Ride life’s emotional currents with faith and equanimity

I have people call about yoga all the time who want to know if it will make them stronger. Or, just recently, one of my students was attending another exercise class when everyone noticed how strong she was, she said she does yoga. That brought a student from that class to my studio seeking stronger abs. There is no doubt that when you are physically strong, you are better able to handle the demands of your day with grace and ease. But my job is to teach my students that practicing yoga can build inner strength-the kind you need to ride life’s emotional currents with faith and equanimity-even as it tones their body.

Gary and I have been getting a rental of ours ready to sell. A couple of Saturdays ago we were scraping and painting the trim, when it came time to paint the highest part, that part that is at the very peak of the roof, Gary tried to hang over from the roof thinking it would be easier than standing that high on a ladder. He realized right away that was way too scary. Our 15 foot ladder wouldn’t reach either, so we put it in the back of the truck to give it a boost, does this give you an idea of how high the roof is? Gary’s nervous system was already on edge from hanging over the roof, so I opted to go up, not because I was less scared, but because I trusted Gary holding the ladder for me more than I trusted myself holding the ladder for him. And like in a yoga pose if there is fear, you will fail. I knew that whoever went up had to ride that current of equanimity, I was terrified, but I was sure I could do it. My instruction to Gary was DO NOT TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF THE LADDER!! (That is the pitta in me)

There was a moment when the ladder started to shake, I thought Gary was being funny, I yelled at him to “STOP IT!” (that is also the pitta in me) right away I knew he wouldn’t do that, knowing how afraid I was. At that moment I realized I had lost my equanimity. I brought my awareness back to the present moment and calmed my mind and breath. It was my rapid breathing from fear that caused the ladder to shake. Once I calmed my breathing the shaking stopped.

A few days later my knee started to hurt, when your knee hurts, it means you can’t move forward emotionally. You're darn right I couldn’t move forward (up the ladder). I say it all the time. Every pain and illness we have starts with a trauma (yes I was traumatized) and the emotional stress brings on the physical pain.  

One way to build inner strength is by practicing yoga regularly, whether you're feeling inspired or not. That simple act develops your capacity for commitment and for not letting the rest of life get between you and what you know to be essential to your well-being. By being true to yourself in your yoga practice, you enhance your ability to be true to yourself in other situations as well.

Yoga is what grounds me, it is what gives me that inner strength that I need to ride life’s emotional currents with faith and equanimity.

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.

Just Exhale

In my work as a thai yoga therapist, I treat people struggling with a variety of issues, including depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, chronic pain. Time and time again, I've seen simple pranayama practices (extending the breath) reduce stress and anxiety; promote restful sleep; ease pain; increase attention and focus; and, on a more subtle level, help people connect to a calm, quiet place within so that they experience greater clarity and well-being on every level.

Pranayama is a process by which you can break your unconscious breathing pattern and make the breath long, easeful, and smooth. Most people's unconscious breathing patterns are anything but easeful and smooth; they tend to be tense, shallow, and erratic. When we are afraid or hear bad news,  even bad new of tragedies we hear on the nightly news, we often gasp—inhaling and then holding the breath. These breathing patterns can activate the sympathetic nervous system (often referred to as the "fight or flight response"). This holding of our breath puts our nervous system out of kilter. You can feel yourself get out of balance when you hear of a tragedy, even  if it does not involve you. Each time this happens your nervous system becomes weaker, it will continue to get weaker until the body becomes ill unless you take the time to repair it by doing some pranayama (breath awareness).

One of the primary reasons that pranayama techniques that foster a long, smooth exhale are so beneficial is because, when practiced correctly, they can support the parasympathetic nervous system and activate what is commonly known as the "relaxation response," reducing stress and its effects on your body and mind. As a result, your resilience in the face of challenge or adversity increases, and your mind becomes more focused and still. The tornado in Oklahoma was a terrible tragedy. The people there are probably still holding their breath, but sooner or later they are going to take a deep breath and exhale. The result of the exhale will make them more resilient.

