I feel that my experiment was successful in slowing me down in general and in increasing my awareness—one, of things I appreciate and two, of how I cultivate doshic imbalance. I plan to continue with the morning and evening gratitude practices and with cultivating awareness of the ingredients and sources of my food, while allowing for a gentle, gradual process of eating more mindfully.
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With a flurry of media messages promoting “exclusive offers” and the next “hot item”, it can be hard to believe that we already have all we need to feel peaceful, content and balanced. But we do. And our breath is our greatest tool for achieving that life. The following paper, written by an Axis Yoga Teacher Training student, is an example of how our breath can significantly change the quality of our lives. Students have the opportunity to conduct experiments to experience the effects of Yogic and Ayurvedic principles to their own lives. This student’s experiment resulted in wonderful awareness of our own power.
The Ayurveda experiment that I propose entails practicing diaphragmatic breathing, or belly breathing, regularly in the morning, prior to sleep and at times of stress or anxiety. I feel anxious and overwhelmed much of the time and I would like to feel more peaceful and serene. After taking the Dosha quiz, found in The Complete Book of Aryuvedic Home Remedies, by Vasant D. Lad, I understand that my constitution type is mostly Vata. According to Aryuvedic medicine, my anxiety and stress is caused by an imbalance of Vata. If I find ways to bring my Vata into balance, then I will feel less anxious and more peaceful.
My Hypothesis is that, by practicing belly breathing to start and end the day, at times when I begin to feel anxious or overwhelmed, will allow me to experience clarity and calmness and be able to balance my emotions and attain a sense of peace and serenity.
Because stressful situations and the feelings of anxiety can strike at any time and be quite sudden and unexpected, any methods that I employ to calm myself must be easily accessible, portable – requiring few props, and must be available to be performed anywhere at any time. I plan to start my day and end my day on a calming and positive note by using reflection and belly breathing. As feelings of stress and anxiety develop throughout the day, I plan to use belly breathing to calm my nerves and bring myself back to a sense of peace.
To start my day in a peaceful and grounding manner, I begin by reflecting on my intention for the day and consider what I would like to accomplish, what I have accomplished so far and what still needs to be accomplished. This helps to order my thoughts and to provide a plan of action for the day. I express gratitude for the people I care for, all of the wonderful things in my life and say a prayer for those individuals who are experiencing difficult situations and send wishes of good will and good energy their way.
Having a great deal of training in dance, belly breathing does not come naturally to me as dancers are taught to hold their core in and up. Allowing my belly stick out seemed very odd and rather difficult at the beginning. I practiced this breathing technique by lying on my back with a foam block placed on my abdomen over my navel. This allowed me to watch the rise and fall of the block as I breathe, to become accustom to the feeling of letting my abdomen pooch out when inhaling and to fall back when exhaling, and to allow this type of breathing to become natural and flow effortlessly. Another exercise I use when sitting upright, is to place my palms over my abdomen with my index fingers barley touching. When I inhale, the fingers should pull apart and when exhaling, they should come back together. This practice is helpful when at work or at other times when I cannot lie down. When belly breathing, I focus on my breath, trying to extend my exhale to a count of six and then a count of eight, ten and so on. I have been able to comfortably extend my exhale to a count of twelve and am attempting to extend it further.
Before going to sleep, I practice another round of belly breathing and take some time to settle in and reflect back on my day, how it met with my original intention, what good things happened and what I would do differently. This practice has proved grounding and relaxing and I feel a sense of serenity when falling asleep.
Recently, a very stressful situation presented itself where I had the opportunity to test whether belly breathing would help to calm me in an extremely stressful situation. I work for an international company and our team is spread out throughout the United States and abroad, with many of us working remotely. Most of our meetings are conducted via teleconference, but occasional we travel to other office locations to meet live with specific internal and external resources. On a recent occasion, I was asked with very little notice to travel to a regional office to give a presentation to the senior leadership team regarding a large project which I have been leading. This would be an understandably stressful situation carrying out the presentation via teleconference, but the need to travel to the meeting and conduct the presentation live in front of such a prestigious audience was rather unnerving. Having just started my belly breathing practice, I decided to use the belly breathing to keep myself calm and focused during the time leading up to the meeting, the travel and the presentation. The day before leaving to attend the meeting, I followed my new morning routine of reflection and belly breathing and took some additional time to include alternate nostril breathing, or Nadi Shodhan Pranayama. I performed one set of ten rounds of alternate nostril breathing to start. Afterwards, I felt additionally calm and relaxed having taken the extra time to focus on breathing and to ground myself. I decided to include the alternate nostril breathing in my regular morning and nighttime routines going forward.
The gripping feeling of anxiety and the accompanying nervous stomach ache came over me several times in the time leading up to the trip, while traveling and especially right before my presentation, but I used belly breathing to calm my nerves and to keep myself balanced. The breathing exercises seemed to dissolve the feelings of stress and worry into softened thoughts of peace and calm. When it was time for my presentation, I felt rather calm and collected and I believe the presentation went well and was much easier to conduct as I felt grounded and focused, without the distractions of excessive nervousness. Anxiety sometimes makes me forget what I want to say or stumble a bit when presenting information. Happily, I was able to make it through the presentation without any hesitations or issues.
