YOGA
“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into you.”
Enjoy These Musings and Insights on Yoga and Life
Gratitude is the Heart of Love
Gratitude and appreciation is entwined with numerous health benefits including enhanced mood and self-esteem. We can develop gratitude by reflecting on the gifts that are already ours and by celebrating great and small things every day.
Research has demonstrated that a regular practice of gratitude releases toxic emotions, reduces bodily aches and pains, helps to improve sleep quality, aids in stress regulation, and helps to decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. Gratitude has psychological, physical, and social benefits, and is the foundation of any spiritual path.
Here are some simple ways that you can practice gratitude every day…
Benefits of Uddiyana Bandha Kriya - The "Abdominal Lock"
The practice of Uddiyana Bandha Kriya increases blood circulation throughout your body and brain. It stimulates the vagus nerve by putting a little pressure on it, which strengthens and tones your parasympathetic response, which creates a calming and balancing effect on our nervous system. Through this practice, your brain becomes healthier and you will experience more clarity in your thinking.
This bandha also massages the internal organs and on a more subtle level, it stimulates the inner agni, or digestive fire, which resides around your navel. By strengthening this fire you will experience better digestion and assimilation, and it also helps to purify the subtle energy channels, or nadis. READ MORE…
Releasing Abdominal Tension
If you are struggling with upper abdominal tension, you are not alone.
Tension and rigidity in your deep core muscles not only inhibits your ability to breathe deep and fully relax, but it can also interfere with your digestion, creating symptoms like constipation, gas, bloating, and cramping.
Using some of the techniques suggested in this video can be extremely helpful for learning to relax and release that pattern of holding tension in your abdomen, and also increase parasympathetic stimulation in order to improve the resilience of your nervous system regulation.