Yoga – rewiring the brain one monkey at a time

I’ve got monkey’s on my mind. Which should not necessarily be confused with “monkey-mind” although I have that too.

A neuro-scientist at Princeton, Dr. Elizabeth Gould, studies the brains of monkeys, and rats. Personally,  I’d rather focus on the former and not think too much about rats.  Through her research, Gould has given a whole new meaning to “monkey mind.”

In a groundbreaking study about 10 years ago, she proved that monkey’s brains do in fact regenerate themselves. I remember when I was in college hearing things like this: “Every time you get drunk you kill 10 million brain cells and they never come back.” But Gould’s work discredited this dogma and broke ground for what would become the concepts of neuro-genesis and neuro-plasticity – our brains can change, grow and repair themselves if given the chance. (And no, I’m not suggesting college kids with a predilection for getting wasted shouldn’t be discouraged!).

In one of Gould’s studies she put the monkeys in a pretty rough environment - no banana trees to hang around in, no vines, nothing to shriek about, nothing much to do. In this stressful environment which was not very conducive to monkeying around, the monkeys got sad. And furthermore, their brains got dull and stopped producing new neurons.

When she put her monkeys in a much happier environment - with lots of natural surroundings that give them lots of ways to monkey around, the monkeys started to create new neurons. Their brains got better because they weren’t so stressed out.

The interesting piece of the puzzle for me as a yoga teacher is the yoga-like movement the monkeys were doing in their brain-healing laboratory jungle. Perhaps for us, the yoga studio is our  “jungle” where we can undo our own stress. Especially if it has a rope wall like the one at One Center Yoga. Movement is key to reducing stress and when we move our bodies in unusual ways, stretch muscles were weren’t overly aware of, create movement patterns that are unusual to our modern day life, and breathe deeply doing all of this – perhaps these movements create and strengthen anti-stress neural pathways. In other words, perhaps yoga heals your brain.

You can read more about Elizabeth Gould’s work in this fascinating article in Seed Magazine.

It works

So I just got a text message from my relative – it said, “I’m so excited!” and was followed by an announcement for a yoga class series for Women in Recovery. She’s going to give it a try. ‘

The thing is, I have never said anything to her like, “You know, you should be doing yoga.” or “Yoga would be great for you.” But she knows that I do yoga and she has seen how it’s changed my life over the years.

I thought maybe it would be in a month or two, or even maybe next year – but it was only the day after I wrote “It’s coming soon because she has several people in her life now that are doing it, benefiting from it and telling her about their experiences.”

Wow – the power of the social network in action. Tell your friends about yoga, then wait and watch.

Viral Yoga

Yoga is contagious.

According to the researchers of the Framingham Heart Study, having friends, family and meaningful acquaintances is a “source of tremendous happiness.” People need people. Our relationships are the stuff that hold us together emotionally and thereby keep us healthy, or conversely, if they themselves are unhealthy, make us sick. We have a choice, but we are also deeply influenced by who we spend our time with.

One of my relatives has been recovering from alcohol addiciton for the past year. She has a whole new set of friends, people who don’t abuse substances. Her perspective on socializing is changing.

“I no longer think that ‘everybody’ drinks,” she told me. “I can see that there are other ways of having fun now besides partying. It’s such a relief!” And this is because she has found a new social network – a new interconnected web of people who value taking care of themselves and having fun without alcohol.

One of her new friends is a yoga teacher I’m sure those Framingham researchers could predict approximately when my relative will start doing yoga. It’s coming soon because she has several people in her life now that are doing it, benefiting from it and telling her about their experiences.

So what about the people in your life? Do they notice that you seem more relaxed, more peaceful than their other friends? Do they ask you, “What’s your secret?”

What the Framingham study shows us is that it’s not just about the asanas, it’s about the whole experience. If you go to class several times a week you encouter scores of people who are interested in health and wellbeing, and possibly also interested in personal and social transformation. Here is where you directly experience yoga’s power of satsanga.

Swami Sivananda said: “Satsanga or association with the wise is the one panacea for all the ills of life.” The research is now verifying it.

The other thing the researchers figured out is that there are certain people who really connect with a lot of other people – they are the ones who influence many people’s behaviors. They call these people “superconnectors.” They are the people who are located in the middle of a network with the capacity and the social clout to change the way a whole group thinks about, and does, things.

So what if each yoga student became a “superconnector” to encourage positive personal and collective change? What if each student used their practice to become a shining light to the rest of his or her community by telling others what you get out of yoga – by encouraging them to give it a try, but just being the change that yoga has produced in them.

