Deepen Your Yoga Practice
Put Your Knowledge Into Action
“Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.” Nisargadatta Maharaj
This month’s theme is balance. As I pondered this subject, I couldn't help but acknowledge that although balance is a personal quest, it is truly a journey shared by all individuals, families, schools, organizations and nature itself. We are all yearning for balance in our lives. Our yearning for balance encourages us to become more conscious of the way we approach life and the decisions we make to find harmony. Because balance is never a constant and consistent experience or end result, we all have our ways of staying balanced with an ever-changing universe outside of our individual selves. In the past few years there has been a surge in the number of individuals who come to the studio suffering from anxiety, panic attacks and insomnia. It has been increasingly more essential to teach students to realign with a calmer inner state of being and then move outwardly to live in the world from that calmer side of themselves.
Our yoga practices teach us specific tools in developing our abilities to flow with change and to remain in a dynamic balance. Awareness is the first step to becoming more aligned and balanced in our lives. Being mindful and sensing the way we feel within our own bodies becomes the foundation for reflection and ultimately the experience of moving into balance within our body and outwardly into our lives. By practicing hatha yoga we connect to the natural rhythms within our bodies, the ebb and flow of our breath, the beating of our hearts, the movement of blood flowing within our veins. Through the consistency of our practices, we learn to sense when our breath becomes shallow, uneven, restricted or when our body feels nervous, tired or agitated. Once we sense this uncomfortable experience within ourselves, we use our practices to realign with our natural balanced state.
Whether it is physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, learning to find balance always originates inside of us and then assists us in staying balanced as we move into the world outside. One of the greatest yogic exercises in finding balance is the use of the breath. Breathing is one of the bodily functions regulated by autonomic nervous system that we can access and control at will. By consciously slowing down the breath we can affect the heart’s pulse and the depth and speed of the breath, affecting the adrenal hormone, cortisol, which regulates many of our body’s functions such as blood pressure, glucose metabolism, immune functions and inflammatory response. The results are that we feel more balanced, renewed, and calm.
There are three simple breathing techniques one can do to help to slow down and balance from the inside out. One technique is breathing slowly as you count, allowing your exhaling breath to be longer than your inhaling breath. This will slow down your pulse and allow for more overall relaxation. A second technique is to breathe more fully into your back body, back lungs and back ribcage. This will allow for your parasympathetic nervous system to activate which is the rest and repose function of the autonomic nervous system.
A third technique is to breathe in through the left nostril (by covering the right nostril) and out through the right nostril (by covering the left nostril), then in through the right nostril and out through the left nostril. This will balance subtle pranic flows through the meridians and balance the left and right hemisphere of the brain which allows for a calm and rejuvenating effect throughout your entire body.
In addition to yogic breathing exercises, yoga disciplines such as asana, meditation, yoga nidra, pratyahara and dharana are also greatly effective in keeping a balanced serene inner being. Once the yoga practices are a part of your life, balance becomes a continuing dance of reconnecting to your inner self and taking harmony into your daily experience of life.
Namaste,
Mary Beth
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