Yoga Camp: Part 2 & Re-Entry

home for 10 days

How do I write and explain all that happened the last five days of my time away?  How do I explain all the little things I noticed in myself and others?  How do I put in to words all of these bittersweet emotions and discoveries?  I don’t think I can do it justice.  I guess I can explain it all via my last text of yoga camp to Karen and Mickey:  “This one time at yoga camp… I discovered I like who I am and that I am a good yoga teacher.”  This may sound simple to you, but huge for me.  Even now saying it aloud in this blog, my heart beat quickens and my hands start to get a little shaky. This is new territory for me.  I guess I have this fear (because I have seen it in other yoga teachers) that once I believe in myself I will have an ego the size of Texas.  What I realize is there is a difference between self-assurance and ego.  Self-assurance, to me, is that quiet, grounded place inside that remembers everything is as it should be.  I don’t think I would have found this place without the practice of social silence.  This inner quiet and non-distraction let me see things so clearly.  If I had been allowed, I would have returned to my room and escaped to a good novel.  This was not permitted.  We were to stay in silence with no external distractions.  This was a true gift that taught me so much.

last day of training

Needless to say, I left our training empowered and full of new insights.  On my return home, I wanted to write something about how this was life changing.  But I knew I hadn’t returned to my life to see if I could include it all.  Sunday provided me with such a slow transition as I got to spend the day in New England with a good friend just talking about matters of the spirit and good books.  I arrived home to Brian and a quiet home.  This was more than I could have asked for.  Waking up the next day various forms of chaos broke open- kids fighting, another leak in the new floor, people not thinking before they speak.  At first I felt overwhelmed, hyper-sensitive and really raw.  My friend Alón has spent time with Sarah in training and said to me, “Re-entry is a bitch.  Tell Brian to take extra good care of you and you just rest.”  I took his advice to heart.  Yesterday was the first day I was not on the verge of tears each moment.  The tears weren’t bad, simply an openness and a feeling of being raw and not sure how to manage it.

As I have slowly returned to real life (versus retreat life), I see that my time away was life-changing.  So many lessons learned.  So many wonderful practices to add into my day.  So many ways to wake up and see life exactly as it is.  What a gift.

 

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What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a buzzword now, but do we really know what it means?  People seem to throw it around quite a bit and we even renamed our classes Mindful Flow.  But what is mindfulness exactly?  I found this definition from the book Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana very helpful.

Vipassana is a simple practice.  It consists of experiencing your own life events directly, without preferences and without mental images pasted on to them.  Vipassana is seeing your life unfold from moment to moment without biases…  In vipassana meditation we cultivate this special way of seeing life.  We train ourselves to see reality exactly as it is, and we call this special mode of perception mindfulness.

In life we take events, people or objects and subconsciously we categorize them into pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.  From there we try to draw in the pleasant, push away the unpleasant, and we don’t really care about the neutral.  Mindfulness allows us to notice this and see reality as it is– free from grasping, free from aversion, free from numbness.  Once we see ourselves and accept this fully, only then can we change it.

Here is my definition of mindfulness.  It is simple, but quite hard to do.  Mindfulness is waking up, seeing clearly, not operating out of habit or fear.

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Three Minute Breathing

A meditation practice does not have to be done at the base of the Himalayas or in an enchanted garden to have profound effects on calming our nervous system and quieting the mind.  Quieting the mind does not mean we have learned to think of nothing at all.  Quieting the mind simply means reducing the chatter and learning to focus and concentrate.  Through this we learn to live in the present moment.

Spending time reliving the past and trying to predict or foresee the future takes us out of the now.  An example Max Strom uses in his book, “A Life Worth Breathing”  is this: on a break at work you start to imagine your planned summer vacation and then while on that very vacation you spend your time thinking of your neglected work duties.  The following exercise will help reduce those moments of disconnect and bring you into the present moment.

Sit comfortably with the spine tall and the core (stomach- low back) muscles engaged to support the seated posture.  Sit in a chair with the spine away from the backrest or on the floor with blankets under the sitting bones for support are two good ways to practice.