Once we reach a critical mass of superconnectors doing yoga, suddenly everyone will be doing it.
According to the social network analysis at Framingham, this is highly possible. What if you just told 3 people a day about how much you love doing yoga? Think how quickly it could change the world.

And it’s not a matter of trying hard – it’s simply a matter of being it.

Framingham Social Network Analysis and Satsaunga

What started in 1948 as a study to reveal the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease turned into a gold-mine of social networking data that reveals what the yogis have always know - it’s not about just about you, it’s about who you hang out with. So the question is – Have you examined your satsaunga lately?

What the social network analysts became fascinated with was not what the study reveals about heart disease, but what it shows them about a whole host of other social factors: Who smokes and how do they quit? Who becomes obese and why? (believe it or not, they could predict exactly when a particular individual would gain weight based on her/his position in the network!), Who is happy and who isn’t?

The researches likened obesity to the flu: if you become obese, chances are others will catch it with viral-like speed.

It took them 5 years to analyze the data. Here are some of their findings:

• If your spouse becomes obese, your chances of following suit increase by 37%, but if a friend becomes obese, they skyrocket to 171%.
• When smokers quit smoking (which happend en masse in the 70s and 80s), their friends were 36% more likely to quit. And the action of that one person affected others up to three degrees of separation. That means even if all your friends were still smoking, if even one of the friends of a friend of your friend stopped, it would have some influence on your stopping.
• Happiness is contagious. For each happy friend you have, it increases your chances of being happy by 9%. Having an extra $5000 a year only increases your happiness by 2%.

You can read more about the social network analysis in the current issue of Wired. It also says that if you post a smiling face on your facebook account, you’ll have 15% more friends!

Here’s something to reflect upon about satsaunga from the Yoga Vashistha:

“Self-knowledge or knowledge of truth is not had by resorting to a guru nor by the study of scripture, nor by good works: it is attained only by means of inquiry inspired by the company of wise and holy people. One’s inner light alone is the means, naught else. When this inner light is kept alive, it is not affected by the darkness of inertia.”

 Om Shanti that one.

Fear

How to not live in fear. I wish I could give a “5 Steps to Not Living in Fear” tele-seminar and explain the simple, but obvious secrets to living the fearless life you deserve. But like all real-life challenges, figuring out how not to be afraid is not always a simple, obvious formula that everyone can access with equal ease. 

A student from the Subtle Yoga Training Program called me today and asked me about dealing with recurrent fears. “I have horrible scenarios running through my head about what could happen.” she said.

Yup I get that too. And when I ruminate about why these big disaster scenarios enter my mind, I can’t help but wonder what I am gaining from it. Perhaps when something bad really does happen I will have hedged my bets. I can then say with lots of self-satisfied glee, ‘See, I knew I was going to get cancer! I always knew it!’ “

So what then? I get points for being the most psychic, because I always knew!? For me, the appropriate solution to catastrophic thinking patterns is… laughter. I happened to be near a mirror when I was recently having a catastrophic thought about my son, riding his bike, getting mowed over by a speeding car.

So I glanced up and caught a glimpse of myself. And then proceeded to smirk and giggle. He is having fun, he is being safe and my catastrophic thought is far too far out there in misfiring neurotransmitter land to be of any use to anyone.

Fear of horrible things happening is a state of being disconnected from myself and my Source. When I am trusting that things are being taken care of, that things are happening as they should, then there is no need to fear. I can relax. Interestingly when I relax, there is no fear. Did I mention that yoga is good for relaxing?

The other big thing for me is to stop and flood myself with gratitude for what I have right in front of me right now. Helping my son catch a baby cricket (who has been chirping on the refrigerator door) in his bug net and releasing him outside, or enjoying the cucumbers from the garden (they are going a bit crazy out there!), or taking a deep breath as I move into a delicious asana, or driving the car with a half full tank that works just fine, or sleeping next to a man who could win a prize for being the kindest person in the world – all these things put me in a state of delirious gratitude.

That’s what I have right now. That’s what fills me. I don’t know what I will have tomorrow, but if I spend my time in fear of that rather than with what I have right now, then I’ve lost today. And I won’t stand for that. I won’t allow fear of the future to ruin my present life – that’s what the mirror me tells me. And that invites me to have a good laugh.

Saluting the Cosmic Sun

We chanted the traditional Sun Salutation mantras last Thursday night at One Center Yoga. Wow, what a practice. The mantras just keep the whole thing moving in this amazing way.

