Tag: Individual Practice

How to Benefit from a Gratitude Practice

by Amanda Vaughan, posted in Breathwork, research, Stress Management, Wellness topic
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         I think many of us can identify the calmness and peace that comes with having the thought of thankfulness.  If any of you have read my recent client manual or seen any research on what happens to the body when we experience stress versus when we cultivate peace and calm, you would put 2 and 2 together and know that anything bringing peace is going to have the power to heal.  This is something we intuitively understand but the science is building to show this as well.
         Dr. Masaru Emoto, the Japanese scientist and water researcher, discovered that vibrations affect the molecular structure of water. In his years of water research, through high speed photography of thousands of water crystals, Dr Emoto has shown the most “beautiful” (symmetric and well organized)  crystals are those formed after the water is exposed to the words ‘love and gratitude.’   When water was exposed to words of “anger and hate”, the water crystals became asymmetric and disorganized.  The fact that the human body is made of 70% water, one would consider how  our thoughts can have profound implications on our health.
         The wonderful thing about this feeling of gratitude is that it can be cultivated quite easily.   One can do 15 minutes a day of gratitude practice and experience immediate benefits.  The long-staying results though comes like anything does…. with consistent daily practice.  That’s the kicker, right?  Many of us will start a practice for a week or so and then see it flicker out.  Here’s some steps to help build a daily “consistent” practice of gratitude that has good potential to last.
  • Start small, 5 minutes.  Success will lead to you trying again and not being overwhelmed.  Set a timer and resist doing more.
  • Link your practice to something else you already do daily, like a morning cup of coffee or brushing your teeth.
  • Do it right before or after this already daily routine.
  • During this 5 minutes jot down 3 things that make you feel gratitude.
  • Do this for a month.
  • Bump up to 10 minutes the next month.
  • Bump up to 15 minutes the third month, this time add a nice sitting posture and a minute of quiet after.
  • Continue to build as you feel so, adding other health routines like yoga or breathwork if desired.

Personal Practice Challenge – Self Judgment

by Amanda Vaughan, posted in Exercise, Wellness topic, Yoga

The third sections of Judith Hanson Lasater’s book “Living Your Yoga” focuses on Self-Judgment.  She reminds at the beginning of the section of the yoga sutra that says the posture should be “steady and comfortable”.    She then goes into describing how we set certain expectations on ourselves and have certain thoughts in regards to our practice that gets in the way of our personal practice.  She discusses how we are a culture of “No pain, no gain” and how this is not necessarily the focus in yoga.

Her suggestions for this month is 1)Write down your internal dialogue right after your personal practice.  Keep notes brief and do not try to interpret. Keep track and note how the dialogue changes over time. 2) If you find yourself forcing in asana or other parts of your live ask, “is this in the spirit of yoga?” 3)If you notice that someone else is judging you, don’t be quick to agree or to internalize the judgment.  Think about what happened and agree only if his assessment aligns with yours. 4) If you are going into a situation about which you feel anxious, tense, or afraid say to yourself, “I am perfect just as I am” 5) Rather than approaching your yoga practice from an attitude of no pain, no gain, how about no pain, no pain? and 6) Do not criticize yourself, anyone else, or anything for one hour.  If this feels like too much, commit to doing it for the next 5 minutes.

These suggestions or homework feels quite freeing to me.  We spend so much of our time worrying about not meeting expectations that we forget the only real expectations are to grow and learn.  This should be interesting  lesson in letting go.

Personal Practice Challenge – Discipline

by Amanda Vaughan, posted in Yoga

The next section of Living Your Yoga is on Discipline or as Judith puts it “practice in action”.  She starts by suggesting in order to begin practicing discipline to keep it simple and achievable.  The disciplined practice should focus on being mindful during the practice.   She discusses making a list of things you always want to do but never seem to have time doing them, such as meditation, exercise, writing, taking a walk, reading a good book.  She advises using a timer and setting for only 15 minutes and to do this every day.  She continues to explore that before each designated activity take a moment to declare the intention of what you are trying to do and afterwards to express gratitude for having the time to do it.  She suggests not going over 15 minutes and doing this for every day until maybe you decide to replace it with another activity.

Other Discipline practices she suggests include:

  • Do one thing at a time.
  • Commit yourself to doing what is possible.  Make a list of what you have to do tomorrow and eliminate activities that are unnecessary, reschedule those that can be and should be postponed.
  • Take a nap every Sunday.
  • Slow down in what ever everyday activity you choose such as driving, speaking or walking to you care.  Begin each activity with one gentle inhalation and follow it with a calm exhalation.
  • Take a lunch break every day.
  • For the next 3 days write down what you do in half-hour increments.  This exercise will help you discover your free time.  Now take a break instead of adding another activity and do something restorative like yoga or painting/artwork.

Importance of living “my yoga”

by Amanda Vaughan, posted in Yoga

Judith Hanson Lasater in her book “Living Your Yoga” discusses that in order to develop a personal practice you have to well…make it personal.  She suggests in her first section to develop a list of what is important to you about living your yoga.  Now yoga is not necessarily asanas or poses so “your yoga” really can refer to any of aspect of yoga.  I would go further to say that it refers to any part of “spiritual/wellness practice”.  So whether one does sun salutations in the morning or a daily Christian devotion it is their practice and therefore has importance to the individual that practices it.  So what is important about my wellness and/or spiritual practice?   For me it is consistency. I really need something consistent that keeps me balance.  I also need a practice that helps me maintain mindfulness so that I develop the awareness to know what parts of my body are harboring stress or if I’m am emotionally eating and not just eating for nutrition.  I also need a practice that keeps me strong and healthy.   Finally I need a practice that calms me and provides me a space to be me and connect with my inner peace.  She suggests revisiting this list on occasions to see if anything has changed or needs to be added.

Personal Practice Challenge – Spiritual Seeking

by Amanda Vaughan, posted in Yoga

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Blogs are great for personal challenges so why not jumpstart my blogging with one?  I’m always looking for ways to be consistent in my personal yoga/meditation practice so I think I’m going to make the following  challenge to myself:  Work thru book on “Living Your Yoga” by Judith Hanson, Lasater, PhD, P.T.  I’ve been wanting to go thru this book and have not carved out the time or made it a focus, so this challenge will hopefully do that for me.

So her first suggestion is on “Awakening Awareness-Spiritual Seeking.  She suggests a few activities develop this seeking of the spirit.  Here they are:

1) Create a sacred space (check.  My kitchen has turned into my sacred space with my plant window as my little altar to nature),

2)Write a brief account of why you began practicing yoga (I’ve done this before but I think I could expand some on this),

3) Make a date with self each week to spend time alone whether it be to practice yoga or just take a walk (I’ve been using mornings around 5:30am. The men folk in the house do not venture out until around 7am….)

4)Keep a list of what is important to you about living your yoga.  What needs attention? (Will do this.)

5) Think of an aspect of yoga that you want to study further but don’t where to begin and ask fellow student where they began.  (This might take some time.)

6)Begin and end each day with a Mantra for daily living. (I already have 2 Mantras I focus on in the am but will now add the pm to see what effect it has on my practice/day to day.)

So beginning tonight I will do my Mantra and over the next week work on the other 4 that I haven’t fully implemented.

For those of you who read this and want to take the challenge as well please feel free to email me any successes along the way and if you’re ok having them posted.

Take Care and Namaste