Category Archives: Meditation

Notes from My SXSW Talk – Taming the Monkey Mind: Yoga and Creative Focus

Posted on March 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

Being a presenter at SXSW was an incredibly exhilarating experience. I get a little teary eyed when I think about how awesome it was to be there. I cannot thank the dedicated SXSW team enough for all of their hard work and their generosity in having me be a part of such an incredibly talented group. It was humbling to be with such a creative set of people. I also owe a huge hug of gratitude to the 40 amazing people who attended the session at SXSW, and a special thanks to friends Amanda, Jordan, and Colleen for the personal support they offered before, during, and after the presentation. Namaste in the highest – the light that is in me honors the light that is in all of you. Thank you a million times over.

My pal Jennilyn Carson, a.k.a. Yogadork, and I presented on the topic of Taming the Monkey Mind: Yoga and Creative Focus. I am sad to report that the podcast I recorded on Cinchcast was lost to the cloud. However, here are some notes on the session, complete with references and links that I hope you will find helpful. As always, would love comments, ideas, suggestions, additions, questions, etc. Fire away!

Main points:
Awareness – This is the moment we so often miss. Yoga and meditation help us to be right where we are.

Thank you Albert Einstein, one of history’s great yogis: “It’s not that I’m start; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Yoga and meditation help us sit with our challenges longer. This is how we get to our breakthrough ideas.

“Gut feeling” is rooted in intuition and in neurology. We actually have more nerve endings in our gut than we do in our brains. (Isn’t that crazy???) Prajna is the Sanskrit word for wisdom, the knowing before knowing. This is the philosophy of the gut.

When we sleep, the rational mind disconnects and that’s why we often have odd dreams that connect our thoughts and experience is strange ways. These strange connections are often what help us develop our creativity. They help us see things in new and different ways that we can’t when we are awake and active because our rational minds often block them. This is why sleep, rest, and idle time are so crucial to the creative process.

We have 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts per day. (This fact still shocks me!) And still, the quiet mind is actually always present within us. Yoga and meditation help us to clear away the frantic thoughts so we can experience the quiet.

Meditation practices:
Nadi Shodhana – this is a very powerful breath practice, pranayama, that helps to balance the body and the mind by closing off one nostril for a pull inhale and exhale and then switching to the other nostril. When first practicing it, it can feel a bit scary and the heart may race slightly. If that happens, just rest with both nostrils fully open. You can also open the closed off nostril slightly if that helps to ease the anxiety.

Awareness Breathing – Sit in a comfortable position, allow the palms to face up toward the sky with the back of the hand comfortably resting on the knees. (The Sanskrit word for hand positions are called mudras and this one is the mudra of receptivity.) Be aware of the sounds around you; allow them to just be. Feel your body resting into the Earth and the Earth supporting you in return. If after a few minutes, your mind still feels busy count “1″ picturing the number one fading in with the inhale and fading out with the exhale. This method of counting “1″ can also be practiced in Savasana (final relaxation posture at the end of a yoga practice) if you feel any anxiety about the yoga class ending and having to return to the outside world. Stay in this practice as long as you’d like. With practice you may find that you are able to sit for longer periods of time with a very clear mind and that the effects of the meditation stay with you for longer stretches of time after you complete your practice.

Other practices to enhance your creativity:
Dimitri, one of the awesome SXSW volunteers and an attendee of our SXSW session asked what else he could try in addition to yoga and meditation to enhance his creativity. Beyond yoga and meditation, these are some other practices that may help you find more peace and tranquility which in turn will help you hone your creativity further:

Kirtans – I started going to kirtans as part of my yoga teacher training. Kirtans are gatherings of people who sing and play percussion instruments, many of them of Indian origins. You can join in the music (it’s very much an improvisation) or just be there as a silent observer, however you feel most comfortable. I’ve found kirtans to be truly transformative and healing events. I highly recommend giving them a try. To find one near you, just do a Google search of “kirtan + [the city or town you live in]“

Pilates – Pilates is a physical practice that focuses on strengthening our core abdominal muscles. The chakra, or energy center, within our core is the seat of our creativity and strengthening this area of the body has a wonderful effect on our creativity. Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates in the 1920′s and has its roots in yoga.

