Feel the Prana

If we can’t see something or quantify it, does it mean it doesn’t exist. We can’t measure emotions, but they are real. The physiology of our bodies changes when we feel strong emotions.

In Yoga there is a concept called Prana. Prana can’t be seen and it can’t be defined concretely. It is something like “life force”. Breath is often equated with Prana. Breath and Prana are not equal. Breath is more of the transport mechanism for Prana. The breath is how Prana is moved.

Concentration or focus is also essential to the movement of Prana within the body. This connection on breath and movement to move Prana is one of the main reasons why, in Yoga, it is soooooooo important to move with the breath, matching the movement to the breathing. When our concentration is placed on matching the breath with the movement, this allows Prana to move throughout the body.

Feel the Prana.

Visualize that the breath is carrying the Prana throughout the body as you breath. You don’t have to understand the visualization for it to work, just visualize it.

Sit and take six breaths.

Then sitting, move your arms up from the front as far as is totally comfortable on inhale. On exhale, lower the arms. Do this for about six breaths.

Now visualize that the breath moving the Prana through your arms as you inhale and raise the arms and the Prana moving through the arms as you exhale and lower them.

Sit for a few minutes and notice how your body feels especially how your arms feel.

Prana is moved through attention to the breath and movement of the body.

Some things to reflect on. What does Prana do? How does it serve us?

Yoga helps you listen to your body.

Yoga helps you listen to your body. When we listen to our body, we take better care of ourselves.

Its as simple as this. When we move the body with the breath, only moving as far as is comfortable, we start to become more connected to our bodies and less connected to our thoughts. We begin to listen to what our body is saying. Listening to your body lets you know where you are at that moment and what you need.

To listen, you have to stop talking (thinking). When we place our attention on the breath and its alignment with the movement of the body, we slowly start to become more focused on our body and less on our thoughts.

Try this. Sit in a chair with your arms by your side. Inhale and lift the arms up from the front matching the movement to the breath and pausing for a second after inhale and after exhale. Do this for six times.

Next, inhale and lift the arms from the side - again matching the movement to the breath and pausing for a second after inhale and after exhale. Do this six times.

Now close your eyes and reflect for a minute on how your body feels. You are listening to your body.

First you learn to listen TO your body then you learn to listen WITH your body! Next posting I will describe listening with your body.

Yoga Supports Self-Do Not Self-Help.

Yoga supports self-do not self-help.

The self-help industry is a huge and very lucrative industry. I noticed most of these self help books suggest reprogramming your self and being disciplined about doing so.

Here is the rub, when you are really stuck in a situation, it is often painful to think about it much less to be disciplined about it. Knowing what needs to change and how to change it is one thing, but having the capability to make the change is a whole other story.

One way to develop this capability is a daily Yoga practice. When we take as little as 15 minutes a day to be with our breath and body, we begin to feel more of ourselves. We slowly begin to see things a little differently, feel differently, and make different decisions.

Then change takes place. The change does not come from disciplining and policing ourselves. The change comes from being more connected to your body, breath, intellect, personality, and emotions.

Then we develop the capability to behave differently - in a way that is more kind, healthy, and balanced for ourselves. As Westerners, we are already so hard on ourselves. We might question how helpful it is to discipline and force change on our selves on top of all the demands we already make.

Wanna be lucky? Practice Yoga

As I have said in my previous post, Yoga is primarily about developing the capacity to calm and focus the mind.

See below. It seems as though a British researcher has discovered that luck comes from focus!

This suggests practicing Yoga makes you lucky!

"It seems luck may not be so much something that happens to you, but rather a result of how you focus your attention."

"According to Wiseman, lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles: They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good."

Richard Wiseman, author of The Luck Factor

For further info see http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4149

What does Yoga have to do with patterns?

Ever notice that our problems often repeat.

Often we don’t see habits that are not helping us, because the habits become ingrained. So, this loop can go on and on. We keep entering the same cycles of patterns time and time again.

And these cycles take up energy and effort and can take a toll on the body, mind, and spirit. It is like a story that recreates itself again and again with slightly different circumstances but with the same overall set up.

Yoga is the process of replacing the patterns of attention that do not serve us with patterns of attention that are good for us. In other words, Yoga suggests that we practice the good habits and the bad habits will lessen.

To change habits, you must see the habit clearly and have the discipline and discrimination to change the habit. Yoga, helps us to see our habits more clearly.

For example, when we take fifteen minutes each evening before bed to do some breathing and movement, we create a new habit of of placing ourselves in a relaxed state before we go to sleep. Simply creating a new habit of placing yourself in a relaxed state of mind and body before going to sleep each evening can have a profound effect on your life!

Detachment is a Good Thing!

The Yoga Sutras says that we move towards the goal of Yoga by practice and detachment. When we are able to do both of these then we know Yoga is working.

The order is important. You practice and then something happens. That something is usually what lets us not be so attached to a behavior or outcome. In this context detachment is always positive. In the West we tend to view detachment as meaning that we don’t care, when actually it is exactly the inverse. When we are able to be detached towards someone we are able to be deeply compassionate towards them. In a sense, detachment means you don’t project your stuff onto other events or people.

Practice is important because Yoga is about experience and practice. We do something, we try it out, and then we realize something or we don’t realize something.

Practice and detachment feed each other - practice enables detachment and detachment enables practice.

Why is detachment so important? Because, the more detached you are, the calmer your mind is. The two big goals of Yoga are a calm mind and seeing clearly.

The Focus of Yoga. The Yoga of Focus.

The definition of Yoga is Yoga Citta Vrtti Nirodah. This probably does not mean much to you as it is in romanized sanskrit.

Translated, the statement indicates that Yoga is developing the ability to manage (nirodaha) the mental activity of your mind (vritti), so that a refined state of mind (citta) is supported.

T.K.V. Desikachar, a great teacher of Yoga, describes it this way - “Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively toward an object and sustain that direction without distractions.”

For example, when we practice asana, we are focusing on the breath and aligning the movement of the body with the breath. We are being present to ourselves - focusing on ourselves. That is one of the reasons why Yoga works - you focus on yourself, become more aware of yourself, learn more about yourself, and this awareness then informs the choices you make.

When you practice Yoga, you are practicing and developing the ability to focus on one thing. You can then apply this ability to whatever you choose - a musical instrument, writing, gardening, building something, etc. Valuable use of time no?