5-Elements Practices

November 2 2018

Ocean of Surrender: Practices for Releasing

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In the natural world Fall is a time of release; the plants release their seeds, the trees release their leaves and the light releases its hold on the day giving over to more darkness. It is as if the world is taking a much-needed break from the productivity of the hot Summer to rest or senesce. As multi celled organisms we can take a cue from nature and create space to release thoughts, habits, patterns and behaviors that have served their purpose and are no longer serving us during this darkening time of year. Of course this process can be very challenging for us!

I have sat with many dying trees and wondered whether it was difficult for them to let go of their life force. When a tree dies its body eventually transforms back into the fertile soil that will nourish new life. It is not so different for us, yet we do everything we can to fight against the inevitability of death (both literal and metaphoric). Human consciousness is a curious catch-22; it allows us to fully savor this embodied human existence through all five senses while simultaneously bringing with it universal mental blockages that create tremendous tension around letting go.

Bark Beetle Epidemic: January 2016 at my home in Midpines, CA

This is why I practice and study yoga. According to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras the purpose of yoga is to disarm the causes of suffering and bring about integration (samadhi bhavana arthah klesha tanu karanarthah cha ~II.2). In effect, yoga helps us identify and release the reasons why we suffer, even as it leads us to feel the deepest of human experiences.

There are five kinds of suffering described in the Sutras: avidya asmita raga dvesha abhinivesha pancha klesha ~II.3.
1) Avidya: forgetting, or ignorance about the true nature of things
2) Asmita: I-ness, individuality, or egoism
3) Raga: attachment or addiction to mental impressions or objects
4) Dvesha: aversion to thought patterns or objects
5) Abhinivesa: fear of death 

Letting go is hard to do; sometimes we do it in fits and starts and sometimes it takes years to fully release something or someone for our lives. I recorded a simple meditation practice this week on the shores of the Pacific Ocean for you to use if and when you need a little support in the process of releasing. The natural energies of the breath (especially the exhale) and of the constantly moving ocean can support us in meeting, honoring and releasing our attachments.

The ocean is a potent ally in the practices of release and accepting change. Have you ever had the experience of sitting on a shoreline contemplating life or going through a rough patch and felt that this immense and seemingly endless body of water is holding you and holding your grief? I welcome you to invoke this next time you have a chance to sit with the sea.

The Water Element can support us in swimming through the shadowy parts of our lives. It is fluid and ever changing, the depths of the ocean are a dark place yet full of life, the sea is immense and beyond our control. For years I have been stuck on the surface, surfing each passing wave of emotion as a crisis or a high. It is through ongoing committed practice that I have been able to connect to the depths and more often than not experience a sense of abiding peace even as the storm rages around and through me. Verse 136 of the Radiance Sutras describes this so beautifully:

Another tangible practice for you this season is to work with each of the five kinds of suffering in a gentle and compassionate way. The process of release begins with noticing. While the idea of letting something or someone go might feel completely overwhelming when we consider it, we can break it down and make it more accessible by committing to observation. Observation is noticing something without judgment and is the first step on the path to freedom. I encourage you to commit to observing the next time you are experiencing attachment, repulsion, fear of death or egoism. Simply notice and name the experience, take a breath and when you can move on. For example if you are craving a piece of chocolate notice the craving and how it feels, attend to it, offer it a breath, and then if you still need to, go ahead and eat the piece of chocolate with gratitude for its sweetness and how it nourishes you. Or when you find yourself feeling resentful or angry with someone’s behavior notice this, take a breath, recognize this is your feeling and continue on with your business. These observation practices take time to ripen into peace and freedom, but I can guarantee you it is worth the effort! After years of attending to my human experience with the five kleshas I can honestly say life is more easeful and enjoyable, even under difficult circumstances.

Please share any thoughts or feedback in the comments below!

September 27 2018

Go with the Flow: Movement for Fluidity

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Human beings are aqueous creatures. When we emerge from the inner ocean of our mother’s womb our body is 78% water. As we grow this diminishes, however we are never less than 50% water, which points to the importance of this element in our lives.

We all experience moments of feeling “drained”, “sapped” or “wrung dry”, and it is so important in those times to stop and reconnect with our own fluid nature. Check out this 5 minute movement practice that you can dive into right now! Just 5 minutes of fluid movement can make a huge difference to your sense of vitality; give it a try and see how you feel.

We can learn so much simply by opening our awareness to all the forms of water in our lives. Certainly spending time with natural bodies of water like lakes, rivers, and oceans is a blessing and can bring incredible soul-soothing connection. However, we can access this daily by increasing mindfulness in mundane activities to grow a more respectful, nourishing and intentional relationship with water. Here are a few ideas to practice in an ongoing way:

Next time you take a sip of water slow down and let it roll around your mouth for a moment before swallowing. Take that instant to appreciate its wetness and thirst-quenching nature. Sometimes the emptiness we might feel can be filled by simply noticing how much fullness there is to the most mundane and essential aspects of life.
Next time you take a shower, pause to feel the sensation of water on your skin. Recognize this precious resource is cleansing the temple of your body in this moment and offer your gratitude. How does it feel to be caressed by droplets that once traveled through the sky as clouds and through the sea as waves? Where did this gift coming through your showerhead come from, and where is it going?
Next time you make a cup of tea hold it between your two hands, place it close to your nose and slowly inhale the water vapor rising from the steaming tea. Marvel at the ability of water to be in multiple forms (solid, liquid, gas) and that life on earth would not exist if it weren’t for this property.
Next time you immerse yourself in water (a bath, hot tub, lake etc), notice if you feel a sensation of being completely held. If possible allow your ears to be covered by the water and listen to the silence and the rhythmic flow of your heart beating.

