By Lynne Weston
Yoga is a way of developing the whole human being simultaneously. It is a matter of becoming free, integrated and centred. The person who is centred knows who they are and their inner confidence is unmistakable. They have a zest for living and are truly grateful for the blessings in their life. They radiate an aura of peace and contentment living each moment with mindfulness and positivity.
Health would be described as how the physical body is operating. Living and participating in life; not just existing. How we walk, talk, think, breathe, eat, our stamina, and how the body reacts to all that we put it through. When we say we are in a state of “health” we are referring to a state of wellbeing and balance. Physical health is meaningless, if not impossible, without a related mental, emotional and spiritual health.
When a person decides to takes control of their life-style of health and says “I am turning over a new leaf, I am changing my daily regime, my goal is now to become fit and healthy.” We would look at the many changes that they would have to make in their day to day existence. The first step on their new path would be that they would liberate themselves of “the chains that bound them” by a new way of thinking, recognizing that their body is a temple or if they prefer to see it as a Mercedes Benz they would realize that what enters the body or what petrol and maintenance that you give the car, is what performance and life that it will return to you, and with regular upkeep it will not break down and leave you stranded on life’s highways. It will be reliable and working in top functioning order, remembering how important the air in the tyres is, like the prana in your life. You can always give the car a wash and polish on the outside to look good, but it is the continual maintenance of the mechanical side as well, and dedication of realising what you put into anything is what you get back.
Having changed their lifestyle they would have become centred and calm and have a heightened awareness of all creation around them.
Yoga and health are like a marriage, both complimenting each other, working hand in hand, a team effort which becomes stronger with each encounter supporting one another, in facing life’s adversities as well as good times. Growing older together with grace, acceptance, tolerance, and knowledge.
Let’s start from the beginning of life. A baby’s arrival to this earth plane.
When a woman announces that she is expecting a baby, often the question is posed “do you prefer a boy or a girl?” her reply is frequently “I don’t care so long as my baby is healthy.”
The woman during pregnancy maintains a healthy lifestyle which includes diet, exercise, rest, plenty of fresh air, and breathing techniques which will especially be put to use for the birth, as will also the pre natal asanas.
During the incubation process the use of Bio-feedback technology like ultra sounds to see the baby and determine its sex , if required, or the position that it is in, and monitors for heartbeats are a vital technique that living in the 21st century has produced.
When the birth-day arrives, the baby is delivered and the first thing that is essential to life is the breath, the life force energy, the prana. With the wondrous event of life, the breathing is checked and established, all is well.
Breathing is a natural function of the body which happens without conscious effort. It is the body’s most vital process, and is the only autonomic function which we are also able to control. We know that we can stay alive without eating for a few weeks, without drinking for a few days, but irreversible brain damage occurs if we are deprived of air for more than a few minutes.
Efficient breathing is essential for good health as it supplies us with oxygen which is absorbed into the bloodstream within the lungs and then carried to all tissues and cells of the body. Oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide and other waste products, which are removed from the system through the breathing process . Poor breathing habits bring about low levels of oxygen, which impedes the removal of waste matter, and results in the retention of toxins.
As the prana passes through the nose it stimulates the sense of smell, nadis and the chakras. We have the sense of smell, sight, sound, touch, and taste. We also have a 6th sense which is our intuition – our inner sight.- Our connection to higher learning which we are all born with.
Energy flows through the spine, sending impulses to the brain by means of the nervous system, transmitting commands from the brain to the muscles and internal organs, controlling circulation, digestion, respiration, elimination and even the beating of the heart.
The baby’s breathing has been checked and in order. The mother enquires “has the baby got all fingers, toes, and limbs?” ”Yes, all digits and limbs are in order”, the nurse replies.
Yoga also has limbs. There are eight limbs.
These limbs are a good instruction manual for rearing a child.
1. Yama Restraints – ethical disciplines – moral commandments – universal.
Non violence, truthfulness, non-stealing. Without disciplines and moral codes there is no respect or boundaries and that is when children have to be gently guided and shown the correct way and respect of all living things.
2. Niyama Observances – rules of conducting applying to individual discipline. Contentment, self control. Cultivation of a strong character through the Yogic disciplines, lack of complaint. Being shown the difference between “yes” the child may do something, and “no” the child may not do something, is an individual guiding pendulum for right and wrong.
3. Asanas – Bodily postures which promote health and wellbeing and can be done together sharing a common interest. The family that plays together, stays together.
4. Pranayama – Vital energy or breath control. How to compose yourself in difficult situations, using the breath as a vital tool. Learning to take control.
