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Asana as a route to relaxation and mastery of mind and body

Relaxation is literally a life or death issue. Deep relaxation induces a response of the part of the nervous system that brings about mental and physiological bliss. This is when our heart rate is low, our muscular and nervous system is relaxed, our brain waves are in alpha and our whole bodymind system can maximise metabolic efficiency. But many people can't relax. They might think they are relaxed but really their system is still wired. Many people don't really relax even when they are sleeping; waking in the morning and still feeling tired.

We live in a world that is not conducive to relaxation, so we need to learn techniques to help us systematically relax our entire system so that we can, for increasing periods of time, experience a deep state of relaxation and bliss. It is during deep relaxation that our cells renew, so we age less; deep relaxation improves our cognitive and brain functions so that we can use more of our creativity and intelligence; our personality is also affected by deep relaxation we become more expansive, accepting, tolerant, compassionate, gracious, joyous, peaceful, loving, kind, humble. Deep relaxation helps us to live to our fullest potential as a human being.

Yoga postures (asanas) are a way to deep relaxation: ultimately they help us tread the path to higher consciousness so that we can begin to understand our relationship with existence. But let's start with relaxation! Yoga postures help us to relax much more so than any other 'exercise' because asanas demand two important things from us: 

1. a focus on the breath - we practice asanas with a conscious effort and control of the breath. Asanas bring about a change in our breathing. Rapid and irregular breathing is a sign of tension in body and mind. The breath is a bridge between the body and mind. Breathing coherently during asanas (deep, smooth breathing) tonifies the parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxation side of the NS) and has a calming expansive effect on the mind. Asanas bring about mental and emotional balance by slowing down and deepening the breathing.
2. Mindful awareness - the best systems of yoga (such as my Satyananda system) use awareness and mindfulness as an essential feature of the asana practice. Whilst performing the postures we need to be fully aware of what is going on, the mind is focused on feeling tone of the body during the work. We are aware of the breath movement. we are aware of the subtle or not-so-subtle sensations of the body, we are aware of the subtle moment-by-moment changes in our mental and emotional state. In doing this we relax our very personality - we become more of who we could be. Moment by moment.

Asanas have a massive influence on one's mental outlook. They help us have a more optimistic and resilient attitude to life. How? Under the guidance of a good teacher, asanas influence many important systems of the body.

One of these is the endocrine system. The endocrine system and is various glands located around the body, is controlled by the brain via the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. This system has a major impact on our emotional makeup and personality (can be the root of depressive and anxiety illnesses etc). Asanas automatically and gently bring this system into balance and proper working order.

Asanas bring other major bodily systems into harmony. These systems are rythmical in nature and work as a gestalt, as a whole, together. The blood, nervous, respiratory, digestive and endocrine systems are all affected positively by asanas.

Mental problems or tension is the main cause of most diseases which afflict us today. Yoga asanas release all mental and physical tension. It helps the body to heal itself. By ridding the body of disease and the mind of tension, asanas help the body to resist disease and have strength and flexibility and overall wellbeing. Regular practice of yoga asanas (and regularity is key) helps to make us master of mind and body, bringing about a strong, healthy mind and body.

That is what the 2500 system of yoga is designed to do. It is not a passing fad, a system based on only a few years' experience; it is a well tested system for attaining physical and mental health. And when we have attained health and eliminated 'dis-ease' we can work to higher levels of human consciousness. Little by little.

16 point exercise for deep relaxation

How does relaxation happen? We can't just tell ourselves to relax because

often we simply don't know how to. The patterns of tension have become so ingrained and deep that we don't even know we are doing it. This tension, mental, emotional and physical, is the root cause of many illnesses and ailments from headaches and high blood pressure to chronic pain and anxiety disorders.

Tension most often starts in the mind. The brain sends neurochemical signals to the muscles to tense up. And some areas of the body are quicker to tense than others, partly because they have a larger area of the brain dedicated to them and hence more motor control governs these areas. This includes the eyes, jaw, throat and tongue, diaphragm, perineum, hands and feet. Whilst these areas tighten and tense with lightening speed, letting go is a slower more difficult process. Sometimes tension may never fully leave these areas, because the mind has a constant baseline of tension, so these areas are held tense. This restricts the flow of energy in the body, affecting our breathing, and circulation etc.