I never was that into Sun Salutations, but when I started chanting the mantras with it, it really changed the way I feel about the practice. It’s totally solar (oh, that sounds like, very LA). I mean it’s a firey, third chakra practice. It heats you up like sun salutations always do, but in an ethereal, almost trance-like way. With so much less effort. I will record the mantras and get them up here so you can hear them. The trickiest one is cobra: Om Hiranyagarbhaya Namah. Just split it into four parts – hiran-ya-garbai-ya – it’s not so bad after doing it a few times. Here are the mantras:

1.    Mountain pose with hands at heart –  Aum mitr?ya namah
                        salutations to the friend of all

2.    Stretch the arms up and back –     Aum ravayé namah
                        salutations to the shining one
3.    Fold Forward –             Aum s?ry?ya namah

                        salutations to the supreme light
4.    Right leg back to lunge –         Aum bh?navé namah
                        salutations to the illuminator

5.    Down Dog –                 Aum khag?ya namah
                    salutations to the one who moves through the sky
6.    Knees/chest/chin to the floor –     Aum pushné namah

                        salutations to the giver of strength
7.    Cobra –             Aum hiranyagarbh?ya namah
                        salutations to the golden, cosmic Self

8.    Down Dog –                 Aum m?rich?yé namah
                        salutations to the lord of the dawn

9.    Right leg forward to lunge –         Aum ?dity?ya namah
                    salutations to the son of the cosmic mother
10.    Left leg forward to fold –         Aum s?vitré namah

                        salutations to the lord of creation
11.    Arms up over head –             Aum ?rk?ya namah
                    salutations to the one who is fit to be praised

12.    Hands at Heart –             Aum bh?skar?ya namah
                    salutations to the one who leads to enlightenment

We’ll practice again next this Thursday – feel free to drop in – 6-7:30 pm at One Center, 120 Coxe Ave. in Asheville. The space resonnates with the sound in an amazing way. The more the merrier when it comes to chanting.

Chakra Cooking Class – Lesson #4

When I was in India, I met a yoga monk who was well-known for his vast wisdom of all things yogic, but especially the chakras.

So I asked him about the color of the heart chakra. “Some people say it’s a smokey green color,” I said. “What does that mean?”

When I heard Anodea Judith talk about chakras, she said that the old scrolls had been kept in temples and that they could’ve easily been damaged by incense smoke and that’s where the “smokey” in the green came from. Hmmmmm. Weren’t yogis more tuned in than that? They shouldn’t have to use old scrolls to see the color of their heart chakras anyway.

“Well,” he said. “It’s not exactly ‘smokey’, it’s more like the inside of a cabbage.”
“Oh.”

I must admit here that I left a bit disappointed.

The inside of a cabbage? That’s as exciting as the heart chakra gets?! – a cabbage! Not something slightly more exotic – like a romanescu or a durian – or even an artichoke? My heart chakra felt insulted.

Anyway, I’ve often pondered what the inside of a cabbage could possibly have to do with the heart chakra. It’s not at all smokey green, more like yellowish-white. Eventually I gave up. Clearly, in my mind at least, there was no point in making a cabbage/heart connection. The heart chakra is just green. Green is a nice color, no need to dig any deeper here.

Last week my friend Matthew was coming over for lunch and to help me with some computer stuff. So I got out some leftover black beans and rice and decided I’d cook up some carrots and a Savoy cabbage I had purchased a few days earlier. Thought I’d make some wraps for us before we got to our business of website work. Matthew is a talented, patient, spiritually advanced IT guy – clearly, a person who deserves to be fed well.

Now I don’t know about you, but typically I buy big cabbages and since my family isn’t that into cabbage anyway, I usually don’t cook it all in one go. When I cut it, I usually just slice of a hunk and then cut that piece up into smaller bits.

But this cabbage was petite. I needed to use half of it. And it was very green and fresh and pretty and crinkly. So I got out a sharp knife and cut it in half.

And then…

I fell into vegetable samadhi

After all these years of not really being able to make the cabbage connection, I finally got it. Cabbages really do have feelings because there in the middle of my cutting board was the cabbage’s exposed heart chakra.

I got out my camera for the occasion because I thought you might like to see it too. Be careful not to look too long though because you might go into vegetable samadhi too and not be able to do anything for the rest of the afternoon but dream of perfect sauerkraut.

Brahmacarya – In Search of the Divine

Here’s a Sanskrit word to chew on: Brahmacarya.

