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.
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.
Experience the Lovingkindness Facelift. It’s a replay from one of our yoga nidra on zoom classes.
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!
Wabi-Sabi
is my new favorite concept. It refers to the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.Wabi is a Japanese word that connotes rustic simplicity and the understated elegance found in both natural and man-made objects.
Sabi is the beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of something and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear as well as in any visible repairs.
What a wonderful concept that softens the sting of aging and the illusion most of us are under that demands that we always get it right. Not only does it soften it, it elevates imperfection to an art to be treasured.
So, the next time things don’t seem to go right, simply smile and say “Wabi-Sabi”. It’s a real time-saver too.
Please give us examples of how you are celebrating the spirit of Wabi Sabi in your life. Add your comments below.
How has your memory been lately? Is it easy to remember things that happened years ago but you have a hard time with what happened this past week? Can you remember what was for lunch yesterday? Do you get home from shopping and realize that you forgot to buy what you went after. Then there’s remembering conversations and what happened at meetings. Perhaps you’re starting to worry if your memory is starting to fail for real.
People like us regularly need to get more done in less time so we go online/watch TV/or work while eating. We talk on the phone and listen to music while driving. Perhaps go online to look something up and end up checking mail, reading some news, and looking at the weather forecast while there in the hopes of being efficie
nt and to save time. We all do it, right?
It’s possible that multitasking may be a big factor in not being able to recall things.
Multitasking seems smart but it does not work in the long run. While it can be useful in rote tasks that require little intelligent brainpower, multitasking is detrimental in tasks requiring brainpower. It contributes to stress, wastes time, lowers productivity, and hurts short and long-term memory.
The brain is not capable of taking in and dealing with two different streams of information simultaneously. It is impossible for the brain to encode more than one stream of information fully into short-term memory at a time. Information will never make it into long-term memory if it does not go into short-term memory first. Either way, information cannot be recalled and put to use. This pattern contributes to forgetfulness, poor memory, and more stress.
From Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief by Julie Lusk
Solutions include:
Guided Mindfulness Meditations: Practicing Presence & Finding Peace DownloadEase into mindfulness with a clean, user-friendly, body-based, joyful approach. Gain calmer nerves, a brighter outlook, stronger memory, sharper focus, healthier body awareness & more balance. Get a long & short guided experience. Learn informal ways to be more mindful during the day. Available at Hay House https://www.hayhouse.com/guided-mindfulness-meditations-audio-download
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