How Yoga Calms the Mind and Body

Source: Leta Koontz-Stuyvesant

What's the difference between a cheerleader and a yogi practicing backbends and splits? From a distance, the two would appear to be doing the same thing. But if you looked a bit closer, you might notice that the yogi is breathing more smoothly, slower, and more evenly. You might even observe that while the cheerleader is looking around, smiling at everyone, the yogi's face is relaxed and his or her gaze is focused. While externally the differences between the yogi and the cheerleader may seem slight, the internal differences are significant.


Most yoga classes in the West focus exclusively on asana, the physical postures of yoga. While it's a good thing to stretch and tone, it's an even better thing to stretch and tone while slowing down the breath and incorporating other yogic meditation techniques. One such technique is the use of Drishti, focusing the gaze, which helps to quiet the mind. When the gaze is fixed on a single point, the mind is less likely to be distracted by thoughts provided by visual stimuli (the carpet in here is ugly ... I can't believe that guy is wearing those pants...). These thoughts distract and pollute the mind, causing it to constantly churn and fluctuate.


Yoga is famous for its ability to heal and bring peace of mind. But how does the practice of yoga accomplish this?


There are two nervous systems in the human body: sympathetic and parasympathetic.


The sympathetic, commonly known as the "fight or flight" system, causes the blood pressure to rise, the breath rate to quicken, and stress hormones to flood into the body. Historically, this occurred to prepare the body for fighting dangerous animals. But in today's world, we experience this response while we are sitting in traffic or feeling stressed at the office. When this system is overly stimulated, we can experience health consequences such as ulcers, migraines, and heart disease.


The parasympathetic nervous system lowers blood pressure and slows the pace of the breath. When the blood no longer has to rush to the muscles, it is free to travel to the digestive, reproductive, glandular, and immune systems - systems made up of organs that are more necessary to long-term survival. The body now has time to heal the damage accumulated during our daily battles. Studies have shown that long, deep breathing encourages the actions of the parasympathetic nervous system and allows relaxation and healing to occur. The yogi practices breathing meditations called pranayama, which encourage the actions of the parasympathetic nervous system.


So while the yogi and the cheerleader both gain strength and flexibility from practicing backbends and splits, the yogi is able to reap additional health rewards from the addition of pranayama. But even more is happening within the yogi. The yogi is working to calm the fluctuations of the mind.


Try this little exercise: take a break from reading this article and spend the next five minutes concentrating on the breath and nothing else.


You probably discovered that your mind wants to think about everything but the breath. Our minds have a tendency to wander, to disconnect from our bodies, to daydream and fret about the future, to reminisce and stew over the past. Humans have evolved the ability to automatically breathe even while sleeping. While breathing does not require conscious awareness, focusing your attention on your breath will force you to focus on what's happening right now, at this very moment. Focusing on your breath doesn't allow your conscious mind to drift away, but encourages it to stay connected in your body and in the now.


But why shouldn't we allow ourselves to daydream or reminisce? It seems harmless. Well, frequently when we are reminiscing about the good old times we begin fear to these events won't occur again. The more time we spend in reverie, the less open we are to the good things that are happening right now. Often, even when we are the midst of a good time, we begin to worry about it ending and start plotting to make it happen again. We miss out on embracing the moment fully while it is unfolding. And while having goals in life is a good thing, spending hours daydreaming won't get you any closer to making your dreams come true. Being lost in fantasy can often lead to disappointment when reality hits.


The quality of the breath reflects the quality of the mind. There is a connection between our mental, emotional, and psychological states and the pace and depth of our breath. For example, when we are frightened, we take short, quick, shallow breaths. When we are deeply relaxed or asleep, we take long, deep breaths.


While our mental state influences our breathing pattern, we can choose to change our breathing pattern and thereby change our mental state. When you relax and slow the pace of the breath, the pace of the mind is similarly calmed and quieted. Over time, you begin to act and think from a state of peace. The more time you spend in this place, the more likely you are to act with patience, understanding, and compassion.


