EVERYONE is welcome, no one will be turned away.

― Jeanette Winterson, The World and Other Places: Stories

This quote came to me in the beginning of December, when I was searching for, well, meaningful words about the months yoga practice theme: transitions.

It has taken a few weeks of consideration to garner an interpretation. I had a hard time with it, and its kept me awake at night. As I continued my practice this month, I’ve transitioned into an understanding that I feel solid with. As is typical with most of my yogic notions, the physical practice draws an obvious parallel to our off-the-mat.

Let’s use Ardha Candrasana, half moon pose, as an example. Chaos in Ardha Candrasana …yikes. I’ll be ridiculous. Imagine falling down into convulsions and unable to get up or ever attempt the pose again. Your legs fell off at the hips. (Ok, stop imagining that, eek!) Shape…I take it to be perfection of the posture. Flawless fulfillment of Ardha Candrasana in all respects, physical and otherwise. There’s nothing left to accomplish in Ardha Candrasana heaven. In between are the chances, the flow. The wobble, the burn, the constant adjustment, the breath. Another chance to refine, to feel, to move, to change, to remain, to give, to get.

Like life, of course. Chaos is one extreme, perfection is the other. In between, chance after chance after chance after chance to continue. Our practice of transitions teaches us grace, patience, steadiness, and faith in the face of possible chaos. Compassion and acceptance are present in lieu of perfect shape. We gain the confidence to keep taking the chances, and the peace to let them keep coming. Rather than strive for shape or live in fear of chaos, we learn to enjoy the in between.

Let’s continue taking chances, together.

But it is what we have to work with. Our limited bodies, our limited minds. Good thing God is unlimited and inside of us too…His un-limited Spirit is inside us.

Now, with these bodies and minds…how do we get to that Spirit? All we “know” how to do is, well, to do. We want a plan. Give me a strategy. Show me how. I want to understand it. Where is the 5 step system, the owner’s manual with directions? Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “God is speaking, learn to listen.” Sounds like more…knowledge! How do I “learn” to listen?

The truth is we already know it, but we forgot, and our innate evil-sided knowledge from the Eden fall clouds our ability to remember it and see it. We do have to re-learn, practice, how to hear Him. So we start with what we know. The body. Soothe it. Comfort it. Take care of it as best as we can. (Yoga?!) The mind. Slow it down. Focus it. Clear out the clutter. (Meditation?!) We use the breath as a tool to draw our attention and move us through the clouds of body and mind…so we can start to touch Spirit. So we can hear Him.

People say God whispers. I would consider that God shouts! I wonder if He trumpets at us, but our minds and bodies and lives are too loud to hear His love. “I’m here! Just accept me! All I want is to love you!” C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christian writers of our time, wrote, “The time when there is nothing at all in your soul except a cry for help may be just the time when God can’t give it to you…Perhaps your own reiterated cries deafen you to the voice you hoped to hear.”

God’s Word tells us to be still and know him.

Being still comes before knowing Him. So first, we have to know, or learn, how to be still.

Yoga and meditation are a way of “doing” that can help us realize that truly there is no task that we need to perform, no doing of our own accord, no earthly knowledge that we can learn that will gain us salvation. Yoga and meditation help bring us to that place of just being what already is. God put his Spirit into us, we’ve just lost sight.

Christ knew this, he was directly and firmly connected to his Father. We are connected too, it’s just that the lines have been crossed, fuzzed out, tapped by Satan, and re-wired a thousand times over. So let’s start with what we “know,” and work backward and inward. Body, brain, breath…hush, hush. Spirit is shouting!

In his book, The Rest of the Gospel, Dan Stone talks about knowing God vs. experiencing God. God’s Word tells us this comes by His grace. We “know” that. We must accept it in faith. This is knowing. By His grace we are taught, our brains hear the words and teachings, and we decide of our free will to have faith that all of this God-stuff and heaven-stuff is true. Then…the experience. Stone talks about it being different for everyone, of course, as we are different. Could yoga and meditation be a way for you to move into experiencing?  

Join me for Christian Breathed Yoga. Let’s do some doing together and by His grace, move into being with the Being, toward the knowing that God’s Word instructed us toward.

