Is Yoga Cultural Appropriation?
Swami Ji, the OG
What is cultural appropriation? Cultural appropriation is defined as the process by which Intellectual property, artifacts, dance, clothing/fashion, language, music, food, religious symbols, medicine, wellness practices and more are used for purposes that were unintended by the original culture and may even be offensive to that culture. With yoga, this can often be seen through the adaptation of practices in ways that sterilize them for the West by stripping the spiritual aspects of the philosophy, by refusal to use Sanskrit words, or by removing the symbols or stories that exemplify the...
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Journey Into Your Being Plus a Meditation Practice
Swami Ji, the OG
Today we are going to discuss the components of who you are, and then you will be guided through a short meditation. Feel free to listen to the discussion portion, but then stop the recording before doing the meditation if you are not in a location where you can sit quietly and still with the eyes closed. You may have heard the common definition of yoga is “union” and it comes from the Sanskrit word ‘yug’ meaning to yoke. If we think about how buffalo are yoked together or horses or sled dogs are joined together, the purpose of yoking is to unite multiple forces to create...
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Making Life Simple and Easy
Swami Ji, the OG
Is your life simple and easy? I believe it can be and for the last couple of years, I’ve challenged myself to create a life that is becoming simpler and easier. Prior to this time my life was so full it was overflowing, and it often left me drained to the point where I felt so weighted down that I could barely keep moving forward. In 2019, I was in the twenty second year of running a yoga center that employed about 16 staff members and served several hundred students per week. I was also the education director and president of the board of a nonprofit yoga academy, housed in the center’s...
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3 Steps to Healthy Boundaries
Swami Ji, the OG
A boundary is a limit or space between you and another person. It is a clear place where you begin and the other person ends, physically, mentally, energetically and spiritually. The purpose of setting a healthy boundary is, of course, to protect and take good care of yourself at all levels of being. Do you have unhealthy boundaries? Unhealthy boundaries involve a disregard for your own and/or others' values, wants, needs, and limits. Unhealthy boundaries can also lead to dysfunctional and potentially abusive relationships. I’m going to ask a few questions that will help you...
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Letting Go To Find Balance
Swami Ji, the OG
When we feel we are losing our balance we grab hold of something to feel secure and to prevent falling. This is a normal reaction to be able to maintain our physical balance and hopefully prevent pain. At that moment of uncertainty, that moment of being out of balance, we would think it strange if someone told us to “just let go.” But what about our mental balance? What are we grabbing hold of to feel secure? And are we holding on to hopefully prevent the mental and emotional pains? In the ancient text, the Yoga Sutras, within the very first few sutras we are told that it is possible...
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Still Body - Still Mind
Swami Ji, the OG
Sometimes we keep busy moving from one thing to another and believe this will keep us from thinking too much. However, we are only creating a distracted mind, the part that is overdeveloped to start with, and all this busy-ness keeps feeding this part of the mind that is processing sensory information and tries to make sense of the world. We need to develop the part of the mind that connects us with our higher self. When we go to bed at night, we become still and gradually the mind slows down and we fall asleep. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to slow down the mind at any point during...
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5 Keys To Improve Discipline
Swami Ji, the OG
When you think or hear about the word discipline what comes up for you? “Oh, I wish I had more of it,” or “I don’t have time for discipline,” or even “did I do something wrong?” The last implying that the word discipline is a form of punishment. Today we are going to discuss our misperceptions about discipline, its importance, and how we can improve our discipline to be more successful in our lives. Let’s start with the dictionary definitions. 1) the practice of training people to obey rules using punishment to correct disobedience or 2) a branch of knowledge,...
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From Change Comes Growth
Swami Ji, the OG
Today I will discuss the inevitability of change, why we find it difficult, how change and growth go hand in hand, the importance of having goals, and to welcome change! WHEW! That’s a lot to think about! And all of those thoughts are also part of the mechanism that keeps us “stuck” where we are and resisting changes. It has often been said that the only constant is life is change! Yet most of us find it difficult to change, especially when it takes us away from our routine, our conditioned ways of thinking. In actuality we’ve been changing our whole lives! Some of the changes...
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Just Relax!
Swami Ji, the OG
Just relax! I’m sure someone has said this to you at some point in your life! As if the ability to relax is like flipping a switch and something so easy you can just do it spontaneously at any time. When we were growing up, did anyone ever teach us how to relax? Do you know how even now? From my experience teaching yoga since 1995 and practicing yoga since the early 1980’s, I know that relaxation can be difficult to achieve, and few people have a method that supports them to become deeply relaxed. Today this podcast will have a brief introduction to the practice that I’ve done and taught...
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What Is Resilience and Why Do You Need It?
Swami Ji, the OG
Some think of it as endurance, but when I think of endurance, I think it means the power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process without giving up. Or fortitude? Fortitude is courage in the face of pain or adversity. Indeed, both of these words can be a part of resilience, but don’t thoroughly encompass the whole concept. Resilience is the ability to bounce back quickly from difficult situations and actually thrive when faced with challenging circumstances! Some ways of thinking about resilience includes being tough, quick to recover, buoyant, irrepressible, adaptable, flexible and...
info_outlineHow do we still the mind? How do we go beyond the surface thoughts and emotions and reach that unchanging, pure consciousness that lies within? How do we access that potentiality? One way is through the practice of Yoga Nidra.
