Articles with explanations, tips and additional resources

Namaste. "Say it again."

2/5/2014

Here's a fabulous video explaining the meaning of Namaste from maybe an unlikely figure: Click

Not only does Bobby have some God in him, so do you. And so too does the person nearest to you, as well as the person farthest from you. We all do. We usually just don't realize it.

As an aside: by God I mean something that truly can't be expressed adequately in words, but never the less is that which is infinite, eternal and inherently perfect. God is the non-physical essence that permeates all things. It is the absolute Truth, as compared to the relative truth.

What would make you happier than to know that you've gotta a little God in you?

And I don't mean "know it" in an intellectual sense. I mean it in a "feel it resonate so deeply that you have less than no doubt."

That'd be some pretty good stuff, wouldn't it?

You can feel exhilaration beyond words, completeness so profound effort and desire dissolve into joy.

And this experience can be yours at any moment, like right now. That would be through grace. Maybe it's your time, you're fated to become illumined right about now. Wouldn't that be cool? Hey, just don't rule it out.

You can also pursue it. All upward paths lead to the same mountain top. I'll tell you about one, which is not by any means to exclude others.

If I told you that the God in you, the inherent perfection, the bliss and indescribably awesome aspect of existence comes as a whisper from your heart and all you have to do is quiet your shouting mind, could you do it?

Just because you can't do it now, at the drop of a hat, summon it any moment you choose, doesn't mean you can't learn to do it systematically. Enter: Raja Yoga.

Raja Yoga is an 8 step system for realizing that you've got a little God in you and for realizing that Bobby does, too. It's so old you'd have to agree that it's a discovery, not an invention. Like gravity. It works. It just does.

Here's a link to an explanation of Raja Yoga from one of the indisputable masters of recent times: Click.

One read through is definitely not enough. But suffice it to say, it'll put you in the ball park. Just do that, follow the 8 steps, one by one, in order. Don't stop at 3 or 7. Try to reach all the way to 8.

All I can say it that I've dipped my toes in step 7 by following steps 1 thru 6 and not even to the letter. That has been sufficient to remove all of my doubts, to know the real Truth, apart from the relative truth about myself, and you and this experience. I can only imagine what the rest of step 7 and any part of step 8 are like. Holy cow!

I'm really looking forward to very old age when perhaps my body won't want to move around quite so much. Because with the body still, all there is left to still is the mind. And I'm pretty sure I've been taught how to do that. If you'd like to come over to Bhakti Yoga Lounge for my 3, 4, 7 Intro to Meditation class, or the new 3, 4, 7, Deeper class, it'd be my pleasure to show you what I've been shown that has been so beneficial to me.

Yoga chitta vritti nirodha

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Connect with your mind-body connection

6/25/2013

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The mind and body share a strong connection, like Siamese twins.

Each can't exist independent of the other. The mind takes form through the body by way of the brain and the central nervous system. The body needs the mind to animate it and to experience it.

All of our experiences in life involve some influence from both.

The good news is that we can use our understanding of the mind-body connection to achieve greater health, performance and overall quality of life.

* * * * *

Mind-body medicine focuses on the interactions among the brain, mind, body and behavior, as well as the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, spiritual and behavioral factors can affect health.[1]

Our knowledge of the mind-body connection suggests that physical sickness and health have corresponding states of mind. We know that thoughts alone can make the body sick, as in the case of psychosomatic illness. We also know that through the Placebo Effect thoughts can heal the body.

To the extent that we can control the nature of our thoughts about our health, we should try to keep them focused on thriving, consider health and vitality as part of our bodies' usual, enduring condition and view sickness as a temporary abnormality that will soon subside.

The mind's capacity to influence the body's health and healing is vast. It should not be underestimated. Rather, we'd be well served to use it as a viable remedy that compliments drugs and surgery.

* * * * *

Success comes from doing the right things at the right times. We can prepare ourselves to make the most of our opportunities by repeatedly rehearsing perfect performances in our minds.

We know that thoughts create the same mental instructions as actions.[2] So, we can use them to train our brains for actual performance. Top competitors and performers of all kinds have used visualization techniques to simulate perfect performances and have achieved corresponding results.

Use your creative imagination in preparation for your perfect performance. Compose a mental movie depicting yourself in top form. Charge your story with strong emotions and vivid details and replay it often. Later, try not to act surprised when you have déjà vu because what you think may well foreshadow what you do.

* * * * *

Chronic psychological stress is the undoing of wellbeing.

Modern stressors abuse the fight-or-flight response we developed to protect ourselves from true threats to life and limb. Our minds interpret such stressors, like mail from collection agencies, in the same way that our ancestor's minds viewed a hungry bear arriving in their camp. To make matters worse, there is a lot more collection agency mail around today than there were hungry bears back then.

Our perception of being under continual duress triggers the fight-or-flight response far more frequently than it was intended. Consequently, our bodies malfunction and/or break down. Stress is a major risk factor in numerous illnesses from impotence to heart disease.

We may not be able to avoid some of the causes of stress. We can, however, respond to them better. This begins with our attitudes. If we can find a silver lining in a cloud of stress or laugh when it rains on our parade we will circumvent the stress response. Failing that, we can use deep belly inhalations combined with elongated exhalations to activate our nervous system's stress countermeasure, the relaxation response. And as our safety net, cultivating habits of regular nutrition, exercise and rest will fortify our physical defense mechanisms.

* * * * *

The mind-body connection is ever present. It's effect on health, performance and wellbeing grab much of the attention given to it. But the truth is that no matter what the context a snapshot of any given moment will have the fingerprints of both the mind and the body all over it. Think about it. From the mundane, such as a bad hair day, to the profound, such as walking across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope, the mind-body connection is always active. Fortunately, it's a powerful tool that is always available for us to use to make our lives better.

