The Power of Laughter

I recently promoted a simple breathing technique as a free tool that anyone can use to alleviate a wide range of physical and emotional problems.  Here's another freebie for your wellness and life enrichment toolbox: laughter.

Before you laugh it off as too easy to help with your problems, consider the source of true laughter.  It comes from joy, bliss, happiness, or love.  So this is not the point-and-laugh kind of laughter.  Schadenfreude is only temporarily uplifting at best.  I'm talking about the kind of laughter that wells up in you like bubbles of overflowing joy and just has to burst out.  It lightens your heart and unburdens your soul.  If love and joy are among the highest vibrations of the human experience, as many metaphysical teachings suggest, then laughter is your inborn ability to raise your own vibration. Love and inner peace go hand in hand.  I truly doubt that peace can be sustained in a heart that isn't filled with love, joy, or forgiveness.

Laughter does more than improving your spiritual self, though.  There is are mental, psychological, and even physical benefit that you can take advantage of as well.  Laughter relieves stress, which in turn, can help alleviate pain and improve organ function for those who experience stomach, intestinal, heart, or lung problems associated with stress hormones.  Stress relief is a major factor in successful weight loss.   Laughter helps relieve depression.  It actively works the diaphragm, which can help improve lung function, and powerfully exercises the abdominal muscles which are instrumental in maintaining correct posture and keeping your spine aligned.  When groups of people share laughter, it strengthens the bond between them.  Laughter is healthy and essential for maintaining and healing family, romantic, and friend relationships.

So, just in case your body, mind, spirit diet is short on laughter today, here's a little exercise you can try.  Laugh, out loud, for 1 minute.  You don't need a reason.  Set a timer and just belly laugh.  Yes, it will be forced at first, and forced laughter isn't going to have the same level of benefit, but it's better than nothing, and after 10-20 seconds you'll feel so silly it will turn into real laughter  That's a good thing!  Once it becomes real it just flows.  You'll feel lighter, more peaceful. You may feel improved circulation.  You've given your abs a quick work out, and you may even feel more inspired as you go into the rest of your day.  What could be better than that?

More Than Just Coping: The Power of Breath

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of posts online about various fitness challenges being suggested.  A popular one involves doing 30 seconds of plank every day for a week, and gradually increasing to a 2 minute plank over the course of 1 month.  Just to be clear, “plank” is when you hold your body perfectly level to the floor, usually holding yourself up on the forearms and toes, but can also be done from the palms, knuckles, or knees if modifications are needed.  The objective is to hold the body perfectly rigid, like a board. People who attend my Pilates classes regularly know how much I love to include planks.  The plank position is a fantastic strength building exercise for the core and lower back, with some bonus toning in the arms and chest.  In my classes we generally do a set of 3 planks (30 seconds, 45 seconds, and last for a full minute).  I suspect this 30 seconds to 2 minute plank “challenge” I’ve been seeing is intended for fitness beginners or people who don’t currently have much core strength, but want to start building that foundation up reliably.  For those people, I highly recommend it, and hope that it’s actually being tried and not just reposted.

For me, however, or people that I work with regularly, holding a 30 second plank once per day is not remotely a challenge.  So, I devised a different plank challenge for myself that would allow me to harness the benefits of holding plank position, but still offer a reasonable amount of challenge.  I decided that I would start with a 2 minute plank, push up into a 5 minute downward facing dog, and then level back out to a second 2 minute plank. I would then bookend it around my day, once in the morning, once in the evening.    Every week I decided to increase the length of the plank by 1 minute until I eventually reached a 15 minute set (meaning 5 minute plank, 5 minute downward facing dog, 5 minute plank).  I feel that 15 minutes twice a day is a reasonable amount of time to commit to a personal challenge.  Once reaching that goal, I decided I would add leg raises to increase the challenge without increasing the time.

At the moment, I am only in the second week of my self-proclaimed challenge. For the record, it’s hard! But that was the point.  I wanted to be challenged.  It takes my focus, but is not out of my reach.  And it has brought my attention back to one of the primary lessons I teach my clients: everything is easier when you breathe with purpose.  Sometimes when I get to the end of my day, after teaching Yoga, Pilates, Water Aerobics, Pilates again, and taking a 2 mile walk around the lake at lunch time (because I have also challenged myself to take an average of 15,000 steps per day—it’s good to have goals), I will be completely exhausted.  My focus and willpower during my evening set of planks is often flagging.  I will decide, yes, I am committed, and I’m going to stick with my plan, but that final minute of plank takes every ounce of my willpower to see it through.  The thing that gets me to the finish line is my breath.  I do a very deep, moderately paced, forceful breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth.  It goes in cycles of about 3 seconds in, 3 seconds out, fully using the diaphragm.  This breathing technique focuses me.  It steadies me.  It keeps me in plank, using good form, even when I’m tired, and carries me through to the end with strength and grace. (Grace on both a physical and mental level.)

