Energy: How to Expand and Reduce

Energy is the ability to do work. Most of us talk about our energy level--we're jazzed, tired, fired up, lethargic. What we eat, what we do, how we sleep and think affect our energy level and our ability to do work.

In a yoga practice, we look at the result we want as we create a practice. Generally we are looking to connect to ourselves and have balance in our body, mind and life. 

Do we want to feel more invigorated and awake? If so, we create a brahmana (to expand) or energizing practice. If it's an evening practice or we're really stressed, we may need a more langhana (to reduce) or relaxing practice. 

We all come to yoga for different reasons-no reason better or worse than another. What I'm asking you to consider-is the yoga practice you're doing the right one for your body's needs?

If you are stressed, over-worked, and you are physically active, you might need a quiet, introspective and slow practice with fewer asana (postures) and more pranayama (breathing) or meditation. You might not find that appealing. If you have sedentary lifestyle and are on the depressive side, you might need a bit more movement and rigor in your practice. Many of us need a bit of both.


Yoga is not one-size fits all.

So how do we know which practice suits us? Have a session with a trained teacher. 

What if we go to yoga at our gym because it's affordable and convenient? That's great. Keep doing what works for you. I'm a firm believer in, "if it works, don't fix it." We need to find what makes each of us feel good and what reduces our stress level.

Remember too it's very HUMAN to not want what's good for us. Sound familiar?

When I was thinking what to call my business, the idea of Every Body being different kept going through my mind. We have different shapes, needs, likes and yet yoga is good for all of us. We just need to find the right teacher and type of class or personal practice that works for us.

Our needs change over time as well. What I did in my 20's, 30's and 40's, no longer works or appeals to me. I have different needs. 

There are so many teachers and classes available. Keep looking until you find one that fits. Also consider having a private consultation. Having your own personal practice that you can do in the privacy of your home when it's most convenient that is made for your specific needs is priceless.

If you'd like to chat about your needs and possibly work with me, schedule a complementary wellness call.

Have a great day and keep doing your yoga. Let me know if you have any questions.

Natural Beauty Basics Yogastyle: a How to

Discipline and routine haven't come easy to me, yet there is one area I don't stray from, my daily skin care. As a teen, I spent lots of time in the sun, with lemons, baby oil, iodine, and a salt water spray, attempting to tan. Before too long that I wanted to care for my skin more than I wanted to tan--vanity may have played a role here.

It's not just about having soft, healthy skin; it's also about feeling good inside and out. Granted genes play a part in the qualities of our skin, I thank my Sicilian mom for a bit of that. At 70-something, she has amazingly smooth supple skin.

What I do

• Eat healthy, organic, fresh, seasonal foods including my favorite Beauty-Enhancing Smoothie
• Whole Foods Cleanse 2 times per year
• Skin Cleansing: I use no or little soap on my face. I use oil (coconut or sesame, depending on the season) to remove makeup. My face cream and serum are handmade by people I know with organic ingredients and love. I use a rose or lavender water spray as a toner and to freshen up throughout the day.
• Facial Massage and Abhyanga
  
• Daily Yoga, Chanting and Meditation Practice. I use a slow, breath-based practice appropriate for my needs.
• Daily short, vigorous walk with my dogs
• Keep stress to a minimum (what I can control)
• Sleep at least 7 hours (I sometimes nap, which I never let myself do in the past.)
• Keep toxic chemicals off my skin and out of my diet
• Drink water and herbal tea (I do enjoy a nice cup of coffee, too.)

There are other routines I follow throughout the day. The ones listed above are the ones attributed to skin health. Thanks for reading everyone. If you're interested in working with me privately, please schedule a Complimentary Wellness Call.

I'd love to hear your take on keeping your skin care natural as well as any other wonderful products you know of.

PS-My practices and lifestyle have changed with age and need. Yogic practices are specific to physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs.Truly it's not one practice fits all.  

How Messages Confirm

As I sat down to write yesterday morning, a sweet, yellow finch began to peck at my window. I looked up the significance of finch in North American Folk lore and read that finches signify- joy, energy, simplicity and enjoying the journey. The message was clear for me, enjoy the simple things in life's journey, those things that energize and bring me joy.

