'default relaxation' habits. Many of us think that by watching TV or browsing the internet before we go to bed, we are relaxing. But beware of how much you actually reactivate the mind with these activities! Then, if your mind isn't relaxed, you sink into sleep with the brain active (beta waves dominant) instead of relaxed (alpha waves) and you don't get enough restful sleep. This is why we often wake up feeling drained and depleted, despite having 'slept well'.

To unwind a little before going to bed and help the mind get into a state of relaxation you can practice nadi shodana (alternate nostril breathing).

If you practice yoga you will have more energy to do your other tasks throughout the day. Time will expand to accommodate the practice and your life!

Thinking is the stuff of experience

"Attitude is very consequential stuff. It determines everything one does, from falling in love to voting for one candidate rather than another" Anthony Grayling, philosoper

Many of us realise how important attitude is in determining our success and happiness in life. But when we say 'he or she has a great attitiude', what do we mean? What is our evidence of this 'attitude'? Attitude comprises three components (or the TEA model of existence):

1. thoughts (T) - what we think or believe about things
2. emotions (E) - the feelings or emotions we experience (most often in our body)
3. actions (A) - our behaviour and how we act

Thoughts, emotions and behaviour do influence each other in an interchangable, mutually dependable relationship: if I am nervous and anxious about an exam tomorrow, and stay up all night worrying about it, this is unlikely to change my view that 'I always do crap at exams'.

However, it is Thoughts which are the master regulator of this interdependent system. When it comes to attitude the emphasis is on thinking as thinking powerfully influences how we feel and behave.

And what we think and how we think can be changed; we can learn new strategies to literally 'change our minds'!

I had an interesting coaching session on this the other day that reminded me of the relationship between thoughts, emotions and behaviour and how, sometimes, people can find it almost impossible to separate them out. It is only when you can see them as separate components within a system that you can start to take control of them to work to your advantage.

My coachee had a particular issue with clients who were disatisfied and called her to make last minute changes to deadlines or tasks. She told me it made her feel anxious and agitated. In this particular context, like any situation of 'adversity', it is the meaning that put on the event that is the route cause of any problem!

We 'stalked' the issue (the negative feeling) and got her to connect to that and fully realise what that meant in her body (tight stomach, raised temperature, busy head). And then we worked on what she wanted instead (to feel calm, relaxed).

Then we went through the TEA model, looking at the adverse event (phone call from a disatisifed client) and the thoughts and beliefs, and emotions she experienced. It took a couple of attempts to successfully separate the thoughts from the feelings; but when we did it was a real 'ah ah' moment for her. It was like she had been blinded by being so associated into the emotional experience that she could see the real culprits: her thoughts!

Then we worked on the thoughts. What would be alternative ways to think about that? What would so-and-so think in this situation? etc. She needed a lot of help with this: not surprising, when someone is learning something about their map of the world that they didn't know existed!

Then, I got her to read these alternative thought streams out and 'voila'. She told me 'now all I feel is calm and relaxed, but with a sense of challenge', 'I can rise to this'. And we had it!