This simple exercise will help you to relax deeply and let go of tension in these areas:

Balance the autonomic nervous system for perfect wellbeing

In my 6 years' experience of working with people therapeutically with my Embodied Living programmes, I can honestly say that stress and disease happen when the autonomic nervous system is out of balance.Harmony, wellbeing, balance and performance happen when there is balance between the two sides of the nervous system: the sympathetic (SNA) and the parasympathetic (PNS).
These are like yin and yang. The SNS is the active, dynamic side and the PNS the passive, relaxed and expansive side. We need balance between the two for an optimal state of being where we are creative, open, relaxed yet active and engaged enough to get things done.
But the SNS gets a bad press: it is associated with the fear, flight or fight response and stress. But we need it.
Nevertheless for most of us today, our SNS is in overdrive to a greater or lesser degree.
We feel tired and wired. We have poor memory, short attention spans, feel fuzzy headed. We over react to situations and people. All sure signs that the SNS is hyper and all illustrative of how this 'out of balance' state affects the mind.

The SNS is easy and quick to engage: we perceive something (or someone!) that is challenging and instantaneously various muscle centres (particularly the eyes, jaw, throat, tongue, hands, feet, diaphragm and pelvic area) tighten and tense up. These muscle centres find it hard to subsequently let go; it takes time. Often we are in over drive so much of the time that they never fully relax (this leads to conditions such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue perhaps ME). The PNS invariably is under used, and often like anything that we don't use, has atrophed to such an extent that it is useless.

The very nature of the autonomic nervous system (involuntary) implies that we have no control. But there is a unique window into this system - not only to see how out of balance it is, but also to control it. Heart rate variability (HRV) is related to the frequency, regularity and responsivness of the changing beats of the heart. It is intimately linked with breathing and in particular, with the range of movement of the primary muscle of breathing: the diaphragm.

Yoga, though likely you will find no book that says this, is all about bringing the autonomic nervous system into balance through extending the range of the diaphragm (especially the exhalation phase, which is key to PNS engagement) to achieve high HRV. This brings about emotional and physiological coherence - a state of bliss, flow state where we are expansive and whole, ultimately the state of turya or samadhi. 

The yogic approach to depression

Depression, anxiety and stress are all interrelated. Perhaps it starts with stress. We get 'stressed'. This may be chronic (long term consistent level), or acute (short term intense spike) or both (ie acute on top of chronic). This stress affects our breathing, compromises our immune system and puts our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) into overdrive. This results in many psychological, physiological and behavioural symptoms that reduce the quality of our life.

Stress can lead to anxiety, a state of over arousal where fears, worries and negative thoughts can take over. Ultimately, I believe this over arousal of the 'cognitive' (thinking) mind, the 'left brain', and SNS can lead to a kind of cognitive 'burn out' which is wear depression comes in. (Remember the normal brain uses up the calorific equivalent of two kit kats and a packet of crisps, just in the process of thinking. Can't remember exactly how many calories - i think its about 400 /day!).

Depression is when our nervous system is completely out of whack.

"Depression is not so much a condition of having no energy, as a kind of psychic constipation blocking our energy flow."  Swami Satyananda

Depression is classically shown as excessive tiredness, apathy, no energy, lifelessness, intense introversion and inferiority - these are all classic signs of depression.

In yogic terms we look at the energetic state of the person, not the causes of the depression. And those of us trained in yoga for mental health, can put together yoga practices to balance the nervous system. After all the 'hatha' of hatha yoga is about balancing left and right, yin and yang, ida and pingala nadis. This rebalancing of the nervous system is central to yogic treatment of depression.

We achieve this through:

•  Asanas - postures such as strong backward bending movements (cobra, camel, bow) are ideal because of their effect on the adrenal glands and thyroid, sidebends are good, and dynamic work of yang yoga and sequences such as surya namaskara as these release endorphins and testosterone helping us to feel good and connect to a sense of inner power
• Shatkarmas - cleansing practices such as kunjal and neti can release emotional blockages and rebalance us
• pranayama - classically nadi shodana (alternate nostril breathing) is ideal, and bastrika type breathing will vitalise energy. Ujjiyi is also good for calming agitated states.
• psychophysiology/psychotherapy - we address the subtle bodies and also the psychic knots (granthis) and aim to address somatic change before we address the mind
• relaxation
• meditation - antar mouna is especially powerful

Lifestyle factors such as diet, are also very important.

