Why Breathing Techniques Are An Ideal Starting Point When you see photos of people practicing yoga in beautiful and interesting places around the world, it can be hard not to want to join in. These people tend to look so relaxed, so healthy, and so focused on wellness that you can’t […]
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Mantra Yoga
Mantra Yoga Japa Meditation: Theory Mantra Yoga is an exact science. Mananat trayete iti Mantrah –“By the constant thinking of Mantra one is protected and released from the round of births and deaths.” A Mantra is so-called because it is achieved by the mental process. The root “man” in the word […]
Read moreMindfulness Meditation Training India
As a Beginner, we always struggle to find answers to some questions, when planned to begin Meditation. And these questions are unimportant and are basics of Meditation. What is Mindfulness Meditation? How to start #Begin Mindfulness Meditation? Today, with a small story of one of my students, I would like to […]
Read moreWhat is Ayurveda? An Introduction to Ayurveda
What is Ayurveda? Ayurveda is the ancient Indian system of natural living and holistic medicine. While allopathic medicine tends to focus on the management of disease, Ayurveda provides a system so natural to the human system to prevent disease. If the disease is present, it eliminates the root cause. Ayurveda focuses […]
Read moreChakra Series – Manipura or Solar Plexus Chakra
As we journey through the body in this series, we take a look at the third chakra – the Manipura chakra – which governs the fire inside of us.
You can find the third or solar plexus chakra somewhere between the navel and the base of the sternum, a couple of fingers above the belly button. You may like to visualise it in the centre of the body, rather than at the front.
In Sanskrit this chakra is called Manipura meaning city of jewels. Together with the first (the root) and second chakra (the sacral) these energy centres are often referred to as the lower triangle. These energies are the clearest and easy to understand.
The components of Manipura
Element:
The navel chakra governs the fire element inside of you. It is your strength, your vitality, your ego, your willpower, your stamina, your inner power. It’s the centre where you get things done and your sense of self.
Physical Body:
Digestive system, gall bladder, pancreas, adrenals, and liver.
Emotional Body:
The Manipura chakra is also all about being able to deal with things, it’s how you ‘digest’ your life. Can you stand up for yourself? Are you strong and courageous, worthy of love and respect? Do you feel strong in your body and in the world? Fire is action and transformation. Allowing yourself to grow and become a better version of yourself means taking action and leaving behind what no longer works for you.
Fire is action and transformation. Allowing yourself to grow and become a better version of yourself means taking action and leaving behind what no longer works for you.
Mental Body:
Being free to choose your path in any situation, being proud of your achievements and being the master of your own destiny. To know where you’re going and how to get there. To understand you have the strength to achieve your goals.
Imbalances
Due to stress in any layer of the body (physical, mental, emotional and energetic), you can slow down, stagnate or completely go into overdrive. When life gets too overwhelming and you’ve experienced a couple of significant experiences one after the other, it can be difficult to process. So we might feel our fire is not burning as strongly, we need time to ‘digest’ what has happened. Therefore, it may be hard to get out there and deal with everyday situations, because you are simply already full.
Getting to know your body and its different layers and learning about the chakras can give you valuable insight into where you have imbalances and stagnation.
Checklist for the third chakra
- Do you feel you can do anything you set your mind to?
- Do you digest your food easily? Or do you suffer from indigestion and an upset stomach?
- Is your energy stable and do you wake up in the morning eager to start the new day?
- Is there enough spice in your life? Things that make you feel excited and want to do things.
- Do you feel your life has too many toxic elements in it?
- Do you always feel tired?
- Do you get snappy easily?
- Do you feel like a victim of the world?
The Solar Plexus Chakra
Between the naval and the sternum is the third chakra, represented by a golden yellow color that gives us the energy to make the choices and decisions that lead us to our goals. The symptoms of a closed solar plexus chakra are feelings of insignificance and voicelessness, or having little faith in one’s own opinions, goals or dreams. Conversely, blockages in the third chakra can also create a sense of false confidence
An Introduction to Mudras
Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.
