Consciously Moving Through the Game of Life

Yoga speaks of the universe as composed of two basic realities: The realm of Pure Spirit Consciousness (Parusha) and the realm of Material Phenomenon, which observes and experiences life (Prakriti.)

Many classical teachings tell us that union with the divine is reached by freeing ourselves of our material body and reabsorbing back into Pure Consciousness.

Some interpretations suggest that life’s purpose is just to get the hell out of this reality.

But what if the embodied life is a sacred gift rather than something we need to escape from? While we are all innately interconnected as a whole, did the universe not willingly choose to manifest diversity?

The tantric tradition teaches that the universe purposefully concealed itself within us for no reason other than its own delight of rediscovering itself. Like a game of hide and seek; consciousness hides for the fun of being found. This is the beauty of duality. It is only through the limited that the unlimited can be known. We are the reflection of divinity. The body is not inferior to spirit; it is the gateway to it.

It is not by disengaging from our surroundings that we learn the most, but from observing our relationship to them. We learn so much about ourselves through our relationships with others; our partners, families, supervisors, food, bodies, and the planet.

We embrace diversity to find a greater unity.

‘You are the point the universe is trying to make.’ (Douglas Brooks)
The universe manifested itself as you. Ah, you are sacred.

Everything is pure just as it is. Even when we feel separated from all that is divine, it is that feeling of separation that fuels the desire to connect. What we can feel, we can heal. The obstructions are part of the sacred 'hide and seek' design.

There is nothing from which to free our selves. We are already free. But what are are we attaching our freedom to? After all, we are equally free to attach to our fears as we are to our divinity.

There Is No Path To Peace. Peace Is The Path

(Mahatma Gandhi)

January 2012 marked my 10-year yoga anniversary.

Through the practice I have discovered Life. While my body is always present, my mind is often elsewhere, caught in projects, worries and analysis. Yoga and meditation have given me the tools necessary to keep my mind in the Now. Life is only available in the present moment. The past is already gone; the future has not yet arrived.

When we establish ourselves in the present moment we are able to get in touch with the healing and nourishing elements that are always within us and around us.

One month into a new year, as we progress on a renewed path, we often have ideals we think we should be living up to. We put expectations on ourselves to improve in some way.

Difficulty is inevitable in human life, but what causes misery is not the difficulty but our assumption that we are meant to have everlasting happiness. When life becomes difficult or painful, we feel that something has gone wrong.

We pressure ourselves with the idea that if we could only do the right thing we would have everlasting happiness. All this brings is stress and anguish against a self-perceived imperfection.

Science explains how the stress hormones produced by our mental state can affect our weight as much as the amount of calories we consume. I am willing to bet that we all know someone who has either gained weight or not lost weight while restricting calories on a diet.

We are souls with a body, though often we treat ourselves as a body with a soul.

Yoga has taught me that a pose can’t heal me as much as the degree of love I feel while in it. If I can’t feel free with who I am right now, I will be nothing more but a skilled practitioner of breath and alignment. I may learn to reduce my stress but overly focusing on the body will never satisfy the soul.

The path informs the destination. We will never be satisfied with achieving our goals if we don’t learn to be satisfied right now.

A disease is no longer dis-ease if we find ease with it.

Each yoga practice ends with the pose Savasana, in which we are asked to let go completely and allow everything to be as it is.

Can we find a hint of savasana in every pose no matter how challenging? Can we do the same when we are no longer on the yoga mat?

Living Our Dharma in 2012

Here we are. 2012. Great. What’s for dessert?

We all live our days wanting something delightful. We might choose healthier or less healthy pleasures, but the desire is the same: to fill the need for delight.

We’re always thinking about the next best thing; hence the tradition of New Year resolutions.

What were this year’s resolutions? Changing the shape of our body, or improving our health or lifestyle?

If that’s the goal, we’re in trouble! Statistics tell us that we stand very little chance of fulfilling our resolutions.

It seems there is never going to be a number on our scales or in our bank account that will meet our desires. We tell ourselves that we know this, but do we really? “If I can just achieve this goal, THEN I can be happy.” How misleading.

No external goal will resolve the deepest question nagging us all; “Who am I meant to be?”

