The breath is the key to going deeper, and by going deeper I mean going beyond the place where we spend most of our time, in the mind thinking. It's true that we think, we have to think, but do we need to be thinking all the time? This is a fair question to ask if we consider the science of yoga. We have to start believing that change is possible. The key to change is from the decision to change, the decision to change must be anchored into the body through the breath, otherwise it becomes like a new year resolution, usually meaningless.

The serenity prayer used in 12 step meetings asks us for the 'serenity' to accept the things we 'cannot' change. The 'courage' to change the things we can, and the 'wisdom' to know the difference.

If we have an 'issue' with something or somebody, a conflict for example, even within our own mind, how do we resolve it? Can we accept it? We can start right there just trying to accept the situation, sitting with our feelings about it and watching our breath. We may find that we are ok, more ok than we thought we could be, if we give ourselves the time to go into the breath and out of our head.

If we find we cannot accept the situation for whatever reason, we may need to find the courage to change something. Where does courage come from? Again I believe sitting with our feelings, I mean really sitting still with a situation we are challenged by and feeling it deeply will lead to a resolution either to accept or change the situation. This is surely meditation in action.

Swami Vishnu Devananda advocated the phrase, adapt, adjust, accommodate. This is based on 'ahimsa', completely non-violent conflict resolution, always accepting and then adjusting to the new set of circumstances. I have found this very useful as an experiment in peaceful resolution, it works every time, we just have to get our ego out of the way. But in 'real' practical situations, dealing with people and money, stuff like that. I have found it does not always work, but hey that's just me.

'Common sense in an uncommon degree is what we call wisdom' Anon.

Common sense is like a practical knowing wisdom, it resonates from somewhere intuitive, somewhere other than the mind.
The body, mind and breath as described in earlier blogs are anna-maya, mano-maya and prana-maya-kosha's and the unification of these three layers of experience through asana and prana-yama opens us into the vijnana-maya-kosha or what we may call the higher mind or intellect. I haven't read this anywhere so don't quote me but it is my experience that this is the case.

Even simpler than that, if you're still not convinced is the fact that surely when we breathe we oxygenate our bloodstream sending a more pranic filled essence into our brain and it is a physiological fact that the brain needs an abundance of oxygen.

All you gotta do now is do it..............

Hari Om Sat Tat.

It's quite hard to face fact that 'you' are responsible for everything that happens to you. So wouldn't it make good sense to take some time now and again on a regular basis to ask yourself if 'you' are the authority in you're own life, and if you are not who is? Being honest with yourself at least is a beginning to the trans-form-ation of consciousness. Illusion, (maya), is by definition a lie, it is not real.

So asking what is 'not real' in you're life and what feels false if you do not even know who you are, or if the 'you' that is asking is the ultimate authority in you're life, is flawed. Some heavy questions indeed need to be asked if you are ever going to find out who you really are. These are some of the questions the existentialists asked themselves, intense and weighty questions. Carl Jung apparently said, 'we will not become enlightened by visualising images of light. We become enlightened by carrying the light into the darkness of our own minds'.

These questions are heavy but they are en-lightened by the bright-light that is you're practise of Asana, pranayama etc.

The eight limbs of 'Raja' yoga end at step eight which is 'Samadhi'. According to one definition this is the merging of 'subject' and 'object'. This goal may seem like a very long way off indeed. But if we never feel the inspiration of Samadhi, how can we ever attain it?

I believe that when we do our asana, pranayama and meditation we get a glimpse of this state. Resting in final relaxation at the end of a good class experiencing what it is like to have a quiet mind is surely a glimpse beyond the so-called normal realms of everyday awareness. It's like a carrot held before the donkey mind to make it keep going forward, or the lash that drives you onward to the top of the mountain.

I'm not sure what it is but sometimes I feel something special is happening to me when I practise. I'm going to go as far as to say that there is some divine intelligence that will get in if you open the door for it. It is this intelligence that is the real driving force behind the evolution of the DNA, the driver that makes the grass green. But like Brahman it cannot be described it can only be experienced.

