I found the following quote/article very interesting.

“We know that people who consistently meditate have a singular ability to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability and engage in mindful behavior,” lead author Eileen Luders, a postdoctoral research fellow at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, said in a statement. “The observed differences in brain anatomy might give us a clue why meditators have these exceptional abilities.”

Taken from; Meditation-may-lead-to-a-bigger-brain (www.upi.com)

Today I would like to discuss a little about my experience of how the regular sustained practice of yoga (any yogic technique, mediation and posture work for example), benefits our daily lives.  First we need to look at the effects of a yoga practice, which could be meditation or posture work (asana), and how that makes us feel. We can then continue on to how this effects our daily lives.

The practice is the seed of the fruit, the fruit lasts longer the more we foster the seed with regular sustained practice. It may help to bring a little yogic science/philosophy into this article, only a little mind. Lets introduce 3 qualities; laziness (inertia), very active, and, a balance or a transcending of the active and lazy qualities.  These three states are tamas (lethargy), rajas (activity) and satwic (lightness and awareness, balance and harmony), and are known collectively as the gunas.

When practicing yoga techniques (or equivalent ones in other traditions) I find my state of being changes. I find that I’m more calm, relaxed and aware which is satwic (lightness). I’m more in tune with myself and things take less effort. Emotionally I’m more stable, not that I’m an emotional sort of person, I’m not, it’s all relative. I also have more energy. These effects do wear off over time, but less so the more regular and sustained I am with my practice. Over time the quality of the experience and state of being attained in the practice increases and remains longer, essentially the state of being cultivated over many practice sessions becomes easier to attain and maintain. Each practice session is like a pulse, which helps the satwic qualities permeate your being.  Each day you generate more satwic qualities around the various aspects of your being. The practice sets up a rhythm that generates it’s own energy and vibe in your life, which sets the tone for you and how you are.

When regular practice is sustained over long enough time you will end up being established in your yoga practice. One way you will know this, is when you don’t practice, you notice your state of being becomes less than what you have become accustomed too, a degeneration of the rhythm and vibe. It is when you reach this level in practice that it is easier to practice than not to practice. Of course everything becomes easier the more we do it, and we will have found practicing becoming much easier while we are establishing our practice.

In my daily life I find my working day is easier, more productive and flows better. My relationships with people are enhanced and remaining calm in difficult situations becomes easier, more natural and spontaneous, therefore my actions become more appropriate to the situation and everybody wins. As the saying goes yoga is a win-win thing. Needless to say work isn’t the only aspect if my life that is positively enhanced

So it comes down to choosing how we want to live our lives, making choices. We can all say we don’t have time, or make up many excuses, or allow ourselves to become distracted. The bottom line is we modern western people have plenty of time, or at least the lucky majority seem too. How much TV, game playing or chatting on the phone do we do, not to mention other activities. Simply put most people do have time to incorporate regular practice. I think the real barrier in most cases is twofold; 1) not knowing a technique/teacher who can help us, and 2) the discipline to get on with it when we have a technique to use. Sure, I know there will be other reasons, but mostly I think they will be superficial reasons. I know there are exceptions, and this isn’t a blanket statement, but it has held true for most people I meet that are interested in developing a personal practice.

Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers

Every moment you have is an experience, how you view the experience is possibly more important than the experience, although the experience is vitally important.

Make the best of everything you have that comes your way, and the people you know and meet along the way. Enjoy everything you can and humbly accept the rest.

Life is about understanding, transformation and embracing ourselves as we are in the world as it is. Starting from this point we move as we are into what we will become.

This is why I find the tools of yoga so practical the more I learn how to use them in my life. Harmony and balance, a dynamic interplay of forces, each force requiring a continuous re-adjustment to maintain balance.  Try balancing something on your finger, like a spoon and once you find the point of balance , you will notice it requires minimum effort to continually maintain it’s position. Yoga for me is about learning where this balance point is, and how to maintain it.

As we continually refine and hone our ability to develop and maintain this balance we release more energy, and effort becomes effortless, we can do as we need, thereby allowing us to make the most of who we are, how we are and what we can do becomes spontaneous and more enjoyable. We become less attached and less adverse to what comes our way, although we will still have likes, dislikes and opinions, we may see them for what they are, transitory interactions rippling through who we are. This process of course shows much about who we are, and this is why I like Swami Vivekenanda when he says “Experience is the only teacher we have”.