Each of us is unique with a role to contribute in this lifetime. The extent to which we fulfill our purpose is the extent of our happiness.

Regardless of money, or body weight, if we have not found and begun to live for and commit to the desire of our personal purpose, nothing will satisfy us.

For those of us who practice yoga (or engage in other mindfulness practices,) we have to take care not to lay the same expectations on our practice. No arm balance or backbend will meet such expectations. While yoga will aid in calming the restlessness, it is a tool, not the answer.

Some of us are dealing with professions or obligations that discourage us. We wish we could pour our energy into something we truly love and believe in. This sense of dissatisfaction is our Dharma calling: a desire for our purpose.

Purpose is not about profession. Purpose shines through all aspects of life. It shines through relationships to self and others as well as to each living moment.

When we seek the means to fulfill our purpose and have a healthy relationship to this purpose, we have a natural urge to be healthy in order to reach our fullest potential. Our resolutions can serve as tools but they are not the destination.

Let us seek pleasure, intimacy, kindness, and warmth. The soul longs for expression.

If you are focused on becoming healthier, ask yourself why you are doing this. We all have desires, but some are more helpful than others. Be clear on your purpose. What is your body here to serve you in doing this lifetime? Reflect: look inward and ask questions.

If You’d Like to Gain Weight, Go On A Diet

Just prior to Thanksgiving, many of the health and wellness blogs and articles shared the common focus of helping people control their appetite during the holiday.

I wondered if someone were to follow any of these suggestions to help curb their appetite, would they feel empowered?

The modern mind has become a master at transforming self-improvement into self-blame. We get trapped into feeling stuck rather than empowered. All these articles seemed to speak to our fears and shame rather than our strengths.

We live in a dieting culture where diets are beginning to create more problems than solutions.

Almost every study shows that 99% of humans who lose weight on a diet gain it back within a year or two. Why do people diet for years on end even though it isn't working?

Chronic dieting (i.e. endlessly dieting 'on and off') has become a seductively destructive epidemic. For most, it enhances self-judgment and unworthiness. In our culture it has become totally acceptable (and somewhat expected) to diet.

Well, here are six reasons why ongoing dieting doesn’t work:

1)  The body’s response to food restriction is to slow down metabolism. This is a natural survival response to prevent death by starvation. If the body senses there is a famine, it will slow down caloric burning to sustain itself on less for longer. We can actually gain weight or not lose weight when eating fewer calories.

2)  Dieting puts the body into a ‘stress response’. Mental cycles of self-judgment and self-hate increase our stress hormones, cortisol and insulin. “I’m no good, I’m too fat” is a physiology that pulls away from our digestive power, hormonally negating muscle building and fat burning.

3)  Most dieters will be a little fat deficient and protein deficient. When we are missing essential fatty acids and essential amino acids, our thermal efficiency is slowed down.

4)  Many dieters cannot find pleasure in their food. Part of our digestive power is fired in the cephalic phase in which the brain senses pleasure through the senses. When we are not getting the pleasure, metabolism is weakened. This is also why eating too fast or when distracted weakens digestion, as the senses are not involved.

5)  Many dieters skip meals, eating less in the morning and more at night. When we skip breakfast and eat a late lunch, we lose out on the heightened hours of digestion. 12-1:30pm and the hours prior to that are the strongest caloric burning hours.

6)  If we have less food, we can take in oxygen less efficiently because the body is trying to slow down its systems. Oxygen enhances the proficiency of our bodily functions.

Calories have little power over the power of the mind.

While diets can be useful and healing short term, a chronic dieting mentality is anti- weight-loss. If it worked, we wouldn't need to continuously diet!

There are a tremendous number of health issues that are a direct result of chronic dieting. These include fatigue, poor digestion, low mood, immune problems, headaches, binge eating, skin, constipation, and more. These conditions are often misdiagnosed as the problem rather than a symptom of nutrient deficiency.

When we are stressed about eating, our body is incapable of properly digesting.

To change our patterns we need to change our thoughts. We need to learn how to relax into the process. While there are many paths of personal growth and evolution, I can speak to the path of yoga, as it has been a pillar in my own personal development.