• Close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath. Stretch the ribs apart with huge inhales as if you were about to hold your breath underwater.  Do this five times.
• Rest and breathe naturally.
• Open the mouth so the top and bottom rows of teeth separate about one inch.  Do not tense the jaw.  Breathe in deeply and pause for two seconds.  Breathe out through the mouth creating an ocean sound like a wave rushing to shore.  (Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa)  This is the same breath you use to fog your sunglesses in order to clean them.  The beginning and ending of the exhale taper so the sound is not forced but rather smooth like gentle waves at the ocean.  Do the same sound on the inhale.
• Repeat over and over again fine tuning the sound so it is comforting for anyone that might hear you sitting close by.
• Do this for three minutes and count the number of breaths.  One breath includes an inhale and an exhale.  Note how many breaths you take.
• Release the breath and sit quietly.  Notice how you feel when you’re done and continue to sit until it feels like time to get up.

Over time, you can practice deepening the breath and controlling the airflow so it is steady and smooth.  The number of breaths you take in three minutes will reduce with a daily practice.  This practice can increase your attention span, calm the mind and leave  you with a more peaceful demeanor.  We find the three minute breathing is often a segway to longer meditations and more moments of being fully present with our children.

posted by Liz and Brian

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Insight Meditation

We aren’t going for a mystical experience.  We are going for reality.  ~Sarah Powers

A few weeks ago, I shared with you my evening meditation called Shamata Meditation.  Today, I want to share with you my morning meditation practice called Insight, or Vipasana, Meditation.   Insight means seeing free from one’s prejudices and preferences.  You still have them, but you don’t allow them to block what arises.  The purpose of Vipasana Meditation is to find freedom from our conditioned ways of being to discover our authentic nature.  Each morning, I sit for twelve minutes just watching what arises.  Here is how to begin:

• find a comfortable seat
• notice your breath- don’t change it, just watch the inhale and the exhale
• notice what arises– feelings are met just as they are; they are not judged and not neglected (this includes bodily sensations like pain in the knees, emotional experiences, and even noise or distraction from outside)
• watch the feelings that arise and notice where they are in the body
• don’t abandon the feeling and don’t cover it up or act out (don’t get lost in your story line or start drowning in your sorrows, this is about noticing and nothing more)
• what ever arises think of these three words:  notice, pause, soften
• when you lose touch with what you are thinking or feeling, bring your awareness back
• sit until your timer rings (start with six minutes and increase with intervals of six up to twenty-four minutes)

This meditation is a great way to begin the day.  It reminds me that whatever arises in the day “this too I can include.”  I find it sets the intention for my day nicely.  I hope it inspires you to sit (for even just a minute) and notice anything that arises.

Namaste

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I’m Thinking Nothing! Hey, Wait a Minute….

Another great post by Laura that just gives a bit more inspiration to try meditation.

By Laura Garren

Why is it so hard to empty the mind? I manage to do so, every once in a great while, for two or three seconds during my yoga practice. However, I immediately become aware of it, at which point my inner voice jubilantly cries, “Hey, I did it! I’m thinking about nothing!” Which, of course, defeats the purpose.

My occasional brief foray into an empty mind feels wonderful, and I can understand why people seek this state. The brain, which controls everything we do, must love being at rest. Imagine the responsibility born by this three-pound organ: involuntary processes, such as breathing and digestion; voluntary functions, such as following through on an impulse to walk or to pick up an object; figuring out problems and negotiating interactions with other people. The mind boggles, literally.

So why is it so hard to empty the mind of thought? My answer is one of mankind’s greatest inventions: language. With language came thought. We went from visual images of saber-toothed tigers to streams of consciousness and verb chatter, interfering with simple awareness. We’ve come so far, yet at what cost? Not that I would give up language—I’ve seen that happen and it’s not pleasant. My husband lost all form of language to aphasia after suffering a stroke and can no longer talk, read or write. Although we both miss his being able to talk, an advantage is that he lacks an interior monologue, and therefore is able to remain a stable emotional state because he can’t obsess about his condition.

A middle ground does exist, if we can only get there. I got a glimpse of how difficult it is and how wonderful it feels, and I understand why people practice for years to achieve the ability to quiet that chatter. The brain craves the opportunity to rest, at least in part, from the enormous responsibility of taking care of everything. I, for one, plan to continue trying to empty my mind, through mediation and yoga. It’s the least I can do to reward my brain for all its hard work.

