Moving Into Harmony

MOVEMENT & BREATH: HEALTH - FITNESS - PERFORMANCE

Yoga

How to know your breathing’s functional capacities

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Tuning In requires feeling, a turning the dial of your attention and pointing to what you want to listen to. Knowing what to listen to from guidance is very helpful. I can recall when I started my meditation practice, I got lost in “silence.” As time went on my practice dulled and left me somewhat dull with life. Once I began to hear my teacher point at what we needed to pay attention to, my whole practice changed, and therefore my body and my mind….and my life changed.

Feeling, Sleep and the Breath are intimately connected and influence on another. Check out this article about this.

This is also true for the body. Having the right guidance does not mean something else may is wrong. The right guidance provides the right effort. In the Yoga right effort, means to bring together, which is the unifying principle in life. By bringing the mind in direct connection to qualities in the body one can make progress with their practice. The breath is housed in the body and all actions in the body happen because of the companionship with the breath.

So here are a few ways to fine tune your attention to the dynamics of the breath for your practice and your progress:

  • Feeling the breath move the ribs – volume
  • Noticing the rate
  • Noticing where in your chest the breath is
  • How you react to the feeling of breathlessness, the need to breathe – CO2 sensitivity

Feeling is a sense. Actually feeling, or sensing how you are being touched, is directly related to the dynamics of the life force energy (Prana, Qi, the Wind, and other names). Feeling is developed early in life, as early as being inside your mother, being held in a world of warm welcoming watery support (the 4 w’s I like to call it). This is one of our first impressions and it keeps us open and expanding in our development as a human being. The other is true too, that once the outside world is perceived as a threat, we begin to lose that powerful openness and expanding potential by withdrawing. I was shown this phenomena exists even before the heart is formed. (I’ll see if I can find some photos of the cells going toward the edge of the sac and collecting at the place where the umbilical cord will connect…..so, way early in our development.)

Sorry, I got a bit expansive in my awe of this phenomena and how much I desire to stay connected and open. I was also given the amazing wisdom from my teacher – “Feeling is the hardest thing to do as a human.” He would encourage me, when I was tied in a knot….a shape to allow my body through my interaction with the life force inside with each breath, he would kindly say “scratch the window.” Scratch the window……coupled with a poem during that time by David Whyte – Just Beyond Yourself.

Want to go a little beyond yourself and feel how the breath is working with you?

Start with Feeling. Most guidance will have you start with inhalation. I want to offer something different:

  • Start by feeling the ground that supports you. Can you trust and let go into that support below you and inside you?
    • Lying down on your back – feel from your head to your heels the ground supporting you. Can you let go into that support?
    • Sitting – feel the base of your pelvis centering on your sit bones without striving or holding AND feel aliveness in your ankles and feet (THIS is very important concept about the legs supporting you in sitting, and it comes from standing and squatting).
    • Standing – feel the feet on the earth and notice how they are on the earth (4POINTS); and how there is a descending support that comes from your letting the ground support you through the bones from the back body – tuft of skull to your heels; and front body, from your navel to your ankles….this whole region being allowed to descend into the feet. This is a practice within itself – a standing practice of finding what truly supports you. You can listen here for a guidance I give on standing.
  • In this descending process, letting go into sustainable support, can you notice your letting go in the breath? The exhale. Feel how the exhale comes from you letting go, descending.
    • The exhale can be felt in the physical body on the surface as a cascading descending feeling off the neck and shoulders – down the ribs into the belly.
    • A quality of spaciousness may be felt in the belly as you release. This keeps you from squeezing the belly and abdomen in attempt to move the exhale, and push it out. This will bring adaptations you do not want. Trust me, I did this for many years and the re-learning has taken some time and my body has had to adjust to unraveling what I thought was the way. I have learned from this BIG mistake (thank you!thank you!thank you!) in time and I know I can find my way back (I’m that little gnome at the edge of the trail whispering…..”go that way.”
    • The inhalation is determined by the exhalation and the space that is created. Then the inhalation gets invited into the doors of opening and in companionship with you fills you up where the body can take it. The mind has to observe this quality, because the mind can not comprehend all the intricacies and inter-related dynamics of what is going to happen on the next breath, so why use the mind to push the breath – why not be observant and feel what is moved and shifts with the motivation of the breath. This is the role of the life force, to move you and motivate you, and it will do what ever you ask for the activity you are in. Your true companion.
  • Then, at the end of the exhale, even when you don’t feel air leaving your nose, you might notice a pause. Please do not manufacture a pause. It is naturally occurring, and usually present when your BOLT score (see video below to measure) is above 15-18. So feel if that is present.
  • Then, in that pause, there is the origins, or initiation, of the in-breath. So from the belly, feel your breath originate below your navel and this motivation will give rise and expansion to the lower ribs. You can imagine your cup is being filled from the bottom up, but again please do not manufacture this, it is just an image not something your mind needs to do. This is your inhalation. From the low ribs to the tops of your shoulders and base of neck. Rejoice in receiving this breath and how it moves you.