Reading signs or messages can be a bit of a challenge especially if we're not use to interpreting our thoughts, feelings and those synchronistic events.

You may be wondering what this has to do with yoga.

The busy-ness of many people in our technological society, interferes with our innate knowingness, our connecting with ourselves, quietly each moment, each day.

Yoga and meditation give us the opportunity to slow down, to recognize thoughts and feelings and to decipher each experience in a given movement.

Let's take a look at our chakra of will, the manipura-gem chakra, for a moment. Place your hand on your solar plexus, just under your rib cage and 4 fingers above the navel.

To connect with your gut feelings, you can sit quietly for a few minutes each day with your hand here. The seed sound for this chakra is Ram, pronounced rum. Softly repeat this sound with your hand on the chakra. Then, listen. What do you feel? What do you hear? Taking a few minutes each day can help you reconnect to

I can recall numerous accounts of knowing throughout my life. The difference for me now is that I listen to them. If I am unsure, I wait until the message is clear. I look for a confirmation from my body. Some of you may receive your confirmation in another way. I am very kinesthetic and I use my body for a living. The most important part is to take a few moments to be quiet each day.

If you are interested in delving more deeply into your feelings, you might check out my Virtual and Local Desire Mapping Workshops. 

I'd love to hear about your experiences, your ways of knowing and other ways you connect to yourself.

Saucha: Yogic Purification

pascimottanasana

The 2nd Limb of yoga, the niyamas are personal practices or behaviors, saucha (purification or cleanliness) is the first.

In previous posts, I focused on the 1st limb of ashatanga yoga, the 5 yamas are ethical practices or behaviors, ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, and aparigraha. 

So what was Patanjali (sage who wrote down the Yoga Sutras) referring to regarding being pure? Well, we can initially look at our bodies and our minds. I have written and talked a lot about eating clean and meditation. 

Asana (yoga postures) and Pranayama (breathing practices) are yogas main ways to purify the body and to begin to cleanse the mind so we are then able to do some of the deeper subtler practices that require concentration.

What are some other things we can look at for purification?

Fresh dandelion greens

• what we eat
• the air we breathe
• the music, movies and books we consume
• the people we engage with
• the space we work, live and drive around in
• the clothing we put on our body
• the work/service we do in the world

I used to think that it didn't matter which movies I watched, but now after years of viewing a variety of genres and observing how I feel--as well as watching my teenagers, I know, garbage in = garbage feelings. It is the same, when I eat poorly, I feel poorly. When I have piles setting about my home, I can't work as effectively as when my space is tidy. When I am around energy-draining or angry people, I feel horrible.

What are your experiences? What are you will to change in order to feel better and truly have what you want in your life? I'd love to hear.

4 Steps to Avoid the Winter Blues

Ethan #snowboarding #Brighton

The cold has come early this year bringing with it snow and shorter and darker days.
Some of us are more affected by others during this seasons. Yet, each of us has our moments.

Here are a few tips to help you stay healthy, happy and sane this winter.

1. Keeping moving. Enjoy the winter weather with outdoor sports skiing, snowshoeing, etc. Also exercise regularly-- yoga, walking, lifting weights--even when curling up in front of that warm fire with a book might sound more inviting. Be sure to get lots of sunlight or use an artificial happy light.
2. Eat well. Although our options for fruit and vegetables change in the winter, and our caloric needs shift, it's important to continue to eat balanced, warm and healthy meals in winter. Hearty vegetable soups, warm drinks, and baked roots are great places to start. Get plenty of Vitamin D3 or supplement.
3. Spend time with family and friends.You may have desire to hibernate, yet it's important to spend time with others in community. Exercise together, do a group service project like shoveling others driveways, or cook a wonderful meal.
4. Spruce up your routines. Continue with routines that support your wellness. If you don't have any, check out this post on daily routines(dinacharya). Make sure to incorporate abhyanga (self massage), nasya (oiling your nostrils), and routine. Even though winter is a time for some of us to get stuck, we still need some routine.

If you'd like to learn more about fighting off the winter blues, stop by my workshop at Mindful Yoga this Saturday. I look forward to continuing to offer tips and practices to help you through the winter and being the healthiest you can be.

