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!