Day 11: Chakras and Healing

Day 11:

CHAKRAS

There are 7 main chakras, or energetic wheels, which are located along the spine. A chakra is a cone-shaped wheel within the body, stemming from the spine and extending through the body to the front. They express energy throughout the body with their energetic spinning motion. Our body’s state can change the spin of the chakra in direction or how fast it goes. The level of energy that you have determines your health of your chakras and how much healing power you have within yourself. 

The Main 7 Chakras in Your Body: 

http://mantraaonline.com/chakra-healing/

The theory of chakras in the body revolves around two major bodily systems: the central  nervous system (spinal cord and brain) and the endocrine system (the glands which are located down the centre of your body). I won't go into explaining each chakra. You should research them on your own, if you are interested, on the web. 

Stagnant energy, or a slow-spinning/blocked chakra, creates bad conditions in your body. Blockages can create diseases, ailments, and illnesses. For example, constipation is a result of stagnant energy in the Svadhisthana Chakra, the chakra located just below your navel and responsible for passions, bowel movements, and your sexual organs. A blockage in this chakra could be from withholding on pursuing passions, sexual needs or lackthereof, or not attaining the goal/desire you set out to do. 

Stress, aging, and pollution can all disturb your energy as most of these things distract you from enlightening your energetic self. 

Everything we do for our physical bodies affects the prana (energy) and chakras in the body. If you have communication problems, such as placing your hand in front of your mouth when speaking or talking very LOUD or softly, you probably have a blockage in your throat chakra, Vishuddha. If you have lung problems, such as asthma, lots of mucus in the lungs, or wheezing, you probably have a blocked heart chakra, Anahata. You see how different blockages in your chakras cause physical ailments? 

How do we relieve these problems? The objective is to realize that these problems come from the blockages in your chakras. Once you realize where its coming from, then you have to work on changing the energy flow through positive thinking, recognizing bad habits, and engaging holistic techniques to alleviate your physical and energetic self. I know its easy for me to say that now in a few sentences when people are suffering everyday. I don’t know anything, I’m just offering an alternative technique to prescription pills, surgeries, and weeks in a hospital bed. 

The goal in realizing all your chakras is to balance them in harmony! 

Our species is suffering from energy stagnations in the body. There is trouble procreating in modern countries which indicates that there must be something wrong with the ‘advancement’ of our era. There are also many toxins in the Western world which creates many diseases later on in life. Built up deposits of toxins create (among others) inflexibility, bone degeneration, diabetes, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease. In North America, people expect diseases and the ailments of old age to come to them, and so it does! In effect, we try to overpower nature’s will and prescribe pills, supplements, and chemicals to relieve the suffering. However, there is no understanding o the energetic cause; our society is solely obsessed with the physical cause. I am not educated on the energetic causes of those listed above; but if you have an ailment or physical disease, check out what the energetic cause may be ONLINE! Be a researcher and find out for yourself. A few minutes on the web could find you your own cure for the disease. 

--*--Follow Your Own Bliss--*--

be you own happiness

do what YOU want to do -- not what a doctor says you should do....

--*-- Be Responsible for YOUR own Decisions --*--  

Confused about Chakras? Or don’t know which Chakras are blocked? Why not take a fun Chakra Test!!

http://www.eclecticenergies.com/chakras/chakratest.php

Day 10: There is NO teapot.

Day 10: 

The philosophy of yoga encourages an awareness of the fact that the physical body is not what we are in reality. It fortifies that the physical body is just a mere instrument to carry the essence of the higher self. Emotions, intellect, movement, and feelings in the mind are like the storefront of a huge criminal organization; just a mask that veils the expression of the higher self. 

Jnana Yoga is a form of yoga that contemplates an intellectual process of the question “what is my true self?”. In class, Shakti asked us to show her the teapot as she placed it on the table in front of her. We all looked around at each other, curiously exchanging glances; “The teapot is right in front of you”. 