The toolbox to this experience is Asana, Pranayama, Dharana, Dhyana,...........

It's not important to be serious but it is important to be serious about what's important. anon.

What are you doing with the time you have ?

Om tat sat.

werdafakawe!

We have Samasara, Illusion, we have Samskara, Impression.

There's not much difference between an impression and an illusion is there.

On a practical level, if we believe in levels, where do we find ourselves? The many facets of the mind, as described in the multi-dimensional reality model of the psychosynthesis framework, written in an earlier blog, only serves to confuse unless you get it. If you agree that you are capable of being yourself, and that yourself is able to move and alter to adapt to certain situations, then you have to agree with the multi-faceted self. If you don't then you must believe in a mono-self, which would be a self that cannot adjust to any situation that it is not suited to. This type of self would have to live within a very tight boundary to keep safe in it's rigid structure. Remember Asana practise develops flexibility and strength in the mind as well as the body.

Added to that the idea that we live in a world full of others who are being multi-faceted selves it can get even more confusing. In fact It's a miracle that we can communicate at all from this perspective. Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus goes some way to explain the difference inherent in our gender constructs only, it gives no account to the uniqueness of us all. The way I see it humans are very similar but also very unique, we all look similar but all have our own unique identity in our fingerprints, psychological makeup, and our DNA code.

The story goes that there is a tribe somewhere in the deepest forests of Africa or maybe the Amazon. The people in the tribe are very small and the area they inhabit has very tall grass. In order to find themselves and their geographical location they sometimes jump up and down trying to see over the tall grass. As they do this they shout out the phrase, werdafakawe, werdafakawe. Using this as a metaphor we see that when we sit and empty our mind we are doing that too. We are getting a grounding into where we are in space and time, what we are doing in this moment in space and time, what we 'should' be doing in this moment in space and time, and more importantly what we 'want' to be doing in this moment in space and time.

What else is there ?????

Hari Om Tat Sat.

Another great illusion of the mind is the idea of positive and negative, that is the idea of positive, as in up and happy and negative, as in down and miserable.

Whilst doing regular meditation you may start to see the 'fluctuations of the mind stuff'. You may start to see the way the mind moves around a subject, first viewing it one way and then viewing it another. Sometimes these two ways of seeing are so opposite to each other you may start relating to the idea of a split personality. Worry not, there is a whole school of psychology called 'psychosynthesis' that expounds on this idea in great detail. It describes very well that not only may we have two aspects of mind, (dual-mind), but indeed many elements to the overall make up of the personality, (multi-dimensional). It calls these different aspects of the personality/mind, sub-personalities. It is all of these sub-personalities that make us the unique beings that we now are.

The theory behind this modality is that if our sub personalities are unintegrated it can lead to problems, (in a nutshell). However, if we can learn to unify, (yog), all of these elements then we become more integrated as people, we literally know ourselves better so to speak.

Ok so back to the meditation. If we sit and observe our own mind doing it's thing we will over a period of time start to see the different aspects of our mind stuff. So in context, the whole concept of positive and/or negative becomes redundant. We are truly being whatever element of our mind/personality is dominating us at any given moment.

My own struggle with addiction in the long distant past showed me quite clearly that the part of me that is 'never going to smoke again', is over-ruled by another element that is 'not interested in giving up smoking', at all. So it's not a question of being weak willed, it's more a question of deciding who I am and who I want to be? Or in yogic parlance, 'sorting the real from the unreal'.

If you look into 'it' you will find that there is no real template of how a person 'should' be. The bible has it's commandments as does the Koran and even the yoga Sutras of Patanjali. They all give guidelines for being a better person. But as you continue to sort through you're own script of life, and look into the nature of you're suffering, you will see the things, (mental habits), that are preventing you from becoming more naturally aligned to a healthier way of being. This is through the awakening of 'INTELLIGENCE'.

