Blog Archives

Sukhasana (Postures #1)

7/31/2015

Assume the Position

“Place the soles of the feet completely under the thighs, keep the body straight, and sit at ease.” Siva Samhita, 3.4.95

Sukha means pleasant or easy. Sukhasana is often called easy pose or happy pose, and sometimes tailor’s pose. Learning to maintain this and similar meditation poses is, according to many yogis, what the physical practice of Hatha Yoga is all about.

The usual directions for this posture aren't much more than, “Sit cross-legged.” We’re going to look a little more closely.

To begin, sit on the floor with your legs extended. Fold one leg in, bringing the foot underneath the opposite knee or thigh. Then fold the other leg in the same way.

Feet

Try not to let your feet “sickle,” or rotate inward. Why? To protect your knees. When you sickle your foot, the peroneus longus muscle that runs down the outside of your lower leg is lax, which means up at the top of that muscle the ligament that supports your knee is also lax and not doing its job.

Another good reason not to sickle: if sukhasana becomes your meditation posture, it can do permanent damage. These are my feet (and sock-lines, thank you very much!). I spent roughly a decade sitting on my foot wrong in meditation before I got into Yoga and heard about sickling.

Seat

Are your knees up higher than your hips? Does your lower back round out behind you instead of gently inward at the lumbar curve?

To do this pose with correct alignment, most of us need a meditation cushion or a folded blanket to sit just on the edge of. The purpose of this prop is twofold: 1. it allows the knees to be below the hips so the thighs release down, and 2. it preserves the natural curves of the spine. Both of these things lead to better posture and greater comfort.

With your legs folded, you want to feel that you’re sitting on your sitting bones, or ischial tuberosity, that protrude from the bottom of your pelvis. If you don’t feel them, rock forward and back until you find them. These and your tail bone should go down rather than be tilted under or out back.

Knees

If your feet are properly extended or slightly flexed and your hips are above your knees but you still feel strain in your knees, use blankets or blocks to support your thighs. Place the props up toward your hips rather than under the knees themselves.

Spine

Now, sit up. Donna Farhi explains it like this: “Slide the ribcage up as if your head, ribs, and pelvis were beads on a string, and you were holding the bottom bead down and pulling the string gently from the top."

Tuck your chin just slightly, feeling the back of your neck lengthen. You want to lengthen your spine while maintaining its natural curves.

Shoulders and arms

Let your shoulders relax down. You can place your hands face up or face down on your thighs. Unless your arms are very long, it isn’t recommended to rest your hands on your knees as this tends to pull the shoulders forward and get your spinal alignment all outta whack.

Second Side

Sukhasana is what’s known as an asymmetrical pose. Because of how the legs fold, the pressure is unevenly distributed on the lower legs and the hips are unevenly open.

So, after your designated hold time, extend your legs. Shake them out if that feels appropriate. And then fold the opposite one under first.

How Long Should I Hold the Pose?

A couple minutes, building up to longer.

Most of the time in classes, sukhasana is a base pose for other movements and not held too long as a pose in itself. When you do hold it, you may find that after a very few minutes your back starts to fatigue and you feel like slouching. That’s normal for people who grew up sitting in overstuffed couches and chairs with backs.

The good news is that nearly all the Yoga poses help make sukhasana easier. Practice sukhasana whenever you can and maintain a regular Yoga asana practice, and eventually you'll be able to stay in sukhasana for hours, if that's the sort of thing that's appealing to you.

What Good is it?

Sukhasana builds back strength and opens our hips and shoulders. It’s a recommended posture for pranayama and meditation. According to the Siva Samhita, which is one of the three main texts of Hatha Yoga, out of all of the poses only four are really important and one of those four is accessible to everyone; that pose is sukhasana.

Pranayama 101 (Yoga Basics #5)

7/22/2015

Pranayama refers to yogic breathing exercises. According Hatha Yoga, we have an energetic body that is completely interwoven with our physical body. This body is made up of prana (a.k.a.life energy) traveling through channels called nadis. Prana occurs with the breath but is not the same thing as the breath.

Prana is the first root word of pranayama. The second is ayama, which means to extend or expand. So, in pranayama we extend and expand our life energy by extending and expanding our breath. Some ancient texts claim that we are born with our breaths already numbered, and that by slowing down our breathing we are extending our time in this cycle.

How Pranayama Works, Mystically Speaking

Each of our two nostrils is attached to one of the main nadis or energy channels. The most important pranayama techniques are concerned with balancing the prana between the left and right side.

