Category Archives: beginning

Gelotology

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Here’s a new word for you. Gelotology is, according to Marshall Brain (how’s that for a name!) the mind behind the “How Stuff Works” series, the study of the physiology of laughter. His article on “How Laughter Works ” (http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/laughter1.htm) has lots of fun information on this delightful physiological phenomenon. “Laughter is the physiological respo­nse to humor. Laughter consists of two parts — a set of gestures and the production of a sound. When we laugh, the brain pressures us to conduct both those activities simultaneously. When we laugh heartily, changes occur in many parts of the body, even the arm, leg and trunk muscles.” and …

“Under certain conditions, our bodies perform what the Encyclopedia Britannica describes as “rhythmic, vocalized, expiratory and involuntary actions” — better known as laughter. Fifteen facial muscles contract and stimulation of the zygomatic major muscle (the main lifting mechanism of your upper lip) occurs. Meanwhile, the respiratory system is upset by the epiglottis half-closing the larynx, so that air intake occurs irregularly, making you gasp. In extreme circumstances, the tear ducts are activated, so that while the mouth is opening and closing and the struggle for oxygen intake continues, the face becomes moist and often red (or purple). The noises that usually accompany this bizarre behavior range from sedate giggles to boisterous guffaws.”

The health benefits to laughing are many. “Laughter reduces levels of certain stress hormones. In doing this, laughter provides a safety valve that shuts off the flow of stress hormones and the fight-or-flight compounds that swing into action in our bodies when we experience stress, anger or hostility.” “People often store negative emotions, such as anger, sadness and fear, rather than expressing them. Laughter provides a way for these emotions to be harmlessly released.” and

“What may surprise you even more is the fact that researchers estimate that laughing 100 times is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike. Laughing can be a total body workout! Blood pressure is lowered, and there is an increase in vascular blood flow and in oxygenation of the blood, which further assists healing. Laughter also gives your diaphragm and abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles a workout. That’s why you often feel exhausted after a long bout of laughter — you’ve just had an aerobic workout!”

Those of us who have worked with the diaphragm and inner organs know that we can spontaneously elicit laughter by getting the ha ha ha or ho ho ho rhythm going and just getting out of the way. And it is contagious.

“Many researchers believe that the purpose of laughter is related to making and strengthening human connections. “Laughter occurs when people are comfortable with one another, when they feel open and free. And the more laughter [there is], the more bonding [occurs] within the group,” says cultural anthropologist Mahadev Apte. This feedback “loop” of bonding-laughter-more bonding, combined with the common desire not to be singled out from the group, may be another reason why laughter is often contagious.”

So, make sure, as many times a day as you can, LOL. Or even better, ROFLYAO.

Mobility, Motility and Stillness, part 3

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Stillness

(Notes from the Detroit workshop, Jan 2013)

   Mobility and motility are both expressions of the world of form. Buddhists call this impermanence, Patanjali uses the term prakriti, and the fundamental principle is change. Life is constant change. The body is a verb, not a noun. Movement is the basic nature of the body, not something the body does. Much of the beginning work in yoga is to help release the energy blockages arises from confusion, trauma and injury. Then life flows more freely, more coherently and the emotions begin to settle. Then, you are ready for the yoga of Patanjali. As he says in the first three sutras: I-1 atha yoganushasanam. I-2, yogash citta vrtti nirodhah; I-3, tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam. Now begins the study of yoga. Yoga is the reigning in of the reactivity of the mind. Then there is abiding, with stability, in stillness.

Stillness is a word that points to the unchanging timeless primordial being that underlies all forms. In this way, stillness is not the absence of movement, but the unbounded infinite spaciousness in which movements come and go. This is analagous to saying the eternal present moment, ‘Now’ is not the absence of time but the source of all of time, past, present and future. Awareness is another word that is used. Awareness is contrasted to ‘what arises in awareness. Viveka, a lovely Sanskrit work from the Yoga Sutras means to know the difference between what is subject to change (prakriti, what arises in awareness) and the unchanging (purusha, Awareness). To recognize and truly know that stillness is the Truth of I, of Self, not the mind/body/personality that is always undergoing changes, is enlightenment, liberation. Awakening is the process of recognizing, deepening and stabilizing this realization as you go about your daily life activities.

    Adyashanti, my mentor in awakening, contrasts what he calls ‘True Meditation’ with meditative practices where the intention is to develop concentration or some other mind state. He describes True Meditation the way Patanjali defines yoga; “it is most fundamentally an attitude of being—resting in and as being. Once you get the feel of it, you will be able to tune into it more and more often during your daily life. Eventually, in the state of liberation, meditation will simply become your natural condition.”

“True Meditation has no direction or goal. It is pure wordless surrender, pure silent prayer. All methods aiming at achieving a certain state of mind are limited, impermanent and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True Meditation is effortless stillness, abidance as primordial being.” Or as Patanjali states in I-3, tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam, then the Seer abides in her own True Nature.

