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Issue: #5: May 2008
Namaste friends,
There's nothing like a teenage daughter to press your buttons! Fortunately, I also recently discovered there is nothing like a little breath awareness exercise to counterbalance mother-daughter head-butting.
This realization came one recent morning when a spat left me angry and rehashing our latest squabble. I realized I had to let it go or risk poisoning the whole day.
So I lay down on my back. With knees bent, I placed one hand on my diaphragm and one at the pubic bone and visualized the breath descending from the top hand to the bottom hand on the inhale, and rising back on the exhale. Imagine pulling a window-shade down and then slowly releasing it.
At first, I couldn't sense anything, but gradually as the breath took over, my body began to relax and all sorts of sensations bubbled up. It was intriguing how the pubic bone moved with the breath, while the pelvic floor widened and drew in like a sea anemone.
The subtle dialogue between the two diaphragms kept me busy for 10 minutes. During this extended conversation, I had stopped thinking about our conflict. When I "came-to," the anger had evaporated. So had the attachment to being angry.
So the next time you butt heads, lose your cool or find yourself holding on to negativity way too long, consciously place your attention someplace else. You'll find you're only a breath (or two) away from changing your perspective and restoring your equilibrium.
Breathe well, be well,
Suzanne
Full Potential Yoga
suzanneausnit@optonline.net
Soul Food
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
--Lao Tzu
HEAL
Laughter heals
Laugher heals---even just a little bit of it. Various studies confirm that just a minute of forced laughter a day can help reduce stress, beat the blues, boost the immune system and fire-up the heart rate. Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga, notes that a regular 20-minute laughter session releases a potent hormone and chemical cocktail that can profoundly impact health and wellbeing. So next time you're down in the dumps, giggle your way through downdog, plank and chattaranga. Or at the very least, smile. For a Laughter Club near you, visit laughteryoga.org
The Skinny on Belly Fat
Working on your core is essential for health, not just looks. It's already well documented that the belly fat encasing the vital organs can lead to heart disease and diabetes. Now, a new study reports belly fat can drive you out of your mind as well. This extra weight may contribute to the build-up of cholesterol and plaque in the brain. Researchers, in fact, found that people in their 40s and 50s with abdominal fat were almost three times as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and dementia in their 70s and 80s. Just one more reason to come to my Core Dynamics classes! (Thurs.at 6:15 p.m. & Sat. at 11 a.m. at Devotion Yoga)
STRENGTHEN
Iso-neck-tricks Simple isometric neck exercises can help relieve muscular imbalances that may be contributing to neck tension. These exercises can be done anytime and almost anywhere from sitting at a desk to standing up while waiting for the bus.
Simply interlace your fingers and bring them to the top of your head. Lift your head up to your hands on the inhale, feeling yourself grow taller, and then press your hands down into your head on the exhale keeping that sense of lift. Then try doing both actions at the same time. Keep your elbows relaxed. Next, bring your interlaced hands underneath your chin and press down as you lift up. Looking straight ahead, bring your right hand to your right cheek and evenly press each to each. Repeat on the other side. Finally, turn your head to the right and bring your right hand to your left cheek. Evenly press each to each and repeat on the other side. Soon you'll be up to your neck in relief.
Under the Influence
Want better balance? Try this version of the classic sobriety test. But instead of walking in a straight line, stand still with one foot directly in front of the other, heel to toes touching. Remaining in this position may be harder than you think. But over time, the exercise will improve your overall balance. You can make the exercise even more challenging by closing your eyes. To up the ante even more, try standing on an uneven surface, such as a bunched-up mat.
LIVE
The Straight Poop
Everyone knows yoga is a great way to stretch the body as well as the mind. But it's also pretty useful for loosening the bowels, both physically through asana and mentally through mindfulness practice. Healthy bowels can start through a simple morning routine that includes drinking a large glass of lukewarm water spiked with fresh lemon juice. Follow the drink with a few minutes in a squat with your belly resting on your thighs. Finally, make sure to reserve enough time to enjoy the facilities without rushing. Of course, if you're chronically stressed, your elimination system may be in a semi-freeze that requires more specific poses to stimulate digestion. For more guidance, check out my recent article in the June issue of FitYoga (currently on news stands).
Mind Games
Next time in you're in savasana, try practicing a meditation technique known as chittakasha dharana, which translates as the realm of conscious awareness. Let your inhales be active and your exhales be passive. Visualize a black movie screen behind your eyes. Simply watch the images and thoughts that appear on the screen, without getting attached to any of them. After a while, scribble an affirmation on the screen, and let it imprint itself in your consciousness.
Namaste friends,
There's nothing like a teenage daughter to press your buttons! Fortunately, I also recently discovered there is nothing like a little breath awareness exercise to counterbalance mother-daughter head-butting.
This realization came one recent morning when a spat left me angry and rehashing our latest squabble. I realized I had to let it go or risk poisoning the whole day.
So I lay down on my back. With knees bent, I placed one hand on my diaphragm and one at the pubic bone and visualized the breath descending from the top hand to the bottom hand on the inhale, and rising back on the exhale. Imagine pulling a window-shade down and then slowly releasing it.