“What is this?” She said as she pointed to the pot.

“That’s the spout of the teapot” We replied.

“Ah, so it’s not THE teapot, it’s the spout OF the teapot. It’s something complete on its on then? What about this?

Again, we replied, “That’s the handle of the teapot.”

“So this isn’t THE teapot, it’s the handle OF the teapot. Where is the teapot?” She asked, “What is this?”

“That’s the belly of the teapot which holds the tea!” We wanted to sound smart so we added its usage. 

“Where is the teapot though? I want to know what a teapot is!” Shakti was started to sound exasperated. 

A chorus arose, “It’s right there! That whole thing; all of those parts make up one teapot.”

Shakti questioned us, “Well, what if I took away the lid? Or the handle? Then what would it be?”

“Well if it held tea, it would still be considered a teapot. Even if it was a bucket that held tea, we would still refer to it a a teapot."


"Which one of you will stand up and say there is no teapot!?” Shakti rose her voice as her eyebrows ascended on her forehead, “Where is the teapot!!??” 

Being myself and wanting challenge every authoritative figure in my life, I stood up and shouted, “THERE IS NO TEAPOT! It is just a collection of ideas. The name means nothing!”

What we know of the teapot can only be related to our experiences with such teapots. If we were from some third world country and have never seen a teapot, we might think it could be some ceremonial pooping bowl! Hows that for a morning wake-up?

Shakti smiled, “There is no teapot, there is no Jane, no Patti, no Shakti; just our experiences which are related to those objects. Everything we know is not absolute and everything we know lies in our own perceptions. 

So here I am perceiving my computer, my words, my thoughts. The cool draft, cool air of the draft/draft of the air, coming through the glass of the window/crack of the window/hardware of the window, that settles chillingly on my toes/the toes of my body/the toes of my foot/the fingernails of my toes/the skin of my feet. What is this computer? I call it a computer in itself, but really it is made of thousands of little pieces that aren’t computers in themselves. As a whole, its called a computer. As a whole, I am called a woman; as a whole I call myself, me; but who am I when I take away all my perceptions? Who am I when I can’t identify myself with my experiences? What happens when I realize that everything I experience is built by my own conceptions, expectations, desires, and, as the dictionary says, practical contacts with and observations of ‘facts’ and ‘events’? I am a body, am I a body? Or is the body of me? Or am I of this body? What is ‘I’?

WHO AM I? WHAT AM I? WHERE AM I?

Are those questions even relevant when they are all construed from my past and present experiences? 

I feel like I am asking all the wrong questions.. 

How will I know since everything I know is perceived? 

Day 9: I'm working on it..

Day 9:

Why do I feel like a failure when I’m not the best in class? 

This is my issue; has been my issue for my whole life. I can’t be second best, I can’t be in the top ten; I have to be number one. I always feel like a failure if I don’t -- which is usually the case because I always feel that people do better than myself. 

I taught yoga in class today. I thought I did okay, but Shakti kept interrupting me while I was teaching, making small tiny adjustments that didn’t really matter at all. I just felt like I sucked. It really threw off my flow today and I felt like a failure all day.

This kind of relates to my life as well. This semester I’ve felt kind of depressed because I haven’t been in school. I haven’t had that acknowledgement that I get in the classrooms from papers, tests, or discussions. I usually get positive recognition and when I get anything but, the world is over. Living without that recognition has been surprisingly hard. I’ve had to really look inside myself and try to offer my own appreciation for myself. 

But why? Why do I feel like a failure? Why does anyone feel like a failure? 

I feel like it has something to do with an inner insecurity in my own self. I need that recognition from people to feel good about myself because I’m not strong enough to encourage myself on my own. I am my own worst enemy and I’ve been saying this for years. But, I am recognizing this now. I recognize my behaviours, I want to change them; isn’t this the first step? 

