What is Anxiety?

How do your mind and body experience anxiety? According to Bo Forbes, author of Yoga for Emotional Balance you experience racing thoughts, an elevated heart rate and fast physical movements. Not only is this the way you experience anxiety, but also once it gets started in your body and mind – your body and mind also build on these symptoms. Bo Forbes explains that your mind provides the sped up and worried thoughts. Your nervous system then elevates your heart rate and blood pressure. Your body reacts with physical movements such as fidgeting that adds to your overall experience of anxiety. When you are feeling anxious, you may find it difficult to slow down, you might feel, “amped-up,” or “hyper.” You may feel like you are in a constant state of physical agitation.

Today we are going to practice a simple breath practice to ease the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety that you can do anywhere and anytime.

(Breathe 1:2 – exhale two times as long as you inhale)

I would also like to recommend Yoga for Anxiety in our membership community. This class can help you to release anxiety by regulating your breath and relaxing your body. The grounding poses will allow you to conserve your energy and redirect your focus inward. Gentle breathing will allow you to calm your mind.

We also have several restorative yoga classes in our membership community. Restorative yoga uses props to minimize muscle tension and maximize muscle tension and relaxation. It reduces sensory stimulation and keeps your nervous system calm all things that reduce anxiety.

Waning to the Dark Moon

72 minutes of glorious restoration with every prop you own. Ahhhhhhh.

Yoga for Adrenal Fatigue

A short restorative class (20 minutes) that uses a bolster and a chair.

Short Restorative Class

This short restorative class (18 minutes) has been nick named the Winter Hibernation class.

Who is Arjuna?

In this class you will get to meet one of the main characters of the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna is a warrior prince in the Bhagavad Gita and you will learn who is character represents. This 28 minute class is a restorative class and you will need an eye pillow, bolster, and a blanket.

 

Moderate Energy

I hear from you, my students, all the time that staying present, focused, feeling present in the moment, and trying to stay mindful are difficult for you. Many of you have told me that you having difficulty focusing and finding mental clarity. You would like to have more equanimity in your lives, reduce stress, and overcome the daily grind. For many of you this would mean putting your yoga practice before the other demands in your life. A lot of you have explained to me that finding time for yoga is a huge obstacle because you are overwhelmed by all your commitments. These are some of the many of the reasons why I have created the Focused Living Series.

Today we are focusing on the fourth yama, brahmacharya from Patanjali’s Yoga sutras. The yamas are wise characteristics that already exist within us. Through our practice of yoga, we come closer to knowing these qualities that are our True Nature.

Nischala Joy Devi translates Brahmacharya in chapter 2:38 as “Devoted to living a balanced and moderate life (Brahmacharya) the scope of one’s life force becomes boundless.” When we live a life of moderation and balance this brings focus to our lives. It also brings balance to our Divine and human nature.

It will come as no secret at this point that there are many things in our culture that deplete our vital energy. We are encouraged to do more and more, and live at a level of over activity and energy depletion.

We over spend our vital energy in many ways from overeating, watching too much t.v. too much computer work, too much time on social media, too much reading, too much physical exercise, sexual activity with no emotional connection, ongoing background noise from television or music or talking too much. All of these are energy liabilities.

Being stretched too thin, overworked and overwhelmed are signs that your vital energy are out of balance. It is a sign to bring your vital energy back into balance. You can pause and ask yourself, “Am I overextending myself?” “Am I investing my energy in the right activities?”

With Brahmacharya you are going to filter through many good possibilities of how you can spend your time and only choose ones that are great. Ask yourself What is the right thing for my energy? Why is this the right thing for my energy? Is this the right time for my energy? You get to make the choice of what will work for you.

Resources:

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

The Secret Power of Yoga: A Woman’s Guide to the Heart and Spirit of the Yoga Sutras

Yoga Postures/Asanas: supta padangusthasana or hand to big toe pose, keyhole stretch or figure four pose, anjaneyasana or lunge pose, Kundalini Egg Beater to Recharge Yourself, Gyan Mudra, A Short and Sweet Kundalini Kriya to Get Your Energy Moving, Janu Sirsasana or Head Beyond Knee Pose,

Why a Day of Silence?

