MariannehayesYoga

First loaf!

Watch this story by Marianne Hayes on Instagram before it disappears. 65 Followers, 22 Following, 27 Posts

Email the new Prime Minister now From ending homelessness, to resolving the crisis in Gaza, to supporting those seeking safety - human rights ARE the answer. Keir Starmer must make good on his promise to make human rights central to everything his government does. Email him now: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/act-now-call-new-p...

My daughter, a midwife, applied for a grant with a friend for a business, which was online parenting classes. 70% of all the applicants were women. The decision body was 1/2 men and 1/2 women. They were 15 finalists (my daughter was not in that list). Out of 15, 12 were men, and only 3 women. Most of the finalists applications were about engineering products. Any thoughts?

Spent 10 minutes getting of the ads.

Sisters

Last meditation session tomorrow, cultivating detachment. Next stop in the Autumn. Enjoy summer!

Happiness is a state of mind

Our happiness does not depend on one object. We can be happy now, whatever happens.

We can be happy anywhere

we have no control about what others think; so there is no need to be anxious about it

As long as our intention is good, this is enough to validate it

Our pain does not help others. Our compassion does

Now I would be interested to know what eventually got you to"like" me? please feedback o this. Many thanks

NEXT SESSION is 1st July 2021 at 7 am. Message me for link.

Meditation is a tool to identify negative thinking in ourselves (anger, jealousy, attachment for example) and develop the determination to become someone who always benefit others, whilst thriving to live a meaningful and harmonious personal life. This is achievable. It all depends on our intentions and our determination. This is the same concept as a sankalpa, our resolve, that we find at the core of our mind, just by “listening” to our deeper self. The more we wish to do something, the more we are able to do it. But at the same time the clue to real change is to act upon these wishes. Meditation becomes a tool that is helping us to know what to change in order to live a “clean” life. Just as much as we need clean food and water, “Inner cleaning” is essential to a harmonious life.

MEDITATION COURSE:
Time and Day: Tuesday 15 June to 6 July 2021 (4 sessions), 7:00-7:45 am + question time

COST: £6 a session if you pay as you go. Book by Sunday (email and bank transfer), so I can send you the link. If you decide to book all your sessions (1, 2, 3 or 4) prior to the first session on 15 June, the price goes down to £5 a session. So 4 sessions cost £20.
PROGRAMME:
1. Why meditate? Moral discipline and integrity
2. Positive thinking: the power of thoughts, Yamas and Niyamas
3. Cultivating detachment: habits and patterns
4. Engaging in meditation: Training the mind, mindfulness and alertness

Each session start with a physical warm-up, followed by short, specific breathing practices (15 minutes altogether). The meditation practice itself consists of a description of the meditation process and meditation/contemplation tasks (30 minutes altogether). The session will end with a 10 minutes question/comment time.

I hope you will find this course worth a trial and I am looking forward to hearing from you all!
Om Shanti
Marianne

Coming Soon: Meditation and pranayama Course: 4 weeks. Click on the link below for more details

Yogalite UK | Southampton | Yoga Hub I have a double Yoga Teacher Training: with the British Wheel of Yoga (Hatha yoga and Vinyasa, 500 hours over 36 months) and with the Sivananda tradition in

NEW ... Coming soon, meditation course, 4 weeks. Starting week 14 June 2021

THIS WEEK: Paradoxical Unity, hard and soft

Yogalite
Paradoxical Unity, session 4
Hard and soft
Yoga with Marianne

Some things in nature are hard and some are soft. A root, bark, grain or bone are harder than a piece of cheese, fruit or a cup of milk. Whole grain is harder than white flour. Taking in food or other substances that are hard or soft will increase the corresponding qualities in the body and mind.

From last week table on qualities and their corresponding elements we saw that where ether and water are soft, air, fire and earth have a hard quality. All Ayurvedic constitutions are supported by a mixture of those qualities. However, the dominant quality for Pitta and Vata is hard. Only kapha is mostly dominated with a soft quality except when it becomes unbalanced and get literally stuck in all sort of ways.