Brahmacarya is one of those yoga concepts that been interpretated over the centuries in a variety of ways from “celibacy” to “abstinence” to “self-control.”

I’ve had a lot of students ask me, “Do you have to be celibate to be a real yogi?” There certainly was a time when many people believed that. And somehow the idea that celibacy is more spiritual has gotten into the collective mind of yoga practitioners.

But in general most commentators have not examined the literal translation of Brahmacarya: “To walk while chewing on God.” Perhaps “ruminating” would be a better word choice here. Brahmacarya is the fourth of the yamas, the ethical guidelines of yoga. Now when you look closely at the yamas and niyamas, you see that there are two categories – the yamas are about how we deal with the external world – like non-harming, honesty, etc. and the niyamas are how we deal with our internal world, like cleanliness, contentment, etc.

So, if you translate Brahmacarya as celibacy, it seems a little weird – I mean, sex is a very personal thing. And the people who were writing this stuff were thinking about one-partner-for-life kind of sex. So, with that in mind, why would they put a principle about sex in with a bunch of other principles about dealing with others and the external world? With the celibacy translation, Brahmacarya ends up looking more like a niyama than a yama – and this gets kind of confusing.

But if we translate it literally, as walking with the Divine always in mind, then it actually becomes the cornerstone of the yamas. If I am always with the Divine, then I will behave towards the external world kindly, with honesty and without greed. I don’t think the yogis who outlined the ethical principles of yoga were terribly interested in other people’s sex lives.

Here’s my story about how the term became mis-used: There were probably some yogis traveling through a town one day, the inhabitants of which had never seen a renunciate before. And one guy goes up to the yogis and asks them, “Hey, what are you guys all about?”

The yogis explain their quest for truth and enlightenment. They mention that they follow the path of Brahmacarya and attempt to see everything as an expression of the Divine. The villager asks them where the children are and they explain that they do not marry and are celibate renunciates.

So the villager goes back to his village to report about the strangers and tells them, “Wow, how bizarre. They don’t have sex! They call it Brahmacarya.” Then the villagers name the people “Brahmacaryas” and the name sticks.

Renunciates = brahmacaryas = celibates.

That’s simple. Kinda misses the point a bit, but, oh well.

The yogis were attempting to see everything that happens as an expression of Divine Consciousness. This is quite a practice. It might help some people to not get distracted by sex, but it’s not essentially for everyone. With a literal translation of Brahmacarya in mind, sex itself becomes a divine act. Everything in life becomes divine. It’s a beautiful practice.

Try Brahmacarya for yourself: Before having a difficult conversation with someone, take a moment to pause and remember – everything is an expression of Divine consciousness. Close your eyes and breathe in this reality, then go on with your conversation. Notice the outcome. It might be pleasantly surprising.

Duke Integrative Medicine – Wow, cool doctors!

Greetings from Durham, NC!

I kinda want to stay here for another month or two.

I’ve been at Duke Integrative Medicine for the past 7 days taking the Therapeutic Yoga for Seniors Training – and it’s been truly an amazing experience. This is not your average yoga training program – for those of you who’ve done those out of town, typically you go to a nice studio and learn stuff from yoga people – but then you’re on your own for food, accommodations etc.

But this training is taking place with yoga people AND Duke Medical professors at Duke’s IM facility – which is something like a zenned-out health spa, complete with an enormous crystal Tibetan singing bowl which invites you to ring it as you walk in. Some of the walls are papered with real tree bark, there’s both an exquisitely meditative meditation room and a stony zen contemplation garden. They have a labyrinth outside, just off of the patio and inside, a live bamboo-filled atrium waiting room – that would be, waiting for a massage or some kind of hydrotherapy or acupuncture, of course.

And then there’s the food. They provide lunch every day cooked by their very conscious food person – chef Kate (sorry I can’t find a link for her, but she’s definitely worth knowing about) – who makes dietary considerations for any of the merely 40 of us who request them. She does under 100 calorie things with chocolate which make me terribly skeptical that she really does any sort of calculations.

The level of expertise of the program’s instructors is humbling. Our main teachers, Carol Krucoff and Kimberly Carson have quite a bit of both yoga experience and western medical credentials. And the Duke professors they have brought in include some of the finest names in pain, arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, pulmonary health, opthamology, end of life care – it goes on and on. After 7 days of this my brain has hit the saturation point!

