Tag Archives: breath

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The Breath as a Window into Your Experience

by dan

The breath is a clue to what you are experiencing. If you are doing yoga, watching where the breath speeds up or catches are clues to how poses make you feel and where you can make attempts to let go. Holding the breath is common when people concentrate or feel some strong emotion arise. Notice what it is that happens for you as you work with the following poses:

1. Tree – Vrksasana

2. Chair – Utkatasana

3: Triangle – Trikonasana

4. Child’s Pose - Balasana

5. Downward-Facing Dog – Adho Mukha Svanasana

How does the breath move in each of these poses? See if you can watch without trying to change your natural habits at first. Just let what happens happen. Then, as you move through the poses a second time, see if you can keep the breath calm and steady. How much of a challenge is it? How does it feel to breathe in the poses rather than hold the breath or speed up?

Practice this during class and with other poses. It will give you a lot of insight into your own breath habits. In yoga, we say that the mind follows the breath. How does your mind seem to follow the breath when you hold or speed up? How does the mind follow when you are able to relax and smooth out the breath?

Pose of the Day: Whichever pose above produces the most change in breath, when you first try it.

Yogic Concept of the Day: Watch the breath as you go through your day to notice when you hold it and when it speeds up. Try just to observe without changing it at first. Notice how this seems to affect your thinking. Does the mind seem to follow somehow?

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The Practice of Going into Resistance

by: farconville

Resistant attitudes interfere with the sense of creativity and connection that can come from yoga practice. If you notice frustration, struggle, or other types of resistance as you practice, you can use this as a time to connect with the body and breath. Slow down. Pay attention. Care for yourself by not rushing through the postures. In fact, this may be a posture to take even more time with. It is where resistant attitudes come up that we can find some good work that deepens our practice and sense of ourselves.

So how do we train the mind to stay with our experience when we feel like resisting? It does take training. If it is hard at first, no big deal. Just keep trying. That is practice, right? You can do this practice by bringing your attention to your breath. Notice where you feel the sensations of breathing in the body and see if you can remain with the attention there. Notice what muscles are doing the work, and how the breath supports them. If this seems difficult to literally feel in the body, simplify the pose you are working on (if you need to) and slow down.

It can sometimes take a little time to develop a strong sense of where the sensations in the body are for each of the poses. You may even notice it is easier to feel the muscles moving or working in one pose, but not in another. Remember that you can bring your sense of play and curiosity to this experience. It is just about what you actually feel in the moment. It is not about what you are “supposed to feel” according to someone else. See what your own experience is. 

As you play with this today, try working with two poses that are not as challenging for you, and in between those add two poses that are challenging or even difficult. See if you find it easier to stay focused on the sensations in the body with the challenging poses or the not-so-challenging. Rather than asking why or analyzing your experience… just notice and stay with what you actually feel in the body.

Yoga Pose of the Day: Garland – Malasana

Yogic Concept of the Day: When feeling resistance, I slow down and increase my awareness of the sensations in the body.

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Concentration

Today, for Friday, a day to start the weekend and play a little, I will share something that may sound difficult at the start. However, if you will attempt with effort, consistency, and an open mind I think you will find this will practice is not only useful, but necessary for a sense of calm and peace in the mind. Your mind is a beautiful instrument. Like all instruments, it requires proper care and the development of some skill to play well.

Yoga Sutra I:32 ” The practice of concentration on a single subject (or the use of one technique) is the best way to prevent obstacles and their accompaniments.” Translation Sri Swami Satchidananda

by: photostock

This is a freeing practice for anyone. When the mind begins to wander, whether it is pleasant or no, you can use the mind and practice concentration. The first trick is to notice when the mind begins to wander, and to begin the practice. In this way a sense of peacefulness will naturally arise. The Yoga Sutras talk about what you may use to concentrate on. It can be a mantra ( a group of words - given by the teacher or chosen by the individual – which bring a sense of joy. You can choose to concentrate on the breath. There are myriad other options described in the yoga sutras. The best way is to pick one and stick with it.

Don’t let yourself worry about if you are doing it right. Pick something and then do that. Trust that you are human, and as a human this will eventually become a sense of peace. It is natural. No trying. Just do and relax. Balance effort and comfort.

Many people today have the sense that in any situation having more options, more choices, and switching around to get some diversion or enjoyment is what is beneficial. When it comes to meditation and concentration this is usually just the mind looking for entertainment, rather than learning to work as you ask it to. Once you have accepted that the mind does not have control, it is a worker for you, there will be an easing.

Yes, the mind can be willing to work in any way that we ask the mind to work, but this requires training. The training is keeping with a single focus of concentration. The benefits are joy, peacefulness, and a sharp mind. All very valuable in every aspect of life.

I would encourage you to pick a mantra, or begin to work at noticing the breath. Then, when you are in the grocery store, standing in line anywhere, and pumping gas you can use this focus to practice patience, presence, and enjoyment. Perhaps you can use it at the doctor’s office, while cooking dinner, or making the bed. All of these times become available moments to work toward peace in your mind, rather than playing back troubling scenarios, or planning. When you mean to plan, plan. When you are just doing some work which does not require the mind, see if you can get a sense of peace, and space and openness. Try it as a form of play, rather than work. See if you can feel an easing into the repetition. The words and breath become waves you can float on. You can just be as you are, however that is.

I wish you much peace throughout your weekend!

With gratitude… Beth

Yoga Pose of the Day: Purvottanasana – Upward Plank Pose

Yogic Concept of the Day: When in doubt, return to my form of focus (breath, mantra, or other forms)

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Great Passages from the Yoga Sutras

This week, I figure I can take you along with me as I look into some great passages in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Of course, if you want to see something with great detail and get into a big study of the sage Patanjali’s work, by all means, there are many great translations available out there. I would suggest reading a couple in tandem, so you can get a better feel for the language used and the true meaning of the text.