Since beginning a regular practice of belly breathing, I feel less anxious and much calmer. In a stressful situation, when I start to feel the gripping feelings of anxiety, I find that stopping and taking a few minutes for belly breathing allows me to temporarily remove myself from a troubling situation and clear my mind as I focus on the inhale and exhale, the rise and fall of the abdomen. It alleviates many of the feelings of fear and relaxes my mind so that I can view the situation from a better perspective and allow myself to make more balanced decisions from a calmer and more even place.
Belly breathing has allowed me to feel more relaxed and less physically tense throughout the day. My muscles have generally not ached or felt heavy as often. I have experienced less nervous stomach aches and feel as though I have more energy, which could be due to the better blood flow and increased oxygen that diaphragmatic breathing exercises are known to produce. The energized feelings could also be attributed to feeling generally calmer as anxiety and stress seem to use much more energy than calm and tranquility. I have noticed that my breathing patterns during my Asana and Sadhana practices have improved and I am able to concentrate on my breath more easily than before. As an added benefit, I believe my abdominal muscles feel stronger.
This experiment has shown me that, belly breathing is always available when needed and it provides immediate and long-term positive outcomes with ongoing benefits to my health and wellbeing, as opposed to the negativity and unhealthiness that distress and anxiety can bring. At times when I feel worried and unsettled, I am learning that if I can stop and even take one or two deep breaths, I can readjust my thinking and be in a much better place. This experiment has made me reflect on a quote from the Dutch writer Corrie ten Boom, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”
Adding regular belly breathing and alternate nostril breathing practices to my morning routine has proved a wonderfully calming start to my day. As the day wears on, belly breathing helps me to feel much more relaxed and better able to cope with the odd stressful situations that seem to develop throughout the day. By adding belly breathing and alternate nostril breathing to my nighttime routine, I have less trouble falling asleep and my sleep has been much better with fewer interruptions. Overall, I feel calmer and experience longer periods of peacefulness and serenity than prior to the start of the Ayurveda experiment.
This account of a medical professional delving into the knowledge of Ayurveda is an example of how western and eastern systems of health can work together. As an Axis Yoga Teacher Training student, the author has the opportunity to learn very applicable concepts of Ayurveda, Yoga’s sister science of health. In this process, she is able to apply simple preventative Ayurvedic principles to help her patients, herself and her family.
I would like to open this paper by stating that entering the discipline of yoga is evoking a fundamental shift in my point of view. The things I am learning are deeply confirming of beliefs I have held for as long as I can remember, and yet new at the same time. I truly appreciate the Ayurvedic portion of this program. I have worked as an RN and as a Nurse Midwife for almost all of my working life, and while Western medicine certainly has its place, it has not escaped my notice that it is a modality which never seems to prevent illness, it simply tries to clean up after the fact in fundamentally flawed ways. Of course, not all illness occurs because of lifestyle, and there are illnesses and injuries which Western medicine is rightly suited to address. The ten factors in Health and Illness discussed in The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies is information enough to prevent most lifestyle induced disease on its own, however, simply and powerfully. I am finding that when my patients complain of anxiety, depression, back pain and fatigue – all common complaints among pregnant women, if I begin to question them along the lines of the ten factors listed in AHR I can usually identify simple dietary, sleep, exercise, and relationship factors which can be altered to address their ailments. Of course, some patients are far more open to this approach than others.
I chose to use Ayurvedic recommendations to address some sleep issues which have I been developing over the last year or two. I do my best to maintain a clean diet and an active lifestyle with ample exercise. I find that these two measures alone facilitate a balanced state. On the down side, however, I work two or three nights a week on call as a Midwife, so I often sleep in the day a couple of days a week. I am not sure if this is the major factor in my sleep disturbances, as I have been doing this for nearly twenty five years. I think, just based on my experience, that post- menopause unfolds in stages. Most of the literature I have read just lumps post-menopause into one state that lasts the rest of a womans natural life, but I suspect the hormonal effects of aging continue. In any case, I naturally went through menopause in my mid- to late-forties. Until about two years ago, I never had difficulty sleeping soundly at any time of day when I was tired. Gradually I began to have difficulty falling asleep, and then difficulty staying asleep. There are some nights when it takes an hour or two for me to fall asleep and then I am awake every hour or two, until about 4 in the morning. Its pretty maddening, especially when I usually only spend 4 to 5 nights of the week in my bed at night. Another factor I identified is that I am often dehydrated. I think this may contribute to my waking up frequently, as I am often thirsty in the middle of the night. Once I started taking Yoga classes, just about 7 months ago, I began listening to Yoga Nidra tapes at night. This measure alone has been remarkably helpful. I have found that most nights a Yoga Nidra tape will quickly put me to sleep, and about half of the time I will remain asleep all night. The first step in my experiment was to make it a set ritual to listen to a Yoga Nidra tape at bedtime. After a few nights of this, I began drinking a glass of almond milk with fresh ground nutmeg in it, warmed to just above room temperature. I also placed a spray of Lavender essential oil on my pillow. On the one hand ,I don’t want my bedtime ritual to get so complicated that I don’t want to do it. Simplicity is key, but I did decide to add one more element. I started making warm Sea Salt soaks for my feet. Some nights I am too tired, but I manage to enjoy this once or twice a week. I find this very soothing and a good time to relax and read a little. I also have stopped drinking caffeine in the late afternoon, and only eat dark chocolate after lunch, not with dinner. I also have made a concerted effort to drink two liters of water in the first half of my day. I am finding that my sleep has vastly improved just in the three weeks or so I have been maintaining these measures. When I am able to rest adequately, I feel more pleasant and balanced overall. My goal is to try to maintain these measures for the next several months, to retrain my sleep patterns. I think these will just become natural patterns of living, since I feel so much better when I am decently rested.