I hear again and again how my yoga students feel worn out, anxious, stressed, distracted, pulled in a thousand directions, obligated to too many things, lack focus, motivation and time in their lives to do what really matters to them. We talked a lot about this form of violence in the first class of the Focused Living series.

Recently our members have become intrigued by my practice of taking a day of silence once a week. I was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. For years, Gandhi spent one day a week in silence, no matter how many people had come to meet with him or how many obligations had. Gandhi said he was never tired because internally he was always at rest.

I was introduced to the practice of taking a day of silence when doing my training with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy. The practice is slightly difference from a vipassana retreat where you are not supposed to read, use any media, write, make eye contact with anybody. The only difference in the day of silence that I was taught was that although I was not allowed to take anything in, I was allowed to express myself through journaling or any form of artistic expression that I wished.

Let me tell you three things I receive from taking a day of silence each week.

(Here is a previous article I wrote on the topic:)

The first thing I noticed, especially the first day I took a day of silence (and this motivated me to want to continue taking them) was an incredible increase in energy. Talking and communicating takes a lot of life force. When you withhold from speaking for a whole day, that life force gets reserved within you.

The second biggest benefits of taking a day of silence is the complete external stimulus detox you will receive. In our culture we are constantly being bombarded by communication, social media, media, information, social pressure, and external stimulus. Taking a day where you intentionally choose NOT to digest any new material is incredibly calming.

The third thing I love about my days of silence is that it has helped me to come back from burnout. When I decided to take a day of silence once a week back in early 2015, I was coming dangerously close to burning out. I’ve been there before, so I could recognize the symptoms. If you are in a constant state of chronic fatigue, a day of silence will help you restore your energy reserves. I love how Thai, from The Utopian Life, describes this as taking a break from the tyranny of productivity.

If you are interested in taking a day of silence, I will offer you another blog post with some tips on how to take a day of silence.

I have also put together a day of silence exclusively for our members to help them transition into the fall season. It is a one day retreat designed for you to take in silence.

Non-Stealing

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine we are born with a fixed amount of energy called, jing chi. As we go through our lives, our jing chi gets used up. Everyday stressors, illness, and substance abuse, use up our jing chi at a more rapid rate. It is incredibly difficult to restore your jing chi, but you can do some things like yoga, pranayama and meditation to help to preserve your jing chi.

This week, we are moving on to the third yama, asteya in our focused living series which translates as non-stealing. We live in a culture which encourages us to achieve more, acquire more physical possessions and yet many of us still feel impoverished. This kind of living which asks us to overextend ourselves to get the newest, shiniest consumer goods, the best job, to earn the most money, steals our jing chi, the fixed amount of life energy with which we are born.

In our culture, we overinvest in material wealth and underinvest in ourselves, our minds, our bodies, our spirits. We are damaging the vehicle of our soul that we have to make our highest contribution on this life plane. One of the most common ways that people damage their bodies, minds, emotions and spirits is through lack of sleep and lack of play. Make no mistake about it, this is a harmful form of stealing that is completely acceptable in our culture.

Last week I shared a story from my personal life and many of you commented on how you were touched and inspired by it. Let me share with you another story from my personal life. This is a story of regret and failure. I have learned a lot from this experience, however I am still recovering from it decades later.

When I look back, I think the habits for this were sewn even in my childhood. I was an overachiever. I worked incredibly hard. I did everything I could to excel in school and as a musician. Through grade school, I would get up at six in the morning to practice piano before school. This may have been the beginning of cutting corners on sleep and play.

Throughout my undergraduate and masters, I continued to put in long hours practicing my craft. I would stay up late studying and get up the next morning early to get a practice room in the university before they filled up at peak practice hours. During my Ph.D. things kicked into high gear. This was when I really began burning the candle at both ends. Add to the mix a newborn baby and sleep deprivation became a practice and a way of life. I regularly missed out on going out with friends and family to work on my Ph.D.

