Priyanka asks whether I have access to Ravi Shankar Guruji's audio tape of sudharshan kriya. If you have not taken the Art of Living Level One course (or gone to group sessions, which require that you take the intro course anyways), you will not have heard the taped audio of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar leading a class in this pranayama practice. It's actually a longer, more intense version than the one done on a daily basis. And, of course, there is RS's distinctive, high-pitched voice that becomes a metronome for your breathing.
This tape is reserved only for AOL courses and the group sessions that are led by certified AOL volunteers/instructors. It's also called the "Long Kriya." That means that the RS-led kriya happens under the AOL Foundation's auspices. I am told that each year a new version of the tape is sent out. So if you want to get the full-blown show, you have to participate in AOL activities.
Priyanka, if you need help, get in touch with your instructor or attend a few of the group sessions. The first three steps of the daily practice are standard pranayama (yogic three-part breathing, Bastrika and Omkar) and can be found on the web or in yoga books. And don't worry: it's not a question of doing the kriya right or wrong. Just do it, and let the blessings flow.
Labels: art_of_living, breathing
My ears, nose and throat specialist told me today that my obstructed left maxillary sinus had cleared up remarkably from what he saw a month ago. I took penicillin for about three weeks and on Monday I had another CT scan done and the x-rays showed that my previously blocked sinus had air inside it. The doctor told me that he expected that I would need to have a surgical operation to clear it up. It was not completely recovered so I'll have to go back in three months to see if it's gotten any better.
Shortly after the original diagnosis, I purchased a Grossan Hydro Pulse ® Pulsatile Sinus System because my usual way of doing nasal washes, with a neti pot, did not stand much of a chance to clearing up a blocked sinus. This device seens a stream of warm water in one nostril and out the other, with a rhythmic pulse. I knew I was improving when I had to clear water out of my left sinus by standing in Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend). It is expensive, but I feel it was an investment in my health. It was certainly less expensive and disruptive than surgery.
As I've stated here before, I am experiencing pranayama as if it was the first time. The sensation of moving larger volumes of breath unimpeded through my nose is an exhilarating feeling. I relish every time I sit down to do my kriya.
I have been paying closer attention to my breathing during my yoga sessions and meditation since I've regained some space in my nasal passages. It's almost as if I were breathing for the first time. I've noticed that what might appear a slight adjustment in my spine can result in a dramatic difference in the quality and depth of my breathing. As a person who works constantly stooped before a keyboard and monitor, I have a strong tendency to round my spine forward. That's the direction that my body is being pushed By keeping a small curvature to my lower back and a slight tilt forward of by pelvis, I seem to find the optimal position for getting maximum movement from my diaphragm, my rib cage opens up and my shoulder blades draw together. If I ever so slightly move towards a straight back (no natural curvature in my lower back), my breathing seems to start shutting off. It's almost as if my diaphragm got turned off.
Why is this important for me? Because I've noticed times in my practice when my breathing seems to shut down. I could never understand why. Now I think that in certain movements or positions, I lose form in my lower back and that triggers what seems like a diaphragm freeze.
I first felt the difference when I was seated in meditation. I usually sit on a block because I want to keep my knees below my hips. In that position, it's very easy to slip out of the correct posture because the back gets tired of holding the position and I start gradually slipping into rounding my back forward. I then sensed the quality of my breath as I tilted my hips forward (putting in curvature) and then released my hips to a lazier position. This has almost before a focus of meditation as I savor the quality of my breath depending on the slant of my back.
Labels: breathing, meditation, practice, spine
About two week, I noticed that I had a very bad sore, scratchy throat and a cough caused by the inflamed throat. I had trouble swallowing. Aside from that, I was not feeling any other symptoms. After it did not get better in a week, I knew something was wrong. I thought that I had inflamed tonsils or, at the worst, throat cancer from my long years of smoking so I got an appointment with a specialist.
I had a thorough examination of my nasal passages and throat. It was not the tonsils or cancer (thank God!). My left maxillary sinus (think cheekbone) is completely obstructed and densely packed with mucus or something else. On the CT scan, it shows up as if it were solid, not hollow like the right one. My doctor tells me that this condition has probably existed for some time, and he is surprised that I feel no pain. My body has evidently contained the infection until recently when the inflammation spread to tissue at the back of my throat.
