The mind is a mystery

Ayurveda can seem exotic. But in truth, resting deeply, eating healthful foods, following a regular schedule, moving at a gentle pace, stretching all our limbs, taking deep breaths, and limiting stimulation are all the basics of good health. (These are some of the things I lectured about at our yoga retreat; I will be posting those lectures for the next few weeks) There is nothing exotic about these practices. What is unusual is that we live in a society where we have to make an extra effort to practice them and resist the pressures that lead us to neglect self-care. Following the Ayurvedic and yogic techniques seems unfamiliar at first, but when you practice them, your body recognizes them. As modern Americans, we may have forgotten how to care for the human being, but Ayurveda remembers and can remind us of what we once knew.

The mind is the greatest of all mysteries. When unveiling this mystery, all mysteries are unveiled. The mind is the source of all misery and happiness. It is the source of both bondage and liberation. The more you know about your mind, the grater the mastery you will have over the world around you. Help your mind out with a Thai Therapy session.

I want to offer you a great deal. For all new Thai Therapy clients (never having received Thai Therapy before) the first person to schedule an appointment with me, receives their two-hour Thai session for $30. YES THIRTY BUCKS!!!!!! The next two people to schedule an appointment with me receives their Thai session for $40 the next 3 people to schedule an appointment receives their session for $50 and the next 4 people receive their session for $60 the regular price is $80

If you are a client (having received Thai Therapy before) you can still take advantage of this offer by buying a gift certificate for a friend or relative. AND!! As a thank you to my clients the first 4 people (those who have had Thai Therapy) to schedule an appointment, receives their Thai session for $20 off.

For those of you that are worried you have to be undressed for Thai Therapy, let me put your mind to rest. In Thai Therapy you are fully clothed (except for shoes and socks) in stretchy clothing.

Email me for your appointment at yogastrongtherapy@gmail.com

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

And Ayurveda Consultant

Thoughts fall away

Many of my Thai Yoga Therapy clients, and some, of my yoga students come to me with physical pain caused by emotional trauma. I know that the way to healing is through meditation; my job is to help them know that as well. Thai Yoga Therapy is a type of meditation, that’s why it is so effective. Most of my clients have minds that chatter, they get frustrated when they meditate because they can’t stop the chatter. They then loose patients for it and won’t try. The most important part of Thai Therapy treatment is the daily meditation. Even if you are not in Thai therapy treatment, you will find peace and wellness in meditation. Meditation takes you deeper and deeper inside yourself, until you reach that area untouched by illness. When you discover the silence in your mind; you no longer have to pay attention to all the random images that trigger worry, anger and pain.

 

I recommend that my clients meditate every day, they always do really well when I am there to guide them, but I can’t be there every day. I remembered, when I have a substitute for yoga, my yoga students would tell me that every time they were led into a pose by the substitute teacher, they could hear my voice in their head guiding them in that pose. How wonderful, I thought, if this same thing could happen for them during their meditation. I took this concern to my own meditation mat, and because silence is the birthplace of happiness, and where we get our bursts of inspiration. A new meditation was born. I call it “Thoughts Fall Away”

 

In my meditation I heard my Self (remember our true Self is our Soul) telling me to let my brain float. With each exhale I felt my brain float higher and become lighter. I felt myself go deeper and deeper into silence. This is the silence we want to bring into our awareness through meditation. After doing this for a few breaths, I felt my thought fall away. I felt my brain grab for the thoughts, and immediately heard my Self say “let them go for now, you can pick them up when you drift back, for now let’s rest”. This brought me back to my awareness. Now I knew, what my clients need, is to know how to let their brain rest. Now I know how I need to guide them.  Back at my meditation I let my brain float, every time I felt my brain grab for my thoughts I said to myself “let the thoughts fall away”. I gave my brain permission to let them go for now, and that it could pick them up when I drift back. On each exhale I said to my self “let the brain float”. As it became easier, when I felt my brain grab for my thoughts, I just said “rest”. I felt myself being led effortlessly and naturally to ever more subtle levels of my thinking. As I reminded myself to “rest” on each exhale, I began to seek still subtler levels of thought until eventually all thought was left behind. This is the place where the mind is actually learning to heal itself.  This is the place where meditation is taking you deeper and deeper inside yourself, until you reach the area untouched by illness.

