Yoga and Your Journey into Food

07/05/2012 at 11:03 (Yoga)
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“If I start doing yoga, must I become a vegetarian?” I am now in my fifth year as a yoga teacher and this question always feature somewhere during the conversation with most potential students who want to do yoga with me. The short answer is no, you don’t have to, but if it is a natural development and outflow of your yoga with me, then it is your choice to allow it and to follow how the inner world wants to manifest Itself in the outer world. This article will map my own personal journey from meat eater to vegetarian and back to meat eating again and in that I trust it might give some answers and consolation to those out there who need more than just vegetarianism is the ultimate choice or the preferred one if you want to do yoga.

Map of my own Vegetarian Journey

My own teacher Sri Durga is a vegetarian and a very avid one and she used to advocate vegetarianism strongly in her classes, to the point where I decided soon after I started yoga in 1999 with her to also make the transition to being a vegetarian. And please don’t get me wrong, I adore her and I respect her for her strong stance on this issue. Around me all those other vegetarians and fellow yogis looked so healthy and as I always had a problem with maintaining my weight, I really pinned all my hopes on vegetarianism to be the next big weight loss programme for me combined with a yoga practice.

By May 2000 I ate my last piece of kingklip and so started my vegetarian food journey. Initially I felt great, didn’t lose any weight, in fact I started to pack more kilograms around my waist and developed the most terrible heartburn, but being a Taurus, the stubbornness in me prevailed and I stuck to my newly found vegetarian diet. By 2003 the most terrible muscle aches in my legs started to appear. Initially I thought it was just sore muscles from the yoga and the 10+kg I have gained since starting on my vegetarian journey, ignoring the messages my body was sending me so desperately at night. Eventually I spoke to my teacher and fellow yogis about my aches, and my teacher recommend that I add more magnesium to my diet and that I take a Vitamin B12 plus B-Comp injection at least once every three months. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the aches and pains better, in fact it got worse.

By 2005 I have picked up 15kg since my vegetarian journey started. I also become very depressed and the doubt about my diet and yoga started to creep into my consciousness. In October of 2005 I went to India for the first time and I was shocked by many aspects of India, but the one thing that shocked me the most was the realization that India is not the great vegetarian loving nation as portrayed in Western media and articles. In fact my experience was that most Indians actually eat meat at least twice a week if they are not a swami, pundit or some religious leader. And that was the turning point for on my vegetarian journey.

Back home in South Africa, I decided to still stick to my vegetarian diet, but to research more. I started to look at my family history. Both my father and eldest sister was diagnosed with pernicious anaemia and my father especially had huge issues with this disease. He died in 2006 of a massive heart attack after suffering a serious and very low iron deficiency due to the fact that his body couldn’t absorb vitamin B. And as it is a genetic disease, I had to consider this for myself as well. At this point I started to look like Batman’s seriously overweight sidekick, Robin, huge black circles around my eyes, loss of energy, always tired and an increase in muscles aches throughout my whole body now, made it nearly impossible for me to function. I then saw an Ayurveda doctor who prescribed more eggs and a greater combination of plant based legumes, nuts and cheese for me, which to my great dismay didn’t make a difference at all except to my weight! The higher carbohydrate diet just pushed me faster towards the edge of diabetes and when I was test a in 2007 for diabetes I was classified as being pre-diabetic. This was where I decided enough is enough and started to introduce fish and chicken back into my diet. Within months my weight started to stabilise and the severe muscles aches and cramps disappeared. My energy levels returned to normal and the constant tiredness start to dissipate.

In hindsight I can say this: Vegetarianism is great and I am a great supporter of this diet and lifestyle choice, but before you plunge yourself into it, research your family history, check your parents for diseases and syndromes that will affect your journey into vegetarianism as it could have serious consequences.

What about Ahimsa – the practice of non-harming and non-violence

Being a vegetarian is not the ultimate way of honouring this yogic value. It is clear from my own account above that what I thought was a non-violent and non-harming lifestyle choice perpetrated so much violence and harm against my own body, that I have to ask questions about the violence I allowed against my body and how it resonated with this first yama of yoga.

I also think there are much bigger issues currently to consider in our strife for ahimsa than just becoming a vegetarian. The other day I visited one of my very good yogi friends and as she prepared a lovely vegetarian meal for us, I couldn’t help to notice that the beans she prepared was from Zambia (we are in South Africa), the carrots from Zimbabwe, and the petit pois from Uganda and the couscous from Tunisia. Our whole meal was imported! The violence against Mother Earth to get all those foods to South Africa is huge in terms of carbon from the fossil fuels burned to get those foods here. It is also more difficult to get information about ethical treatment, usage of pesticides and gm seeds from those countries, than from your own country. And let’s not get started on the violence against so many farmers and families in South Africa due to the lack of income, loss of jobs and farm land, because of imported food.  Eating closer to the source of your food is not just serving you better, but the whole world in a very authentic way.

Ahimsa in terms of my food journey, is to know where it came from, how it was produced and as a fish and poultry eater, I like to know how these animals were treated, were they happy and living in good conditions, cared for with love? There are farmers who dearly love their animals and who rear their animals with respect and compassion, and my choice is to eat those animals from those farmers. I look towards local producers, where my food only had to travel a few kilometres by road instead of thousands of kilometres by air and road from some strange country where I don’t even know how my vegetables were cultivated.

Ahimsa for me is also to support initiatives such as Meat Free Mondays and to encourage people who eat meat everyday to consider eating meat every second day. As a chef I have to work with meat, I can’t avoid it and as such I always treat the meat I am working with, with great respect, honouring in that way the animal that died in order for me to prepare some great meal as nourishment for someone else and not seeing it as just another piece of dead animal on my chopping board.

Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras and Your Diet

For most yogis it is a problem that Patanjali nowhere in The Yoga Sutras makes special mention about diet and what foods you should or shouldn’t eat. Even the Bhagavad Gita doesn’t list any specific foods for following a “yogic diet.”  And I suspect that if they did, the list would be very problematic for us as Westerners and also what was appropriate then, might not be appropriate today.

