Awaken Bliss: The Boundless Bliss Yoga Podcast

Today's meditation comes from Mudras For Healing and Transformation by Joseph and Lilian Le Page.  The Dvimukham Mudra can be used to ease anxiety and stress.  It helps to deepen the breath and helps insomnia.  The Dvimukham Mudra enables you to relax more deeply so that you can attune to your essential true self that is inherently  at ease..  Le Page states, "As waves of relaxation flow through my being, I rest in complete serenity."

Three Part Breathing (Dirga Pranayama) is a Pranayama technique (breathing practice) in yoga.  You first completely fill your lungs with air, as though you are breathing into your belly, ribcage, and upper chest. Then you exhale completely, reversing the flow.  Three-Part Breathing is one of the most calming and grounding breathing practices you can do. It helps oxygenate your blood and nourish your entire body.  Also more oxygen flows to the brain helping you focus. 

Happy New Year!  In this episode, the meditation is on mindful eating.  The reading comes from Stephen Levine's "The Fork Story".  During the winter months, we have many holidays that revolve around family and food.  Developing mindfulness around our eating habits not only encourages more healthy eating but it also helps us cultivate gratitude for the food we consume.

In this episode, I share a reading of Chapter Two: Integration (Really Living Yoga) from Swami Karunananda's Awakening: Aspiration to Realization Through Integral Yoga. 

Integral Yoga is a system of  yoga  that synthesizes six branches of classical Yoga philosophy and practice: Hatha, Raja, Bhakti, Karma, Jnana, and Japa Yoga.  It was brought to the West by Swami Satchidananda Saraswati. Its aim is to integrate body, mind, and spirit, using physical practices and philosophical approaches to life to develop the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of individuals. 

For more information on Integral Yoga, visit: https://integralyoga.org

This episode is on Loving-Kindness.  Loving-Kindness is also known as Metta in Sanskrit.  Metta means benevolence, friendliness, and good-will.  Loving-Kindness is compassion towards others as well as yourself.  The meditation begins with compassion towards yourself and extends out into the world to include those we don't even know.  There are many versions of Loving-Kindness Meditations including much longer detailed meditations.  Use this short version to acquaint yourself with the practice and then begin to explore other versions.

This episode is from Nicolai Bachman's The Path of the Yoga Sutras.  The first limb of the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga as explained in the Sutras are the Yama-s (ethical observances).  The Yama-s are further broken down into five categories, one of which is Ahimsa (nonviolence, compassion, non-harming). 

"It requires more courage to be nonviolent than to condone or participate in violence. "---Bachman. 

"To slight a single human being is to slight the divine powers within us, and thus harm not only that being but with him the whole world."---Gandhi. 

The yoga of sound.  Baird Hersey gives us this beautiful introduction to Nada Yoga in his basic meditation. This is a meditation on listening to the divine in all of us. 

I have had this short meditation in my "go to" teaching binder for years.  Unfortunately, I do not remember its original source.  It is a meditation on letting go of what no longer serves you.  It seems like a simple task but, as we all know, letting go of limiting beliefs and ruminations is a difficult task.