Let’s discuss Rhythm. I mentioned above feeling the sequence of the breath. Now like the bass of the band, or the drummers beat, there is a rhythm. This is a rate, or pulse in the breath. In exercise physiology (and respiratory physiology) the rate is counted and described per minute. Best measured by a device or someone counting your breaths without you knowing they are watching and counting your breaths. The mind will get involved and your rate will not be accurate the moment you watch it or feel you are being watched….just the way of the mind. So, your respiratory rate (RR) is best measured by a device. I am working on a way to link into what you might feel is your natural rhythm and rate…..stay tuned.

Nasal breathing vs. Mouth breathing. This article can help. For now you can inquire into your way of breathing – through your day do you nasal breathe or mouth breathe? and, as you walk or exercise or get into a bit of an intense level of activity (can even be mind), do you mouth breathe or nasal breathe?

Your sensitivity to CO2 (the by-product of your metabolism) is a very important gas to understand how it works in your body….it is not bad for you.

I offer this simple measure for you to discover your sensitivity to CO2 and your breathing functions and capacities.

Want to learn more about how you can harness the power behind each breath you take, and how to make the most out of your health & fitness program? Check out these opportunities.

Article by Shawn M Flot, MPT. He is now a Certified Oxygen Advantage® Instructor. Combined with his 28year experience in Exercise Physiology, Physical Therapist for health and performance, and a dedicated Yoga practitioner is making for a power-house to help many people succeed in re-discovering their own health, healing and well-being.

The Amazing Health Benefits of the Breath – Nitric Oxide

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Nitric Oxide was originally discovered in 1986 by Dr. Louis Ignarro in his lab. And he and two of his colleges were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998. This naturally produced gas is as important for the health of the human body as Vitamin D. YEP!!!!

From Dr. Ignarro are the key benefits he found with Nitric Oxide. Through nasal breathing this substance is stimulated and circulated from the paranasal sinuses into the respiratory tract. The lining of the respiratory tract has a strong affinity for nitric oxide for support with immune function, tissue health and healing, and circulation/exchange of respiratory gases. WOW! NOW you know how smart the body is, and how the nose is intimately tied to your health.

Here is a lecture by Dr. Ignarro

This video goes over the sequence, modified for biomechanical advantages, injury prevention while doing them, and aspects of the breathing……and hummmmm-ing.

As for the importance of healthy nasal passages – the ole osteopaths, Dr. Andrew Still & Dr. William Sutherland, referred to the ethmoid bone (the passages from which the air through the nasal passages pass into the skull to vibrate the pituitary gland) are the “lungs of the cranium.” BOOM!

Here is another video/podcast with Dr. Ignarro with some great insights:

https://vimeo.com/56206930
This is one of the scientists that discovered the molecule – a great presentation

Why relaxing down enhances your flexibility

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If the well is distant, its water does not quench the thirst of the pilgrim – Chinese Proverb

Your health is being flexible, and your flexibility is not about how your stretch……it’s about how you descend to harness fluidity in your tissues and your mind. Just like in the desert, or in the mountains, the well-spring of nourishment is always found in the hollows of the earth – the canyon, the mountain, the well.