Despite that fact that there are no clear guidelines, I think as yogis we can look to Ayurveda and what it can offer us in terms of a great basis on which we can base our future food explorations and choices. Ayurveda tradition differentiates between the three Gunas where foods that are considered sattvic, include most vegetables, ghee, fruits, legumes, and whole grains. Rajasic foods such as coffee, eggs, cheese, peppers, salt and fish increase energy levels and Tamasic foods, such as onions, meat, and garlic slows the metabolism. However, in the West we know the many health benefits of garlic for example and for me it doesn’t make sense to exclude it from my diet or to even list it as Tamasic. Maintaining a balance between all three Gunas is more important in maintaining a healthy and light body and this doesn’t mean to eat just Sattvic foods. Consider also your constitution or Dosha, there are three Doshas, Vata, Pita and Kapha and how they are in balance with each other.

In Conclusion

The vegetarian diet made me sick, but I am still attracted to the non-violence of the first yama of yoga and as such I had to discover the truth for me. And my truth is that I still need animal protein to function appropriately. For me an omnivorous diet, one that consists of moderate amounts of animal protein and enough fruits and vegetables makes more sense and is more appropriate for where I am than a strictly vegetarian or even vegan diet. Since I do eat animal protein, I always honour the duck, the chicken, and turkey or prawn or trout by not wasting its life force or mine, but to use that force to heal myself and others, and to teach, inspire, and help people evolve. My ethics about what to eat came down to my personal truth and that is that an omnivorous diet works physiologically far better for me.

Clearly, with such varied perspectives on what feeds the body and spirit, developing a diet that reflects your ethics and honours your physical needs can be challenging. In the end most yogis would agree that part of the practice is to develop awareness about what you eat. It’s worth spending time educating yourself not just about the possible diets you could follow but also about the origins and properties of the food you buy. To begin forming your yogic diet, think about which teachings best resonate with you and how you might put those teachings into action.

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The Fundamentals of Alignment

01/04/2012 at 06:00 (Yoga)
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Alignment is a hot topic in yoga and widely discussed by yogis. If you do yoga you might have heard the word in many of your classes and your teacher might even mention it from time to time as well. I had a teacher who never, ever mentioned the word alignment in her classes in the nine years that I did yoga with her. It was only when I did my Teacher Training Course that I was introduced to the concept of alignment in yoga. For a while I felt my teacher neglected a very important aspect of yoga and I felt I missed out, so I set out to read and experience as much as possible about alignment, talked to other yogis and teachers about it and recently I realised again the great wisdom of my teacher Sri Durga Devi – she taught alignment so profoundly and deeply all those years without ever mentioning it, because she knew by talking about it, it just creates ego gratification.

Alignment has different meanings for different people and here are some of the general ideas conveyed to me over the last three years by many yogis and teacher alike about alignment:

  • it means for them to be more advanced in their practice, to do the more difficult asanas, 
  • it is the ability to know the “tricks” of how to get into certain advanced asanas, 
  • it’s about a straight back, shoulders back approach, 
  • it depends on how open you hips are, if the hips and knees are aligned then you are aligned (seriously this was one of the comments I once heard and that from a teacher!),
  • something to do with the chakras being in alignment,
  • alignment improves your health.

For my own teacher yoga was about feeling, many times after an asana, we would go into corpse pose and Sri Durga would ask us to feel what we have done, to be totally aware of where the energy flow, to keep asking questions about what we feel and where we feel it in our bodies. She usually reminded us of that very important aspect of yoga: where awareness flow, energy follows as well. And this was the greatest benefit of her “alignment” based yoga for me although she never mentioned the word in her classes.

When I set out to educate myself more about alignment, I have been as a teacher to other yoga classes where the teacher walks around the class the whole time and do physical adjustments constantly. In other classes the teacher would constantly refer to alignment as if everybody in the class knew exactly what she was talking about, yet in another class I was told my alignment is totally out, without any further reference or explanation. Yip, I am sure you can see the huge question marks! Again I realised the wisdom of my teacher, alignment is an inner attitude, it is something that nobody can actually teach you, because the constitutional limits of each person in your class is different. It is that integrity of the pose that you realise when you are allowed the space and time to become aware of the balance, the flow of energy and the refinement of the asana within. Alignment for me is when yoga is taught with this level of awareness, which my own teacher taught so diligently, that you will enjoy the greatest benefit.

My own teacher taught us that there is no right or wrong way of doing an asana. “The appropriate form for you of the asana is within,” she would constantly remind us. It is like being a sculptor, initially you are faced with this huge granite block in front of you, a mass of hard undefined granite, but as you chip away, constantly being aware of what you want to sculpt out of this block of granite, that the appropriate form emerge. Alignment allows the inner yoga to manifest over time.

In kirtan 30 of the Sivananda Prayer Book there is this line: “Enquire who am I? Know the Self and be free. Adapt, adjust, accommodate.” The main idea of yoga is to know the Self. It’s about understanding, where you can go in a pose and keep asking questions about it. This means, once you have learned the basics of an asana, you need to be attentive and doing the same asana with greater awareness every time you do it in a class and through that attentiveness the inner yoga will manifest itself!

Awareness of what?

To understand this, you need to understand what makes yoga so different from any other form of of exercise. Over the years I had many different people with a variety of different disease conditions – lower back pain, sciatica, people with immune system dysfunction, injuries and so on in my classes. And interestingly, after doing a few months of yoga, which entails asana, pranayama, meditation, chanting, yoga nidra, constantly reminding them to be aware of what and how they feel after an asana, allowing moments of total awareness in the class, almost everybody was feeling better.

Why do people with such different conditions all get such a wide range of health benefits from yoga? Here are some of my observations: 

  • When people afford themselves the balance of physical activity and deep rest, coupled with an acute awareness of what they have done, the results are amazing. 
  • Creating awareness of your attitude towards what you experience in your body during the pauses between the different asanas, allowing you to “feel” with your heart, instead of thinking with your mind is much bigger than just the limited ideas we usually carry around and will have a profound transformational effect. 
  • Stress-related issues, i.e. conditions of the mind and emotions, are among the first conditions being alleviated by this awareness and change of attitude.

After all of this evidence of so many yogis over the years, I have to conclude and concur with my own teacher that it’s not just the physical aspect of yoga that are responsible for these amazing effects, but it is something much deeper and much more profound, it is directing the heart and mind of the student to that flow of energy within which we call prana.

To the yoga teacher: Of course, yoga is about the physical alignment in the pose, it is about the circulation of blood, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid that is improved, it is about being safe in an asana and as a teacher you cannot and must not ignore improper alignment in asana. However as teachers we should be careful not to impose too much of our own ego on what the asana in a student should look like. As teachers we should first and foremost allow attitude, awareness and intention within the student to manifest itself into the appropriate form for that specific body.