But tomorrow is the last day and I’ll be heading back home to Asheville with a heart full of gratitude for the wealth of wisdom and knowledge which has been imparted - if you are in the 55 plus age range, keep an eye out for an upcoming series which I’ll be doing as part of my research project for the program. I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with you! They will be free but with limited space so you’ll need to sign up early.

4 Ways to Stop Talking Yourself Out of Meditating

It’s easy to put it off till later – oh, yeah, I’ll get around to it tomorrow, or maybe I’ll start when the kids are in college. Here are 4 tips to help it happen sooner rather than later.

1.    Let’s groove tonight
You could call it creating a habit, but that sounds so blah. Instead, tell yourself you are creating a psychic groove in time and space, so that your body and mind will start to resonate with the time for meditation and gravitate towards the place when that time arrives. You will eventually create a positive habit – a vibrational groove in space and time. “Hmm, that’s funny, why do I feel like breathing deeply and being still right now? Oh, it’s 6 pm, that’s right, it’s meditation time!”

Make your space aesthetically pleasing. Have a small table set up with inspiring pictures of people or places. Put a sacred object or two on in. Make it a place that you want to go to, even if it’s just a small corner of a room.

2.    Stop telling yourself your not the meditative type

If you really don’t want to have the joy, healing, rejuvenation and refuge a meditation practice offers, then keep telling yourself: “I’m not the meditative type! I’m a very active, busy person. I like to hang out with other people and laugh and have fun. This meditation stuff is for relaxed people – not me!”

What is the meditative type anyway? A monk with a shaved head freezing his tuckus off on a mountaintop somewhere? This is a great stereotype to keep in mind if you are dedicated to preventing yourself from having a fulfilling meditation practice. The fact is that anyone can meditate. All that is required is a little space, a little time, a mind, body and spirit.

It’s even free. And meditation doesn’t mean that you are going to have to stop having fun. Actually some of the most fun-loving people I’ve ever met are dedicated meditators. Meditation helps you take yourself a little less seriously, to take a little less interest in the live-streaming drama, and to be a little more content with the people around you. The only caveat is that you actually have to do it for it to work.

Replace the negative self talk with positive affirmations: “I will meditate today because I love and want to take care of myself and all the people that are important to me.” Or some variation of this that makes you feel good. Negative self talk is a great red flag. Practice seeing it that way. “Hmm. That’s pretty harsh, why am I feeling like this? What needs are unmet? How can I change this?”

3.    Get a meditation buddy

Lots of people have running partners, biking partners or tennis or golf buddies. A meditation buddy is the same sort of person – find someone you can meet every day to meditate with. If you live with someone, ask them to be your meditation buddy. If they don’t want to meditate, tell them that they can do shavasana, listen to their i-pod (not loud enough for you to hear too thanks), or read while you meditate, but ask them to support you in your efforts. Ask them to make an agreement that both of you will take 10 minutes twice a day to do something quiet for yourselves together. And who knows, when they see how it affects you, they might want to try it to.

And if you don’t live with or close enough to your meditation buddy, set it up so that you call each other twice a day and check in about meditation. No guilt or questioning motives needed – just a gentle, friendly reminder. Arrange your buddy-ship so that you both meditate at the same time – you both know that at a specific time, you and your buddy will be meditating together for however long you decide upon. That way, you know you are not alone. I mean, you are never alone in this anyway, but meditation can seem isolating. You can feel like you are the only person on the planet who is sitting alone in a room by yourself. This is simply untrue. More and more people are meditating these days and we all need it individually and collectively. The vibration you are helping to create will bring healing not only to yourself, but to your family, community and ultimately the entire world.

4.    Even Yo-Yo Ma has to practice
Yoga students and teachers alike frequently tell me that they aren’t good at meditating. But why is it we know that to learn something we have to take lessons and practice, but when it comes to meditation, the most useful skill a human being could acquire, we are just supposed to know how to do it intuitively?

What if you picked up a cello this afternoon and tried to play it? You had never had a cello lesson before. You weren’t sure which strings were which. You didn’t really even know how to hold it. You really love cello music and you would love to learn how to play. So you saw away a bit and it sounds horrible. Then you decide to give up because obviously you have no talent.

Probably wouldn’t happen that way. Because you understand that to be good at the cello, you will have to learn and practice, ask questions, listen and find solutions. That’s how we learn anything, meditation is no different. So remind yourself that you are learning how to do something that will benefit you for the rest of your life. Be kind and gentle with yourself when you feel like you are “getting nowhere” with it. And be persistent. It’s been around forever, it works and you can do it too.