Goldilocks

Once upon a time many of us were told the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. For those who need a reminder, this girl, Goldilocks, walked into an empty house that happened to be owned by three bears. She decided to do a bit of exploring and sat down to eat some porridge. As she tasted Papa Bears porridge, it was too hot. Mama Bears porridge was too cold. Well, Baby Bears porridge was just right, so she chowed down. She had a few other adventures in the house that involved chairs and other things until she finally made it into the bedroom where she tried out Papa Bears bed...too hard. Mama Bears...too soft. Baby Bears bed was just right, so she hopped in and fell asleep. And on the story goes, which if you don't know the ending, you'll have to Google it or ask someone else.

Now you might be wondering how the story of Goldilocks makes its way onto a blog about yoga. What I like about this trespassing youngster is that she was in search of what was "just right" for her. And as we step into our yoga practice or move through our day, do we know how to find that sweet spot of what's just right for us? If we shift the emphasis of the story to Papa Bear, we learn that what is just right for him is hot porridge and a hard bed, illustrating that what is just right for each of us may be quite different. As a yoga instructor I don't know what's right for my students. Only they can gauge that through their own awareness. By allowing people to search for what's just right for them it provides each of us an opportunity to pursue a different path. If we can do so without placing judgment on what's right for me or for you, a particular acceptance and freedom arises...not only on the yoga mat but far beyond.

In the yoga Sutras of Patanjali, he talks about the "Gunas", three parts of the mind which I visualize as a see-saw of balance. On one side of the see-saw is Rajas which is active and fiery, the caffeinated version of our minds. The other end is Tamas which is a fixed, immobile and heavy state of mind. In the middle, the balanced fulcrum of the see-saw is Sattva or Baby Bear as it relates to our Goldilocks story. Noticing our mind state is a large part of finding balance in our lives and we explore this through our practices of yoga and meditation. In those moments of too much activity, the state of Rajas, we know to move more toward Tamas and vice versa. These constant fluctuating states gain greater balance as we practice, enabling us to have more accessibility to creating a state of balance, one that is "just right" for us.

So who knew that a story that I was told many years ago would be related through a yogic reference? Who knew that Goldilocks could inspire a recognition that all of us crave balance in our lives. When we find that perfect balancing point of Sattva, a sense of stability and ease arises. My question for you this week is "where are you leaning?". Toward a Papa or a Mama Bear? Or have you found the still-point of balance, resting in the middle, just as Goldilocks rested in Baby Bears bed.

Depending on your reflection of this question, what do you need to do to shift or maintain the sweetness? Enjoy the journey of exploring and make sure you bring some porridge along that is just right for you!

Unplug

As technology has seeped into our lives over the past decade, it is not an unusual to have a conversation about the need to avoid too much screen time. The obvious times to begin unwinding and avoid looking at the blue screen are before we head off to sleep and when we awake in the morning. However, my theme of the week has looked deeper at what it means to unplug, beyond the obvious of having less connection to technology and trying to have more connection to ourselves.

This past week I've been talking about unplugging the energetic and somatic clots that we hold in our organism. This can relate to prana (read my blog on prana if you missed it by clicking here), the subtle life force flowing through us and all living things. Take a moment to close your eyes and see if you can feel tension anywhere in your body. Got it? That's an energetic clog where the tissues are tight and the energy doesn't flow easily through them. And we know that we want to remove the clogs whether they be in our kitchen drain, sinuses, muscles, arteries or in our subtle energy bodies. 

When traumatic or life changing events occur we have a physical sensation of the experience. The event lives in our tissues and if we have no skills by which to remove the clogs, they'll linger deep within until we find a way to release them. For me, I had an energetic clog that took 24 years before it was cleared. At the age of 46, my father passed away from cancer. I was 19 years old and we had a close and loving relationship. When he died, nobody in my family or circle of people had the skills to cope with such a life altering event. I was devastated by his passing and stumbled through the next several months in a haze of grief.

Then, during my yoga therapy studies, we were spending time working on yoga and cancer. I remember going through the practice thinking, "I wish I knew then, what I know now...perhaps it would have brought more peace into the process of Dad's death". And it was in that practice that I had this incredible experience. I went into a pose and much to my surprise, began to sob. Bone wracking sobs. It surprised me so much that I sat up out of the pose and just like that, I stopped crying. It was as though a switch had been thrown to shut it down.  I was so surprised with this reaction that Ient back into the pose and started sobbing all over again. This went back and forth a few times as I was stunned by how a position of my body could turn the water works on or off. Thankfully, I was in a safe environment with a compassionate teacher who just handed me a box of tissues, assured me she was there and let me be. At the end of the practice, with swollen eyes and a snotty nose, I felt compelled to tell my fellow trainees about what an amazing and intense experience I had just had. It was a turning point in how I perceived our mind-body-soul connection and how if we tamp emotions and trauma down into our bodies without letting them clear, it might just take some time for us to fully heal. I had managed to push grief into the deepest part of my being and it wasn't until I had undertaken years of practice and finding the tools that I was able to be free of the painful grip that grief held on me.