To the yoga student: When your teacher turn a hand, adjust a shoulder, ask you to keep the feet together or ask you to “feel” what you have just do, know that he or she shifts the alignment of an asana, both physical and spiritual, and be aware that you are are actually shifting more than just a few muscles and circulation, but that you affect the flow of Prana, that is, the vital force in your body.

My Six Alignment Tips:

  1. Be steady and at ease: Yoga teaches that each asana has its own sthira (point of steadiness) and sukha (ease or comfort). In other words, you need to find that point where you are both steady and at ease and comfortable in an asana without strain and hurting yourself. 
  2. Know the difference between pushing and forcing yourself: We all need to challenge ourselves in different asanas from time to time, but there is a huge difference between forcing yourself, which is ego driven and about showing off, and pushing yourself gently through awareness and the appropriate actions a little further in an asana. The key is awareness. 
  3. Realise your limitations: Physically we are all different, realise your limitations and move within the boundaries of your body and realise that some asanas are not meant for you and make peace with that. Move your awareness within those asanas that you can do and direct your energy into those asanas. 
  4. Start with the basics: That’s why teachers have beginners or foundation classes, to teach the basics of the asanas and the basics of the other practices such as meditation, chanting etc. It is important to learn during this time where your feet, hands or even eyes should be, pay attention and establish a secure foundation from where you can move forward and move prana. 
  5. Listen to your body: We are tempted to do more than what our bodies can actually handle, especially so if we grow older it seems. It is important to learn to listen to your body and if you feel that you cannot do an asana, rather leave it, your body has its own inner intelligence and know certain things that you might not be aware of, in learning to listen to your body, you become sensitive to the inner voice and intelligence and creates space for your body to actually heal itself and move prana. 
  6. Above all have fun and joy: Above all, enjoy what you are doing in your yoga class and have a little fun as well sometimes, yoga is not just about seriousness all the time. If you don’t feel an inner joy with your class and teacher, then you have to ask yourself, am I aligned with the right teacher or style of yoga? This is the most difficult piece of alignment you will have to do, and that is to find the teacher and style of yoga that you inwardly align with. You may find that after years of aligning with a specific teacher or style that you are suddenly out of alignment with this teacher or style. Is it perhaps time to move not just prana, but move physically forward?

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How to Meditate: a Few Notes for the Beginner

02/03/2012 at 08:09 (Yoga)
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Shortly after people started doing yoga with me, they want to know when will I teach them meditation. And great is their surprise when I usually tell them that they are already busy learning meditation since the very first class. Yoga in its very nature is a meditation of the body and once the body and nerves have sufficiently been calmed and prepared by a regular yoga asana practice, then only can I start to teach meditation. This process in the West takes anything from about 6-8 months.

 As Westerners, we need to understand that our bodies and nervous system is condition to our very active and rajastic lifestyle, work and play environment. Another problem initially is our bodies itself, as we are not used to sit cross-leg for long periods of time, within five minutes of an untrained body the body will become restless, legs will start to itch and needles and pins will develop, this is all signs that your body needs more yoga asana and that your nervous system is still too excitable to sit for meditation. As I live in South Africa, many white people doing yoga with me have the typical large Germanic bone structure and many of the Africans have also a large structure, which makes sitting in meditation that more challenging. Back issues, poor core strength and very inflexible hips makes the sitting worse for many.

 It is my experience that a person who starts with meditation in an unconditioned body don’t persist with the practice, while a person who has sufficiently being prepared through an asana practice is much more persistent and successful in the long-term with their meditation practice.

 This meditation article addresses the techniques to lead you to meditation and how to choose your own daily meditation practices.

Meditation: Practice the Art of mindfulness

“Calmness is the ideal state in which we should receive all life’s experiences,” writes Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, in the book Inner Peace. Yogananda is regarded as one of the great spiritual teachers melding East and West. Through meditation, he writes, one can cultivate a wonderful inner quiet that will melt away stress and nervousness.

To meditate, you need to break away for a brief moment from your everyday schedule and life. Start by switching off your cellphone, unplug your landline, shutdown your computer, ask your family to allow you some time on your own and ask them not to interrupt you. In other words you need to ensure that you won’t be interrupted during this time.

Here are a few tips to get you started:

  • Where Should I Meditate? You may wish to set aside a special corner of one room, your own private sanctuary, a calm, quiet and peaceful place. You might furnish the area with objects or icons that have spiritual meaning for you, developing a little altar or shrine. Use what will put you into a contemplative frame of mind. You may want to enlist the help of Mother Nature by bringing a lovely rose with a beautiful fragrance or spend time at the ocean listening to the surf crashing upon the rocks in you live near the sea, or for me a peaceful walk barefoot through my own garden puts me immediately in the right frame, or stand near a stream with water, a waterfall or even a water feature in your garden, anything that you know that will calm you down will be appropriate.  
  • How Should I Sit When I Meditate? The classic posture is to sit with legs folded and hands resting quietly on the lap or the knees. And I would suggest that you make yourself as comfortable as possible in this position. Use more cushions under the tailbone to give your pelvis a tilt and a more comfortable position, the key is to find a way of sitting that is comfortable for you. I do not recommend laying flat on your back as this position reminds the body of sleeping and this usually happens very quickly.  
  • Should My Eyes Be Open or Closed? I recommend closing the eyes, especially if you are new to meditation, this way you withdraw a key sense from the outside world and it already becomes so much easier to still the mind if there is one less sense that stimulates it. Also keep the face “soft” by relaxing all the facial muscles, drop the jaw slightly and these simple steps should already make it easier for you to become more relaxed and mindful.
  • How Long Should I Meditate? There is no fixed time frame. Initially I recommend a sitting of just five minutes for about three months just to condition the body and then a gradual increase over time. The secret is to listen to your body, over time it will tell you how long it will and want to sit. Another big issue is how much time do you have? If you have only about ten minutes say in the morning, then you sit in meditation for only ten minutes. Flow with your own time is key for me. As Sogyal Rinpoche writes in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: “your practice should bring you bring you to a certain state of mindfulness and presence, where you are a little open and able to connect with your heart essence.”  To begin, try short sessions; then break for one minute. “It’s often during the break that meditation actually happens!” writes Rinpoche. It may also be useful to get into the habit of setting aside the same times every day, be they for prayer or meditation. David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk and author, recommends rising 15 minutes earlier than usual to give your day a “contemplative dimension.” Without these precious moments, he says, “your whole day can slip away into a mad chase,” but with them your entire day can be imbued with meaning and joy.
  • Other considerations: Add ritual to your meditation, ritual creates familiarity for the mind and it relaxes the mind. Do things such as lighting a candle, put a flower on your altar and burn some incense. Avoid modern mixtures such a vanilla, cinnamon and strong fragrances such as rose. Start with either sandalwood or frankincense, it is said that they aid meditation and relax the mind and body. Create some ritual for yourself. After I have lit my candle and incense, I immediately go to my seat, sit and then peacefully I offer myself and my day to the Divine, then I start with a few breathing exercises and usually after the breathing slipping into the mindful state is much more easier. To end your meditation say a peace prayer or the Universal Prayer or some prayer that you like. Then add some ritual again by putting out your candle and incense if it is still burning.

