We’re on the Countdown | Seal and Direct your Energy

What’s Crumbling?

It’s getting closer to that time at the end of year, when the time we perhaps crave for a few moments respite is gone as we prepare for all the end of year celebrations and what they bring with them.

After so long in lockdowns, people are already getting out n about and wanting to move and catch up with loved ones or escape the home and get out into other places. This time of year can bring with it stresses and more demands on top of the already stressed feelings of coming out of lockdowns and trying to prepare and move on without worrying about the future.

So instead of feeling that we’re crumbling or falling let’s direct our lives with purpose and create the time and space we need – so important to our emotional and mental well-being to continue with our practices that keep us feeling steady and calm – it comes from within.

Find your inner strength to continue especially as we’re heading into the end of year…
Take those few moments each week to come onto the mat, before it all gets too much. Remember the practice is here to support you and build your energy from within.

Bandha’s 

Bandha is a Sanskrit – (tradtional Indian language) word meaning to bind, lock, seal, hold, connect, catch, embrace, bond…

BINDING

The binding of our energy can help us to feel more lifted, open, spacious, calm, centred, strong, engaged, focussed, centred, balanced. It’s binding the energies of the body, sealing the energy and can facilitate cleansing and healing as well.

MULABHANDA:
Is the pelvic floor lock or seal – which redirects energy back up into the body – great to do with pranayama techniques.

Technique: Mulabhanda can be like a visualisation of closing elevator doors and then lifting musculature of the pelvis upwards into the body. To start if you can’t feel any lift of the pelvis, start with the anus and then eventally let the anal muscles release and then can we lift the perineum / pelvic region without squeezing the total buttock region!

Strengthens abdominal floor, providing support for the reproductive organs.
Focuses concentration.
Regulates energy.
Stabilizing and calming.
Creates lightness and fluidity.
Provides a strong foundation for yoga practice.
Enables conscious direction of creative forces.
Relieves hemorrhoids.
Therapeutic for urinary incontinence.
Aids with sexual function problems.
Stimulates heat.

UDDIYANA BANDHA
Is a drawing in of the lower 3rd of the body – as if you’re wearing a corset and again lifting the energy in the body and creating a heat in the torso region around the navel region.

Technique: We bring the abdomen back towards the spine in a suction feeling, easiest to do on an empty stomach and holding the breath out of the body to create a vacuum, suctioned feeling. So we empty the lungs and as we suspend the breaths we can lean forward and create the domed, hollowing of the lower belly suctioning up under the ribs! To finish, relax the abdomen and breathe in.

Create heat.
Expand the thoracic cavity.
Strengthen respiratory muscles.
Activates solar plexus energy center.
Supports digestion.
Strengthens diaphragm and abdominal organs.
Said to force prana upward through sushumna nadi.

JALANDHARA BANDHA

“While the Sanskrit name is commonly interpreted as “chin lock” or “throat lock,” neither is a literal translation, Jalandhara is composed of two words, jala and dhara. Jala is a “net for catching birds,” “web,” “mesh,” or “snare,” and dhara means “bearing,” “supporting,” as well as a “vein” or “tubular vessel of the body.” Literally, jalandhara bandha is the “net-bearer lock.” By this the yogis imply that the lock bears down on or squeezes the net of channels, both coarse and subtle, in the neck in order to regulate the currents of blood and prana circulating to the heart, the thyroid gland, and the organs of the head (especially the eyes, ears, and brain) and to guard them from sudden surges of energy.” – Richard Rosen,The Yoga of Breath 2002

Stimulates nerves and energy channels in throat
Strengthens thyroid
Relieves neck stiffness
Enhances mental clarity
“Humbles the intellect” (BKS Iyengar)
Clears nasal passages
Regulates flow of blood and prana to heart, head and endocrine glands in neck (BKS Iyengar)
Relaxes the brain
“When the chin lock is not applied after the retention of the breath, the air wants to rush out after deep inhalation, even if the glottis is kept closed. So it rushes through the auditory tubes and disturbs the inner ear, causing various disorders. Therefore, jalandhara bandha is applied to prevent such disorders. The glottis is first closed; then, by proper application of the chin lock, practicing khumbhaka becomes easy.”

Technique: Take a deep breath. While exhaling, bring chin to chest; the chin should be met half-way by lifting the chest. Keep neck and throat soft. Rest the jaw evenly in the notch between collarbones. (Do not tilt chin or neck to one side.) Align the center of the head and chin with middle of chest and navel. Relax temples and eyes.
Caution: Do not strain and to release lift the chin and inhale normally.

MAHA – BANDHA
When all 3 bandha’s are activated it’s known as the great seal and generates a deep cleansing of the body, mind.

“Physical health benefits of maha bandha include strengthening of the autonomic nervous system and pelvic region. It also supports intestinal function, promotes immunity, regulates thyroid function, strengthens internal organs, promotes core strength and energizes the body.

Maha bandha activates the visuddhi, manipura and muladhara chakras. It also promotes a sense of balance, elevates one’s level of consciousness and boosts mental clarity and power.” – YOGAPEDIA

“Yogis say that… impurities accumulate over time. Those impurities clog our systems and prevent prana from entering the central channel (sushumna nadi). So it is advisable to clear out those impurities.
How do we do that?
We lift them up using mula bandha (contraction of the pelvic floor muscles), and then we hold them close to the fire by engaging uddiyana bandha (abdominal contraction and lift).
As a result, the impurities are reduced to ashes, amrta evaporates from them and rises up to replenish the lake of the mind;
and you engage jalandhara bandha (lowering the chin) to preserve that essence, preventing it from dripping down.
– Olga Kabel, YogaUOnline, Enlivening the Body’s Subtle Energy with Mula Bandha”

Let’s notice if we can lift, direct and feel the energy within us take us to a different place, feeling perhaps lighter, more energised, stable and connected to what’s happening within. All these practices are here to help us live a better life – and as we practice them they may just make an impact on us to continue and feel better by initiating them on an ongoing basis.

Happy days everyone.

Namaste Lou xo