Most of us spend a lot of time worrying. Worry is perhaps the most futile mental activity imaginable. Worrying, sometimes called excessive rumination, is when we sit there turning the same thoughts over in our heads, envisioning all possible outcomes, all possible reasons, abstracting and having imaginary conversations and doing absolutely nothing – NOTHING – about the problem at hand.
No, worrying achieves nothing. Action achieves results. Planning your action is healthy. Worrying is not planning, though. It is worrying. My mother was a champion worrier. I learned from the best and spent many years perfecting my craft. The only thing I can say all this worrying gave me was the concrete and iron-clad desire to change the way my mind worked. To stop worrying. Don’t worry, be happy, y’know?
I had the good fortune to find yoga at the age of 27 and the good sense to keep practising. I was good at the postures from the start. Most ex-gymnasts can do most yoga postures, it’s true. But, despite appearing to practise yoga, I wasn’t really. I was doing “yogâsana” – yoga postures – but my mind was everywhere but on the mat. Shopping lists…things to do…arguments unresolved…oh wait…time to breathe.
Only once I got in touch with my diaphragm and my breath did I develop the ability to be present in my practice. With presence comes concentration and with concentration, meditation. And with meditation, peace. Yes, dear readers. I no longer worry. Would you believe it possible? I would not have, if someone had told me just like that. But, yoga is an experiential science. The sutras say “here is the road, go walk it, see what you find.” No spoon feeding here.
Here’s the magic part. When we stop worrying, we become brave. You see, with inner stillness one finds one’s purpose. And with purpose, one finds one’s personal power. From frailty we grow resilient and we will take on all adversaries. This is not combat mode like in capitalist echelons and hierarchies. This is about your mission. I have this unshakable faith in humanity and my experience is that when people find their purpose, it is very often much more altruistic than anything they had done before. We become a kind of spiritual warrior.
So, worrier (->yoga)->warrior. Wanna join in?
Breast health….Link to a good read.
October is Breast Health Awareness Month. Ladies and gentlemen, some insights from Dr. Christiane Northrup, MD.
http://www.drnorthrup.com/blog/2013/09/the-other-side-of-angelina-jolies-double-mastectomy
Magnesio: el mineral milagroso
Cuelgo aqui una presentación que hice hace unos meses…espera que os interesa lo suficiente como para probar tomar cloruro de magnesio todos los días durante al menos dos meses…
http://www.rachel-rose.net/files/MagnesioPresentacion.pdf
Carob banana brownie
Here’s a wee recipe I invented today. It uses up over-ripe bananas, and includes delicious carob (full of calcium) and coconut flesh and oil (delicious medium-chain fatty acids). It is satisfying, sweet but not cloying, and moist like a brownie should be! Grace.
carob banana brownie
4 ripe bananas
2 tbsps raw honey
one egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup raw coconut oil (room temp, liquid)
handful of raisins
1 cup sifted white wheat flour
1 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup carob powder
1 tsp baking powder
mash bananas then mix in the rest of the wet ingredients using a beater on low, then add raisins
in another bowl, sift together dry ingredients. You may want to use the hands.
add wet ingredients to dry and fold in,
grease a cake pan with coconut oil, then pour in the mixture. Bake at 170º for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Modern Yoga Research
There is some interesting stuff on here, including downloads of scholarly articles relating to yoga:
http://modernyogaresearch.org/
For example:
Performing the yoga sutra:
http://modernyogaresearch.org/wordpress/wpcontent/uploads/2011/07/Performing_the_Yogasutra_Nevrin.pdf
Why heal?
It can seem to be a bit navel-gazing, all this personal healing that we do. Your journey within is completely unique, mysterious and exciting. One can easily get distracted by the phenomena and surprises along the way.
We had the opportunity to examine this question in great depth, this past week. Some 27 students and 7 instructors gathered in Dénia to study the yoga sutras. I am privileged to be amongst that group. We turned over and around sutras 3:1-38, delving into the siddhis that appear when one practises samyama upon different points in the body. This is pretty esoteric stuff, and it is also information that is privy to the study group. But, it suffices to say that
, with the regular yet detached practice of yoga principles (yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara), one develops the capacity to perform dharana, one-pointed concentration on an object. Dharana leads to dhyana, and dhyana to samadhi. The practice of one-pointedness is called samyama. Our relationship with linear time is altered and we become able to understand the past and the future. (3:1-15)
Along the way, as the nervous system becomes purified and the sensibility heightened, whilst preserving detachment from the information sent to the brain by the sense organs, hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling and seeing, we become more sensitive to other information being subtly transmitted by the person or thing in front of us. This subtle information is unspoken, but it manifests in thought, action, deed and reaction. We find ourselves with the ability to see things that are hidden, or in the past or future. We find our intuition honed and receptive. We may perceive luminosity, sweet tastes and fragrances, murmurs of sound reverberate and are heard. These delights are real and reproducible – as is everything that Patanjali has thus far described. Practice makes perfect balance and union.
