Stress | Mental Awareness Month | Start with our Breaths

Yoga is a practice of connection
Yoga in sanskrit “yuj” can have a meaning of coming together, joining, combining…
We can use our yoga practice to connect to ourselves. Finding what is within us that helps us get through out life and finding the connection inwards to the moment.

This presence of connection into ourselves can give us insight into the quality of life and how we are feeling at this moment! There are signs and symptoms we receive in life from our environment, from our family and friends but mostly and importantly from our body/mind and soul connection – from ourselves!

STRESS!
It begins small – like all the messages – we get warning signs and then they become more obvious until we cannot ignore them anymore! It can seem unusual at first, like you’ve had strong words with someone that then can become an argument, to an all out yelling match or feelings of I just do not care anymore!

How often do we ignore the subtle signs of something not feeling quite right until our body is in pain, our mind is flighty, dull, erratic, and our breaths are short and uneven, our connection to ourselves is totally gone and we keep pushing through saying to ourselves, just get through to the end of the year, or next time I’ll do something about it!

“Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind and soul.” – Amit Ray

Take the Right Action
Making the commitment to ourselves to put us in a better place, takes commitment and effort!
To get on the yoga mat and practice, to give ourselves time for something that will make us feel better; to go for a walk, to get out in nature, to listen to music, take a bath, read a book, chill out, get a massage, eat well and healthy and nutritious foods.

All the things we know we should do but mostly giving ourselves time so we can hear and listen to the subtle signs we are getting! We are sensitive and in tune and know what we should do and not do – we are intelligent and open to energy and we do know when we’ve over-indulged, over-worked, and then get over-it-all!

So our offer still stands – take the right action to stretch, breathe and move into 30 days of Free yoga to get you onto the mat and support you in your well-being.

Prana and Pranayama

Pranayama is not only the breath but is known as our life-force and energy stores and what is in every living being.

The word Prana is made up of Pra and Na and denotes constancy, being a force in constant nature/motion.
Whereas Prana is the vital force, Pranayama – is the process by which the pranic store is increased.
Pranayama: is broken down into prana and ayama which means pranic capacity or length. So this pranayama is a technique through which the quantity of prana is activated and can be moved around in the body by different panic techniques.

PRANAYAMA
The practices of bringing our attention to the breaths and changing breath lengths and durations can have an impact on our energy levels, breath capacity and emotions and moods are all affected by simply bringing attention and focus and changing the lengths.

These practices can be as simple as being aware of the breaths, to changing the flow with attention through the nostrils to activate exhalations, inhalations, to slowing and deepening, or shortening the breaths and to retentions and suspensions of breaths.

PHYSICAL and ENERGETIC BENEFITS
With all our yoga practices it’s aim is to balance our energy system. Whether that is to energise, calm and centre the system, it’s all to make us feel better in life to live happy and healthier.

With all practices, tune into your energy and notice how you feel and then take appropriate action in the right direction to either lift and energise you, calm and destress you.

There are so many tools and applications of the breaths, but start with connection to it! Is it easy and flowing, is there any depth, is it shaky and unsteady, is it shallow and short. Is one nostril blocked completely, am I even aware of my breaths throughout my days?

MENTAL AWARENESS MONTH: ON Demand

There are some short Mindfulness Moments provided for you on the website. Under the On-Demand section all the practices are less than 10 minutes and are short practices to help you centre and de-stress. It doesn’t have to be long practices in order to receive the benefits of a few moments of Mindfulness to make us feel oh so much better.

Have a lovely week everyone. See you on Zoom and remember to book into the classes to receive the email links.

Namaste Lou ????????