Living in Bliss with the Breath

In yoga we use breathing as a fundamental tool in both posture work and more overtly through the practice of pranyama. There is a way to breathe - known as coherent breathing - where we can synchronise heart rate and even blood flow, with respiration. This brings about emotional and physiological coherence.


When we don't breathe coherently, and for many of us unproductive breathing is a lifetime habit, the sympathetic nervous system becomes dominant (we're in the realm of fearing, fleeing or fighting). And the parasympathetic nervous system, the relaxation responsive system that we all have inherent access to, becomes dysfunctional and is no longer able to counteract the stressed nervous system and rescue us from a pretty negative and unpleasant way of being in the world.


With sympathetic nervous system dominance, caused by unproductive breathing, we experience:

• poor circulation (cold hands, feet, tingling, numbness)
• muscle tightness (particularly trapezius in neck and shoulders)
• headaches
• anxiety
• pain (can lead to chronic pain)
• increased rate of ageing

And a myriad of other symptoms!

We can learn how to breathe in yoga. And in my classes, workshops and one to ones, I teach coherent breathing. There are several aspects to coherent breathing:

1. Diaphragmatic action - the diaphragm is a strong sheet of muscle that sits in the torso separating the abdominal organs from the thoracic cage. It is a very important organ. It can move in a range of 10 cm. Yet many people don't use it - it's range may be 1 cm or less. When the diaphragm is used to at least 60% of its capacity in breathing it works on the enteric nervous system (the ENS, the gut) to entrain this body-brain (the ENS has 100,000 neurons, as much as the spinal column!!). It also massages deeply into the gut to keep the myofascial connective structure free of blockages and the body fluids healthy.
2. Effect on the Heart - the diaphragm is connected to the heart via the central tendon and connective tissue. Its action massages the heart - the other body-brain. As much as 65% of heart cells are neural cells, identical to those found in the brain, your heart has thoughts and a 'mind'! In addition, the heart is a powerful EMF energy generator (the electromagnetic energy that a coherent heart kicks out can be measured up to 15 feet outside of the body!!), and can affect the energy of brainwaves (a process called entrainment) and also of other people.
3. Engage the parasympathetic nervous system - the diaphragm is connected to the vagus nerve, part of the PNS, and its action serves to increase the functionality of the PNS
4. Entrainment - through coherent breathing we can entrain the ENS (the gut), the heart into coherence (high HRV), and the brainwaves into alpha or even theta.

These four points mean that when we learn how to breathe coherently, we notice changes in both body and mind.

To begin with, many of us may simply feel MORE pain, more tiredness or exhaustion. This is because we are actually really exhausted and/or in pain but it has been 'hidden' by the over active SNS - stress hormones such as cortisol are at permanently elevated levels and serve to mask this.

But if we practice consistently and regularly these problems will diminish and we will start to feel the many benefits of coherent breathing:

• reduced pain
• more energy
• improved sleep
• reduced blood pressure
• reduced symptoms of depression and/or anxiety
• increased performance
• improved emotional control
• increased resilience and less stress
• better decision making

Coherent breathing is the key to more confidence, happiness and bliss.

Salamba Sirsasana - The Headstand

King of all the postures, the Headstand is a fabulous pose - there is an effortlessness in it (believe it or not!) and it is easier than it looks. But it can be encounter with fear! This is because perfect point of balance, where you feel weightless, light, is just before the point of falling over backwards! For beginners this is a scary place to be, but as you gain familiarity with it, it will feel secure. The balance should be light, grounded through the arms, sure and steady. There should be no strain.

The arms and upper body need to be strong enough to carry all the weight (there is hardly any weight on your neck as you do this posture),and the abdominals (and moola bandha) need to be strong to lift the legs effortlessly (do not 'jump up').