How do you harness your fluidity? You learn to descend within the body. My teacher, Shandor Remete, from the beginning, guided us to cultivate the ability to descend our energy by the proper use of how you move your body. So much of life triggers us to ascend upward – for example:

  • The overuse of the eyes and the brain.
  • A surprising and often frightening sensation of pain
  • Being “ready” for what’s expected or ahead of you
  • Holding yourself upright to maintain a “good” posture
  • elevate your mind for clear thoughts.

This is in contrast to the actual nourishing element of water that keeps us flexible, mobile, and agile. The higher you live, the more distant the access to the balancing mechanism that promotes dynamic fluidity. Water travels down the mountain, down the canyon, and eventually to the ocean. The physiological processes are related to natural phenomena – as in the natural wild world, so inside the wilderness of your body.

Dripping water can eat through a stone – Chinese Proverb

The “region” of the body that relates to the downward force to access the elemental nature of water, consists of approximately 70% of your total body. It represents – the back body – from the tuft of the skull to the heels; and the front body – from the navel to the front of the ankle. The gross body part, anatomical, that relates to the water element is the feet. The ankles are referred to as “the regulators of all fluids in the body” (wisdom given to me by both my Hatha Yoga teacher, Shandor Remete; and my Manual Therapy teacher, Frank Lowen).

What practices can you “exercise” to harness your fluidity? Good question.

Avoid Stretching what you think is tight.

Shocked? Consider how long you have been stretching to feel flexible? Now consider how much strain and stress you are putting on those pinpoint focused areas you feel are tight, without the aide of harnessing your fluidity. Your:

  • bottoms of your feet (plantar fascia)
  • calves (gastrocs, soleus)
  • thighs – front (quadriceps); back (hamstrings)
  • low back (quadratus lumborum, back extensors, spine)
  • hips – front (iliopsoas); back (glutes, piriformis)
  • shoulders (rotator cuff)
  • chest (pectoralis group)
  • neck and skull (trapezius, suboccipitals)

Some of you even contract one muscle group to stretch the apposing. Or you contract the muscle group you want to stretch, then relax to stretch it (cuz you think it fatigues that you can pull it apart more). Well, I am here to say…….

That is a lot of energy consumed to get a short term result. Doesn’t last. In fact the moment you return to your life that engages your up-ness. POOF! gone….you are back to being tight and probably feel more stiff than before you stretched.

Stretching, in my clinical experience is unnecessary stress and strain without the essential ingredient of dynamic fluidity. It is like a rubber band that snaps back. Consider the material – a rubber band, a piece of taffy – what happens when it is dry, frayed, or cold? It usually doesn’t have the same pliability, and if you are using a rubber band, I am certain you ignored that one or threw it away; or if it was the only one you had to use (you don’t have another hamstring) you were cautious to not overstretch because it break, and snap. Ouch, that end that snapped to my finger was painful. Ouch, I just “tore” my hamstring stretching in yoga class. And more subtly, your body is sensing undo stress and strain with it’s signals of ouch, protects by tightening (kinda like how your protecting brace when you know something potentially harmful is coming, or experienced) and tries to brunt the brute force attack by trying to stretch.

Learn how to use your feet and your ankles. And learn how to descend through squatting.

Yes squatting. It’s not what you think. Did you mind go to the power lifter in the gym squatting 300 lbs.? Admit it, you hesitated if you have read this far. You squat every day, many times a day. How many times do you sit down, and get up from a chair? How many times do you sit down to toilet? How many times do you lower yourself to get something? My suggestion is to use your every day activities to give yourself the opportunity to feel, discover, learn and integrate what you feel, or how you are guided to descend, that delivers a life benefit of the skill of descending to find your flexibility.

I will be discussing more details on this important topic in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned.

You can also discover personalized ways

with a Telehealth Discovery Session

Find out more!

How to enhance your Balance & Coordination

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YES!!!  Our feet and our hands have vital importance for integrative vital movement.

From a neuroscience perspective, the homunculus of the somatosensory cortex, the map of the motor and sensory fields in our brains, illustrate this occupancy of high functional capacities for the feet and hands. The only other areas that get this much “attention” are the lips, tongue, eyes, ears. With this representation, you can see the capacity we have to use our feet for sensation and developing attributes for the full-body movement that the body understands – the integration of the limbs. Most important is the capacity to feel, to sense your internal and external environments.