Four Basic Ways to Practice Meditation

  1. Follow your breath: This is the most universal of all mindfulness techniques. First, exhale strongly a few times to clear the base of the lungs of carbon dioxide. It is helpful to review the technique for following the deep breathing method of imagining a lotus blossom residing in your lower abdomen; as the breath fills the belly, the petals of the blossom expand; as you exhale, the petals close back up. Slowly and gradually as the mind relax, let go of the conscious breathing and allow it to just happen as the mind become still and contemplative. The moment the mind wanders off, worrying about problems, start to consciously breath again and repeat until the mind learn to let go and relax.
  2. Observe an icon or object: Allow your mind to rest lightly on an object. If you come from the Christian tradition, this might be an image of Christ, the Virgin Mary or the Holy Spirit. Images of the Eastern gods and goddesses may also help you or a statue of the Buddha may be the object of you focus or even a candle flame. Again, focus with the eyes open on the image, as the image become etched in your vision slowly close the eyes and keep that image in your mind’s eye as long as possible, the moment the image disappear and the mind starts to wander, open the eyes and concentrate again on the image, repeating this process until the mind can relax and keep the image.
  3. Recite a mantra: A mantra literally means “that which protects the mind.” So reciting a mantra protects you with spiritual power. It is also said that when you chant a mantra, you are charging your breath and energy with the energy of that particular mantra. Again, choose something with meaning for you within your spiritual tradition: recite the Rosary, for example. Tibetan Buddhists use a mantra for peace, healing, transformation and healing. “Recite the mantra quietly, with deep attention, and let your breath, the mantra and your awareness become slowly one,” writes Rinpoche.
  4. Do a Guided Meditation: Guided meditation is akin to guided imagery, a powerful technique that focuses and directs the imagination toward a conscious goal. However, for this meditation you either need somebody to instruct you on what next to imagine or you need a CD with guided meditations.   

Is It Really Meditation?

The techniques described here are meditation practices rather than meditation itself, which is often described by experienced practitioners as “a state of being — a state of receptivity without expectation, a merging with the Divine.” All of the techniques are practice to get to this final merged state.

Therefore, meditation practice is not meditation. One might practice meditation for years to achieve a meditative state of being. An experienced meditator might meditate for an hour to achieve a few moments of meditative consciousness.

The Benefits of Meditation Are Subtle

While you may not feel flashes of insight when practicing meditation, its effects will become apparent to you later, when you may notice that you responded to a crisis with uncharacteristic calmness, or failed to get “triggered” in a situation that would normally disturb you. Trust in the process, let go of your expectations of achieving “results” (after all, meditation is not a contest), and you will reap the results.

The real miracle of meditation, says Rinpoche, is a subtle transformation that happens not only in your mind and your emotions but also in your body. And, this transformation is a healing one. “Even your cells are more joyful.”

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Yoga and Core Strength

22/02/2012 at 10:46 (Yoga)
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One of the hot buzzwords flying around the yoga studios and yogis sipping hot cups of chai these days is ‘core strength.’ While gym bunnies, dancers and athletes have long known the advantages of having a strong core, the idea of core strength is only now trickling down to the yoga community, in South Africa at least.

You may be wondering what exactly is core strength and should you worry about it? One reason is this: all of our movements are powered by the torso – the abs and back work together to support the spine when we sit, stand, bend over, pick things up, exercise and more. The torso is the body’s center of power, so the stronger you are in that area, the easier your life will be.

What Is The Core?

First, let’s get one very confusing idea out of the way. We all have core strength, without it you would have collapsed and won’t be able to sit or stand upright or do many of the small things like bending forward to tie your shoes. The issue is that in some the core strength is more developed than in others, and this is the concern with core strength.

The core muscles are anatomically referred to as the muscles forming around the trunk of the body including the abdominal, oblique (sides), mid and lower back.  It is the muscles deep within the abs and back, attaching to the spine or pelvis. Some of these muscles include the transversus abdominis (TVA), the muscles of the pelvic floor, the lats and the obliques, just to name a few. These muscles are where movement originates and it’s also the source of our stability. Whether you’re running, lifting weights or picking up your toddler, these ‘core’ muscles help keep your body stable and balanced.

What has Yoga to do with it?

The beauty of yoga is that it inherently challenge your balance, flexibility and core strength and as such gives the core muscles a balanced workout as well as strengthening them at the same time. Inherently yoga view the body as a whole, no part of it is separate and this focus on the whole body has the advantage that it incorporates a complete and balanced workout for the body during a yoga session. So long before other disciplines, which in the past saw the body as separate parts which must be exercised separately, saw the body as a whole, yoga did exactly that and exercised the body as a whole as well, resulting in a much stronger or improved core for most yogis.

For me, every asana is potentially a core-strengthening exercise. I always devote a large section of any yoga class to abdominal-intensive poses and many times I will say something like while doing this make sure you arch the back, which is important as that action moves the focus to the deeper core muscles and activates those muscle groups.

However core muscle strength has also to do with our attitude to life. It is what supports us spiritually in our lives, and physically in our yoga practice. If our core is weak, the ups and downs of life are much harder to take and many times we become the doormat for others. A strong core makes us more resilient and ready to face our challenges and fears. It translates into standing up for yourself in life and asserting yourself in a positive way!