So when someone asks, how can I lose weight or become fitter or whatever it is. What answer can be given? Wake up you're own self, you're own intelligence, and see why you are the way you are now and understand something. The answer generally is. "Oh Ok thanks for that, but I'm just so busy, you wouldn't believe how busy I am! But thanks anyway."

Unfortunately it seems to me that it is through 'crisis' that people will change. Now if you read this and then read 'Prigogine's Dissipative structures', in the appendix of the book 'Holy Madness', you will learn a great deal. How many of you actually bothered to buy that book?

So positive thinking generally works like this: I seem feel miserable, but if I think positive thoughts such as,'I am a happy person', I will become happy sooner or later. Well this may or may not be the case. But surely if we just relax and accept the fact that we appear to be miserable, then we can look into the nature of this misery too see what it is really about. To my mind thinking positive thoughts is a bit like papering over the cracks. . . . . . . . .


Hari Om Tat Sat.

The concept of time is one of the biggest illusions of them all. It is always now and It will always be now. It is very poignant to know that in this moment where you are is always now. We have invented time for practical reasons but really you are always in this 'precious' moment.

There is nothing mystical about this truth is there, it is a fact. It's a great thing to allow the weight and importance of this simple truth dawn on you. Possibly even more important is the question. "What are you choosing to do in this precious moment?" And here we have the essence of it all really, the whole of yoga can be put into this one simple question, profound!

At any given moment if you have the time of course :)), you can check in with yourself/selves. Any Time you do this you are bringing you're wonderful awareness to this moment. It is in the process of doing this that you may begin to see the fluctuations of the 'mind stuff', i.e, how you change throughout the course of the day. That is, to become aware how you change throughout the day from the perspective of the Mind, (Manomaya Kosha), the Physical body, (Anamaya Kosha), and to me, the most important, The Breath (Pranamaya Kosha). As you do this over a period of time you may start to see how habitually you hold yourself at different times of day.

So we can check in from time to time to see what we are thinking about, how we are feeling about what we are thinking about, and how we relate to these two through the breath at any given moment throughout the course of the day. To the uninitiated this may sound a little neurotic. But if you have any chance of going beyond the conditioned reality of the 'ego', then an effort has to made at some point, and anyway what effort? What effort is it to bring you're attention now and again to the most precious thing in the Universe; yourself!

I mentioned three of the five major bodies of the yogi - Manomaya -Anamaya- and Pranamaya Kosha. Pranamaya is the breath body. If you start to look into the idea of what is prana. it can get very complex. So for the sake of simplicity relating to this piece of writing I am referring to prana as breath. But even this is too simple.

If you understand the fact that you tend to think most of the time, but allot of what you think about is background noise. If you add awareness to you're thinking, i.e, Dharana the whole concept of thinking is changed instantly. There is a huge difference between mindlessly thinking and thinking with some intention and purpose. It is exactly the same when it comes to breathing. We cannot be aware of every breath we take all day long, so the nervous system conveniently breathes for us. In other words we don't have to think too much about the act of breathing, the breath breathes as the heart beats, it just does! But if we stop for a moment and make our breathing a conscious act, we are then changing everything aren't we. We make everything come alive with the conscious breath. This in my view is pranayama, i.e, when we make the act of breathing a conscious one then we are performing Pranayama.

Moving on from that, if we then take this realization of momentary awareness and apply the conscious breath to the proceedings, then we are really doing something very profound indeed. And it is so simple!

Hmmmmmm complicated and yet so simple.

Hari Om Tat Sat.

It's not hard to realise that we are in constant states of change throughout the day. Sometimes were are up and sometimes we are down, we feel high or low. These fluctuations in our energy are caused by many different things, not the least of which is what we spend our time thinking about. If we become constantly concerned with all that is wrong all of the time we will make ourselves miserable and our energy will be very low. If we just keep looking at things that make us happy all the time we will avoid some major information, we will be out of balance. So according to this idea we must try to find a way that is 'more' balanced.