Yoga isn’t just about sitting or standing on a mat and putting your body in odd positions, although these are very powerful and effective. The yoga tradition has so many other tools available that it caters for people of all dispositions and backgrounds.

Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers

Yesterday I returned from a residential hatha yoga course (“Creating Space” hosted at the Mandala Yoga Ashram).  This turned out to be an excellent opportunity for me to get to know one of the teachers on the upcoming Yoga Teacher Training course. As always meeting interesting people is always a part of these trips, with some good chats on all levels, and plenty of humour.

In terms of yoga, the concept of counter pose was very interesting, I had previously understood this to be placement of a posture that balances the previous one, for example, placing  a forward bend after a backward bend. What I hadn’t considered before, was placing a static posture after a dynamic one, or balancing the pingala and ida (vibrant and relaxing energies) using postures in certain ways. Not to mention what do you want out of the practice, you might want to end up in a relaxed state before bed, so working toward more gentle and calming postures towards the end of the sequence can be desirable.

Thursday afternoon I shall be visiting the Mandala Yoga Ashram for a Hatha yoga course which runs until Sunday.  Although I have been on to classes, workshops and retreats, I have not been on a yoga course before, so it should be interesting. The content of the course looks interesting but it will also be useful to help me decide if I want to undertake the Yoga Teacher Training Course they offer. The deadline for applications is the 30th of this month, with interviews in June.

This is how I see it, there is no point doing nothing because you might as well be dead. There is no point indulging the senses because that gets you into trouble and gets in the way of a well functional body and mind, therefore getting in the way of being who you are. So the trick is too work out what serves you and continually revise what serves you.

Namaste

Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers

Yogic and Spiritual practice are not so much about the vehicle of practice, as it is about how you drive that vehicle. For example I have been practicing various yogic techniques for years now, and through it I have gained the understanding that each day, each moment is the real practice, when it is lived fully.

How do you make a start? Well you don’t have to go to yoga classes, or Tai Chi, or any other such class, although they will help you, and give you formal practices. They will also provide better understanding of the body and be very beneficial in many ways. However, all said and done, you can start right now, without a formal practice.  Start where you are, be easy and understanding with your self, and never give up on your self or what your trying to do. Water given enough time reduces the nature of a rough pebble to a rounded and smooth one in nature, streamlined to fit into it’s role of being a pebble.

What is the practice? Anything you choose, pick say your job, make it your mission to become the master of the job you do.  Or maybe pick one thing you do at work, or at home, and master that one small aspect. This will bring great benefits, you will make much progress, others will notice how well you do something, and negative feelings will drop away. Your state of being will become enhanced, just by taking care and attention of what and how you do it,  and in the attempted perfection of what you do.

In terms of yoga this is seva (service) and karma (yoga of action). You will confront negative emotions and thoughts, you will be distracted and have to pull yourself back from these distractions. You will be practicing one of the 8 limbs of Patanjalis Yoga, or royal yoga. By continually bringing your self back to this one thing (a single task, the entire working day, whatever you chose) you will be practicing concentration, and in doing so you will be practicing several other limbs as well. The process you will go through in making this thing the focus of your attention, will be to make good progress and preparation for your future; you will become better at what you do, and better prepared yogic  or other practices you may want to undertake. Becoming better at what you do, will make you more noticed by others, and more effective, now who wouldn’t want some one who shines out and causes less problems for others?

Over time, obstacles to your health, progress and state of being will fall away, and you will find success more naturally and easily flows with less and less effort. You will become more joyful and calm, and things will bother you less. Focus on the process and the working towards perfection and push other negative thoughts and emotions aside, recognise them, understand them, but don’t dwell on them to the point of being overlay distracted by them. The practice is in recognising, accepting, understanding and MOVING on from that disturbance (emotional, intellectual etc). The learning of your true nature is what we are talking here, you will dispel various non-truths that you hold about things including yourself, and you will flow and become harmonious in how you are as a person.

So, make it your mission to do your best at one thing, be gentle and understanding with yourself, never give up, although you may stumble and take a break. Do these two things (perfect, and never give up on that), and you will make much progress and be thankful for it.

Namaste

Copyright © 2009 Russell Smithers