Thursday, July 30, 2009

circulation



If you listen closely to the sound of your beating heart you will find your rhythm.
This rhythm travels to the tips of your toes and to the edges of your skull, filling you with blood, oxygen, and energy.
Buckets-full move like waves, from the precious spot behind your breastbone into the ocean.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

the knot

I couldn't sleep last night. Everything hurt and no position felt comfortable at all.

I lay there with many thoughts and frustrations. Time passed by like this for a while, until under my closed eyes, I saw a knot. It was low inside my belly, tied tight, and made of thick whitish rope. I imagined my two index fingers prying themselves into whatever space was there and slowly, very slowly, loosening it.

When the knot loosened I felt so much better and finally fell asleep.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Entrainment


From Wikipedia:

Air entrainment, the intentional creation of tiny air bubbles in concrete
Brainwave entrainment, the practice of entraining one's brainwaves to a desired frequency
Entrainment (biomusicology), the synchronization of organisms to an external rhythm
Entrainment (chronobiology), the alignment of a circadian system's period and phase to the period and phase of an external rhythm
Entrainment (engineering), the entrapment of one substance by another substance
Entrainment (hydrodynamics), the movement of one fluid by another

Entrainment (meteorology), a phenomenon of the atmosphere

Entrainment (physical geography), the process by which surface sediment is incorporated into a fluid flow

Entrainment (physics), the process whereby two interacting oscillating systems assume the same period

From me:

Entrainment is what I teach! The entrainment of the mind and the body and the universe.
Yoga Entrainment

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Relax your belly

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Engaging a muscle a lot of the time is not a good thing.
Constant holding creates strain, weakness, tightness, mental stress too.
Your skeleton will hold you up. You won't fall apart if you relax.

So what took so long to realize this!? I always thought I should hold my belly in; loads of pressure to have a flat tummy.

But I've been experimenting lately (a little embarrassing with it being summer, the season of little clothes) and have found that as the belly is going, a new sense of calm is coming.
I never knew how much anxiety could be held in the belly, but there it is.

Give it a shot. If you are worried, wear a flowy and loose (and fashionable!) dress or shirt, and completely release. Soften your belly. Relax your belly. Let energy and circulation move through your belly.

Can you imagine the Buddha with a flat belly? No way!

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