The Present Moment, Not Such A Bad Place To Be

I took my daughter to see her first theater performance yesterday. This was a first that was very exciting for our family. I was a bit teary eyed as I watched her excited face take in all the action on stage. My mind then began to wonder to her first day of kindergarten that would be starting in two weeks. My baby girl was about to enter into the world.

Part of me wants to keep her little forever. At 5 she loves me unconditionally, she doesn't judge me and forgives easily. When her teenage years come I fear these things won't be as abundant. Fear of what the future holds and wanting to relive the good moments of the past is an easy trap to find ourselves in. It's good to ponder about what life holds and nice to visit old memories. However what isn't healthy is when we are spending more time in the past or future than we are in the present.

When we aren't fully present we miss out on things. I will often find myself lost in thought and have completely missed out on something my daughter was trying to tell me. The present moment can sometimes be a scary place as we have no control over it. Unlike the past we don't know what is going to happen and unlike the future we imagine we can't think about what the outcome should be.

Being present doesn't need to be daunting. When we are fully present we can really get involved in the moment. When I'm playing with my child I may not really be there. In my mind I would rather be reading my book than trying to summon my inner child and come up with a reason whey Polly Pocket wants to try on yet another outfit. However if I'm present I will notice the delight in my daughters eyes that I'm giving her my full attention. I hear her laugh and see her creativity as she plays. Rather than watching the clock, I'm fully engaged in a moment that in a few years I would probably give anything to have back.

By being fully present with people we are showing them that we care. That what they are doing or saying is important to us. We look them in the eyes as they talk and we are quite and listen to what they are saying without interrupting to give our point of view. By being fully present with ourselves we are giving our bodies and minds the same consideration. When we are present and really listening to ourselves, without our inner critic, we will notice things that may have otherwise gone unseen. We may notice that we are tired or not as happy as we thought. We may notice that we are smiling and content in life and that we don't need some of the excesses we were chasing that we thought were making us happy.

The next time you are talking with someone or working on a project. Focus on being present. Every time the mind wanders, bring it back. Don't scold yourself for the wandering mind, just bring it back and try again. Over time you will see that you are able to be more present. Keep a journal of all the wonderful things you experience while being present, things you may have otherwise missed out on. Notice how your relationships with people change. In a technical world it is harder than ever to be present. Go to a coffee shop or restaurant and notice how many people are on their phone rather than engaging with the people at their table. The people in our lives are more important than the posts on Facebook.

Start today, make eye contact and listen without interrupting. You'll be amazed at what being in the present moment will produce.

Hitting The Mute Button On Our Inner Critic

I’m a mom so my inner critic is constantly questioning my every move with my child. After talking to other parents I’m coming to the conclusion that this is something every parent goes through. But you don’t have to be a parent to have a strong inner critic and this critic doesn’t have to rule your life. 

Some might say that their inner critic is the thing that drives them to be great. It pushes them to give whatever they are working towards their all. This is true, to some extent. Like everything in life you need balance, this includes your critic. 

If your inner critic is talking to you more often than not that it is not healthy. When we are constantly berating ourselves we wear ourselves down. We let doubt and fear creep in. Where once we trusted our motives and ideas, we will begin to question them. Our relationships with others may begin to suffer as our inner critic may find a voice and spread it’s venom to others. 

How to gain your silence and confidence back? When your inner critic starts to talk take a moment to stop and listen. Then think about what is being said. See if you can find any truth to it or see it for the story that it is. The thing our critic is most talented at is taking something small and turning it into something more. It’s like that telephone game we played as kids. The end result is rarely what it started out to be. 

Next, once you’ve seen the critic for what it is really saying, try and figure out where it is coming from. Was it something you were always told as a child? That you aren’t good enough, that you are lazy, that you aren’t worth anything? The things we hear from childhood can stay with us for life. It will creep up on us without our even knowing it. Stopping to witness where your thoughts are really coming from can help you to diffuse them.

Often times we are hard on ourselves because we literally don't know what we are doing. This is where education is key. Find a book or talk to a friend or professional who is knowledgable on the subject. The more informed you are about your choices in life, the better you will feel about them.