Headstand should be preceeded by bridge (dwi pada pittam) posture and followed by locust (Salambhasana). (Many thanks to Yoga Journal for help with the step by step)

Watch a short video here

Step by Step

1. Kneel on the floor. Lace your fingers together and set the forearms on the floor, elbows at shoulder width. Hands flat. Roll the upper arms slightly outward, but press the inner wrists firmly into the floor. Set the crown of your head on the floor. Press the your palms into the floor and snuggle the back of your head against the apex of the triangle made by the hands. Curl the toes under.
2. Roll up onto the crown of the head, pressing your energy through into the floor. Keep the shoulders down and the shoulder blades drawn into the back. Roll up through the buttocks so that the thoracic spine becomes more vertical and then, keeping the upper spine vertical, drop the buttocks back down a little to elongate the spine.
3. Pushing into the toes, inhale and lift the knees off the floor and straighten through the back of the legs, pushing the seat bones up into the air. Using your abdominal muscles (and you shouldn't be doing headstand if you don't have strong abs), draw the feet towards the head, bring the whole spine to the vertical.
4. Actively lift through the top thighs, forming an inverted "V." Firm the shoulder blades against your back and lift them toward the tailbone so the front torso stays as long as possible. This should help prevent the weight of the shoulders collapsing onto your neck and head.
5. Exhale and lift your feet away from the floor. Take both feet up at the same time, even if it means bending your knees and hopping lightly off the floor. As the legs (or thighs, if your knees are bent) rise to perpendicular to the floor, firm the tailbone against the back of the pelvis. Turn the upper thighs in slightly, and actively press the heels toward the ceiling (straightening the knees if you bent them to come up). The center of the arches should align over the center of the pelvis, which in turn should align over the crown of the head.
6. Firm the outer arms inward, and soften the fingers. Continue to press the shoulder blades against the back, widen them, and draw them toward the tailbone. Keep the weight evenly balanced on the two forearms. It's also essential that your tailbone continues to lift upward toward the heels. Once the backs of the legs are fully lengthened through the heels, maintain that length and press up through the balls of the big toes so the inner legs are slightly longer than the outer.
7. As a beginning practitioner stay for 10 seconds. Gradually add 5 to 10 seconds onto your stay every day or so until you can comfortably hold the pose for 3 minutes. Then continue for 3 minutes each day for a week or two, until you feel relatively comfortable in the pose. Again gradually add 5 to 10 seconds onto your stay every day or so until you can comfortably hold the pose for 5 minutes. Come down with an exhalation, without losing the lift of the shoulder blades, with both feet touching the floor at the same time.

Benefits
The headstand is an inversion and these cleanse and nourish us at deep levels: the brain is flooded with blood flow and nutrients, the mind clears, thinking improves.  Headstand activates the body's master glands - pineal and pituitary - which controls the chemical balance of the entire body. It strengthens the body, and focuses and concentrates the mind - is conducive to meditation.

•Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
•Stimulates the pituitary and pineal glands
•Strengthens the arms, legs, and spine
•Strengthens the lungs
•Tones the abdominal organs
•Improves digestion
•Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
•Therapeutic for asthma, infertility, insomnia, and sinusitis

Contraindications - DON'T DO THIS IF YOU HAVE:
•Back injury
•Headache

•Heart condition

•High blood pressure

•Menstruation

•Neck injury

•Low blood pressure: Don't start practice with this pose

•Pregnancy: If you are experienced with this pose, you can continue to practice it late into pregnancy. However, don't take up the practice of Sirsasana after you become pregnant.

•Sirsasana is considered to be an intermediate to advanced pose. Do not perform this pose without sufficient prior experience or unless you have the supervision of an experienced teacher. Some schools of yoga recommend doing Sirsasana before Sarvangasana, others vice versa. The instruction here assumes the former order.

Podcast post - Chant the Mahamrityunjaya mantra

The Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra

Om trayambakam yajaamahe
sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvaarukamiva bandhanaat
mrityor muksheeya maamritaat.

Meaning/Translation

We meditate on the [god] which nourishes and increases the sweet fullness of life. Like a cucumber from its stem may we be separated ("liberated"), not from immortality but from death.

For more information on the vast system of yoga: http://www.myyoga.org.uk/

A Chant to Heal a Broken World - Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

It took me six years to open my mouth in a yoga class and chant. I thought it was 'airy fairy' nonsense and felt embarrassed by the whole thing. And I know from my 5 years of teaching yoga, that many people feel the same way.

But chanting is a direct route to health and wellbeing. It offers us a way to positively affect the energy of vishudda chakra helping us to find our voice and release suppressed emotion. Chanting calms the mind and the emotions.  It stabilises the heart rate, reduces blood pressure and produces endorphins, the 'feel good' emotions.

