Yoga: Moving Meditation

I have written on the relevance of meditation (Dhyana) - the sixth limb of ashtanga yoga. Meditation is a stepping stone to Dharana (realization) and Samadhi. In transformative meditation, perception gives way to realization; its ability to disconnect the mind, the body and the spirit is an exercise to recognize them. Meditation is like dismantling a machinery, clean them and reassemble to enhance its function. Thirty minutes of asana practice, ten minutes pranayama and twenty minutes of meditation used to be the formula for holistic wellness. Things have changed now; asana practice dominate yoga practice; and meditation sidelined. Most yoga classes in the west end with savasana. We have now changed corpse pose, passively, to a time to rest. In a yoga class once I attended, after instructing the class to get into this last active pose, the teacher left the scene saying, “lie down as long as you want in this pose, get up and go.” Really?

It is not easy to get participants into the meditative stage after an intense vinyasa practice. At the same time, we need to consider the power of three limbs of ashtanga yoga – Asana, Paranayama and Prathyahara- as an opportunity to train the mind and body to get into the meditative stage. Yoga practice is a time to bring the mind back to your body; it could be a prelude to meditation; yoga could well be positioned as a moving meditation.

Meditation requires focus. How to get focus into the yoga practice? If we are able to “quantify “focus, like any other measurable, we will be able to optimize it. There are four ways to quantify focus in a yoga practice:

1. During inhalation: Imagine the air going through your pharynx, larynx, filling the lungs, pushing the diaphragm down, lifting the navel up and (imagine) air hitting the pelvic floor.

2. During the exhalation: Imagine to empty the abdomen as much as you can, imagine to squeeze the lungs by sternum, diaphragm and collar bone. Listen to the “Oceanic voice” of breath by squeezing the glottis. Listen to that majestic symphony!

3. Make the holding phase as long as possible: This is the time to engage the internal locks (bandhas) and sensitize chakras.

4. Measure your pose. Imagine the Body part, figure out the Energy flow, reinforce the Action and Direction, Elaborate the pose as instructed and seek the Dynamic stability. Make your poses BEADED

What are the other benefits of meditation?

1. Meditation improves immunity by protecting the body defense.

2. Twenty minutes of deep meditation is compared to two days of deep sleep.

3. Meditation helps to reduce stress and anxiety in general.

4.  Meditation Improves learning, memory and creativity; and enhances the ability for information processing, memory recall and decision making.

5. Low blood pressure and psychosocial stress factors associated with meditation reduces the risk of heart diseases.

Hope to work with you on this moving mediation- the theme of my class for next few weeks.

Jay

Three Keys to alleviate low back pain

My yoga classes, mostly, start with few open- ended questions to participants: Do I need to know anything about you? Is there any specific yoga poses you would like to practice today- or, something you do not want to do? Participants always want to work on lower back. Sometimes, after the class, they linger to learn poses to alleviate lower back pain. It’s a trend.

I have witnessed my fiends’ experience with chronic back pain attributed to unused or misused muscles. A recent survey found 25% adult Americans suffer from low back pain.  Numerous studies demonstrated the assuaging role of yoga on the lower back. So, I thought to take low back pain as the theme for my classes for the next few weeks. Yoga being a combination of physical exercise with cognitive acuity, aligned postures, self-awareness, and relaxation, it makes sense to accept the conclusions of those peer-reviewed scientific studies: yoga improved back function in adults with chronic or recurrent low back pain. In one study (Annals of Internal medicine 155 (9), 570 (2011)), lead authors conclude, “a 12-week yoga program to adults with chronic back pain led to greater improvements in back function than did usual care”

There are three keys to a strong back and ease lower back pain: stability of spine; strong core muscles and relaxation.

Stability of spine: first key for a strong back.

The instability of the spine is the core to many back issues.  Yoga’s ability to recreate, strengthen and maintain spinal curves (cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral) enhance the stability of the back. Man is the only biped animal with such high center of gravity. However, the intelligent design endowed us with right curvatures to distribute body weight evenly by the concerted action of multitude of muscles. The weakness of these muscles (agonist and antagonist) creating these curves may be the beginning of back discomfort. Flexion and extension of the spine, alternatively working with the curves and against the curves, is the easiest way to recreate and maintain those curves. The simple sun salutation A is a classic example of such a therapeutic sequence. There are many other duo poses too- cat/cow; star pose/wide-stance forward bend; apanasana/dwipada pidasana; navasana/chatur pidasana…These therapeutic combinations have one commonality: they create the abdominal space by relaxing diaphragm. This is essential for proper alignment of the lumbar spine- a valuable key to ease the pressure in the low back.

Strong core muscles: the second key.

Strong core muscles also add to the stability of the spine. A strong core require the vigor of internal organs (which control metabolism, digestion and elimination); calorie expenditure by the muscles on the midsection; and, of course, the strength of oblique and rectus abdominal muscles.  There is no exercise modality which could meet these demands to develop a flat and strong ab than yoga. For example, dhanurasana which can massage and sensitize the internal organs is an effective deep tissue massage. The warmth created by the rocking motion burns the fat accumulated between the muscle fibers of rectus abdominus (6 pack muscle).

Deep diaphragmatic breathing massages internal organs and increase volume of oxygen intake. Once the efficiency of breathing is increased, additional oxygen molecules will seek the target for its action- or, in common term- burn calories. What would be the efficiency of yoga poses if you could combine deep breathing and the abdominal twisting in poses like chair, moon and side angle. Imagine the number of modifications in yoga poses; properly aligned (yoga pose) modifications need to be construed as the gift from yoga to break insanity.

(Insanity: doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result. Humans, by evolution, is designed to preserve energy. The amount of energy used for the latter crunches would be much lower than your first abdominal crunch. Muscle have “brain”; by doing the same stuff again and again you train them to preserve energy. You make them to work smarter- not harder. When your yoga instructor gives modification, take that as a challenge to trick your muscles)

Relaxation: the third key

Your ability relax in a yoga class in Savasana, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) techniques, or mindful yoga sequences  are valuable tools in your fight against lower back pain.

In addition to the usual vinyas, I am planning to focus on breath awareness, diaphragmatic space, therapeutic-duo postures, MBSR and Chakra meditation.  Hope to see you in one of my classes in LA Fitness, Signature Fitness or Twin Heart Yoga

Thy,

Jay