"Health is harmony; disease is a disturbance of harmony." -Alcmaeon
The body, mind and spirit are inexorably connected. We can become unbalanced, stressed or depressed when we lose sense of this connection; within ourselves and with each other. This disconnection can manifest in a variety of ways-- some fairly innocuous. Maybe you eat too much when you're stressed or bored at work. Maybe you're sleeping poorly because of some disruptions in your life.
Here I've listed a few practices that can help you to reconnect to your healthy, joyful self.
BREATHING EXERCISES Breath is life. It is our source of vitality and it reflects and regulates the heart rate, blood pressure and immune system. In respiration your heart rate naturally increases as you inhale and decreases as you exhale in a process known as sinus arrythmia. This phenomenon accounts for yoga's focus on prolonged exhalation. By very slowly, gradually expanding the length of time it takes you to exhale you are slowing the heart rate and lowering the blood pressure.
Even if you don't have time for yoga you can take 5 minutes out of your day to improve your health and mood with a very simple breathing exercise.
Sit comfortably with your spine straight and your back supported. Close your eyes and begin inhaling, filling your belly up, allowing it to expand. Draw your breath up into the lungs and then *sniff*, pull the breath into your head. As you exhale: relax your face, your throat, your shoulders and gently pull your navel back to your spine, squeezing the breath out of you. Keep your eyes closed and try to follow your breath in your minds'eye. Watch your breath traveling the length of the spine; bringing oxygen, energy and vitality to every part of you. Fill yourself up completely and empty yourself entirely. Make yourself a fluid vessel. Invite the breath into the body.
"There are two graces in breathing: drawing in air and discharging it. The former constrains, the latter refreshes: so marvelously is life mixed. Thank God when he presses you, and thank him again when he lets you go." -- Goethe
SOUND THERAPY
Every yoga class begins with a chant of AUM. We do this to 'tune in', prepare the body for yoga practice and reconnect to the breathing process. As my teacher used to say, "When you chant Aum you tune your body as if it were a beautiful musical instrument."
Singing, toning and chanting are all types of sound therapy that can profoundly affect your mood and even your health.
Sound creates a vibration, moving fluid in the inner ear which sends impulses to the brain. This is a rapid headache cure and it's a terrific stress-reducer. Sing at the top of you lungs. Chant AUM (a three-part sound AHH-OOO-MMMM) several times, allowing the sound to reverberate through your body and mind.
After one of my recent discussions a young woman approached me with her own brand of sound therapy. She said that when she felt stressed at work she would go into her bosses office, close the door and "release the F-BOMB" Aum is probably a little more, er, user-friendly but use whatever you like.
"The mind and body are so intimately connected that ultimately we cannot tell the difference between them...they tell the same stories about us. But the body is the more visible aspect of the being and so may speak for itself. When we align the body we also align the mind." -Alcmaeon