The tantric yogis, from which hatha yoga is a part of, state consciousness comes through or senses, and the “central nerve channel” derives the sensory system. Thus the importance for everyone to find their feet and develop a connection to the most important part of our foundation. And to sense and understand how the utilization of the hands is intimately connected to the spine and the legs.

What is not seen or measured is the ability to sense the bones, their alignment, and an integral part in our “core” stability. There is no need to bind the belly for stabilization. One only needs to feel how the spine responds to the balancing arrangement and integrative use of the limbs (including the head) for static and dynamic activity. It is this sensibility with the bones, all the way to the tips of the fingers and toes, that allows all the other tissues including tendons and muscle to respond together. The body knows how to respond with an integrative balance in the limbs. It is inherent. And to override the body’s intelligence and nature of functional core engagement is acting violently to the nature of the body’s resources. Developing a sensitivity to the bones requires advanced attention because the bones whisper and often their message gets drowned out by the message from the muscle.

I often associate the muscle with the mini-me, and the bones with the deep inner wisdom, or sage, that carries the innate intelligence of harmony in the body.

How to cultivate access to the Power in the Bones!

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How do you consistently remain alive during life’s demands? How do you adapt? Are the adaptations you currently incorporate helping you live in harmony? Being alive is being fluid in response. Being alive is being in balance from the foundational support that your bones give.  Establish balance from a sustainable resource, the bones, and discover your potential.

Learning new patterns to replace habits that limit freedom of well-being can be challenging. Habitual patterns of posture for sitting and standing which unknowingly limit the flow of your circulation of life force energy, Prana, are perhaps the toughest to change. Typically, when there are changes required, we don’t realize how the bones can be that foundational support.

Life is challenging, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes eliciting means to survive. The body and mind do the best they can in the attempt to meet the demands from you and your environment. The stress response of the body, if elicited during these demands can diminish any biological and physiological healthy rhythms leading to symptomatic signals of unease. It is a resonance in the nervous system that registers dis-ease from unsupported activity. Symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, cold hands and feet, decreased appetite and difficulty digesting food all relate to an overwhelmed system.

A standing posture can be helpful in cultivating the supportive essential qualities for a path toward balance. Stances can also simultaneously aide in cutting and removing habitual “holding” patterns limiting your current state of being. Patterns developed from adaptations you needed and that may have been necessary during a certain time of your life. How you dealt with a demanding or stressful experience – survived, managed, or thrived. With a relaxed focus on the dynamisms of a stance, you begin the process of feeling the body’s innate wisdom for balance – harmony.

The Bones

The bones are that balance point. Balance point where there is no binding stress on the system. Rather an acceptable demand that facilitates circulation and change. How you move from balance, through balance, to balance is one of the key elements of how the bones support optimal function. Bones represent quality of concentration, physically as the most solid and physiologically as the most vascular.

The bones are most associated with the earth element because of the mineralization and density. The bones are “well-baked,” holding the qualities of the fire, AND are the most metabolic tissue. They are built to support you! When the practice utilizes the bones for support, it:

  • Reduces the muscular effort for support,
  • Decreases stress responses to daily demands,
  • Creates the quality of Dharana, which is essential for Dhyana (meditation),
  • Generates a gentle internal heat for metabolism, and
  • Improves circulation for all of the body’s functions.

Stability from the bone brings lightness and relaxation. Optimal load bearing and “alignment” brings optimal fluid dynamics to all tissues. By being in a stationary position such as goat or horse stance, your entire body’s ability to facilitate and integrate change is supported by the work-horses of your legs – the bones.

Practicing in the Bones

With a standing practice, the body must have the capacity to remain in a stationary position and maintain circulation, without binding or holding. This is part of the body’s natural ability to support you, just as a horse knows how to sleep standing up. One of the keys is the feeling of lightness, fluidity and ease during and after the stance. This is a measure of how long one is sustainable in stationary work.

