This term we are using the Manas Chakra as our guide for exploration, a little-known chakra which has 8 multicoloured petals, pointing to different points on the compass. See earlier posts for more information about this fascinating chakra and the ancient texts where it is described. This week we are focusing on the petal which points to the south. The universal mother text tells us “when attention comes to rest in the black southern petal then thought breaks up your anger.” It is important to understand that the usage of chakras was largely as visualization tools, as an aid to contemplative meditation practices. It is also important to understand that the chakras were thought to be threaded like flowers onto the central energetic stem of the body (in front of the spine), and therefore we should visualize them as three dimensional in the body, pointing front, back and to the sides, rather than 2 dimensional (which is how they are often drawn) with the petals just pointing up and down. The information on this chakra starts at the East. This makes sense as we know that in traditional yoga practice of the time, practices were done in the early morning facing the rising sun- to the east. Therefore, the Eastern petal is towards the front of the body and the western petal points behind. The Southern Petal then, by logic points to the right of the body. Why is this important? Well at about the level of this chakra, which is above the navel and under the diaphragm sits the liver…. The liver is a large organ and is important in digesting food and eliminating toxins from the body. In Traditional Chinese Medicine the liver is thought to be associated with anger, resentment, frustration, irritability, bitterness, and flying off the handle in rage. I find the co-incidence of this text pointing us directly towards the liver to dissolver anger interesting. It makes sense as we also remember that there was no distinction between the body and the mind. So how can yoga help dissolve anger? We start by listening to the wisdom of this text to bring our awareness to it. Once we are aware of something then we are able to allow it to soften and flow. Often emotions become stagnant when we avoid them or ignore them. Yoga by its nature helps us to be more intentional with where we place our attention. Once we can recognize anger, then we can soften, soothe and allow it to move through us. Turning towards ourselves with compassion, using massage on the liver and kidney area can be helpful to this. Gentle twists can also massage the connective tissues around the organs as can using the breath, especially longer exhale breaths. I've drawn a bit of a short sequence you can try to bring gentle awareness to the liver when angry- I'll explain these more in classes, especially the banana child pose!
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Happy New Year everyone! I’m not sure about you, but a holidays can make me feel quite lethargic. The business of the season, along with an excess of food and drink, and a lack of my regular practice routines has an impact on how I feel.
As I was practicing recently, a sequence arose that stimulated my digestive system and assisted me to let go into a deep restful shavasana to rejuvenate. I thought others may benefit from this brief but beneficial sequence ...so here it is if you want to give it a go at home. I also made a guided audio recording of this practice, you will receive a link to it a few days into the new year if you are on my mailing list, or email me for a copy. This practice is best to do on an empty stomach, perhaps in the morning before breakfast. The practice starts kneeling, buttocks to heels. There are a few variations of this. Virasana is similar but you sit your buttocks on the ground in between your knees. Some people enjoy this, but please be careful if you have knee issues. I often prefer sitting on a blanket or bolster between my knees. This pose is great for digestion, and a great place to start this sequence focusing on breathing energy into the belly region. Of course, feel free to use any other sitting pose, or even a chair. While here, try a breathing practice, a variation of agni sari, to stimulate the digestive fire. This breathing is a fast dynamic practice, snapping the abdomen towards the belly on exhale, inhale passive for 3 rounds of about 10 breaths each. We have practiced this in class, but if it doesn’t sound familiar to you please just sit and breathe with awareness, or try any other breathing practice. From here, move into a variation of dynamic forward virasana, sometimes called sun bird. Inhale to high kneeling, arms overhead, control the exhale, belly to spine as you reach the arms long along the ground, reaching tailbone back towards the heels. As you come up with an inhale, sweep the arms to shoulder height first and then all the way above the head as you come to high kneeling. Do a few rounds of this before staying in a static extended child pose for a few breaths, elongating the spine with every inhale. Then move into all 4’s for some rounds of cat pose, and then try a dynamic variation of kneeling balance. Start again in a soft extended child, inhale up to all 4’s but extend the left leg and the right arm long off the ground as you balance on the opposite limbs. Exhale back to extended child and then inhale up to the other side. Rest after this pose in dog pose, staying and breathing and again lengthening the spine, keeping the knees as bent as needed. From here drop the knees to all 4’s once again for a dynamic variation of extended side stretch. Balancing on the right side, hand under shoulder, extend the left leg long to extend through the left side. The bent right leg may swivel a bit here for balance. Bring your left arm to your hip or lower back while looking down. Inhale and sweep the arm over heard and towards the front, lengthening from the fingers to the foot while you look up. Exhale return the arm to your back and look down. Do a few rounds on each side and then have another stay in dog pose. Transition from dog pose to the floor, coming to badhakonasana (butterfly) pose. Stay here and breath for another few breaths, either holding on the feet, ankles, or hands behind your back on the floor. This pose also assists with blood flow into the pelvis and abdominal area. Then move into a comfortable cross leg, or other position for a dynamic seated twist, growing tall on an inhale and exhaling into the twist. Transition into easy rest position on your spine for a variation of apanasana. In this variation, we extend one leg long along the floor, keeping it active by pushing away gently into the heel. Start with the left leg extended and both arms on the floor overhead. As you exhale, bring the bent right leg in towards the chest and the head towards the knee. Inhale the bent leg to floor, arms return overhead. Starting on this side massages the ascending colon. Do a few rounds before changing sides and massaging into the descending colon. When you have finished come into your favourite supine (lying) twist , resting for a number of breaths on each side, before coming to rest in shavasana for a brief relaxation. Feel free to stay for a longer rest, perhaps using a yoga nidra practice. I hope you enjoy this practice - let me know how you found it! Wishing you all a wonderful 2017, with plenty of yoga practice and deep rest opportunities. Sometimes, it’s just too cold to get out of bed early enough to do yoga on these dark winter mornings – so I cheat, and do some yoga poses in bed instead. I have chosen some of my favourite simple but effective poses to share here which stimulate the fire centre in the navel to warm the body and reduce sluggishness- that can all be done under warm covers! (Provided your bed is firm enough and you have space to spread out a bit). They can of course also be done on a yoga mat on the floor.