I’m not perfect; I’m not a perfect yoga teacher, a perfect student, a perfect daughter, girlfriend, friend, or person. Is that okay? Can’t I just be me and be happy with it? 

I am learning to be authentic in myself; to show compassion and patience with myself. This is my issue.. I’m working on it. 

DAY 8: EAT ORGANIC and I peed on my socks...

DAY 8:

One of the best days that changed my life.. 

The whole idea of yoga (key words a prof says that makes me madly type, underline, and draw insane arrows) is to actively balance both sides of the brain in the different postures through breath. Balance is the key to teaching yoga; every posture has to utilize the different sides of the body in the same way so that the difference between the right and left sides of the body decreases over time. For me, my left side of my body is a lot more balanced and strong. Whenever I do asanas on my left side, I can always hold it for longer than on my right side. Also, when I lay my finger horizontally under my nose,   I almost always breathe solely from my left nostril. If you didn’t know this already, we only breathe from one nostril at a time -- usually switching nostrils every hour and 50 minutes. Now, let me tell you the SIGNIFICANCE of breathing out of the LEFT nostril. The left nostril connects us with our parasympathetic side of our central nervous system; the relaxed state of the body. It also is connected with femininity, the night, the moon, the mind, and being passive and relaxed. The RIGHT nostril is connected to the sympathetic system: rapid heart beat and breathing -- fight or flight. Breathing out of your RIGHT nostril means that you have are more inclined towards the sun, the heat, masculinity, the day, and energy/activeness. If you primarily use your left nostril to breathe, like I’ve discovered over several days and lots of nose exploration, then you are controlled by the RIGHT hemisphere of the brain (the R and L sides of the brain control the opposite sides of the body -- like that makes sense). Now, the RIGHT hemisphere of the brain is the creative side, while the LEFT side is the logistical side. I thought it was really interesting how these things were all connected and that it totally made sense within my body. I’ve always been more creative than logical (hence this past summer) and I’ve always been stronger on my left side. However, I guess the point of this exercise was to find out which side is weaker and work on developing the balance between the sides so that you are both logical and creative equally. 

LIFESTYLE OF THE LEAN AND LIMBRE

Shat Karma: ‘shat’ - six, ‘karma’ - action --  the 6 steps to cleaning the body

In our society, being fit entails being nice and beautiful on the outside. Nice legs, perfect tits, no mistakes. 

In yoga, it is all about the inside condition of the body; what do your internal organs look like? Shat Karma is a series of actions that some yogis do to cleanse the physical and energetic body. The purpose is to cleanse the internal space so that energy can flow through easily.

Right now, your body produces three forms of UNNATURAL WASTE (poo being natural -- pee isn’t a waste). 

1. Gas --> bloating
2. Fat --> no one can tell you how much you need to weigh, but are you comfortable with your body or not? 
3. Mucus --> ALLERGIES

Allergies are a result of toxins in the body from your lifestyle (what you eat, how much you exercise, whether or not you take the time to relax). To have an allergy means that your body is out of balance. Allergies are not natural. Let me repeat this: DON’T GET USED TO HAVING AN ALLERGY-- ALLERGIES ARE NOT NATURAL. We have become allergic to nature (weeds, grass, flowers, dust, animals). What does it mean when we’ve come from nature, and now we’re allergic to it? What is next, oxygen? water? Allergies give an indication that your body is overreacting to a specific substance. You shouldn’t have to live with allergies; chronic pain in life isn’t something that we should have to get used to. Allergies usually come from medications and over-consuming dairy products. If you think about, thousands of years ago, humans did not keep consuming dairy after childhood, after breastfeeding. This is because our bodies are not designed to keep consuming dairy products and so the body reacts with allergic conditions. Also, dairy products have tons of hormones and antibiotics that 

To alleviate allergies, reduce toxins in the body, and start living a healthy lifestyle, try to eat all organic foods. There are so many chemicals in the food we eat from the grocery stores that are killing us. 