Right now, I’m using this breathing technique to master a difficult physical routine that I want to achieve.  But I have used it in many other situations before.  That is what I want to share with you today.  Not the benefits of plank or the thrill of succeeding at such a challenge (and I am totally killing it so far, but the way), but to share the power of this simple breathing technique.

I have most often heard it called “The Energizing Breath,” but I’m sure there are many other names for this technique.  You don’t need a lot of lung power to begin using it, but using it will quickly increase your power and lung capacity.  You can use it to focus yourself,  and as I am doing with my current endeavor, to carry yourself through a physical activity.  You can use it for pain relief.  If you’re in chronic pain, or have a sudden pain that you can’t immediately remedy, doing this breath helps reduce the pain so that you can function until the pain subsides.  This technique also works well with emotional pain.

Over the past year, as I’ve been dealing with the grief of my mother’s untimely death, I’ve tried a wide range of things to help me cope with the oppressive weigh of that grief.  Having goals helps.  Having awesome friends and community involvement helps, too.  But sometimes, the pain is too much.  The inside of my chest feels like it’s collapsing in on itself.  My heart beats too fast, my vision gets tunneled, and I feel like someone has kicked me in the gut.  Grief manifests in many forms.  For me, this is the physical manifestation of my grief over living in a world without my mother.   It feels like I’m going to be crushed under the weight of it.  But if I remember to do the Energizing Breath, steady, deep, forceful breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth, the pain begins to dissipate.  It’s like turning on a light in a very dark room.  Every time the grief tries to consume me, I do this breath.  It clears away the pain until I can bare it again.  I still feel the sadness, but it doesn’t suffocate me.  Using this breath, I do more than just cope.  I move forward.  I heal little by little.  I integrate my loss instead of being consumed and stagnated by it.

This is my offering to you today: focus, mental clarity, improved lung capacity, emotional and physical pain relief, and stress relief all in one.  This technique can also be used to help wake you up in the morning or calm you down before bed at night.  It’s totally free and takes practically no training to master.  Unlike other breathing techniques, such as what you might use during meditation, you can begin doing this one right away.  You will become better and better at it over time, but you don’t have to learn how to do it, or practice it in order to use it successfully.  You just need to try it.  Put force behind the breath.  Pull in through the nose quickly; push out through the mouth with purpose.  That’s it.  Breathe really hard as DEEPLY as you can.  That’s all there is to it.  Put it in your toolbox and use it every chance you get.

What a Relief

The more I seek my own self improvement, on all levels (mental, physical, and spiritual), the more I have come to realize the vital importance of stress relief as a part of my daily training.  Ask just about anyone what they know concerning the effects of stress, and they will tell you that "stress can kill you," but it does a myriad of other degradation along the way.  The path of stress is not a quick course to the grave; it is a long and agonizing way to put yourself under. It's also nearly unavoidable.  However, you can always choose how you're going to deal with it so that you can reduce or negate its effects.

Stress can manifest as physical problems like chronic pain or fatigue, elevated blood pressure, and gained weight that won't go away.  It can cause mental and emotional problems like anxiety, anger, and depression.  The build up of stresses can block our spiritual path leading us to self-sabotage, self-doubt, and even abandonment of our goals and dreams.  Stress has become so pervasive in our lives that we're willing to write it off as "the norm" and accept the problems that can arise  rather that addressing the issue itself.

I often talk to clients who are suffering with physical or mental issues that are clearly stress induced, and when I ask them "What do you do for stress relief every day?" they'll respond with "I don't have time to deal with it every day."  But what if just a little "work" on your stress relief reduced your pain and fatigue to the point where you could actually finish goals you've set for yourself?  Is that not worth it?  What if the little bit of conscious, purposeful stress relief is the missing element  in your current plan of action that would allow you to reach your success?