5. Pratyahara – Sense withdrawal, learning how to relax and release tension.
6. Dharna – Concentration useful with school work.
7. Dhyana - Meditation, an inner experience of stillness and peace.
8. Samadhi – A person in the state of samadhi; is in direct contact with pure truth, gaining knowledge directly. Showing the child how to meditate is the first step on this wonderful path that is in front of them, the gift from God is their life. Having taught the child about Karma he will practise understanding and do unto others as he would have them do unto him.
After the birth of the baby, the mother may wish to return to the weight and size she was prior to pregnancy. Asanas contract, relax or stretch the back muscles, keeping them in good condition. The spinal column is kept elastic as each vertebra, disc, ligament and tendon is made to work. The weight of the full term baby has put pressure on the sacral spine and a return to the asanas will help particularly with the pelvic exercises to regain her previous body type in healthy working order.
The way we move, walk, and talk is an expression of our life like an open window to our physical and emotional state. Good alignment and posture is imperative for the working of the respiratory system.
When rearing a baby it is important to find the correct balance in food, water, discipline, sleep, and know that some things in life just aren’t black or white we have to look to the middle grey area. This is also found in Yoga we need to find the Gunas the understanding between different natures and temperaments. Knowing that no two babies are the same. Everyone is a unique being. The qualities of the Gunas are
Sattva – Expressing itself in goodness, purity, lightness, spirituality.
Rajas – Seen as activeness, mobility, speed, restlessness, passion.
Tamas – Typified as passivity, inertia, immobility, sluggishness, earthbound, ignorance.
We need to be conscious of the Rajas (speed) and the Tamas (inertia) so we can find the balance the Sattva. Of the physical, mental and spiritual being.
All children have their own special talents latent or disclosed, we as parents need to foster these and allow the child to work and develop at their own pace. Some children work more on the left hand side of the brain and are mathematically inclined. Others work more with the right hand side of the brain and are creative and arty, each one contributing to mankind. Never compare one sibling to another for each one plays their role in life, bringing their special qualities to humankind.
The Aura is affected by words and cruel words can put holes in the aura. Health plays a large part of the Aura and each day the colours of the aura change as it reflects the state of our health and wellbeing.
Maya is a way of seeing things (Cosmic Illusion) for example if we look at one person, we could be looking at a mother, or a sister, or a daughter or a wife it depends on the “viewer.” So we deal with another aspect, the emotional aspect, which can affect our health and how we see and handle situations. We need to encourage “that with every negative situation there is always a positive outcome or reason”. Understanding and accepting, becomes part of our healthier lifestyle, and knowing everything happens for a reason on this earth plane, which is the school of life. We hopefully learn by our mistakes, and grow.
Relaxation teaches the art of relaxing each component of the physical body and begins a chain reaction of peace. ” I allow myself to relax, I am relaxing, I am at peace. Peace in, peace out,” and then this becomes reality. We are what we think. “With our minds, we can create a heaven, or a hell, the choice is ours.”
Working on the Mind we can find the benefits of colour therapy and music. Visualisation is enhanced by using colour as some people find it hard to visualise . When deciding on what colour to paint a nursery it is important to remember how colour affects us. If you painted the nursery red it would be too energetic and the child would have trouble sleeping. The pale colours of blue and green have a healing effect as does pink, which means “rose” and is said to be the language of angels. Even lemon has a softness like a little chicken’s feathers.
The lighting has an effect on humans as some people perform better on sunny days as when it is cold and bleak they just wish to hibernate like a bear. The Sun is the masculine energy, Ha, and is warm and golden yellow, whereas the moon is affected by tides, it is the female energy Tha, and is silvery blue. Even observing what colour each person is wearing is an incite into how they are feeling on that particular day.
Colour can be used in projection healing also. Visualising the part of the body that needs to be healed of an ache or pain and focusing the input of the colour to assist in this process. Inhaling bringing the colour into the particular area that is affected, and as you exhale, visualising taking the ache, pain, or toxins away and see it dissipating out into the universe, or going back into the ground. We start to expand our way of thinking knowing that there may be alternate ways of handling an ache or pain. Using the energy of the hands; the prana, and placing them on an area of the body that also may not be in optimum operation is just another technique. The hands may also be used above the area working with the prana, coming to the healer, working through the person being healed, connecting to the higher source for the healing of mankind. (to you, and through you). Chakra balancing is another form of healing, with the astral and physical body. Massaging the baby is a healing process.
Even our appetite for food may be determined by its attractive coloured presentation.
Also remembering sattva food and everything in moderation.
Music is uplifting to the soul . Lullabies are sung to the baby and also a gentle rocking motion helps to encourage sleep to the tired child. Mantras may also be used to bring peace to the infant.
The baby takes “baby steps” and as it grows it starts to walk, which is likened to the introduction to Yoga and the learning of the different asanas . Working gradually, and learning the benefits that they have on the different parts of the body . The child’s absorption of knowledge is expanded as each year unfolds and different experiences occurs, and hopefully, the child learns by trial and error.