 

Personally, I use single lines from the sutras to guide my practice, and to think on, and try to put into physical practice throughout the day. This week, I invite you into this practice with me.

 

Today’s sutra: Yoga Sutra I:2 Yogas citta vrrti nirodhah. “The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is yoga.”

In other words, anything you do to help calm the whirling or churning of thoughts is work towards yoga.

Work with the breath is often one of the first encounters a yoga student has with this concept in practice. Practicing is what is the most important thing here. So today, I invite you to work with your breath and begin to notice when the thoughts begin to move quickly. See if you can use pranayama (breath practices) or just slow the breath to help the mind move into a more calm experience.

 

Yoga Pose of the Day: Deergha Swasam – Yogic Breath 

Yogic Thought for the Day: The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is yoga.

 

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Kazoo in honor of Mozart,an invitation to keep playing.

I love musical toys… and I am sure that I am not alone. Yesterday, on this blog, I talked about finding your learning styles and the types of intelligences that are strongest for you. One of mine was the musical intelligence. So I brought kazoos to class yesterday.

I think we had a blast!

We used the kazoos as an introduction to a new form of pranayama (breath work): Brahmari – or humming breath. I encouraged people to look into the connection between play, and practice. As play opens up our hearts, so can this humming breath – allowing a sense of ease to come in as we prepare for savasana and meditation.

As you watch this short video, notice how much breath control must actually have to be applied in order to get the quick staccato and the articulation of the tied 16th notes he is playing on a kazoo. Seriously.

What happens to our minds and bodies when we attempt things that are completely silly? I’ll tell you, thinking about all of this, and the jy we had in class yesterday, is really a great invitation to bring a sense of play as we come to the weekend.

 

Thanks for sharing some joy with me!

 

Yogic Pose of the Day: Brahmari – Bee Breath

Yogic Concept of the Day: I can play some more this weekend. It enriches my body and mind to have playful intention.

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Yoga that Can be Seen

Photo Credit: adamr

Coming back to the “ha” of hatha yoga, symbolized by the sun, today we acknowledge the aspects of yoga that can be seen.

 

Yoga asana, the practice of postures, helps to maintain the physical body and care for the health. We can witness an experience of another’s yoga as we see it, but we can never know how it feels to be in the other person’s body, experiencing the poses, or working with the breath and the mind as they do. We are each different. Hopefully, this seen aspect of our own or another’s practice can be uplifting and inspiring (which literally means “to give breath”) to others.

 

Pranayama, the breath work that helps us to gather a sense of our life force. Call this prana, chi, or life itself, taking this time to be with our experience of the breath is mostly an internal experience, though we can see the movements of the body.

 

Seva, or karma yoga, is the act of giving of ourselves without seeking personal benefit or gain. We offer the fruits of our actions for the sake of others. This act of giving can make itself seen in the sharing of food between friends, or the donation of money to fight cancer. It can be the offer of a smile to a child who appears nervous, or the lending of your truck to a friend who is moving. In any case, the offer of our own resources or actions for the benefit of others will always lead to a sense of connection with others, a sense of place in the community. This can be seen, though much of the benefit is still internal.

 

There are other aspects of yoga that can be seen, too. Would you care to write a few words about how you practice the seen aspect of yoga, or how this has impacted you?

 

Yoga Pose of the Day: Extended Puppy Pose: See the pose explained here:  http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2476

Yogic Concept of the Day: to make sure I keep my yoga practice balanced, I can choose to make effort in the seen aspects of yoga: asana, pranayama, and seva. Doing so can keep me present with my community, whether they practice yoga or not.

 

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Being Free

All rights reserved by Public Domain Pictures.

What is freedom in the mind?

Non-attachment could be one way to describe it.

One way to answer is in the yoga sutras: I: 15 where it describes being “…free from craving for objects seen or heard about is non-attachment.”

I have heard people voice concerns that non- attachment sounds like a lack of caring or connection. But this description certainly shows that non-attachment is about not having a knee-jerk reaction when seeing or hearing about something.

If you watch tv and they describe chocolate cake – do you then feel you need chocolate cake? This is attachment. We can start that simple.

Just noticing when that reaction occurs about people, places, food, other objects can be a great step. If you are compelled to react in some way, then you are not really free. You can learn to let it go, though. You can begin to think about it first and decide whether you will act or not based on what will be helpful to you or other people.

It is just a matter of interrupting the reaction.

This is actually how yoga works, naturally. As we practice asana, and meditation more and more, we begin to notice little things like when we are holding our breath. We start realizing that just because everyone is having steak at the restaurant, we don’t really have to. We might have yoga class in less than an hour, and that would make us uncomfortable. We begin to notice subtle scents of flowers in an office, or the vibrant blue in someone’s coat and appreciate it. Having more and more frequent experiences like these is sort of inevitable.

Of course, we can also apply effort towards non-attachment and practice.

It is really up to you in each moment to decide how you want to direct yourself, and your attention.

Pose of the Day: Happy Baby Pose :)

Yogic Concept of the Day: I can decide to notice small things that I enjoy and quick reactions. Each time I notice or become aware of moments like these, I am practicing yoga.

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Cultivating Calm

Here is a 9 minute video pep-talk to help you get started today in de-stressing your life. There is nothing major to it… but it is yoga. You can do it today, build a habit of it before the holidays, and have a great finish on this year. You already have all the tools you need. Check it out!

 

See you tomorrow!