In terms of asana practice, core abdominal strength improves nearly every pose, offering a sense of balance and ease. When you step off of the mat, there are lots of other good reasons to be strong in the core, perhaps most obviously to support the lower back. Weakness in the core can result in over-rotations in the vertebrae of the lower back, which leads to degenerative disk disease and back ache.

Weak abs often contribute to trouble in the sacroiliac joint -where the sacrum meets the illium, the large pelvic bone – and can subject this area to undue strain which translates sometimes as sciatica if the core isn’t sufficiently toned.

Core work connects us to our feelings. Working with the core during a class turns on your innate muscles intelligence and allows you to feel more aspects than usual. Such intelligence is essential, especially if you need to decide how deeply you want to or need to move into a specific asana, that intelligence can make the difference in avoiding injury or adding injury.

Some of the benefits of yoga on the core muscles include:

  • Improved posture
  • Reduction in the risk of injury
  • Better ability to function each day
  • Can result in relief of back ache and sciatica
  • Greater flexibility and better balance
  • Focus on the whole, instead of individual parts

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Back from the Retreat, what now?

27/12/2011 at 06:53 (Yoga)
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I recently returned from a weeklong retreat with some of my yogis at the Buddhist Retreat in Ixopo, KZN. It was a re-treat in many ways expected and unexpected, however, the question for everyone who has attend a retreat before always remains, how do I maintain that which I have experienced at the retreat when I am back in my normal life. A retreat is taking you out of the abnormal stress, tension and anxieties of your life and allows you to experience for a short while what we all long for: a calm and peaceful life! Instead of publishing an article about how to select your next retreat or what you should be looking for when you want to do a retreat, I thought I would publish an article on how to maintain that which you have experienced during the retreat for a while longer. Here are some pointers:

After the Retreat

You have just finished a retreat at a meditation center and have some difficulty adjusting to the outside world. It was so tranquil in the center that you find it very difficult to cope with the sights and sounds and all the confusion outside? For many who attend their first retreat this is usually a common experience and not unique at all. At the retreat everything was near perfect, there was peace, harmony, silence and you could most probably practice your meditation and other yogas without much disturbance. While at the retreat, it is amazing how quickly we can adapt to these natural silence and harmonious conditions. So, back in the world again, you now have to cope with the familiar stresses of our society, traffic, noise pollution, aggressive drivers and this is all very difficult to handle especially the first few days after your return.

Remember to be Mindful

However, you can cope with this transition and I would like to suggest a few guidelines. Let’s look at how your mind functions inside and outside the retreat. When you were in the retreat, you were practicing mindfulness intensively. Your mindfulness was in a very high gear. When you came out, you probably left the mindfulness behind, didn’t you? As soon as you left the retreat, you changed gear. You let you mindfulness go and you were back to your old unmindful state. When you are suddenly faced with the confusion in the outside world, you find it difficult to handle. So, remember the daily meditations, reflect on them and see how your mindful-state has helped you to relax during the retreat. Now is the time to remember that, put it into practice and allow your mindfulness to equip you better to face the outside world.

Watch the Mind

During the retreat you have also learned most probably to watch the mind more closely than normal. You have become a witness, and could look at your likes and dislikes and see them for what they were. Back in the hustle and bustle, you forgot to watch the mind and suddenly you find yourself challenged with dramas which feel like they might send you into an anxiety state. In daily life you can watch your mind like a witness in the same way. You can watch your aversions to sights and sounds as they come to you. Let them come and let them go. Be equanimous to your feelings about the outside world, and your equanimity will overflow to the outside world itself as well.

As you are witness to your own reactions to the outside world, you will also become a witness to the sights and sounds, and not be so disturbed by them. When you become quite good at this, you will actually be living with an inner retreat whatever your circumstances, whether quiet or not.

Practice makes Perfect

Above all, try to mirror the activities of the retreat to some degree in your life once you have returned for as long as possible. Remember the programme at your retreat, if you can stick to the same time-table for a few days, meditate at the same time, instead of having discussions, read a book, do some asanas at the same time you did at the retreat and even try to cook for yourself the food you had at the retreat. This is all ways to keep the energy of the retreat with you for a few more days and alow you to ease into everyday life.

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The World is your Mirror

05/09/2011 at 07:06 (Yoga)
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“As within, so without,” was one of my teacher, Sri Durga Devi’s, favourite teachings. The implications of this statement are far-reaching and it took me many years to realise the importance of her statement so many times in our yoga classes and still today I sometimes find it hard to apply this concept in my life.

When you are on the yoga path, the need for introspection becomes very apparent soon after you have started your first yoga class. Yoga has this wonderful ability to stir things up in you and soon you are confronted with old issues that you might have thought was something of the past. An old friend or foe out of your past suddenly appears again in your life and your first reaction might be disdain for this person and the situation or you may take a deep breath and start to look in the mirror this person is holding up and ask yourself what is it that I have to learn about my Self?

To look in the mirror that is being held up by the other person is not easy. To search for closure or to find that which you have to pay attention to might be an arduous  path and one that we would not always like to go down. However, if we do the work we need to, if we look at the reflection in that mirror and start to work on that reflection, we may soon find that we find a fine balance and that balance brings closure with the person or the situation.

Another aspect of this process is to ask yourself constantly who is the doer/witness in this whole process. Let me explain, have you ever had an issue with a person, say a good friend, the two of you talk about it, but you go home and in your mind you are still fighting that friend. You develop arguments, you formulate questions you should have posed to this person and then you also give your answer and so it goes on and on. The other person is not even there, has no interest in this process you are going through and doesn’t even witness this whole fight you have in your mind with him or her. So who is the witness and who is the doer in this whole process?

Most of the time we are the doer and we have to remind ourselves that I am not the doer and that I am just moving among objects in this illusion which we call the world. By observing this aspect, by diserning with the intellect this fine line between doer and witness, we train the mind to become the silent witness and to let go of our attachments to those emotions and people. We become more mindful of what we are doing, why we are doing it and as such living in the moment becomes much easier than we thought.

So next time somebody holds that mirror up, look at the reflection and instead of attaching to it, just be the “Switzerland” of your mind, impartially disern what is happening around you without placing any judgement card on that which you observe. The reflection in the mirror is an opportunity for growth, if we learn to see the reflection and learn from it.