• If you eat dairy, eat goat dairy products. 
• ORGANIC FRUITS ARE ESSENTIAL
• vitamins are often too hard on the kidneys: consume oils! 

Vitamins in nature never came in a purple pill form. Take things that look similar to their natural state. When we cleanse the body internally, the excesses of these three wastes are removed and perfect health can be maintained. 

TOILETS ARE BAD

Starting in 1775, the development of the modern toilet began. Shakti said that we should go back to squatting on the toilet when we poo and pee. The natural way is to squat when you go to the bathroom. When you sit on the toilet, your bum is closed and there is no massage of the intestines. When you squat on the toilet, ie feet on the seat and squatting over the hole, your knees are up, massaging the intestines, and your anus is pointing directly towards the toilet. When you sit, your anus goes in an arch so you have to push harder to get the poo out of your ass. This is great! I love talking about poos and bums. Let’s travel to India, or better yet, to a place I’ve actually been, Morocco. In rural Morocco, about 4 hours outside of the Saharan Desert, we stopped at a restaurant to eat lunch. During our meal, I went to use the ladies room, and there was no toilet just a hole in the ground! Of course, I was flabbergasted and annoyed at the fact that I had to squat over this dirty hole. But, if you think about it, squatting requires the use of basically all your leg muscles. If you squatted (squatted, if its a word) everyday, 5 times a day, imagine how balanced and strong your leg muscles would be! There would be no need for wheelchairs or walkers. In fact, I never saw someone in a wheelchair when we were in that country, or any third-world country that I’ve been too. Squatting everyday would be so healthy for your digestive system! So anyway, after today, I really want to try and squat most of the time when I use the bathroom. Why not? What have I got to lose? I may break a few toilets but I’ll never need to use a walker when I’m older. I may pee on a few pairs of socks (I don’t say things that haven’t happened -- thanks for the line roomie!) but who says sitting on the toilet ever did anybody any good?

DAY 7: A HOLOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE

Day  7: The Holographic Experience

DO COBRA 5 TIMES A WEEK

• flexible spine
• strong back muscles 
• opens your heart and throat chakras -- stimulating communication and energy
• keeps you young FOREVVEERRRR

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Phew, so glad to be back in class. Never want to miss another day. 

Today we talked about miracles. The miracle of walking. The miracle of drinking. The miracle of sitting.

THE MIRACLE OF THE BODY, OF OURSELVES.

Everyday, I take for granted everything I do; from being able to roll out of bed in the morning, to sitting (or squatting) on the crapper, and taking my shoes off at the end of the day. These actions require a complex sequence of events to occur within our body’s nervous system. Every movement requires a calculation of weight, distance, and location and then the act of actually carrying out this calculation. Typing on this computer keyboard is an insanely complex process. First of all, I type at 70 - 80 wpm, pretty freaking fast, but that’s not the point! My brain knows exactly where each little key is located on the board, it also knows exactly the order in which these letters go to make a word, and then it also uses all ten fingers to control this process and create a legible sentence. So with each millisecond, my nervous system and brain are working together to move my fingers, write a learned language, and use a learned technological process to share this knowledge. It’s CRAZY! And yet, here I sit almost everyday, using these processes without thinking twice about them. It’s incredible how much we can do with our bodies, with our minds, that we don’t even notice! Coordination is one of the greatest miracles ever.

THENERVOUSSYSTEM

We have two different types of nervous systems: central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral (the rest of the body). The cells in our nervous systems are called neurons which send signals to one another through a synapse: the space between two neurons where they relay messages to each other. In typing on this keyboard, my neurons must be sending thousands of messages to each other and my brain thinks of words to say (relaying of messages) to typing them on this board (relaying of messages). I’m confused already. All I know is that I better get my neurons a big present for Christmas because I owe it to them for all the work they do for me! Hmm maybe lots of wine after I finish this yoga class!!! Alcohol does slow the synapse time for the neurons.. maybe they’d appreciate a break?!

