Yoga, and staying aware
As I'm getting ready to move back to Alaska soon, I found myself paying great attention to my yoga instructor's words during class last night. At one point she said something like this: "A part of yoga is about spreading your awareness throughout your body. So when you're in a pose, don't think about just the part we seem to be working on, but also go back and check your other body parts. Are your feet planted firmly on the floor? Is your weight balanced evenly? Are you maintaining length in your stretches? How is your breathing? Is your face relaxed?"
Meditation benefits you may not know
I haven't been feeling well the last few days, so I decided to take some time out to rest today. After sleeping for a little while this afternoon, I still didn't feel great, and hoped that some meditation might help. After finishing a long meditation session, I'm reminded of several meditation benefits, some you've heard of, and some you may not have heard of.
Coming back from a deep relaxation
I just came back out of one of those nice meditative experiences where I relax very, very deeply, and when I come out of it, it's just a joy to do something simple, like move a finger, and be amazed that I can move a finger.
Yoga helps me get into these states, both with all the stretching and focus during yoga, as well as the deep relaxation of the corpse pose at the end of a yoga session.
Enhance your lucid dreams with a simple practice
As I noted in my last blog entry, I've been working on a method to enhance my lucid dreaming abilities that I read in a book titled The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep. Based on my own experience, I think it makes a lot of sense, and more importantly, it works.
The method I'm working on right now is the first of four "Foundational Practices" that the author introduces, and this first method is to practice dreaming during the day. Specifically, as you go through your daily routine, see all of your life as a dream. As the author states when talking about this first foundational practice:
"... throughout the day, practice the dream-like nature of life until the same recognition begins to manifest in dream. Upon waking in the morning, think to yourself, 'I am awake in a dream'. When you enter the kitchen, recognize it as a dream kitchen."
Shunryu Suzuki talking about breathing
One of my favorite talks about Zen breathing comes from Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki, in his book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind:
When we practice zazen our mind always follows our breathing. When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world. When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world. The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless.
We say "inner world" or "outer world", but actually there is just one whole world. In this limitless world, our throat is like a swinging door. The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, "I breathe", the "I" is extra. There is no you to say "I".
What we call "I" is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no "I", no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door.