Find a positive mantra to use when your inner critic starts to rear its ugly head. Something like, I am good at what I'm doing or I made the right choice. It has to be something positive and use phrases like I am, not I will be.

Bring balance back into your life and live knowing that you are doing your best as that is all we can really do. I read a quote today that I loved. "Optimist, someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it's more like a cha-cha." With that in mind, get out there and dance.

Tendonitis

Yoga is well known for its therapeutic effects. Science is starting to back up what many yogi’s have known for thousands of years. Students will start taking yoga classes because some part of their body hurts and they hope to find relief. But what if that yoga class you took to feel better is making you feel worse?

Millions of people are doing yoga and with numbers like that statistics are bound to stand out. Injuries are one of them. Books are starting to fill up shelves about the various injuries that you can get if you aren’t paying attention in your practice. The most common one I see is tendonitis.

Tendonitis is an inflammation of the tendons, a fibrous tissue that connects muscle to bone. This inflammation typically occurs due to repetitive use and improper alignment of the joint causing the tendon to rub against something instead of moving smoothly. Symptoms include pain and tenderness along a tendon, usually near a joint and pain that’s worse with movement. Tendonitis can occur anywhere in the body where there is a tendon, the most common is in the shoulders and knees. In yoga, I primarily see it in the shoulders.

If you practice any type of flow yoga (power, vinyasa, ashtanga, etc) you are susceptible to this injury. New students can develop it by not being strong enough to do a proper chaduranga. They often do the pose with slouching shoulders and their stomach reaches the ground before their chest does. This puts a lot of pressure and strain on the shoulder joint and tendons. If this is you, roll those shoulders back and down and put your knees down till you get strong enough. In stronger students it’s more an issue of not getting into the pose properly. You move fast in a flow class and there isn’t always time to get into the perfect pose. Bad alignment causes damage.

Another thing to consider with alignment is your carrying angle. This is the angle made by the axes of the upper arm and the forearm with the elbow in full extension. If you stand tall with your arms by your side, palms facing forward you can check your angle. If your forearms lay close to your thighs you have a small angle. If your forearm sticks out, creating a triangular type shape between your arm and your thigh, then you have a bigger carrying angle. (See photo below, this is a big carrying angle.)

If you have a big carrying angle you need a wider base when putting weight on your hands. When you do your flow through from plank to down dog you will need to widen your hands to about mat width (you’ll want to experiment here and see what width feels comfortable). With a wider stance it allows the shoulder joint to move correctly.

To help heal your tendonitis, which unfortunately will never fully go away, it is prone to flare-ups once you develop it, there are a few tricks. First, especially after it first presents itself, is to cut back on all poses that move the joint. Skip the flow class for a bit and try a different type of yoga. Once the flare-up has subsided you can go back to your beloved flow class. You will constantly need to be mindful of any more flare-ups. You should also cut back on your chadurangas. Go from plank to up dog to down dog, or just straight back to down dog. This will limit a lot of extra rotation in the shoulders, especially when in a typical flow class you can do this sequence dozens of times. To keep up your strength hold your plank longer before going back to down dog. If you find after a class your shoulders bother you, you need to cut back the chadurangas or perhaps cut them out completely.

To treat the inflammation ice works great. Also a topical anti-inflammatory called Arnica works well, especially if it is put on shortly after the flare-up. I’ll put mine on after class and it is usually better by the next day. In my own practice I have cut out a lot of my chadurangas and just hold my planks. This has cut back on my flare-ups considerably. It’s not easy when our bodies age or are injured, we have to learn to let go of our ego, the health of our body depends on it.

Allergy Help

Allergies are a drag, literally. They leave you drained and miserable. Medications help, but don’t always give you relief or you may choose not to take them. Fortunately there are natural remedies out there. Speaking from experience the yoga poses do work. They aren’t however a long term fix. I’ve noticed after I do them that my symptoms lesson for a few hours.