Key Concept
In deep relaxation, receptivity increases. During fully conscious state, intellect and senses are engaged. Information being processed is related to external world. In yoga nidra, we are taking the awareness away from the external world and the senses to access the subconscious and unconscious states mind.
I teach Satyananda Yoga Nidra, developed in the 1960’s from ancient tantric techniques.
Yoga Nidra book published in 1976 by Swami Satyananda. When I started teaching it 25 years ago, virtually no one had heard of this technique. In fact, it wasn’t until about 10-12 years ago that it became widely known. Now there are many styles, all involving deep relaxation. Obviously, it works that it has spread so quickly through the yoga world.
Last year I was a main presenter at First International Yoga Nidra Conference at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Wellness.
4-8 Stages of the practice depending on your experience or time available.
SETTLING – moves awareness from outside to inside
First adjust the physical body and be aware of the body supported by the floor/chair. Physically releasing the body and scanning for tensions and using breath to release.
Awareness of sensations of the body – clothing/air, awareness of sounds – to be able to let go of the senses and move the awareness inward. This becomes the start of process of pratyahara.
SANKALPA - at beginning and end when relaxed and at the end before finishing a special sort of affirmation is made.
Brain waves are at alpha/theta junction – a place between relaxation and drifting into sleep. Where incredible amount of information is “downloaded” into subconscious mind. The subconscious mind can hold a lot of negative downloads, resulting in patterned behaviors that really don’t serve us well. Sankalpa designed to work at the subconscious level to change what the conscious mind cannot.
BODY ROTATION – captures the awareness and directs it through the body. Activates the sensory/motor area of the brain based on the homunculus. Rotation was created before right/left brain scientific studies but supports what we’ve learned in the last couple of decades.
Starting on right side of body is left brain which is our extroverted nature and the “planning brain” then goes to the left side which is right brain and our introverted, more present, “everything is fine” part of the brain.
Then crosses back and forth, activating the fluidity of nervous transmission from right to left and left to right, balancing the hemispheres of the brain.
By moving the awareness in this systematic way through the body, the physical body relaxes deeply. And because the rotation doesn’t vary, over time the habituation of the awareness to follow along initiates relaxation more quickly and easily.
BREATH AWARENESS – further deepens relaxation on an energetic level
Further internalizes awareness. At the subtle level, helps balance the nadis, or energy channels of the body and facilitates the flow of energy.
Connects cerebral cortex with brain stem. Connections go through limbic system, the emotional brain.
OPPOSITES – deepens release of deeply held tensions, strengthens will power & helps us accept dualities.
With opposites, there is the creation of experiences normally beyond our control. These experiences normally arise from the limbic system in the middle of the brain. The limbic system helps regulate responses to environmental factors as well as emotional factors. The limbic system is the emotional brain, controlling the emotional aspects of behavior related to survival. So the practice involves feeling hot then cold, heavy then light.
The practice of opposites within the depth of relaxation of yoga nidra, releases emotional material held in deep subconsciousness independent of good/bad.
Acceptance of dualities of life. Strengthens will power on the psychic level. Aids in cultivating opposites in daily life, so when there is sadness it is recognized as the other side of the coin and we learn how to let it go and cultivate happiness.
VISUALIZATIONS – creating the dream.
Most subtle stage providing deep mental relaxation. Here images are suggested that are meant to help purge the subconscious and unconscious mind. Imagery is used to ‘nudge’ samskaras – those deeply held patterns of thought that tend to dictate our responses to life.
Images suggested may lead to drifting into other imagery – a dreamlike state. Dreams when we sleep are an important mechanism to release the buildup of emotional stress. In yoga nidra, with practice, this can be more like lucid dreaming whereby there is a level of awareness functioning that doesn’t usually exist in regular sleep.
Slow progression of types of imagery based on practitioner’s experience and it is important to be able to witness whatever comes up without becoming disturbed and without intellectual analysis.
Symbols are used to process information throughout our lives. In the same way what is seen in yoga nidra can be symbolic and one should just see the imagery and let it go.
Over time, subconscious and unconscious material that influences the negative aspects of the personality are released to provide better integration within conscious states. Develops self-awareness and acceptance. Enhances imagination and creativity
EXTERNALIZATION
Moves from subtle to gross – reversing the process of internalization
Upon completing the practice & moving back into your daily activities, ideally you feel:
- Physically relaxed
- Refreshed/Energized
- Clearer mentally
So, this is what the practice entails, and I encourage you to make it a part of your life. Rather than a coffee break, why not try a yoga nidra break? Yoga nidra practices are generally 15-40 minutes long but remember it’s important to use a recording to hold you in the practice so that you can reach and stay at that threshold between awake and asleep. There is a variety of yoga nidra recordings available on my website.