I am on penicillin for the next two weeks to try to clear up the infection. Within two days of popping the pills, I felt some of the swelling go down in my throat.
I had not been going to yoga this past week because I didn't know if I had something that might be contagious. Today I went to class at Thrive and it was amazing. For the first time, I practiced without feeling my breathing obstructed. My sinuses had swollen so much that they partially blocked my breathing. This affects me especially at the early phase of the session before I was warmed up.
I know that this condition has existed for years because when I started my pranayama and yoga practice three and a half years ago, I noticed that I did not seem to breath fully. I also tended to make more noise breathing because I was forcing air through smaller air passages. I thought it was rhinitis (when the nasal passages get irritated and swell up) and consulted a doctor at work, but he seemed to think it was not anything serious. I started doing nasal rinses with saline water to clear out my nose. Although the use of a neti pot did (and does) clean out my nasal passages, it did nothing for my sinuses. Today on the mat, I noticed that I had adjusted my ujay breathing to take advantage of my swollen sinus, tightening my throat higher up. Now I have to relearn how to do ujay all over again.
Perhaps the most serious thought is that I've been carrying around an infection for years and my body has been fighting it off, confining it and clearing away the toxins, but never completely getting better. It has probably been a drag on my energy and health all that time. Maybe my yoga practice has helped ward off the worst symptoms.
I've been doing my body scans nightly as a kind of back-to-the-basics initiative to rein in my central nervous system. I have not had another bad scan in which I get jittery and overanxious for nearly two weeks. At most, I've had a couple of arm jerks in which my hand and forearm snap up. A more serious problem is not dozing off momentarily. Laying prone on the ground at 11:00 pm at the end of a long day is probably an invitation for sleep so I should not be surprised. I'll just have to find a coping strategy — maybe opening my eyes for the whole session.
This week, I've been fitting in my sudarshan kriya practice in the morning before heading off to work. It has really kept me upbeat the whole day. It's amazing how a breathing practice can change my outlook to sunny. Why do I ever skip my breathwork?
Labels: breathing, meditation, practice
I have a problem with savasana or more precisely the flat-on-my-back position that I take in order to do a body scan, following the audio instructions of Jon Kabat-Zinn. This exercise is part of a process to increase awareness of the body and sensitize the mind. In effect, I focus my attention on specific parts of my body progressively -- my toes, ankles, knees, thighs, hips, etc., up both legs, both arms, through my torso and up to the crown of my head. Kabat-Zinn recommends that a novice to meditation do this exercise for at least two-three weeks before actually starting to meditate in a seated practice.
What happens? After I settle prone onto my mat for five minutes, I start feeling really fidgety, antsy and with a strong desire to get out of there. My leg muscle become jittery and I feel tingling in my fingers. I feel as if there's a little motor running inside me and I can't turn it off. My mind becomes restless and all kinds of reasons for getting up bubble to the surface. I start paying more attention to this anxious sensation than to the narrator's voice. I am definitely not at ease. I've cut the session off a couple of times and on some evenings, I've avoided doing the exercise.
It's really disconcerting because I can easily maintain meditation in seated pose for 15-20 minutes. After a good yoga session, savasana is a welcome respite and I do not have the urge to bounce up. When I go to bed, I usually drop off into sleep immediately and do not lie in bed twitching. In this case, with the CD, I actually have a voice to listen to and explicit instructions to follow. I don't have to purge my head of mental processes or zone out everything but my meditative focus.
Three years ago, when I got my first Kabat-Zinn CDs, I tried to do the body scan and I had the same edgy feeling to the point that I did the exercise seated in a chair, rather than lying on the ground. After a while, I stopped doing it. Since then, I've been practicing meditation and added yoga to squeeze out the pent-up energy in body and train the mind to spiritual disciplines. I thought I would have outgrown this reaction to the body scan.
A friend of mine said that I should not get too uptight about the whole thing, looking at the phenomenon as a symptom of some kind of disorder. It may be a natural way that the body has of venting energy or it could actually be something like restless leg syndrome that might need medical treatment. But I am not going to cure the problem by fretting about it -- if anything, it will make it worse. I just need to observe dispassionately what's happening as I move through the process.
Labels: breathing, meditation