Things didn’t change when I graduated. I’m hear to tell you that my life as a yoga teacher was perhaps the most unbalanced life that I have ever lived. I worked when everybody else is resting and didn’t rest when everybody else was working. I got up at 6 am to do my yoga practice, saw clients all day long, looked after my family, and then went out in the evenings to teach yoga. I would get home at 10 pm, crash on the couch and try to zone out on some tv for an hour and get up and do the same thing the next day.

It is not surprising that in 2012 that house of cards came crashing down as I got one migraine headache that didn’t go away. This physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic breakdown was the beginning of a long process of recovery for me. I remember sitting across from my migraine doctor in disbelief who point blank told me, “You don’t value your health very much, do you?”

We can not steal from our energy reserves and expect not to experience negative consequences. We live in a culture that tells us that play is trivial, a waste of time and unnecessary. In our culture it is easy to push yourself, that is the expectation. The real challenge is to say no and take a nap or no and go to bed early or n...

Day of Silence

Whenever people hear that I take a day of silence once a week, this information is met with curiosity, intrigue and resistance. A lot of my students have asked about my practice of taking a day of silence once a week, which is why I did a blog post on 3 reasons to take a day of silence and I created an Autumn transition day of silence for them in their membership community. (There is also a day of silence to evaluate your relationship to time – when you feel like you don’t have time, and a day of silence as part of the embracing self at home retreat).

Today I thought I would offer you 3 tips for taking a day of silence for those of you who feel like or say to me, “I could never do that!”

#1) Start Small.

Instead of starting with a whole day, start with an hour. Start by taking an hour of silence, with no media, no talking, no cell phone, and choose to take an hour where you turn inwards and unplug. Feel the beneficial effects of being unplugged from technology and being in silence for an hour. The next time you can extend it to two hours. From there, try half a day and just keep gradually extending your day of silence as your comfort level allows.

#2) Enlist the support of your family, friends and co-workers.

Let those whom you normally interact with know that you are going to be in silence for the length of time that you are going to be in silence for. For some of you, this may mean putting something on your voicemail, creating an autoresponder in your email that says you will get back to them in 24 hours. Let your family members know of your intentions. My family members are incredibly supportive of my silence and support me by wearing headphones for media on my day of silence. My friends know that I take Thursdays in silence and won’t answer my phone or return their texts. I have one of our members moderate our membership forum on Thursdays and let our other members know that I will respond to urgent queries on Fridays. Tim keeps an eye on my email on Thursdays.

#3) Prepare.

Make sure you have what you need for your day of silence the day before. In order to support yourself in your day of silence, it is useful to make sure you have purchased your groceries or any other sundries you may need the day before. Not being in the shops is incredibly helpful to staying in silence on your day of silence. I have found just making sure I have what I need in my home the day before my day of silence helps to support me in staying in silence on the days I choose to turn inwards.

Do you have any questions about preparing for a day of silence? Do you take a day of silence and have any tips that you would like to share? Please leave them in the comments below.

Namaste, Melissa

 

Personal Truth

The second yama of the five yamas in Patanjali’s yoga sutras is satya and speaks about truth. In fact, most often this sutra is discussed in terms of right speech and speaking the truth. Today I would like to interpret this sutra as a practice of coming to know your True Self and your own personal truth.

Various translations of this sutra speak of both communication and action. Nischala Joy Devi translates it as “dedicated to truth and integrity, our thoughts, word and actions gain the power to manifest.” Swami Satchitananda translates the verse thus, “To one established in truthfulness, actions and their results become subservient.” Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati says, “As truthfulness (satya) is achieved, the fruits of actions naturally result according to the will of the Yogi.”

Irene Petryszak points out that when we lie to ourselves, the sages say, we disconnect from our higher self; our minds become confused, and we cannot trust ourselves. Part of the practice of discernment in this focused living series is to dig through the layers of untruths we have told ourselves we come closer to knowing and expressing our True Selves. Nischala Joy Devi says that we know the “truth that nestles in our heart.” It is through satya that we embrace the depth of truth in our lives. Practicing satya requires staying open to truth in the present moment, as it reveals itself.

