Do not get sucked into fear

For most of us, pain and suffering are so intertwined that we find it impossible to separate them. When things go wrong, we may feel like victims or assume that we're receiving karmic punishment—that we "deserve" what is happening to us. We may express our feelings or stuff them, but few of us know how to process the pain of loss or failure without getting hooked by our suffering.

There is not much that rocks my world, but once in awhile someone does something to knock me off balance. A good friend of ours was diagnosed with dementia, I offered to give Bob a Thai Therapy for free to see what he thought. I sent him and his wife, Norma, the link to my blog so they could read a little about what I do. Later I got an email from Norma saying new medications were helping Bob right now so they were going to pass on the Thai Therapy. I continued to send my emails and blog links, as I do for my students and clients. I received another email from Norma asking me to take them off my email list.  When I got the email I was embarrassed, then I was angry, then sad, then I chose to let it pass right through me, as though I were transparent, so that it would not hit that solid wall inside of me. I did not want them to have power to control my inner state.

Yoga has taught me to untie the knots that make me identify with my suffering self. yoga practice is meant to teach us how to untangle these inner knots. Often, you don't realize how much difference your  practice has made until the day that you find yourself dealing with a crisis without going into an absolute meltdown. The kids are screaming or your office mates are panicking, and yes, there's a little bit of fear and irritation in your mind too, but there's also a witnessing awareness, an inner compassionate presence that lets you stay present with what's happening without getting sucked into the fear or the anger.

I had a little sample of this a few years ago when I was showing off a handstand for a group of family members. I had looked around the room for a wall to kick up against, not finding one I chose a door instead, I pulled the door shut and stepped back to kick up. As my heels touched the door I heard the door unlatch, panic struck me for just a moment, the door started to fall away, I knew if I let fear control me I could be seriously injured. I let the door slow my fall, I stayed completely calm and straight, I brought that witnessing awareness, the compassionate presence let me stay present with what was happening so I did not get sucked into the fear. Everything slowed down as I felt my body slowly lower to the floor, at least it seemed slow to me, I was unharmed and tried again at a more solid door.

I know these examples seem small compared with what might be going on in your life right now, but the process of pain, loss or failure is the same.The great spiritual practitioners all offer the same basic prescriptions for undoing inner knots: Find out who you really are, do the practices that purify your murky mind, and discover how to work with everything that happens to you. Then difficulties become your teachers, and pain and loss become occasions for profound and positive transformation.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

          These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

It’s okay to figure out and eradicate the reasons why we suffer

More than 50 million Americans suffer with chronic pain, and chronic pain doesn't just hurt in the physical sense. it can also be responsible for loss of sleep, weight gain, anger, depression, despair and irritability. Yet I find people who chose not to get help for themselves because they think this is their trial in life, and they must ride it out to the end. What if, part of the test is to try to find a way to fix whatever is wrong? Patanjali states that yoga has two distinct purposes or goals. In Chapter II, verse 2 of the Yoga Sutra, he states that yoga's "purpose or goal is to cultivate the experience of equanimity  and to unravel the causes of negativity." Patanjali tells us, in effect, that yoga will help us figure out and eradicate the reasons why we suffer, even as it leads us to feel the deepest of human experiences.

We all live in the midst of forces that we do not perceive because we suffer from “Paradigm blindness”; what I mean is we do not perceive things that exist outside our currently accepted set of beliefs and experience. Let me tell you what I mean. Gary and I lived in Germany for a year and a half when we were in the army. When it came time to return to the states we could not travel together, some crazy army thing, so I flew to South Dakota with my good friend Lila, because I had three kids and I did not want to travel by myself, and then my parents were going to pick me up from there a few days later. When we landed in South Dakota we were exhausted and all three children were asleep, Lila, carried the baby, I carried our 20 month old and the pilot carried our 4 year old off the plane. We began looking for Lila’s parents when a woman came up to me wanting to take my 20 month old from my arms, I could not figure out what she was doing, who did she think she was!! It took me several, it seemed like forever, seconds to see that it was my mother.

I did not expect my mother for many more days, I could not perceive the thing that existed outside my currently accepted set of beliefs. I believe this is also why Mary did not recognise Jesus when she went to the tomb, He was dead, she could not perceive the thing that existed outside her currently accepted set of beliefs.. The scriptures teach that we are designed to go through a paradigm shift, a perception change, just as I did with my mother. We can expand our mental and spiritual context, we can get outside the confining mental structure that human language, thinking, and experience have created, and receive new knowledge and new experiences and greater consciousness. It is okay for us to figure out and eradicate the reasons why we suffer, and, it is okay for us to accept a different set of beliefs and experiences to help make ourselves whole again.

Resistance is an inner contraction, a hardening of the shell.... You are closed. Whatever action you take in a state of inner resistance (which we could also call negativity) will create more outer resistance, and the universe will not be on your side, life will not be helpful. If the shutters are closed, the sunlight cannot come in. When you yield internally, when you surrender, a new dimension of consciousness opens up. If action is possible or necessary, your action will be in alignment with that whole and supported by creative intelligence....You experience a state of inner openness. Circumstances and people then become helpful, cooperative. Coincidences happen. If no action is possible, you rest in the peace and inner stillness that come with surender. You rest in God.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

Ayurvedic treatments can heal disease

A couple of blogs ago I mentioned how our doshas compare to the three main forces of the atmosphere, air (vata), fire (pitta), and water (kapha). And how they are responsible for our well being, but they are also responsible for disease, diseases are caused by an imbalance in one or more of the doshas. Each dosha type carries positive traits and strengths when in balance, but when out of balance, may demonstrate a set of predictable negative signs or conditions.

One of the ways to balance the doshas is with thai therapy. The most important part of thai therapy is stimulating what is called the “marmas.” By stimulating these pressure points I can adjust your energy flow, release toxins and bring the doshas into balance. Toxins, stress, and negative emotions get stuck in the  marmas and are held, sometimes for years.. Disease is manifested in pain, blockage or swelling in these areas even before it may manifest outwardly in the full range of disease symptoms. Through the right use of marmas our entire physical and mental energy can be consciously increased, decreased or redirected.

The sen lines are paths that connect the marmas to one another. If the marmas become overly full with toxins, or the sen lines going in or out of the marmas gets blocked, the toxins will then flow into the sen lines. these sights are very painful to the touch. Stimulating the marmas through pressing also helps to clear the sen lines where they intersect the marmas. Ideally there is a healthy free-flow of energy through the sen lines that helps the marmas stay healthy and strong.

It is not uncommon for you to feel an almost indescribable feeling of centeredness and balance following a thai therapy. This unique feeling of peace and optimism is because all doshas have come into balance in the right way for you.

Thai therapy, a dosha balancing diet, combined with other Ayurvedic treatments can heal disease. When our energy channels are healthy and strong, we feel emotionally balanced, happy, and awakened in mind, body and spirit. In fact when all three are all in balance, they actually cease to be separate aspects, and merge into the soul. Living from the soul level makes it possible for us to live from our pure potential.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.