Feeling Whole

Being kind, listening and welcoming your body parts home

In A world of AI, it’s when we listen to our Body Intelligence that we can find a sense of wholeness and ease again

I often have students come into class or a private session saying

• I’ve got a bad knee

• I have a bad hip

• My shoulders have been really bugging me lately

I too have used this type of language towards my body parts as if they were somehow being unkind to me. Separate from myself. Then I remember that all of my body parts are all part of me. I am one being and my knee or hip or shoulder is not something other.

When there is pain, it means that something is out of sorts. It’s a way of our body talking to us and telling us something needs to change. Something needs attention. Working through many years of severe pain, I learned how to Listen and respond in a way that can help bring about healing and reduce my suffering. When I have days that I feel some pain, I can definitely slip into the fear that it will return to some place that I have already journeyed from.

Thankfully, my body is generally now free of any pain other than a small messages in my left hamstring insertion that I have from an injury I’m still working through. It talks to me when I lift too heavy at the gym. I listen. As I’m trying to continue to heal, sometimes I overdo it.

How did I work through this pain? I studied a LOT of various techniques. I reach into that bag of goodies when helping my students. The basic tenet for all my work is the same… Release areas of tension, strengthen areas not engaging, create safety, listen, breathe and acknowledge that when there is a physical reaction, there is an emotional response and when there is an emotional reaction, there is a physical response. They are two sides of the same coin.

Our emotional responses can create physical tension patterns that affect or ability to move freely and can put us into misalignments that are counterproductive to our happiness and throw our nervous system out of whack. When there is excessive tension in muscles, it often puts pressure on nerves, making us feel unsettled, anxious, irritable or in actual pain. It also reduces blood flow and thereby nutrient delivery as well as toxin clearance through the lymphatics.

In this way, these areas become cut off from the rest of us in a way. When we restore the balance in the muscles and surrounding tissues, these body parts can become reintegrated into our whole. When we experience this, it is often the feeling of not having a body. By this I mean all is quiet and the nervous system is calm. Everything is working together with ease and as such there is very little making us notice our body parts. We get to move in the world whole - without feeling all our separate parts. Have you had this feeling? It is a joyful thing. To be whole, to be silent, to be one, to be very alive and very relaxed at the same time. How would you describe the feeling?

The Benefits of Slow Yoga

Taking your time in your asana (poses) delivers big rewards 

When we take the time to move slowly into each asana and go through our thorough checklist of how our body should be aligned, we give ourselves the benefit of being able to find the nuance in our body position. The small shifts in our alignment, give us a big pay off in maximizing the benefits of our practice, preventing or alleviating pain, and reducing any risk of injury or strain. It gives us information about how we might be able to best serve our body by modifying poses.

As a teacher, I go through the list of cues for each pose so that you can focus on the most important aspects to remember about each pose as we use our breath to connect with each body part. I visually check that my students are doing the poses in a way that they are intended and is healthiest for their bodies. If I see anything that would benefit from correction, I will demonstrate and help the student with hands on guidance to find the best position for their body. This allows you to develop a healthy muscle memory, so you can practice more effectively on your own.

While some people feel they will get a better workout if they move through the poses more quickly and dynamically as in an Ashtanga, Flow or Power yoga, most students are impressed with how much strength they build by holding the poses longer. As we work against gravity to maintain our asana longer, we get STRONGER! it is important to develop a strong awareness of the correct alignment in the poses before attempting to move quickly from one to another. All students will benefit from adding a slow practice into your regimen. This ensures that your foundational work is always strong and improving.

Here is a list and fixes for some of the most common issues I see with students that can make them sore or is counterproductive. Correcting these will bring your yoga practice to a new level. Many of the most common issues I see are from students wanting to go further than their body is ready for. Remember your practice is for YOUR body. This is not a competition. It is a self-care practice. One that will bring the most improvement if you work within your current flexibility and strength range.

• Bending the spine when twisting - I see this most commonly in triangle pose (Trikonasana) and revolve triangle pose (Parivrtta Trikonasa). This happens when the student is trying to get the lower hand closer to the floor than is appropriate for their flexibilty.

  • The Fix - make sure your spine is perfectly straight before any twists. Use as many blocks as you need, or bring your arm higher up on your leg to keep the spine straight. In revolve triangle, using the wall to steady the upper hand/arm can be very helpful

• Overstretching - going beyond the ideal stretch zone for your body can leave you feeling sore, with increased muscle tightness or can cause a muscle strain (pulled muscle).

  • The Fix - In general, when stretching, if we think of a scale of 0-10 with 0 being no stretch and 10 being pain, we want to be in the 4 to 5 range during our practice. Listen to your body and don’t overdo. Your flexibility will improve quickest in this range

• Rounding the low back - I see this most commonly in downward dog. Students REALLY want to get their heels down to the ground yet they do not have the hamstring flexibility to do this with a straight back. This can create low back soreness, stiffness or pain after a yoga class.

  • The Fix - in downward dog, start the pose with your knees bent and high on your tippy toes so the heels are well off the ground. Follow your pelvis into a straight and lengthened back. Once your back is straight, slowly straighten your knees and lower the heels only as far as they go without rounding the low back. I like to put blocks under my knees or put my heels against the wall, so I can push through my heels without going past my hamstring’s level of flexibility.

