Wholesome Resources for Mind-Body Mastery through Yoga, Meditation, Guided Imagery, Stress Relief, Wellness
Here are three proven yoga techniques to help with setting a worthwhile intention that will help you overcome frustrations, anxiety and fatigue. You will have clarity of mind, and be calm and courageous too.
They are the 1) Pratipaksha Bhavana meditation. 2) Kubera hand mudra. 3) Yoga Nidra, a deeply relaxing exercise that helps you make needed changes. Continue on for details and a handout for easy reference.
Here is a series of 9 yoga poses for a healthy heart (pdf) from the innovative work of Dean Ornish, MD.
For over 30 years, research has shown how comprehensive lifestyle changes can often halt, and even reverse, heart disease. Program components include a low fat diet, exercise, social support, and stress management (yoga, guided relaxation, breathing, meditation). Reversing Heart Disease, Love and Survival, and other books and articles by Ornish contain the details and data you’ll want to have about the lifestyle for a healthy heart. This yoga series was originally published in Yoga Journal (March 06).
LINK: 9 Yoga poses for a healthy heart (pdf)
A great resource for guided relaxation, breathing and meditation is Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices for Awakening.
Happy Humming Practice
Do you have a happiness practice? Our world is starving for happiness. We are parched for smiles. We are hungry for connections. Practice happiness daily. Hum daily.
Hum your happiness out. Have you forgotten you are made of vibrations? Remember, energy is real. Hum when you’re happy, content, blessed. Hum for no reason. It’s contagious. Quench each other’s thirst for happiness and hum.
Hummmmmmm…
Recall a happy moment. Hum to soak it into your heart.
Hum to those who struggle.
Catch on to shimmering beauty and grace and hum to capture its essence.
Hum out to the harsh realities.
Notice smiling times and hum to savor its sweetness.
Hum out to ease suffering.
Feel heartfelt happiness within. Hum to embody it. Set it free with a hum.
Hummmmmmm…
You can do this. You are meant to do this.
You are not in the crossfire. You are not hungry.
It takes as long as breathing in happiness and sharing it with a hum.
Hummmmmmm…
Devote your happiness practice to benefit everyone, everywhere.
Dedicate your happiness practice to fill the broken people and places craving relief.
Hummmmmmm…
Hum a single note.
Hum a tune.
Hum till you feel happy.
Hum for those who can’t.
Hum for those who forget and for those forgotten.
Hum when sad, lonely, and feeling mad.
Hum your own sound ~ high/low ~ soft/strong ~ clear/crinkly ~ in tune/or not ~
Hum at home, while working, and in between. Hum inside and outside and in between.
Hum a lullaby and to awaken.
Happy. Happy. Happy.
Hummmmmmm. Hummmmmmm. Hummmmmmm.
From Julie Lusk with inspiration from Susa Silvermarie ~ May 2025
Get the latest resources to unify and balance your mind, body and spirit connection with yoga, meditation, guided imagery and real relaxation. Uplifting quotes too! Mind Body Helpers
Find out how the mindbody connection can either help or hinder your health. Get practical tools to transform yourself and optimize your health with ease. Mind Body Connections
Transform daily stress into the energy needed to enjoy life. Going through life’s adjustments and changes can add unwanted stress causing unhappiness, sickness, poor relationships and lack of energy. Improve your ability to handle stress by practicing these effective ways to cope with stress. DARE to Relax © DARE = Diet, Awareness, Rest & Relaxation, and Exercise.
Enjoy a comprehensive approach to wellness and stress management that includes all the components needed for creating and maintaining professional and personal power. SPICES for Life © SPICES = Social. Physical. Intellectual. Career. Emotional, and Spiritual wellbeing.
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!