The central nervous system is divided into two categories: sympathetic and parasympathetic. The parasympathetic system is engaged when the body is relaxed, the heart beat is slow, pupils are small, and the blood flow is focused in the centre of the body for digestion. The sympathetic system is engaged when we are in flight or fight mode -- STRESS. The heart beat is fast, blood flows into all extremities, pupil’s are wide, and there is lots of sweating involved. The one problem with the sympathetic system is that it is very intense; it gives us a lot of power and shoots extreme amounts of energy into the system. While this is healthy when confronted with dangerous situations, the sympathetic system cannot stay engaged in the body for a long time or else the body becomes completely depleted of energy! Stress, one of the main components of the sympathetic system, is overabundant in urban life. The busyness of everyday leads people’s whole bodies into constant states of intensity. If people have no way to expel energy, they turn into an exploding bomb and can fry all their internal systems. This is why some people, who look very healthy and good-looking when their 50, suddenly die of a heart attack. They were probably so stressed at work, and had no way to switch to their parasympathetic mode, that their internal organs just gave up. A constant sympathetic system also gives rise to depression and a feeling of hopelessness. If there is no time for relaxation, the body has no way to expel the extra pent up energy and the internal organs have a hard time dealing with all of it. 

In yoga, the last asana, suvasana or relaxation, is the most important part of the practice. All you have to do in suvasana is lie down on the floor, close your eyes, and NOT FALL ASLEEP! Most people find it annoying and hate the fact that they can never relax, or that they pass out right away, However, it is the main asana that totally relaxes the nervous system. The fact that they cannot relax in the asana only proves that they are so deep in their sympathetic system that they cannot shift to their parasympathetic system anymore. 

Try to lie down in a darkened room, place a blanket on top of you, close your eyes... can you relax without falling asleep? The whole point of relaxation is to be alert, end mindless thoughts, and not move for the entire time. I bet you 5 bucks you can’t do it for 15 minutes. Don’t move a muscle! And don’t think about what to make for dinner. Quiet your mind, quiet your body, stay conscious, and relaaaaxxxx. 

TAKE A CHILL PILL .. DUDE!

DAY 6: oh yes, please give me pills to cover the pain.

Day 6:

Ah, missed the 6th day. I had to go to the hospital because of lower abdominal pain which I thought could be an appendicitis. THANKFULLY, I just had an ovarian cyst, which I’m told, are fairly common. Nothing a night in the hospital and an ultrasound can’t fix! 

Actually, I think it was something besides that. In yoga, we’ve been doing a lot of inversions (ie. shoulder stand); that cause your pelvis to go above your head. Well, Shakti was telling the group that you shouldn’t do shoulder stand during your period because you could stop the flow. She said that only tantric yogis do shoulder stand during their periods because they believe that to have the period is releasing a lot of energy and they want to keep hold of it. So, I didn’t have my period, but I knew it was coming asap. Nevertheless, true Lauren-style, I didn’t listen to directions and just did it anyway. Ended up not having my period and having severe pain in my lower abdomen because of some shoulder stand. I told this to the doctor and he didn’t give it a second thought. He said, “Well, do you want any pills for the pain?” 

YES, I WANT MORE PILLS TO COVER UP THE PAIN. I DON’T WANT YOU TO FIX THE PROBLEM, I JUST WANT IT TO GO AWAY ASAP. NO I REALLY DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S ACTUALLY GOING ON WITH ME. OH YES, PLEASE GIVE ME MORE PILLS, SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE SEVERE ADDICTION OR DEATH, 

AND I’LL JUST CARRY ON MY WAY. 

   -- Lauren’s brain at 2 am -- actually any am or pm .... 

Anyway, I’m good to go. After I got out of the hospital, I went to a yoga class that night to make up for it. 

:)