• Knee caps not engaged - In any standing pose (i.e. triangle, warrior, half moon, tree etc) and many seated poses (i.e. staff, wide-angle seated forward bend, etc), the knee caps should be activated to prevent knee strain or injury

  • The Fix - always engage your knee caps anytime your leg is straight. Be mindful not to hyperextend your joints if you are highly flexible

Enjoy a slow and powerful practice with me in my group classes or schedule a private or semi-private session. Let me know what has been the biggest benefit to you with your slow and mindful yoga practice. I always love hearing feedback from my students and clients. Feel free to reach out to me anytime and ask me any questions you have. I look forward to seeing you on the mat! Namaste.

LOVING KINDNESS MEDITATION

What does loving kindness FEEL like? 

Here is an exercise I enjoyed today that I will offer to you.

Bring yourself into a state of meditation. Find a comfortable way to be seated or lying down. Focus on slowing your breath and deepening each inspiration. When you feel like you have come to the end of the breath, pause for a moment and see if a little more air can come into your lungs. Feel the expansion of your ribs and the softening of the muscles on the side body. Creating more flexibility and opening for your lungs. As you exhale, do so even more slowly than you inhaled so your exhalation is longer than your inhalation. Continue this for two or three breaths, and then allow yourself two or three soft, easy breaths.

Bring the focus of your mind completely on monitoring your breathing. Focus your breath into any areas of tension in your body and feel them melt into a state of relaxation as you inhale and moving into complete relaxation as you exhale. Take a moment to find good alignment in your spine so your muscles don’t have to work to support you. If this is a difficult in a sitting position, feel free to lie down so you can completely relax. if a thought enters your mind, just observe it and let it pass. You can think of your thoughts like clouds in the sky, gently shifting, and moving on, then return the focus of your mind back to your breathing and monitoring your senses. Feel the temperature of the air and if there’s a breeze on your skin, hear the sounds in the room. Let them just be sounds without interpreting what they are. Notice any smells in the room again without interpretation.

Now take a moment to allow your mind to engage with the concept of loving kindness. Take a moment to think of someone who is very easy for you to access the feeling of unconditional love with… Yes, it’s fine if this is your dog, cat or other animal or plant friend. Any being that you can easily feel a loving kindness towards. Allow yourself to feel that experience of being in unconditional love for that being. Really allow yourself to soak it up, soak in it and be in it. Observe how your body FEELS (without the mind, engaging or creating interpretations or stories) as you’re in the state of loving kindness. Don’t rush. Give yourself at least five minutes to enjoy and experience and feel all of the parts of your body as well as your body as a wholeness in this experience of loving kindness. We will create a muscle memory of loving kindness to access in the future when we are meeting challenging experiences. Don’t think of that goal. Just allow yourself to be in it in the moment.

Now, turn your attention to yourself and engage with yourself with unconditional love, and the same loving kindness that you were sharing with the other being. Experience how it feels in your body to be in loving kindness with yourself. Seeing yourself as the perfect being that you are. No judgment, no shame, no anger – just the experience that you are a perfect being worthy of unconditional love and feeling this in your body as you allow yourself to fill yourself with loving kindness towards yourself. 

You can end the exercise there, slowly return your breathing to a soft and easy breath, bringing your mind’s focus on setting your intention for the rest of the day. And allow yourself once again to enter state of focusing the mind completely on your breathing and monitoring the senses. Stay there for a few more minutes - however long feels right for you. Then gently wiggle your fingers and toes rub your hands and feet together, stretch, take some deeper breaths and gently bring yourself back into your day.

When you feel so inclined, you can add the step of thinking of someone who can be more challenging for you. Feel how that feels in your body and the difference between how it felt when you thought of the first individual. Allow yourself to think of the first individual who is very easy for you to access unconditional love with. Then, gently bring into your consciousness, the more challenging individual or situation. See if you can access your body‘s feeling of being in loving kindness with ease and relaxation while you allow yourself to gently consider a challenging situation. Pick a mildly challenging situation, nothing too much. See if you can bring your body feeling back into that state of complete loving kindness and unconditional love. Allow yourself to go into your state of unease and bring yourself back to your state of ease. 

Practicing this with repetition allows you in times of challenges to access more of your state of ease. Try as much as possible to let this be the body feeling of being in loving kindness and ease that you experienced, rather than the mental thoughts or stories around the loving kindness or unconditional love. If we can access the muscle memory of being at ease, while we are meeting challenges, we can make better decisions, have more productive conversations and move through our challenges with less strife and collateral damage. It is nice to give yourself many experiences of doing this exercise where you only experience the easy loving kindness. Creating that muscle memory is more important than challenging yourself with thinking/feeling about more difficult situations or individuals.

Most important is to allow the exercise to be food for your loving kindness and unconditional love for yourself, while allowing that to naturally grow in expansion for a greater number of others. Having the experience be enjoyable, and one that you look forward to experiencing will allow you to have the most peace and improvement from it. Enjoy your state of ease and knowing how beautiful you are today. And know that I am thinking of you as I do this exercise as well. Seeing you as the perfect being that you are and seeing the divine light that shines within you.