Our Yoga Blog » Meditation

How do I know if I am Progressing Spiritually?

Sumedha — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:02:06 +0000

I often wonder if I am progressing spiritually and ultimately it’s probably not possible to judge this process unless you are the master. But I found this checklist (my words) in The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita (click on the photo to review this book) written by Parmahansa Yogananada. I find it to be helpful and hope you will too.

Each spiritual apsirant and yogi should every night before retiring ask his intuition whether his spiritual faculties or his physical inclinations of temptation won the day’s battle BETWEEN:

-good and bad habits
-temperance and greed
-self-control and lust
-honest desire for necessary money and inordinate craving for gold
-forgiveness and anger
-joy and grief
-moroseness and pleasantness
-kindness and cruelty
-selfishness and unselfishness
-understanding and jealousy
-bravery and cowardice
-confidence and fear
-faith and doubt
-humbleness and pride
-desire to commune with God in meditation and the restless urge for worldly activities
-spiritual and material desires
-divine ecstasy and sensory perceptions
-soul consciousness and egoity

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Pranayama

Sumedha — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:53:53 +0000

There are many forms of deep breathing practices that you can learn from ancient yoga practices.

Here’s one that comes from Deepak Chopra at http://www.chopra.com/ujjayi:

Ujjayi (pronounced oo-jai) is an ancient yogic breathing technique that helps calm the mind and body. Commonly translated as “victorious breath,” Ujjayi has a balancing influence on the entire cardiorespiratory system and releases feelings of irritation and frustration.

Here is how to perform Ujjayi breath:

Take an inhalation that is slightly deeper than normal. With your mouth closed, exhale through your nose while constricting your throat muscles. If you are doing this correctly, you should sound like Darth Vader from Star Wars.
Another way to get the hang of this practice is to try exhaling the sound “haaaaah” with your mouth open. Now make a similar sound with your mouth closed, feeling the outflow of air through your nasal passages. Once you have mastered this on the outflow, use the same method for the inflow breath, gently constricting your throat as you inhale.

Try shifting into Ujjayi breath whenever you find yourself becoming aggravated or stressed, and you should notice a prompt soothing effect. If you practice yoga, focusing on Ujjayi breathing will help you stay focused and centered as you flow from one posture to the next.

Finally, Ujjayi is also useful when you’re doing aerobic exercise such as running or cycling. In fact, some Olympic-level athletes have introduced Ujjayi into their training routines to improve their respiratory efficiency. Experiment with this breath technique when you are working out and see if it reduces wear and tear on your body.

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Little Bits of Integrity Count Too

Kali Devi — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:09:53 +0000

Let’s face it, we’re all attracted to books or movies that focus on a hero who overcomes adversity and stands up for what’s right even if his or her well being is jeopardized. Look at the popularity of Avatar, www.avatarmovie.com, a total blockbuster in the theaters and now selling like crazy on DVD. Critics call it a “mythical archetype,” that’s been in many stories. Well, whether that’s true or not, we like to see this kind of hero because it’s so darn rare to see that kind of integrity.

Recently a colleague told me something that I won’t forget. We were talking about a friend who was someone we had respected and who we had seen as a person of integrity. Now, my colleague said, our friend, who has a serious illness, had borrowed money from him supposedly to pay his divorce attorney. Turns out, he didn’t use the money for that at all and actually spent the money on a lavish, first class trip to Europe. What’s more he was also inappropriately expensing items to his company. “When the chips are down,” my colleague said, “people define themselves. And, I don’t like the way our friend is defining himself.” Just the opposite of our Avatar hero.

Unfortunately, all too often we see people responding to adversity like my friend. And I think that’s why we’re so thrilled when we see integrity on the screen. However, I don’t believe any of us have to settle for just reading about someone else’s integrity. We have opportunities every day to create a habit of standing up for what’s right. When I first started practicing yoga, I got a quick lesson. I’d been involved in a project, and a mistake had been made. Everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else because they didn’t want the yoga master to think they’d made the mistake. I was certainly part of the mistake happening, and I took responsibility for it. Taking the blame didn’t feel great at the time, but later I really benefited from this whole thing. A few months later, the yoga master told me that just by being honest and be willing to admit I’d made a mistake, I’d made huge progress in yoga. I was aware of this growth in my meditations, which had improved significantly. I didn’t do it for that reason, but nevertheless, the benefit came to me.