These qualities are manifested in the body when we become ill or unbalanced: hard goes with constipation and hard tumours for example; soft goes with loose stools and obesity. They are also manifested in the mind. Hard corresponds to rigidity of the mind, where soft is associated with gentleness. Ayurveda, translated as the Science/knowledge (veda) of life/vital power (Ayur), aims at constantly work on a balanced mid-way; not too soft, not too hard. It is based on the practice of the yogic principles as set in the Sivananda tradition, which endorses Ayurveda as a therapeutic/scientific discipline, sister to the yoga philosophy:

Appropriate physical exercise
Appropriate breathing�
Appropriate relaxation�
Proper diet
Positive thinking and meditation

Within yoga, the physical exercise comes partly with asanas. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras we are told:

2.46: The physical postures should be steady and comfortable (hard/strong/sthira) and soft/easy/sukha). 2.47: They are mastered when all effort is relaxed and the mind is absorbed in the Infinite. 2.48: Then we are no longer upset by the play of opposites ... (between body and mind).

Appropriate breathing is the practice of pranayama:

Next comes the breathing exercises, which suspend the flow of the breath and increase the life energy. 2.50. The life energy is increased by regulation of the out-breath, the in-breath, or the breath in mid- flow. Depending upon the volume, and the length of the holding, the breathing becomes slow and refined. 2.52. Then the light of the intellect is unveiled 2.53. And the mind is prepared for steadiness

Appropriate relaxation comes with awareness and presence:

Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded consciousness. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind. (Patanjali, Yoga Sutra, chapter one, verses1.2, 1.3 and 1.4)

An appropriate diet is described in another Yogi text, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. We are told:

One who is Brahmachari, takes moderate and pure food, is regular and intent on yoga and renounces attachment to sensual experience, becomes perfect (siddha) after a year.(1.57)

We are also advised to take sweet food, which does not mean food with extra sugar. It means food that is fresh and pleasant:

Food which is disagreeable means that it is either bad tasting, poisonous to the system or not agreeable to one’s metabolism. The most conducive foods for yogi are good grains, wheat, rice, barley, ghee, brown sugar, crystallised sugar, honey, dry ginger, patola fruit (species of cucumbers), five vegetables, mung and such pulse, pure water (1.62)

Positive thinking and meditation is not just about starting the day with repeating a positive affirmation for 10 minutes, and then spend the next 23 hours and 50 minutes struggling with it. It is about training the mind and using strategies:

Acknowledging our negative emotions, observing them, and letting them go. Contemplating the other side of the coin.
Chasing and focusing on the goods things, however small.
Allowing ourselves to experience humour, even in the most trying situations.
Accepting that we are not perfect: turning our failures into lessons
Transforming negative self-talk into positive ones.
Focusing on the present: let the memories be in the past where they belong; the future has not unfolded itself yet; so why should we start imagining things, and worry about it? Let’s stay in the present moment.
The mind becomes clear and serene when the qualities of the heart are cultivated: Friendliness towards the joyful, compassion towards the suffering, happiness towards the pure, and impartiality towards the impure. 1.34: Or through the practice of various breathing exercises (Patanjali: the Yoga sutras, chapter 1)

These principles define what could be our intention behind our practice of yoga. We all would like to be strong, flexible and healthy … but how? If we are struggling, huffing and puffing to get into what we see as the “right” posture; it is not tenable. Our body does tell us when there is something not quite right. We actually do need to “listen to our body”. This might be a phrase that I/You heard so many times in a yoga session … but we just need to pretend that we never heard it before and access its real meaning …

So rather than thinking first and having a preconceived idea/image of what an asana should look like, we may try to immerse ourselves in our sensory impressions first and then let the mind learn from the body rather than the opposite. The way to do this is to internalise our environment: the attraction of the earth, the space around us … By doing so we become more aware of our movements, not just the movements of our flesh and bones, but also the whole body movement triggered by the air entering our body through the breath and the energy that it generates.

Then our intention is not limited at being strong and flexible; but evolves into a more existential prospective. It becomes an exercise where we explore our relationship to life. So we do not want to make it hard for ourselves, we want to make it easy/soft; we want to be free of anxiety and struggle. We want to FEEL free; and then eventually strength and flexibility will just happen as a by product.

Coming soon, Meditation course. First session week starting 14 June 2021

TUESDAY 12:OO, online, please PM to get the link

To be mobile means that it either creates motion or makes something easy to move. To be stable means that it increases stability or makes something more difficult to move. A stable substance is often a heavy one. Stable food is meat or cheese for example. Mobile food is tea or coffee. Depending on how we feel we might benefit from one or the other. These qualities are also linked to the elements and influence the doshas/constitutions.

