Quote: Meditation

"When we speak of meditation, it is important for you to know that this is not some weird cryptic activity, as our popular culture might have it.  It does not involve becoming some kind of zombie, vegetable, self-absorbed narcissist, navel gazer, 'space cadet,' cultist, mystic, or Eastern philosopher.  Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing something about who that is.  It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely, the path of your life.  Meditation may help us to see that this path we call our life has direction; that it is always unfolding, moment by moment; and that what happens now, in this moment, influences what happens next."

-Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are

Hey, Baby, What's Your Mantra?

A mantra is a thought or intention expressed as a sound.  These sounds include syllables, words, or phrases, which may or may not have their own translatable meanings.  "OM" is the most popular mantra.

A mantra can be said aloud, repeated silently to oneself (as in meditation), sung with devotion (as in kirtan and bhakti yoga), or visualized in written form.  Many Sanskrit mantras, such as Om Mani Padme Hum, a central mantra in Tibetan Buddhism, are often captured in art, beautifully written or carved on stones and sculptures, or incorporated into clothing, jewelry, and talismans.

A yoga student and Buddhist friend of mine generously brought this stone back from Nepal last year; it features Om Mani Padme Hum (a mantra without direct, translatable meaning but believed to encourage enlightened awareness) on one side and the eyes of the Buddha on the other.  It resides on the bookshelf above my desk, where I write.

Mantras anchor the mind during meditation, soothe or energize the body in times of physical challenge, and connect the soul more deeply to God or spirit.

And yogis aren't the only ones to incorporate mantras into their lives.  Athletes, for instance, often use mantras or affirmations to improve performance, which is nicer than steroids, don't you think? World-class distance runner Kara Goucher chooses a new word while training for each race.  Words like "confidence" and "fighter" helped Goucher maintain focus in grueling races at the 10,000 meters and marathon distances last year, according to an article in the March 2010 issue of Runner's World.  

I'm not running any marathons this week, but I've chanted Om Namah Shivaya and repeated Catholic prayers under my breath, over and over, on multiple occasions.  It isn't intentional, which is the interesting part, and I realize, now, how much the brain craves the structure and repetition provided by mantras, especially in difficult times, such as the loss of a loved one.  For me, it's been one small, silent outlet for staying calm and remaining present.

Do you use mantras, as a meditation tool, coping skill, or sports performance enhancer?  What are your favorites?    

5 Yoga Poses for Swimsuit Season

Do you remember having a favorite outfit as a kid? A prized article of clothing (perhaps a party dress or Little League jersey) that you would have worn every day of your life if possible?

Mine was a Miss Piggy bathing suit. I wore it all the time. I wore it to the beach. I wore it while jumping through the sprinkler. I wore it around the house in the middle of winter. For me, happiness and high fashion were captured by a pig wearing pearls and a boa.

Stories of women (young or old) enthusiastically donning a bathing suit 365 days a year are few and far between, so I thought this one was worth sharing . . .

More than likely, both gals and guys become a tad wary of stripping down to bikinis and board shorts at the start of each beach season. To help soothe the angst and slim your "asana," here are my 5 favorite yoga poses for summer.

1. Utkatasana Modification for Lean Legs: Traditionally, utkatasana (also known as chair pose) is done with both feet together and an upright chest position. The variation below is different, to inspire a bit more dynamic action in the legs and additional length in the torso and spine. To really cook your thighs, see how long you can stay in the lowest point of the posture. Be sure to breathe deeply using ujayi, which, coincidentally, sounds a lot like the waves at the beach.

2. & 3. Yoga Inspired Abs for a Strong Core: Many styles of yoga build extraordinary abdominal strength, among these are Ashtanga, Anusara, Forrest, Iyengar, Power, and Vinyasa. Here are a few of my favorite abdominal strengthening movements--ideal for developing the core power needed for many arm balances and inversions, protecting your spine from injury, and counter balancing your backbends (e.g., dhanurasana (bow), urdhva dhanurasana (wheel), ustrasana (camel), etc.). While getting a svelte tummy is no day at the beach (it's hard work!), its benefits are both body-healing and eye-appealing.