Writing / Journaling – It’s been said that all burdens can be bourn if you can put them into a story. Whenever I am upset about something or at a loss of how to proceed, I find that writing out the problem helps to release my anxiety about the situation and clears my mind. This practice may help you as well. Try it and see if it works for you, too.

Nia – Nia is a sensory-based movement practice that leads to health, wellness and fitness. It empowers people of all shapes and sizes by connecting the body, mind, emotions and spirit. For more info on a class near you, check out http://www.nianow.com/

References:
The Journey from the Center of the Page (Thanks, Amanda!)
Breath Pacer iPhone app (Thanks, Veronica!)
Stretch: The Making of a Yoga Dude (Thanks, Neil!)
New York Zen Center from Contemplative Care
Books on Chinese Medicine by Dr. Nan Lu OMD have extensive information on the mind-body connection as well as the intelligence of the body

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Posted in Health, Meditation, personal yoga practice, travel, workshop / training, yoga philosophy

Say Goodbye to Insomnia

Posted on February 27, 2011 | 1 Comment

From Psychology Today by By Hara Estroff Marano:

We all know that sleep is crucial to having the energy and ability to perform whatever it is we want to do. All it takes is one or two sleepless nights to drive home that point—and we all have a sleepless night or two sometimes. It’s the cost of being human and having the capacity to worry about the future and chew over the past.

Yet, it’s what we do in response to a bout of insomnia that determines whether we will end up with long-term sleep problems. The fact is that the sleep system tends to right itself after a few nights of insomnia—provided you make no adjustments to your sleep-wake cycle.

Unfortunately, most people take special measures to get some rest. They nap in the afternoon or evening. Or they go to bed early the next night, or sleep late the following morning. Or they take a drink or two to fall asleep.

Every one of these “corrective” measures interferes with your body’s sleep “homeostat,” a mechanism that builds up pressure for sleep and helps assure a good night’s rest. The homeostatic pressure for sleep depends on how long you have been awake—and how active you are while awake.

I spoke to Dr. Michael Perlis, head of behavioral sleep medicine at the University of Rochester. An expert on insomnia, he has plenty of advice to offer on how to get the rest you need while steering clear of sleep problems.

* Get more exercise—physical and mental. It primes the sleep homeostat. It’s a myth that exercise at bedtime is bad.
Sex is, among other things, a great exercise.
* Set a regular bedtime—and keep it. Your body needs reliability.
* Set up conditions so that you catch the wave of sleep. Sleep has to be permitted. Take obstacles out of the way, and
give up the notion that you can control sleep.
* Learn simple meditation and practice it before bedtime; it cuts down nervous system arousal.
* Put sleep in the background of your life. Don’t monitor it, don’t evaluate it.
* Jack up your body temperature with a warm bath before bed. Exaggerating the normal drop in body temperature
that accompanies lying down abets sleep.
* Keep your bedroom dark, especially as you get older. Even small amounts of light and noise can disturb sleep as you
age.
* Don’t overheat your environment. Sleep loves cold. Keep your bedroom cold but load up on blankets.
* Less is more. The less you do in response to a bout of sleeplessness, the faster your sleep patterns will return to
normal.
* Keeping your wake-up time constant but going to bed one hour later will help 25 percent of insomniacs in one to
two weeks. Prepare to feel sleepy at times and avoid driving then. After two weeks, add back the time in half-hour
increments.
* Look on two or three nights of insomnia as a gift—the gift of time you wanted to get done all that you have to get
done. Insomnia may be functional, a signal that you need to attend to what got you up.
* Don’t fight the insomnia. The homeostat makes sleep a self-reparative system—if you stay out of its way.
* Don’t worry about the consequences of not sleeping. Worrying about insomnia can create insomnia.
* Don’t sleep with your pets! Animal dander can create allergies that manifest only at night, and the movement of any
pet on your bed can wake you up.
* Do not sleep later to make up for lost sleep. It de-primes the sleep homeostat and reduces pressure for sleep the
next night, turning a night of sleeplessness into insomnia.
* Don’t make up for a night of sleeplessness by napping. That undermines the sleep homeostat and makes it less
likely you will sleep through the next night.
* Don’t make up for an acute bout of insomnia by going to bed early.
* Do not try to induce sleepiness by drinking alcohol. Yes, it’s a great relaxant—but it is metabolized so quickly it
creates rebound insomnia within the night; it’s so fast-acting you’ll be up in four short hours.
* Limit caffeine to one cup of coffee in the morning. At age 18, caffeine has a half-life of 4.5 hours, which increases
with age. Gradually eliminate caffeine altogether if you have trouble sleeping.