The path of yoga aids in improving health and weight for various reasons such as caloric burning, cleansing, and mental stress reduction that soothes our emotional drive for overeating. More than that, yoga works because it changes the stress physiology, which prevents us from losing weight no matter how little we eat.

What are your methods for changing your stress physiology?

Related Articles:
The 100 Year Diet Cycle
Are We Overestimating Overeating?
Understanding Macronutrient Balance

How Being Healthy Can Be So Unhealthy

Modern culture has taught us well to obsess about our looks. We knowingly apply toxic chemical products to our hair and skin for the sake of appearance and deal more and more with eating disorders.

Whether consciously or not, we often sacrifice our physical or emotional health for the sake of our appearance.

While it is fun and important to feel beautiful in our bodies, we often are driven to do so by stress rather than self-love. This is an inevitable result of a culture that has little focus or education around how to nourish the spirit.

Hyper concentration on the finite body is based on our fears. We fear that we are not good enough or attractive enough. We fear that we won’t be liked or accepted.

There is no way out of this obsessive suffering without shifting our attention internally from finite to the eternal-self, the love that exists in us all. Self-awareness leads to non-violence, both mental and physical, against ourselves and others.

The Journey Will Inform the Destination.
However the journey looks is the way the destination will look. If we hate ourselves into exercise and diet, it will end with more hatred. Even if we lose the weight, we will either gain it back or keep hating ourselves fearing its return. The Biggest Loser educates us how to shame ourselves into weight loss. While I am in awe of the strength that each participant emanates, I suspect that unless each found further guidance in self-love, he or she will live forever in shame of their bodies regardless of the number on the scale.

There are two types of people who heal themselves of their health challenges: Those who do it from love and those who do it from fear.

If we are working on self-acceptance, why are we spending all our energy on external results? This leaves little room for focus on the process of self-acceptance.

In my early 20’s I discovered the practices of meditation and yoga that revealed to me a whole new world of mysticism and self-revelation. Up until that time I had been very self-conscious of my body. The movement of my long limbs always felt very awkward and somewhat lifeless. The more time I spent exploring this internal world, the more I started to connect to my body as a sacred space. As a container for my spirit, there was much to honor and be grateful for.

Unknowingly I started to walk differently, I started to be noticed more, and I felt comfortable being seen. By connecting to something greater within myself and in seeing it in others, I felt worthy to take up space in the world. My muscles naturally started to tone and my stride became more confident.

I realized that the state of my body had everything to do with my mind. The subconscious need to “blend in” is what had prevented my body from shifting its shape.

Weight or any other health challenge is the way we express our deeper challenges in the world. In our healing process we are learning lessons that can be very powerful to our growth. These very challenges are the signs pointing us towards our personal development.

Learning to heal involves learning to love ourselves into healing.

Giving Up Hope As A New Year Resolution?

The Buddhist tradition teaches us that as long as we continue to wish for things to change, they never will. As long as we hope to improve, we won't. As long as we have an orientation toward the future, we will never just relax into what we already have or already are.

One of the deepest habitual patterns we carry is to feel that now is not good enough. We reflect and compare the present to the past or wish things to be different when imagining the future.

Even at times when we feel great satisfaction in our lives, we tend to think about what the future holds. We don't quite give ourselves full credit for who we are in the present.

It is easy to yearn for things to improve as a result of our actions. We create our New Year resolutions based on these hopes. Vowing to exercise more or improve our diet, we hope to feel or look a certain way.

Abandoning any hope of fruition does not mean abandoning our ambitions. Instead, it points to a path that focuses on the present rather than on results.

Whatever we do, it is usually done for a purpose, hoping to succeed rather than fail. That works well until our thoughts of success or failure begin to overpower the task at hand. Hopes and fears tend to go hand in hand and when we become result driven, we often miss the lessons presented along the way.

How is it possible to maintain our focus and work toward achieving our desired outcomes, without getting fixated on results? As we go about our activities, we must pay attention to the difference between having a goal and being taken over by our hopes, fears, and speculations.

I personally want to meditate more this year, but am not listing that as a resolution. My intention is to continue integrating more compassion toward others and myself. My methods to experience this include meditation and yoga, teaching and coaching, nutrition, and nurturing my relationships. By doing what I love, I tap into my natural strengths. In this way I can experience my ultimate result in the present moment and by meditating more, the experience will simply continue from what is already present rather than from what I feel may be missing.