4. Handstands in the Sand for Sleek Arms and an Adventurous Spirit: Tis the season to practice your arm balances without fear. Grassy lawns and sandy beaches (see above left) provide perfect opportunities to try poses that seem intimidating in a studio environment or dangerous on a hard surface. The added benefit is that these carefree poses make you feel like a kid--while sculpting strong arms to boot.

5. Padma Mudra for a Beautiful Heart: With all this talk of looking lovely while wearing less, it can be tempting to believe that beauty is an external experience. Not so, friends. If being beautiful and thin made people happy, tabloid magazines and reality TV shows, which make their billions by cataloguing the insecure, neurotic, and/or ugly behavior of beautiful and thin starlets, would cease to exist. Moreover, the primary purpose of yoga is not to chisel your booty but to reveal your own inner light- beautiful in all its calm and confident brilliance- to you, and to the world. Padma Mudra is a nice reminder of this.

Best wishes for a beautiful and blessed summer!

Rebecca

Mastering Yoga for Golfers

This week marks the annual opening of the most storied golf tournament in the world, the Masters, with yesterday's practice round kicking off the high profile, high stakes festivities. Winners of the Masters immediately join the estimable ranks of golf lore’s finest. It’s the most coveted win in the sport, with the most coveted prize—the green jacket, not to mention a hefty winner's purse.

For one golfer, the stakes are higher than usual this year, as the 2010 tournament marks a return to the game for Tiger Woods, the world's most famous (and now infamous) golfer. In case you missed it, Woods took a break from golf for about 4 seconds, largely during the off season, to tend to the personal and public fallout following his recent sex scandal.

Since breaking the story, my blogging brethren have covered and commented on these events ad infinitum, along with sports analysts, members of the media, and just about anyone with a Twitter account (#TigerWoods was among the top ten trending topics in 2009, and the scandal didn’t even break until late November of last year). I’ll leave the commentary to those who are more qualified, more snarky, and/or more invested.

I don’t want to talk about Tiger Woods.

However, in honor of the Masters this week, I do want to talk about golf—specifically, how yoga can help golfers of any level, from amateur to elite, improve their game. Upon the request of a pro golfer pal, I’ve developed a yoga program to meet the unique needs of golfers. The objectives of the program are captured by a simple acronym that I created called F.O.R.E., as in the command a golfer might yell upon hitting into another group of players. If we ever hit the links together, you will surely hear this one on occasion . . .

F.O.R.E. stands for Focus, Openness, Rotation, and Efficiency, representing the four key elements of a yoga practice that supports and enhances one’s golf game. Below, you’ll find an example of each element of my program and how to master it on your own.

Focus: Any golfer knows that vision is paramount to success on the course. From lining up a putt to aligning your eyes properly before, during, and after your swing, your eyes are a powerful way of gathering information, adjusting biomechanics, and focusing energy. Yoga is no different. The Sanskrit word drishti refers to the focus and power of one’s gaze. To practice this concept, try keeping your eyes open during meditation. Set them on a steady point on the floor; let them be soft and relaxed, and see how your brain responds to having a visual anchor. Add the uninterrupted flow of your breath, and you'll immediately feel your nervous system become steady and energy level sustainable. Next, apply this principle to the ball during play.

Openness: Golfers, like most athletes, seek yoga as a way to improve flexibility. For golfers, key areas of the body to open, stretch, and expand include the hamstrings, hips, lower back, shoulders, neck, chest, and hands. To get you started, here's a great series for the hips, using a foam roller, a helpful and cost effective piece of equipment for athletes.

Rotation: Creating space and strength in the torso is essential for golfers who rely heavily on their ability to rotate through their golf swing seamlessly. Tightness and imbalance in the body translate into a choppy swing, and a choppy swing translates into crappy golf. A seated twist (shown above and explained here) is a very easy movement and an important posture for golfers. For added strength in your core, check out the following abdominal exercise (video).