The following sequence can be done either at night before going to bed, perhaps following on with lying flat in corpse pose (savasana) counting the breath backwards from 12 before going to sleep - or you might like to try it in the morning before you get up- follow it with a warming drink of fresh grated ginger and lemon juice in hot water. Make the practice fit your available time, if you only have 10 minutes, spend a couple of minutes on each pose, if you have longer, take your time and enjoy. As usual, any time you practice yoga, it is about connecting your body, mind and breath- only do poses that feel right to you in that moment, and only to your comfort level. 1. Easy Rest position. Place the soles of your feet on the bed hip width apart. The feet need to be a comfortable distance from the body so that the legs stack against each other like you are making a house of cards. Remove your pillow, but ensure that the chin is tucked in and the back of the neck long. This pose invites the psoas muscles to release, the diaphragm to move easily and restores calmness to the central nervous system. This is a being pose. There is nothing to do but breathe- through the nose, slowly and smoothly. You can stay here for as little or as long as you like, 10-15 minutes if you have time, or 1-2 if you don’t. Bring your mind back to the breath any time you notice that it has moved away. 2. Spinal arch and flatten. As you stay and breathe in easy rest pose, you may notice that the body wants to start rocking rhythmically with the breath. As you inhale, the pelvis may rock forward, allowing the lower back to further lift away from the bed (the bottom stays down). As you smoothly exhale, your lower back will return back to the original position. You can join in by deliberately contracting the muscles that run along the spine with every inhale as you lift, and encourage these muscles to release with every slow exhale as you return. Tightness in these muscles often contribute to lower back pain. About 5-8 rounds is ideal. 3. Supported Revolved Belly pose. Hug your knees into your chest. As you exhale, allow the bent legs to roll to the right, as you bring the left arm out to the side at shoulder height. Rest your knees on one or two pillows for support, and keep the shoulders relaxed on the bed. Your right arm can rest on your knees if you like, and your head might like to turn to the left. Rest here and breathe into your belly. Repeat on the other side after a minute or so, taking care to lift the top leg, and then the bottom leg to roll over. This pose will massage and squeeze internal organs, great for our digestive system and lower back. 4. Happy Baby pose. This may get tricky to do under the covers, but is great pose to explore. Bring your knees over your chest and then out to the sides of your body with your feet pointing up. Grab hold of your toes, ankles or shins and roll from side to side. If doing this in the evening, you might like to be quiet and calm here, but if practising in the mornings, you might like to explore opening and moving the limbs and joint-. wriggling the toes; rolling the ankles; opening and closing the knee; rolling wrists; opening elbows; straightening arms etc. I also like to add in massage to the face, arms,armpits, hand,s legs and feet here to get the lymph moving to improve immune function. Be like a newborn baby in her cot, taking delight that she has limbs and that they move in wonderful ways! 5. Reclining bound angle pose. Come to lie on your back (again with no pillow) and bring the soles of the feet together and allow the knees to fall out to each side. If you like, put a pillow under each knee to support the legs as they open. This is one of the most powerful positions for regulating women’s hormones as blood is directed into the pelvis, and it is also good for the prostrate in males. Stay here and breathe for as long as you remain comfortable, allowing gravity to gently open the hips. Finish by hugging the knees into the chest, and then extend them long into savasana if staying in bed to sleep, or rolling to the side if you are ready to get out and face the cold winter’s day!