Healing Effects
Chanting cleanses the mind like water cleanses the body. Mostly this is due to the internal vibration of the sound itself: it has been scientifically proven that the vibratory effects of vowel sounds (for example in chanting 'om') makes the bones of the thoracic cage vibrate stimulating all the way down to the alveoli of the lungs and increasing oxygen uptake and gaseous exchange. It also creates a vibratory auto-massage of the internal organs and stimulates the endocrine glands. Coupled with the vocal chord stimulation of the vagus nerve (parasympathetic ) and sympathetic nervous systems - which means that we feel energised yet with an expansive relaxed-ness.

The Door to Eternal Life
Nevertheless not all mantras were created equal. The Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra is regarded as one of the most potent Sanskrit Mantras. It is addressed to [god] and, along with the Gayatri mantra, it holds the highest place among the many mantras used for contemplation and meditation. 'The Mahamrityunjaya mantra is a potent combination of sounds that, if repeated with faith, dedication and perseverance over a period of time, leads, not only to victory over the fear of death, but eventually to victory over death itself or moksha (liberation). It is therefore known as a ‘moksha mantra’.' It is stimulating and heating (unlike the Gayatri mantra, which is soothing and cooling). It is designed to wards off evil or negative forces by creating a protective psychic shield around the practitioner. It is said to destroy sorrow and poverty, and to fulfil all of one’s desires. Anyone who wishes to remove obstacles in life and overcome difficult situations or illness should repeat this mantra regularly. If chanted a minimum of eleven times, last thing at night, it will ensure a better sleep and more positive dreams.


Chant the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra with me
click on the 'play' button on the image below to start chanting with me (read the transcript below)


The Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra

Om trayambakam yajaamahe
sugandhim pushtivardhanam
Urvaarukamiva bandhanaat
mrityor muksheeya maamritaat.

Meaning/Translation

We meditate on the [god] which nourishes and increases the sweet fullness of life. Like a cucumber from its stem may we be separated ("liberated"), not from immortality but from death.

For more information on the vast system of yoga: http://www.myyoga.org.uk/

Yoga and Buddhism are (more or less) the same

The Noble 8 Fold Path or the 8 limbs of yoga? Yoga and Buddhism have identical roots. The 'non attachment' or 'letting go' of yoga's vairagya is Central to Buddhist thought.

Patanjali and Siddharta took similar approaches to their study of knowing and being and came to similar conclusions,  but the teaching of the Buddha came later, evolving directly from the brahmanical-upanishadic tradition of yogic thought. It is impossible not to view  the buddhas teaching as yoga.

24 Years ago I started my journey with Buddhism but , for me, yoga is a more 'complete' body- mind system.

The all-important Buddhist view of emptiness corresponds to the yogic view that properties of an object are non essential and arise purely in relation to a self that is in itself an empty construct.  (which just means that our concept of a constant and non-changing 'self' is an illusion created by our conscious mind :-))

Visit my main yoga site: http://www.myyoga.org.uk/

Buddhism and Yoga: be the moisture

"Does a drop stay still in the ocean?
Move with entirety, and with the tiniest particular.
Be the moisture in an oyster that helps to form one pearl."   Rumi (Sufi mystic poet)

I write this blog because it helps me with my own yoga study and self study. My analytics has been telling me I get a couple of visitors a month. But I still write; albeit with the occasional, fleeting "is it worth it?". Yesterday I found out I am actually getting hundreds of visitors a month. So my koan of "who listens to an unread blog" has been answered : be the moisture in an oyster.

The moisture just is. Its 'being' creates the pearl. It doesn't ask to get noticed. It is not attached to whether the pearl is formed or not. It is present anyway.

So that's why I write: it doesn't matter if anyone is reading (but THANK YOU :-D). I would rather be the moisture than the pearl.

Delicious sacral space

The sacrum is the bottom part of the spine - the last five vertebrae actually, though these are all fused and form one very special and triangular bone. Many efferent nerves of the parasympathetic nervous system exit through the small holes in this bone. And the triangular sacrum itself articulates with the two wings of the pelvis at the sacroiliac (SI) joint - though this joint is mainly fused there is some movement.