– Jerry Hansen
Philosophy of Mudra Therapy
The natural sciences of Mudra therapy believe that the five fingers correspond to the five basic elements viz. Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. • Thumb – The fire (Agni) • Index finger – The air (Vayu) • Middle finger – The ether (Aakasha) • Ring finger – The earth (Prithvi) • Small finger – The water (Jala) So as to bring back the balance in the five elements, there are some specific methods of touching and aligning the fingers with each other. These are referred to as ‘Hast-Mudras’ and this easy and doable therapy may be practiced anytime as an augmented relief from your malady as well as a handy tool for restoring your wellness.
Mudra Therapy: Hand Alignments for Holistic Health.
Your health & wellness is in your hands! Our hands are particularly blessed with virtues of wellness. The four fingers and the thumb represent the five major building blocks or the ‘Panchamahabhootas’ of which the entire universe is made viz. Sky (Ether), Air, Fire, Water and Earth. According to natural sciences, disease is nothing but a limitation that emerges in the continuity and balance of these five elements.
Dhyana Mudra
In this Mudra, you simply need to overlap your left hand with the right hand and keep steady in your lap. This alignment of the hands also tends to soothe your tensed up nerves. Practice this regularly to combat the everyday stress and strain and also for meditation. Varuna Mudra This Mudra is formed when you touch the tip of your little finger to that of your thumb. As specified earlier, the little finger represents the water element. Thus, the Varuna Mudra is particularly beneficial for dehydration. This may be also practiced for dry skin problems and it also works as natural blood purifie.
Zazen” practice gives solid experience of “Dzogchen” Rigpa. There is no more stronger practice for it.it is very strong meditation practice and the original practice of historical Buddha, Tathagata himself. Zazen is indeed like a light of Sun, Buddhas zazen is infinite.It is practiced in padma-asana with dhayani mudra (dhyana=zen).
The Secrets To A Strong Core and Radiant Health
Inspired by Wim Hof, aka ‘The Iceman’, Esther offers a routine that will help strengthen your core and give you radiant health. In this article I’d like to discuss and outline a routine, inspired by the Dutch ‘Iceman’, Wim Hof and his cold training method. This simple routine involves Pranayama, a […]
Read moreCourse Reviews
Yoga Teacher Training Reviews – Mantra Yoga School India and Nepal Mantra Yoga School – 200 hour yoga and meditation teacher training Review – Dharamsala Mantra Yoga School – 200 hour yoga and meditation teacher training Review – Goa Mantra Yoga School – 200 hour yoga and meditation teacher training Review […]
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Dealing With Physical Pain: How to Reclaim Your Power
Yoga for Pain Relief Your pain, your illness, your present discomfort, is nothing to be ashamed of. It is not a sign of your failure, nor a punishment, nor a test, nor even ‘bad luck’…… It is neither meaningless nor the meaning of your life. But it does contain great intelligence, […]
Read moreHow to Deepen Your Yoga Practice
Ashtanga Yoga Practice
Manda explores what deepening our yoga practice (or Sadhana) entails, reflecting on her own journey and seeking insight from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
Definitions
Deepen
- to become, or to cause something to become, stronger or more powerful
- to make something fuller or more complete
Sadhana
- conscious spiritual practice
The focus on the physical by Yoga Asana Practice
Yoga is an internal practice the rest is just a circus ~ Sri Pattabhi Jois
As I began thinking about what deepening our Sadhana meant I reflected on my own journey over the last thirteen years and what might be the critical distillations. I also sought some insight from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras which will follow.
For many of us our entry point into yoga was Asana (yoga poses). Typically, progression takes on the momentum of ‘excelling’ in certain postures, milestones are reached when we can finally touch your toes or balance in Crow pose (see picture).
We might have associated deepening our Sadhana with advancing our yoga postures, i.e. getting stronger and more flexible. Of course there is nothing wrong with that, but in my opinion the practice of yoga is so rich and there are so many gems to be discovered beyond the physical postures.
Asking the right questions
The style of asana practice we first embarked on might not be the asana practice that continues to serve us over the years.