I often hear people say. "I must try to get more balance into my life". But trying to do anything at all, let alone trying to get balanced, is bound to lead to more stress, and stress is what we don't want, do we? So we try to relax a bit and put our feet up, we breathe through the nose and try to let go of the things that keep us pre-occupied, we try to let go of our mind stuff. We may do a bit of asana practise and some pranayama, after we have done these things usually we feel better. What has changed?

I would say just the mere fact that you have changed the focus of you're attention away from thinking and more to feeling and breathing will make a big difference to you're energy. When we see a child upset, for example, we may try to distract it away from it's suffering in order to calm down the situation a little, then we can see things a bit clearer, the child may need changing or feeding etc.

So in order to change our energy we now know, (don't we?), that we need to breathe deeper at least, and if possible we do some asana practise. But still the situation we are in is the same as it was before, so what has changed in us? To be frank, breathing more oxygen into the brain via the blood stream must alter consciousness to a certain extent. Anyone that has ever had a pain and taken a pain killer knows that the chemical we put into our body will change our perceptual outlook to an extent. After a few drinks of alcohol for example we may see the world in a very different way. We have changed our body chemistry that's all, the world is still the same as it was before but we now see it a little differently. This is exactly the same thing that happens with asana and pranayama, well not exactly, but you know what I mean don't you?

It's all so simple isn't it. Now if we add to this the staggering fact that the whole of the 6000 year old yoga experience is a science dedicated to the changing of our consciousness it could blow our mind, if we let it! The 8 limbs of Raja Yoga are a manual for learning to navigate you're own nervous system. But instead here we are all caught up in our little world of neurosis, we love to have a good worry. We have been trained to worry about everything from the moment we first met another human being more or less. The modern world is all about worrying, if you are worried then you are scared and if you are scared you cannot be happy it is impossible. So going back to putting up you're feet and letting go, how can you do that if all you're going to do is feel fear? You cant let go because you are fearful. You're body is tense because you need to hold all of that fear in place. If you even begin to think about relaxing all of that stuff you are holding in may start to rise up to the surface and scare the bejasus out of you.

That is exactly the reason we have yoga. If you are not putting yoga practise at the top of you're list of priorities, I could tell you nicely that it is because you are not ready yet, and I could also say you are a fool. Oh that nasty yoga man, what does he know about all of the difficulties I have to bear, he must be an asshole! Ha ha ha ha .

"You either is or you ain't ". Charles Farnesbarn Hamilton III.

As a yogic student I was always interested in what happened between the postures during the little breaks. Where did my mind wander to in these moments? It became interesting to me that certain thoughts would reappear over and over again like a kind of robotic programme running through the thing I considered to be my mind. Memories and remembrances of experiences from the far and near history of my personal life showed up, it was a bit like watching a movie about my own life. What I realise now was that on some level I was seeing how my inner conditioning had shaped me, this was my karma it was fascinating to me.

The Ha-Tha of Hatha Yoga (Union) is the opposites of HA (sun) and THA (moon) being united or yoga'd. When the opposites are united we enter the realm of non-duality.

As you move through you're practise as a student you may become fascinated with the various elements of Yoga per se. It is a huge and complex philosophy/science. Or you may not and may become bored and do something else, there is not a problem with this, yoga is not for everybody.

If you do stay with it, you may move beyond the social element of going to yoga classes, looking good in you're lovely outfit and showing off how well you can do the headstand etc, you may then arrive at a different place, you could call this place the start of the real practise. In self practise the onus is on you to get up and get inspired, it's much harder to do. You dont have to dress up and look good for this. You dont have to socialise or do the posture for the benefit of you're wonderful teacher or the person you may be showing off to, in you're own head.

Disappointment is the beginning to awakening. It makes sense to me that If we live in an illusion (Maya), then surely we need to be disillusioned, and that ain't easy. We like our illusion, we need it for our survival as an ego identity/personality. What else is there?

