A few final thoughts for this year…

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your continued support and energy over the past year!

With thoughts moving to 2017 and hopes and wishes and resolutions, the one word that I repeatedly return to is Ahimsa, which is at the very heart of yoga. It is often defined as meaning “non-harming” or “non-violence” and means never engaging in any form of aggression or violence towards others, towards ourselves or towards Mother Earth.

My specific wish is that we find ways of being kind to ourselves. Very often we are our own worst critics and we create our own excuses for not moving forwards.

Practicing Ahimsa means accepting and embracing ourselves just as we are, in the present moment while resolving to move forward with faith, courage, confidence and conviction.

With best wishes, love and light,

Angela 

This is a post I’ve been thinking of doing for a while. I’d say putting it out just before the Christmas season kicks off is the right timing, wouldn’t you say?! It’s about indigestion and how yoga practise can help you with its symptoms.

Indigestion can be caused by a mixture of stress and overeating — and, let's face it, this time of year easily ticks both boxes! Yoga practise can really help with physical digestion and to relieve stress. Many of us have probably heard that "twists" are great for digestion, but while twists always feel good, they are not actually massaging the internal organs. So how can our yoga practise really help with digestion?

According to Dr. Carrie Demers, an integrative medical physician and yoga practitioner, it's not so much the poses that we do, but how we practise them. Yoga's digestive and stress-relieving benefits are inextricably linked. It is as much about the physical practise as it is about the relaxation practise.

When we are stressed, our sympathetic nervous system — which activates the "fight or flight" response — is very active. The blood flow to our gastrointestinal system is lessened. When we are able to tune into our parasympathetic nervous system — which allows our "rest and digest" process — there is a greater blood supply to our digestive system.

Physical yoga practise is effective in stimulating the digestion, but it is important to breath deeply too. To activate the parasympathetic nervous system, to "rest and digest", basic relaxation poses can help. 

Here are a few to try immediately:

Savasana (corpse pose — lying flat on the back)
with the added support of a bolster under the knees and a blanket under the head

Viranana (hero's pose — kneeling)
lying back over a bolster

Sukhasana (easy pose — cross legged)
with a bolster behind the bottom to support the back

The most benefit for the digestive system would be gained by practising each of these poses for three to ten minutes while engaging in diaphragmatic breathing. Also, lying on the left side of the body after meals can often help to ease heartburn, acid reflux and general indigestion.

These simple breathing techniques can also assist when looking to relax deeper into the poses — taken from Brightening our Inner Skies, by Norman Blair

Inhale down spine to sacrum and exhale from sacrum to heart space,
breathing in warmth and welcoming and breathing out tension and tightness,
directing breath into areas of restriction (with a sensation of openness for the inhale and a sense of release for the exhale),
an inner mantra like "let" on the inhale and "go" on the exhale,
consciously accentuating the natural pause before and after inhale and exhale, (this is called "the four beats of the breath").

So, maybe after Christmas dinner has been finished, we should all lie down on the floor and just breathe....!

​I’m going to start this piece with a story told by S. N. Goenka, a Burmese-Indian teacher of Vipassana meditation. He died in 2013 at the age of 89.

The Two Rings

‘A rich man died leaving two sons. They decided to separate, dividing all the properties between themselves fifty-fifty. After all the matters related to property were settled, the two brothers came across a small packet carefully hidden by the father. The packet contained two rings — one was an expensive diamond ring and the other was an ordinary silver ring costing only a few rupees.

‘Seeing the diamond ring the elder brother developed greed and desired the ring for himself. He explained to the younger brother, "This packet is obviously a family heirloom and not part of the joint family property. Our father evidently desired the diamond ring to be passed on from generation to generation and stay within the family. Being the elder brother I will take the diamond ring. You had better take the silver one." The younger brother smiled and agreed.

‘The younger brother was curious as to why the father had preserved the silver ring, which had very little value. He took out the ring and examined it. On the ring were written the words: 'This too will pass.' The younger brother said, "Oh this was the motto of my father: 'This too will pass.'" He placed the ring on his finger.

‘Time passed. Both brothers went through the ups and downs of life. The elder brother used to get delighted when spring came and he was prosperous. He lost his mental balance and developed greed and attachment. When the good phase went away and winter approached, he became highly anxious. He needed medication to be able to sleep. When that did not help he completely lost his balance.

‘As for the younger brother with the silver ring, when spring came he enjoyed it but remembered his father's motto: 'This too will pass.' He did not get attached to his circumstances, but enjoyed them while they lasted. When spring passed he said to himself, "It was inevitably going to pass and now it has done so. So what?" Similarly, when winter approached and circumstances became bad he did not become agitated but remembered: 'This too will pass.' Thus he was able to preserve his sense of balance through all the ups and downs of life and lived his life happily.’

​I recently read a book called “The Art of Purring” by David Michie.  It’s a gentle take on the theory of Buddhism and how its teachings can help us through some of the challenges we face. The following, taken from the book, has stayed with me since I read it for the first time:

Impermanence. Never forget: this too will pass.
The only thing you know for sure is that however things are now, they will change. If you feel bad now, no problem. Later you will feel better. You know this is true. It has always been true, and it is still true now.

What is the point of worrying?
If you can do something about it, fix it. If not, what is the point of worrying about it? Let go! Every minute you spend worrying, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Don't allow your thoughts to be like thieves, stealing your own contentment.

Don't judge.
When you say, "This is a bad thing that's happening”, how often are you wrong? Losing a job may be exactly what you need to start a more fulfilling career. The end of a relationship may open more possibilities than you even know exist. When it happens, you think it’s bad. Later, you may think it’s the best thing that ever happened. So don't judge. No matter how bad it seems at the time, you may be completely wrong.

According to the teachings of Buddah, life is comparable to a river. It is a progressive moment, a successive series of different moments, joining together to give the impression of one continuous flow. It moves from cause to cause, effect to effect, one point to another, one state of existence to another, giving an outward impression that it is one continuous and unified movement, when in reality it’s not. The river of yesterday is not the same as the river of today. The river of this moment is not going to be the same as the river of the next moment. So does life. It changes continuously, becomes something or the other from moment to moment.

The words, "This too will pass" are the words that have stuck with me. In fact, after having discussed these words in a recent class, one of the participants said that she thought she should get the words tattooed onto her body so they were always there to refer back to!

We all face difficult times. During those times we have dreadful moments and think they’ll never get better, but when we look back we can see that the difficult time passed and we’re still here! Getting through difficult times can bring home what’s really important in life. 

I read these words recently. They’re a bit of a cliché, but still...

As we grow older our Christmas list gets smaller, and we find out that the things we really want can't be bought.