These experiences have a great impact on the child’s health both physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, some people become emotional eaters, overeating for comfort from the food instead of looking into the real problem.
The teenage years are filled with many hormonal changes, we need to have balanced activity in the secretion glands. As the child’s body changes so too does the voice, their own ideas and independence comes to the fore. It has been said that a child is like the arrow in an Archer’s bow. We the parents are the bow, we can place the arrow and aim for the right direction but many factors come into play, wind velocity and turbulence but the greatest factor is Personal Responsibility for everyone shapes their own destiny. We are the soft cushion for the fall if needed.
Sometimes the adolescent’s world seems to be upside down, this too is reflective of inverted postures which help rejuvenate the body and mind. The effect of gravity has on our bodies is reversed which aids venous blood from the legs and abdomen to return to the heart and lungs. Fresh oxygenated blood is brought to the head. The brain is energised and stimulated which enhances the function of the intellect. The increased blood flow brings a flush of nutrients and clears away toxins, rejuvenating facial tissue and reducing the signs of ageing. Throat, ears, eyes and nose, in fact the whole head and neck, all receive an increased blood flow which helps them function more effectively.
All inverted poses have an effect on the pituitary gland which orchestrates all other endocrine glands. The chin is pressed to the chest which stimulates the thyroid and parathyroid glands which will affect and regulate metabolism. The heart, lungs, thymus and immune system are stimulated.
Meditation is the answer to grounding ourselves once again and seeing just what is important in our lives and what is irrelevant. Teaching others the connection to spirit and helping them to find the peace and perhaps the guidance of their guides. Having the knowledge and understanding that we are never alone, is a comforting blessing to all..
Emotions play a large part with our health. Perhaps with a warmth of a smile to one who has lost theirs, an outstretched hand to someone in need, a joyful gift or flower to another, or to yourself, just to celebrate the beauty of being. The last thing we think of at such times is the consequences to our health. Scientists have found that small pleasures may keep immune systems strong, and that pleasant events boost the immune system for as long as two days.
What do we do in yoga? We adopt body positions which make our bodies feel good, we foster attitudes which are totally positive, we expand our senses so that we feel and see the beauty in life, in ourselves and we practise meditation which creates the stillness barrier across which unhelpful thoughts and attitudes cannot pass. All these are immune-system strengthening, giving us good health and happiness.
We live our life to the blueprint and when it is time to depart this world we hopefully have realised just what life was all about. The infant, the youth, the teenager, the stages of career and marriage, becoming parents aging, not worrying about material possessions that you had earnestly collected in your younger life. The death of loved ones, the fostering of friends, the happy celebrations, laughter and tears. Like a computer print out of life we recall the different events and reactions to those events, and we can see how Karma is just a book-keeping of life, where the assets should out-way the liabilities.
We are just a soul that has taken a body to return to the school of life. This is now over and it is time to cut the cord and for the Astral body to depart and return “home”,
The child had the key which was Yoga and was shown how to use it. The child, and in turn, the adult; unlocked the doors of knowledge of the many different paths of yoga. Each one, in their own time, at the many different intervals of their life. Now they realize that treading the path of yoga, they saw their pattern of life unfold, and learnt that their reactions to events affected their outcomes and now know” that we don’t always get what we want we sometimes get what we really need.”
Yoga taught them the understanding of events, and helped realise that they were not treading a lonely path they actually had plenty of company from likeminded people. One day the key did fit perfectly into the lock and they found the gift of Yoga which is unity and bliss. Unity with all the universe, understanding, compassion, tolerance, respect, health, peace, love and harmony. Happiness was always within and all they needed to do was to turn within. “The inner self is filled with bliss, it is to experience the bliss, to come close to the self, that we practise Yoga.”
Gradually, the way of living was changed, and the partnership of Yoga and Health became the secret formula to a long and healthy happy life.
Yoga provided us with the tool of self-acceptance which is probably the most powerful tool of the human condition, and with the knowledge of the intrinsic Godliness of life itself. This, in turn, carried us into respect for all life, including our own, for all patterns of the human condition and gave us the awareness of the universal support and love which surrounded and sustained us. When those components formed the basis of our life, our state of “health” was reached.
Om Santi,
With the love of God and the Vital Energy Force I now go in peace I return to my Creator.
Peace be with you, peace be with you.
“WHAT IS DYING?” (Jo Buchanan).
A ship sails and I stand watching till it fades on the horizon.
Someone at my side says, “She is gone.”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large as when I saw her.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not her.
And just at that moment, when someone at my side says,
She is gone,”
There are others who are watching her coming.
And other voices take up the glad shout.
“Here she comes!”
And that is dying.
……………………………………..…and so the cycle continues.
Lynne Weston is a certified Yoga teacher. She teaches classes in the Sydney, Australia area.
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