Below are some of my favorite poses to do when my allergies are really bugging me. These poses will help with the sinus congestion and that heavy feeling you can get in your chest. I recommend you do them in the morning and evening or when your allergies are at their worst. As with anything, don't over do it.

Chest inversions: These are great for draining and opening the lungs. You’ll notice after you come out of these poses that you may cough a bit. That is your lungs trying to expel any gunk that is in there from your sinuses draining. Supported shoulder stand is my favorite. Take a yoga block and place it under your sacrum and lift your legs up into the air. Make sure to have a nice arch in the back and roll the shoulders under. If it is too intense having the legs up you can prop them against a wall or put them down which will put you into a supported bridge pose. Hold for 3-5 minutes or longer if you are more experienced with the pose and its affects. Another good chest inversion is down dog.

Word of caution with the inversions, depending on your congestion you may feel a lot of pressure in your sinuses when you are doing these. If the pressure is too much make sure to come out of the pose and only hold the poses for short periods till the pressure starts to release.

Chest openers: Our lungs breathe better when our chest is open. With bad allergies breathing is more difficult so we want to help out a bit. The bridge mentioned above is great, also plow and camel pose.

Doing deep yogic breathing while in these poses will also help to open up your airway. I personally like the Ujjayi breath. Deep even inhales and exhales. If you prolong the exhale it has a calming effect.

A nice complement to these poses is a neti. This is a form of sinus rinse. To learn more about it click this link. http://www.himalayaninstitute.org/products-publications/neti-pot-products/ Make sure to read all about it, especially the safety guide.

 

 

Finding Inspiration

To feel inspiration daily is a challenge, especially when we're lacking the energy it takes to get things going. Often we fall into the slump of our everyday living and we make up excuses as to why we don’t want to give something new a try, even if that thing may take us out of the blah of our monotonous lives. Carrying on in a robot like existence, although torturous, is easy. We can think for hours, days, maybe even years about what we really want our lives to be without ever taking action. We could be on our death bed wondering how we got there and never accomplished what we truly wanted. 

In Yoga we call this repetitive pattern a samskara. Samskaras can be either emotional or physical patterns. Imagine a samskara like a canyon in your brain. It is a pattern of thought that we have done over and over again, creating a grove. In order to get out of this pattern we must create a new positive samskara. Each positive thing that we do will fill in the negative samskara and start to dig a positive one. It takes a lot of awareness and persistence to create a positive samskara as the old ones can be deeply ingrained. 

Some of our samskaras have been with us since childhood. Understanding where these samskaras come from will be helpful in ceasing them.  Finding a therapist to talk with can be helpful. If we had parents that repeatedly told us we weren’t smart enough or that we were lazy, these are thoughts that we have carried into adulthood. These thoughts will stop you from believing in yourself causing you to stall in taking the steps to chang your life.

To start your new life you need a plan, one that isn’t just in your head. Sit down and start writing. Write out what you hope to achieve overall, then brainstorm on what you need to do to get there. Don’t leave anything out, put in even the smallest details. The more details you put in, the more inspired you will become. If, at a point, you become overwhelmed by all the things you have written down and wonder how you will ever accomplish it all, break your list down into manageable bits. 

Once you’ve got your plan, your next move is to work on it daily. Especially on the days when you don’t feel like it. Why? Because those are the days that your plan will start to gather dust. You'll start to doubt it and come up with reasons to delay or leave it behind all together. Sure you may not be your most creative or inspired on those days, but you need to do something, even if it is for five minutes. I read once that in order to succeed you must implement. 

Patience is the other factor. Success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of hard work and commitment. It takes support, not just from your friends and family but from yourself. You need to believe in what you are doing. Work hard at it. Things aren’t handed to you, especially in this competitive world. 

Create a positive mantra to help build yourself up on those hard days. A mantra is a positive repetitive phrase that you say over and over in your head or out loud. An example is “I am a talented writer/artist/designer, etc.” Not “I will be” or “I hope to be” but use the phrase “I am”. Our minds are funny things, they will grab ahold of any little thing and run with it. Using the phrase “I will” can leave the mind open for doubt, vs the phrase “I am” doesn’t leave any wiggle room.