E-motion is 'energy in motion'. Energy needs to move, it needs to flow through the system. If you watch a small child, as an example of a (relatively) unconditioned human being, you can see this small being move from outrageous tears then to joy and back again in a minute, incredible. They are not concerned with what you may think of them whether you like them or not they are just expressing their essence. By the time most of us reach twenty we may not have cried for a long time. The conditioning of our 'karma' makes us conform to the standard of our particular set of incarnated dynamics, familial, cultural, gender, religious, etc. At some point some of us may be 'forced' to confront these conditioned dynamics, we then begin to see what we are up against and may even begin to do something about it. Remember one thing, it ain't easy, why should it be?

Traditionally in the history of yoga one would seek out the help of a 'guru', (weighty one), for guidance. This may occur when we reach this disillusioned stage of life, let down by people and things to the point where we reach a despair. Alas in our dumbed down culture where are we to find such a being? Every other person you speak to today is a yoga teacher or a therapist or knows one down the road. So in as sense we dont have to look far.

But what is a yoga teacher? Someone that teaches yoga?! What is their definition of yoga, did you ask them? What do you expect of them? As I said yesterday you may go to a class in despair and get someone that is not actually practising yoga, they may just be doing it for the money. You need to find these things out and you can only do that by asking the relative questions. How can someone teach what they know nothing about? A downward facing dog pose is a geometric shape with a particular set of energetic dynamics, it is designed for a reason, to create a particular shape for you to enter into the consciousness of that shape.

Ok here I need to say that what you thought yoga is, just may not be the case. You may have come to yoga to learn how to relax and get fit, not this stuff about guru's, well you may need to look again.

The guru- student relationship is fraught with traps and snares, and as we know human relationships can be complicated at the best of times. But when someone is supposedly showing you the way up the very hazardous mountain of spiritual growth you need to know some things first.

'Holy Madness' by Georg Feurstein is an excellent book on this subject.

The other problem is that of course as the relationship with the teacher/guru evolves you will be confronted with some difficult challenges. If it's too much you may just go down the road to the other yoga center and start again. You will never get below you're neck in terms of re-entering you're body/feeling consciousness if you do this, unless you get so 'pissed off' one day that you actually sit down and really start to think about it all, and breathe very deeply. Then you enter the arena of self practise.


These are my personal opinions based on over twenty years in the field of healing and 15 of those treading the path of yoga.

Hari Om.

life

It's a tricky situation to find yourself in. You've been doing yoga for a while and suddenly you find the things that used to interest you are no longer very fulfilling. What I realised many years ago was that I seemed all the time to be looking for something to make me feel better. Alcohol or cigarettes and coffee would generally do the trick. As I continued to do my yoga practise I became more and more dissatisfied with what I saw as external fixes, the things outside of me that I used to make me feel better. Shopping was another way of getting a fix, buying something new and shiny and after a while becoming bored with it, all very dissatisfying in the long run.

During a yoga class one evening I saw that I had allot of pain inside of me. A mixture of emotion and angst and a kind of disquiet and dis-ease. I realised in that moment that his discomfort I felt had to be faced. The discomfort inside of me was forcing me literally out of my body. Continually seeking ways to 'not feel', my discomfort I formed addictions to all sorts of things. But the overriding addiction was to 'not feel'.

From that point my practise changed from being another fix to an actualised experience in feeling things again. My early yoga classes coincided with me buying my first computer. I would have a yoga class and come home and write about my experience. I was in the process of recovering from a bone marrow transplant at the time so some of the experiences were very vivid, I would get complete memory flashbacks all within the time it takes to do one round of Surya Namaskar. This process continues in a less intense fashion up until today. Not everyone will be as extreme as me I realise that so forgive me if I seem a little passionate sometimes.

Prior to yoga I would go to all sorts of healers and therapists for the fix. It would work for a while and then it would all evaporate and my life would return to what it had previously been minus a few hundred pounds. Yoga initially like all the other things was a fix for me, and as time went by it became a way of accessing my feelings, a way of becoming me again. 'Sorting the real from the unreal', it says somewhere, and this is exactly what I was doing.