#avoidingwinterblue #wintersports

How to Fall Asleep: Mantra

Sleeping Like a Teenager

There are 2 things my main things my students ask, no beg, for help with. I'm going to talk about the first one today--sleep. In our busy, electronic age, it's getting harder and harder for people to unwind and sleep deeply for the required amount of time their bodies need. 

I've listed tips in a previous post, Trouble sleeping--look no further. Here I'd like to offer you another useful tool, mantra. Besides not using electronics before sleep, mantra with focused breathing has been the most effective tool for myself and many of my students.

I have used mantra for many years in my yoga, chanting and meditation practice. Traditionally, a mantra is a sound or phrase given to you by your teacher. You repeat it and feel the qualities of the sounds in your body; your mind is also able to focus on the sound alone. I like using Sanskrit mantras, but you can use any sound or word as long as it doesn't contain any negative connotation for you.

Mantra is also a useful tool for falling asleep or going back to sleep if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night.  When choosing a mantra for sleep, it's important that the sound not raise your energy, trigger emotion or cause you to think. I like using single syllables like, ॐ Om or short phrases such as सोहुं so hum--inhaling so exhaling hum; it's similar to saying, "I am." You might also choose a word in your native language that means Peace, Calm, or Tranquil. 

Repeat the word silently as you exhale over and over again. Don't give up too soon. Remember that it takes time for your body and mind to get used to a new practice.

For more on meditation, join me for, "28 days to Inner Peace-Develop a Home Practice: an online mediation course."

Happy ZZZZ...Let me know if it works for you!

How to Use Sankalpa Mudra

Anjali mudra

I first heard the word sankalpa when I was practicing yoga nidra (a deep meditation practice similar to sleep) in a group. The teacher told us to set an intention, make a commitment to change something, or a resolve.  The statement is set in present tense in the form of a positive affirmation. i.e. I move through life with joy and ease.

I may have heard the word prior to this, but I don't recall. It wasn't until many years later that I realized I had been setting a resolve in all my practices when I set my intention.

A mudra [a gesture or seal made with the body, i.e. anjali mudra (prayer hands)] can be used along with our resolve. 

Sankalpa mudra
www.arunachala-ramana.org

Using a mudra enhances our vow because energy stored in our body is released when the seal is placed.
 
Do you need to use mudra? No. Does it help? Absolutely. 

Why? In sankalpa mudra the left hand crosses the midline (heart energy center) and rests palm open (receptive mode) on the right thigh. The right hand goes over the left with the right palm facing down in a grounding mode.

When we bring our hands together with the palms facing one another, it connects both hemispheres of the brain. All aspects of us--body, mind and spirit hear the commitment and can work together to make our resolve happen.

When? We can use sankalpa mudra whenever we are making a commitment to bring something into our lives or to let some thing go. It's not to be used lightly on a whim or for every little thing we want.

Does it mean that everything we want will come to fruition? Not at all. The Universe is not Santa Claus and there are many things that come into play when we are manifesting and releasing--so much so that for centuries books have been written about it. People spend their lives attempting to manifest.

I typically use sankalpa mudra when doing a seated-meditation practice.

I will share a meditation practice with you next week so you can see where we use the sankalpa mudra. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or any information to add.
 

Food, healing and yoga--Oh My!

As I continue to research yoga and diet, I find that yogis continually discuss diet, our behavior, how we take care of our bodies and minds, and so much more than just doing yoga postures. The physical is only the beginning. We cannot go much deeper if we cannot control our body.
 
So what exactly are whole foods? And, what do they have to do with healing and yoga?

Whole food: food that is processed or refined as little as possible and is free from additives and other artificial substances. Google

Healing: the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again; therapeutic. Google

Yoga: to unite, body, breathe, and spirit.

Yoga promotes healing if done in a way that supports who and what we are and remember that there are 8 limbs to yoga- 

1. yamas (which I recently discussed-ethical standards), 
2. niyamas (self-discipline), 
3. asana (postures), 
4. pranayama (breathing practices), 
5. pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), 
6. dharana (concentration-the beginning of meditation), 
7. dhyana (meditation) and 
8. samadhi (unending bliss).