I chose to use Ayurvedic recommendations to address some sleep issues which have I been developing over the last year or two. I do my best to maintain a clean diet and an active lifestyle with ample exercise. I find that these two measures alone facilitate a balanced state. On the down side, however, I work two or three nights a week on call as a Midwife, so I often sleep in the day a couple of days a week. I am not sure if this is the major factor in my sleep disturbances, as I have been doing this for nearly twenty five years. I think, just based on my experience, that post- menopause unfolds in stages. Most of the literature I have read just lumps post-menopause into one state that lasts the rest of a womans natural life, but I suspect the hormonal effects of aging continue. In any case, I naturally went through menopause in my mid- to late-forties. Until about two years ago, I never had difficulty sleeping soundly at any time of day when I was tired. Gradually I began to have difficulty falling asleep, and then difficulty staying asleep. There are some nights when it takes an hour or two for me to fall asleep and then I am awake every hour or two, until about 4 in the morning. Its pretty maddening, especially when I usually only spend 4 to 5 nights of the week in my bed at night. Another factor I identified is that I am often dehydrated. I think this may contribute to my waking up frequently, as I am often thirsty in the middle of the night. Once I started taking Yoga classes, just about 7 months ago, I began listening to Yoga Nidra tapes at night. This measure alone has been remarkably helpful. I have found that most nights a Yoga Nidra tape will quickly put me to sleep, and about half of the time I will remain asleep all night. The first step in my experiment was to make it a set ritual to listen to a Yoga Nidra tape at bedtime. After a few nights of this, I began drinking a glass of almond milk with fresh ground nutmeg in it, warmed to just above room temperature. I also placed a spray of Lavender essential oil on my pillow. On the one hand ,I don’t want my bedtime ritual to get so complicated that I don’t want to do it. Simplicity is key, but I did decide to add one more element. I started making warm Sea Salt soaks for my feet. Some nights I am too tired, but I manage to enjoy this once or twice a week. I find this very soothing and a good time to relax and read a little. I also have stopped drinking caffeine in the late afternoon, and only eat dark chocolate after lunch, not with dinner. I also have made a concerted effort to drink two liters of water in the first half of my day. I am finding that my sleep has vastly improved just in the three weeks or so I have been maintaining these measures. When I am able to rest adequately, I feel more pleasant and balanced overall. My goal is to try to maintain these measures for the next several months, to retrain my sleep patterns. I think these will just become natural patterns of living, since I feel so much better when I am decently rested.
My son, who is 24, and an extremely active person, has had a disturbed sleep pattern all his life. He is physically and mentally very active, very bright and sensitive, and extremely creative. As an extension of my own initial success with the above measures, I have encouraged him to try some of the same measures. He reports that the Yoga Nidra tapes, going to bed at the same time every night, lavender on his pillow and warm milk with nutmeg have also helped him improve his sleep. I suspect he will have more of a challenge healing his sleep, because this has dogged him since childhood. While we are constitutionally similar in many ways, I am not nearly as active as he is, he develops respiratory illness from over activity far more easily than I do, and struggles with maintaining enough weight whereas I have to watch that I do not become overweight.
I am looking forward to developing a more in depth understanding of Ayurvedic remedies when I complete this Yoga Teacher program and have a little more time. Overall, I am encouraged to incorporate this approach in my clinical practice and in response to the various struggles and imbalances that arise in my own life.
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The Denver Yoga Underground began in 2003 at the request of dedicated students who wanted to study yoga as a holistic system. Over the years, a diversity of people, seeking education outside of a studio, found a welcome refuge in DYU.
Today we specialize in grassroots Pay What You Can workshops, accessible retreats and our signature yoga teacher training, for the outlier yogi.
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Denver Yoga Underground Director:
Derik Eselius ~ 720.934.6934
Training Location:
Sixth Ave. UCC 3250 E. 6th Ave
Derik Eselius ~ 720.934.6934
Training Location:
Sixth Ave. UCC 3250 E. 6th Ave