Here’s why. There is a central channel, called the sushumna. When prana flows through the sushumna we experience enlightenment. However, in most of us the kundalini (spiritual energy) lies coiled at the base of this channel. This dormant spiritual energy blocks the prana from entering the central channel and forces it to take an alternate route, through the ida nadi on the left and pingala nadi on the right.

The ida is associated with the left side of the body, the feminine, and the moon. Very much like yin.

The pingala is associated with the right side, the masculine, and the sun. Very much like yang.

These two nadis spiral up the outside of the central channel, and where they cross they create pools or eddies of energy called chakras.

The ida, the pingala, and the chakras represent different facets of our personalities. Pranayama (and in fact all of Hatha Yoga) is the art and science of balancing the right and left channels, opening the chakras, and awakening our spiritual energy, the kundalini, thereby allowing it to move up through the sushumna so we can attain spiritual liberation. (You can find a more thorough introduction to the subtle body here.)

Maybe one day we will all be able to sense this energetic body. In the meantime, for those of us who can't or who only get fleeting glimpses of the subtle body, pranayama helps us in our day to day lives. It balance our nervous system, both relieving stress and energizes us. And it clears out the mental chatter that fogs our minds. Many types of pranayama are meditations in their own right.

There has been a lot of solid scientific research done on pranayama and meditation over the last half century. The Institute of Noetic Science database of meditation research has more than 6000 entries! The results are unambiguously and overwhelmingly in favor of these breathing/concentration exercises being good for your body and your brain. Check out The Neurobiology of Meditation for more.

How Pranayama Works, Scientifically Speaking

A Place to Begin, Abdominal Breathing

If you are just beginning to work with your breath, abdominal breathing is the place to start. Also called diaphragmatic breathing or belly breath, this is how we, and all mammals, are supposed to breathe unless we're under attack or exerting strong effort. Unfortunately, many of us are so far out of sync that we have to relearn how to breathe from our bellies.

In the Gheranda Samhita it says to "fill the belly with air." That isn't what's really happening. Really, we are filling the lower lobes of the lungs so that the diaphragm presses down and makes the abdomen expand.

The best position to learn this method is lying down. Later, you'll be able to use it anywhere, any time. But for now, lay down on your back and get comfortable. Place your hands on your abdomen with your middle fingers pointing toward your navel.

Let a few breaths come and go. Just watch without trying to change anything. Then gently let the movement of your breathing go down into your belly. Witness your hands gently rise and fall as your abdomen expands on your inhale and contracts on your exhale. Let your chest become nearly still.

Spend a few minutes here. Work up to five and then ten minutes at a stretch. When your thoughts wander away from the experience of your breath, notice. Then let go of your thoughts, set them aside. Come back to your breath and to your body.

That's it! At first it will seem much easier said than done. But eventually you'll find this a very restful practice. And as you practice, you'll be expanding your lung capacity and preparing yourself both physically and mentally for other types of pranayama.

In future posts, I will describe other basic forms of pranayama. If you’re in Tucson, you don’t have to wait. I’m offering “Breathing and Being: an Introduction to Pranayama and Samyama” 26 July, 3 – 4:30, at Mindful Yoga East. Find more information here.

Feeding Your Soul on the Mat

7/19/2015

For a lot of us, as we go through our day to day lives, our spiritual side is underfed. It shrinks down, becoming little more than a forgotten spark in our hearts. Yoga is one way to nourish that spark and help our souls expand.

What do I mean by spiritual side? I mean that part of us that feels awe and wonder at the mysteries of life and that connects to the greater whole.

That part of us that, when it’s active, can see how we’re all connected and feels compassion for people we’re close to and people we don’t know at all.

That part of us that is made of Love with a capital L; that accepts what is, unconditionally, and that never forgets that Life is miraculous.

That is your spiritual side. That is your soul. And if we nurture it in the good times, it will be there to support us in the hard times, giving us the strength and courage to make it through anything with grace.

How do you nourish your spiritual side? Through all the things we do in Yoga anyway, through mindfulness and being present with ourselves in an accepting and compassionate way. Through stillness and listening for that small voice within. Through building our capacity to love ourselves so we can better love others.

By setting aside all the worry and fear, all the ego angst, and letting Love fill us and shine through us.

That is how we feed our souls on the mat.

Yoga First Timer Part 2 (Yoga Basics #4)

7/17/2015

Food

Here are a few more things you might want to know before going to your first (or second, or any number) Yoga class.