As you work with your New Year resolutions, keep in mind that the root of healing is not in the premise that you are going to try to push things away, but that what you already have in each step of the process is worth appreciating. Enjoying the ride is how we ultimately find joy and gratification in our lives.

The Intuitive Source of Eating

There are two major hemispheres in our brain through which we process our experiences.  The left hemisphere governs rational and logical thoughts or reasoning.  The right side of the brain is stimulated when strong emotions are experienced and matters of the ‘heart’ are processed.

If we look at the nutrition world today, we have access to an endless amount of books and articles by nutritional experts educating us about their “formula” for health.  Most avenues approach nutrition as if it were a math equation of calories and grams.  This is a very logical left-sided (in other words; ‘masculine’ or yang) way of thinking.

While this is extremely valuable information, it only represents half of the information necessary to understand our health.

There are many more factors involved in the way our bodies assimilate food.  The right-side brain (the ‘feminine’ yin side) may be more receptive to understanding our body’s signals, recognizing what our body lacks  to support health and balance.  While logic may view cravings in a negative light, a more holistic approach sees cravings as the body’s signal in search of balance.

There is a huge component in diet that is an intuitive way of eating:  this was also true  for our ancestors who knew which foods would best treat disease or maintain health, and when would be the best time or season to eat each food.

Where do these cravings and intuitive information originate?

The enteric nervous system (ENS) has been described as a "second brain" and is embedded in the lining of the gastrointestinal system. Our gut brain has qualities that are very similar to the head brain in the way in which it communicates with the body through the nervous system.  Researchers have found that the gut sends more messages through the channels of the nervous system to the brain than the brain does to the gut.  Connecting this to diet, we can learn that rather than have the head inform the belly what to eat, we should be developing our natural capability of understanding what the belly is telling the head.

In Eastern culture, the midsection is considered to be the center of both our spiritual and physical wisdom. It is the same section that is our center of gravity.

As a culture we have lost sight of this center. Most of us live in our head. We can see it in our posture. We move through life thrusting our head forward instead of resting it on the support of our spine. As a result ,we commonly suffer from tight muscles at the back of the neck and shoulders. We have forgotten to move from our core both in body and lifestyle. We disregard our ‘gut feelings’ and count on external information more than feeling and intuition to understand our nutritional needs.

Feeling takes guts... 

The Temptations of Ego

As the end of January approaches, it becomes more difficult for many of us to keep our New Year’s resolutions. Fearing change we may begin to make excuses to keep us repeating old patterns.

We all have egos that endeavor to maintain a sense of control and do everything possible to prevent us from breaking out of our comfort zones.

Although we understand that it is time to take action and make changes, we often experience a strong resistance. Our ego whispers, “don't bother. It's too much work. Things are fine the way they are.”

As we begin applying ourselves towards creating change (getting fit, losing weight, quitting an unhealthy habit, prioritizing family and friends, becoming organized, etc.), the trapped energy within our bodies and minds begins to stir. Things swept under the rug rise to the surface, making change to be a somewhat difficult experience. This is when the voice of discouragement and doubt can grow louder.

The ego's most common strategy is resistance; saying we are too tired or too busy to deal with such things, that we can do more constructive or enjoyable tasks. Ego manifests as reasoning to celebrate our weight loss with a cookie, or as an injury that occurs just as our new workout has become routine.

Resistance is like breathing, even if we don’t think about it, it just happens. The ego is not evil; It is just trying its best to keep us safe. Making changes in our lives and taking steps towards self-improvement can be overwhelming. The ego, rooted in fear, much like an overly protective parent, prefers us not to  take any chances that might cause us to feel hurt.
 
Which Map Are You Using to Reach Your Destination? 
Be very clear on what intentions motivate you to achieve your goals. Your New Year resolutions could just be another ploy of the ego... For example, say you are at an unhealthy weight. The ego may have fooled you into believing  that you need to change your weight to feel beautiful or accepted. Then as you stride to make changes, the ego does everything in its power, through doubt and temptation, to prevent you from following through. It has now succeeded trapping you so that you will never feel good enough just as you are. Never satisfied with how things are now.