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*Further discounts do not apply to special package deal.

blue screen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most of us in today’s world have dealt with a computer “issue.” A blue screen, a frozen drive, lost files. A lagging system. A mouse pointer on the fritz.  A system crash!

Our brains do the same thing. Our eyes glaze over, and our head feels foggy. We can’t think straight, can’t remember something. Our anxiety level is on the fritz.

Don’t crash!

One problem that can affect the computer system and cause these “issues” is fragmentation. It gets corrected with a process called, aptly, defragmentation.

Fragmentation occurs when the file system (read: brain) cannot or will not allocate enough contiguous space to store a complete file (read: thought) as a unit, but instead puts parts of it in gaps between other files. Larger files and greater numbers of files also contribute to fragmentation and consequent performance loss.

Defragmentation attempts to alleviate these problems. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the mass storage device. (via Wikipedia)

So when you feel “performance loss,” confusion, frenzy…defrag your brain with meditation!

Like the defrag process of a computer, meditation can serve to reorganize scattered thoughts. Various meditation techniques can help establish your brain to efficiently access what you need to for the day’s processes, and resourcefully store what you don’t need to utilize.

You can increase your peace, organize your doings, and be more productive with a regular meditation practice in your life. The corporate domain can always benefit from computer optimization. Think what your personnel could do with clearer heads!

Contact the “geek squad” (read: Yogiclarebear) to set up your computer cleaning consultation (read: meditation assessment and guidance.)

Get yourself set for a summer of Yoga. First 3 yogis to sign-up for a private session will get a FREE “karma yoga” tank top with the Yogiclarebear logo on the back!

Contact me today to set up your assessment session + free follow-up.

Front: “Peace, Love, Yoga”

One of the keys to understanding balance-imbalance in the self is to utilize the idea of the gunas. The three gunas, or “psychic energies” help describe the state of your dosha. The gunas and their characterizations are:

• Sattwa- peaceful, joy, wisdom, lightness and clarity of mind and purpose, noble, spiritual
• Rajas- active, passion, craving, attachment, fooled by illusion, lust, greed, domination
• Tamas- darkness, heaviness, sloth, apathy, ignorance, obstruction, confusion, addiction

Generally, the idea is to be in a state of sattwa, peace and tranquility. If you don’t feel harmonic, the dosha/guna connections can point out derangement and imbalance in order to move toward healing and balance.

Let’s look at the dosha vata for example. Vata’s qualities include lightness and movement, creativity, enthusiasm, change, spaciousness, spiritual, emotional. Vata deals with the nervous system. A vata person may tend to have more imbalance issues in this aspect of being.

Imbalance in vata can be defined by looking at the gunas. Vata is highly emotional, but dysfunction can tend toward rajas when anxiety, worry, and fret are present. Vata is full of creative notions and excitement, but if not grounded, frenzy and hyperactivity can ensue, throwing vata into an overwhelmed and frozen tamasic state, causing depression and hopelessness. Definitely deranged!

A trained ayurvedic practitioner and Yoga teacher can guide you to identify your dosha and any possible derangement through guna testing, chakra reading, and other tools.

If you suspect imbalance, consider a private assessment for awareness and dosha balancing therapies that can include yoga-asana, meditation, breathing exercises, and lifestyle suggestions.

Image via Wikipedia

Kapalabhati and Bhastrika pranayama are two types of yogic breath (prana) practices. They are similar in execution, focus, and benefit, with a small variance in the inhales. Kapalabhati also presents a distinctive effect on the brain.

Kapalabhati means “shining skull.” The Hatha Yoga Pradipika translates it as “frontal brain cleansing.” The practice is said to “invigorate the entire brain and awaken the dormant centers which are responsible for subtle perception.” Thus, kapalabhati should be done before meditation practices in order to foster a higher awareness with an “awakened” brain.

Bhastra is the Sanskrit word for “bellows.” Thus, bhastrika is translated as “bellows breath.” It is also sometimes called “breath of fire,” because it fans the internal fire. Bhastrika is done much the same as kapalabhati, except that the inhale/exhale is equally forced, whereas the inhale in kapalabhati occurs as a natural consequence of the forced exhale.