A standing practice can help you realize what supports you. The practice can also provide a glimpse into the understanding of non-violence, because the demand on the structure asks us to release our old ways, and surrender to something stronger and more powerful than our means to survive. You may be amazed at how much energy you have been using to hold yourself up. What is the sustainable enduring essence within you?

Solution – Develop balanced foundations with the 4POINTS and Yin Horse





Here is some guidance for the Yin Horse:

  • Stand with shoulders over outer edge of ankle joints, and then move your heels out so the toes are in more than the heels.
  • Feel the 4POINTS on your feet (see animation above), to establish balance in your foundation; as you notice the settling onto the four points, if one or more points are not as engaged with the earth, try not to mechanically roll the feet or ankles to adjust, rather soften the feet and extend your awareness to the edges of your feet – nail bed or first toe, space between the 4th and 5th mound, backs of heels leading back and down into the earth. Keep allowing the feet to soften and feel more fluid like.
  • With the hands soft, place them on your low belly below the navel in a way that the elbows and shoulders are relaxed and there is no tension in the chest or neck.
  • Entering the stance, lower yourself down 1-2 inches onto the balanced 4POINTS from your ankles, with the top front of your shins weighting the heels, and avoid pushing yourself down into the stance which will produce increase weight onto the balls of the feet and lightness in the heels. Feel the difference if you are not understanding – push yourself down, and notice your ankle, knee, hip joints and the spine. Do they feel compressed? Try lowering yourself from the feet and notice the difference. Optimal outcomes will be realized over time as you develop vertical support through the bones and spaciousness in the joints.
  • Depth of stance remains at 1-2 inches, no deeper. As you begin to allow the body to be supported by the bones, especially the shin bone, you will want to go deeper. Can you stay at 1-2 inch depth and allow the internal release that feels like you are going deeper, when in fact it is the release of what you habitually hold up that is releasing down.
  • Avoid stress by overdoing, pushing down into the legs, holding in the knees, hips, buttocks, and/or spine. These holdings are very common when the cultivation and development in the bones to support you is young.  “Young?” you say, “I am 45 yrs old.” Rather than age, I am referring to a development of circulation and neuromuscular (or neuromotor) patterns of support that is usually associated with muscles, rather than the bones supporting you. Holding in the muscles or resting on the joints, which is a more common habit, can be your default and, therefore, “stronger” than this new way of being in your legs.
  • Be patient, accept your capacity and persevere with trust your body can do this. Your development is dependent on practicing with awareness, and then integrating that awareness through your day by feeling the support of your legs.
  • Recommend doing this in the morning, mid-day and in the evening before bed 2-3 minutes at a time. Build to  -> 5 minutes, -> 8 minutes, -> 10 minutes, -> 15 minutes over a 6-9 month period. Give it time and have no expectation of it coming sooner. Once developed, your body will hold a wonderful support level that will serve you for a long time.
  • The above guidance in the video is a great resource. Be patient with feeling the more subtle aspects of the stance that are mentioned about the pelvis, the breath and the spine. Be comfortable being in the stance first noticing support and then releasing onto the bones; then your awareness will have more capacity to observe the other things that happen. It took me 3-4 years to feel the things I am sharing.
  • Keep practicing with this or other stances to further your development, depending on your desires and your needs.
  • Join me for a class!
  • Schedule a session!

This can be transformative by transcending some of the barriers to your healing potential!

What I’ve learned on the Trail

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The Fallen Log Puzzle – Removing the Obstacle on the Path

An experience of removing a fallen log on a classic Southern Oregon’s (“my wilderness backyard”) Osgood Ditch Trail with the  Siskiyou Mountain Club (a non-profit organization “We do the hard work it takes to keep the backcountry experience alive in the region we work”) provided great insight into how we handle the obstacles in our bodies and our lives. How we can utilize an experience as a teaching lesson for the journey of healing. Whether you are healing from an injury, or healing from trauma, you know what an arduous journey it can be to heal. It requires right effort often with precision and focus, unconventional means, awareness of surroundings and taking the time to assess all issues, team work with the ability to express your feelings & concerns to others, the appropriate tools, patience, perseverance and celebration. 