Many people get low back pain around this area. Possibly because this SI joint has gotten out of alignment. And also because the 1st bone of the sacrum S1, can become fused with the 5th of the lumbar L5, in a process known as L5 sacralisation.

L5 sacralization is a common anomaly, where usually the L5 vertebral body becomes incorporated into the S1 vertebral body. It is a a benign process but it can cause pain.  Usually the 5 Lumbar vertebrae (backbones between the chest/ribs and the hips) are separate, distinct bones but sometimes the bottom lumbar vertebra (#5) tries to fuse with the sacrum. It's not completely separate, but it's not completely fused (usually) like the other bones in the sacrum. It's like it has lost space.

Perhaps this is because it is so easy to put undue pressure on the sacrum and SI joint - that's why I teach student to sit on blocks with the knees raised above the hip bone, so that they are not 'sitting' on their sacrums.

But you can use blocks to create a wonderful re-articulation and opening of the SI joint - see the picture above where, if you look, i am using a standard brick-block on its end, carefully placed beneath the triangular sacrum bone (behind the pubic bone) and resting the whole weight of my body on the block.

You need the right type of block (see left) and this needs placing carefully beneath your sacrum as you lift yourself up into dwi pada pittam.

Initially rest on this with your feet on the floor, and feel the block settle gently beneath the sacrum adjusting the position of the block if you need to.  Peform the posture in front of a wall (see top photo) as you will need its support for your feet in a minute.

The second similar block is then placed, on its long side, against the wall in front of you.  Again a little adjustment is needed to make sure that you are of good enough distance away from the wall so that, in a minute you can extend your legs and rest your heels on the block. Take your hands beneath you and interlance them, pushing your hands away from your shoulders, towards your feet and lift up onto your shoulders. (see right)

With the distance sorted, extend one leg then the other slowly and rest your heels on the flat edge of the block. The feet need to be together and the legs straight. Zip up through the inner calves, feel the lower end of the femur turn out radially and the inner top of the femur turn inwards so that you feel your seat bones spreading. Rest here, with your toes pointing up to the ceiling and gravity pulling your sacrum into the block.

This posture is just beautiful for moving the S1 away from L5 and creating a sense of space in this important area of the body.

NOTE: this, and the other yoga postures I suggest on this blog, is best performed under the one on one tuition of a skilled and trained yoga teacher. This is a particularly strong posture and you could damage your back unless properly guided.

Find out more about Sue Tupling's yoga at MyYoga website.

Achieve balance and awaken yourself through neti

Neti rebalances the nadis and awakens ajna chakra

I used to be very cynical of neti.  Why would anyone want to pour salty water up their nose through one nostril so that it comes running out the opposite side? Eeek! Uggghh!. But the practice is sweet, I can tell you. It cleans out your head, your eyes sparkle, you feel a spaciousness in your brain, the breath is open and expansive through the nostrils. The body sighs in ecstasy as you do it. Its like you feel a 'high' after doing neti. Well at least that is my experience.

Benefits
If you look at the yoga research ,  Neti has been used successfully to treat the following ailments: colds and coughs, eye ailments, nose ailments, throat ailments, sinusitis, tonsillitis, catarrh, adenoid inflammation, headache, insomnia, tiredness, migraine, epilepsy, depression, tension, lung diseases (asthma, pneumonia, tuberculosis and bronchitis), facial paralysis. It certainly alleviates mental health conditions such as anxiety, anger and depression as well as 'brain fog' where your thinking is foggy and muddled. Perhaps the most surprising of the benefits includes the alleviation of facial paralysis, epilepsy and migraine.