Whatever your dream is don’t delay. Start today, right after you finish this article grab a pen and paper and start writing. Don’t delay or you’ll be old and dying and wondering why you didn’t just do it.

Vijnayanamayakosha and Anandamayakosha: Our Intuition and Beliefs

Who are we, why are we here? Some of us could care less about this question, but for those of us that struggle with it daily we would love to find an answer. To achieve this we must explore our Vijnyanamayakosha.

This kosha consists of our higher mind. It is a witness for our thoughts and emotions. We use it as a guide, it is our conditioning. If we let our emotions rule our thoughts and actions then this kosha will be imbalanced. In order to heal at this level we need to tap into our inner wisdom allowing us to step out of our personal conditioning and become who we really want to be. Some may refer to this kosha as our intuition.

You need wisdom to recognize when your emotions are ruling your actions. You need to be wise enough to stop, take a breath and look at alternative options rather than a hasty reaction. It's about deconditioning your negative core beliefs and replacing them with positive ones. You may have been told your whole life that you are too anxious. This will have labled you in your mind as such. This kosha can help you to break through those beliefes and start to build new ones.

In order to break through these beliefs we can get a bit of help from the last kosha, the anandamayakosha, our bliss body. This kosha is believing in a higher power. Not necessarily god, as not all of us are religious, but spirituality in general. Knowing that you aren't tackling life alone. That there is someone or thing out there that is watching over you and guiding you. For me, when I'm overwhelmed, I'll go out into nature. I'll hike, ski or sail. Getting out into nature reminds me that I'm not alone in the world. It slows me down and allows me to take a breath so I can take the time to recognize my situation for what it is and have time to think on how I would like to change it.

These last koshas are subtle, but very important. Our beliefs shape us and rule our every day life. Take the time to write down your beliefs about yourself and society as a whole. Try to figure out if these beliefs are helping or hurting you. Pick one belief to work on, meditate on it for at least a week. See what answers you come up with for changing it for the better. Implement it slowly, be persistent. Change takes time. Once you've made progress pick another belief and do the same thing. Over time you will begin to change into the person you really want to be, not the one people told you you should be.

Yoga vs Stretching

I was in spin class this morning and a student in the class was complaining about a bad cramp in her calf. The woman next to her asked if she had stretched before class. Before she could even respond the teacher with a look of horror on her face said, “Oh you should never stretch before warming up!” She said it in such a way that one would think if you stretched before warming up your muscles that they would just snap under the pressure.

 As a yoga teacher I just kind of chuckled at this. It's always interesting to hear different views about stretching. Most often the view in a gym class is quite different from the yoga studio. According to this teachers advice we should run around the studio a few times before we start class.

As I spent the next 45 minutes spinning I got to thinking, what is the difference between stretching and yoga. They both involve lengthening the muscles. There are certainly some technique differences, but what I believe really separates the two and what makes yoga safe to do even if you aren’t “warmed up” is awareness.

At the beginning of a yoga class you start with subtle gentle movements. You ease into the poses, taking your time to assess your body and hopefully your mind. You’re going into the class knowing your muscles are tight. You slowly warm them up by stretching. Once the muscles are warm, you can then move into more challenging poses safely.

From a gyms perspective, stretching is something that is done, hopefully, but not always, at the end of class. Not a lot of time goes into the stretches, they just hope to target the main muscles that you worked in class. Proper form is not generally taught and the stretches are briefly held. But honestly, the classes we go to at the gym we aren’t going to for a good stretch.

The point I’m trying to come around to is that yes, you can stretch if your muscles aren’t warmed up, you just have to go slow and not power into the stretch. Yes, having warm muscles does allow you to get deeper into a stretch and is safer for the muscle (although it should be mentioned here that it is easy to overstretch a muscle when they are warm, causing the same damage as if you went too fast into a "cold" stretch). Again this comes back to awareness of what is going on in your body and how to proceed from there is up to you and how it feels in your body.