 

I saw my self guiding my clients, and my students, knowing that if they heard me guide them in meditation often enough, they would hear my voice in there head every time they sat to meditate. I now start my Thai Therapy sessions, and end some of my yoga classes with a guided meditation.

You can try this meditation by following the outline above.

 

 

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

                                                                 And Ayurveda Consultant

Loosen the grip of anxiety part two

Does stress leave you too anxious to eat or too lethargic to get off the couch? Using the ancient science of Ayurveda, you can determine your unique stress type and take skillful action to bring your body and mind back into balance.

For some people, worrying distracts them from getting anything done during the day, and insomnia keeps them up at night. Others become consumed by anger and blame their spouse, coworkers, and clients. As their stress mounts, so does their blood pressure. Still, others feel powerless to change anything. They stay home, snacking in front of the TV. Their lethargy leaves them with feelings of depression, and eventually leads to weight gain and aggravated respiratory problems.

In the West, we don’t usually dwell on the distinctions between our reactions to stress—we tend to focus on general coping solutions applicable to all, such as a hot bath, a long walk, or a day on the beach. But in the ancient Indian healing system of Ayurveda, stress reduction hinges on a complex understanding of each person. Since no two people handle stress the same way, everyone requires a different stress-relief strategy: what might work for Anne could aggravate Heidi, and what might work for Natalie could prove ineffective for Joe. Ayurveda provides specific lifestyle, dietary, herbal and yogic solutions for each individual that can not only diffuse tension but also help build a foundation for lasting peace of mind. Ayurvedic theory takes nearly every conceivable stress influence into consideration—from seasonal and planetary changes that effect our well-being to subtle bodily impurities that can precipitate disease.

It also sheds light on the thought patterns and physical tendencies that make stress either a constant stumbling block or a nonissue, depending on how well we understand ourselves. Ayurveda might seem like a lot to take in. but when it comes to managing stress, Ayurvedic concepts can be boiled down to a basic idea: trace stress back to its roots, then find lasting ways to change the patterns that cause it.

We often speak of stress in terms of the situations we find ourselves in—traffic jams, looming deadlines, getting laid off. But Ayurveda holds that stress actually originates in the mind. Our predominant dosha shapes who we are, what we look like, and how we think; it influences everything from our career choices to our favorite foods. For the purposes of stress management, our doshic imbalance can prove even more revealing. It’s not so much which dosha most shapes our constitution but rather which one is out of whack. Stress manifests itself in the body as a vata, pitta, or kapha imbalance, depending on the person. For instance, a person may have a strong kapha constitution, being grounded wise, stable, and compassionate. But at his worst, he may display a classic pitta imbalance, being irritable, judgmental, and quick-tempered. A pitta type might have a kapha imbalnce, becoming overly sentimental and possessive at times. A vata person who’s normally creative and lively might also have a vata imbalance, meaning she can become flighty, easily distracted, and prone to anxiety. Either way the imbalance governs how the person will respond to stress. Imbalance comes when you’re out of harmony, either with your own personal rhythm or that of nature. This can show up in the body as a condition like arthritis or in our emotions, such as jealousy or anger.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

                                                                And Ayurveda Consultant

Loosen the grip of anxiety part one

It is an ordinary day. Perhaps you are at the office, walking down the street, or reading your email. All of a sudden, you think about a task you haven’t finished. Or you think about your friend who hasn’t called in several weeks, or your college roommate who is doing so well in his law practice (much better than you!), or about the fact that you have to give a presentation tomorrow. Suddenly, your shoulders seize up. Your neck tightens. Maybe your breath constricts or your belly starts to hurt. The tendrils of anxiety—that most modern of afflictions—have wound themselves around your body and mind like the arms of an octopus. And if you are like the rest of us you think it is…. normal.

Anxiety is often so ingrained in the body and nervous system that we live with it for years without noticing how much it drives us. Anxious people often have real worries. That’s why merely telling yourself “there’s nothing to worry about” usually won’t help you feel less anxious. Instead, it’s much more useful to own your anxiety—to observe its patterns, to look at what might be setting it off, and then to find ways to work with it.

