What is mindfulness and why does it matter

Let me share with you the best definition of mindfulness and its benefits that I’ve come across.   Diane Poole-Heller shared it with us at the recent NICABM conference.

Mindfulness is the moment to moment awareness of present time, inner and outer experience, with a non-judgmental and non-evaluative stance.

Research has shown that a mindfulness practice helps develop all 9 functions of the Pre-Frontal Cortex.

1. ANS Regulation – Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Balance
2. Attuned Communication – felt sense of other’s experience
3. Regulation of emotions
4. Response flexibility
5. Empathy
6. Insight – self awareness
7. Fear extinction – GABA fibers to amygdala
8. Intuition – deep knowing
9. Morality.

How to do Shitali Breathing – The Yoga Cooling Breath

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What are the Benefits of Shitali Breathing – The Cooling Breath

Shitali breathing is great for when you are hot under the collar.  Furthermore, it will literally cool you off on a hot day.  Along with all the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing, this technique is thought to be particularly good for the eyes, ears, and throat and has a detoxifying effect. It also curbs the appetite.  Use caution if you have arthritis since it cools the body.

How to Do Shitali Breathing – The Cooling Breath

Form a small opening with your lips by rolling the sides of your tongue together to create a tube.  Stick your tongue out and inhale through the round opening, making a hissing sound.  Breathe in as if you are drinking cool refreshing water in through a straw.  Bring the tongue back inside the mouth.  Breathe the warm air out through your nose slowly and evenly.

If your tongue does not roll, simply separate your teeth and lips slightly while breathing in over a flat tongue.

Continue until you have cooled down.

The Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation CD is here.

It’s been so rewarding to see so many of you getting excited about practicing the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation technique for memory improvement, mental focus, cognition and more.

However, everybody always asked how to keep track of the timing.  After all, there is a specific method to follow as described here.

Finally, we have a CD that will easily keep track of the timing for you!  Just follow along with this beautiful chorus of voices.

Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation CD

Sa Ta Na Ma is a powerful mantra. Scientific studies have shown this 12-minute meditation will increase memory, concentration, cognition & more. This is accomplished when the mantra is specifically said daily for 2-minutes out loud; whispered for 2-minutes; repeated silently for 4-minutes; whispered for 2-minutes; and out loud for 2-minutes. Special finger movements, called mudras, are also done throughout. The intro to this CD describes all you need to know to get started. The meditation track keeps track of the time for you with a beautiful chorus of voices.

More Resources…

• Good info on the 12 minute meditation to improve memory – sa ta na ma meditation.  Features a cool video.
  
  
• Go here for written instructions on exactly how to do the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation for improving memory.
• Go here for relevant research from UCLA and University of Pennsylvania on the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation for improving memory as reported in 2010 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

How to do the Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation to Improve Memory

Use these finger movements while doing the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation.  Use both hands.

Sa - touch the thumb to the index finger

Ta – touch the thumbs to the middle finger

Na - touch the thumb to the ring finger

Ma – touch the thumb to the little finger

Instructions:

• Sit with a straight spine.
• Mentally focus to the brow point.
• Repeat Sa Ta Na Ma as follows
  • 2 minutes —  OUT LOUD
  • 2 minutes  –  WHISPER audibly
  • 4 minutes  –  SILENTLY.  Keep the hands moving
  • 2 minutes  —  WHISPER audibly
  • 2 minutes —  OUT LOUD
• 30 seconds or longer: Instead of the finger movements, softly touch the thumbs to the index finger and rest your hands on your lap.  Sit quietly and listen inside.  Hear the mantra and experience energy flowing in from the top of your head (crown chakra) and out through your brow (third eye chakra).
• 30 seconds: inhale deeply, raise the arms up in the air and vigorously shake the arms and fingers, involving the whole body and spine. Exhale.  Repeat 1 or 2 more time if you desire. This important part of the meditation helps move and release energy in the body.
• Relax for a few minutes, sitting or lying down, before going about your day.  If it’s bed time, go to sleep.

Notes:

Why are mantras done out loud, whispering and silently and how does it help? When a mantra is spoken out loud, it primarily benefits the physical body.  When it’s whispered, it benefits our mental/emotional nature.  Our spiritual nature benefits from silent repetition.

