Nor are the aggravated states of mind and body that accompany it. Although both can cause us to pay attention to the need for something to change which indeed can be the function of a friend.
It seems our societies globally have become caught in the manufacturing of stress. The experience and the storytelling associated with stress-generating events and situations generate massive amounts of disturbance. There seems to be no pause between one stress-causing event and the next be they personal or collective events and situations. We are not wired to endure constant stress. Such constant exposure causes a breakdown in healthy body functions and a healthy mind.
At the surface, our minds can give attention to one event at a time, but underneath that, we accumulate the impressions of all events affecting our wider human family. We all have a subtle antenna that feels and absorbs the events in our near and far environments whether we are conscious of this sensitivity or not.
The mental health and wellbeing of people globally are being profoundly affected and disturbed.
We could ask many questions if we were to pause and take a wider view of our world situation. For example, why are country leaders and their media outlets invested in keeping us all anxious or fearful? As leaders, the wellbeing of the society they govern ought to be of more concern than keeping an ever-present hypervigilance to the forefront. Fearful people are easily robbed of their intuitive intelligence, their capacity to know what is real and what is not, their capacity to ask important questions, to apply critical thinking and to seek additional perspectives and views.
We should certainly be asking why is such a profound schism is being driven between the peoples of all societies. We could look at what is behind or generating this schism that is separating us all into tribes or groups. One group trusts and abides by all directives of the political media machine and another does not with an ambivalent tribe in the middle.
In our times we are witnessing family members unable to find common ground, and long-term friendships being severed by no more than a difference of opinion. We ought to be seeing this and asking questions. We need to protect our connections with each other more compassionately. Instead, we are encouraged to perpetuate this difference and distrust. Excessive levels of stress and unconscious anxiety cause these types of community breakdowns especially when such conflicting ideologies amplify peoples’ unbalanced behaviors and attitudes.
Let’s not dive too deep into all of that. It is a bed of hot coals which we don’t need to fan. We do however need to give attention to what is at the root of the dramatic shifts we are witnessing.
Yoga tells us that the greatest cause of suffering is the misperception of an event, be that an event of a personal kind or a collective event that touches us all or both. After decades of assisting people in difficulty and applying yogic means to restore wholeness and peace of mind, this statement has revealed itself to be very true.
The purpose here in this writing is to encourage a pause. A pause that rests the body, mind, and commentary. A pause that might return our intuitive intelligence or engender a wider deeper perspective and understanding. Every one of us has an innate intelligence we can call upon if we know how.
Can we uninvest in having such strong opinions and positioning long enough to allow a softening of the heart and a warmer reaching out to each other? We are all experiencing the same rapid pace of stressful events and societal and personal change and we need to find better ways of being there for each other. Opinions separate us. Listening and understanding bring us together. We don’t have to agree with each other to be supportive of each other.
BUT first, we need to calm down the mind and be open to the intuitive intelligent eloquence each mind possesses. There are such simple means at hand to press the pause button and re-energize our innate compassionate nature. It is natural for us to reach out to each other. It is unnatural for us to estrange from each other. A rattled, angry, disturbed and fear-based mindset causes us to do harm to each other and subsequently also to ourselves.
What simple methods can give each of us a moment’s peace?
Pause first. Just stop for a few moments each day to attention to the breath. It is the most powerful psychological remedy we possess. We have all most likely had an older relative who invited us to pause and just breathe when life seemed out of control. This moment was quite often accompanied or followed by a ‘cuppa’ at the family table and some heart-to-heart conversation. I have no doubt described a simple family or friendship ritual that encouraged connection, listening and a feeling for resolution.
Back to the breath. Yoga loves the breath. It invites us to turn all the senses to the breath. Something happens when the mind is turned in this direction. The mind loves the subtle energy generated by conscious breathing. It becomes calm, present, and soothed in a way that helps it heal.
Whatever is going on and no matter for how long or how extreme, when a few moments each day is given to conscious breathing, the disturbed mind, heart, and body will find a highly beneficial quotient of ease restored. To consciously focus on the breath requires us to exert a degree of discipline to our minds, we must call the mind back from its wild roaming and thought-driven habit to come home to itself. We rest in the breath and the mind then also rests in the internal space opened to us through the breath. Believe it or not, the mind’s natural state is peace. Its unnatural state is disturbance and rapid fearful thinking. If the mind is disturbed so is the body, the two are married in this life; it will either be a happy or an unhappy marriage. We offer a practice that may assist those who are not practiced in working with the breath at the end of this article.
Other ways to invite the pause, are to practice the pause! Turn off the news more often than you watch it. It gives the mind a constant diet of undigestible negative impressions that cause the agitation of the mind. Reducing negative impressions assists the mind in finding peace. You will find sleep is easier, digestion improved and the day more promising. The things we need to know tend to reach us regardless of how often we plug into the daily disaster reports or social media forums. Instead, turn on music that calms or inspires dance, cook food that is life-giving, read a book that uplifts, go outside and take in nature, invest more time with your family and friends or if you know how to sit quietly and meditate. Whatever you choose, let it be more about not doing than doing. Let it be a natural appreciation of life.
Put the phone away, challenge yourself weekly to reduce your screen time, and observe the benefits of less time caught in cyberspace. If you are brave, have a few device-free days a week. Engage in friendship with yourself and others in real-time.
Step out into a natural environment for a few hours at least each week. Walk, garden, sit, whatever is possible and pleasurable, and listen, turn all the senses toward nature- she feeds you with energy every moment you give her. Nature also breathes, and our connection with it replenishes and invigorates us. I like to think our conscious moments with nature are a reciprocal relationship. We are restored to a lot of innate knowledge when in nature’s company. Studies have shown that those who had access to a natural environment even if that was a small backyard fared better in terms of wellbeing during lockdowns than those who did not. It makes common sense, right? We also have a natural environment within us that the breath gives us access to. Without going into the esoteric nature of that we simply encourage you to experiment perhaps with the practice offered below or a practice you may already know.
Practice daily a few moments of conscious breathing and discover for yourselves that internal peaceful space that is as close to you as your breath. This is a self-nourishing practice. It is free, has no side effects other than improved wellbeing.
If we contemplate it……there is no life without breath! We come into life on an in-breath, we go out on an out-breath, and in between life is breath. It makes sense that the quality of life would be a direct reflection of the quality of breath. Yoga understands and pays great attention to this connection. In so doing they have found the means to enhance the energy that is life.
Here we offer a simple practice:
Yoga of Breath
Personal Study Program
Yoga Teacher Training
Pranayama heals the mind. The all levels of sub conscious habitual forces are mitigated through skillful and individually tailored pranayama practice. The study of pranayama requires the study of the mind and prana. This course will explore the yogic understanding of both to better understand and respect the power of breath and pranayama practices.
The Training will cover…
• Anatomy and physiology of breathing
• Practices to restore quality breath
• Enhanced breath awareness
• Understanding the physical and psychological effects of poor breath function
• How to correct specific breathing obstacles and conditions.
• The yogic understanding of prana (subtle life force) that rides the breath
• The five prana vayus – five aspects of prana and their function within the human form
• The five prana vayus – practices to correct imbalance and weakness at this energetic level.
• Yogic science of pranayama.
• Cautions and safe practice
• Relationship between prana and mind, cleansing the mind
• Pranayama practices
• The relationship between prana and the mind
• Practices conducive for meditation