This started a habit for me that anyone can do. Every day we have little opportunities to be truthful, to express integrity. It can be as small as admitting you made a mistake or being truthful to a potential client even though there’s pressure to exaggerate or being a friend to someone the rest of the group stays away from. Every little bit of integrity we express plays a part in us creating a new habit. A habit that leads us to being that hero we admire so much in the movies.

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Meditation for Beginners

Sumedha — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:26:58 +0000

Meditation happens when you are able to transcend the mind and connect with your source or what some call spirit or God. To get there requires much discipline because one needs to know how to relax the physical body and calm your mind. Therein lies the rub; it’s not easy and it requires some self-regulation.

People who meditate well often report significant benefits including more peace of mind, less stress, increased awareness, the ability focus easier, as well as an increased ability to concentrate. In addition, your outlook on life naturally becomes more positive because you are attuning to a level of happiness not accessed prior to meditation.

The most important principle for beginning meditators to understand is how to encourage the mind to stop drifting away. For example, when we first sit to meditate, we immediately become aware of how loud the mind actually is. For most of us, it never stops talking and we often notice it most when we are trying to go to sleep at night. So the first thing you need to learn is how to move past that restlessness of the mind.

Keep in mind that learning to meditate requires effort at first. But then it will become easier and an essential part of your well-being that you can’t wait to do every day. The benefits are tremendous and you will know this intimately as your experiences become direct and personal.
A lot of the work that people are currently doing in focusing on being positive will help you greatly in becoming a better meditator. For example, if you have already healed parts of your personality that were damaged or confused from childhood, it will be easier for you to calm the mind.

If you know how to focus on the positive things in your life and can easily release the negative, you will be ahead of the game in learning to meditate. But the main thing is to begin your practice of meditation and do not stop until you succeed.

How will you know when your meditation is successful? Good question.

The answer is when you come out of a session of meditation and you realize that an hour has gone by and it feels like it was only a few minutes. That means you went deep. What a thrill that is.
A few basic rules include: sit in a location where you won’t be disturbed. Maybe your bedroom or just any quiet place where you know you can be alone for awhile. You don’t want to get deep into meditation and be disturbed by a ringing phone or door bell if at all possible. If incense makes you relax, go ahead and burn it. Ideally you want complete silence and as you grow in your ability to meditate, you will learn to adore silence even more.

Sit cross-legged with a straight back and your head resting comfortably on your shoulders. Make sure you are comfortable and that you aren’t experiencing tension anywhere; if possible. Wear loose, comfortable clothing. If you know how to do some yoga postures, this will help alleviate physical stress so you can sit more comfortably for meditation.

One simple technique to meditate is to simply chant the word OM – at first out loud maybe 10 times and then allow the chant to go quieter until you are only chanting it internally. If the mind drifts to anything other than chanting OM, kindly bring it back to the word OM.
Just know that, at first, your mind will want to wander to things such as your day’s activity, or what you need to do next, or that thing that happened at work … but don’t let it! This is the challenge you must win in a kind and gentle manner. Just encourage your mind to come back stay with OM and keep practicing. It will get easier.

If you want to learn more meditation or breathing techniques as well as more about Hatha and Ashtanga yoga postures, go to the Yoga Center of California website.

Studies have shown that meditation does bring about beneficial physiologic effects to the body not to mention all of the mental, emotional and spiritual benefits.

People have known for thousands of years about the many blessings meditation offers and now even the Western medical community is beginning to wake up to how helpful meditation can even be in the healing process.

But one thing is for sure – anyone who is a long-time meditator will tell you that the benefits far outweigh the effort. So what are you waiting for? Go meditate.

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Symptoms, causes and treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

Sumedha — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:18:26 +0000

The symptoms of Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and depression often overlap and vary from person to person. Typical symptoms of GAD include persistent worrying and difficulty controlling the worrisome thoughts, irritability, restlessness or nervousness, muscle tension and pain, difficulty concentrating or focusing on the task at hand, tiring easily without apparent reason, difficulty falling asleep, insomnia, or an inability to sleep through the night. Stress headaches are another symptom of GAD. (If you are suffering from a panic disorder, click here)

In the past, GAD was thought to be the result of a psychological, or emotional ‘weakness’. Thankfully, modern medicine now recognizes generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) to be a medical condition, frequently related to low levels of serotonin, a chemical naturally produced in the brain. There are a number of physical and lifestyle factors which can cause a decrease in normal levels of serotonin, triggering the onset of this disorder. Major life events can also influence the onset of GAD. Generally, GAD develops over time, possibly due to a gradual falling off of adequate levels of serotonin.