Greg McKeown, the author of Essentialism, says in order to find your own personal truth you have to find out what is meaningful for you. What is most important to you? Is it your yoga practice? Time with your family? Your work? Are you actually making space for those things in your life? Or are they at the mercy of the external demands that you allow to be placed on you.

Greg McKeown says that to connect with your personal truth, you must, evaluate for yourself, “Is this the very most important thing I should be doing with my time and resources right now?” If not, it is ok for you to say no. You can do what is only truly important to you and eliminate everything else. When you do this, you will find is you will start to make tremendous progress towards what is truly important to you.

Only once you give yourself permission to stop trying to do it all, only once you give yourself permission to stop saying yes to everyone, only then can you make your highest contribution towards the things that really matter you. You have to ask yourself: Am I investing myself in what is important to me?

There are far more activities and opportunities in the world that you have the time and resources to invest in. You must take the time to determine for yourself, which ones are good for you and which ones are truly great for you. How can you best spend your time and energy to operate at the highest point of contribution? The answer is going to be different for everybody. And you have to carve out the time and space in your life to sit down, think, journal and reflect on what that answer is for you.

It is impossible to fit it all in. You have to make tough trade offs. Once you decide what is important for you personally you won’t have to make those decisions again and again. You can choose to do only a few things that are important to you personally.

Eighteen months ago, Tim and I decided to stop making the tradeoff of living in a city we didn’t love anymore, we sold everything and moved across the country so that we could be immersed in nature. We made the tradeoff of having less personal possessions, being far away from extended family and support structures that we had spent decades building, not owning a home, living in a small apartment, but for us, the tradeoff was worth it. We now live in a place where the pace of life is slower and we are infinitely more co...

Prevent Menstrual Cramps

According to traditional Chinese medicine, there are many causes of menstrual cramps including pelvic tension or congestion, uterine inflammation or swelling, constipation, a contracted cervix, hormonal imbalances including imbalances of the thyroid and parathyroid glands and ovaries.

Your thyroid, parathyroid and ovaries release hormones in your body that help to regulate your menstrual cycle. Did you know that there are common yoga poses that are helpful for preventing menstrual cramps?

Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana helps to open up and release any pelvic tension, congestion, and relax the area that is associated with uterine inflammation, swelling, constipation and contracted cervix. This pose will also help to stimulate your thyroid and parathyroid glands as well as your ovaries which help to regulate your menstrual cycle. Regular practice of this pose throughout the month may help to prevent your menstrual cramps.

If you would like more help with preventing menstrual cramps as well as classes for menstrual cramps check our membership community. We have two classes designed to help you prepare for your period with ovulation called Waxing to the Full Moon and another class for your menstrual period called Waning to the Dark Moon.

Join our Membership Community Today

 

Solutions for Anxiety

Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18% of the population. (ref.)

People with experience exaggerated worry and tension, often expecting the worst, even when there is no apparent reason for concern. They anticipate disaster and are overly concerned about money, health, family, work, or other issues. Sometimes just the thought of getting through the day produces anxiety. They don’t know how to stop the worry cycle and feel it is beyond their control, even though they usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants.

Yoga’s system of ayurvedic medicine underscores that vatas, because they are sensitive like air are easily thrown out of balance. Vata’s are not naturally grounded like kaphas and so are prone to anxiety.

One of my favourite teachers and authors, Frank Forencich explains that the widespread existence of anxiety today is not necessarily a lifestyle disease, but rather a diseased lifestyles. The problem he says, is the way we live in the modern world.

It is only in the last few decades that we have lived in such an individualistic, isolated, disconnected society. We are meant to live in small bands and tribes. When we are dislocated from our tribe and normal social interactions it is no wonder we feel stress and anxiety.

The solution he recommends is coming together with our small bands and tribes. We are doing this in a few ways in our membership community. Once a month we come together for our monthly motivational meetup. We also have a yoga buddy system, where you meet together with one or two other people throughout the week by text, skype, facetime or sometimes even in person.