The breath also helps us to stay connected to the present moment. Staying in the now frees us. We can move on from past grievances and sorrows and can view the world as it really is, without false expectations. We learn to accept ourselves and others as we and they currently are. Being in the moment allows you to be fully present when you spend time with the people you love.


Our mood is also affected by how we feel physically. Ever try to be friendly when you have a stomach ache? Asana helps to keep our muscles, joints, and fascia strong and flexible. The practice of asana also helps reduce blood pressure, stimulate the immune and glandular systems, reduce insomnia, and heal the body in innumerable other ways.


The simple practices of Asana (yoga postures), Pranayama (breathing), and Drishti (focusing) lead the yoga practitioner to not only a state of optimal physical health, but to a state of peace. These practices help to connect you to the present moment, to others and to your true self.

The Way Of The Yogi: Where Does Stress Come From?

Source: http://www.healthandyoga.com

Have you ever wondered why you sometimes wake up and sail through your day without any sense of stress, frustration or angst - while on another day stress and angst seem to be the themes of your existence? Is it in the water? Are we just the victim of random events that propel us without choice into unhappiness and stress? Do we have a choice in the matter?


Seekers, including the ancient yogis, have asked this question for thousands of years. Why do some events bother me while others do not? Why is it that the same event on one day seems to pass without a thought, when on another day it seems to become the very source of my entire life's suffering? And, most importantly, what, if anything, can I do about this?


Where does stress come from?
Most of us perceive stress and anxiety as coming from an outside source. You are stuck in traffic going 20 miles an hour on the freeway, and all you can think about is how the traffic is driving us crazy. Outside source to blame for our internal state. You step on the scale and it tells you your weight is five pounds more than 2 days before-your mood plummets. Outside source to blame for internal state. Your daughter announces that she will be moving back in with you indefinitely. You have budgeted the entire year to a penny-for yourself alone-and can finally afford that course you have been longing to take. Well, not anymore. Outside source to blame for internal state. We all have criteria for what we think will make us happy. For some of us, it is losing weight, finding the perfect partner, gaining the approval of our peers, or having lots of money. But there is a hidden subtext to our criteria for happiness that is often the root of the very suffering we are trying to avoid. Implicit in the desire to have money is the fear of being poor. Implicit in the desire to have a partner is the need to not be alone. Implicit in the desire to be thin is the implication that if I am fat, I am not allowed to be happy.


By becoming attached to the idea that life needs to be a certain way in order for me to be happy, I sow the seeds of my own potential unhappiness. If having money means being happy, not having money means being unhappy. If I equate a partner with happiness, then being alone means being unhappy.


We are all programmed with a random set of criteria, conscious or unconscious, mostly programmed by our past experiences, our culture, family and even past lives, which determines the unconscious "rules" by which I decide whether I can allow myself to be happy and stress-free or not. If my "rules" are fulfilled, if I weigh 125 pounds I am within the parameters of being allowed to feel happy, so I do. But if my "rules for happiness," which I myself have set, are not met, if I should get on a scale and see the number 130, I will not allow myself to be happy.


Do you see how this works? It is each of us, not life that determines our level of happiness. How our life circumstances measure up to our criteria determines our level of happiness. In essence, each of us decides whether we can be happy or not. No life circumstance, no person, no event determines our level of happiness. We decide for ourselves.


This does not mean that we cannot have preferences. The trap is becoming so attached to our preferences that we cannot let go and allow life to show up as it will. Life has no allegiance to my criteria or me. It will show up how it shows up, like the rain does. The events of life have moved in their own rhythms and ways long before I was born and will continue long after I die.


Things happen. They are not personal. But we take them personally. We take the impersonal events of life, events that are much like the rain and personalize them. We say, "God, if you love me you will not make it rain today." Then, if it rains, we decide we are mad at God. How is that? God is in every moment as it is unfolding now. How can I put any criteria on how God should show up? And who am I to decide God loves me if one thing happens and that God hates me if something else happens? This is all pure fabrication, another example of how we set up criteria for how life is to show up and then suffer when our criteria go unmet.