Let’s look at these fundamentals a lil bit more:

  • Right effort – Let the saw work for you. Use the body, as much of the body as you have available to your action(s), and watch the mind’s tendency to rush or push harder on the body than necessary. This was especially important because the unconventional means of under-bucking with the one man cross-cut saw. 

Alignment (precision) of the top cut for the undercut was essential to the process, being aware (focus and attention) of the opposites (top and bottom) and how they related made the process much more efficient. 

  • Team work – this requires including all members able to perform the task. The coordinated effort of “all parts,” or team members, makes the task an effective means to addressing the fallen log blocking the path. 

This is true of our bodies as well; use what’s available and coordinate as many parts of yourself to accomplish the task of “removing the obstacle.” 

  • Being aware of the surroundings – gather information from your senses about the situation and the surrounding variables that you can address to make the task a viable option and noticing the hazards or consequences to the task can help the situation. This also included being able to express your feelings & concerns for the task. Fear can be a big one, and noting that you fear something that may be a consequence to your actions is important. 

Hiding the fear keeps it unattended. 

With our leader in the task, she had the courage to address her fear to the group, the uphill part of the log potentially sliding down, was extremely important for all others to hear and acknowledge the risks involved. Naming what the fear was about allowed all of the team members to take note and be aware without giving up on removing the obstacle. We didn’t let the fear stop us from doing what needed to be done. 

It is very important in removing obstacles on your path, and journey of healing to notice your feelings, especially fear, and you stay focused on what you need to do without fear stopping you. 

  • The appropriate tools – and the skill it requires to remove the fallen tree from the path was vital. A two person saw might have been the best, but that would have required extra resources to carry it in and out, and since we did not know what obstacles we would find, and the number of people carrying tools into the wilderness, we choose to take the one person cross-cut saw. 

So we did what we could with the tools we had available. This required a lil more time and strategy knowing what we had, and multiple team members and patience were some of our virtues. And noting the potential challenges, such as binding and unknown tension in the log; or fault lines from how it grew, fell and broke on the terrain, provided us ample opportunities to use our tools with great skill in different ways to accomplish the removal. And avoid binding and loosing access to a very important tool. 

No need to push harder or faster if that risks breaking an important part of the system, and potentially loosing it completely for further actions in the task at hand,
or future obstacle.

  • Perseverance – was another cardinal quality in removing the obstacle.

At first you don’t succeed, try again. And try again. And try again.

Perhaps from another angle, with an additional tool, more team members or part of the team you didn’t know you had available but it all of a sudden came to your awareness you had that skill, or tool –  the hand saw. And using all of our senses, to inform us of how the practice was proceeding; such as the sliding sound of the fallen tree uphill, the cracking and separating, and the final release of cutting. 

  • Celebrating – But interesting how there was so much focus on cutting the log, that in the process of moving the cut piece off the trail all team members jumped in exuberantly and began moving the large piece without pausing and looking at the best direction and way to move it off the trail. A very discombobulating and potentially injurious situation for one or more of the team members; you could also say one of the systems in your body. 

In the release, the freeing “energy” and excitement keep your focus on the steps and doing what is fully required keeps your actions coordinated and integrated.

This happens a great deal, we are so excited when the obstacle is cut or broken through, we celebrate and let down our focus and attention. And in fact the cutting through is just one step along the process. Without good observation, continuing with integrating the cutting through with the rest of the essential tasks or actions, something can go awry. 

In that final stage, or integration, there can be re-injury, unresolved piece and set back. It was important to stop, review, and try to find the best way to take it completely off the path. 

Celebration is a great ingredient in the process of removing obstacles, and maintaining a clear middle way that keeps one from swaying to and from – comfort and discomfort, removal and return, contraction and relaxation, will keep one from noticing and utilizing what is in the obstacle and the end goal. 

Keeping your sights on what you really want is key to healing. Moving beyond pain relief is essential to living fully with the energy to address the next obstacle that comes across your path.

A prayer(song) for you:

“sthira  sukha  asana”
May you be courageous & steadfast
with the virtues of peace & happiness
 in the pursuit of your endeavors.