Tag Archives: health

Five Ancient Yoga Secrets for the ULTIMATE Beauty Treatment

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Everyone wants to look and feel their best and this is only natural. The secret yoga has to offer is…You don’t have to spend a lot of time and/or money or subject yourself to painful cosmetic procedures to radiate your inherent, natural beauty. Here are five well-kept yoga secrets to help you to enjoy optimal health and beauty.

#1. Practice yoga asanas to nourish your body, mind and soul, including every gland and organ in your body, giving you youthful energy and vitality. Yoga asanas are a powerful exercise for making you stronger and more flexible, but also for enhancing your personal beauty and youthful appearance in many ways:

    • – Asana practice balances the delicate hormones that control nearly every function in your body, boosting the health of your skin and hair.
    • – Asana practice rejuvenates tired internal organs by improving blood circulation and increasing lymphatic drainage.
    • – Inverted asanas bring fresh oxygenated blood to your head and face, improving skin and muscle tone.
    • – Asana practice firms and tones your muscles, helping to keep them supple and flexible.
    • – Asana practice improves your coordination and balance, leading to graceful posture and gait.

#2. Meditation and yogic relaxation techniques give you an inner peace that is both attractive and magnetic.

Sweet smiles are always alluring, whether it’s coming from a young person or an old person, a tall person or a short person, it doesn’t matter. But stress is hard to avoid in our society and too much stress makes it difficult to feel relaxed and peaceful. Make it a point to take a time-out every day to meditate so that you may experience the inner peace that helps to transcend the stresses of modern day life. Yogic meditation is a powerful method for inducing a deep sense of inner peace and relaxation.

#3. Following a plant-based (Vegan) diet is a must for any natural beauty program.

The benefits of plant nutrients and their powers are proudly proclaimed on nearly every skin and hair care product, and for good reason. Plants are loaded with wonderful rejuvenating properties that will enhance your natural beauty and longevity. However, instead of just focusing how the power of plants work on the outside, consider the importance of nourishing your whole body from the inside. A plant-based diet keeps you feeling vibrant, young and beautiful for many years to come. Whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, and nuts and seeds, provide all the balanced nutrition you need for radiant natural beauty, and they do this without weighing you down. The ancient science of yoga also teaches that a vegetarian/vegan diet is more compassionate (Ahimsa), allowing you to care for other living beings while still caring for yourself.

#4. Drink fresh juices to nourish your body from the inside out, promoting a healthy natural glow.

There is no commercial beauty product can give you the natural radiant glow that comes from nourishing your body down to the cellular level. Freshly squeezed vegetable and fruit juices are a potent source of quality nutrition for each and every cell in your body, providing them with an ample supply of enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. If you practice juicing regularly, you will notice significant improvement in the texture and quality of your skin and hair. Your energy will rise to new levels and you will begin to crave nourishing, wholesome foods instead of unhealthy ones. Drinking fresh juice is one of the most easiest and most effective ways to jump-start your own personal natural beauty program.

#5. Plain and simple, all-natural (and homemade) beauty products add the final touch, complimenting any natural beauty program.

Imagine spreading something on your face that you can also pack for lunch. There are tons of reasons why making your own homemade beauty recipe is smarter than splurging on a commercial product. But thankfully, even if you’re not into making your own, there are many bath and beauty products available that contain all-natural, cruelty-free (no animal testing) ingredients. These products are not only better for you, they’re better for the environment too. Many common store-bought beauty products contain chemical ingredients that are not good for you (they may even be toxic over the long term) or cause allergic reactions. So make your own or read labels and stick with the brands that emphasize natural purity and safety.

*Of related interest, click on: You Too Can Apply The Ultimate Beauty Treatment

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500.

Yoga Provides Relief for PTSD Sufferers

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The number of military and veteran suicides is rising, and experts fear it will continue to increase despite aggressive suicide prevention campaigns by the government and private organizations. Some 8,000 veterans are thought to die by suicide each year, a toll of about 22 per day, according to a 2012 VA study. The VA acknowledged the numbers might be significantly underestimated because they’re based on incomplete data from 21 states, not including Texas or California. Even so, the data documents an increase of nearly 11 percent between 2007 and 2010, the most recent year of data in the study.

Military enlistees and veterans consider suicide as an alternative to coping with pent-up rage and fear. This shows how much the establishment casts the mental health needs of returning veterans by the wayside.

Not only combat veterans suffer from stress disorders, they are now beginning to become more common among civilians working in today’s increasingly stressful environments. To alleviate symptoms of combat and operational stress reactions (COSR), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) plus increase the resilience of critical task workers that are exposed to high stress environments (this includes affected caregivers and family members), evidence-based yoga and mindfulness practices have been shown to be effective.