I've recently returned from an amazing family holiday in the Northern Territory. One of our highlights was a day exploring Twin falls and Jim Jim falls in Kakadu. We loved seeing the ancient landscape and learning about the ongoing traditional connections. One of the things we learnt about was the role of fire in the management of the land, and we witnessed slow fires burning in selected areas of the park. Our guide explained that cool fires are used early in the dry season when there is still lots of greenery and moisture retains much more biodiversity than hot fires that burn later in the season. Many plants, including my beloved Banksia require fire to help them reproduce, so fire is a vital part of life. This reminded me of Manipura Chakra, our own fire centre; and how we manage our bodies. Manipura chakra is responsible for generating a lot of our energy and drive, our internal fire if you like. It is located around the navel centre and connected to our digestive system. Our bodies have their own biodiversity, we rely on microbes to assist with digestion and health. Often however, to feed our internal fire and create energy we create the equivalent of hot fire in the body and loose a lot of this internal biodiversity. Using coffee, alcohol, sugar, refined grains and processed foods as energy sources all give our system a rapid boost,a bit like an intense hot fire- but often at the cost of our internal environment. Over time, the imbalance to our gut microflora can contributes to diseases such as diabetes, heart disease etc. . There are many ways yoga practices can be used to encourage a slow 'cool' burning of our system, to maintain our energy levels and drive. Yoga encourages a "satvic" (pure) diet of whole foods, especially plant based foods, so nutrition obviously plays a vital role. However diaphragmatic breathing into the belly is also important. If you allow the diaphragm to move when you breath the internal organs that deal with digestion and elimination are all squeezed and massaged to keep them stimulated. Focusing on the exhale breath also supports the nervous system, especially stimulating the vagus nerve, which allows us to go into the "rest and digest" response as opposed to the "fight flight freeze" response that much of our hectic lifestyle encourages. This will obviously also help the body to absorb nutrients better so they can be used as fuel. Dynamic movement and asana using the breath, including twists, side bends, forward and back bends also help to maintain tone and flexibility through the entire torso, supporting the internal organs as well as the muscles and the bones of the spine. One of my favorite poses is the Dynamic standing Twist. As well as massaging the internal organs, this pose helps to strengthen your legs and your shoulders, and is one of the poses that will support a cool burn for the Manipura chakra. To try it at home start by Standing in Tadasa (mountain pose), and breathing for a few breaths into the belly. Then Step the feet wide apart. Bring the hands to prayer position in the chest and as you inhale bring the arms out wide and draw the shoulder blades together gently. Using an exhale, move the trunk and arms together as you bring the right hand to the floor in the centre of the legs, (or to the left foot or knee). Use an inhale to come back to standing, arms wide and exhale to the other side. In hale to raise once again and release the arms by the side before doing another round. You can continue doing this movement dynamically, or you can hold each side and allow the breath to flow for 3-5 full breaths. “Devoted to living a balanced and moderate life, the scope of one’s life force becomes boundless” Yoga Sutra 2:38 (Nischala Joy Devi) “Don’t sweat the small stuff” Richard Carlson Brahmachayra is the most controversial Yama, often translated as celibacy, or moderation of energy, or chewing on the Divine. We are encouraged to remember that we are part of the whole, but not the centre of the Universe. There are things bigger than ourselves. You might chose to focus on the physical universe, a concept of God, or just an attitude of awe at the unknown. It reminds us to look at where we are spending our energy- are we wasting it on things that don’t matter in the overall scheme of things? We are promised in the Yoga Sutra that if we moderate or contain our energy towards those things that matter least, then we will always have access and vitality towards those things that matter most! Our home practice this week is another variation of our Salutation sequence. You can salute the Sun, God, the Universe, your parents or anything else that feels right to you. Start sitting in quiet meditation. Focus for a few minutes on the sounds you can hear around you, without getting involved in what they are. Can you let your awareness wander from sound to sound, letting different sounds come and go without getting attached to the thoughts about what they mean? Can you let yourself be open to the vastness of everything around you? Warm up the body with any of the seated warm ups that your body needs, a few rounds of cat pose, then a downward facing dog pose to come to standing. Finish the warm ups with a few spinal rolls then come to stand in Tadasana with the hands at the heart to start this Salutation sequence. 1) Prayer Pose 2) Inhale raise the arms and open to the possibility of something larger than yourself 3) Exhale forward and surrender 4) Step or lunge back to downward facing dog pose 5) Inhale forward through plank pose and then into either Upward Dog or Upward puppy (sphinx) pose. Lift your heart upwards 6) Exhale to the floor, arms outstretched into Salutation pose. Honour the vastness of life itself 7) Return to standing by going through these poses in reverse. A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe”, a part limited in time and space. (S)he experiences him(her)self, his (her) thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest……a kind of optical illusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few person’s nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein. Thanks to Vanessa from Adelaide Real Estate Photography for the beautiful picture of some of her and my kids at Brighton Beach practicing Bramachayra in the form of beach cricket and icecream.... |