KY, Astrology & Numerology

by with No Comment AstrologyKundaliniMonitor Your ThoughtsNumerologySikhismSpiritual LivingYoga

Q: I wonder if you would let us know how doing Kundalini Yoga has brought you to a belief in Astrology. After years of practicing Kundalini yoga I still have no interest in such things and I don’t understand how they relate to each other.

A: The experience of Kundalini Yoga brought credibility to astrological and numerological concepts to me, based on the theory or cosmic law that all matter in the universe has an impact on all other matter in the universe, according to its frequency projection, calculated by its size, density, rotation, speed, and gravitational and electromagnetic fields. Throughout scientific exploration, the concept of the microcosm being a reflection of the macrocosm is affirmed. Our bodies and minds are created and formed in structures remarkably similar to the forms and structures we see throughout our solar system and the galaxy. In the tips of each of our fingers there are nerve endings that receive electrical impulses from the brain, via neural pathways, which reflect similar energetic pathways that exist in our solar system. That is why the yogis called the little finger Mercury (the messenger) because applying pressure there improves our communication ability; the fourth finger is the Sun finger and improves physical health and radiance; the third finger is Saturn for discipline and patience; and the index finger is Jupiter for wisdom. The benefits of increasing the flow of energy in our bodies, explained by the names of the planets, reflect the same energetic benefits the planets, sun, and moon have in our solar system. When one studies astronomy, mathematical calculations bear out the effects and impact each of the planetary bodies has in our solar system. When we practice the technology of Kundalini Yoga and meditation, we not only increase the flow of energy within our own being; through the law of attraction, we also connect to harmonious energetic patterns in the universe. When one is harmed, all are harmed, when one is healed, all are healed. Continued practice brings our awareness from individual consciousness to group consciousness to universal consciousness. It actually does not matter whether one believes or is interested in astrology and numerology or other esoteric subjects because it is the practices will bring the experience and the experience is the only thing of importance.

Posted by: Gurumeet Kaur Khalsa

Pranayama

by Healthy LivingKundaliniSikhismYoga

Kundalini Yoga Breathwork (Pranayama)

“In me, I have found only one reality – that I breathe in and I breathe out. And so anything that breathes in or out is reality. When I found this as a reality in everybody, I found myself in eveybody and everybody in myself.”
— Yogi Bhajan, Master Teacher of Kundalini Yoga

In Kundalini Yoga, we use conscious breathing as a tool for balancing mental and emotional states and for increasing vitality in the body. Each breath brings oxygen and life and provides the opportunity to connect consciously to the moment. By breathing slow, deep breaths, we can release tension, bring stillness to the mind, and calm the body physically. Other breathing techniques use a faster, more energized breath (such as “Breath of Fire”) to increase energy in the body, bring focus, and build the inner heat of detoxification in the body. Each breath exercise in Kundalini Yoga has a specific purpose and approach to better the health of the body and mind.

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TRY THIS:

Long Deep Breathing- for Peace and Calm

This breath can be done throughout your day. It is especially useful if you find yourself feeling stressed or anxious. It is simple yet very effective; This breath can help the lungs expand to around 8 times their normal size! Practice several times a day and notice how your mind and body respond!

How to do it:

* Begin by increasing your awareness of how your breath is naturally flowing. Notice where the breath moves in your body and listen to the sound of your inhalation and exhalation.
* After a few breaths, begin to deepen and expand the breath and make sure you are breathing through your nose. As you inhale, draw the breath into the belly- allow the belly to expand with the breath. Continuing this inhalation, expand through the rib cage and upper chest.
* It may be helpful to place one hand on your belly to feel the expansion as your inhale. Take as much time as you need to get a full, deep breath.
* Then, as you begin your exhalation, relax the chest, the rib cage, and, finally, the belly. At the end of your exhalation, the belly should draw in slightly- as if helping the breath move out. The breath should become a bit louder than it was before you began the long, deep breathing.
* Continue this breath, making it slower, deeper, and more complete.

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Breath of Fire – for Energy, Focus, and Vitality

Breath of Fire is a rapid, rhythmic, and continuous breath that sounds like powerful sniffing. The breath is forcefully exhaled by rapidly contracting the diaphragm and pulling the navel point toward the spine. The inhale occurs naturally as the diaphragm relaxes and air flows effortlessly back in without a sharp intake or effort. The inhale and exhale are equal length and usually occur 2 to 3 times per second. This breath is great as “pick-me-up” if you are feeling lethargic or unfocused. It can be done throughout your day- for 30 seconds to 3 minutes- if you need to increase your energy.

