Wholesome Resources

Wholesome Resources for Mind-Body Mastery through Yoga, Meditation, Guided Imagery, Stress Relief, Wellness

View Cart
Facebook
YouTube
LinkedIn
LinkedIn
Share
You are here: Home / Archives for Stress Relief / Management

Hakini Mudra for Brain-Body Balance, Problem-Solving & Focus

by

The Hakini Mudra for brain-body balance, problem-solving and focus is one of my favorite hand mudras.  It’s very effective and easy to do.

Mudras are yoga positions, gestures, and seals for your hands and fingers that facilitate health, healing, psychological balance and spiritual transformation.  Some mudras use the whole body and breath.  They are effective, easy to learn, practical and powerful, and anyone can do them. Learn more about mudras here.

Hakini Mudra Benefits:

  • Directs the breath, awareness, and energy to the entire body to balance the bodymind physically and energetically
  • Complete and full breathing is facilitated effortlessly
  • Reduces stress
  • The first six energy centers (chakras) are stimulated and harmonized
  • Both hemispheres of the brain are integrated and invigorated
  • Boosts memory, concentration, and assists problem solving

How to do Hakini Mudra:

  • Gently touch the fingertips and thumb of one hand to the corresponding fingertips and thumb on the other  
  • Hold your palms apart as if you were holding a ball
  • Place your hands in front of your solar plexus (mid-section)
  • If your fingernails are too long to touch the fingertips together, interlace all the fingers, separate your palms, and touch the tips of the thumbs together

References: Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief – Printed Book & Audio download, Julie Lusk. New Harbinger Associates, pg. 165-166.

The hakini mudra illustration is from Mudras for Healing and Transformation and courtesy of Joseph and Lilian Le Page of Integrative Yoga Therapy.  Their permission was given to use it in Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief and associated materials.

Sleep Solutions – Yoga Style

by

How’s Your Sleep?

Are you getting enough sleep?  Are you tired of being tired?  Could you be suffering from sleep deprivation?  Well, you’re not alone.  Most of us don’t get enough sleep.  I don’t know about you, but it’s just irresistible to stay up late, even when I must get up early the next day.

Our busy lives make it so tempting to skimp on sleep.  Lots of us have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.  Have you ever felt half-awake and half-asleep all night, here’s an explanation of why that happens with suggestions to help.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 7 hours of sleep in every 24 hours for adults. It’s nine to 12 hours for children 6 to 12 years old and teens need eight to 10 hours daily on a regular basis.  Establishing good sleep hygiene habits are important to getting a full night’s sleep.

Benefits of Sleep

Getting enough sleep helps normalize mood, improves concentration, memory consolidation, and helps pain management.  It improves performance and lowers the risk of having an accident. Sleep is good for your skin and your sex drive.  It lowers cortisol, the stress hormone, resulting in better appetite control and weight loss.  Getting enough sleep helps regulate glucose levels, supports heart-health and contributes to a healthy immunity.  Recent NIH research reveals that sleep is needed to remove the daily buildup of waste and neurotoxins from the brain. Researchers are very interested in this since these neurotoxins are elevated in Alzheimer’s patients.  It is thought that the glymphatic system rinses and flushes these neurotoxic molecules from the brain nightly during deep sleep. This clearing process seems to be more effective when sleeping on one’s side, according to a study conducted at the University of Rochester Medical Center.  Here’s more information on side-sleeping.

Sleep Solutions – Yoga Style

The art and science of yoga has plenty to offer including postures, breathing techniques, meditation practices, and lifestyle recommendations for sleep improvement.  To further ease one’s mind, yoga’s wisdom teachings are helpful for gaining a healthy perspective on everything from handling life’s ups and downs to living with more meaning and purpose.  Furthermore, it addresses age-old questions like “Who am I?” and “What is my true nature?”

Students often say that they get their best sleep on the nights they attend yoga class.  Having a regular personal home practice is ideal.  Here are some of the many ways that yoga supports healthy sleep.

  • Yoga Postures: A vigorous practice is fine early in the day.  However, start winding down the evening with a practice that focuses on slow, mindful movements.  Focus your attention on postures that reduce physical tension.  Doing so has the added benefit of calming the mind and emotions.  Good ones to try include the child pose, gentle spinal twists, legs up the wall, and shavasana.  Restorative yoga works wonders as well.
  • Yoga Breathing: The Triangle Breath is a favorite for balancing oneself and is described in my book, Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief (NHP, pg. 175).  It is effective for increasing your energy when feeling tired, calming your nerves when feeling anxious, and promotes sound sleep.  There are three parts to triangle breathing.  The important thing is for the exhalation, inhalation, and the retention to be equal in duration. Therefore, adjust the rate of counting to four more quickly or more slowly depending on your lung capacity and comfort.  Breathe through your nose; only use your mouth for breathing to the extent necessary.