What most people fail to realize is that trauma is not necessarily the story of something terrible that happened in the past, but the residue of imprints left behind in people’s sensory and hormonal systems. Traumatized people are often terrified of the sensations felt in their own bodies.

People with PTSD and other stress disorders easily lose their way in the world. Their bodies often continue to live in an internal environment of the traumas they were exposed to. We are all biologically and neurologically programmed to deal with critical situations, but time seems to stop in people who suffer from PTSD. That makes it hard to find pleasure (or peace) in the present moment because the body keeps replaying what happened in the past. If you practice Yoga and can develop a body that is strong and feels comfortable, this will contribute substantially to help you return to the “here and now” rather than remaining stranded in the past.

Yoga is an Asian tradition that clearly helps to reintegrate the body and mind. For someone to heal from PTSD, they need to learn how to control bodily/mind reflexes. PTSD causes memories to be stored at a sensory level (in the body), and the stored, unresolved PTSD symptoms include hypertension, cardiovascular disease and even immune disorders. Yoga offers a way to reprogram automatic physical responses. Practicing mindfulness in order to become consciously aware of the ebb and flow of internal experiences, and paying particular attention to whatever thoughts, feelings, body sensations and impulses emerge are important aspects in healing PTSD.

Yoga greatly assists in regulating both our emotional and physiological states. It empowers the body to regain its natural movement and balance and it teaches the use of breath (pranayama) for self-regulation.

What is so attractive about Yoga is that it instructs us (and this is a critical point for those who feel trapped in their memory sensations), that all things do come to an end. While doing certain asanas, uncomfortable sensations may be evoked. But, by keeping track of them while staying in a posture for a limited amount of time, students and practitioners get to observe that the discomfort can be tolerated, at least until they shift into a different posture. The process of being in a safe space and staying with whatever sensations emerge, and seeing how they come to an end, is a positive imprinting process for the mind/body. Yoga helps those affected to befriend their body; the same body that had previously betrayed them.

Another important aspect of Yoga is the proper use of the breath. Normally in western culture we’re taught that we can’t learn to master our own physiology; solutions always come from outside, starting with relationships, and if those fail, alcohol or drugs. But Yoga teaches us that there are things we can do to change our brain’s arousal system, our sympathetic and our parasympathetic nervous systems and subsequently quiet the brain.

Meditation: is it recommended for those with PTSD?

In the west meditation has now almost become mainstream. The neurobiology of meditation, which indicates that the brain can grow new cells and actually reshape itself, is becoming more and more acknowledged and to the degree that it’s finding its way into mental health services. If we meditate regularly, this can restrain the fear center which helps us become more focused. Ironically though, if you are traumatized, remaining in silence, even for a short period of time is often terrifying. Memories of traumas are stored, so when you are quiet and still, these demons come out. Those with PTSD should first learn to regulate their physiology with asana, pranayama and relaxation and work slowly toward meditation practice.

Of related interest, click on: Ten-hut – Yoga & the Military

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500.

Yoga, Sensitivity and Intention

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As we fast approach the Holiday Season, it seems as though no matter how much we try to avoid it, stress inevitably will rear its ugly head.  With awareness and sensitivity it will be obvious when it is happening to you.  Once its onset is recognized we can employ the proper tools to handle it.

By taking just a few minutes to go inward and be attentive to your breath will almost immediately give you the space to open to a new perspective. This will help remind you that all of your stress is a matter of choice. You will undoubtedly realize that it’s rare that you can change the causes of my stress, but you can almost always influence your reaction to it.  It is good to know that you have the potential to completely control your reaction to any given situation (stressful or otherwise).  When you are successful in changing your reaction to small stresses, which originate from sources that are out of your control, you’ll know that you also have the potential to do the same thing with bigger stresses.

Whenever you open to your own potential you’ll gain a feeling of empowerment. This works as a reminder that you have choices. You’ll also discover insights that lead to finding the gifts within each appropriate choice you make.

Whether we realize it or not, we all live in a world of infinite potential. We have the ability to make a conscious choice to believe that anything is possible. If we do that we will likely find it to be a very effective way to live. Naturally, we’re all well aware that at times life is hard and there is nothing we can do about it.  But once we have acknowledged that, we can then choose to move forward and focus on what we can do, what we can change, and what I can gain from any given situation. The yogis refer to life as the “ananda tandava” (the dance of bliss). We too can create this experience in our lives by remaining focused on the good, enabling our potential and discovering our opportunities.