There is allot I see in the world of yoga that makes me very uncomfortable. One of these is the way that some Health clubs have adopted yoga because of it's polarity and have failed miserably to keep any kind of standard to the teachers. As we know it is possible without any prior experience to go and do a 1 month teacher training course and become a yoga teacher. You can then take out an insurance and go and get a job as a yoga teacher. I myself had been practising for five years or so before I did my training, added to that i had already qualified as an osteopath a few years previously. Even then I was reluctant to go out and teach, but I did and here I still am.

It's a hard road I think, but maybe thats just me.

Looking back to yesterday's blog I feel more time needs to be taken on this issue of 'all in the mind'. To some people in the present climate with recession and spending cut backs it may be hard to come to terms with someone like me saying, 'it's all in the mind'. But I will reiterate, IT IS ALL IN THE MIND. I am saying this because I know it is true at the most fundamental level. I hope I don't sound patronising, but sometimes it is easier to use symbology to explain things that are too complex. The best symbology on a mass scale in recent years is the movie 'The Matrix'.

In the film we have 'Neo', the main character, living in a small miserable world of selling dodgy software. He gets a signal, a reminder in symbolic form suggesting there is another reality, another way to be. He follows the signs literally and is given a choice. The red pill will wake him up and the blue pill leaves him alone. He takes the red pill and see's himself as he really is, in the real world that he is living in! A painful process graphically portrayed in the film.

I'm not suggesting we live in quite the same sinister position but in some ways when we look at the world the way it is, it's kind of hard to make sense of some of the things we see. For example, the vast differences in cultures and religious belief systems is staggering, also the fact that some people have no wealth and are happy and some have billions and are miserable, of course the reverse is true too.

It's no secret that media and advertising etc have a vested interest in you seeing things in a certain way. They want you to buy into their brand, they want you to buy their product. You may become convinced that you need a new car, a new lap top etc, and you buy it. We buy houses and things and we have to pay for them. So then we need a job to get the money to pay for them. This seems to be the way things are for now. So what can you do? How can you have peace when this is the case?

The media is full of fear based news, terrorism and pandemics, recession and global warming this is enough to make you feel tense is it not? Now I'm not saying that there is nothing relevant in this news coverage, but do you need to be constantly reminded how bad things are? Once a day maybe, then get on with you're life, do some yoga practise see if you can make yourself happy again, ok happy might be asking too much, what about ermm, more peaceful?

The ability to see through you're habit patterns, i.e, what you do automatically without thinking, is useful in establishing a deeper connection into your body. Feelings rather than thoughts may then start to direct you. Give yourself more time. Stop rushing around. Get up a bit earlier and breathe and meditate do some asana ( yoga postures), or both, you may still find yourself in the same situation but it may feel a bit easier to be there.

Remember the body responds to fear whether real or imagined. If you think anxiety provoking thoughts you will feel anxious. There is nothing mystical or esoteric about that. There is nothing difficult in grasping that idea is there? You are what you think. 'I think therefore I am' Aristotle.

You have to do it all the time. Do what all the time? Think and breathe? Yes thinking and breathing all the time, whatever you're practise is. You have to do it everyday. There is no other way, unless of course you like things the way they are, then indeed why would you want to be reading this bullshit?

It is 2010 soon, we have a phenomenal amount of information online. Keep breathing.......

Just to say that my opinions are just that, opinions nothing more, nothing less. They are based on many hours of reading relevant literature and personal experience with illness and crises throughout my life.

'If nothing is real then how can anything be true ?' Shambo Maha Deva.

Today I have got the flu, hmmm oh well. Having the flu helps me to cut to the chase a bit quicker. I have no idea how many of you are reading this blog but I know some are.