If you experience memories of the past or thoughts about the future coming up in your mind. Simply notice them and release them with the mantra. This helps cleanse  the subconscious mind.

If emotions come up, you can also incorporate them in the chanting, i.e. if you feel frustration, then chant out the frustration.  Whatever you experience is okay. Don’t try to avoid, resist or control your experiences. Just notice what is happening and go through it. This is all part of the process.

The beautiful thing is that this meditation really works. All you have to do is do it

More Resources…

• Good info on the 12 minute meditation to improve memory – sa ta na ma meditation.  Features a cool video.
  
  
• Go here for written instructions on exactly how to do the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation for improving memory. 

• Go here for relevant research from UCLA and University of Pennsylvania on the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation for improving memory as reported in 2010 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

• Get a recording that will help you practice the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation with the correct timing.
• 

  Sa Ta Na Ma Meditation CD

  Sa Ta Na Ma is a powerful mantra. Scientific studies have shown this 12-minute meditation will increase memory, concentration, cognition & more. This is accomplished when the mantra is specifically said daily for 2-minutes out loud; whispered for 2-minutes; repeated silently for 4-minutes; whispered for 2-minutes; and out loud for 2-minutes. Special finger movements, called mudras, are also done throughout. The intro to this CD describes all you need to know to get started. The meditation track keeps track of the time for you with a beautiful chorus of voices.
  Price: $12.99

Please share your comments and questions with us!

Win a free ticket to Yoga Hub’s virtual conference from Wholesome Resources

There’s an awesome virtual Yoga Conference coming up that you don’t want to miss. Best of all, I’m giving away 3 FREE TICKETS and you can win.

First, visit Yoga Hub to find out about the conference HERE.

Next, write a comment on the Wholesome Resources FB Fan Page on why you want to attend this conference.

Watch for the winners to be announced.

Good luck!!!  PS.  I’m one of the 70+ speakers.

Holiday Yoga Class for R&R&R

You’re invited! Please come to our annual Holiday Rescue for Relaxation and Renewal on Tuesday, Dec. 28 at 7 pm at the JCS Pavilion located at 5361 S. Milford Rd., Milford, OH

It’s always a blast to come together, gather around the fireplace, and enjoy yoga together.

Please come and bring your friends. It’s by donation and everything collected will be given to the JSC to help them serve even more people and as a token of our appreciation.

Our regular schedule begins the week of January 10. Visit this link for details on the yoga classes in Milford, OH, Anderson, OH and more.

Pran Mudra

One of my favorite yoga hand positions, otherwise called yoga mudras, is the Pran Mudra.
It is simple to do and very powerful.

What are the benefits of the Pran Mudra?

• Increases vitality and your life force
• Reduces fatigue
• Reduces nervousness
• Improves vision
• Builds self-confidence
• Gives the courage to start something new and follow through on it
• Balances and equalizes the functioning of the right and left hemispheres of the brain if you hold the fingernails instead of the finger tips of the ring and little finger.
  

How to do the Pran Mudra

1.  Put the tips of the thumb, ring and little fingers together.  Instead of touching the tips, another way is to put the thumb on the fingernails of the ring and little fingers.

2.  Extend the middle and pointer fingers

3.  Use with both hands.  It’s fine to have your hands down by your side, resting in your lap, or add it to a standing posture while practicing yoga

4.  Use it as needed for 5 to 30 minutes.  As a treatment, do it 3 times a day for 15 minutes.  As with all mudras, practice slow, deep and mindful breathing to magnify the benefits.

Julie Keefe at Magic Beans Workshop emailed me to say…

Hi Julie!

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been frequently using the Pran Mudra that you taught us. I really enjoyed how it was incorporated into our yoga postures and really felt that it significantly enhanced my practice, energy and mood that night. I’ve been using it while on my morning walks. I’m very excited!

→ Join us for a Yoga Mudra Workshop.  Check my schedule to see when the next one is.

PS.   There will be one on Sunday, Nov. 7 from 12 noon – 3 pm at Whatever Works Wellness Center in Silverton, OH.  It’s $30 in advance or $35 at the door.  Call 513-791-9428 to preregister.

Please share your other ideas and comments below so we can all benefit.