It’s only when you are willing to bring consciousness to your anxiety—to pay attention to the bodily sensation it brings, the thoughts that trigger it—that you can begin to learn from it.

Anxiety is mostly about the future. The woman who is worrying about her upcoming mammogram is not actually sick. She’s anxious about something the doctor might discover. The man whose palms sweat when the flight takes off is just anticipating that something might happen to the plane. If you keep nourishing your anxiety by letting worry feed on itself, your anxiety becomes like a motor with no off button.

The first step to loosening the grip anxiety has on your body and mind, is simply to become aware of it. See if you can become aware of how anxiety feels in your physical body. What part of you tightens when you feel nervous? Do you hunch your shoulders? Does your throat get constricted? How about your lower back? The next time you notice these physical symptoms, notice what kind of mental dialogue you are having with yourself.

In the process of working through anxiety in the present moment, you can, eventually become familiar with the sensation, thoughts, and emotions that trigger your habitual anxiety. It often takes a while even to be able to pick up on the physical sensations and to recognize the negative thoughts. But when you practice with your habitual reactions to anxiety, its tendrils will start to dissolve. Your shoulder will become more relaxed, your inner dialogue will become kinder, and your emotions will be less reactive.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

                                                            And Ayurveda Consultant 

Yoga’s Many Benefits

Whatever your age or current physical state, yoga can improve your overall health. Moving your body, focusing your mind and opening your soul on the yoga mat transforms your life off the mat. Yoga's many benefits include stress management, breathing efficiency; awareness, bone strength, and improved posture just to name a few. Yoga is not only for the young and flexible—yoga poses can be modified to suit every body type and level of ability. In fact, studies have found that 2.9 million American yogis are 55 or older.

Stress management: Yoga quells the fluctuations of the mind; it slows down the mental loops of frustration, regret, anger, fear, and desire that can cause stress. Since stress is implicated in so many health problems—from migraines and insomnia to lupus, MS, eczema, high blood pressure, and heart attacks—if you learn to quiet your mind, you’ll be likely to live longer and healthier.

Breathing efficiency: Yogis tend to take fewer breaths of greater volume, which is both calming and more efficient. A 1998 study published in The Lancet taught a yogic technique known as “a complete breathing” to people with lung problems due to congestive heart failure. After a month, their average respiratory rate decreased from 13.4 breaths per minute to 7.6. Meanwhile, their exercise capacity increased significantly. As did the oxygen saturation of their blood. In addition, yoga has been shown to improve various measures of lung function, including the maximum volume of the breath and the efficiency of the exhalation. Yoga also promotes breathing through the nose, which filters the air, warms it (cold, dry air is more likely to trigger an asthma attack in people who are sensitive), and humidifies it, removing pollen and dirt and other things you’d rather no take into your lungs.

Awareness: Yoga increases feelings of compassion and interconnection by calming the nervous system and the mind. It also increases your ability to step back from drama or your own live, to remain steady in the face of bad news or unsettling events. You can still react quickly when you need to but you can take the split second to choose a more thoughtful approach, reducing suffering for yourself and others.

Bone strength: It’s well documented that weight-bearing exercise strengthens bones and helps ward off osteoporosis. Many postures in yoga require that you lift you own body weight. And some, like Downward-and Upward-Facing Dog, help strengthen the arm bones, which are particularly vulnerable to osteoporotic fractures. In an unpublished study conducted at California State University, Los Angeles. Yoga practice increased bone density in the vertebrae. Yoga’s ability to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol may help keep calcium in the bones.

Improved posture:  Regularly practicing yoga increases the ability to feel what your body is doing, where it is in space, and improves balance. People with bad posture of or dysfunctional movement patterns usually knee problems and back pain. Better balance could mean fewer falls. For the elderly, this translates into more independence and delayed admission to a nursing home or never entering on at all. For the rest of us, postures like Tree Pose can make us feel less wobbly on and off the mat.