Part 1 – Breathe out through your nose to the count of four.

Part 2 – Breathe in through your nose to the count of four.

Part 3 – Hold your breath to the count of four.

Repeat the whole process for a few minutes or until the desired effect happens.

  • Yoga Nidra: Yoga nidra means “yogic sleep” and has many documented benefits for your body, mind, and spirit. It happens when your bodymind is in deep sleep but with one big difference – you remain consciously aware.  How?  A series of techniques are used systematically to relax physically, energetically, mentally, and emotionally.  Yoga nidra awakens intuition, unconditional joy, and a timeless, spacious sense of being.  Get more on the stages of yoga nidra and how to practice it here.

Yoga nidra can also be used as a natural sleep aid at bedtime.  It eliminates layer after layer of tension and stress, allowing you to drift comfortably off to sleep and stay asleep. It’s like drinking a cup of comfort.  More on this here.

Watch this short video on how yoga nidra helped her insomnia.

One hour of yoga nidra practice approximates four hours of sleep. This is due to the series of brain wave states experienced during yoga nidra (Saraswati 1998, Kumar 2008).   Therefore, yoga nidra can help address sleep deprivation and renew your energy.  The conscious experience of deep sleep is what makes it so restorative and unique.  Due to the fertile brainwave states experienced, it’s also entirely possible to make positive behavior and personality changes. See the yoga nidra FAQ on setting intentions and sankalpas here.  Remember, yoga nidra is not intended to be a substitute for sleep.

How to Experience Yoga Nidra:  

Like all worthwhile things, regular practice yields the best results.  It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

  1. Listen to Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation | Audible – iTunes – Amazon
  2. Read about it and get free audio downloads in Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief (New Harbinger, 2015).
  3. Experience yoga nidra on video/audio.
  4. Attend a virtual yoga nidra class held weekly on Zoom.
  5. Take a yoga nidra teacher training course and earn a certificate.
  6. Get yoga nidra downloads here.
  7. Get a book or audio below.

Sweet Dreams!

Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD
Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD
Use deep relaxation, soothing flute music & ocean waves to go to sleep. "I slept like a log." Downloads available. By Julie Lusk, Yoga Nidra Meditations author.
Quantity:  
Price: $9.99Price: $16.99 

Julie Lusk

 

Julie Lusk, MEd, E-RYT 500, has more than 35 years of expertise in stress relief, yoga, relaxation training, guided imagery, and meditation as an international author, recording artist, and workshop leader. Julie is the author of Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief, Yoga Meditations, two volumes of 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery and Inner Healing, and Desktop Yoga®. Her audio downoads and CDs include Wholesome Relaxation, Power of Presence, Blue Moon Rising, and many others. Learn more at WholesomeResources.com

Loving Kindness Facelift

by

Many thanks to Dan Leven for sharing this Loving Kindness Facelift.  He was inspired by Sharon Salzberg’s book, Real Love.

As he puts it, “It begins with “may my face be happy, may my face be peaceful.”  And then you continue moving through each body part wishing them well in this way… “may my neck be happy, may my neck be peaceful … may my shoulders be happy, may my shoulders be peaceful,” and so on.   You open your heart’s kindness to your whole body (including your own heart).”

It’s a great way to start and end the day.  I love it.  I really go to town with spreading happiness and peace throughout my entire body.  I enjoy coming up with new places to shower with loving kindness with each practice such as for my brain, blood, eyes and ears – even my hair.  Before long, it’s going out to family, friends, pets, strangers and to all kinds of situations.  This meditation is especially handy when my attention is restless since it lets me jump all around.  It can be any length too – long or short.  It sure feels uplifting.

Dan goes on to explain the science underpinning it.  He says, “the vagus nerve is a core part of our parasympathetic nervous system that has two branches.  One branch is associated with surviving in a perceived life or death situation where our whole body slows down, feigning death (a primitive survival mechanism).  The other branch is about helping us relax and soften into the loving support of others and is associated with the release of oxytocin (the cuddle or bonding molecule).  Both branches are about our relationship to “others, “that being dangerous “others” or safe and loving “others.”

Here’s the kicker he reports, “the vagus nerve has many fibers that connect to our facial muscles where we reveal our emotions through a plenitude of expressions.  Scientists have logged 21 different emotional expressions that register within the face and there are 8 universal emotional facial expressions that you don’t need a translator to interpret.  So our face can register the vagal response from shock and terror, like a deer in the headlights of a moving car (survival vagus nerve), to happiness and peace, like a contented Buddha face (loving vagus nerve)!  However, we can also create the response as we bring happiness and peace to our faces!”

So the KEY point, according to Dan, “is that as you invite or train your facial muscles to discover happiness and peace you are strengthening the relaxation response that’s linked to feeling supportive or loving connection with others -to feeling safe in the world.”