The crux of the issue for me today is about how important are you making this practise in you're life? We all seem to have problems, and all problems are in the head. If you have peace between the ears you have peace per se, no problem.

How do you get peace between the ears? By working hard to sit still, to hold the pose with equanimity, to see through the thinking processes into the underlying nature of reality which is............? I think at this point it is good enough to know what it isn't, and what it isn't is worrying and getting all anxious or depressed about the dialogue inside you're own head!

Of course I don't want to come across as a fanatic but I am rather bored with people telling me they cant come to classes because their auntie Nellie is coming to stay for a week or some other rubbish. If you're Auntie Nellie cant give you time to do what is important for you why is she there in the first place. You get my drift?

Unless you are sick then you 'should' be attending three or four classes a week. And we put on a workshop once a month. Thats one week in four and you cant even make that some of you. Why?

So before you start getting all upset, remember the point of this. How important is the practise for you? Personally I think the practise is at the top of the list of priority. All of you can ask now, where would you be without it?

'It's not important to be serious but it is important to be serious about what's important'.

Ommmmmmmmmmm

I realised that my last blog was not perfect when it came to some of the physiology etc, but you more or less get my point don't you? If you don't then make a comment. I was tired when I wrote it and couldn't be that bothered to do all the correcting.

Anyway the thing is, we need to cut the bullshit a bit don't we?

Of all of the amazing inventions and wonderfulness of the human race, the brilliance etc. If you ask most people to sit still for half an hour they will more than likely be unable to do it. I think that is a staggering piece of information. And as for getting someone to stop thinking forget about it. That is even more staggering isn't it? That we cannot control our own mind, we think when we would rather be relaxing.

This is the key to it all. When the Buddha sat under the banyan tree what do you think he was doing. He was doing the same as you and me but he sat long enough for the miracle to occur. The miracle being that what happens in our own head is conditioned reality. We project this conditioned reality out there and see what we expect to see. He saw through it, literally.

Oh by the way if you have been reading this blog from the start then you may remember my asking the 'guru' guy the question. "What is the pre-requisite for someone to want to get to the top of the mountain in the first place,. And by the 'top of the mountain' I mean to want to do this yoga practice stuff when we don't feel like it etc? His answer was vague to say the least, he waffled about some do and some don't. Well yea right we know that but what is it, this thing that we need to keep s going? "Oh there is a gene some people have". Bullshit!

The answer is 'need' a need to do it, desperation may even be needed for the effort required. The saying goes; 'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Someone somewhere along the way, way back when, got needy enough to sit still and do a bit of breathing in and out. He/she felt better. As they sat their back started to ache. They stretched it out and they felt better. Hmmm they thought this seems to work, and on and on until we have 6000 years of yogic philosophy/science. The manual for the operating system of you're own nervous system.

Hari Om

There is a place inside all of us that is quiet, how do we find that place?

By releasing tension from the joints and muscles, the fluids in the physical body can flow easier. The fluids of the body, the blood, the lymph and other cellular fluids can flow more freely when tension is released from the muscles. Also when we breathe deeper we bring more oxygen into the system. The brain needs lots of oxygen, the brain in fact loves oxygen. When the body is more relaxed and the fluids are flowing more freely and we are breathing deeper and easier, we feel better.

The mind over matter phenomena is interesting. Is it the mind that affects the body or the other way around?

As described in an earlier blog; If we think distressing and anxiety provoking thoughts the physiological reactions of the body will respond accordingly. So we may try to think more benevolent and peaceful thoughts. The concept of positive thinking is useful as an idea. In other words if we think positive we will feel positive. But this is far too simplistic. I prefer to use the term appropriate when applied to thinking. If we think appropriately we will act and behave in a way appropriate to the situation.

For example, if something we are thinking about makes us feel angry what can we do about it? If we try to breathe and keep the mind focused, then the 'hook' between thinking and feeling is loosened. For example if you get a shock of some kind you will get an adrenal rush. This is the 'fight or flight' mechanism (google it). It may then take some time before we will return the heart beat and the breathing rate to a more relaxed state. The time between the reaction and the increased heart rate, and the time it takes to slow down is of course different for all of us.