We are becoming aware that being overly or excessive positive in our thinking doesn’t necessarily produce guaranteed or magical results. Too many people have mistakenly oversimplified this practice by taking out all the gray areas and have since become disillusioned. So it’s necessary to come to grips with the fact that our thoughts alone do not “create” our circumstances. However, our thoughts do create our reactions to our circumstances and that in turn influences many things in a very real and often physical way.

Sensitivity and Intention Yield a Balanced Yoga Practice

And, practicing yoga with sensitivity and intention will lead to a balanced life.  But, always start first by intending to become more sensitive. Without sufficient sensitivity, there is no way to react appropriately to situations encountered in life. Very few of us are born with this level of sensitivity, but yoga can give you a taste of what it is like to live life with more sensitivity and you’ll be amazed as it develops through your intentions.

Intentions come from our deepest longings and desires. Many spiritual traditions teach that desire (per se) is the root cause of all suffering. And this makes absolute sense when we are talking about shallow or secular desires. However, when desire is “spiritualized” it can be the cause of movement, growth and spiritual maturity. So, in reality, it is not about eliminating all desire, but rather staying sensitive enough to discover what our deepest spiritual desires are. Spiritualized desires are the ones that bring us closer to others, the world around and all that we consider Divine, rather than separating us. This would include the desire to serve, the desire to discover our gifts and use them, and of course, the desire to know God.

Even these deeper, spiritual desires can be dangerous; can lead us into suffering as easily as into bliss. When we become anxious, impatient or try to rush the process of spiritual evolution we tend to sabotage our original intention. Once again, it’s our ability to be sensitive that reveals the wisdom to know the difference. In yoga, this is a balanced action, so resist thinking of it as a static place; think of it instead as a dance. When dancing, sometimes you lead (intention) and sometimes you follow (sensitivity), and this dance with life is what you’ve been created for, plus it is the key to living a life that reveals and eventually fulfills your spiritual potential.

Of related interest, click on: Develop a Positive Attitude with Yoga

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500.

Yoga and a Grateful Heart

The most natural state of the human heart is that of gratitude. And a grateful, open heart receives everything that impacts it in life, moment by moment, just like the ocean receives raindrops. There’s never any rejection or coveting of any individual drop; just each drop, each part dissolving into the whole.

Similarly, our heart has the innate capacity to open to both suffering and joy with equal acceptance. In fact, this is how it functions best. The heart’s secret is that it wants to feel everything. In order to thrive, it wants to be fully alive in order to learn all that it can from the trials and celebrations of life, but our ego/self has other plans. It encourages and supports all that is agreeable to it and discourages (or tries to block) everything that is not.

As sentient beings, it is nothing short of a miracle that we can experience everything from pain and suffering to happiness and bliss. It’s utterly amazing that we have a consciousness that can experience any feelings at all. Of course, it’s not quite so surprising when the ego/self steps in and grabs hold of the suffering and keeps us there, tormenting us with its blame and insensibility.  

The practices of yoga and meditation ask us to confront our suffering directly and stay the course with it, experientially, until it reveals the seed of liberation that it contains.  When we move closer to suffering, experiencing it fully, it transforms us and leaves us with an air of expansion and a greater understanding. When we allow this to happen in our lives, we are left humbled, and grateful.

Now, of course this is not easy work because we find it is painful to really, truly feel. It is terrifying to take that leap of faith, assured that on the other side of the abyss of suffering is the promise of a greater wholeness. Our ego tends to wonder if it’s worth the risk, or even possible. But when we soften the heart into non-judgment, then we are as we are. By releasing expectation, life is allowed to arise as it is.  Whatever life is moving in you today is a miracle. Receive it with an open heart and you’ll feel gratitude radiate from those parts of you that just want to be?

Gratefulness can also arise by realizing how many things we take for granted. Consider this – the poorest people in America now live with more luxuries than royalty had 100 years ago. We have running water for a shower, it’s even heated! How about indoor plumbing, we no longer need to go out in freezing weather and sit in a stinky outhouse. It hasn’t been very long ago that indoor plumbing was a luxury available only to the very wealthy. We have electricity, which means that we can stay up all night reading and never have to worry about running out of candles. Not even Kings and Queens could do that throughout history.

Try starting each day reflecting on what (and who) you are grateful for. Focus with intent on heart-felt gratitude. Don’t allow “woulda, coulda, shoulda” to come into play, remain a witness, without judgments and you have opportunity to see all the things you have to be grateful for; things like the simple smile of a child, the smell of a flower or the sight of a cloud against the blue sky, or even just the ability to wake up and take a deep breath.

Use yoga practice and meditation techniques to develop your inherent quality of gratitude and infuse your life with a deep sense of peace and joy. And in that place, you’ll have come full circle, finding it very easy to be grateful.

Of related interest, click on: Try These 12 Tips for a Healthier Life…

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500.