Efficiency: The most essential element of yoga and golf is the same. Meditation. In its most distilled form, meditation is the skill of being aware in the present moment. When we are present, we are always more effective, as golfers, yogis, and people. Golf is a fickle game—even maddening at times; the best golfers know this and accept it. They train their minds to adapt to obstacles (physical or metaphysical), thereby becoming more aware and efficient in a given moment. It’s widely understood that you cannot excel off the next tee if you are still focused on the frustration of being in a bunker on the previous hole. Here's one of my favorite meditations, geared toward soothing nerves, creating a feeling of trust, and developing a sense of grounding. Yogis and golfers, both, meditate to find greater peace and efficiency on their course.

Whether you're watching the Augusta action on TV this week or hitting the links this season, happy golfing, om guys and gals!

It's Monday: You Look Like You Could Use A Mudra!

Plenty of experiences make us feel off balance and ungrounded, as if the rug is pulled out from under us or we're on a nonstop treadmill scrambling to keep it together, with varying levels of success. Working too much, sleeping too little, eating too much or too little; losing someone or something of value; gaining never-ending responsibilities-- there's no shortage of daily stressors, running the gamut in degree of intensity, to make us feel fried, frayed, and fatigued.

Each of us exhibits symptoms of feeling stressed or stretched beyond our limits differently. Some people get anxious, angry, forgetful, flighty, or all of the above. Ironically, when I am stretched beyond my limits, I literally lose my physical sense of center and become a klutz of perilous proportions. (Remember how I head-butted the overhead luggage bin on the Acela train last week? Prime example). Sure, it's entertaining for those around me (who doesn't love a good slip-on-a-banana-peel moment?), but I'm one unexpected telephone pole or oncoming truck away from serious injury.

Getting back to center can be easy or challenging, depending how far-gone you are. And, in truth, it's best to catch yourself from spiraling into uber crazed territory sooner than later. Hence, this is why we practice yoga and meditation . . .

As I've mentioned here before, mudras are an effective way to set a specific intention for a meditation practice, which brings me to bhu mudra (shown above), a very grounding, earthy mudra that is said to help practitioners find trust, grounding, and a sense of feeling rooted. It's important to note that not all stress manifests itself in a manner lacking solid ground. Depression, for example, can be very heavy, in which case you might want to try a more uplifting mudra. However, the type of tension to which I am referring today is an airier kind, a feeling of being unstable, unsteady, flying around like a whirling dervish for too much activity, stimulation, travel, responsibility, etc.

This mudra is the perfect antidote. I have been practicing it more regularly since learning it at an Ayurveda workshop at Kripalu last month, taught by Jennifer Reis. It's incredibly simple to try: Make "peace" signs with each of your hands, then root the tips of your pointer and middle fingers on each hand into the earth. You will immediately feel a sensation of "plugging" into the ground.

Close your eyes, sit still and breath deeply. As you do so, imagine your first chakra, residing at the tip of your tailbone, connecting to the floor beneath you. A mantra that inspires grounding can also help. Reis recommends saying to yourself or out loud, "I am grounded. I am connected."

Good luck getting grounded, yogis! If you have other mudras, asanas, or personal tricks that help you feel centered, please share.

[Photo taken in the yoga studio space, suspended above the beach and amidst the trees, at Jade, and eco hotel in Tulum, Mexico].

A Mudra for Your Monday

Meditation is hard. If you meditate regularly, you can attest to this fact. If you don't, you're probably even more aware of how challenging it can be to get started. In theory, the idea seems simple enough: Sit still, close your eyes, and breathe. Yet, in practice, it's a daunting face-off between you and your hectic schedule, the phone ringing, your itchy nose, the pins and needles in your feet from sitting cross-legged, and on and on . . .

There are several tools to help you connect to a meditation practice that works for you. Your breath (prana) and your gaze (drishti) are the two most obvious that come to mind; however, your hands can help too. By using your hands to form a mudra or seal, you set a tone for your meditation session and anchor your attention to a physical experience. Different mudras symbolize different meanings, evoke different feelings, and direct your focus in a slightly different way.

The above mudra is called padma mudra and is among one of my current favorites. Padma translates to mean lotus flower, and you'll notice that the position of the hands mimics a blossoming flower. To try it: Connect your thumbs to one another and your pinkies to each other as well; with the outer edges of your hands sealed together, splay the rest of your fingers outward. Now, hold the opening of your hands above your heart and below your chin.

