Welcome !
Part 1: Tenants of the Daily Practice
Connecting to the place of wholeness within. The practice of self-trust. This is not a practice to fix us, or make us more productive at work, or even "better" people. This is a practice to connect to space of refuge within, and generate safety in the body. Permission to tune into the divine and luminous space within.
Choice and safety. This is YOUR time, your morning, your body, your practice. You have choice in each moment of the practice to re-relate to yourself in a loving, non-judgemental tender way. The way perhaps a loving mother would. You also have the choice to practice something different than what I have offered if that feels most appropriate for you.
Rather than a top-down approach of me “teaching” a class - this is guidance and support to move and breathe in a way that is from the inside out.
Regulating the nervous system with deep breathing. Deep breathing is inherently balancing. When we first wake up, for most of us our body produces the most amount of cortisol, the stress hormone, early in the day.
Cortisol and any related emotions are biological in nature, so it is useful to work with our biology through breath and and awareness of how the body is feeling. To notice your as your experience unfolds moment to moment.
Here’s a great article to learn more about why regulating the nervous system is so helpful for us as humans!
And here’s another article on the various ways we can regulate the nervous system - including dancing, singing, and making sound!
Important Points to Note for Physical + Emotional Safety for the practice:It is best to not eat or drink before practice. The remain completely empty, if possible. Particularly with breathwork practice, it’s good not to have food or liquid in the body.
Breath of fire
- If you are more than 4 months pregnant, breath of fire is not recommended.
- On the first and second days of your cycle, breath of fire is not recommended.
- On the full moon and 1 day before and after, breath of fire is not recommended.
Breath of fire alternatives:
Ujayi breath - 4 count in, 4 count out.
Nervous system reset breath - 4 count in, 8 count out.
Alternate Nostril Breath
Part 2: Weekly Dharma
Week 1 - Being in the Body. Establishing trust.
Being in the body.
Grounding. Connection to the Earth Element.
(There are 5 elements we associate with nature that also live in the body. Earth - hips/ legs. Water - hips. Fire - belly. Heart - Air. Throat / Head - Space)
There is no “right way” to be in the body. You don’t have to effort it. We live in a body, so its almost silly in a way to even say that statement. But the idea is that we spend a lot time thinking and figuring out in the mind. This approach to meditation we are taking is very holistic, and works with the many technologies of yoga..
We start with deep breathing and stretching to feel that we are in fact, in a body! We ground and then strengthen the nervous system.
Essentially we are working with and supporting our biological system, as much as we are supporting our thoughts/ mental state. When we can bring our body into a harmonic resonance, or BALANCE :) with deep breathing, feeling supported, feeling safe, we feel more embodied and comfortable to expand outside our comfort zone and grow! The goal here is not always to make us so chilled out, but to be “regulated” so that we can be at ease in a sense, even when under stress. So that we can feel comfortable exploring and expressing the many parts of ourselves.
My experience is that when we are grounded in our nervous system and commit to practices that support us feeling safe and connected to our bodies, our innate intelligence and intuition emerges. Its a paradigm shift that honors that the body holds not only trauma but wisdom and intelligence too.
Week 2 - Compassion + Belonging. Navigating emotions.
We read this poem For Belonging by one of my favorite authors which I think gives a beautiful sense of compassion and belonging in practice. If it's helpful, you may print it out and have it near your meditation station.
One way of looking at spiritual practice is to say that the bigger vision is to remember that we are inherently joyful, worthy, and whole. We are the divine.
Compassion comes in when we suffer from our own thoughts, past experiences, or any reason we suffer that blocks us from knowing our true self. This is not (at all) to dismiss the human experience in which we navigate big emotions, thoughts, feelings, sensations. This is another way of honoring the human experience that is always intact and whole.
The below teachings are specifically informed by Tara Brach, buddhist meditation teacher and author of Radical Compassion.
We're not the survival of the fittest, we're the survival of the nurtured.
This practice is to offer us a sense of integration and belonging. Love and freedom that come with that.
Unless we're free, feeling that oneness and communion with the divine.. some part of us is fractured, or severed, or not integrated.
So.. we all need nurturing. Everyday. ❤️
When there has been severed belonging.. how do we nurture and heal ?
We can heal that if we learn to offer
mindfulness and
kindness to ourselves.
AKA : LOVING AWARENESS
Kelly McGonical - compassion researchers says: Compassion is an unfolding process. in our minds and in our bodies. that is in response to pain or suffering.
Benefits of practicing compassion:
to understand that when we take care of ourselves, we honor those who care about us and those who deeply care about our wellbeing.
when we are kind to ourselves, especially in moments where it’s hard, we can be there for others in moments that are hard for them. without fixing or changing.
strengthens our nervous system
gives us courage to do hard things. we may resist the hard things that are important to us because we are afraid of how we will meet ourselves if things don't turn out how we planned. compassion gives us the unconditional safety net, and the courage to be with ourselves as we are (meditation) and to pursue life in a way that feels most authentic for us, and is not about anyone else's standards
meditation and compassion helps us move out of the default mode network into a place where we can be less self-focused.
In navigating difficult emotions / sensations, you can use a mantra: “this belongs”
We don’t want to make any part of our inner experience wrong.
We can't feel belonging to our world if we don't let the parts of ourselves belong. So we let them be there. Even if they are hate, shame, anger, fear.
Suffering comes when we are identified with, or try to push away these emotions.
Instead, if it feels safe, you can welcome or acknowledge them with the Mantra: “this belongs” OR .. “this too”
Our emotions become more like a wave, and we are the ocean. We can see them but also possibly identify less with them as us.
Another compassion practice:
See / feel yourself as a precious child, curious about what is here and intuitively kind.
be curious about the feeling. in meditation, holding an energy of curiosity but not necessarily digging in. (therapy is better suited for this)
to give myself permission to not need to understand my judgement, or argument, or conversation. and really wrap myself in a love that is unlimited, vast and so generous.
When we heal the place of severed belonging, we feel an innate sense of trust building within. the more we can acknowledge those places within, the more we can also see that and hold compassion for others.
Music
Link to playlists are here.
Books you may find useful // enjoyable.
The Path of the Yoga Sutras by Nicolai Bachman
Start Where You Are - Pema Chodron
Jack Kornfield - No Time Like the Present
Articles:
Lean Into Good - Morning Practice by Rick Hanson
Learn to Breathe - Great info on breathing, specifically breath retention.