How it works
Essentially neti works by directly stimulating the olfactory nerve, and the trigeminal nerve going from the nose/face into the brain, and the mucous membrane, lymphatic and blood vessels of the nasal cavity. This helps the nasal passages to work more efficiently at purifying the air before going into the lungs, the eyes and the eye muscles are relaxed which relaxes the face.
The autonomic nervous system is rebalanced - so the sympathetic (SNS, fear, fight or flight) and the parasympathetic (PNS, relaxation response) are in equipose. The olfactory nerves in the nose are connected to a part of the brain called the hippocampus which is associated with deeper structures in the brain, concerned with regulation of the autonomic nerves. Stimulation of the olfactory nerves thus influences the autonomic functions of the body.
The pranic channels are opened and balanced - these correspond to the meridians of TCM. Through stimulation of the nostril channels the sinus arrythmia is balanced (the alternating flow of breath through left and right nostrils). The flow of breath through the nostrils influences the nadis. In yoga we call the left nostril flow ida nadi and the right pingala nadi - the former being associated with the PNS and the latter SNS. For adept yogis these are balanced so that left and right are in a state of sushumna nadi - balanced central flow, bringing balance to the nervous system and the whole body-mind.
Neti brings about a profound physical stimulation of the whole brain. It helps to bring relief in cases of facial paralysis and other nervous diseases. Soothing of the brain helps to soothe and relax the rest of the body. Neti helps to remove blocks in the flow of nervous impulses and thereby it brings good health.

Awakening
Neti awakens ajna chakra the seat of insight, intuition and transcendence located in the mid eyebrow point. In acupuncture, the point between the eyebrows is called GV (governor vessel) 24.5. It corresponds to the point called the bhrumadhya in yogic terminology. It is the trigger point for the ajna chakra which is a very important psychic centre. It is the point where the ida and pingala meet and flow as one channel- the sushumna. There are many methods of stimulating this point: acupuncture uses needles etc., yoga uses other techniques including neti.

How to do it
I tend to practice neti two or three times a week. Avoid doing it everyday, as the body could lose its natural balance. But when you first start do it every day for the first 3 months to effect rebalance.

1. Get yourself a good pot - the rolls royce is the nosebuddy pot. And it really is eons ahead of other pots (see right) - you wouldn't believe. Though it might look a bit rude! Fill it to the line drawn on the side, with lukewarm body temperature water.

2. Use the spoon provided with the pot to add a spoon's worth of salt - cooking salt is best.  DO NOT use sea salt - or ouch!!!  stir well to dissolve the salt fully into the water.  If, when you do the practice, it stings the reason is that you have not got the salt balance right.  Salt balance is crucial in matching the osmotic potential of the water with that of your body so that the body 'thinks' that the neti water is simply more of your own body fluid and the process feels sweet.
3. Breathing through your mouth, insert the spout gently into your left nostril, slowly tilt your head and pot slowly sideways to the right so that the water runs into the left nostril and out through the right one. This will happen automatically, provided the position of the pot and the angle of your head are correct, and the mouth is open for breathing. Allow all the water in the pot to flow freely until it is empty and then repeat on the right nostril. If the water passes down the back of the throat you have your head in the wrong position and you need to change the angle.




its important to dry the nostrils


4. After completion, the nostrils need to be dried and cleared completely of water. Do this firstly by bending forward so that the top of your head is hanging down. Slowly tilt your head to each side in turn and lift up and down a little, slowly. Stay inverted for about 30 secs until nostrils are drained. stand up and blow sharply (bhastrika) through one nostril about 20 times, then the other. Then repeat bhastrika through both nostrils until clear. Test if they are dry by blowing through both onto the back of the hand, if you don't feel water then you have probably completed the drying process.

Dwi Pada Pittam Workshop

Back bends are opening, rejuvenating for both the nervous and the muscular systems and are recommended for mental health issues such as depression.  Backbends that work against gravity, such as Dwi Pada Pittam (two foot support) otherwise known as the Bridge, use contraction of the spinal muscles. They rejuvenate the back muscles by concentrically contracting to overcome gravity (lift the spine up) and thereby enable the release of the muscles and fascia of the chest, ribs and pericardium (heart membrane). It is said that this allows 'space' for the heart and improves its functioning. Given that depression and heart disease have been proven to go hand in hand it makes sense that back bends help people suffering from heart disease.

This post offers you a short 'workshop' in Dwi Pada Pittam - you will get the most benefit by also watching the accompanying video.



The risks involved in this posture is jamming of the lower back. The low back, lumbar region, is more mobile than other parts of the spine - it has shorter spinous processes, no ribs attached to restrict movement and also our Western sedentary lifestyles lead to general kyphosis (rounding of the upper back) which weakens the upper back muscles anyway.  So if we don't practice this posture mindfully, our body takes the path of least resistance and we can end up jamming and hurting our low back.