However, if you realize that the unhealthy weight is a result of habits created while your soul was asleep, your journey is now about waking up and loving your soul, rather than just liking your body. As the soul awakens, the ego’s hold on you weakens. When we find love for the process more than for the goal, there is less space for ego.

Moving Forward is Learning to Stay: 
We need not surrender to ego nor do we need to fight it.  Coming up against ego will only cause it to act out. If we don’t learn to stick with the resistance, the slightest incident will be a trigger and we will run.

We crave breakthroughs and get discouraged when we don’t see dramatic results fast. The excuses start pouring in:  we are too tired, or too busy to cook ourselves healthy meals, or move our bodies. Find ways to enjoy the process, to waken the soul.

We must ask ourselves, “According to my decisions now, what will the results be in a year or two?”  Giving into the resistance will bring more of the pain we are trying to overcome.  Such a realization might inspire us to work through the discomfort. Avoiding it will keep it there year after year.

The Mind and Body Connection

Our body is composed of various biological systems, linked and coordinated with each other via the nervous system. The nervous system is composed of the brain and spinal cord, and from there it branches out to a network of nerves that connect to both the sensory and internal organs. The entire nervous system regulates bodily functions such as the circulation of blood, digestion of food, and breathing while carrying the information the body needs to adapt to its environment. Some of these responses reach our consciousness and some do not. For example, when we interpret a situation as dangerous, we become aware of our fear, but we are unaware of the physiological responses of elevated blood pressure and greater blood flow to the muscles as less blood flows to the digestive organs. Similarly, most stressful situations will have the same effect i.e. impaired digestion.Psychological events and stress levels will affect physiological functions. Yet many nutrition professionals continue to preach that loss of weight is the result of the number of calories ingested versus the number burned. If our emotions affect every part of our body and in particular our digestive system, how can they not be part of the equation?!Stress can be a major contributing factor to gaining weight. Not only because you might be driven to consume more calories, but also because its link to weakening digestion and to heightening fat production. Creating more stress around your weight loss process is counterproductive.Each time we stress ourselves out (yes, we are responsible for our own reactions to any given situation,) we demand our body release a surge of adrenalin. The more we stress, the more adrenalin we need. If we are not careful to replenish ourselves with good nutrition, stress relief and rest, our body will no longer have the fuel to keep up. Commonly this leads to cravings for caffeine and sugar which can stage a similar effect on the body. Caffeine and sugar can contribute both to emotional stress and weight gain. Without giving the body any real nutrients, most coffee brands and refined carbohydrates will cause a rise in blood sugar levels and get our adrenals to release more “juice”, giving us a renewed false sense of energy. This type of continuous behavior can trap the nervous system in ‘survival mode’ where digestion and other functions are impaired, the internal organs are weakened, and the adrenals are overworked (leading to other symptoms like insomnia).The Placebo effect: The mind is powerful beyond belief. A placebo is an inactive substance given to satisfy a patient’s symbolic need for drug therapy. It is also used in medical studies to compare results with an active drug. If the actual drug shows equal results to a placebo, it is discarded. That is because a placebo does in fact draw results.The placebo effect validates the relationship of body and mind. If the body believes it is healthy, it functions as healthy. Healing happens when our nervous system is in ‘relaxation mode.’ When the body trusts that our environment is safe, it puts the focus back on healing the internal organs of any impact caused while stressed. This strengthens the digestion system.The more ease you create in your life, the stronger every system of your body will be.If you are working on improving your health, take a look at what negative and limiting thoughts you are currently holding about yourself. Write them down and rephrase them into positive thoughts. Start loving who you are, rather than who you want to be. A seed holds the potential of a flower but will never bloom unless you shine some light on it. Come out of the dark.Carve out time to relax and replenish, find a way to move your body in a way that you enjoy; take a few deep breaths before each meal to calm the nervous system and stimulate digestion.Bring love into the process. When we feel love in a situation, our body is at ease. Our breathing is deeper, we trust in the moment, everything flows. Falling out of a state of love and trust, is when we contribute to dis-ease. on.