You are what we eat, a blog I wrote last Spring, discusses the connection between what we eat and how we feel.  
Our body can eliminate many of the pollutants we take in, yet sometimes it needs help with this process. One of the things we can do to help with this process is to promote cleansing. We can do this through a variety of ways:

• sweating through exercise or heat
• eating until you are only 2/3 full
• eating all your food in an 8-hour period so the rest of the time the body can digest
• eating well balanced, whole, organic foods
• eating a clean, mono diet of a health-promoting and detoxing affect for a short period of time 
• practicing particular asanas (yoga postures) such as halasana (plough) and malasana (squat)
• pranayama (breathing practices), breathing deeply and consciously, bringing in more prana (life force)
• kriyas (yogic cleansing practices) such as nauli, which should be taught by a trained instructor
• drinking plenty of fresh water
• promoting regular bowels

These are just some of the things you can begin to do on your own to promote regular cleansing. 

You might also do an actual cleanse or detox or participate in a group cleanse. I will be offering an online, 27-day group cleanse. For more details check out my flyer. 

Bottom line, if you want to have plenty of energy, sleep well, think clearly, maintain your body weight, and so many other possibilities, you can do a regular yoga practice and eat well. 

If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

The Angry Yogi

Anger: an emotional response to being or feeling threatened. The body kicks into a flight or fight response when we feel threatened. 

If you know me, you know that I am pretty level-headed most of the time, but I do get angry. I might even yell at my kids from time to time and get frustrated when driving. I have had people say things about angry yogis as if we are not supposed to have what are perceived by our society as negative emotions-fear, anger, envy, jealousy, frustration. 

One thing is certain and that is that I have less anger when I am doing my practice regularly and when it's the right practice for me. Most importantly I meditate and keep gratitude in the fore front of my mind. I also need to take care of my human needs-food, sleep, exercise. 

Is it okay to express anger when your a yogi? Of course! As with most things, there are appropriate ways to let off steam, and anger is energy, heat energy. With time, anger, like heat, will naturally dissipate. Guilt for feeling anger does not help the situation. One thing we can do is to observe and be mindful of those situations, people and places that affect us and decide if and how we will do them in the future. 

Causes: Some of the main causes of anger are that we don't get what we want; we're afraid we'll lose something we have; patterns (samskaras); driving; relationships; it's hot outside; we didn't sleep well last night; our diet sucks; we make other poor health choices, etc.

What can you do? 

Breathe 
Meditate regularly
Count to 10
Talk to someone
Take a walk in nature
Listen to calming music
Chant
Breathe
Exercise
Take Action 
Do appropriate asana for our body type, climate and age 
Follow our routines that support a healthy lifestyle

Prevention is key--being proactive can help avoid many situations that could lead us into blowing our top. Taking care of our health is the first step. Also, doing what we need to do so stress and frustration don't overtake our lives, avoiding dangerous relationships, procrastination, and other things that trigger our anger. Following guidelines and routines for our dosha, season, and ability are also helpful.

If you have other ideas, please share them.

Can yoga help us overcome fear?

I'm not sure when I realized this; yoga has helped me to overcome many fears--fear of being seen, speaking in front of groups, trying new things. Insidious as it sounds, the benefits of a daily yoga practice have a way of sneaking up on you. Fear stopped me from moving ahead. I have and can use my practice to move through just about anything.

Of course, for humans, fear has kept us alive historically and presently such as: fear of moving objects, not having enough food and wild animals. Fear triggers the fight or flight response whether there is or isn't a life-threatening situation. It is one of the causes of some of our stress-related habits and illnesses.

 Patanjali explains in YS 1.12 Abhyasavairagyabhyam tannirodhah - that if we do the practice [any practice], we will be able to let go of the grip of things [i.e. fear] that stand in the way, and then we will move towards one-pointed focus [our goal=no fear].  

So what practice can you do?

• Asana, yoga postures - move a muscle, change a thought
• Gratitude- each more think of 3 things you are grateful for
• Smile - even if you don't feel it at first
• Chant a soothing sound-like ah or om
• Talk to someone who cares
• Take a walk
• Write in a journal
• Pranayama, try a cooling breath practice
• Meditation
• Breathe - take 3 deep breaths, count to ten
• Spend time with positive people
• Laugh - at yourself, movies, what ever you think is funny
• Play - with animals, children, in the dirt
• Create new things 
• Participate in a sport
• Avoid people, substances and behaviors that don't support you 

Each of these things can be made into a daily practice that can move you to a better place. Some of them are better achieved with the guidance of a trained professional, yet movement towards change is mandatory. Are all of these yoga? No. Can we achieve a yogic state of mind, de-stress and start to let go of fear through them? Yes.