Here's a great example, and I use this one because it turned out to be true for me.  Let's say you want to lose some weight. You track your exercise, food, calories, water, vitamins, and hormone levels religiously, but nothing works.  The harder you work at it the more you actually gain weight.  You're being healthy, you're being active, you're being hydrated, and your doctor says there's no physical reason why you can't lose weight.  What's wrong?  Too much stress, not enough relief.  No matter how healthy you work at being, your body feels the stress and holds on to every ounce of water and fat to keep you protected from the pervasive threat you're always feeling.  This makes it feel like all your hard work is for nothing, so you give up.

Now, let's say you add little daily stress management to your exercise, healthy food, vitamins, and filtered lemon water.  The change can be dramatic.  When something you do is successful that, in and of itself, is a form of stress relief that can lead to even greater successes.

How can you find the right stress management to add to your programs?  It's very individual, but the key is, it must be conscious and purposeful.  You need to be aware within your process, so things like watching TV and playing internet games, while entertaining and not stressful, are not effective for stress relief.  The most effective stress relief will allow you to remain in the moment with them.  Some examples of things you can do that can help you stay in the moment: play with your dog or your child (and that means stop everything, be in that moment, and enjoy the play), sing, dance, write in a journal, do a senses walk, grow plants, meditate, do just 5 minutes of deep breathing, soak in the bath tub while doing your deep breathing.  There are tons more, and what works for you is going to be totally individual to you and what fills you with joy and freedom.  The key is to choose an active form of stress relief rather than a passive relaxation that shuts your brain off.  Stay engaged in your stress relief process.  Do at least one purposeful stress management activity every day.  It could make all the difference in attaining those goals that seem just a little out of reach.  It could also help you live longer.  And if you're going to live longer, you might as well feel good and be happy while you're at it.

Book Signing

I will be having a Book signing for Kundalini Rising one week from today on Friday, May 24th at The Bay Leaf Market in Crawfordville, FL.  We are scheduled from 4pm - 6pm, but I expect to arrive a little early.  I'll be happy to sign 1st or 2nd edition copies of my book if you already have them.  If you don't have a copy of the book yet, you can buy the 2nd edition at the signing.  They're $14 each.  We'll also be having a drawing for those who attend.  The prize is a t-shirt with one of my illustrations from the book and my favorite saying, "When in doubt, just breathe."  I say this to my students all the time in my classes, but I think it's a great piece of advice for life in general.

Bay Leaf Market has food and books for sale and a cafe area.  There are vegan and vegetarian options available.  Come in and have a chat with me.  I'll be happy to talk yoga, food, philosophy, health and wellness, or answer any questions my readers have for me.  I may also do a short reading from the book.  I expect it will be a fun, community event. Everyone is welcome, even if you are new or inexperienced with Yoga.

For anyone in the area who is unfamiliar with my work, Kundalini Rising is an exploration of chakra clearing using Yoga postures.  It also includes a lot of general tips about health and wellness and was purposely written to be accessible to both experienced yoga practitioners and novices.  I included a lot of information about how to protect and realign your physical body for healing and to achieve the greatest benefit from each posture.  All of my illustrations that go with the various postures are loving caricatures of real people that I see in Yoga classes.  The 2nd edition includes an expanded index (I labored over that, for the record), new material, and updated information.  I carefully considered feed back and questions from students and readers when I decided what needed to be improved in creating the 2nd edition.

For anyone interested in the book who cannot make it to the signing, Kundalini Rising is available on Amazon.com in both kindle and paperback format.  For those who can attend, I look forward to seeing you there!  Namaste.

Aging Gracefully, Part 2

I know I promised this to you last week, but here it is: part 2 of the Aging Gracefully series.

As we get older, our bodies go through a lot of changes.  Skin and muscles become less elastic, meaning they stretch less and tear more.  Bones become more brittle, which means you must take extra care to protect and maintain them.  Injuries heal more slowly, and old injuries that have piled up on each other create ongoing physical obstacles.  In this part of the Aging Gracefully series, we’re going to look at some of the benefits of Yoga for older bodies and methods of maintaining vitality and functionality over the course of a life time through some very basic Yoga-related practices.

As a Yoga teacher I work with a large clientele of people over 50.  The needs of older bodies are definitely different than those of younger participants, even for older folks who have been athletic through their lives.  I think it is valuable for seniors to remember that even though your body is moving slower, it is still vital.  Just because you feel yourself slowing down or have more aches and pains, that doesn’t mean you should stop entirely and turn into a mushroom.  I routinely work with people in their 70s and 80s, so I firmly believe that you can use these techniques at any age to maintain and even recapture your energy and youthful spirit.