Rain will rain when it rains. It will happen when the meteorological conditions are present. We are the ones who put conditions on the rain and say, "If it rains, I will be unhappy." Okay, now I am unhappy - it rained. Whose fault is that? Is it the rain's fault or is it my fault? It's mine. I am the one who decided that reality should be different than it is.


The Reality Management Program
Yogis saw that our "rules" about how life needs to be in order for us to be happy are the root of all suffering. From the point of view of yoga, we have two choices. Choice number one is what I call the Reality Management Program. We spend our life energy trying to get all the people around us to fit our criteria: do, say, act, just how we want, so that we can feel happy. We train people around us, our close friends and our loved ones. We let them know, verbally or non-verbally, how they need to act in order to get our love. We do it at work as well. We put our entire sense of self into the success we achieve. We try to make reality fit our idea of success: more money, better title, recognition. People spend their whole lives just working on getting reality to fit this picture of "success" so that they can be happy.


Realizing that the Reality Management Program is an uncertain strategy for lasting happiness, is something that each of us has to recognize for ourselves. After many years, lifetimes even, of struggling to find contentment in this way, some fortunate people start to realize that for the amount of energy they are putting into the Reality Management Program, it is not producing lasting happiness. It is a dead end. Only when the individual realizes this, can the spiritual journey begin.


If this doesn't work, why do all of us do it?
Take a look at some of the criteria that regularly operate in your life. The ones that you say, "If only - then, I would be happy." Now imagine that you have that thing that you so yearn for. Imagine how you would feel. Happy? Content? My guess is that, for a moment at least, you would experience a state of "not wanting anything more." A state of contentment in which, for that moment at least, you feel complete. Nothing needs to be different than it is and you can completely be at rest. I would call this state the state of Being in which we experience “everything is okay, nothing needs to be different”.


I suggest that the reason we all stick so fervently to Reality Management is that in our own convoluted way, we are searching for the state of Being. We are searching for the experience of completeness, of not wanting anything more, of integration. We are searching for that which is the purpose and meaning of yoga. We are searching for wholeness.


With the Reality Management Plan, we are depending on outside circumstances to create an inner state. Since outside circumstances have a life of their own, this is a gamble. With choice number two, the Way of the Yogi, we begin with the assumption that the state of being we are looking for is already present. It is not a state that can be added to or found by achieving anything outside, since it already is here.


The Way of the Yogi
Be free from the need for anything to show up differently than it is, in order to be happy. If anything you do has a subtext of "in order to," you are in Reality Management. In the Way of the Yogi, we sincerely devote our lives to letting go of any conditions we have about how life needs to show up. We practice relaxing into the moment no matter what is taking place. When we face situations that we normally would react to, we catch ourselves and say, "Can I relax with this?" "What about this?" It is not about perfection, it is like a game. Watch what can pull you back into Reality Management. By and by, you will notice that just by putting your attention on this intention you will be able to relax with more and more things happening in your life.


How does the physical practice of Hatha Yoga tie into this? The physical practice of yoga is useful in two ways. First, the practice is intended to put demands on the body and mind in laboratory conditions, so that we can see our habitual tendency to try to manage reality. We try to escape from the discomfort, physical, mental or emotional in the pose, in much the same way we do in life. As we learn to better allow for all sensations, emotions, thoughts to be present without needing to comment, fix, judge, rationalize, or change the experience in any way, we are in practice for life circumstances where we are called on to do the same. Second, as we progressively learn to bypass the tendencies of the mind to manage reality, we drop into the state of being that is always present. In the absence of striving to achieve anything or make anything happen, we experience the Being that we are. Yoga becomes the practice ground for learning to live from choice number two-the Way of the Yogi.


This article was originally published in Sacred Pathways Magazine.

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