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Yoga for Back Pain

21/05/2010 at 09:47 (Yoga)
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Many people when calling me for yoga classes want to know if yoga will help their back pain. And usually my answer to them is yes. However before you consider yoga as an alternative therapeutic form for your back pain, there are a few considerations. Whether you have acute or chronic back pain or just sciatica, you should first visit your doctor and ensure that you have the endorsement of your doctor to start yoga. Reducing back pain in your life will be a team effort between you, me and your doctor and in that regard I will need all the information you have about your pain.

 In the case of Yoga for back pain or sciatica, most people usually first feel a worsening of the back pain as your muscles start to adjust to the asanas and the new postures your body is required to perform. People suffering from sciatica usually find immediate relief and long term healing. Depending on the severity of your back pain and the years of neglect through diet and lack of exercise and proper care yoga will make it either worse initially or it will bring immediate relief. However, I find that most people with back pain have neglected their muscles and bodies to such an extent that building them up through yoga takes considerable time and effort coupled with a severity in back pain before they start to reap the benefits of a regular yoga practice.

 After trying a variety of solutions, most people tend to continue with anything that helps them manage, or eliminate pain. With that said, Yoga asana classes are often part of a larger solution for pain management and in some cases, the complete elimination of back pain.

 Also remember that going to a general yoga class where there is a mix of people with different needs, that the asanas will not be specific for your problem. Therefore, it would be wise to schedule  private Yoga sessions with me in order to compile a programme that will benefit your problem most.

 A short description of back pain

 Back pain is a common musculoskeletal symptom that may be either acute or chronic. It may be caused by a variety of diseases and disorders that affect the lumbar spine.

 Low back pain may be experienced in several different ways:

  • Localized. In localized pain the patient will feel soreness or discomfort when the doctor palpates, or presses on, a specific surface area of the lower back.
  • Diffuse. Diffuse pain is spread over a larger area and comes from deep tissue layers.
  • Radicular. The pain is caused by irritation of a nerve root. Sciatica is an example of radicular pain.
  • Referred. The pain is perceived in the lower back but is caused by inflammation elsewhere—often in the kidneys or lower abdomen.

A short description of sciatica

 The sciatic nerve is irritated just as it leaves the spinal cord. It is unusual to feel sciatica symptoms in the back. Usually the pain is felt along the ‘distribution’ of the nerve or in other words in the area that the nerve supplies. This means that sciatica is often felt as a spreading leg pain.

 Pain resulting from irritation of the sciatic nerve, typically felt from the low back to behind the thigh and radiating down below the knee. Diagnosis is by observation of symptoms, physical and nerve testing, and sometimes by X-ray or MRI if a herniated disk is suspected.

 In conclusion, yoga can definitely help to alleviate your back or sciatic pain, but this is not an instant cure, it will take time, effort and discipline in the beginning. However, you should be able to experience relief within the first 6-12 months of a regular and dedicated asana practice. During private sessions we will also consider the emotional, mental and spiritual causes and issues for sciatica and back pain, as most pain isn’t just a purely physical condition.

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The Four Means – into the spiritual journey

02/12/2009 at 09:12 (Yoga)
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The spiritual path of Jnana Yoga – the Yoga of Knowledge or Wisdom – speaks of four basic qualifications a spiritual seeker (sadhaka) should acquire in order to progress spiritually. These four means, as they are sometimes also called, form the basis from which we can exercise control over our Nature (Prakriti) and thus rise above the sway of life. The four qualities have been mentioned in the works of Advaita philosophers such as Adi Shankara (also called Shankaracharya), who explicitly mentions them in his work Vivekacudamani (the Crest Jewel of Discernment).

 Detachment (vairagya)

The first one is vairagya – detachment (to be in the world but not of the world). Human beings tend to perceive the world according to their personal likes and dislikes, attractions and aversions. The result is a highly subjective and misleading view of the world and oneself. Detachment means not to be influenced by selfish desires. Many people think you have to totally emotion-less to be detached, this is untrue, we need our emotions to function in the world, it is just to not allow your emotions to rule your life. According to Adi Shankara, vairagya is the refusal or inability to be satisfied by the limited and transitory.

 Discernment (viveka)

The first one is viveka – discernment (act of the soul) versus discrimination (act of reason, the ego).  Viveka is the ability to know how to handle our emotions and belief systems and comes about as our consciousness moves up the lower chakras into the higher chakras. Viveka is the arrival at that point in your life where you change your reaction to the outside, the emotions and the influences of the mind to be more spiritually orientated. Vedanta describes it as the ability to discriminate between the Real and unreal, the Self and the non-self. Viveka is sometimes likened to a sword that separates Truth from illusion, the Permanent from the transient.

 Six virtues (shat sampat)

The next qualification is a combination of six spiritual virtues which are different forms of mind control. They are shama (calmness), dama (sense control), uparati (self-withdrawal), titiksha (forbearance), shradda (faith) and samadhana (constant concentration).

 Desire for Liberation (mumukshutva)

Mumukshutva means the feeling of intensive longing to be liberated from our limited, separate existence. It is the desire to become one with the Divine, which Vedanta describes as Sat-Chit-Ananda or Being-Awareness-Bliss. It is essentially the yearning to go back to the Divine, to be one with God that is shared by all human beings, although in most cases, this yearning remains unconscious. Instead of longing for Absolute Freedom which is the very nature of all human beings, most people desire the lesser freedom of acting according to their ego-centred whims and fancies. Mumukshutva may be the most important quality of all, since it automatically helps develop all the others. However, it remains a rare quality. As Krishna says in chapter 7, verse 3 of the Bhagavad-Gita: “Among thousands of men, one perchance struggles for perfection.”

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Yoga and religion

06/08/2009 at 08:46 (Yoga)
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So many people when they contact me ask me about yoga as a religion and then I have to explain that yoga is not a religion, it doesn’t preach any religion at all. Although yoga was developed in India, which is the home to Hinduism and as such has taken on some of the Hindu Philosophies, these universal Truths that come with yoga is no different than those you would find in any of the major world religions. I publish here an article by the previous head of the Divine Life Society, Sri Swami Chidananda to clear this topic once and for all and to serve as a reference point for those who like to cast shadows of doubt instead of Light in the strive to reach for the Divine.

SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA

I shall speak to you at some length upon the subject of ‘Yoga and the Christian Religion’ because most of you are from a Christian background, very pious and very religious. Some are only Christian because they are born Christian, but some are halfway going to the Church once in two months, but all are from a Christian background, may be some Roman Catholic, may be not, may be Protestant, may be Methodist, may be some other. Some of you are Jews. Whatever religion you belong to, when I speak about Yoga and the Christian religion, it could equally apply to Yoga and any other religion. So, what is the connection between Yoga and one’s religion? One takes it for granted that Yoga is of the Hindu religion, and asks: ‘What is the connection between, this Hindu thing and my religion?’ Anyone belonging to another religion must wonder. So, it is worth-knowing how to relate Yoga to religion. Is it like other religions or are there sharp divergences between Yoga and other religions? If these things are not clear, may be some would feel a sense of guilt. ‘O, I am a Christian, am I doing the right by coming and taking to Yoga? Perhaps, I am being a little irreligious in the particular area of my interest in Yoga.’ Thus, a vague sort of uneasiness may be felt.

First and foremost, it has to be known that Yoga has arisen from a background or basis of the Hindu religion. It has its origin in India and it is part of the Hindu religion. But it is not Hindu. It is a universal science that has arisen out of the Hindu religious ground-a science that has risen above religion. It is a universal technique. Because in Yoga, as it is given in the Yoga-Darsana of Patanjali, one of the six systems of philosophy, no particular dogma is laid down and no particular God is pointed out for your worship. Yoga doesn’t say that you must worship Rama or Siva or meditate upon Krishna, or you must worship Kaali or Durga, or Hanuman; Yoga has nothing to say upon all these things. Yoga doesn’t say that you must repeat any particular Name of God. Yoga only says that repetition of one of the Divine Names is one of the ways of concentrating the mind. It says repetition of the Divine Name. You may repeat the Divine Name, you may say the prayer of Jesus, you may say Allah, you may say Rama, you may say the name of Siva, or you may say some other Name if you are in some other religion, but it does not specify that Name and also whom to worship. The All-perfect Divine Being, who is ever-free, ever-perfect, free from all the imperfections, ever-free beyond Maya, the Supreme Purusha, means the Supreme Being, Almighty Father in Heaven, Allah, Jehovah, you can call it by any name, it does not matter, the ever-free Being is not bound by Maya, and who is free from affliction, who is of the nature of Bliss-Absolute, Consciousness-Absolute; that is the object of meditation to be attained, that is the goal of Yoga. So, it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of Yoga; it does not give for you a goal other than the goal of your religion. It does not point out a God different from the one pointed by your own religion—Christianity, Islam, etc.—and it does not give a special name of that God so that you will have to change Gods. It does not give any special name to the one God. Emerging from the ground of Hinduism, it goes beyond religion.

 Yoga is a Religious Science, which means that it goes beyond religion, and assumes a universal characteristic. Secondly, Yoga is a science for Man. It is not a science either for an Easterner or a Westerner, an Oriental or an Occidental. Yoga is for man on earth. It was given to mortal man on this earth of birth, pain and death. It was given to man on earth, no matter what he is or who he is; and it is given to man for all times. It was not given to an ancient man or medieval man or a modern man, or anyone who might come, wanting to go beyond all sorrow, pain and suffering, go beyond bondage and delusion. If he takes to this path, it brings him to the place of supreme experience. So it is the answer to the need of mortal man, on this earth plane. So it is something that is the property, the heritage of humanity—Yoga is the heritage of humanity. It does not interfere with religion. What does Yoga do? Yoga supplies to the life of man and makes up for certain lack brought about by religion failing man or man failing religion. There is a condition created by the failure of religion administering to man’s highest needs, or the failure of man to take advantage of religion or properly utilise his religion which it is, we cannot say.

 Some say religions have failed. I say, no. Man has failed to follow religion. It is not due to religion that man suffers. It is due to the neglect of religion, the ignoring of religion and its teachings and its wisdom. Mostly, this is the situation. But in some places where religion has become totally institutionalised, it has become a great impersonal structure, and lost living contact with the individuals. Under it, then, it becomes barren of real spirit. It becomes only a pattern for dogma and ritual, and ceremony and belief. You are a Christian; if you say ‘I believe in salvation through the blood of Christ’. Yes, I believe, then you are a Christian. You are a very good Christian; so go your way. Do what you like, drink, smoke, break all the ten commandments, but you are a Christian. Religion has come to mean just accepting certain things which an institution has set to be the very heart of religion—a set of dogmas, and if you say you accept all this, then, you are a religious man. But, then, this is not religion. In each religion there is a certain spiritual content which has direct relevance to that part of you which is your innermost essential being, which is your innermost reality, a true, essential reality, and where religion fails to touch that part of your being, and loses its concern with that, and only concerns itself with the way in which you live, your social life and pattern of your social life, and your domestic life, whether you pay your tithe and whether you attend the Church regularly once in a week, or whether you go through all the various sacraments. You Baptise, and you are Christian. It is interested only in that but not in that highest part of you. It never asks you to question yourself or query ‘What is the purpose of my life? Why have I come here? What have I to attain? What is the true meaning of my life? What is my goal?’ In organised religions, the structure does not encourage you to ask these questions, does not insist that you raise these questions and seek an answer and make life a quest of that great goal which you ascertain through the answer. In such case, religion is not ministering to you in depth, while it is ministering to you on the surface. It fails to deal with you in that dimension of your being where you are the real being. Other dimensions are touched and affected, but that dimension is left untouched.

 So, when the spiritual content in religion is no longer active, no longer progressive, then that religion has petrified. It is not alive in such cases. Yoga is a wonderful answer because the prime concern of Yoga is the spiritual reality within you, the attainment of the spiritual goal for which you have taken this human birth; that is the prime concern of Yoga. Yoga is the path to God-realisation. Yoga is the path of Divine Experience, and the Divine Experience is the heart of religion. Trying to attain God-realisation is the very heart, the very essence of religion. That is the inner spiritual core of religion, and where that spiritual core has been neglected and cast aside, and is forgotten, then religion is only there as a great forum; a great structure is there, but inside there is no one living. There are a hundred houses, only a built palace is there, no one is living. It is a deserted palace. Like that, religion becomes a huge imposing structure with no life; and if such has become the religious life of any person, be he a Christian, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Parsi, or a Muslim; if such it has become, then Yoga comes as life-giving waters, the living waters to revive that withering, languishing inner spiritual core, that innermost spiritual path that has been neglected and dried away. Yoga comes as the life-giving force. Once again it makes spring into life the spiritual centre of your religion. It makes your religion alive for you. It can make religion alive for anyone, be he a Christian or a Muslim, and it gives back to you the life within your religion. It is the common experience of many people that after Yoga came to them they started being really religious. After Yoga came to them a Christian became a real devoted Christian, started going to Church, started reading the Bible and trying to find out more interest in the words of Jesus, began to understand the meaning of many things he is now doing in the name of Christianity, which he otherwise stopped doing because he found it to be meaningless,—’I find no meaning, it is mechanical’. It has no meaning, and once now he has found meaning, he begins to get interested in it. He begins to practise the teachings. Many things which were just meaningless once, become now meaningful. So one becomes a better Christian. In many cases Yoga has helped a person to find the inner meaning of his religion. He begins to see the reason behind the practice and then he begins to take more interest in his own religion, understand it better than he understood it before. Yoga restores to people whatever religion they may belong to. It restores to people the inner spiritual content of their religion. It restores to people the spiritual life which is the centre of any real religion, lacking which religion becomes merely an external facade. Yoga restores, makes it alive, makes it green, brings it forth into life. Yoga can be applied to Christianity and to any other religion.