A second story to illustrate this happened recently with my younger brother, Ken, who had a car accident and his car was totalled. Thankfully, he wasn't injured and spent the morning following the crash dealing with the Highway Patrol, tow trucks, work, a visit to a medical practitioner and insurance companies. Ken is currently enrolled in my 200-hour yoga teacher training program and there was a point in the training where he was undertaking a 21-day meditation challenge. So when he arrived home, he hadn't yet meditated for the day but didn't really feel like he wanted to...he had been through a traumatic experience and was somewhat in a state of shock. Yet, he told me that something deep within him felt that he knew that whatever was within the practice would help him. So he sat. Then he cried. He cried through the many emotions of the morning-gratitude for being alive; thankful for helpful officers, insurance agents and tow truck drivers; anger at the guy who ran into him; fear over the whole experience and that he could have been badly injured; and sadness that a car he loved was crushed and he had to say goodbye to it. In withdrawing into his own space, he was able to unplug the trauma. He didn't allow himself to stuff the experience down but to face what he was feeling without judgment.

Challenging events happen to all of us and having skills by which to support ourselves and others through the difficult times can be practiced by anyone. The point though is, we need to do a couple of things to put them into action. The first is to make space for ourselves everyday. Even the most simple act of conscious breathing is an act of unplugging. The second is to avoid getting bogged down by distractions whether they be our cell phones, TV, online shopping, obsession with politics or world disasters. Clear the space for your own inquiry and learn how to be fully present with whatever it is that you might be feeling, without judgment.

I am grateful for my unplugging and the journey I've taken to awaken it. I sit and practice every day and will forever hold my Dad in my heart with gratitude for all that he taught me, both in life and through his death. 

May the power of my practice, be shared with you. 

Kindness

The book,  "The Secret Power of Yoga", a translation of the yoga sutras by author Nischala Joy Devi, is a story that illustrates a deeper practice as it relates to kindness. Instead of the easier practice of random acts of being kind to others, this story describes a picnic on a beautiful day, in a peaceful garden with a picnic basket filled with yummy food and perhaps good company in tow. Soon after setting up the picnic another person, a man that appears to be enjoying the same beauty of the day arrives and sits close by...and then lights up an expensive cigar. 

So what would be your reaction? How would you feel if this were you who had anticipated a pleasurable outing only to have it intersected with something that you deem as unpleasant?

Sutra 1.33 describes keys that support us in unlocking our own inner peacefulness. The first key is to show kindness towards those who are happy. In the story above, it is likely that most of us would react with a sense of indignation..."How could he be so inconsiderate? We were here first! Is he completely unconscious as to know how this might impact others?". As a result, our emotional reaction will linger with us for quite some time. It might be difficult to let the feelings of indignation subside quickly, unless we shift our energy around the situation. If we can send thoughts of kindness to the stranger and, as Nischala Devi says, "Instead, try opening your heart and allowing kindness to meet his happiness...Try overriding the mind's indignation with the heart's desire to love everyone."

From another perspective, when we start to offer a feeling of kindness to those who are happy, we can initially be confronted by our own feelings of jealousy or disappointment. In the practice of lovingkindness, we offer statements as gifts not only to others, but ultimately to ourselves. In repeating the statements of "May I be happy, may you be happy and may all beings everywhere be happy" we truly begin to see that what we wish for ourselves is the same as what all beings everywhere also wish for themselves. It reminds us how intricately we are all connected even if we have moments of disappointment, jealousy or disagreement.

We practice with ourselves so that a different vibration can be sent out from us, one that has a resounding and positive impact rather than one that keeps us stuck in our own suffering. As Nischala Joy Devi states, " we hold the key to our own peace". I love that! We hold the key. Nobody else can bring peace into our hearts except ourselves and until we start to look more consciously at our own inner selves we often don't even realize that we ARE the ones in possession of the key. We look to others wondering what they can do for us to make life easier or more peaceful.