Tomorrow I have to meet a new group of 50 people for my new business, and I'm scared. This is probably why I chose this topic. My life has lead me here and I am ready. I will do my practice, breathe, be prepared and take the plunge. 

 I'd love to hear stories of how you've overcome fear.

Happy Spring Things

Like many of us, I like to hibernate in the winter. I dress warmly, eat and drink warm things, and love to find places that have hot water or lots of warm blankets and fire. I have to make an extra effort to do other activities that will keeping my inside fire (agni) burning, which don't require me to be on my bottom.  

Now that Spring is here, even though it did snow this morning, it's time to cleanse the body and the house, get things, all things, moving again and check in with the immune system.   

• Cleanse the body, mind, and home--done
• Get things moving-I've upped my daily practice, lightened my diet, started to walk the dogs regularly, and have been getting my hands dirty in the garden
• Finally, check and build the immune system up

The secret to healthier immune function lies in a happy digestive system.

BY Carrie Demers 
According to ayurveda, good health originates in the gastrointestinal tract. Naturally we assume that means good nutrition and a smooth-working digestive system, but if that’s all we focus on, we’ll miss half of the equation: The alimentary canal—that inside-out tube that runs from the mouth to the anus—is also our first line of defense against the disease pathogens that surround us.  Read more:

For me some of the other things that help my immune system are to avoid cow milk and cheese (boo hoo), eat a colorful, balanced diet, exercise regularly, continue my daily routines and sleep well.
What is it that you do to build your immune system? Please let me know if I've missed something or if you have some wisdom that will help us.
Happy Spring!

Move Your Energy: A Practice

We've all had a time when our energy was low and we did something to change that-sleep, take a deep breathe, walk, shower, go outside, or have a coffee or other "energy" drink.

Those of us who've been around yoga, dance or other type of movement based practice know that moving your body also changes your energy. How much movement is good? What kind of movement will give me the energy I need? I've included a favorite asana practice that I use for helping my body remove toxins and renew energy. It has a lot of twists so pay close attention if you have issues in your spine. It is meant to be done in the morning or mid-day. It is definitely not an evening practice. I adapted this practice from one I found in Yoga Journal a while back. The Practice

What about me, I can't move? Is there a way for me to move my energy? Yes, you can move your energy with breath work (pranayama). Again, we look at what you need and then decide on the appropriate practice for you. When I find myself getting frustrated with my teenagers or driving, I take a few deep breathes in through my nose and out through your mouth making as much noise as the scene allows. It's usually all I need to help calm me down and stop me from saying or doing something I'll regret. 

My other favorite is consciously breathing in through the nose to the chest and then belly and out from the belly to chest and nose. Just focusing on your breathe will change your energy. There are other more detailed breathing processes you can do that I won't get into right now.

If  you live in Salt Lake City and are interested in learning more about practices that change and move energy, check out my Energy Workshop.

Move Your Energy, Heal your Body With Yoga

 ARE WE ENERGY?
Albert Einstein proved that everything is energy when he developed his theory of relativity and the formula, E=mc2, which, in very simplistic terms, says that anything that has mass is just energy in a different form. So it shouldn't surprise you when I suggest that beyond the physical and mental aspects of being alive, we have an energetic aspect that many of us ignore. The ancient Rishis knew about energy and transformation long before Einstein or modern science was born, as they wrote the ancient Vedas, which translates to sacred knowledge.