Meditation – It’s Not What You Think!

It’s also not just something you do. Meditation (Dhyāna) is a process, and may best be described as a continuous, unbroken, conscious awareness of the mind’s activities when in its raw state. Meditation, as a process, involves overcoming the distractions and dissipation of energies which then allows blissful awareness to arise.

When observing the activities of the mind we’ll see that at any point in time we are consumed with endless thoughts and assorted emotional baggage at both the conscious and subconscious level. This is perhaps the largest obstacle when it comes to preventing us from experiencing true, uninhibited bliss. Bliss naturally results from an expanded awareness of any and all happenings, but only in the absence of any attachments and/or bondages.

Meditation practice as a process will equip us with the necessary tools we need to experience this inherent bliss, showing us the path whereby we may live our everyday life using these tools.

Those who regularly meditate realize that they experience a beautiful inner space and peace as they disengage from the external world and go deep within themselves. They no longer identify with their ego-self and its accompanying emotional bondage in order to experience this feeling of peace. Sadly, as soon as they come out of it, they generally return to their so-called normal personality traits. These traits are accompanied by learned patterns of behavior and thinking in regard to who they are, and what they can or can’t achieve.

We must strive to integrate these two states; the higher meditative state and the daily conscious state. At any given point of time, we should then be able to become aware of our higher meditative state. Meditation practice is really mind management and helps us do just that.

What Meditation can do for us:

Meditation can help us overcome our assorted desires and eliminate distractions. It doesn’t directly “curb” these desires (they will always be there), but it will render them inconsequential in the face of an unbroken and expanded awareness of existence. The more we can retain the actual experience of our meditation practice, the easier it is to draw ourselves back from our seemingly endless desires and various distractions.

Meditation teaches us to how to be a “witness.” When we are meditating, we find ourselves detached and “in” the moment. But after we finish, we lose that “being in the now” experience and return to our ordinary distracted state. So, we need to develop a meditative lifestyle, where the meditative state is always available as our reference point. Adapting this meditative lifestyle will help us observe and understand why we tend to oscillate between a calm, peaceful meditative state and our daily unsettled state of mind. We then observe which lifestyle patterns disturb our calm, peaceful and potentially blissful state.

Important requirement for successful Meditation:

In order for successful meditation to occur, we must be “grounded.” Grounding is that essential “anchor” that helps us to remain stable during the meditative process. This grounding can be accomplished by anchoring to your breath or your body movement (e.g., yoga asana) during meditation practice. It’s quite common that as you proceed in meditation you reach a stage of unknown or unfamiliar territory, where you would ordinarily have no confidence to proceed further. It’s exactly these times that grounding is of great help as it establishes a reference point of where you are and of your purpose. It provides a stability to rest upon as energies start to shift and change while proceeding deeper in meditation.

Using Meditation to our best advantage:

During meditation, it is best to develop the capacity to use our energy to control and train our mind and the subsequent feelings that result. We need to be able to understand what is happening at our deeper levels. When and only when, we fully understand these issues can we confront them and eliminate them as distractions to our calm sense of being, enabling a blissful state.

In Antar Mouna (the “Inner Silence” technique) there are six stages to do this. In the 1st stage we witness the sensory information. In the 2nd stage we witness the spontaneous thoughts. In the 3rd stage, we consciously create and dispose of thoughts. The last three stages (4-6) are considered advanced and won’t be dealt with in this article.

But as you can see, meditation practice is a time to work upon ourselves, to take on issues that prevent us from being in a perpetual meditative state; one free of distractions where fear, anxiety, insecurity and desire are absent. As we progress in developing this medita

Yoga, Ayurveda and Whole-Foods

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Both yoga and Ayurveda (the Indian Science of Healing) were inspired and developed by the great sages of ancient India, well over 5000 years ago. They were also both created to keep the body and mind strong, allowing students and practitioners to focus on what they considered their most important function, that of discovering the true Self and finding their true purpose in life. Although both these sciences are very old, neither one can be called “primitive.” Their advice is founded mostly on common sense, and has much to teach us about finding harmony and balance in the busy world we live in today.

Yoga happens to be the only science that has placed great emphasis on food, and it has done so for many centuries. There is actually a whole branch of yoga (called “Anna Yoga”) that is devoted to eating those foods that promote health and happiness.

Over these many centuries yoga has continued to develop a concept of a balanced whole-foods diet and an eating philosophy that stays current with changing times. These well established principles of good eating apply powerful techniques which are meant to help in creating and maintaining a strong, healthy body, a stress-free mind and a positive spirituality while living in this crazy, mixed-up world.