Yoga Mudras for the Hands

Have you ever needed the benefits from yoga (energy, relaxation, clear mind, emotional balance, etc.) but couldn’t practice a pose because you were in public, not dressed for yoga, or didn’t even know how to do yoga?  This happens to me several times a day!  Luckily, I have found another secret that really works.  It’s Yoga Mudras – yoga poses using hand positions and gestures.

I finally started taking these ancient teachings seriously while I was teaching relaxation training and guided imagery in the Bahamas last spring for the Easter/Passover Symposium on Yoga and Sacred Healing at Sivananda Ashram.  Amy Weintraub (Yoga and Depression) and Joseph and Lilian LePage (Integrative Yoga Therapy) taught them as part of their presentations.  This experience convinced me that Yoga Mudras are very effective, simple and profound.

As soon as I got home, I began investigating and practicing Yoga Mudras more and more.  One morning I was reading a book on Yoga Mudras by Gutrud Hirschi and it described amazing results and reasons to practice Yoga Mudras.  The results sounded too good to be true.  Since I was suspicious, I wanted to put it to the test.

Meanwhile, I was suffering from seasonal allergies -  my nose was running, my eyes were watery and itchy, and I was sneezing.  So I tried Bhramara Mudra.  It worked – and quickly too!  Naturally I shared this with my yoga students and they also reported positive results too.  We were so excited and it convinced us that Yoga Mudras have lots of valuable benefits to offer.

There are Yoga Mudras to help with allergies, feeling calm, lifting energy, headaches, chakra balancing and many more.

So, how can you learn more?

1.  My next 2 blog posts will show you wonderful mudras to practice. (use the RSS feed so you don’t miss out – it’s up in the right corner of this blog)

2.  Attend yoga classes.  See my schedule. There will be a Yoga Mudra class on Nov. 7 from Noon to 3 pm at Whatever Works Wellness in Silverton, OH.  Call 791-9428.  If that doesn’t work for you, then book something that will!

3.  Joseph and Lilian LePage have been studying Yoga Mudras for 10 years to write a book all about them.  Their book will show 108 hand gestures along with guided meditations and affirmations.  I am honored and excited that they have asked me to edit the guided meditations.  I will let you know as soon as their book is available.  It’ll be fantastic!

Yoga Joy

Look what a joyful picture Kris took at the summer Yoga Slumber Party.

Our next yoga sleepover is Jan 29-30.

Save the dates and you can join the fun.

Yoga in Paradise

I’m still on Cloud 9.

I was invited to teach at Sivananda Ashram on Paradise Isle, Bahamas.  This included 1 satsang called Mind Body Mystery, Mastery and Magic and 2 workshops and that grew to 4 workshops.   Healing with Guided Imagery, Goddess Yoga and Real Relaxation with Yoga Nidra were the topics.  Yoga Nidra was so popular, I offered it twice!   People attended from Israel, Indonesia, France, Germany, England, Canada, USA, Brazil, Columbia, SA, and many other places.  It was really neat.

Did I mention that this was the Symposium on Yoga and Sacred Healing?  The other presenters I was blessed to be with included Amy Weintraub and Rose Kress (Yoga for Depression), Joseph and Lilian Lepage (Yoga Mudras), Zicciah Blackburn (Entering the Heart) and Elizabeth Lesser (Broken Open).

Sivananda yoga was quite the experience.  We had 2-hour yoga classes daily. It was wonderful to be in someone else’s class.  It was a very structured sequence for sure and not at all how I teach.  All the postures were done in a specific order every time.  They even  counted everything out all the time, including the breaths.  This has been like this for decades.  There were 2 satsang’s per day with 25 minutes of silent meditation and 25 minutes of chanting followed by an hour long presentation and more chanting.

Everything was outside.  Everything!  All yoga classes, satsangs, meals, and everything else.  A lot of people even lived outside in tents.  I was grateful for an indoor room.  The weather couldn’t have been better and the ocean and bay were magnificent.  I’ve never seen water that color before.   It really was like being in paradise and I can’t wait to go back and I’d love it if you would join me.

PS.  If you’d like to experience the healing nature of Real Relaxation and Yoga Nidra but you missed it in the Bahamas here’s how.  Just get a copy of my CD called Real Relaxation and Yoga Nidra.

Visit this link for more about Real Relaxation and Yoga Nidra