 In what way does it differ? That also we shall see. It differs in its refusing to accept the doctrine of ‘original sin’. It does not call man a sinner. It may call man a fool but it doesn’t call him a sinner. Man is God playing the fool, or, man is God who has lost his way home, wandered away, stumbling and running about in circles. It clears up the path, puts light and puts man on the path again and says, ‘go ahead now, go straight to your home’. So it doesn’t want you to consider yourself a sinner. And the other thing is this: Much of Christianity, unfortunately, in certain of its areas, becomes wholly a preoccupation with avoiding hell, trying to avoid hell, and somehow or other slip past the doors of heaven; somehow or other, even if you are not fully qualified for it. Yoga says: ‘This is a little childish, you have got something more glorious. Why do you play this game of heaven and hell?’ Yoga rejects hell, and Yoga rejects heaven also. Go to the Creator of heaven, the Master of heaven. Why heaven? Heaven is also a petty desire. You don’t want it. ‘I want God. I want to experience God, the Supreme Being, the Master of heaven’. Yoga concerns itself with God, not heaven or hell. You can say these are some of the differences, the way that Yoga differs from Christianity. It is where orthodox Christian doctrine differs from Yoga.

 Yoga restores the most precious part of religion, which, unfortunately, by and large, is not present. In most of the major religions of the world, except in a microscopic section of people who enter into monastery for all life, the nuns and the monks, who somehow or other concentrate all their life upon this spiritual content, except for them, by and large, normally, the spiritual content is found to be lacking in religion. But since the impact of Yoga over the past fifty years, gradually, we see a very wonderful phenomenon, a revival is taking place in the Christian world, emphasising this inner spiritual aspect, your connection with this Godhead. There are many such examples. Some of them are working like the apostles. In the early days, some of them were really fired, like Pentecostal inspirations. They are all good signs. Yoga is presently doing that, restoring to religion the religious life of any being. It restores to him the spiritual quality, the spiritual factor and that is the greatest thing that it does. It doesn’t disturb your religion. It doesn’t contradict your religion. In no way does it contradict anything. It says: ‘wherever you are, whatever you are, try to find God, try to live a noble life. Purify yourself of the lower nature. Shine with virtue. Create in yourself divine qualities and awaken the divine within you, and move towards God.’ That is the central message of Yoga. It can be harmoniously incorporated into any religion and the religious life of any being, any faith to enrich that religion and make it alive and take you towards the true goal which is the goal of any religion.

(Kindly copied from www.yogaforums.com)

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Relaxing after a class

11/06/2009 at 05:45 (Yoga)
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It is important to guard against the trap that the offering of relaxation after a yoga class becomes just another form of hypnotism, because many of the relaxation techniques can so easily become just that. True relaxation will allow the body to assimilate the added flow of prana that was created during the asana practice and in doing so the body learns to find and seek a natural equilibrium and state of healing as the parasympathetic nervous system is activated.

Psychologically the relaxation is meant to guide the yogi to let go of any effort and identification with the physical body and emotions. As the asana (savasana or corpse pose) used for this relaxation suggests, it is also a dying of the physical body and a rebirth into a fresh innocence. So in essence the relaxation is a detachment from the body, from your aspirations, from your accomplishments, your possessions, plans and personal history, and in doing so one opens yourself to the great mystery in front of you, which is awareness or consciousness.

The relaxation at the end of a class is the psychosomatic release of all of who/that you think you are, a free fall into groundless ground, the pathless path, but coupled with clear alertness and being mindfully present. This becomes your foundation for the meditation that follows after the relaxation.

Mindfullness Meditation after the class

I teach Mindfulness Meditation, which has three very distinct behaviours or phases.

1. The first I call the arrival and centering. This implies being aware of your body, in other words selecting a comfortable position and posture for it to sit, choosing a room with certain vibrations, lighting a candle and incense. These are all the aspects I associate with this phase. Once you have arrived, you can move into the next phase, which is centering. In other words, commit yourself to what you are about to do, meditating, focussing your awareness on what you want to achieve and how you going to achieve it. During this phase you can recite a mantra or you can read an inspiring piece to facilitate this phase. I also like to watch the thoughts that come up in my mind and to tell my mind constantly that there is no need to worry about the thought it just brought up. Eventually the mind realsie that it can relax and stop its chattering by wanting to control everything. Once you have achieved peace you need, you can move to the next phase, which I call anchoring and labelling.

2. In the second phase of anchoring and labelling, we anchor the breath by mindfully practicing a few rounds of pranayama. It is a time to open to greater awareness that includes sensations, emotions and even states of mind. This practice creates a state of calm abiding or what the Buddhists call shamantha. When we rest our awareness on a single anchor without any expectation or outcome other than pure observance or awareness, it is considered the foundation for mindfulness meditation. Now you can employ techniques such as mantra, advanced pranayama, concentration and contemplation to further develop this awareness, which leads you to the final phase of accepting and letting go.

3. When you accept and let go, your meditation reach a point where you suspend any effort to edit or censure what is happening. To stay mindful, aware and conscious, you have to accept that which mindfulness finds and say “yes” to it every moment and this in turn imply that you are present in every moment without lapse. Eventually you will recognise meditation happening all the time, when washing the dishes or clothes or picking up after your children etc., becomes part of mindfulness meditation.

Om’s and blessings.

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