Never before has this yogic philosophy of a balanced whole-foods diet been more befitting than today when over 96% of all chronic illnesses and other health disorders can be traced directly to a diet insufficient in nutrition. Studies have shown that Indian civilizations (in the East) suffer less than Westerners from bowel problems, constipation, and indigestion plus a host of other food related disorders such as obesity. And the reason is because the Indian philosophy of cooking and eating draws heavily from the Ayurvedic and yogic philosophy of eating!

Ideally we should choose foods that are:

·         Whole-foods in their most simple form possible,

·         In season and as close to their source as possible,

·         Unprocessed, chemical and additive free,

·         In bulk and not pre-packaged.

Shopping for foods that we know are fresh and unprocessed is easier if we take as much of a hands-on approach in this process as possible.  It’s always preferable to buy from farm stands and farmer’s markets, where we can meet the people that have grown the produce, which is often picked or harvested that same day.

Eating those foods that are both balancing and energizing will greatly aid and support us on the path of practice we have chosen to undertake.  The very best diet for yoga students and practitioners is based on whole-foods, which generally means simple, unadulterated and unprocessed foods.  Yogic cooking does not break-down foods into vitamins, minerals, protein, but rather demonstrates that the true benefits of whole-food ingredients can be had only when they are NOT isolated but are kept as true to their natural form as possible. Thus the key to optimal health and well-being is to have a balanced diet, one that ensures that all the faculties of the digestion process (absorption, assimilation and elimination) work efficiently and effectively.

It’s extremely important for us to realize that all 3 of these aspects (absorption, assimilation and elimination) work very well together, for when they work in harmony it’s very unlikely that we’ll suffer from chronic illnesses and all the many other health disorders (including obesity) that are epidemic in modern society today. “Synthetic” and/or “processed” foods (refined sugars, saturated fats/partially hydrogenated oils, fast foods, etc.) create conditions that disrupt this delicate balance, inevitably leading to numerous physical and psychological problems. Over time, the consequences can be dangerous and/or debilitating.

By being more discriminating and remaining consciously aware of how we feel in regard to the dietary choices we make, we’ll find those choices will start to become extremely supportive in our quest for optimal health, wellness and also a boon to our happiness.

Of related interest, click on the following…

Principles of Health and Natural Healing

The Advantages of a Plant-Based Diet (Pt. 1)

The Advantages of a Plant-Based Diet (Pt. 2)

The Advantages of a Plant-Based Diet (Pt. 3)

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500

 

Develop a Positive Attitude with Yoga

The essence of all yoga practice is to remain positive in any situation that we find ourselves in. By remaining positive, our interactions with ourselves, others and the world at large become brighter, more productive and perpetuate a feeling of self-satisfaction, often referred to as the “feel good factor.” As a result we become healthier and more peaceful.

So how can yoga practice be used to develop this positive disposition? Simple, there’s a 3-step approach:

1 – Awareness

2 – Acceptance

3 – Attitude

Well now, let’s consider these three factors…

1.    Awareness:

We can begin by becoming aware of what we’re thinking and how our thinking process actually works. We systematically train ourselves to be aware at all times of how our mind is working; our thoughts, thinking patterns and tendencies. Practice making this a habit and if it seems difficult, there are two meditation techniques which can be of great help – Antar Mouna and Yoga Nidra. Both these techniques help in the withdrawal of our senses into introspection or silent witnessing.

*Antar Mouna (inner silence meditation) is a pratyahara technique, pratyahara being the first of the four inner limbs of Raja Yoga and deals with the activities of the conscious mind. Antar Mouna is the development of conscious awareness of all thoughts and mental activity. The technique involves creating, transforming and finally gaining control of the entire thought process.

*Yoga Nidra, generally referred to as “Yogic Sleep” is a 4000 year old guided meditation technique that leads to a deep and exquisite state of supreme stillness and insight where the body and mind can restore and rejuvenate. It can enable you to experience unshakeable peace, even during some of the most difficult times.

2.    Acceptance:

Ironically, increased awareness brings about a heightened sensitivity to the issues at hand, where we are at risk of becoming too judgmental and critical of both ourselves or of others. This can set the stage for sending us into a vicious cycle of negativity unless we learn to first accept things as they are.

Develop a stance of “it is okay” to simply observe things the way they are, without being obsessively driven to try to change or control them. Just by being a witness of all that arises establishes an attitude of acceptance that leads to genuine love and real compassion, establishing the “bedrock” of positive thinking.

3.    Attitude:

After we have fully accepted what lies within (or behind) our thoughts, we can then start working on how we “choose” to look at any particular situation, person or thing. These yoga techniques are essential in helping us to change our attitude. The Sankalpa (or resolve) that we establish through Antar Mouna and Yoga Nidra assists us in shaping our mind. This resolve in yoga is always takes the form of a positive statement e.g.; “I am becoming more positive every day”. Such positive conditioning when regularly used to fuel the mind will help greatly in shaping a positive attitude.