Don’t eat right before class. Because of all the twisting, engaging of your core muscles, and being upside down, let at least 2 to 2.5 hours elapse between any major meal and Yoga class. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to eat closer to class, like you just got off work, try something small and easy to digest. I usually go for an almond milk yogurt, a banana, or a small smoothie.

Breathing

The breath in Yoga goes in and out through the nose. For the most part, that’s all you need to know. And if you have a cold and can’t breathe through your nose, no biggie. Better to practice as a mouth breather than not at all.

The Ashtanga school of Yoga uses ujjayi breathing throughout the practice, and many teachers of eclectic Hatha classes have adopted it. They may call it ocean breathing or victorious breath. In ujjayi you constrict your throat just enough to sound like Darth Vader breathing through his mask. At first you’ll need to make this loud enough for you and probably your neighbor to hear. Eventually, you’ll be able to feel it happening and keep it quiet. The benefit of using ujjayi throughout your practice is that you are instantly aware if you begin to struggle physically or wander mentally because your breathing will change.

However, as a beginner it’s usually plenty of work to stay aware of your breath and learn the postures without trying to add ujjayi in right away.

Finding Your Edge

Yoga should never cause pain or strain. Never. Pain is a sign that something is wrong; you’ve gone too far and are starting to injure muscles and/or connective tissue.

How progress happens in the stretches, strength building poses, and balances of Yoga is that we learn to watch closely as we come up to our "edge," that is the edge of what is possible for our body in that moment. We accept this edge, observe it, sit with it. This edge, of which there is both a near and far side, is challenging, maybe even intense, but not painful.

Pushing too hard against your edge causes injury. Easing up to your edge by paying close attention to your body’s signals leads to both physical and psychological progress. The body slowly opens up, trusting us not to go too far. The muscles grow stronger for having been called on but not abused. Even our bones are strengthened, responding to our requests. Meanwhile, we might just develop patience, discipline, humility, and compassion toward ourselves.

Adjustments and Safe Space

A Yoga class should feel completely comfortable. It should have an atmosphere of radical acceptance and ease.

One issue that can make some people uncomfortable is physical adjustments by the teacher. Some teachers are very hands-on. There are good reasons for this. Sometimes a light touch in the right place can bring you into better, safer alignment, and sometimes firm pressure in a certain spot will let you loosen and sink into a stretch in a way nothing else can.

If you have an aversion to being touched, tell your teacher before class. There are plenty of people for whom this is true and it will be no big thing to the teacher. There are other ways they can guide you toward correct alignment, either verbally or visually.

If you have any inclination of distrust or discomfort in class, you can leave at any time. The unfortunate truth is that not all teachers could be trained or intuitive enough to respond to every potential student appropriately. And, as in any setting, some teachers and students just won’t be a good fit.

Don’t give up! If you try a class and it isn’t right for you, ask around. Do the research. There are oodles of amazing people teaching Yoga these days.

Seek out the teacher who speaks to your soul.

Self-compassion

7/14/2015

What it is

Self-compassion is embracing yourself with the same love, acceptance, and understanding you would give any important person in your life. Many of us don’t even treat ourselves with the respect we would give a stranger, let alone a loved one. Our inner dialogue is harsh and rude. When you make your inner world a more compassionate place, life feels better and you help make the outer world a more compassionate place as well.

What it isn’t

Self-compassion is not self-indulgence. It is not molly coddling. It doesn’t mean we stop working to overcome our challenges and grow as spiritual beings. It means we stop criticizing and berating ourselves and become supportive advocates for ourselves instead.

When you start to practice self-compassion you will find you take better care of yourself, you make time for those things that sooth you. You learn how to nurture yourself and fulfill your own needs, whether those needs are for rest, nutrition, quiet, seeking out worthwhile companionship and affection, whatever you need to make your life a happy and healthy one.

And as you work at self-compassion it becomes easier to be there for others, easier to be fully present. You can better intuit what the people in your life are going through and what they might need from you when you’ve practiced on yourself.

How to practice self-compassion

First, you have to slow down. Meditation is good for this. You have to listen in on your conversations with yourself and be honest about their qualities. What is the tone of the voice with which you talk to yourself? Where might it have come from? You may find that voice to be judgmental or aggressive. It might even be irrational. You may find, as I do, that you have completely unreasonable expectations of yourself.

This voice is the first thing to accept. Not in an “it’s all good” kind of way, but it a starting place kind of way. When you hear this voice, try saying, “There it is again (or, there’s that bitch again!). What would be a more compassionate response to what I’m going through?”