We are all energy, yet can we see it, feel it, or touch? No, most of us cannot. That is one of the reasons we call it the subtle energy body. Many of the pictures that you see of energy in the body are figurative imaginings or what people have seen. Do we really have rainbow-colored flowers spinning in our cakras or energy centers? I don't think so, but it does help us to visualize what is happening in our body.
What is the subtle energy body according to yoga? I've heard it described in many ways, yet the most commonly held belief is that the body has an energetic system that runs through the body the same was as blood vessels and neural pathways. 
The Nadis
In yoga, we call them nadis and there are 72,000 nadis. The three main and most important nadis, are the ida representing the female aspect, moon, cooling, tha, as in the second part of Hatha, and ends in the left nostril; the pingala, representing the male aspect, sun, heating, ha, as in the first part of Hatha, and ends in the right nostril; and the sashumna runs up the middle similar to the spine. All three nadis, originate at the root cakra and cross at 5 of the cakras above. 
Prana
Prana is our life force; prana can also be considered our breath. We breathe in through our nostrils inviting prana to move down the ida and pingala nadis helping to continue our energy flow. Literally, we breath the life force into our bodies. Various pranayama or breathing practices can alter the flow of prana as can asana or yoga postures.
Hatha Yoga
You may have wondered what it meant when you saw Hatha Yoga on a yoga studio menu.  Hatha yoga is the most common form of yoga taught in the US; it is the physical part of the yoga. Whether it's Krishnamacharya, ashtanga, iyengar, vinyasa, or most other forms of yoga, if it has a physical practice, it is probably Hatha yoga.
The Cakras (pronounced chakras)
The ida and pingala nadis cross at 5 of the energy centers or cakras. The root is where the ida and pingala originate; they cross about 3 fingers below the navel; again at the solar plexus; the heart, the base of the throat and finally at the brow, commonly known as the 3rd eye. The crown cakra at the top of the head is where the shashumna travels to.

I hope you're still with me.  I know for some of you, this is all new terminology and content. I needed to lay the ground work for what I really want to talk about. Blame it on the 24 years of teaching school children; I do.

How does yoga help our energy?
Sadhguru, who writes for the HuffingtonPost, writes, "In yoga, when we say "health," we don't look at the body or the mind; we only look at the energy. If your energy body is in proper balance and in full flow, your physical body and mental body will be in perfect health." Read more:

When my students come in, I look at how their energy and ask them what they need. Then I lead them through a practice that will meet their needs. Sometimes the focus is to relax and contain their energy through calming forward bends or . Other times we need to bring up their energy through sun salutations, back bending or an energizing breathing practice. I tell my students to observe their energy level an hour or two after class because that's when they'll really know the affects.

According to yoga and ayurveda (yoga's sister science), blocks in our energy flow create disease. Blocks can be caused by poor diet, sleep patterns, stress, expending too much or too little energy, and other poor habits. We can practice yoga to move energy through our body; this is why we generally feel better after a yoga practice.

So how do we do this? What about kundalini? They are for my next post. Just know that movement of the breath and the body create healing if done in the right way for your body, your age and your ability. Find a trained yoga specialist to guide you. Namaste.

Trouble sleeping--look no further

Layover at Denver International

Some of us, like my kids, can sleep anywhere and anytime. As fast as I can say savasana in my college classes, is as quickly as some of my students are out. 

Yet, no matter what age we are, how much money we make or where we are, we can all be affected by insomnia. Age, diet, and life circumstances, to name a few, can change our sleeping patterns. 

Some of us fall asleep easily, awaken in the middle of the night and then cannot fall back to sleep. Others have difficulty falling asleep from the start.

Yoga practices, especially breathing practices and asana (yoga poses), enhance or hinder the sleeping process depending on how and when we use them and which ones we use. Even though I've practiced yoga for a long time and felt the energy change in my body, it was much later in my yoga education that I learned about using the effects of yoga to alter my body's energy level. We hear talk about energy, cakras, and the like in yoga, yet how to utilize this source from within is not something universally taught.

pascimotanasana

What to do??

• Set up a night time routine-don't eat too much, too late; start to slow down when the sun sets; turn electronics off 1 to 2 hours before bed.
• Drink some herbal tea or warm nut milk with cardamom; no caffeine after lunch time.
• Take a warm bath with lavender or rose essential oil and then massage some oil into your feet.
• Make your sleeping space a sanctuary- comfortable, cozy and clean
• Do a gentle yoga practice with some forward bending (helps us to turn inwards), inversions. 
• Save the strenuous practices for morning to help you wake up.
• After looking over our day, visualize our intentions (to sleep peacefully through the night). 
• Read something inspirational or peaceful



halasana

• Listen to a guided meditation, peaceful music chanting or yoga nidra.
• Focus on your breathing-breathe into your chest and belly and out belly chest.

supta savasana

 Of course, you don't have to do all of these things.  Choose the ones that speak to you and try them for a week to 10 days.  Evaluate your results and continue or try something different.

