My ego thinks she is pretty damn hot. She is always trying to come in and take over my thoughts when I’m entering the yoga zone, deep into a meditation session, or, I’m sad to say, when I’m supposed to be relaxing in savasana. Recently, I was relieved to learn that it is natural for our ego minds to try to take over our thoughts. I thought maybe my mind was just a little too hyperactive, jumping around everything from what I’m going to eat after class to what I’m going to write about next on the Daily Downward Dog instead of allowing me to go inward and focus on my yoga practice.
The thing about our ego minds that really kind of stinks is that they want us to be unhappy and to think negative thoughts. Really? What a beeyotch.
Well, guess what, ego? I’m onto your little games now, and I’m going on the record to say, “You are not the mistress of my mind.” I’ll let you have your fun, but I’ll be waiting patiently for my thoughts about my breath and my body to drift back to me, allowing me to bliss out and be present.
Go on now, go, walk out the door, just turn around now, cause your not welcome anymore*. My daily meditation practice is helping me turn off the fire hose of thoughts running rapidly through my mind, and instead taking me to a happy spiritual place.
*Music Monday Theme Song – “I Will Survive” (without my ego mind)
I just had a pretty amazing savasana yoga experience. I was in a class at Lifesource Yoga with Deirdre Sargent, and she led us through a fun practice with lots of stretches and hip openers. She has a great way of structuring the class so it is challenging for some and restorative for others. It was one of those classes that I enjoyed so much that when it was time for savasana, I was surprised that the class had gone by so fast.
Once I stretched out on the floor in savasana position I noticed right away that my back was comfortable. This rarely happens and when it does, I’m ecstatic. Typically, the curve in my back makes it uncomfortable to lie in savasana, and I have to shift around to get comfortable or use a prop under my legs. When my back doesn’t hurt in this position, I know the instructor has taken me through all the right moves to stretch my back.
The song playing was “Aqueous Transmission” from Incubus, a smooth, calming song that perfectly set the mood for the dreamy nap to come. Deirdre started off with a few nuggets of wisdom to set us on our savasana journey and said something to the effect of (it’s hard to quote someone when you are lounging in a state of relaxation, so, Deirdre, I hope I come close to what you said), “Lose your expectations for today. In fact, forget about your expectations for the rest of your life and just relax, breathe, and let your body rest and renew itself.”
This message really hit home for me. I spend so much time worrying about what I have to get done each day and what I need to accomplish this year that the thought of just putting all the angst aside for a few minutes and focusing on renewing my spirit and my body was totally freeing. I did it too. Forgot everything and just lay there in utter bliss, with a cool breeze coming in from the window, listening to beautiful music, my body warm and tingling from the amazing stretches. How amazing to just let it all go, even if only for a few moments.
At the end of savasana, Deirdre sang to us in Sanskrit, and it was a beautiful way to be awakened. I don’t know what she sang to us, but whatever it was resonated with me for the rest of the day. I was thankful for the practice of yoga for not only opening up my body, but for opening up my mind to all of life’s possibilities.
Here’s hoping you have an amazing savasana meditation experience this week. Have you had an amazing savasana experience? If so, I’d love to hear about it!
At her eightieth birthday party, Sophie Tucker (a.k.a. The Last of the Red Hot Mamas) was asked to reveal her secret of achieving a long life. She replied: “Keep breathing.”
Damn, I was hoping she would say it was a few glasses of red wine every day, but nevertheless, Sophie must have been a yogini at heart because she knew understood the power of pranayama*.
Like most people that work at a computer all day, I have very tight neck and shoulder muscles and frequently experience pain in my lower back. I practice yoga to help relieve my back pain, and I recently started directing my pranayama breathing into my lower back and problem areas during yoga class (primarily during savasana). Since I started this breathing practice I’ve noticed a huge difference. My back has never felt better, and the tightness and pain in my shoulders are diminishing.
So I started to think, is this back pain relief all in my head, or is my directed breathing activity really medicinal?
I did a little research on the phenomenon and got really excited when I read that during meditation, if you allow your mind to focus on a particular part of the body, the blood flow to that body part increases, providing an abundance of oxygen and other nutrients into those cells.
So, it wasn’t all in my head. There really is something to this focused breathing, and it is having a positive impact on my well-being. I’ve been flooding my aching back with natural healing ingredients fueled by the gift of my breath. Plus, this deep breathing also leaves me in a calmer state and reduces my stress levels.