There are three very important things that Yoga has to offer an aging body that will help protect and maintain vitality: stretching, breathing, and balance.  All of these things will help you live to the fullest as your body ages, allowing you to age gracefully.

As you age, gravity takes its toll.  Our bodies begin to curl in on themselves.  A practice that includes active stretching can help you maintain a healthy posture and also maintain bone and muscle alignment no matter what your age.  The tighter your body becomes, the harder and harder it feels to accomplish any stretch, but this is precisely the cue that you need to work on it.  If you commit to do just a little stretching in the morning and evening to lengthen the spine and give your organs a little more space in your body to function properly, you will certainly experience improved and longer lasting health benefits, as well as fewer aches and pains throughout the day.

The breath is the foundation of everything we do in Yoga.  Breath is life force.  However, if you do not learn to breathe well at a young age, you often breathe shallower and shallower as you get older.  Lung tissue is quite delicate and easily damaged so any scarring from disease or irritation from the environment greatly diminishes your lung capacity later in life.  The practice of controlled, purposeful, deep breathing, which is integral to Yoga, improves lung function, strengthens the lungs, and feeds the rest of your body.  Deep breathing also helps relieve stress and pain.  It is never too late to start learning to breathe well.  In fact, just a few minutes each day of intentional deep breathing can alleviate stress, fatigue, and mild to chronic pain.  It can also improve cognitive function and restful sleep.  Try just 2 - 5 minutes of deep, purposeful breathing before you fall asleep.  It's never too late to start doing this.  Make it a routine for the rest of your life.

Learning to do standing balances may be more important for older folks than younger folks, though I encourage everyone to start this practice young so that you won’t have to struggle with it when you are older.  As you age, your brain slowly develops plaque that interrupts synaptic pathways.   Balance is often one of the earlier areas to begin to deteriorate.  However, if you work on learning to balance (young or old), you reduce and inhibit that deterioration.  In short, practice of balance helps stave off Alzheimer’s disease and senility.   Yes, it is best to start young and continue the practice, but it is never too late to start.  

Most people are not born with a natural sense of balance, so expect to need practice and be gentle with yourself as you start.  Be gentle with yourself physically and emotionally.  Give yourself time to do the work and learn.  Celebrate even short balances, and make sure you don't scold yourself if you're not able to do it at first.  That's normal.  There is no need to become frustrated.  Remember, be gentle and compassionate with yourself as you learn.  Yes, your goal is to be able to do standing balances without holding on to anything because free standing balances help you gain the most benefit for your brain.  For many people this takes practice, so be willing to commit to the long journey.

Another very important thing for seniors to keep in mind is the importance of protecting your joints.  Really, young people should do this too, but you’ll feel it sooner and have to deal with more dramatic consequences the older you get.  Even the best joints that have been treated well over a life time wear down with age.  If you want to keep your mobility, be kind to your joints in all things that you do.  The joints allow for your mobility, and any movement, large or small, wears them down little by little.  ANY use of the joints, whether bending, straightening, or holding in place (walking, sitting, standing, stooping, lifting, climbing, etc.), puts stress and wear into that joint.  If you want to be able to easily walk up the stairs when you are over 50, protect your joints now. If you're already over 50, you can still use these techniques to protect the joint function you still have.  When you stand for long hours, wear proper shoes and stand on a pad.  If you choose to run (which is a heavy strain on joints) learn how to articulate your movements through the feet to cushion your strides.  If you sit for long hours, learn proper posture and stretch frequently or you'll damage your hips and back over the long run.  Every little move you make, from bending to twisting, from reaching to retracting, requires a little thoughtful joint protection if you want to avoid injury and arthritis in the long run.  This is true in daily life, but especially true during any kind of physical activity or fitness class.

One very important way to protect the joints includes never locking a joint to give yourself stability.  If you feel in any position that your weight is being maintained in the joint—the knee, the hip, the wrist—you want to lengthen yourself out and tighten the muscles.  As you experience the difference you will be able to identify how that feels more accurately.  The best description that I can give is that dropping your weight into a joint, or locking it out, feels easier but is more painful.  It feels like it takes less effort, which is true, because you are using the muscles less. However, the muscles are the part we want to focus on.  Build up the strength to hold the postures (or do the work) using the muscles.  If you feel yourself slipping into joint-focused support, then take a little break so that you do not damage your joints. 