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Posted in Health, Meditation

18 Minutes of Nothing

Posted on April 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

“Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.” ~ Orison Swett Marden, American author

Tracy is my favorite yoga teacher. She exudes this amazing feeling into every one of her students that lets us all know “I get you.” She’s undeniably, beautifully herself at every moment, and so she gives us the space to be who we are at our very core. She asked us how our training and teaching is going. One of my classmates mentioned that the meditation practice is a little rough. “Is it mind junk?” Tracy asked. “Yes,” said my friend. “Lots of mind junk.”

Tracy thought for a moment and then offered us all this advice. “Sit for 18 minutes a day.” Just sit there and tell yourself that there is no way you’re getting up until that 18 minutes is over. Your mind will reel for a bit. That’s okay. Let it reel. Let it tell you that this is a waste of time, that you have a million other things to do. And then just keep sitting there. The mind will think up excuse after excuse until it finally just calms down and accepts that it is going to have to wait.

Our greatest obstacles are not “out there.” They aren’t our jobs or our friends or family or relationships or neighbors or finances. Our greatest obstacles, the great big ones that get in the way and prevent us from radiating our beauty out into the world, are inside. We house those obstacles inside our own hearts. We can’t think our way out of them. The only way to remove them is to stare them down, and we stare them down by just getting quiet and sitting and being.

It will take some time. These obstacles have been a long time in the making. We have years of mind junk layered on top of them. We need to strip away that junk, let the obstacles lie bare in our hearts, pick them up, and move them out of the way. It’s a long haul. So just start. One layer at a time. One half of a layer at a time. Whatever you can do. Sit there for 18 minutes and just see what you find. It may turn out to be the 18 best minutes of your day.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

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Posted in Meditation

Dealing with the Hand You’ve Been Dealt

Posted on March 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

“I never worry about the hand I’ve got because I know how lucky I am to have been dealt into the game at all.” ~ ME

Meditation is a fascinating thing. I’ve been trying to do a few minutes everyday, either right when I wake up or just before I go to bed. There are a few remarkable things that have been happening since I started this practice. I’m not sure that the correlation is 100%, but I have to think that the extra yoga and meditation has something to do with it.

First of all, I’m sleeping much better, perhaps better than I ever have. For a long time I’ve struggled with insomnia, and though it hasn’t effected my productivity or health, I have worried that it’s taking a toll on me without my knowing it. The fact that I can now sleep 7 hours at a clip is a miraculous thing.

My dreams are also unfolding in an interesting way – it’s as if I am being read a story in each one. These little pearls of wisdom like the one above are spoken to me in such a dramatic way that I remember them when I wake up. They are often embedded inside dreams where I am doing something that I think should scare me, but doesn’t. For example, last night I dreamed that I was back in my old apartment building where the fire happened. I ran into my old landlord who told me that there were some items in my old apartment that I should go get. So I walked up the stairs and found items for my altar – statues of Vishnu (the preserver), Ganesha (the remover of obstacles), and Shiva (the destroyer). Jewels, gold, and silver filled my old apartment. I collected them all, my arms overflowing, and walked out of the building into the sunlight.

It’s now been over 6 months since my fire, and I can’t help thinking that it was the very best and very worst thing that ever happened to me. To lose almost everything in one breath and to gain such an appreciation and gratitude for life in the next is a tough thing to reconcile in my conscious mind. In my subconscious, in the place of dreams, I clearly understand all of the gifts that the fire gave me. It was a bad hand to be dealt, but with a lot of help I made the most of it. In the end, I am really glad that I still get to be a part of the game.

The image above depicts Shiva, the Destroyer, dancing in a ring of fire, clearing away from our lives what does not serve.

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Posted in Meditation, personal yoga practice