By regularly practicing these three (awareness, acceptance and attitude), you

The Ego According to Yoga Philosophy

Sooner or later everyone asks the question “what is the ego?”, and the general definition is usually something like this: “the ‘I’ or self of any person; a person as thinking, feeling, and willing, and distinguishing itself from the selves of others and from objects of its thought.”

But yoga goes a little further and sees it as reflected consciousness; a part of the soul’s pure consciousness that reflects in the mind and functions as the subjective knower, establishing the dichotomy of the observer and the observed, the experience and the experiencer. Therefore the ego is a fictitious character established by the mind, and the mind is simply a subtle form of energy (it has no consciousness of its own). The mind however, acts “as if” it’s a conscious entity, because of soul’s consciousness reflecting on it, or working within it.

Only a very small part of the sun’s light, when reflected from the moon’s surface, makes the moon appear as if it generates a light of its own. We may say “by the light of the moon”, but that light in reality is actually the sun’s light reflecting from the moon’s surface. Similarly, only a small part of soul’s pure consciousness, when working in the mind, identifies itself with the mind and its limitations, and thus feels itself limited. So then, the ego is not only reflected consciousness but also limited consciousness. Limited consciousness naturally equates to limited intelligence, limited understanding and limited ability of perception. Our eyes are not all-seeing and have a limited vision. From the eye’s limited perspective the earth seems flat; but the truth is, the earth is round. Since we see only a small portion of the earth’s circular surface (the horizon) it appears to us as flat, but when seen from a jetliner at 36,000 feet our perspective is expanded and we begin to appreciate the “roundness” of the earth’s horizon. This correlates to the ego’s limited ability to perceive things in the bigger perspective, so instead of seeing the whole (or undivided “oneness”) it sees everything in parts and falsely identifies each part as being separate and independent of the other parts.

The ego is the self or ‘I’ in our mind around which all our thoughts, feelings and experiences seem to revolve. The ego-self is the author, writing the script for all our thinking, feeling and desires. It is the subjective enjoyer and the “experiencer” of all our activities and the results of those activities. Whenever we say “I think, I feel, I see, I love, I enjoy, I hate, I fear, etc.” we are referring to our ego-self. This ‘I’ with which we are so familiar is our limited duplicate ‘I’ not our true ‘I’. It is this false (reflected or duplicated) ‘I’ that experiences all our pleasures and pain, all our joys and suffering. Our real ‘I’ – the Self (with a capital “S”) is the Soul in us that lies behind the ego. This limited ego-consciousness needs to be withdrawn from the mind and dissolved in the Self (like a baby salt doll thrown into the sea) or else have its effects annihilated by non-identification and non-attachment with the physical body and the thinking mind.

Yoga and meditation practice both teach us to slowly and steadily drop this identification and all its attachments. As the ego-self is gradually and progressively trained through yoga and meditation to drop its attachments, it becomes free and spontaneously withdraws inwards. Step-by-step, in deep prolonged meditation the ego-consciousness first withdraws from the body and then it withdraws from the mind. As it begins disconnecting itself from the activities of the mind and withdraws inwards it becomes aware of its original source and its oneness with that source. This process continues until the ego has expanded itself to the point of complete annihilation in the Soul (again, like the salt baby in the sea). Once the duplicate or reflected ‘I’ has merged with the real ‘I’ this is called Self-realization, samadhi or illumination, and this merging (union) is the object and true goal of all yoga and meditation practice.

“The I-ness or egoism (asmita), which arises from the ignorance, occurs due to the mistake of taking the intellect (buddhi, which knows, decides, judges, and discriminates) to itself be pure consciousness (purusha).”Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra 2:6

And, we’ll end this article with a quote from Krishnananda… “The ego is trying to practice yoga. Oh, what a pity! The ego cannot practice yoga, because the ego is to be destroyed in yoga. So how can it practice yoga? Here we have a strange difficulty, and it has to be overcome with a strange technique; that is yoga itself. Yoga is achieved by yoga itself; there is no other means.”

Of related interest, click on: The Wisdom of Patanjali

Principles of Health and Natural Healing

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Our health is determined by factors that are created (in part) from our environment. Imagine a spinning wheel in which we are the center or hub; at the outer rim (or periphery) is our natural environment and all its associated energies, e.g.; the sun, the air, water, soil etc. Within this are the spokes, our more immediate environment which includes the geographical area of the earth we live in and its climate and further in it becomes more specific, whether we live in the city or the country, our chosen profession and social relations etc. It is within these very environments that we think, plan and act every day.