Every day we need to undo what the world has done to our nervous system. We do not realize it but the tornado in Oklahoma has affected all of us, as does all tragedy around the world. tragedy will weigh heavy on our nervous system until we exhale.  through the practice of pranayama, you can reduce all of the mental noise—the agitation, distractions, and self-doubt—that prevents you from connecting with your own inner light, your true Self. In this way, pranayama can have a profound effect on your life.

The breathing practice that follows is a good introduction to pranayama.it supports the parasympathetic nervous system, quiets the mind, and helps to bring about a state of more focused attention. As you continue to practice this technique over time, you may start to notice when you are unintentionally holding your breath or breathing shallowly. You also may begin to associate patterns of the breath with your moods or states of mind. This self awareness is the first step toward using the practices of pranayama to help shift your patterns and, through regular practice, create positive change in your life.

The Long Exhale

This 1:2 breathing practice, which involves gradually increasing your exhalation until it is twice the length of your inhalation, relaxes the nervous system.

Try it: Before bedtime to help support sleep, in the middle of the night when you're struggling with insomnia, or at any time of the day to calm stress or anxiety. (In general, it's best to avoid practicing 1:2 breathing first thing in the morning unless you're experiencing anxiety. The relaxing effects of the practice tend to make it more difficult to get up and go on with your day.)

How to: Begin by lying on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Place a palm on the abdomen and take a few relaxed breaths, feeling the abdomen expand on the inhalation and gently contract on the exhalation. With your palm on your abdomen, mentally count the length of each inhalation and exhalation for several more breaths. If the inhalation is longer than the exhalation, you can begin to make them the same length over the next few breaths.

Once your inhalation and exhalation are equal, gradually increase the length of your exhalation by 1 to 2 seconds by gently contracting the abdomen. As long as the breath feels smooth and relaxed, continue to gradually increase the exhalation by 1 to 2 seconds once every few breaths. Make sure you experience no strain as the exhalation increases and keep going until your exhalation is up to twice the length of the inhalation, but not beyond. For example, if your inhalation is comfortably 4 seconds, do not increase the length of your exhalation to more than 8 seconds.

Keep in mind that even an exhalation that is only slightly longer than the inhalation can induce a calming effect, so take care that you don't push yourself beyond your capacity. (If you do, you'll likely activate the sympathetic nervous system, or stress response, and feel agitated rather than calm.)

If your breath feels uncomfortable or short, or if you're gasping on the next inhalation, back off to a ratio that is more comfortable for 8 to 12 breaths. Then finish your practice with 6 to 8 natural, relaxed breaths.

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.

Your emotional health is the first place to start in successfully releasing your hips.

My husband ran the half marathon last Saturday, as I stood at the finish line watching people come in, I am a people watcher, I noticed some of them looked like they were in a lot of pain, and some of them looked great, still running strong. What is the difference in these two runner? I used to think running is the worst thing you can do to yourself, but now I say if you love it, do it. The body is resilient, it will bounce back. the difference between those runners that look great and the one that look like they are going to die, is body management. When Gary is running a lot, he stretches a lot, I give him thai therapy once a week, and we make sure when something hurts, we fix it right away by stretching it out. Most of the time a good stretch will keep injury away.

The repetitive impact of running causes compression and tightness in the overall musculoskeletal system and specifically in the pelvic muscle groups. If your knees start to hurt, it is probably your tight hips causing the problem.  If you are running multiple marathons a year, and are training long hours, get  thai therapy often,having someone stretch you works wonder, physically and emotionally, thai therapy helps your body relax overall, which allows it to release tension. Also try a vinyasa yoga class once or twice a week to heat you up. once your body is warmed up, you can focus on more muscle-specific postures based on your needs.