Personality traits such as mood swings, impulsiveness, inconsistency are mobile. Unwavering emotions, reliability, consistency, dependability, slow and ready, are stable.

The earth element and the water element are stable (Yin).The water element is also connected to empathy, compassion, devotion, deep feelings and attachment. All the others elements are mobile (Yang) and connected to movements such as expansiveness, creativity, initiative, perception, but imbalances trigger forgetfulness, a dreamy personality. Ailments such as anxiety, nervousness, shifting pain, rambling speech, hyper mobile joints are of a mobile quality. Melancholy, stubborn tendencies, frozen shoulder are of a stable quality.

In asana practice we place the body in a position that has a specific result and message depending upon the shape that it creates with the body. Each asana has its own structural effects. Sitting postures provide stability in the spine and flexibility at the back of the legs. They create a calming influence as well as increase general strength and energy levels. Backbends tend to excite us (sympathetic stimulation), increase spinal extension and allow for greater mobility. Relaxation poses such as tadasana or savasana even out and calm the energies created by our asana practice. Like houses have their own architecture, all asanas, either in groups or individually, have their own energetics depending on what they do to the body. However, since all our bodies do not have the same structure, the experience of an asana will vary depending upon the build, flexibility, and organic condition of an individual.

Depending on our starting point, in relation to our birth constitution and life style, we may do the same posture with different results. Our body/mind is like a car with pranā (life force/primal energy) as the driving force: it is not just a question of having the right vehicle but also moving it in the right way. The effects of an asana depend on how quickly we do the posture, the degree of force we use and, above all, on how we breathe during the asana. We may want to experiment the same posture in different contexts. The way we move through the asana and how we breathe within it determines its ability to generate a calm mind, collected and attentive, so we do not loose the focus in the practice. We might need to move and breathe at a different pace and in slightly different ways. Ultimately our state of mind will control how liberating the asana actually is for our consciousness.

This week I will focus on creating a balance between the calming effect of stability and the stimulating effect of mobility, in order to find this mid-point in between the two. This means allowing space for pauses during the practice with relaxation poses such as tadasana (mountain pose), savasana (co**se pose) or makarasana (prone crocodile pose) together with short breathing exercises.The need to rest in between poses does not equate to failure or lack of stamina in any way. It is a way to recenter and redirect our energy. Asanas are a “mindful” form of exercise and if our consciousness is not engaged whilst we perform them, then our practice will only remain at a superficial level.

Session 1: Paradoxical Unity, Warm and cool
TUESDAY 12:00, ONLINE
PM for link

Everything in nature is warm or cool. Naturally there is a spectrum of how cool or how warm something is. The difference lays on how we perceive them and relates to which side of the midpoint a substance (food, person, colour, etc) falls on. Some spices in food are more warming than others: for example pepper and ginger are hotter than cumin. In the same trend, asanas may be warming or cooling. They are said to be Loma (warming) or Viloma (cooling). Forward bends are warming and send the energy up the spine (pranā, energy absorption), back bends are cooling and send the energy down the spine (apāna, elimination). Our perception of cool or warm, whether they are perceived positively or negatively, depends on our state of mind, and Ayurvedic practitioners would say, it depends on our doshas or constitutions. Warmth and coolness in themselves are neither positive or negative. The aim of my session will be to offer a balanced practice, not too hot, not too cool … once again, the Goldilocks principle: just right for me and hopefully for you too!

TUESDAY 12:00, Hatha yoga

We are coming now to the last session of the series on senses. According to Yoga and Ayurveda, the five subtle senses or tanmatras are the building blocks that lead to the physical manifestation of who we are. These senses are the gateway into our body/mind. If, through our senses, we take on what is disharmonious the body/mind will suffer. If we take on what is harmonious, our body/mind will receive the nutrients, emotions and feelings that support life. Like plants and other manifestations, we depend on our inner and outer environment. If we lived in an ideal environment, we would only experience joy, health and a sense of wholeness. In a less favourable environment, we may survive; but our well-being is significantly compromised.