It takes real work, and it’s worth every effort. By practicing self-compassion, you are practicing stepping back into witness consciousness. You are recognizing that you are not the voice in your head but something much greater. The voice in your head can change. You can change it with practice, with diligence, with love.

Samyama: a Very Brief Illustrated Introduction to Yogic Meditation (Yoga Basics #4)

7/13/2015

More than once I’ve been floored at the ancient yogis’ insight into the workings of the human mind. Samyama is one of those times.

I’d probably read the Yoga Sutras at least three times before the significance of samyama dawned on me: this is how meditation works. This is what we’re doing every time we sit. I found it phenomenally helpful in understanding my own experience and hope you do to.

Meditation

Before getting to samyama proper, a few words about meditation in general. There are myriad styles of meditation. If you aren't assigned your practice by your guru or tradition, it’s ok to explore for a while before finding the one that works for you, but then stick with it. Progress comes with discipline.

On posture: first of all, sit up. This activates the brain in a way that reclining turns off. Secondly, relax your face and shoulders and slightly tuck your chin. If you find your brow knitted, your jaw clenched, or your chin lifting, reset.

If the method of meditation you choose to pursue doesn’t have a built in timing feature (prayer beads, number of cycles of which you keep track) set a timer so you won’t worry about how long you’ve been at it and how long you have left.

As for how long you should meditate, that's going to vary by individual. My advice? Start with what's doable. A short 10 minutes meditation that you actually do is far more beneficial than a 30 minute meditation that you rarely get to. Be consistent and you'll be naturally drawn to let your meditation time expand.

You can have your hands any number of ways: resting on your thighs palms up or palms down, folded together, or in a mudra. Unless your arms are long enough, resting your hands on your knees is not recommended as it will bring your shoulders forward and begin to collapse your chest.

Samyama

In concentration, it takes work to return to the object of meditation.

Samyama translates as “holding together” or “tying up,” and it is what we experience as we meditate. Samyama has three parts: concentration (dharana), absorption (dhyana), and union (samadhi). (To make the whole business slightly confusing, dhyana is often translated as meditation.)

First, in dharana or concentration, we sit down to meditate by focusing the mind on something: the breath, a mantra, or the example I'll use here, a candle flame (signified by the whole candle). There will be distractions: thoughts about people, schedules, pets, bills, breakfast, time, work, and maybe even thinking about the fact that we’re meditating, wondering how it’s going and if we're doing it right. If we stick with it, we let these thoughts go and keep coming back to the object of meditation, the candle flame.

Absorption is effortless. There is only you and the object of meditation.

Next, in dhyana, absorption, we become completely absorbed in the object of meditation. The distractions are gone. The meditation is effortless. Only the subject (you) and the object (candle flame) exist in your consciousness. Absorption isn’t something we can control or predict; we can only set the stage. It could be a while before this happens, but it will happen if you persevere.

Samadhi is union with the object of meditation.

Finally, in samadhi, there is no distinction between subject and object. There is union. There are different stages of samadhi: with object/without object, with thought/without thought.

It is through these moments of samadhi, of integrated Oneness, that we gain clear vision. Each stage of samadhi does a little more to burn away our karmic seeds and samskara or habits of thought. Each visit to samadhi allows us to see and reflect unfiltered Reality a little more.

That’s it! That is how we overcome the ego personality and let the Sacred shine through us, and all you have to do is cultivate stillness in your body and mind. Buena suerte, super friends!

The Secret to Every Yoga Posture (Yoga Basics #3)

7/10/2015

I love freaks. I have profound respect for people who turn their challenging differences into triumphs and those who push at arbitrary social boundaries.

But becoming a contortionist or a strongwoman or man is not what asana practice is about.

Originally asana meant “seat.” When Patanjali used it in the Yoga Sutras it meant “seated meditation posture.” It wasn’t until Hatha Yoga began in the 10th century that it came to refer to postures meant to build physical and mental endurance.

In the records we have of early asana, up to the 19th century, nearly all of the postures are seated. There are a few inversions, like shoulder stand and plow, and a couple are done lying on your back. There are only two standing poses and they are both balances.

The original yogis held postures for very long stretches of time. It was during the era of the British Raj that asana practice the way we know and love it was born. In the quest for an Indian exercise regime to answer to British “physical culture” and to strengthen the populace in pursuit of independence, the postures of Hatha Yoga were blended with exercises from Indian wrestling and European gymnastics.