It’s important to remember that  your emotional life can affect the condition of your pelvis. Your life’s diary is stored in your body. Your body creates a protective cloak of armor that clings to our bones to keep the world at bay. This cloak is the buildup of thickened muscular padding primarily around the shoulders, neck, hips and legs. This armor protects against outside forces, both real and imaginary, warding off the unwanted and guarding our inner self. So your emotional health is the first place to start in successfully releasing your hips.

Thai therapy melts our armoring, increases our range of motions, and releases us from our physical and  psychological burdens. Thai therapy melts the shield that builds up around us due to genetics, cultural pressures, habits, stress, and personal history.  The same thing is true of yoga, it’s just not as deep a level. through the practice of yoga poses and breath awareness, we slowly over time, burn off the encrusted shell of our outer defenses. Today, given the fear of terrorism and the belief  that it threatens our security, our financial stability, our health, and our freedom, there is an even greater tendency to retreat into a shell of protective armor. Through the practice of yoga, we aim to free ourselves from the grip of fear by embodying inner strength and stability and by cultivating wisdom and compassion.

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.

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.

Be smart and feel good this summer

This is the time of year when everyone starts to get back to running, biking, hiking and many other sports. My husband and I just got back from Zions where we did some hiking and horseback riding. I am very sore. Any time you work out in any way it is important to stretch completely, so your muscles can return to normal and begin to heal. Your muscles shorten as you work out, if you do not stretch them out completely, the next time you work out they will shorten more. It’s just a matter of time before your knees or hips start to hurt from not stretch completely.

Your nervous system uses a stretch reflex, this reflex regulates the length of your muscles. Whenever you elongate a muscle beyond a certain preset length or unconsciously stretch it too fast, this reflex makes the muscle automatically contract so that you can’t lengthen it any further. This does not mean you can only go so far, people have a hard time stretching because they think they are done when it starts to feel uncomfortable “hurt”. What I am going to tell you is stuff you really need to know if you want to workout hard and feel good after.

You can feel this reflex in action when, let’s say, you go into a forward bend, you sense a strong stretch in the backs of your legs, and cannot bend any deeper into the pose. Keep in mind no matter how well you condition your nervous system; you also need to change  the way you perceive stress. Forward bending can produce strong sensations even in those of us who are very flexy one common response is to ignore sensations and force yourself forward, fighting against your tight hamstrings. Another is to come out of the pose to avoid the challenge entirely. Both strategies are variations on the same theme: fight-or-flight. This creates tense muscles and rapid or held breathing.

Try this instead, get to a comfortable stretch, you have to use your conscious intention to override this automatic stabilizing function. Once stretched, all receptors adapt, meaning that if you hold them at a fixed length, their signaling slacks off over time. Stretch only a tiny bit at first, this will barely stimulate the sensitive receptors. Then hold very, very still until all the receptors adapt and the already weak signals they are sending to the nervous system subside to an even lower level. And then you can move a tiny bit more into the stretch, be very, very still again. If you repeat this sequence carefully at least 3 times, you can gradually move into a very deep stretch without ever activating your stretch receptors much, and you never feel a strong sensation of the stretch. You have to be extremely attentive, sensitive, and patient to make it work.

Paying attention to how your body and mind react to the stress of any pose offers clues about how you typically react to stress in your life. By training yourself to actively observe while staying calm in poses, you’ll be able to do the same thing when difficult sensations, thoughts, or emotions arise in the face of stress. Instead of going into your habitual reaction mode, you’ll notice what’s happening while staying present enough to chose an appropriate response. Practice attentively and be responsive to what is happening in your body and mind, rather than to what you expect to happen.

If you feel like you are losing your flexibility, or you can’t get past a certain point, get someone to help you stretch, they must be kind, move, slowly, and take your direction to move more or less.. You can get a really good deep stretch with a partner. That’s what a Thai yoga therapist does, I help people get ready for competitive sports by keeping their muscles long and free of injury.  I also help them recover more quickly after their competitions. Be smart, stretch when you workout and feel good this summer.

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.