Gandha: tanmatra of Smell

The origin of the earth element is the tanmatra of smell called gandha. The state of the earth element in the body and the capacity to smell are deeply connected. Gandha tanmatra is the primordial cause of the experience of smell. It is the seed energy or potential, emerging from the causal body, which sprouts into the earth element. The earth element then builds the potential for the experience of smell in the subtle body and the structures through which smell can be experienced in the physical body. Thus, the gandha tanmatra is not the smell itself but smell is dependent upon it. Disorders of the ability to smell reflect an imbalance of the earth element.” (February 13, 2017 by Dr. Marc Halpern)

In the same way we take food and experience it through our sense of taste, we experience the Air we breathe through our nose. Not all air is the same, just as not all food is the same. What we breathe in has consequences and can either lead to well-being or dis-ease or, to use a French word, to “malaise”. Excess of ozone (irritant to the respiratory system), carbon monoxide with cars, all sorts of chemicals are released in the air, not only by industries, but also by our neighbours who smoke or burn their rubbish or garden wastes. In the Alps a significant level of pollution (and I read recently that it is happening in the UK too) is caused by wood-burners.

Many of these chemicals react within our bodies. This is true for unwanted gases and molecules; but it is also true for what is called phytomolecules. These are the aromatic constituents of plants like lavender, rosemary, grasses, moist soils …

However, while we might think that there is such a thing as good or bad chemicals, Ayurveda is telling us that there is no such a thing as something healthy for everyone or harmful for everyone. Some people are more sensitive to chemicals than others. If we breathe in toxins, we will probably become sick; but some people will become sicker than others.

Eventually, we do react to the world around us through our sense of smell, even if most of the time we are not necessarily conscious of the effects that smells have on us. Our emotions are never separate from our environment. How do we react to the smell of the earth just after the rain, or the scent of Jasmine or lavender?

Through the nose we take in the scents of creation. These impressions enter the body, mind and consciousness deeply affecting us physically and emotionally. The nose is the sense-organ, but he re**um is the organ of action. Through consumption and defecation, the balance earth element in the body is regulated. If too much earth is released, as occurs in diarrhoea, body structure weakens. If too little earth is released, as occurs in constipation, the body remains strong for a while but becomes more and more toxic. The correct proportion of Earth Element provides stability to our body and mind.

To know any element is to know its qualities. Earth is cool, stable, heavy, dry, rough, gross, dense, dull, clear, and hard. The earth element is the antidote to symptoms that have the opposite qualities in the body. It is important to take in the qualities of earth when you are feeling too warm, ungrounded, chaotic, emaciated, fluidic, lacking in self-esteem, feeling insignificant, irritable with a sharp tongue, vulnerable, or stressed. The balance of Earth Element induces good qualities in us, which are being practical, firm on decisions, rational in approach, and adaptability. While the absence of Earth Element in the desired amount can make the person inflexible, pompous, egotistical and stubborn.

In this week session, we will aim to achieve a feeling of balance and harmony. We will practise a mixture of dynamic and static postures: a warm-up, dynamic sequences generating fluidity as well as heat; then a wind-down with more static postures. We will finish with a relaxation, exploring opposite sensations and how our mind is controlling them.

TUESDAY 12:00, Hatha
THURSDAY 17:15, gentle stretch, pranayama, Meditation
Shat Karma, 6 actions

Kapalabhati is a purely diaphragmatic and abdominal Kriya (Van Lysbeth).

Kapalabhati generates vibrations. Because of its effect upon the brain and solar plexus, it has a profound effect on the entire nervous system. It is one of the shat Karmas (see below). In
kapalabhati the chest and lungs remain still. The upper abdomen is drawn forcibly back and released in a rhythmic action. The emphasis is on the out-breath.

1. Take a couple of smooth, long breaths to start with. Inhale to 3/4 of your lungs’ capacity
2. Go for 30 rhythmic breaths: Exhale through your nostrils pushing the air out of your lungs forcefully using your abdominal muscles to push your diaphragm up, let the inhalation happen naturally (x30). This is one round.
3. Take a couple of smooth, long breaths. Inhale and retain the breath: round 1 retention is 30s, round 2 retention is 40 s, round 3 retention is 45s.
4. If it becomes too challenging (you start feeling dizzy or gasp for air, hyperventilation), STOP: resume exhalation and breathe normally.

Tuesday 12:00, Hatha Yoga
Thursday 17:15, Gentle stretch, pranayama, meditation

The Goldilock's principle

Not too much, not too little, just right!