So to practice Dwi Pada Pittam to avoid this and to open the heart, strengthen the back and avoid spinal jamming:

1. Relax - start lying on the floor with the knees bent and feet pulled in towards the buttokcs and firmly planted on the floor. Inhale and sweep the arms up.  Exhale and tip your legs to the right, feel the left shoulder blade shrugging into the floor. Then inhale up and exhale legs to the left, feel the right shoulder release to the floor. Feel the back of the neck and shoulders flat on the floor, pulled down by your back into the floor. Feel the thoracic (upper) spine releasing down into the floor.
2. Initiate the movement - exhale and tilt the pelvis back, pushing the low back into the floor. Inhale and take the pelvis into the air, breath by breath. As you inhale and lift imagine an exercise ball being slowly filled with air beneath you, lifting your spine up softly from underneath you. As you lift, feel the curve flowing along the length of the spine in a rounded smooth curve, along your entire spine.
3. Keep your chin tucked down, your neck long and shoulders grounded into the floor. Bring the apex of the curve into your UPPER back , behind your heart, so that your pelvis moves upward and toward the ceiling and your chest expands towards your face.
4. Stretch your coccyx towards your knees and pull your abdominals down towards your spine. Open your front thighs and groin towards the ceiling and be very grounded in  your feet and knees.  Knees are parallel and feet and knees hip width apart.
5. When your chest is fully expanded, raise your pelvis as high as you can - feeling that imaginary ball beneath you expanded to its fullest raising you up. Stay where you are and hold this maximum position as effortlessly as possible.  Remember 'sthira sukhanam asanam' - steadiness and comfort in the posture.
6. Uncurl slowly on the exhale, release your abdominals down and release the pelvis back down uncurling the spine to the floor vertebra by vertebra, as if you are easing into soft foam, feel the vertebrae release one by one from the thoracic to the sacrum.

Full posture

1. Lift up again as before - then when fully extended lift your arms up and sweep them down towards your feet, interlacing your hands beneath your hips and straighten them away from your shoulders.
2. Roll your upper arms out, move your shoulders away from your ears, squeeze your shoulder blades together and down. move your upper arms inwards and press your shoulders into the floor - ease and squeeze into this so that you are resting directly on  your shoulders. Breathe smoothly and evenly.
3. To release out, release the hands sweeping them overhead again and release and uncurl the spine slowly the floor.

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The Yoga of Sound

Tibetan Singing Bowl similar to mine

People often express an interest in the beautiful Tibetan singing bowl that I use in my classes. If you keep your arm sort of straight, swing with your whole body-mind (gently) and hit the wooden batton against the side of the bowl with a careful and confident strike, you hear a sound of multiple harmonics. A sound that resonates back and forth inside your head in the most beautiful way.

If you use the batton to slowly rub/stir the wooden mallet within or on the top outer surface of the metal bowl, it produces a continuous harmonic rimming sound. Very sweet to the ears.
The sound quality of singing bowls depends on mixture composition of metal used, the more the metal composition, the more purity in sound, also termed as chakra balancing aura sound.


Singing bowls are unique because they are multiphonic instruments, producing multiple harmonic overtones at the same time. The overtones are a result of using an alloy consisting of multiple metals, each producing its own overtone. But to get the most beautiful sound you need to pay some money for the best hand-made bowls (rather than bowls made out of a single cheaper bronze alloy).

The harmonic overtones that these bowls generate are researched for their ability to activate alpha and theta brainwaves (deep relaxation in the brain) and produce profound positive effects on our mental functioning and our emotional state.

Sound (music) has been much researched and proven to have a positive effect on our brain chemistry (in a similar way to having sex). The release of endorphins such as dopamine, give us an emotional thrill - they tickle our brain! This emotional arousal is important helping us to manipulate and affect our emotional wellbeing and even our performance. If you want to increase your performance state by increasing your stimulation you can play your favourite rock music. If you want to chill out and relax - decrease your level of stimulation, ie performance nerves - you can play relaxing music.

Perhaps this is why sound has a special significance in yoga. Sound is vibration - as we scientists know on a deep level, everything is energy. Sound waves travel through the air and hit our ear drums, these vibrations are interpreted by our brains as musical notes. Sometimes we can feel this vibration in our bodies (ever stood too close to the bass speaker whilst watching your favourite band ? .. yum!). And the main way we use sound in yoga is through chanting - more on this in the next post.

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.