Some of the types of physical factors which can induce GAD include health problems associated with aging, such as arthritis, medications, or, in women, hormonal changes experienced with childbirth or during menopause. Some studies suggest that GAD can be hereditary. Severe stress is another trigger associated with GAD. Lifestyle factors, such as drug or alcohol abuse are other possible causes. Major life events, such as divorce, loss of a family member, or major financial problems can also cause generalized anxiety disorder.

While there are a number of medications prescribed to treat generalized anxiety disorder, it is also possible to calm yourself by doing yoga postures, deep breathing and relaxation exercises. While we are not advocating not taking prescribed drugs, we want to emphasize that there is no harm in doing yoga at the same time. Or even better … long before you experience anxiety symptoms.

Here’s a great place to study yoga if you are in the Orange County, California area: Yoga Center of California.

If you need to find a yoga center in your area, click here.

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What’s Missing to Get Passed The Mind’s Turbulent Antics?

Kali Devi — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:08:52 +0000

I remember when I first learned to meditate. We were asked to meditate for 15 minutes because it takes the average mind at least 11 minutes to calm down. Then you have three good minutes, and that’s pretty much what you need to get to peace of mind and the deeper states of yoga.

After my first experience in class in which I felt my heart expand with a feeling of being in love with the world, I happily set off to meditate at home. I set my timer for 15 minutes to make sure I didn’t cut it short. As I sat there, ready to dive deep, my mind kept whirling around and around. Finally, when I thought the timer wasn’t working because it surely had been at least a half-hour, I opened my eyes and got a big surprise. It had only been three minutes. Ouch. Could that be true? It sure was.

Recently I watched a movie called the Soloist on TV, and it reminded me of what was missing for me in the beginning of my practice as well as what I’ve observed after 20 years of teaching that most people are missing—absorption. In the movie a reporter, who is trying to help a homeless, schizophrenic musician, has the opportunity to sit with his homeless friend in a classical music concert. The reporter was describing the experience afterwards. ”He (the homeless musician) was so surrendered; he just merged into the music. He loved the music so much, he became one with it. Then he added, “I’ve never loved anything or anyone that much.”

That’s the answer right there. Loving something so much you just surrender and become absorbed in it. What I’ve learned to do is think about something that I get absorbed in–singing chants works for me. Everyone usually has something. Maybe it’s dance, music, lover, work, etc. I feel it deeply, and bring that feeling to my meditation practice. It almost always works.

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A Beginner’s Guide to the History of Yoga

Sumedha — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:40:50 +0000

History of Yoga

India gave birth to both the literature and technique of yoga written in the language of the Vedas – Sanskrit. The word yoga means “to yoke or join.” Essentially yoga is a way, or discipline, of uniting. But uniting with what? A yogi would say, with Spirit, or God, or the Lord of your heart – whatever feels most comfortable to you.

Yoga is an oral tradition transmitted directly from teacher to student. Pantajali is credited with first writing this oral tradition down in a classic work called the Yoga Sutras which is believed to be 2,000 years old. It is a collection of 195 sayings that provide yogic guidance about universal truths as they relate to dealing with the challenges of human life. He speaks about gaining mastery over the mind and emotions as well as defines common characteristics of spiritual growth.

Hatha yoga (the physical postures or asanas which is also referred to as the yoga of activity) was developed initially so that yogis could sit more easily and for longer periods of time in meditation. Postures prepared the body and nervous system for stillness as well as helping to calm the turbulence so prevalent in the mind.

Practice correctly, Hatha yoga alone is a powerful method of self-transformation. Combined with masterful teachings of meditation and higher consciousness, a yogi can make great strides in living at higher levels of consciousness on a daily basis.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary

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Hello world!

Sumedha — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:13:53 +0000

Welcome to our Yoga Blog

Welcome to Our Yoga Blog!

We call this a different kind of spiritual journey because we want to focus on our personal spiritual growth and not just the physical body.

We want to talk about how we have used yoga to significantly improve the quality of our lives, and we also want to hear about your experiences.

Please come back often and share with us!

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