At first, I couldn't sense anything, but gradually as the breath took over, my body began to relax and all sorts of sensations bubbled up. It was intriguing how the pubic bone moved with the breath, while the pelvic floor widened and drew in like a sea anemone.
The subtle dialogue between the two diaphragms kept me busy for 10 minutes. During this extended conversation, I had stopped thinking about our conflict. When I "came-to," the anger had evaporated. So had the attachment to being angry.
So the next time you butt heads, lose your cool or find yourself holding on to negativity way too long, consciously place your attention someplace else. You'll find you're only a breath (or two) away from changing your perspective and restoring your equilibrium.
Breathe well, be well,
Suzanne
Full Potential Yoga
suzanneausnit@optonline.net
Soul Food
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
--Lao Tzu
HEAL
Laughter heals
Laugher heals---even just a little bit of it. Various studies confirm that just a minute of forced laughter a day can help reduce stress, beat the blues, boost the immune system and fire-up the heart rate. Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga, notes that a regular 20-minute laughter session releases a potent hormone and chemical cocktail that can profoundly impact health and wellbeing. So next time you're down in the dumps, giggle your way through downdog, plank and chattaranga. Or at the very least, smile. For a Laughter Club near you, visit laughteryoga.org
The Skinny on Belly Fat
Working on your core is essential for health, not just looks. It's already well documented that the belly fat encasing the vital organs can lead to heart disease and diabetes. Now, a new study reports belly fat can drive you out of your mind as well. This extra weight may contribute to the build-up of cholesterol and plaque in the brain. Researchers, in fact, found that people in their 40s and 50s with abdominal fat were almost three times as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and dementia in their 70s and 80s. Just one more reason to come to my Core Dynamics classes! (Thurs.at 6:15 p.m. & Sat. at 11 a.m. at Devotion Yoga)
STRENGTHEN
Iso-neck-tricks Simple isometric neck exercises can help relieve muscular imbalances that may be contributing to neck tension. These exercises can be done anytime and almost anywhere from sitting at a desk to standing up while waiting for the bus.
Simply interlace your fingers and bring them to the top of your head. Lift your head up to your hands on the inhale, feeling yourself grow taller, and then press your hands down into your head on the exhale keeping that sense of lift. Then try doing both actions at the same time. Keep your elbows relaxed. Next, bring your interlaced hands underneath your chin and press down as you lift up. Looking straight ahead, bring your right hand to your right cheek and evenly press each to each. Repeat on the other side. Finally, turn your head to the right and bring your right hand to your left cheek. Evenly press each to each and repeat on the other side. Soon you'll be up to your neck in relief.
Under the Influence
Want better balance? Try this version of the classic sobriety test. But instead of walking in a straight line, stand still with one foot directly in front of the other, heel to toes touching. Remaining in this position may be harder than you think. But over time, the exercise will improve your overall balance. You can make the exercise even more challenging by closing your eyes. To up the ante even more, try standing on an uneven surface, such as a bunched-up mat.
LIVE
The Straight Poop
Everyone knows yoga is a great way to stretch the body as well as the mind. But it's also pretty useful for loosening the bowels, both physically through asana and mentally through mindfulness practice. Healthy bowels can start through a simple morning routine that includes drinking a large glass of lukewarm water spiked with fresh lemon juice. Follow the drink with a few minutes in a squat with your belly resting on your thighs. Finally, make sure to reserve enough time to enjoy the facilities without rushing. Of course, if you're chronically stressed, your elimination system may be in a semi-freeze that requires more specific poses to stimulate digestion. For more guidance, check out my recent article in the June issue of FitYoga (currently on news stands).
Mind Games
Next time in you're in savasana, try practicing a meditation technique known as chittakasha dharana, which translates as the realm of conscious awareness. Let your inhales be active and your exhales be passive. Visualize a black movie screen behind your eyes. Simply watch the images and thoughts that appear on the screen, without getting attached to any of them. After a while, scribble an affirmation on the screen, and let it imprint itself in your consciousness.
"We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want. We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use."
Lao-tzu
"Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Let your awareness sink into your breath and find the bottom of your breath. Allow the breath to come and go as it may...As you get to the end of the out breath, let go in the same sort of feeling that you have when you let your body drop into a very comfortable bed--let it drop and fall. Let the weight of the air do it. Don't push, drop. Then after awhile the breath will return. But don't pull it in, let it fall back in. The breath will drop in until you've had enough; then let it drop out again."
Alan Watts
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust
"The mind's first step to self-awareness must be through the body."
George Sheehan
"Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack."
Henry Miller
Lao-tzu
"Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Let your awareness sink into your breath and find the bottom of your breath. Allow the breath to come and go as it may...As you get to the end of the out breath, let go in the same sort of feeling that you have when you let your body drop into a very comfortable bed--let it drop and fall. Let the weight of the air do it. Don't push, drop. Then after awhile the breath will return. But don't pull it in, let it fall back in. The breath will drop in until you've had enough; then let it drop out again."
Alan Watts
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
Marcel Proust
"The mind's first step to self-awareness must be through the body."
George Sheehan
"Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack."
Henry Miller
©2007 Full Potential Yoga. All Rights Reserved.