This mudra is meant to heal and uplift the heart. Physically your hands are positioned just above your heart chakra, and their intention is to draw the energy of the heart upward and outward. As you perform this mudra, close your eyes, breathe easily, and feel your heart warming and opening.

[Credit: Shirt designed by mvbprintmaker.com].

Quieting a Chaotic Mind

Recently, I received the following pointed inquiry from a pal: I need some advice on how to relax a mind that over-thinks.

Hmmm. Have you thought about illegal substances? Gratuitous sex with strangers? Or, you could try copious amounts of good old-fashioned alcohol. If that's too potent, what about vats of Chunky Monkey ice cream? Plenty of people seem to find these mind-numbing methods to be highly effective.

[Insert dramatic clap of thunder, floods, fires, and the sound of a Tibetan gong awakening us all back to reality].

Woops. Sorry, friends. I thought I was answering the question from the perspective of the misguided masses. Okay, here goes . . . my best shot at a holistic, productive, and accessible antidote to quell the kookiness in all our heads. Whether it's racing thoughts before bedtime or an inability to relax without the aim of a tranquilizer dart, there is hope. Like anything, the ability to "still the fluctuations of the mind" gets easier with practice; it also happens to be the fundamental purpose of yoga and meditation, as cited in the Yoga Sutras.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, my stillness-seeking comrade is a former professional athlete who knows a thing or two about practicing a skill until the point of proficiency. I like to remind athletes (and non-athletes) that they already know how to meditate. If you've ever had the feeling of being completely absorbed in a particular activity, from throwing a fastball to watching the steady flicker of a campfire, you intrinsically possess the skills needed to slow down your thoughts. Meditation, when done regularly, trains your brain to become quiet. I should mention that you won't stop thinking all together, nor is that the goal; however, you will eventually find serene spaces between your thoughts. In these spaces, you will discover previously unimagined levels of restfulness, peace, and balance.

Here's how: Sit comfortably; crossed-legged on the floor or upright in a chair are easy options to start. Set an alarm, egg timer, or stopwatch for 5 minutes (you can increase duration as your focus improves). Close your eyes. Rest your hands in your lap; the mudra shown in the photo above is one of my favorites (touch all ten fingertips together; your hands will form a tepee shape). You might also try yoga mudra (thumb and pointer finger touch, rest the backs of your hands on your knees, palms face upward).

Whenever you get distracted, antsy, bored, irritated, or tired, return to the steady flow of your breathing. A helpful tip is to count your breaths, one at a time, without breaking your focus or sequence. Be sure to sit up tall, and let your hands anchor your attention. For another meditation exercise, with more heart-opening properties, click here.

Another trick of the trade that I find very helpful is my own, on-the-go version of aromatherapy. This method of achieving stillness or, at the very least, a brief reprieve from your hectic head games is incredibly simple. Invest in a few essential oils (available at Whole Foods) that prompt you to breathe deeply, smile, or hearken back to a childhood spent running through grassy meadows, filled with rainbows and bunnies . . . you get the idea. I recommend lavender, or if that seems too feminine, try rosemary or sandalwood. I love peppermint as well, but bear in mind, peppermint is a lively scent that, while calming, has more awakening properties than the others. Feel free to use it, although it might be better suited for the daytime, when you need an energy boost. Simply open the tiny jar or vile in your car, and leave it uncapped in the cupholder while on carpool duty or en route to a big meeting. Placing drop in one palm and rubbing your hands together also works. Before bed, try dabbing one drop on each temple. Your sense of scent is powerful, capable of transporting you to other places and times. Pick a few fragrances that trigger an instant unwinding in your brain- the way fresh cut grass does or the smell of the ocean. Use as needed.

Finally, I am a huge advocate of bodywork as a way to release the pressure valve in your dome. If you don't have a stellar massage therapist, find one. Never tried acupuncture? Give it a whirl; it can't hurt. (Seriously, the needles are like wisps of hay; you barely feel them). Plus, insurance companies often offer stipends to cover treatments. Also, places like Pathways to Wellness have sliding scale pay structures, so peace of mind can be a financially blind benefit.

There, now, don't you feel better already?