As we practice over months and years, we can go deeper by listening and responding to what the mind and body are communicating to us about the practice we are engaged in. How is our breath maintained throughout the practice? How are our energy levels sustained and regulated during our practice? Do we leave energized? Depleted? Where is our head at whilst we are practicing? Distracted? Absorbed? Do we look forward to arriving? Or are we more excited for it to be over? Is our practice a chore? Are we driven to practice out of obligation or fear? Or do we genuinely arrive on our mats grateful and excited to be there? Are we willing to question our practice, to take a step back and become curious about what experience we are having and whether the experience is beneficial to ourselves and to our relationships?
Are we willing to question our practice, to take a step back and become curious about what experience we are having and whether the experience is beneficial to ourselves and to our relationships?
Motivation and intention
Which brings us to a fundamental question… What is yoga to you?
What experience are you pursuing and how do your choices on and (maybe more importantly!) off the mat contribute toward your yoga?
Knowing your motivation and your intention keeps you on your path. It’s very easy to get distracted by the shoulds and musts, getting drawn into practices because everyone else is, flitting from one practice to another because the resistance you meet feels too uncomfortable – only to meet it again in a different guise.
It’s very easy to get drawn into practices because everyone else is, flitting from one practice to another because the resistance you meet feels too uncomfortable – only to meet it again in a different guise.
I remember acquiring book after book looking for THE answer to all my problems, somewhere between pages 20 to 50 the answer was given…. cultivating a meditation practice. Nope, that was not the answer I was looking for, so I put down one book and purchased another, THE one that would give me THE Right answer. No prizes for guessing how this played out…
Taking responsibility
The previous question brings yet another question…. How significant are the details of the practice?
What are the constituents or necessary ingredients for you to create your experience of yoga? How rigid or flexible are those elements? Again another open question.
Once upon a time, I would arrive at class as a consumer with the expectation that it was the teacher’s responsibility to make yoga to happen for me, to me, even. At times I left disappointed, I didn’t work in the way I wanted to yet I was unwilling to take responsibility for my own practice in this way. TKV Desikachar’s words echo in my mind, ‘Finally, I must become my own therapist’.
When I was studying to become a yoga teacher, part of my Sadhana project and final essay was to ‘abstain’ from going to a yoga class for a month and instead develop and deepen my self-practice at home. This is what I felt my yoga needed to evolve and grow. And this is responsibility – the ability to respond to our fluctuating internal experiences, our forever changing external circumstances and identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for us to experience yoga.
This is responsibility – the ability to respond to our fluctuating internal experiences, our forever changing external circumstances and identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for us to experience yoga.
Looking to Patanjali
Practice with consistency
Master Patanjali offers us two core principles to apply towards our yoga practice elucidated in Yoga Sutras 1.12-1.16. Patanjali does not tell us what to do, but how to engage with our practice. The first principle is Abhyasa: to practice with consistency, to constantly choose the appropriate practices and exertion of effort for us to access our yoga. Once more we are met by a teaching that does not prescribe the whats but insists upon the hows; it’s about approach rather than technique. A consistent and sincere enquiry, questioning, curiosity and unwavering commitment to your Sadhana.
Practice with non attachment
The second principle is Vairagya – non-attachment, a gradual letting go of our preferences, our likes and dislikes, the colourings that oxymoronically dull the mind. When the mind clings to something it becomes rigid and inflexible, we calcify and become narrow in our perspective. By taking an expansive and open-minded approach we experience more freedom and liberation and we are less disappointed by the outcomes of things not going our way.
When the mind clings to something it becomes rigid and inflexible, we calcify, we become narrow in our perspective. By taking an expansive and open position we experience more freedom and liberation.
We feel less entitled in other words: ‘what can you or the universe do for me and my preferences?’ Instead within the vastness and breadth of our non-attachment lies so much opportunity and possibility. So much room for growth and transformation. So much space for yoga to happen. What is more, a pace is implied in these teachings.
Patanjali does not suggest it’s a quick fix, microwavable enlightenment in biodegradable packaging. Critically, what is proposed is consistency over time and a gradual letting go and shedding of the layers of our preferences. In this way I feel the marriage and application of the two companion principles Abhyasa and Vairagya is complete and profound
