This is a great little blurb from Amy Weintraub's, LifeForce Yoga newsletter (you can learn more and subscribe here.) Amy specializes in yoga for people suffering from depression, PTSD and other forms of mental dis-ease. Compassionate, kind and full of amazing information, she is one of my favorite Kripalu yoga teachers.
Reduce Anger by Lying Down
Researchers at Texas A & M University found that the mere act of lying down can reduce anger. Researchers have known that mood can be altered by mimicking the facial and body movements of certain emotions (slumped shoulders can evoke sad, morose feelings, smiling induces an uplifted mood), but a new study recently published in the journal Psychological Science finds that when study participants who were in a supine position were insulted they did not show brain patterns associated with anger as compared to those participants who were seated when insulted.
Commentary: This study points to another good reason to practice Yoga Nidra, a deep relaxation technique that has been shown to be effective in the treatment of PTSD and is practiced lying down.
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"ayurveda" is a Sanskrit word that means "to join." Yoga, then, is union and the way to union. What do we join through yoga?First, we join our awareness to our own essential being: spirit that is consciousness.In yoga philosophy this is known as the atman or self. Next we join our finiteconsciousness to the Infinite Consciousness: God, the Supreme Self (Paramatman).In essence they are eternally one, and according to yogic philosophy all spirits originally dwelt in consciousness of that oneness. But in the descent into the material world for the purpose of evolving and extending its scope of consciousness, the individual spirit has lost its awareness of that eternal union, and therefore los the capacity to live in and manifest the union on a practical level.Through yoga the lost consciousness can be regained and actualized in the individual's practical life sphere. So profound and so necessary is yoga to the evolving consciousness, there is no more important subject in the world.Regarding this, a yogi-adept of the twentieth century, Dr. I. K. Taimni, remarked in his book The Science of Yoga: "According to the yogic philosophy it is possible to rise completely above the illusions and miseries of life and to gain infinite knowledge, bliss, and power through enlightenment here and now while we are still living in the physical body. And if we do not attain this enlightenment while we are still alive we will have to come back again and again into this world until we have accomplished this appointed task. So it is not a question of choosing the path of yoga or rejecting it. It is a question of choosing it now or in some future life. It is a question of gaining enlightenment as soon as possible and avoiding the suffering in the future or postponing the effort and going through further suffering which is unnecessary and avoidable. This is the meaning of Yoga Sutra 2:16: 'The misery which is not yet come can and is to be avoided.' No vague promise of an uncertain postmortem happiness this, but a definite scientific assertion of a fact verified by the experience of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages who have trodden the path of yoga throughout the ages."
1 comment:
"ayurveda" is a Sanskrit word that means "to join." Yoga, then, is union and the way to union. What do we join through yoga?First, we join our awareness to our own essential being: spirit that is consciousness.In yoga philosophy this is known as the atman or self. Next we join our finiteconsciousness to the Infinite Consciousness: God, the Supreme Self (Paramatman).In essence they are eternally one, and according to yogic philosophy all spirits originally dwelt in consciousness of that oneness. But in the descent into the material world for the purpose of evolving and extending its scope of consciousness, the individual spirit has lost its awareness of that eternal union, and therefore los the capacity to live in and manifest the union on a practical level.Through yoga the lost consciousness can be regained and actualized in the individual's practical life sphere. So profound and so necessary is yoga to the evolving consciousness, there is no more important subject in the world.Regarding this, a yogi-adept of the twentieth century, Dr. I. K. Taimni, remarked in his book The Science of Yoga: "According to the yogic philosophy it is possible to rise completely above the illusions and miseries of life and to gain infinite knowledge, bliss, and power through enlightenment here and now while we are still living in the physical body. And if we do not attain this enlightenment while we are still alive we will have to come back again and again into this world until we have accomplished this appointed task. So it is not a question of choosing the path of yoga or rejecting it. It is a question of choosing it now or in some future life. It is a question of gaining enlightenment as soon as possible and avoiding the suffering in the future or postponing the effort and going through further suffering which is unnecessary and avoidable. This is the meaning of Yoga Sutra 2:16: 'The misery which is not yet come can and is to be avoided.' No vague promise of an uncertain postmortem happiness this, but a definite scientific assertion of a fact verified by the experience of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages who have trodden the path of yoga throughout the ages."
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