“In True Meditation all objects (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, etc)” (what Patanjali calls ‘vrttis’), are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to focus on, manipulate, control, or suppress any object of awareness.” (This is not so easy!) “In True Meditation, the emphasis is on being awareness—not on being aware of objects, but resting as conscious being itself. In meditation, you are not trying to change your experience; you are changing your relationship to your experience.” …”An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticiption, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition.”

These quotes come from Adyashanti’s “The Way of Liberation: A Practical Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment”. Soft cover (54 pages) book and a free downloadable copy available at  http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=productdetail&iprod_id=533.

See also ‘Stillness Speaks’ by Eckhart Tolle for another eloquent perspective on ‘stillness’.

Photo credits: Sean Kilmurray, www.seankilmurrayphotography.com

Mobility, Motility and Stillness, part 2

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 (Notes from the Detroit workshop, Jan 2013)                                   

                                        Motility

What is motility? It is not a well known expression in the modern world, but refers to the innate movements of life: heart beat, the respiratory rhythm, peristalsis, cerebro-spinal movements, and all of the other ways in which the inner fluids and tissues dance to the music of the life force, the prana or chi. We can also refer to this as the actions of the energy or subtle body. Here we also uncover our emotions, healthy and unhealthy, expressed or repressed as they connect thoughts, memories and deeper motivations to our physiology. Therefore this is a challenging and yet highly therapeutic realm for exploration.

For the individual, this inner dance of the subtle body begins at conception.

In the embryological chart above we see the conceptus, the earliest stage of the embryo, at first cellular differentiation. The inner layer of cells or endoderm (yellow)  becomes the gut tube, liver, lungs and other internal organs. The  outer layer, the ectoderm (blue), becomes the nervous system including skin, brain, spinal cord and nerves. The middle layer, the mesoderm, just emerging above, creates the connective tissue structures, muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, plus kidneys and heart. Motility has taken the single egg-sperm cell to here through the constant movement we call growth and development and this will continue on through the rest of life. Somewhere along the way we lost our ability to feel this dynamic state of aliveness and our yoga practice is one way to help reconnect with this inner dance. ( On a future post we will show the connection of this first cellular differentiation to the three doshas in Ayurveda, vata, pitta and kapha.)

The modern human has essentially lost touch with the endoderm or gut tube. We live in out brains and muscles, the ectoderm and mesoderm, and only notice the inner organs if there is a problem. We need to slow down to feel the inner rhythms, to be able to navigate them, to be soothed by them, to feel their connection to the cosmic rhythms. Restorative yoga postures are designed to awaken our inner sense of motility by using props, supports and gravity to do the work of the outer musculature and thus release some of the ecto and mesodermal holding patterns. B.K. S. Iyengar’s pioneering use of various supports in his therapeutic classes in Pune have revolutionized the way yoga poses as he uses them to untangle the endodermal confusion also.

A beginner approaches motillity through feeling the breath. Dharana, bring your attention to, and dhyana, sustaining your attention to the breath and integral components top a yoga practice. Most beginners are too caught up in instructions, muscles, effort and confusion to stay with the breath, so savasana, or other supported poses are a great way to awaken this inner world. At the level of motility, it is all about ‘letting go’. Digestion happens. Circulation happens. At a cellular level life happens. The delightful reality is that ‘we’ are unnecessary. That is, the “I” that wants to ‘do’ something is extraneous here. Of course this can create some difficulty as the egoic mind, the one that wants to ‘be in control’ will find ways to be distracted and not allow you to ‘let go’. Be patient. You may even fall asleep in the beginning. Once you learn how to ‘dive in ‘ an infinite inner world awaits you. B.K.S. Iyengar has described one level of his inner sensitivity as ‘feeling the height and temperature of the cerebro-spinal fluid as it fluctuates during the pose’.

The challenge is to bring this awareness and sensitivity to the more challenging poses as well. When you can move in and out of a pose smoothly, easily and relatively effortlessly, then you will be able to find the balance of energies that sustain the pose from the inside. This is why mobility comes first. Patanjali call this sthira sukham. Many students are sthira dukham. That is, they stay in the posture by constricting the energy (rajas) or collapsing and hanging out (tamas). Sthira, steady, stable strong comes from gravity. Sukham fluidity, ease, sweetness, comes from a freedom of breath and all other inner movements, the dance of life. Sthira sukham, sattva, That is a healthy pose. Mobility and motility in perfect balance. Dukha is suffering, being out of balance, off center, in a state of unnecessary effort. Find time to rest in your inner aliveness, feeling, sensing, letting go, allowing Mother Earth and Father Sky to hold you in a loving embrace, and find out what emerges. With balance and harmony comes grace. With grace comes the possibility of awakening into your own inner stillness. Rest there.

In part three, we will dive into stillness, or melt into stillness, or dissolve into stillness or awaken to stillness, or……..