A Surprising Cure for Insomnia

One sleep-deprived woman, Kate Sztabnik, discovered a free, uncannily effective cure for her insomnia. All she needed was YouTube—and an open mind. Read more:

If you have other helpful ideas that don't involve substances, please share. Sleep inducement is definitely not a one-size fits all kind of practice. Happy zzzz's.

Neti Washing: Free Your Breath, Free Your Mind

by Guest Author: Charlotte Bell

In yoga classes, we talk a whole lot about the importance of the breath. We exhort our students to breathe deeply as they move into, hold and move out of asanas. Some types of yoga, such as Ashtanga and other forms of vinyasa, instruct practitioners how and when to move with each inhalation and exhalation. It’s arguable that this coordination of breath and movement is one of the most important factors that sets asana apart from other physical practices. The yoga poses many of us practice are not intended to be gymnastic feats to perform. They were developed as vehicles for expanding the breath and therefore, calming the nervous system

In the Eight Limbs of Yoga, the framework for practicing the whole system of Yoga, pranayama—expansion of the breath—lies between the physical and mental/spiritual practices. The breath is the gateway between the body and mind. That is why traditional Hatha Yoga emphasizes breathing more than accomplishing poses. It is the slowing and steadying of the breath that allows the body and mind to settle.

We breathe an average of 20,000 times a day. It happens all day long without our having to give it a single thought. But, unlike any other automatic physiological process, we can also control the breath. We can extend it or shorten it or speed it up or slow it down, all of which affect the nervous system in many ways.

But sometimes we don’t have a lot of control over how we breathe. Allergies, sinus infections and environmental pollutants can sometimes cause our breathing passes to be blocked, making it impossible to take in a full inhalation. When this happens, we can feel less energetic and sometimes even suffer a bit of brain fog.

Neti Washing to the Rescue

Of course, eating healthy foods and exercising regularly can help ward off these symptoms, but sometimes our environment gets the best of us. That’s when neti washing can save the day.

Neti washing is a form of nasal irrigation that employs a small pot and a solution of warm salt water. The warm water soothes nasal passages as it gently clears excess mucus so that the cilia inside your nostrils can more efficiently trap bacteria and other toxins.

You can buy a pot at most pharmacies and many larger grocery stores. You must use specially formulated neti salt—non-iodized—for the solution. We offer two choices for getting started: Eco Neti Pot Starter Kit that includes a lightweight, unbreakable pot (great for travel!), neti salt, a zinc and herbal solution, and instructions on how to get started. We also carry the Essential Neti Pot, a lead-free ceramic pot minus the salt and herbal solutions.

Get Started

There’s lots of good info online about how to use your pot, but here are a few tips:

1. Use boiled, distilled or filtered water. Even though neti washing has been practiced safely for centuries, there have been a few recently recorded cases of life-threatening infections from using straight tap water.

1. Add 1/4 teaspoon of neti salt to your pot and pour water over the salt. Stir to distribute the salt.

1. Test the temperature of your water before you irrigate. It should be warm, but not hot. Hot water will burn delicate nasal passages. Cold water isn’t as effective and doesn’t feel all that great either. When the water is running through your nostrils it should feel slightly warm.

1. Position yourself over a sink and have some tissues handy.

1. You may need to experiment with the tilt of your head. It took me a few tries to find the tilt that would allow free flow between my nostrils. It’s a good idea to start neti washing at a time when your sinuses aren’t blocked, just to get the hang of it when your passages are relatively open.

1. Gradually pour one full pot of salt water through each nostril, blowing your nose at the end of each washing.

1. Wash your pot thoroughly and let it air dry completely.

I was hesitant to try neti washing for years. It just seemed too weird—running water through one nostril and having it flow out the other one. But about five years ago, in the throes of a sinus infection, I decided to try it. I’ve been doing it almost daily ever since. Even if my sinuses are pretty clear, it just feels good for my sinuses and nasal passages to feel so open and expansive. And this is purely anecdotal, but after my morning neti washing, my brain feels a lot more clear too.