How to do it:

* Take a deep breath in, through your nose, and feel your stomach relaxing outward. Exhale, through your nose, as you pull the stomach back in.
* Inhale again. As you exhale out this time, pull the solar plexus (the area above the navel) back toward the spine with a pumping motion. The exhaled air should leave the nose in a forceful sniff.
* Immediately relax the solar plexus and let the air come back in with a sniff.
* There should be no pause between the inhalation and exhalation. Continue the pumping motion with the sniffing breath.
* In the beginning, it may be easier to simply concentrate on the exhale as you pull in on the solar pelxus and let the inhale come naturally as you relax the solar plexus.
* At no time should the breath of fire be practiced beyond your current level of comfort. If at any point you begin to feel strain, breathlessness, or pain, stop the attempt at breath of fire and relax the breath.
* If often takes practice and time to become familiar with this breath and, when familiar, there is a sense of joyful rythm and boundless energy.

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Left Nostril Breathing – to Soothe a Busy Mind and Rest

This method of breathing is a useful tool when the mind is dizzy with thoughts, there is a sense of nervous tension, or when you are having trouble getting to sleep at night. It is a soothing, calming, cooling breath.

How to do it:

* Start with a long, deep breath (as described above.)
* Place the thumb of your right hand against the right nostril, pressing it closed.
* Allow the breath to move in and out of the left nostril only.
* Keep the breath smooth, slow, and deep.
* If you are feeling congested, usually the left nostril will open with practice.
* The benefit of this technique is best achieved if the breath is kept through the left nostril.
* If practicing this breath when trying to go to sleep, lay on your right side. (This will help direct the breath through the left nostril.)
* Practice for 3-11 minutes, or as long as you feel is needed.

From yogayoga.com

Depression & Anxiety

by Healthy LivingKundaliniMonitor Your ThoughtsNatural HealingSikhismYoga

One of the challenges of the positive mind – the 3rd energy body – is to take on everyone’s “stuff” and have a spongy aura. When anyone I teach says they are easily influenced or affected by other people’s negativity, I have them do Breath of Fire with Triangle Pose. I also recommend them to get in water to support the nervous system and to feel “light.” Hope that helps. I’m sure there are others out there with more suggestions.

Guru Jiwan Kaur

Peace within, Peace without

by Consciously CreatingHealthy LivingYoga

There is no standardized means to find our peace, but it is available to each and every one of us as life itself. No guaranteed methods can be given and we all must find what works for us. There is excellent help available, but it must be artfully applied and understood as our own. We can all find the ways to experience life that feel right for us. For many the traditional ways are no longer an option. Some of us have gone beyond the explanations that traditions offer and see through the limitations of religious assumptions that were developed in primitive times. Sentiment for past cultures seems to diminish the potency of the present. Many of us are more interested in the mystery of our own place. We are happy to experience the wonder of our own nature rather than explore the mythical ideas of culture. The idea that truth is to be attained inherently implies that truth is not our present and precious condition. Yet we have inherited these cultural belief systems and we are doubtful of the validity of our choice. Is it all right to be completely finished with religious proposals? “Maybe there is something wrong with me that I am not into this religious business?” some ask, and perhaps never resolve the question. Much of what religion has to offer is not relevant to us. To reject some aspects seems to imply that we reject the lot, and we are left with uncertainty and unanswered questions. But many have been thrown off the merry-go-round of endless persuasions. The questions have fallen out of us. We are left with no questions at all, and the sheer intelligence of life in our living systems is pouring through us. We enjoy every kind of activity that is natural to our own life and choices, including yoga. Information of all kinds is available at our fingertips. Music, dance and art meet us at every level as our own. And the works of the greatest, past and present, are available to us. We are linked to our own wonder. Paradoxically, some of us have chosen to enjoy the gifts of past cultures left to us by extraordinary people. However, we are free to take or leave them without being caught up by their limiting assumption that truth needs to be found. Most of all, in the wonder of relatedness to each other we find our peace, as Nature does her powerful work.

If yoga is our means, we can negotiate our peace with its tools…..

Excerpt from Yoga of Heart – chapter: YOGIS ARE NOT BUILT ON ASSEMBLY LINES

“We come to yoga for many reasons – to retain our health, to regain our health, to enjoy our health, to experience the peace of intimate relation with our own breath through asanas that we have discovered are best suited to the body and mind we share with all creation.”

Mark Whitwell
www.heartofyoga.com

Improve sexual intimacy with Yoga

by Healthy LivingYoga

by Leslie George
Scientists claim to have found the chemical reactions in our brains that cause sexual desire, but seem to know little, if anything, about what causes 21st century sexual dysfunction ?- attraction without affection, passion without tenderness, attachment without closeness, infatuation without love. “What’s missing from our culture,” says Mark Whitwell, the author of Yoga of Heart: The Healing Power of Intimate Connection (Lantern Books, 2004), “is sexual intimacy that is truly loving and healing and gracious from both sides. That’s the only satisfactory sex, the only actual turn-on. The rest is painful.”
Whitwell, who has been teaching yoga for more than 20 years, says practicing yoga can get couples to a place of sexual healing and love. “Normally, couples rush at each other and focus on orgasm, using sex as a stress-release mechanism,” he says. Instead, he claims, sex can be more intimate and loving if both partners commit to a daily 20-minute yoga practice. “You begin to have better sex because you start to feel your whole body. Sex becomes about enjoying your partner as life, as feeling,” he says. “That’s the point.