The genius was maintaining focus on one’s breath. This is what gives yoga asana its unique mental and spiritual benefits. Being able to touch your head with your foot gives you no assurance of personal development; but being able to stay present in this moment with what is – whatever that is – that makes sparks fly! It creates strong connections in the empathic, intuitive, and higher order thinking parts of your brain; it gives perspective on life that helps you escape a narrow view and gain the wisdom of the big picture; it creates a sense of spaciousness within that will help you transcend the ego and find peace.

The secret to every yoga asana is that it doesn’t matter what your body looks like in a pose. It doesn’t matter how deeply you can enter a posture physically. As long as your alignment is good and there’s no pain or strain, the posture itself is secondary.

What matters is your ability to be in the pose, to not let your mind wander away. It takes practice. There are a lot of thoughts that fight for our attention during an asana practice. When I started, mine sounded like this: “I should be able to go deeper. That person isn’t doing it right. Am I showing too much cleavage? I’m better at this than half the class. When will the teacher let us out? I shouldn’t have had that sandwich. Half the class is better than me at this.” And on and on. Because that’s what brains are built to do.

But keep coming back to your breath and your body with patience and compassion and eventually you’ll find acceptance and then peace of mind.

In the meantime you’ll gain all the physical benefits of yoga – strength, flexibility, balance, a healthier heart, better digestion, and a stronger immune system. And that will give you the physical stamina to take your newfound joy out into your relationships, your work, your world.

All you have to do is keep coming back, back to your practice, to your body, and to your breath. Eventually you will find freedom: freedom from your thoughts, from your ego, and from your cultural conditioning. And maybe you will become a freak. Not a contortionist or a strongwoman or man, but that rarest of all types of human, enlightened.

Getting Help When Anxiety Holds You Prisoner

7/8/2015

I have arthritis in my jaw because of anxiety. My clenched muscles wore holes in the disks of cartilage between the bones. Then the bones wore away at each other. It is irreversible damage that will cause me discomfort and sometimes pain for the rest of my life.

Anxiety doesn’t just mess with how you think; it causes long term damage to your body and your brain. It shortens your life. And, if you let it, anxiety can kill you.

I had all kinds of reasons why I thought I shouldn’t get help: I ought to be able to fix it myself. Needing help was weakness. Other people needed those resources more than me. Who would understand? This is who I am.

Really, I was afraid. I was afraid to call my insurance provider to get preapproval. I was afraid of being told there was nothing wrong with me. I was afraid treatment wouldn’t work. I was afraid it would.

Eventually I started thinking of suicide too often. (!?) I had people in my life I did not want to hurt or abandon. I had memories of loving life to my core.

Step one was to get educated.

Read: I read a lot. These three books were the most helpful: What You Can Change and What You Can’t by Martin Seligman; The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis et al.; and Anxiety, Phobias, and Panic by Reneau Peurifoy.
Look for help online: There are a lot of support groups and places to go for advice. Check out the adaa.org to start.
Research options for treatment: I was fortunate enough to have insurance that covered behavioral health, so I found the therapists and psychiatrists in my area that were on my plan and read everything I could find about them. If you don't have insurance, there are low cost and government funded treatment options. Mental Health America is a good place to start.

After all that, I knew what I needed to do, but I still couldn’t pick up the phone.

Real change only came when I learned how to consciously relax my body and my breath. Doing these two things saved my life.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a simple exercise where you tighten and relax different muscle groups in turn. I had no idea how tense I was until I learned how not to be. This is the recording I listened to over and over, until I had it memorized and could guide myself through it: Progressive Relaxation.

Abdominal breathing. I would do the progressive relaxation exercise and then lie on the floor, set a timer for five minutes, place my hands on my stomach, and practice deep abdominal breathing.

I had to constantly, consciously override the cranky, judgmental bitch fest in my mind telling me I was wasting time, doing nothing, get to work you slacker! Eventually, it worked and that voice subsided.

I was not only able to release some of the tension and the pain it caused in my body, but I could step back from my thoughts and see them for what they were, surprisingly irrational! Calling the insurance company was not setting myself up for rejection. Getting into therapy was not a complete waste of time.

It hasn’t been a short or easy road, but I’m happy now. I wake up at peace with myself and you can too. I still practice progressive relaxation and abdominal breathing, and I teach them in my yoga classes. I also make house calls.

You do not have to suffer.

Om shanti shanti shanti.

Om peace peace peace.

Have You Tried Not Giving a Fuck?