Benefits of both include kindling of digestion and Manipura chakra, stimulating heart and blood circulation, increasing metabolic rate, strengthening the nervous system, increasing lung capacity and endurance, toning the diaphragm, heightening awareness, and arousing mental focus and energy.

The forced exhale of breath during kapalabhati produces a slight decompression of the cerebrospinal fluid. As the air moves back into the body naturally (inhalation), the fluid compresses. Done in rapid succession, this breathing massages the brain.

Here are some resources to check out for more information and practice instruction.

• Bhastrika practice with Sandra Anderson (video)
• Kapalabhati practice with Sandra Anderson (video)
• Kapalabhati wiki
• Bhastrika Instructions
• Kapalabhati Instructions

Image via Wikipedia

Agni sara (translated “fire essence”) is a yogic practice that strengthens the core of the body, mind, and spirit. Sandra Anderson of the Himalayan Institute calls Agni Sara “quintessential hatha yoga.”

“With its deep contractions of the abdomen and pelvic floor,” she says, “agni sara targets the abdominal organs and the centers of consciousness (chakras) responsible for regulating and carrying out the instinctive life of the body.”

Agni sara strengthens the core muscles, activates and balances the digestive organs and tracts, stimulates the lymphatic system, massages the bladder, and can aid in hormone balance by encouraging circulation to all the abdominal organs, including the reproductive organs.

In addition to physical benefits, agni sara profits our prana, or life energy. Anderson calls the navel center “a pivotal point of pranic energy—energy that links body and mind.” The consistent activation of this area of the body by agni sara motivates an energetic strength and steadiness in our emotional being. Agni sara activates the “power center prana” to foster vigor and vitality in the face of emotional distress and challenges.

Check out Sandra’s video demonstration and her corresponding article.

Following Sandra’s instructions, I’ve been practicing agni sara for the past 3 months. It took an efforted and consistent practice to “get it down,” but now it is a routine part of my morning pranayama and meditation. My digestive system has benefitted in strength, efficiency, and healing. Doing the practice pre-meditation and pranayama brings an added awareness to the lower chakras that aid in focus and fire in the more subtle koshas.

I’m not depressed. I’m not Buddhist. But I love this book.

The Zen Path Through Depression by Philip Martin was a truly meaningful read for me. I received the book as a gift from a friend after meeting with my meditation group one evening. “Here, I thought this might speak to you,” he said caringly as he handed me a small paperback. It was only after I’d gotten home and looked at the book that I realized the very friend who gifted it was also the author.

The format of Martin’s book is welcome, especially for one who may be struggling with depression or another mental disorder. Each of the short chapters begins with a quote of inspiration, touches on a particular aspect of depression, offers insight and often a personal illustration or Zen anecdote, and round out with an elective exploration exercise, all centering around the practices and principles of Zen Buddhism. The arrangement of the book itself is easy-to-digest, non-confrontational, and non-intimidating, which makes it ideal for the audience Martin is aiming to reach.

Martin’s book is written on a foundation of knowing compassion, love, experiential empathy, and caring, and those qualities ooze through his words.”

I don’t struggle primarily with depression, though it often becomes a strong side-effect of what I do principally cope with on a daily basis. The topic of Zen as presented by Martin is so accessible that while reading, I was easily able to translate the word “depression” for my own personal inner conflicts.

After sitting practice one evening, Phil and I were discussing study habits and he shared that he has a thing against writing in books…I had to admit and apologize to him that I’d marked up his book quite a lot. There were so many points that spoke to me, and that as I look back and review continue to bring me gently to a place of mindful awareness and acceptance.

This book is recommended for anyone. Depressed, hopeless, confused…unsatisfied, struggling, coping…or simply seeking. It would offer great insight to someone who longs to understand or offer support to a depressed person. There is something for everyone here.

Thank you Phil, for sharing your path through depression, and shining a light for others to follow.

“There are no wrong turns on this journey. Any way you choose provides an opportunity for practice and discovery.” –Philip Martin, describing the Eightfold Path and its offering for depression recovery.

Harper Collins (publisher)
IndieBound
Amazon