Aside: A Theory About Language

Some scientists believe that language was made possible by dogs. According to this theory, when they became domesticated, dogs proved an early detection system for, and protection against, intruders and predators. Humans no longer had to depend upon their own acute visual or auditory awareness, so the areas in the human brain formerly used for these purposes were freed up for other things, such as the invention and development of language.

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Meditation Made Simple

One of my favorite lessons from my training with Sarah Powers had to do with meditation and the benefits of a daily meditation practice.  She said that we sometimes need to do less physically so we can train more in the mind.  Meditation practice can heal the heart and the mind and allow us to be free from suffering a little more each day.  This was inspiration enough to jump start my home meditation practice.  She taught us two practices.  One for evening and one for morning.  What I am sharing with you is the evening practice as I found it the simplest way to begin.

Shamata / Shavasana = Shamasana

Shamata practice is a practice of non-distraction and awareness of the habits of the mind.  It doesn’t need to be perfect and it needs a daily infusion to keep you connected and present.

For this practice, you can lay down or sit comfortably on the floor or in a chair.  It takes 12 minutes to do.  I found an app for my computer (zazen suite) or there is an app for iphones (insight timer lite) that can help you time your practice.

There are three qualities you want to bring to this practice.  The first is relaxation.  Being relaxed is important in that if you practice this through any mental discomfort, you may begin to practice it out in the “real world” too.  If you find yourself getting tense, focus on the exhale.  The second quality is stability.  You want to feel stable in body and mind so you are not pushed in either direction by your emotions or thoughts.  The third quality of this practice is vividness.  This is key so you don’t fall asleep.  If you find yourself getting sleepy, open your eyes slightly and focus on the inhale.

• Sit / Lay quietly in a comfortable position
• Notice the breath.  Don’t begin ujjayi breathing here.  Just notice your normal breathing.  (This was the hardest part for me)
• As a thought comes in, just lightly touch it and say “dukkha” which means suffering.  Let the thought disappear and bring your awareness to the low belly and your exhale.  (Pema Chodron suggests saying “thinking” as you let your thoughts dissipate.)
• Repeat this process as often as needed.  If you feel tense or attached to a thought, focus on the exhale.  If you feel sleepy or tired, focus on the inhale.
• When the timer rings, bring hands to prayer in front of the forehead (for clarity of mind), to the heart (for clarity of the emotions), and if seated bow to the floor (for health of the physical body and as a gesture of humility).

What I have found is that some days the mind is clear with only a few popping up.  Some days, I struggle to find even the tiniest space and I have to say dukkha repeatedly to stop the thoughts from arising.  I haven’t learned to control the mind, but I have learned to not attach to each thing that pops up.  I no longer beat myself up for the spinning thoughts and I no longer celebrate when things are clear.  I think I finally realized that it is all to be embraced.  The other thing I have found is that I truly enjoy those twelve minutes each evening and look forward to my meditation time.

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Listen to Your Heart

The following is a post from my good friend, Mickey.  This is a wonderful exercise we hope you take the time to try.  It sounds simple, but is truly powerful.  From Mickey:

I visited an Ayurvedic practitioner a couple of weeks ago, and one of the many lifestyle, dietary, and yoga prescriptions I got was this exercise:

The exercise is meant to help you (and me) listen to your heart. Most people cannot live their ideal imagined lives. As a result, there’s a disconnect between the heart and the mind. This exercise can help at least pacify the heart by listening to it. It can also help make decisions, big and small. It goes like this:

1. Sit comfortably, with your back straight, in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted for the next 10-15 minutes.
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2. Rub your palms together to generate some heat and establish an energetic connection.
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3. Place your palms on top of each other, on your heart (right palm down, left palm on top).
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4. Close your eyes, sit and listen.
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5. Ask: “What does my heart desire right now?” “What have I been denying myself?”
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6. Sit and listen.

Something may come up, or nothing may come up this time. You may want to keep a pen and paper close, in case more stuff comes up than you can process without writing it down. If you’re doing this in a circle of friends, you may/or may not choose to share.

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