Water is an incredible teacher. Because we are aqueous we hold its wisdom within us as well as being able to absorb it from the water features we encounter. I live near the Merced River and have spent innumerable moments sitting on the banks and just listening. There is inevitably a message for me that is almost always beyond description, yet it somehow helps facilitate my fluid movement through life. As I encounter obstacles I learn to flow past them, following the path of least resistance, or flow over them again and again eroding the blockage over time. As Lao Tzu wrote: Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.

One of my mentors, Marcia Hodges, writes beautifully about how her relationship with water helps in self-care and discernment: Water analogies speak to my soul and I heard this one somewhere along my path. I know I am paying attention to my inner guidance system when any thought or action feels like I am floating downstream. When I am not struggling against the current, I have my feet up and am relaxed letting life unfold effortlessly. When I feel like I am swimming upstream, against the current, I am working hard and wearing myself out. Then I am usually not listening to my inner guidance system and instead trying to control an outcome or situation.

I hope you are finding the path of least resistance and that this post supports your fluid journey. In the comments below please share how you engage with water and/or fluidity in your life.

More resources on water:

Read Marcia’s full blog post here.

The importance of fluid systems in the human body written by Dennis Eagan.

More thoughts on water from a yogic perspective from colleague Jiling Lin.

August 30 2018

Get Grounded: Savasana Practice for Modern Life

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We live in a time that is inherently stressful to our nervous systems. A frenetic blend of social media, access to infinite amounts of information and the constant sounds of our vehicles and devices compete for precious space in our mindscape. We now also experience the anxiety-provoking uncertainty precipitated by the incidence of natural disasters and disruptive weather patterns that is increasing due to global climate change. These two present-day realities mean that we spend the majority of our waking hours in the “fight or flight” mode of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). The autonomic nervous system is composed of the SNS and the parasympathetic (PNS) branches, and when it is functioning optimally they are both engaged regularly without one predominating. Stressors trigger the SNS and its over use has negative health consequences as it requires higher metabolic rates, activates the cardiovascular system and can lead to hypertension and over reactivity.

This is our reality, and whether we like it or not we are here now and need to cope. Managing the effects of these stressors that did not exist 50 years ago is key to our health, happiness and wellbeing. The practice of yoga offers ancient wisdom for modern times through a diverse variety of movement practices, philosophy and breath-work. While yoga classes these days may range from heated to restorative, and may or may not include baby goats or beer, one thing you will (almost) always encounter in a yoga practice is savasana.

You never know what will happen in savasana; potentially the mind will run wild with to-do lists and the body will struggle to find comfort, potentially you will fall fast asleep, or potentially you will relax into a state of consciousness that can feel transcendent. If you practice yoga for long enough all of these will happen at some point. To demystify the corpse pose it is important to recognize that savasana is basically lying down on the ground. Anyone can do it, there is nothing strange about it, it is simply resting your body on the earth.

The magic of savasana is that you are giving your body and mind permission to rest. Most of us really appreciate when a teacher supports us in holding this space because our cultural conditioning inhibits our ability to do it on our own. That’s why I’d like to offer you two savasana practices here. Access them anytime and share them widely with your friends, family and colleagues. Just imagine, instead of a coffee break at work taking a collective savasana break! Why not try it and see what it does for your wellbeing, clarity of mind, productivity and sense of community in the workplace?!

10 MINUTE SAVASANA

25 MINUTE SAVASANA

I find the efficacy of using savasana to soothe my nervous system is greatly enhanced by practicing outdoors directly on the Earth. I began to explore this after reading Warren Grossman’s book To Be Healed by the Earth,where he states;

The frequency of the Earth’s energy is the most healing of all frequencies. Sit, stand or lie upon the Earth each time you have a headache, indigestion, anxiety or tension…Each time, pay attention to the pressure of the uncomfortable part of your body as it rests against the Earth: feet, back or buttocks. By doing this, your much smaller energy begins to resonate with the Earth’s very large energy, imitating its health.

Studies show that touching the Earth normalizes both cortisol secretion, a hallmark of stress activity in the body, and melatonin secretion, which is crucial for a good night’s sleep. Furthermore spending time in direct contact with the Earth can increase the saturation of negative electrons in your body’s tissues helping to protect against free radicals that cause chronic inflammation. Contact with the Earth’s electrical charge also increases the negative charge around your blood cells, which means they repel each other more effectively and can flow more freely.

In order to receive the most benefit from savasana and connecting to the Earth we must learn to pay attention to our experience. Paying attention allows the mind to focus and the nervous system to shift towards the PNS branch. Dr. Grossman reminds us; Attention is the principle means for accessing healing from nature. It functions as the interface or connector between nature’s energies and a person’s need.

The proof is in the practice! Set aside 15-30 minutes and try one of the guided savasanas. If it’s available to you, try this outside right on the Earth. I’d love to know how it goes for you…please leave a comment at the bottom of the page!

More information on why savasana is so important, and tips on how to practice…

5 Reasons Why You Need Savasana

The Hardest, Easiest, Most Important Pose

Master Savasana

Why Savasana is so Important