You may also want to add some padding during your workouts to help protect your joints.  Any kind of padding will do.  Some examples include pads worn under or over clothing, extra layers of clothing, thicker floor mats, or a towel, block, or pad placed directly under the point of contact.  There is no shame in this.  You’ll thank yourself for every time you were careful with your joints as you get older.  

Also, I cannot stress enough the importance of drinking plenty of water and getting enough sleep during each 24 hour cycle.  The health benefits are endless (though I've listed a great many of them in previous blog posts). I believe this cannot be emphasized enough.  Stay hydrated and rested.  These two simple things can take you a long way toward keeping a youthful, healthy mind and body.

In my next installment, part 3 of our aging series, I’m going to discuss some nutritional aspects that can help you out. You are what you eat, and over time, it really shows.  Here’s my word for you to ponder until then: “kale.”  What’s your favorite way to eat it?  If you don’t have one, now is a good time to find out because it’s a serious super food.  Here’s another great word for you to ponder, just because I’m generous: “blueberries.”  Oh, and of course, my favorite word, "water," which I've already given you once today.  Until next time, may you find a little pocket of peace in every corner of your body, mind, and spirit.

Every Reason to Celebrate

Life is a celebration.  It really is.  And if for any reason you think it isn’t, well, it should be.  Every accomplishment, big or small is a reason to celebrate.  Often the littlest things become the greatest joys.  For this reason, you should celebrate them, and be sure not to miss them.

When I originally began thinking about the value of celebration in our lives (and celebrating life), I was thinking primarily about people in fitness classes and the positive value of celebrating even small successful steps on their health and fitness journeys.  Those little, tiny, baby steps are vitally important to the foundation of your success.  I think it is important not to overlooking them and to give yourself credit for EVERY victory along the way.

You, who just stepped through the doors of the gym for the first time after years without a fitness routine, celebrate it!  Even if all you did was tour the facility, celebrate it!  That’s a big step. You who have never done a Yoga class in your life and are completely terrified about it but showed up and gave it a try anyway, celebrate it!  It doesn’t matter if you couldn’t do the balances. It doesn’t matter if you can’t stretch very far.  You came to class.  That’s a big step!  Pat yourself on the back and do a happy dance.  That takes courage.  You with the tight hamstrings who runs the marathons who finally touched your toes for the first time today, celebrate it!! You with the arthritis who has to modify every standing posture, but listened to your body and did what you could do, celebrate it! You with the 100 pound weight loss goal who had to do child pose or forward bend between every posture to catch your breath, but STUCK IT OUT THROUGH THE WHOLE CLASS, CELEBRATE IT!!! You got up this morning and came to the gym on a Saturday!  Throw your hands up in the air and celebrate it! I’m serious! We spend so much time tearing ourselves down for little things that don’t matter.  Why not build yourself up about little things that do matter?  Why not acknowledge that progress comes in both big and small steps and the small steps are just as good?  Whatever your small steps are, your teeniest, tiniest victories, they are all good.  The bigger things build on the small things.  This is where you start, no matter how far you have to go, and you should give yourself credit for anything that keeps you faced forward toward your goal.

But this doesn’t just apply to Yoga, health, and fitness classes.  This is something we should embrace about all aspects of life.  You woke up this morning! Oh yes, you should celebrate it!  Another day, even if you think it’s a bad day, is a chance for you to learn, grow, discover, and in any small way reach toward the better things that build your life.  You may encounter many people within the scope of each day who treat you all manner of ways.  Why not celebrate the one who was kind to you, regardless of everyone else?  By doing that you make a bad day better and a better day great.  Your favorite song came on the radio? Sounds like a celebration to me. Only one piece of chocolate left in the candy dish?  Are you going to be sad that there is only one piece left or celebrate that you get to eat some chocolate today? That’s right, you celebrate!  I got to eat a piece of chocolate today! This is the reason that I say life is a celebration, or at least it can be, if you make it that way.

I am celebrating RIGHT NOW because I successfully updated my blog today.  You have proof, too, because you’re reading it.  (This is me throwing my hands up in the air and waving them around—OH YEAH!!)  The second part of my Aging Gracefully series will be coming down the pipe presently, though this little celebratory piece, in a way, speaks to the value of graceful living.  I think the older we get, the more clearly we see the importance of the small things.  You don’t have to wait until you’re showing your age to do this, though.  Start now, at any age.  The older you get, the bigger that “I woke up this morning” victory feels.  Don’t wait.  Celebrate it now, and every little victory in between.