If however we suffer from a low grade and continual anxiety we may not even notice the anxiety anymore. We become 'numb'. We dont feel too much anymore and we force ourselves relentlessly onward. This creates an over-riding effect on the Autonomic nervous system.

What happens is that the 'sympathetic nervous system' which is stimulated under stress remains switched on. "I just cant seem to switch off", well indeed, because the sympathetic system is stuck in the 'on' position.

To counterbalance the effects to the 'sympathetic nervous system' we need to enhance the function of the 'para sympathetic nervous system'. One of the most direct and simple ways to influence the para sympathetic system is through deep regular breathing.

Lying on the floor and breathing calmly and regularly, whilst at the same time repeating the line, " I am calm and relaxed", over and over again. This is the correct use of positive thinking. We engage the body and the mind in the process of relaxing. This is truly mind over matter. The large mind over the small matter.

So to all of the yogi's out there........... BREATHE !!!

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To be fair this blog is really aimed at those of you that are interested in the practise of yoga as a transformational tool, rather than as the latest way to keep fit, or another thing to be crossed off the spiritual to do list.

I suppose in as much a realistic way as I can say it I don't really know what it is that is being transformed. But I can say that what I 'think' is happening, and this is form extensive study and self practise, is that 'I' am seeing more than just 'ego' patterns now after quite a few years of a partially and progressively conscious process.

By 'ego' patterns I mean the habitual thought processes I seem to go through on a daily basis. These habitual thought processes are there to serve the conditioned 'I', that is the person that I have become through my journey through life up to this point.

The 'new age' movement, if indeed such a movement still exists, gives us a taste of this and that experience of being something other than what we think we are. Virtually every week someone has come up with yet another way to find peace or prosperity or both. Meanwhile all we hear about from other quarters is that the planet is very definitely in serious trouble. The source of this trouble is human doing. Greed and ignorance seem to be the cause of this global disaster. And here we are not knowing what to think anymore. What can we do? Who can we turn to? Who really knows the answers to this dilemma?

So say that yoga is, the 'art of work'. How do we use ourselves? What do we do with our time and energy? And applying these questions to the above, are we adding to the global problem or are we helping the situation?

What I have found is that throughout my time practising I need much less now than I thought I did twenty years ago. What do we need to be happy. Am I being naive when I say this? No! When I see that someone needs twenty million pounds to be happy I feel grateful that I'm not like that.

If you can find time practise everyday you will begin to see the conditioning of you're body/mind much quicker and clearer than if you practise sporadically. Don't be a bore and say you have no time. At least be honest and say you can't be bothered or you are too lazy. Too busy is an excuse!!

It could just be a matter of changing priorities. You would never say you were too busy to eat or sleep, unless you were under some unusual circumstances perhaps. So it may just be a question of making the practise of asana, pranayama etc, more important.

If you still haven't got the idea that you're whole experience of life is a conditioned event then you may need to go back and read some of the previous blogs.

Too lazy. Too tired. Too busy. These are all conditioned resistances to the undoing of the present ego structure. The 'I' can't be bothered to change because it is the 'I's very nature to want things to stay the same. We like things being the way they are because we understand the rules. It may not necessarily be healthy but we understand it so we resist changing. To change may mean that we will feel al little bit of discomfort. "Oh no I don't want to feel anything let alone discomfort!"

Little and often is a good way to practise for some people and doing longer periods of intense practise works for others. Find out which is best for you.

If you are the type that thrives on stress you should do a slow deep class. But that will really push you're buttons so you do dynamic practise and think you're great. That's ego again telling you that you are fantastic and fit and looking good. That is that same voice that tells you you are a 'twat' because you couldn't manage to get to the class for two days, or you don't look so great in these new yoga pants so you wont go to the class, ha ha, what a laugh you'll have. That is duality!


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