Come on – Give it a shot!

PS.  May you be happy and peaceful!

How to Make a Yogatini

by

How to make a Yogatini ~ Inspired by Tracey Rich
Ingredients:
  • Yoga mat
  • Fresh air
  • Music
  • You
Mix: 
Benefits:
  • Calorie Free
  • Gluten Free
  • Feelings of freedom, happiness, and joy!

Earthing ♥ Grounding is Amazing

by

Guess what?  Just like we need air to breathe and vitamin D from the sun, we really need to be in physical touch with our Earth to be healthy and happy.  The term is earthing or grounding.

So, kick you shoes off and go barefoot.  Not only does it feel great, doing so releases muscular tension and calms your nerves by regulating your nervous system.  It’s fantastic for your heart too.  That means it will lift your spirits and help your heartbeat and blood pressure.  We truly need our Earth more than you realize.  Here’s why…

We are bombarded by EMFs (electrical magnetic fields) and RFs (radio frequencies) from WIFI and our devices with no way to discharge this overload of energy.  This can cause harmful results.  To reverse this for better health, it’s important we spend time earthing, also called grounding.

“The Earth’s surface contains a limitless number of free electrons that are continually replenished through solar radiation and lightning strikes; your body naturally absorbs these particles when you make physical contact with the ground” reports Dr Sinatra, MD.

He says, “In the body, these electrons have an anti-inflammatory effect because they reduce the free-radical activity that causes inflammation and chronic pain. (If you remember your high school science, electrons are negatively charged. Inflammation-causing free radicals are positively charged, which means the additional free electrons neutralize the free radicals.) The energy of the free electrons gained through grounding also helps keep your body’s innate electrical circuitry properly balanced. All of these effects of grounding are extremely beneficial to heart health.”

This disconnection is a result of our modern lifestyle.  A big reason is that wearing rubber and plastic soled shoes blocks us from the Earth’s surface and is strongly associated with an increase of inflammation, oxidative stress, and nervous system malfunctions.  No wonder there’s been high increases in insomnia, heart disease, diabetes and other problems related to inflammation.

A simple solution is to stand outside on the ground barefoot … actually touching our skin to the ground. More options include standing on cement (not blacktop/asphalt).  Brick, stone, or using a specialized pad, or a sheet made especially for grounding work as well.

Dr Sinatra said not to keep smartphones in one’s front pants pocket because doing so for only 20 minutes lowers testosterone by 400% in males.  Avoid holding smartphones directly against your ear too.  Keep it an inch or so away or use speakerphone.  Lower your risk by not using it while it’s plugged in as well.  Write your text then set it on a desk before pressing send.  Small changes make big differences.

Isn’t it remarkable that our Earth protects us from harm and gives us better health.  Let’s not forget that’s really where we get our food and water too.  What a connection, eh?  So, kick your shoes off and find out for yourself!  It’s beautiful out there – there’s nothing to be afraid of.

More resources for you

The Direct Current (DC) circuit of energy flows through every part of the natural universe, including plants, animals, human beings, and the surface of our entire planet, creating a Global Electrical Circuit. This natural DC energy is what the human body uses to function.  Everything from the beating of our heart to the movement of our muscles to our brain’s ability to think require DC energy.

Studies suggest that becoming a part of the earth’s global DC circuit enhances our conductive health. This has far reaching implications to all our organ systems that function off of DC energy and conductivity. This includes, but is not limited to our central and peripheral nervous system, our musculoskeletal system, and our cardiovascular system.

Grounding instantly connects us to this natural energy circuit. It plugs us into this healing energy.  Learn more in this video.  

Reference: The Real Reason Grounding Works by Laura Koniver, MD


​​​​​​​

15-minute explanation of grounding/earthing called Down to Earth from Big Picture Ranch on Vimeo.

A 7-minute video reviewing the benefits of Earthing/grounding according to medical studies by Dr. Laura Koniver, MD.  Learn how long is needed for results.

The Schumann Resonance is 7.83 hertz.  This is the frequency of the Earth’s electromagnetic field spectrum, outer space, alpha/theta brain waves (meditative, relaxed, and dreamy), the musical note of C, the Root Chakra /Earth element, and the Sri Yantra. Grounding can connect us to this powerful, healing energy.

Migraine headaches, emotional stress, and other problems can result if we’re ungrounded and shielded from this frequency.

Ancient and modern yogis have said that the Big Bang and deep space sounds like OM.  The NASA video below is the sound of a black hole. Amazingly, it is 57 octaves below middle C.  Does it sound like an OM to you?

 

 

Donate to support my website & our dog Breezy … Click her pic. Thanks!

Join Our Network

Join Our Network

Free Newsletter Signup