If you enjoyed this post consider tweeting or sharing it so others might, too.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Exercising for optimum physical condition

5/19/2013

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Virtually every aspect of a person's life experience is enhanced by being active and fit.

If I had a chisel I would set those words in stone.

Exercise helps keeps you healthy longer. It strengthens the immune system. Exercise increases your vitality making you look and feel years younger than if your lifestyle is sedentary. The benefits are far, far too many to list here, but you can follow some of the links in this post to find out more.[1]

Exercise is a very broad term that means physical effort above resting levels, so there are countless ways to get some.

What exercise is best?

While all exercise is good for you, some forms are more beneficial than others.[2]

Here are a few issues to consider:

1. Time:

The current consensus opinion among exercise science experts is that around 3 hours of moderate exercise per week is necessary to get noticeable health benefits.[3][4]

These three hours can be broken up into smaller segments. Even little 10-15 minutes chunks of exercise support fitness when added together.

Here are a few ways to understand what the term "moderate exercise" really means.[5][6]

The Talk Test: If you can talk normally while you’re working out, then you’re not yet working at a moderate level.
Sweat: Unless your environment is so hot that you sweat while resting, perspiration is a strong indication that you're exercising hard enough to get health benefits. Also note that wind and cold temperatures can reduce perspiration. So this rule requires some practical experience to apply effectively.
Heart Rate Monitor: These sophisticated electronic devices offer an array of features to measure and report on various aspects of your exercise, including exertion.[7]
Moderate exercise uses approximately 50% of your aerobic capacity, or a 5 on a 1-10 scale where 0 is the level of effort of sitting and 10 is maximum effort.[8]

In comparison to moderate exercise, vigorous exercise is unsustainable for more than a few minutes, except for persons with very high levels of fitness. At a vigorous level of effort, you can't speak normally, breathing is labored and sweating can be profuse.

The health benefits differ between moderate and vigorous exercise by a factor of two. For an equal amount of time, say 90 minutes, vigorous exercise produces twice the benefits of moderate exercise. In other words, you can get the same benefits of 90 minutes of moderate exercise in 45 minutes if you work at a vigorous level.[9]

2. Health Benefits:

Science says the best form of exercise for health is cardio-metabolic, meaning that it works your muscles, heart and lungs.

Harvard Medical School published the spiffy chart below, which quantifies the cardio-metabolic benefits from various forms of physical activity, including tennis, raking the lawn and sex. (Click on the chart to make it bigger.)

From a health and fitness perspective, the aim of exercise is to increase both endurance and strength. Increase endurance by exercising moderately for at least 20 minutes at a time, or vigorously for at least 10 minutes. The key is to keep your heart rate elevated above resting for an extended period of time while you exert yourself.

Increase your strength by bearing weight or otherwise working against resistance, such as your bodyweight. It's important for good health to strengthen all of your major muscle groups, e.g. legs, core, back, chest and arms. The key is to fatigue your muscles. Just before you finish strength training you should need help to move the weight.

Cardio-metabolic exercise chart, Harvard Medical School

3. Efficiency:

Who among us isn't pressed for time from time-to-time? That's a great reason to develop an active lifestyle.

An active lifestyle is often the easiest way of getting exercise. Integrating exercise into your lifestyle is also an efficient use of your time and money, aside from the health benefits.

By viewing the way you interact with your physical environment as a source of opportunity for exercise you will find that physical fitness and the health benefits that come along with it are easily attainable. Circumstances you once viewed as inconveniences can be seen, instead, as opportunities in disguise. For instance, having to park several blocks away from your destination or encountering a slow-to-arrive elevator when you're in a hurry gives you the opportunity to walk, and walking is one of the healthiest forms of exercise.[10][11] The opportunities for enhancing your fitness are limitless if you choose to look at your environment as a gym. Plus, this outlook can reduce the stress associated with viewing these aforementioned situations in a negative light.

4. Safety:

Safe exercises are better choices than those involving a high risk of injury because injury defeats the purpose of exercising for fitness.

Some risk can be mitigated by the use of safety equipement, training and discretion. Rock climbing, for instance, is fantastic exercise for both endurance and strength. But there's a saying, "There are old climbers and reckless climbers, but there are no old, reckless climbers." Apply the essence of that aphorism to your choice of exercise and you'll potentially spare yourself the pain that erases gain.

You should also consider your current state of fitness when evaluating potential exercise options. Running a half-marathon may sound awesome. But you have to be quite fit. So if you currently can't play with your dog without being winded you're setting yourself up for failure and possible injury.

Pushing the limits of your fitness is a way to expand them. But be realistic about where those limits are. As every exercise disclaimer says, "Consult your physician before you begin a new exercise." That's a bit extreme because risk-averse lawyers wrote it, but the core idea is valid. If you have concerns about how much strain your body can tolerate you'd do well to visit a doctor.

* * * *

The bottom line is that some exercise is better than none and more is better than less. That said, the absolute best exercise for you is the one that you are willing and able to do.

Regular exercise is a pillar that supports optimum physical condition. Exercise is amazing because you will often get more out of it than it seems you had to put into it and the benefits increase exponentially with time. Combine exercise with proper nutrition as part of your lifestyle and in short order you will be radiating vitality.

If you enjoyed this post consider tweeting or sharing it so others might, too.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Namaste. "Say it again."

Connect with your mind-body connection

Exercising for optimum physical condition

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Namaste. "Say it again."

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Connect with your mind-body connection

Get The PATH² Good News delivered right to your inbox

Exercising for optimum physical condition

Get The PATH² Good News delivered right to your inbox

Popular Posts

Topics