Do you have back aches and pains in your body? Try a little meditation with guided breathing and you never know, you may just add a few more years to your life!
Photo: Jonathan Natiuk (Isn’t that a cool picture? According to Jonathan those are real lungs that were plasticized!)
*Pranayama: Broken down into plain English, pranayama means breath control. Breathing comes natural, but we can control our breath with special methods of inhaling and exhaling to gain physical and mental benefits, and to alleviate stress.
Here is a related story about the power of meditation to increase the production of stem cells from Yoga G33k.com.
I was doing yoga with my sister last week, which was super cool. My sister lives out of town, so we’ve never had the chance to practice yoga together before, and it was special to share our practice together.
We were doing Trudie Styler’s Warrior Yoga DVD, with the sounds of the waves coming in from the outside, and it was a little slice of heaven. I kept calling out to my sister, “This is my favorite pose,” and I realized, I have a lot of favorite poses! If yoga poses had fan clubs, here’s the ones I would join and the reasons why. (BTW, these are in no particular order).
Warrior 2(Virabhadrasana II) — I just feel so fierce when I stand in Warrior II. I especially like to flow into it from warrior or another pose, like triangle.
Mountain (Tadasana)— When the instructor gets the class into this pose with lots of direction, it sometimes seems kind of silly, like how much more direction can we get on standing. But I’ve come to realize the power of this pose and how great it feels to have my heart opened and pressed forward. Standing tall and with my head held high, I feel like anything is possible. I wish I would have started doing this pose as a child; I’d have much better posture.
Child(Balasana)— I’ve been a long-time fan of this pose. It’s one of my go-to poses for stretching the back and relieving back pain. I just recently discovered it is also a great hip opener, so now I have even more reasons to join the child pose fan club. I love it when an instructor assists me in this pose by pushing my lower back down—it is an incredible stretch.
Pigeon(Eka Pada Rajakapotasana) — Actually, I have a love-hate relationship with Pigeon. The stretch it provides to the hips is wonderful, but when the yoga instructor keeps us in pigeon for a long time, I tend to lose my focus and my breath. It hurts so good. I’ve got a ton of angst and stress built up in my hips, so the hip-opening effects of this pigeon pose always bring me back.
Tree(Vrksasana) — If I’m having a good balance day, I like to get really deep into this pose. Standing tall, opening my branches, letting in all of life’s possibilities—the feeling is pure nirvana. This is another one of those great life-affirming yoga poses. I’ve noticed recently that I’ll catch myself standing in tree pose while working in the kitchen or standing in a checkout line, so it has crept into my subconscious (love that!).
Savasana — What can I say? The ultimate resting pose had me at hello. My favorite part of yoga class is when the instructor tells us to lie on the floor and plug into savasana…aah!
So, which yoga pose fan club have you joined? Let me know what your favorites are and the reasons why they rock.
I have not been a good yoga student lately. My head is not in the game. I’m surprised I haven’t had to pay more for the extra baggage I’ve been bringing with me to class—stressful thoughts from the day, all the items I didn’t accomplish on my to-do list, the errands I still need to run, and whether I have anything yummy in my fridge to eat after class. I’m a classic type-A personality, so it’s hard for me to come down and be in the moment during yoga class.
When I lose my focus, I sometimes miss the instructors’ directions and find myself turned to the left while the rest of the class is facing me, turned to the right. It makes it extremely difficult to focus on balancing poses, and forget about keeping my breathing steady.
Seriously, I feel like going to yoga class with a cluttered head is like going to church drunk. It totally goes against everything yoga is supposed to be about—being in the present, focusing on your body and your breath, and growing spiritually. It’s why I love yoga so much for the relaxing state and sense of calm that it brings to my life both on and off the mat.
My focus factor issue really hit me when I was lying in savasana last week and, instead of getting into a deep state of relaxation, I was thinking about a new tag line for a client. That’s when I knew I needed to make a change.
I really want to grow deeper in my yoga practice and know I cannot do this until I come to class with a clear head. Since the month of September is National Yoga Month, I’m going to use this month to turn a few things around. I’m going to make a point to get to class earlier so I have a chance to catch my breath, calm down, and set my intentions for my practice. I’ll use this time to get a jump start on my pranayama breathing and to turn off the clutter in my mind.
What are you doing to celebrate National Yoga Month? I’d love to hear about any special activities being planned to celebrate Yoga Month or a special intention you are going to make to your yoga practice.
If you have a great way to clear the clutter from your mind before beginning your yoga practice, please leave a comment and let me know about it.
