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!