Nancy Adams Thai Yoga Therapist

                                                            And Ayurveda Consultant 

Skillfully Take on whatever Life brings

Yoga is not about stretching it’s about consciousness. Yoga techniques, whether they focus on body, breath, or brain, seek to cultivate an expansive, quiet state of mind. When we practice the main thing on our mind is often the intense sensation of the stretch, it can be hard to get beyond that to experience the postures as anything more than physical exercise aimed at wrestling an uncooperative body into unusual positions. But you are awakening your ability to feel what’s happening in your body, heart, and mind.

Awareness becomes more refined; it can guide you in all areas of your life. You begin to observe which foods make you feel best, which work you find most fulfilling, which people bring you joy—and which ones have the opposite effects.

In the high-stress environment the fight or flight response is triggered over and over and becomes chronic. Meditation is mindfulness and will help you process this agitation; part of the processing happens simply by holding what is called a spacious mindfulness. To create this state, you must first recognize the way anxiety feels in you body. As you breathe, tune in to the way it feels in your muscles, the different sensations it creates. Once you recognize it, you can practice releasing stress on the exhalation. As you do this, talk to yourself, coach yourself by saying, “it’s ok” “let go a little” don’t feel that you need to get rid of your anxiety all at once. Release little by little.

When it comes to transforming your own response to stress, it’s tempting to search for that one pose or breathing exercise that will work its magic. But there isn’t one magic pose. The process is a gradual exploration rather than an easy solution.

When fear comes up ask the fear what it wants then listen to what it has to say to you. Tell the fear that you know it is trying to protect you, and that you appreciate this, but that you would like it to back of a bit for now. Then sit in meditation a little longer. When you soften the fear and treat it kindly—not trying to get rid of it—you make space for fear to relax.

If you’re practicing yoga every day, you’re preparing for what life brings. You don’t have to have a strategy for what yoga technique you’ll use in a difficult situation. When challenges arrive, they will begin to flow through but not overwhelm you. You’re not so caught up in the stress of it, but you’re present for it.

This is the real story of how yoga can help you manage stress. It doesn’t just provide ways to burn through stress or escape from it. It doesn’t only offer stress-reduction techniques for anxious moments. It goes deeper, transforming how the mind and body intuitively respond to stress. Just as the body can learn a new standing pose that eventually becomes ingrained, so can the mind learn new thought patterns, and the nervous system can learn new ways of reacting to stress. The result:? When you roll up your mat and walk out the studio, you can more skillfully take on whatever life brings.

Nancy Adams Thai Yoga Therapist

                                                              And Ayurveda Consultant  

The First Spiritual Law of Yoga Pure Potentiality

At the core of your being you are pure awareness. This realm of pure awareness is the domain of all possibilities and underlies creativity in all its forms. Pure consciousness is your spiritual essence and the source of your joy in life. The realm of pure potentiality is the home of knowledge, intuition, balance, harmony, and bliss.

The silent ever-present witness is your true Self. The experience of the Self, or self-referral, means that your internal reference point is your soul rather than the objects of your experience. The opposite of self-referral is object-referral. In object-referral, you are influenced by what is happening outside the Self, which includes situations, circumstances, people, and things. In object-referral, you need and therefore are constantly seeking the approval of others in order to feel comfortable and worthy. Because in object-referral your thoughts and behavior are always in anticipation of a response, it is a fear-based state of being.

The ego is your internal reference in the state of object-referral. The ego, is not who you really are. Rather it is your social mask, the role you are playing. At one moment you play the role of a friend, in the next the antagonist. You play the role of child in the presence of your parents and the role of the parent when you are with your children. You play one role when speaking with you supervisor and another with those you supervise.

Your social mask thrives on approval, strives to control, and is sustained by power.

But you true Self, your soul, is completely free of the things your mind is telling you. It is immune to criticism, fears no challenge, and feels neither beneath nor above anyone.

During the practice of yoga, the Law of Pure Potentiality reminds us that every movement emerges from the silent field of infinite possibility, the more powerful the silence, the more effective the movement. Every movement is a vibration, a wave on the ocean of life. The deeper the connection to the depths of the ocean, the more powerful is the wave that arises.

                                   Nancy Adams, Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

                                               And Ayurveda Consultant