But! Beware. Do not identify with these powers. If the ego grabs hold of them, it only becomes stronger. Even the most purified mind, if there are still vrittis of rajas in there, is prone to fall into the trap of identification, exultation and emptiness. If you feel these powers manifesting in you, by all means use them. but use them for the good of man and womankind.
Which brings me to the topic of my post. Why heal? What is the point of all this consciousness-raising? What changes if we are healthier, suppler and more emotionally and mentally balanced? Well, everything.
There is only one way that humankind is going to get itself out of this eco-econo-fear-based decadence and back onto the path of the soul: join together, working for peace and understanding and harmony and an end to war, forever. How do we do this? By understanding, accepting and healing ourselves, we create space in our energetic field for the joys and sorrows of the other. By loving our neighbour as ourselves, by shining our divine light out and letting it meld with the divine light of the other, humankind unites in fraternity and sorority. We heal so that we can love. We love so that we can grow and throw off our shackles. We grow because there is no other way. If you don’t grow, you shrivel.
Heal yourself, heal the world.
The guru is in you.
Paleo diet: Critique in Scientific American
RR Protocol #3: Loving your legs
My grandmother was blessed with many fine qualities, but her legs could not conceivably be included amongst them. By the time I knew her, trunk-like and swollen are the only words one could charitably use to describe them. Perhaps my interest in MLD took hold then?
As the years creep on, I find my legs needing more and more care. I will admit it: for years I hated my thighs. Yep, just like every other woman (mostly). I did sport (weightlifting, cycling, walking, yoga). I ate well. And yet, the lumpiness that set in at menarche persisted. I dreaded those beach photos that…well, you know the ones. And, honestly, my legs aren’t that bad. But my circulation isn’t great.
So, scratching my head, I set out to concoct a cocktail of herbs to helps my legs. Here, dear readers, I share with you
RR Protocol Number Three: Loving Your Legs.
1. If you notice that your digestion and your liver are sluggish, set out to find out why. In some cases, a colonic may be in order. In other cases, an anti-candida diet. In other cases, less wine might help. A great ally in the drainage of the liver is Weleda’s Birch Extract.
2. Practice yoga, or Stretch Therapy, or Pilates. But do it so that you really and truly and actually stretch the hamstrings and hips. The lymphatic drainage of the legs is via the inguinal lymph nodes, located in the crease of the hip, just lateral from the genital area. Lymph vessels are tiny and all too easily collapsed, so pressure here knocks on in the legs. Tight hamstrings may contribute to the fibrous adhesions that are characteristic of cellulite. Stretch, stretch and stretch some more.
3. Breathe deeply. The lymphatic system is not equipped with a pump such as the heart in the circulatory system. Instead, it relies upon small pulsations of the smooth muscle of the lymph vessels, the contraction of muscles and the breath for optimal circulation. Deep abdominal breathing acts as a kind of vacuum for lymph drainage, especially in the lower body, but really everywhere. Pressure changes in the thorax create a pressure differential in the inguinal area, helping draw lymph up from the legs.
4. Lie with your feet up against the wall. This is evident, really. Combat gravity, lift your legs! Also great for relaxing the hips and lower back, as the head of the femur slots into the joint, freeing up the piriformis and ilio-psoas muscles. Try to do this daily, for at least 10 minutes. You can prop your lower back with cushions or a folded towel, or just lie on your bed. Breathe deeply while letting the legs relax fully. When you finish, resist the urge to jump up. Give yourself time to re-adjust to reality.