Leslie George: In your book Yoga of Heart you write that practicing yoga can bring intimate couples closer, which results in better sex. How does it work?

Mark Whitwell: Practicing yoga ?- moving your body to your breath ?- energizes your system, just as a lover does. Your breathing is related to lovemaking in the way that it teaches you to love and feel as a whole body. You feel the intimacy of your own body, breath and life, and that allows you to move with ease into a relationship with another with energy and full participation. It is loving bodily like this that heals the wounds of unlove.

LG:How does breathing create more intimacy?

MW:Inhaling develops your ability to receive, acknowledging your feminine aspects of nurturing, receptivity and softness. Exhaling comes from your base, acknowledging your male quality of strength. The energetic movement of the inhalation moves from above, down the soft front of your body and can be felt through the whole body. The movement of the exhale moves from the base up your back. The downward movement of the inhale merges with the upward movement of the exhale at your heart. When you breathe and move in a yoga practice, you participate in unifying these polarities. Yoga moves the energy in you and makes you more sensitive to your own body and breath. Hatha [a combination of the Sanskrit words for “sun” and “moon”], strength-receiving, the merging of opposites. It brings the opposites within you into balance and has a wonderful and immediate effect. You feel peace, completeness, wholeness, autonomy. Everything you need in life is already given by nature and you feel it. You get the sense you have already been given everything that you neeed.

LG:What are the polarities of life which you talk about in your book?

MW:We each have the full range of female/male, yin/yang qualities in us and yearn to express both. The fact is we are opposites in union in every way. That’s how the universe works. The negative and positive poles, the left and the right, the front and the back, above and below, inner and outer, inhale and exhale, the female and male are all in union as the form of life itself. This is how the universe works. Participating in these polarities, it reveals the heart. Yogic awareness is the heart, not the head. The openness of the whole body reveals the open heart.

LG:What do you mean by “whole body” loving?

MW:That’s when we embrace as the whole body, and everything is in cooperation with everything else. Unlike conventional sex, there is not a focus on the genitals. We embrace from the heart and head as the area of primary focus. The whole body relaxes. The pleasure of making love is in the desiring and the flow of feeling, the circulation of energy between mutual lovers, not in the fulfillment or ending of desire. But, don’t think of this as method, technique or attainment of anything. It is about love. It is about what two bodies do who love each other. Our bodies know what to do.

LG:Besides yoga what are the other ways to create intimacy?

MW: Nothing can replace sincere feeling and heartfelt attention to your lover. A vital part of intimacy is relaxed time together. Make appointments with each other and see that you are practicing your loving. In the context of intimacy, in every kind of play, make love. Do everything that brought you together in the first place ?- your shared interests ?- and make love. Just like yoga practice, it is a very natural discipline of pleasure, but it requires attention. Do your loving; make a tangible physical link. The energy will move.

LG:Why is sexual intimacy so difficult to achieve for many couples?

MW: Many people feel guilty about their sexual need and feel bad about themselves when they have sexual feelings. Guilt must be removed from each person’s desire to feel sexual! We must learn and understand that sexual desire is a good, honest, natural, positive and loving human activity. Sex is a function of the human condition. Experience it and don’t deny it. Let the desire happen. Let us become sensitive to what our bodies feel and become intimate with our bodies as feeling systems. Let us end the suppression around relationship, including and especially sexual intimacy ?- which is yoga.

LG:What’s the best way to begin a yoga practice?

MW: Find a teacher who can adapt a yoga practice to you. Yoga needs to be fitted to exactly who you are. Just remember that yoga should not be a struggle. It should not be obsessive. It should naturally support your life, like a daily shower or breakfast. The only reason to do yoga is for the pleasure, the literal pleasure of your system relaxing and filling with energy.

LG: How do you find a good teacher?

MW: Look for a teacher who practices yoga themselves. Make sure they have a good teacher. And find a teacher who cares about you and is not arbitrarily imposing a standardized practice, philosophy or culture on you. Also, find a teacher who understands and places importance on the breath. You do the postures (asanas) for the breath, not the other way around. Your body’s movement is the breath movement, and the breath movement is the body movement. Let the breath initiate and envelop each movement. It’s true that your inhale and exhale move to and from the core of your body, but your whole body, extending from your spine, also participates in each breath.

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Mark Whitwell says he is interested in developing an authentic yoga practice for the individual, based on the teachings of T. Krishnamacharya and his son TKV Desikachar. Whitwell has taught yoga in the United States and abroad for more than 20 years and was the editor and contributor to TKV Desikachar’s classic book, The Heart of Yoga.
Whitwell is the author of Yoga of Heart: The Healing Power of Intimate Connection. For more information, go to YogaofHeart.com

Article taken from iVillage, who recently spoke to M. Whitwell from his home in New Zealand

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