In another translation of Sutra 1.33, Swami Jnaneshvara states, "In relationships, the mind becomes purified by cultivating feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy, compassion for those who are suffering, goodwill towards those who are virtuous, and indifference or neutrality towards those we perceive as wicked or evil". (from The Unadorned Thread of Yoga" a compilation of translations of the yoga-sutra of patanjali by Salvatore Zambita). So as we travel throughout our day, let's notice those moments when we are triggered by indignation, view our reaction as perfectly human and make an attempt "to cultivate feelings of friendliness towards those who are happy" and see how it might just shift our perspective.

May I be kind.

May I offer kindness to those who are happy.

May I offer kindness to all beings everywhere.

Prana

The word "Prana" is unique to the practice of yoga insofar as that it describes the Universal flow of energy. It's thought to be pervasive, flowing through everything and everyone. It can be thought of as an energetic current that enlivens and invigorates each and every living thing. When this energy flows through us individually, it's called "prana" (with a small "p") and can be reflective of our current state. This life force is also referred to as "chi" or "Qi" (think of the martial art of Tai Chi) but in yoga, we simply call it prana.

Prana is meant to move through us, rather than stay locked away within. When prana isn't moving or is stuck, it can take us out of balance.  What brings us back into balance? Yoga and breath. Thankfully, one of the prime benefits of undertaking the various practices of yoga is that it moves and accesses the subtle energy of prana.  One descriptor of energy is through the five layers of our being, called the "koshas". Referred to as concentric sheaths of energy, they begin with the most obvious and move to the most esoteric. Our first layer or sheath is the annamaya kosha or "food/body" sheath as we need food to keep it going. We can easily sense the energy of this layer simply by paying attention to what's going on in our bodies. As we practice various poses/asanas in yoga, we become better acquainted with this aspect of our being. The next layer is the pranamaya kosha, or our energy sheath. The third sheath, the manomaya kosha, is our mental layer.

As you can see, the energy sheath lies between the physical (annamaya) and the mental (manomaya) kosha and is the interwoven force that connects mind and body. What assists in moving prana not only throughout our body but through the layers of koshas is that it travels on the breath. The practices of "pranayama", or breath control, is a vital and central part to all of yoga. This conduit of breath not only penetrates through the first three sheaths, but carries us into the last two of the intellect (vijnanamaya kosha) and the bliss body (anandamaya kosha). The more we connect and understand our breath, the more deeply we travel to the more subtle parts of who we are. The vijnanamaya kosha is described as the intellectual layer but is broader in that it includes higher consciousness and will.  The final and thinnest layer is our anandamaya kosha, or bliss sheath, most visited by people who've done the work in reaching higher states of consciousness and connecting to the higher self. Saints, sages and spiritual mystics have done the inner work but it lies within all of us, with many people having glimpsed those moments of feeling vastly connected and limitless.

As we travel the path of yoga and realize that it's much grander than just doing poses, we begin to familiarize ourselves with how we can alter our state of being through practice. Many of us know the shift in how we feel by the end of a yoga class or seated meditation. The more we bring our awareness to breath and start to feel our prana moving, the wider the door opens toward more and more moments of feeling truly connected.

In order to know what your pranic body feels like, try the following. Allow yourself to be in stillness either sitting, standing or lying down. Take a deep breath and allow your eyes to soften or close. Notice your physical body and how it feels. Notice points of tension, areas of discomfort or ease. Next, notice what types of thoughts are currently in your awareness. Try to avoid focusing on them, simply take a peak into what is present. Then allow a smooth deep breath to come into your body and direct this breath into your hands. Focus on the palms of the hands and notice any feelings of tingling, buzzing, pulsation or vibration. Notice if they're hot or cold. If your hands were lit up from the inside, what color would the light be? As you sit with these sensations, even if they're barely detectable, you are sitting and noticing the prana in your body. This subtle energy is less familiar to us, but easily accessible through practice.

The cool thing about feeling the prana in our body is that we begin to see where it flows and where it doesn't. The saying of "where your awareness goes, prana flows" gives us an opportunity to enliven what is dark within us. Prana is known as the great dissolver as it removes pain, heartache and negativity. It can bring light into the dark recesses of the many layers of our body and carry us more deeply towards states of bliss. And beyond our personal experience, the prana that flows through us is connecting us into the gigantic and endless field of energy within our world and beyond.

Begin with breath. Take a ride on the waves of  your inhale and exhale. Allow your senses to focus on the subtle energies pulsing through your being and feel the rise and fall of your abdomen. You are on your way to the land of bliss...breathe deeply!