5. Drink draining herbs. Disclaimer: I am not a herbalist, and I don’t know you. Use this recipe cognizant of your responsibility to your own health. I use a base of yerba mate, then add stevia leaf, nettle, horsetail, birch leaf and some herbs I bought in Wayanad, Kerala, India. Everything bar the last ingredient should be found relatively easily. Just mix it in a re-sealable tin, then get hold of a maté gourd, a bombilla straw and away you go! Maté is naturally bitter, and is commonly drunk in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. To prepare: add herbs to the maté gourd, shake a little until the thicker bits rise to the top and the dust settles. Put the bombilla in at an angle, burrowing it into the herbs. Pour a little cool water right alongside the bombilla, to moisten the herbs. Once moistened, pour in some hot but not boiling water from a thermos, leaving the top leaves mostly dry. Drink. Ahhh. This concoction will take you sailing through the day and help those lovely legs of your look their best (even if you, like me, are standing for 8-12 hours per day!)
Here are my herbs. Sorry the photo is a bit rubbish:
Article in the Independent – The Busy Man's Guide to Broga
In the ever evolving world of occidental yoga, “broga” is making a thrust for the hairier sex with a longing to loosen up. Yes, those guys who call each other “bro“, probably knocking fists as they do so, are starting to understand why one can’t transition from a youth filled with high-intensity competitive sports like football (both varieties), rugby, hockey etc to a sedentary job behind the screen or the wheel and not find ones legs calling out for respite. Good, I am glad that they are on the lookout. Here is the Independent’s tale of Broga in the UK:
Now, before I look at the article, I will address the name. Broga. BRO-ga. brOOOO-gah. Hmmm. The Urban Dictionary link above definitely casts this term as pejorative. It sounds like a So-cal version of redneck. So, I ask myself, who would have coined the term Broga and then had the balls to actually go out and market it? Apparently, Broga LLC, that’s who. They are Robert Sidoti and Adam O’Neill. In an interview with the Boston Globe, Sidoti says:
People see the name ‘Broga’ and they think it’s just a bunch of idiots. But there’s integrity.’
Later, in what might be seen as a slight contradiction to the term “integrity”, we learn:
“What we want to do is start training more guys, basically cloning Rob and having instructors in other cities who can teach it,’’ O’Neill says…He bristles at the term franchise, but that’s essentially the idea they’re exploring. That way a Broga class in Dallas will be the same as a Broga class in Los Angeles.
Um, yeah. But, anyway, that’s the marketing. I am not going to jump to conclusions, but I don’t know if that many men self-identify as bros, if they’re not. Ya get my drift? And cloning your business partner. Umm, that’s kind of far-fetched, isn’t it? Perhaps the humour doesn’t come across in print.
OK, so back to the article in the Indy.
Let’s start with the instructor. He isn’t a clone of Rob. Maybe their technology has yet to catch up. Instead, he is a fitness guy who “fell into” the “sport” of yoga way back in 2011, after being named a Lululemon ambassador. Yep. Go back and read it again. A more glowing recommendation for a yoga teacher I cannot imagine.
So, you turn up at buff guy’s class and he yanks you into the bridge pose, (“We attempt the assisted wheel…with sweaty-ankle man supporting my shoulders as I rise, and Miller pulling up my hips, I make it.”) which leaves you hurting for two days afterwards (“Two days later, when it aches to type these words”). Sthira-sukha anyone? In YS II-46, Patanjali says:
sthira-sukham-asanam
Which, at the risk of offending any “… physically active man who understands very well the benefits of the downward dog but would sooner cultivate his horribly stiff hamstrings than walk into a room full of girls spouting mystical Sanskrit.”, translates to “asana should possess two qualities: attention and relaxation.” Yeah, that’s dandy Patanjali, but what about the SWEAT???
Did these people miss the point that one moves more deeply into yoga poses, not through muscular force but through muscular relaxation? I guess if you’ve only been practising for two years, you might not have reached a true understanding of this concept that is oh-so-foreign to western mindset. Yoga is an experiential science – follow the formula, observe the results. If you are unsure of your results, repeat the experiment until you are convinced. Proceed.
I really don’t want to trash Broga, or any, er, bro, who decides that yoga might help his hamstrings. And I really do hope that this first brush with yoga will set him on his path. And yes, yoga begins its work on the gross, physical plane, then gradually expands into the subtler planes of the breath, mind and purusha. But, I think that eliminating the philosophical parts of yoga steers us off course. The codes of behaviour, the deep psychology of yoga, it sets us free. I believe that the world needs more kind people, not more worked-out people. But, to keep my mind untroubled, I choose to trust that the Universe is unfolding as it should, and that all that we encounter in our path is there to teach us. I trust that yoga will do its work, yoga entrepreneurs notwithstanding.
Let us yog. The Guru is in you.
Summer yum yum
mmmm…cherry, watermelon and melon slush. 