We would love to welcome you into our small band and tribe that we call our membership community and invite you to have a yoga buddy to not only keep you accountable to a yoga practice that will help alleviate anxiety, but also a relationship that will bring you out of isolation and back into social interaction.

Namaste, Melissa

 

Nonviolence

Welcome to a brand new series on Namaste Yoga. When we asked you what your biggest obstacle to practicing yoga, many of you spoke of interruptions and distractions, putting your yoga time first before other demands. Some of you spoke about how your mind is full of other things, a lot of you talked about finding time and motivation among your other commitments and obligations. In short, focus.

Over the next eight weeks we are going to explore the tools of focused living through the yamas and niyamas of yoga. Today we will begin our travel into focused living through yoga by bringing awareness to the violence that exists in our life from lack of focus.

Violence from lack of focus shows up by:

* being stretched too thin

* saying yes without thinking

* rushing from one thing to another

* trying to please everyone

* trying to get it all done

* majoring on the minor

* resenting commitments

* saying yes to please

* saying yes to avoid trouble

* feeling overworked and underutilized

* feeling busy but not productive

* feeling unfulfilled by being pulled in a million directions

* feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by the pressures around you

* feel like you have to do it all

* feel like it is all important

* try to fit it all in

* reacting to what is most pressing

* suffering from taking on too much

* feeling out of control

Without focus, we experience a constant, low level, self-harming and violence as the quality of our lives go down and our stress levels go up. Our culture celebrates being busy as a measurement of importance.

Living in a first-world, country, with privilege comes with first world problems. We have too many choices. Psychologists call this excess of decision making: decision fatigue. The more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.

Not only are we experiencing information overload these days, but also an incredible increase in social pressure. Technology has lowered the barrier for others to share their opinion about what we should be focusing. The strength and number of outside influences on our decisions has also increased, so we are also dealing with opinion overload.

The idea that you can have it all and do it all is sold to us in advertising and is part of the mythology of every career, job description and university application. The myth is more damaging than ever today as choices and expectations have increased exponentially.

This week we will bring awareness to the violence that the lack of focus is causing in our lives. As Greg McKeown says, almost everything is noise and there are actually very few things that are adding value to your life. It is worth the time to figure out what is adding value to your life. When you take the time to figure out what is important to you, the effort you put forth in finding that value is a way to express reverence and love to your highest Self. It connects you with the wisdom of your heart.

Saying no to people and things in your life that aren’t adding value means pushing against social expectations. This takes courage and compassion. This is a process of emotional discipline to say no to social pressure. We become free when we choose to live a life that is focused on our own values.

In yoga, the first yama, ahimsa, asks us to live a life where we practice non-harming and nonviolence. It is useful to bring awareness to the ways in which our lack of focus in our world is a source of violence that causes us harm. When we are living from the yama of ahimsa we have reverence and compassion and come to be present with kindness for ourselves.

breathing causing stress

Most people breathe shallow, rapid breaths which causes stress and anxiety. It slows the circulation of oxygen to your brain, muscles and tissues. It constricts your blood vessels, and reduces your blood to your brain and muscles, raising your blood pressure and over time can lead to heart disease, stroke and other illnesses. This rapid shallow breathing activates your nervous system making you feel more stressed and anxious. It contributes to the elevated nervous system response that is common with anxiety.

When you take the time to consciously breathe deeply and slowly, you stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system and your rest and digest system become dominant. This helps to improve your body’s response to emotional stress. It will improve the circulation of oxygen to your brain, muscles and tissues. Slow, deep breathing will dilate your blood vessels and improve your digestion.

When you breathe deeply through your nose it will help your nervous system to relax. Slow deep breathing can stimulate a relaxation response that can help to reduce stress and anxiety. It helps to balance your nervous system, quiet your and quiet your mind.

In our membership community we have a class in the postures and pranayama section called Square breath that will totally reset your breath and help you to breathe slow and deep into your belly. It uses the slo mo ball and releases the deeply held tension in the fascia of your psoas muscle.

Join our Membership Community for this exclusive Class

Resource: Bo Forbes Yoga for Emotional Balance