7/7/2015

What if you didn’t care what other people think? Assuming you aren’t a sociopath and that you have at least moderate levels of empathy and compassion, you would probably find it liberating to try not giving a fuck.

When we, as humans, hit adolescence we develop a habit of thought psychologists call the “imaginary audience.” We think people are always watching and judging us. Usually this fades away as we mature, though it may come back at times of stressful transition, like when you have your first kid or go through a divorce.

For some of us, it never leaves. Anxiety puts your brain on high alert for danger, and as social creatures we can end up on high alert for negative social cues to the point where we see them when they aren’t really there. I spent a long time feeling like I was under constant observation. It’s not much of a stretch to say I was paranoid about what people thought of me.

The first step to overcoming caring excessively about what other people think is to separate what you know from what you are imagining. For instance, a friend is uncharacteristically short on the phone. What I used to do was rack my brain for how I offended them. What did I do wrong? And you know what? I’d always find something that I could have done differently.

But they never said I offended them. There could have been a million and two different reasons they were abrupt that had exactly zero to do with me, but that didn’t occur to me. Frankly, anxiety makes you pretty damn self-centered.

The point is—don’t guess. Just stop pretending you can read people’s minds. (Unless you really can; then let’s have lunch!) Let the people in your life be responsible for saying what they mean. The vast majority of the time people are not judging you. And for those few who do spend their time criticizing others, well, they have their own steep path ahead of them.

When I let go of imagining what other people were thinking about me (which took a long time and a lot of reminders that I’m not telepathic), I realized I had been a social golem. I’d been encased in clay that I tried to make look like what I thought people wanted to see. When that clay finally cracked and fell off, piece by piece, then I could finally just be me.

Yoga is about stripping away the layers, the façades our egos build around us. Our egos think they are protecting us. But when they fall away and we are able to just be, then we learn how to care for people instead of caring about what people think of us.

So try it—try not giving a fuck. Let go of all the fucks you give about what people think of you. Try it for a minute, then for half an hour. Discover how much of what you do is influenced by your ideas of what you think people expect of you. Then try it for a day. See how it feels. You might find a little freedom.

Yoga Breath (Yoga Basics #2)

7/4/2015

There is a lot of emphasis on breathing in a Yoga class. At the beginning, we’re told to pay attention to our breath to become centered. Throughout the postures, we’re reminded to return to our breath to stay focused. And in savasana we are directed to set our thoughts aside and just breathe.

So, what’s with all the prompts to remember to breathe? It’s not like we’re going to forget—breathing happens on its own.

A long time ago yogis discovered that breathing is the link between the body and the mind. We know now that it’s our access point into the nervous system. Slow down the breath and we tell both body and mind that all is well, it’s ok to relax, let go, and move our attention inward to where the real work of Yoga takes place.

Slow deep breathing shifts the chemical balance of the brain away from stressed out, negative, fight or flight thinking and releases neurotransmitters that make us feel content and happy. All of the unique mental benefits of Yoga rely on this shift from uptight to peaceful—a change in perception that is brought about simply by conscious breathing.

During asana, breath awareness keeps us safe; with our awareness tethered to the breath and our physical sensations, we quickly become aware of any discomfort or strain, both of which increase the pace at which we breathe. It also keeps us grounded in the present moment, so our practice doesn't slip away while we think of other things.

On another level, using the breath as an anchor for consciousness keeps the incessant chatter of the ego at bay. Yoga is many things. One of its most famous definitions, from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, is “Yogas chitta vritti nirodha”—Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. Continuously returning our attention to our breath throughout a Yoga class makes the practice a moving meditation.

Staying with our breath helps us start to recognize the transient nature of thought; then we can begin to untangle the perception of our thinking self from our true Self.

Try as we might, thoughts will keep popping up. Minds will wander. It’s their job to keep us safe by scanning the outer and inner environments for threats. The bigger job is to be patient and not get frustrated with the thinking mind.

Every time we catch ourselves thinking and return our attention to the breath, it’s a little victory. Every single time that happens we’re building our capacity to be fully alive to the present moment. We are taking a step toward joy and away from fear. Every single time, we move a little closer to freedom.

We don’t have to be in class to use the breath to bring us into the present moment. Try it at traffic lights, in line at the store, or between receiving and responding to texts. The breath is a talisman we cannot forget and leave at home. It is a constant reminder of our impermanence. And it is the portal into a more joyful, authentic, and love-filled life.

Breathe easy, Super Friends.

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