So our thoughts and our actions could very well be considered “products” of our environment, as well as the food we eat. Our food becomes a concentrated form of the environment that we internalize three or more times per day. Our everyday thoughts and actions constitute our “lifestyle” and this lifestyle determines our choice of food. And the reverse is true, the foods we choose to eat, in turn affect our lifestyle (thoughts and actions).

Now consider this; our environment, our lifestyle and the foods we eat all combine to create and maintain our current state of health. When we get these things in balance, when our lifestyle and diet are in harmony with our environment, we will experience optimal health. If however, we allow them to become unbalanced or extreme, we lose our harmonious relationship with our environment and sickness will probably be the result. If we persist in this, we will surely develop serious illness and/or chronic disease.

The principles of natural healing are based on positive change and balance. Change, being the law of life, is inevitable and constant. It’s the motivating force and the order of the universe. Fortunately, as manifestations of the universe, we humans have the built-in ability to cause or initiate change through our choices. Each and every one of us is granted the inherent power to change direction, leaving sickness behind and embarking on the road to health and wellness. But first, for healing to begin, we must realize and accept that change is possible and act upon that realization.

The old adage “we are what we eat!” starts to ring true, our daily food and drink really are the actual source of our physical makeup. Our entire bodies, our blood, our cells, muscles, organs, tissues, bones and glands are sustained and renewed by the transformation of the minerals, proteins, lipids, enzymes, water, and other nutrients that we consume on a daily basis. Therefore, whenever we consider any aspect of our physical health, it is necessary that we carefully review the choices we have made in regard to what we put in our bodies.

People are beginning to wake up to the fact that many of  today’s health problems are directly related to the repeated and continuous consumption of meat, eggs, cheese, poultry, and other animal-based foods. Cancers, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and a host of other chronic and deadly diseases are the result of two problems; quantity and quality. Let’s look at quantity; people are eating a lot more animal products now than they did several generations ago, far beyond what is reasonable even for meat eaters. Meats and other animal products have essentially become the mainstay of the modern American diet.

Looking at quality; today’s artificially inseminated, hormone boosted and antibiotic fed livestock bear little resemblance to their natural, grass fed, free range predecessors. The arrival of “Mad Cow” disease and the subsequent European community’s refusal to accept imports of hormone fed American beef emphasizes just how deadly (pun intended) serious these issues have become.

Commercially raised, indoor-caged poultry products, especially chickens and turkeys are becoming increasingly problematic; even more so since extensive advertizing has many people believing chicken and turkey to be “healthy” alternatives to red meat. These birds become so weak and susceptible to infections that they require regular doses of increasingly stronger antibiotics, just to keep them alive. Additionally, they are fed synthetic growth hormones to speed their growth and breast development. One result of these practices, according to one study, is that as up to 95% of the commercially raised chickens on their way to market have at least one type of cancer! Without a doubt, chickens from a modern poultry farm are not a health food as claimed by the industry.

Let’s just suppose someone we care about is facing a health crisis (and there might be more than one), and we know they are overly reliance on a diet of animal products. What can we do to help them change their situation into its opposite, one of healing and improving health? Obviously, the first step would be to encourage them to convert from an animal-based to a plant-based diet.

Contrary to animal products, plant-based foods enhance, rather than inhibit, healing and regeneration of tissue. Daily dietary choices are the central issue in our lifestyle as a whole. They can be viewed as a reflection of our priorities and our way of looking at society, nature, and the universe. Dietary change, combined with an understanding of harmony and balance, can serve as the focus, initiating a positive change in our lifestyle. Unhealthy choices can be reviewed and changed into healthy ones, and then they can be brought into proper alignment with natural harmony, befitting us and our environment.

Of related interest, click on the following…

The Advantages of a Plant-Based Diet (Pt. 1)

The Advantages of a Plant-Based Diet (Pt. 2)

The Advantages of a Plant-Based Diet (Pt. 3)

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500 

The Wisdom of Patanjali

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Most students of yoga have heard of Patanjali, but if they haven’t, then it’s only a matter of time before they do. Patanjali was an Indian sage who distilled the essence of India’s spiritual/philosophical traditions, which included centuries of philosophies and practices, and condensed this knowledge into 196 “Yoga Sutras”. With these concise sutras (aka aphorisms), Patanjali codified India’s sixth philosophical system called Yoga (the other 5 being Samkhya, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta) and subsequently became known as the father of Classical Yoga or as it’s commonly referred to today, Ashtanga yoga. In addition to Ashtanga Yoga, the Yoga Sutras are also sometimes referred to as Raja Yoga, or the Royal Yoga.

While Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are thought to be as old as 400 BCE, archaeological evidence and other ancient texts suggest that the methods described in the Yoga Sutras may have been practiced as early as 3000 BCE. Oral tradition asserts that the period may be even earlier.

The word ‘sutras’ is derived from the word ‘suture’, which conveys that the sentences are short, compact and stitched together. Every sutra contains a deep meaning and can stand on its own as well as be taken in context with the rest. A good analogy often used to describe the yoga sutras is a pearl necklace, where each pearl (each sutra) is complete in itself but takes its full expression when strung together with the others, like a necklace.

The condensed form of the Yoga Sutras has yet another purpose: they can be easily memorized, and that’s exactly what has happened: they’ve been memorized and chanted in Indian ashrams for well over 2000 years and that continues today.

When studied from the most basic level, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras will give us insights into the human mind, how it works and how it affects the way we perceive our circumstances, our experiences and how we feel about them. Patanjali felt our problem was our perception of the world and how it is limited to our senses and our thoughts about them. So, he suggests that in order for us to experience the enlightenment we seek and establish the freedom and liberation we desire, we need to dedicate some of our time to taking our attention away from the outside world we live in, and turn within. Most of us already know this to a certain degree; we realize that when our lives get too hectic we can get overwhelmed and our spiritual maturity is sacrificed as a result.

On a much deeper level, what Patanjali is suggesting is that when we turn our focus from the external world back to our inner selves, the path itself will slowly draw us toward the goal, increasingly unveiling the “Light of the Soul.”

Even though yoga students come from an assortment of backgrounds it is still important for each of them to know that yoga is universal and regardless of your religious orientation or whether you are a ‘believer’ or not, your practice will reflect precisely what you need at any given time. If you are inclined toward the Divine (God, the Absolute or whatever name you choose), practicing yoga will make you feel more in tune with the sanctity of life. On the other hand, if you don’t relate to such concepts, your yoga practice is likely to give you more strength and stamina to achieve what you want in life, and in all probability, you’ll slowly develop a sense of awe and an “attitude of gratitude” toward all of life.

Returning  to the concept of yoga being a path toward discovering the Light of the Soul, Patanjali says that the path of yoga can help us to realize that the creative force that keeps the universe humming behind the scenes is identical to the force that keeps us going. Consciousness is what makes us aware of, and able to, express this. It can be a difficult concept to grasp but its essence is captured beautifully by Yann Martel in his novel, “Life of Pi:” “That which sustains the universe beyond thought and language, and that which is at the core of us and struggles for expression, is the same thing.The finite within the infinite, the infinite within the finite.”

Yoga even goes a step further, for as we all have heard the word Yoga means literally to yoke or unite, and means that we have the inherent potential to actually unite our soul or Individual Consciousness (life force/creative power) with Universal Consciousness (universe’s life force/creative power).

Now this is a lofty goal indeed, and patience dictates we take first things first and learn how we “turn our attention inward?” The answer to this question is Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras’ main contribution towards the goal. His sutras give us a scientific method, a set of practices and techniques to experiment with and that will slowly sharpen our awareness of our body, mind and breath. Gradually, the subtler aspects of our being start to reveal themselves.

An Overview of the Yoga Sutras and their application for students/practitioners of Yoga

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras consist of four chapters (or books) and the most relevant to a beginning yoga practitioner today is the second chapter called Sadhana pada meaning spiritual path or spiritual practice. Central to this chapter is the description of the well known “Eightfold Path,” sometimes called “Eight Limbs of Yoga” (see link below). There are no English words that can translate perfectly these concepts which were originally written in the Sanskrit language and each word of each sutra leaves place for interpretation. The sutras need to be “decoded” so to speak, and then reviewed until they begin to make sense. Different commentaries written on the sutras must be analyzed and compared. And this can be a laborious task since in the 1980’s and 90’s, a period when yoga was rapidly gaining in popularity, many individual commentaries started to emerge and now we can find hundreds of them written by Yogis, Swamis, scholars, pandits and philosophers, all from varying perspectives and some of them more relevant than others to our contemporary life. The internet is loaded with examples of these commentaries; just do a “Google search” for Patanjali or the Yoga Sutras and explore them for yourself and see how they apply to you, your practice and your life.

If we consider Eightfold Path the core of Yoga practice, then these eight steps will indicate a logical (and scientific) pathway that leads to the attainment of physical, ethical, emotional, mental and psycho-spiritual health. Remember, Yoga does not seek to change the student or practitioner; rather, it allows the natural state of total health and integration in each of us to evolve and become a reality.

Of related interest, click on: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and Advaita Vedanta

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Patanjali’s Eightfold Path (the 8 Limbs of Yoga)

*Rae Indigo is ERYT500