There is a monstrous difference in our energy when we are indoors versus being outdoors in nature. Even if you don't think of urban or suburban sidewalks as 'nature', being outside period invites our energy to return to its natural expansive state.
The Yoga Spanadakarika calls the state of self-consciousness and ignorance we typically live in a "constriction of shakti", or life energy. When we are in a state of yoga, or harmony, our shakti is expansive, we are unbound. It makes perfect sense to describe it this way: if you watch your experience, when you enter inside from the outdoors, even more noticeably when you enter a public place with chaotic energy, such as a mall, and feel your energy. When you are anxious or uncomfortable in any way, watch your energy, the sensations you experience. Feel how your body tightens up, draws in towards the center, tenses. Our creativity is restrained, our attitude is not as positive, our confidence is often retreated within itself. When we are feeling whole and harmonious, we tend to feel open, light, free, inspired, creative, bold, literally expansive. When we go outside, we can feel this shift, from the walls and ceilings constricting our energy to the buoyant lightness, freedom as we unfurl and merge with the sky. This is perhaps a very poetically subjective way to state the experience, but try it for yourself when you are in a sensitive state of awareness.
Being stuck in our thoughts is another form of constriction of shakti. As we withdraw into our own heads, we withdraw from our connection to the world and beings around us. As we become more openly aware of internal and external at once, more present, we expand once again to a more natural state and frequency of our energy. Walking briskly outdoors, while consciously feeling posture, breath, air, and drinking in the scenery with your eyes. Every time you notice that you are participating in thinking and the inner conversation, as soon as you are aware, come back to even just a moment of taking in the scenery with your heart and senses wide open, only space, no thoughts. You can't push the thinking out, but you can get used to not paying attention to it unless its functional. This allows you to tune your attention to a different wavelength- the wavelength of being present. After you walk a while and practice this, you will find more and more space in between the thoughts pervading your mind. You will feel less constricted, less congested, less cluttered and flustered, and instead calmer, more focused, more peaceful, energized and grateful. It depends on how long your mind needs to settle in, but 20-60 minutes is best.
Touching nature is always beneficial for our state of mental and physical health. Try to make some sort of contact everyday, with fresh air, sunshine, movement outdoors, and walk everyday if you can. Walking is the greatest natural anti-depressant. Whenever you feel stressed, just get outside and walk until your mind shuts up.
Showing posts with label natural living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label natural living. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Friday, September 9, 2011
Natural Migraine Relief
Depending on what your trigger is, you may find different things relieving. My trigger is light, heat, what is known as "pitta" in ayurveda.
Feverfew is an herb that can be taken (always check with your doctor and pharmacist!) preventatively, or regularly when you feel one coming on, or have one more full-blown.
Fasting once my headache gets strong helps to avoid severe nausea, but with a weak headache or while fighting one off, eating something comforting helps. Sometimes low blood sugar contributes to tension and pain.
Relax the facial muscles, massage the face and scalp, especially the points around the forhead, temples, eye sockets... Use peppermint essential oil on the temples and hairline.
Shirodhara is an ayurvedic treatment in which warmed oil is slowly dripped from the hairline over the scalp, while you relax on a massage table. It is very excellent for regular migraine sufferers.
I love using a cool, wet cloth over my eyes and forehead, it helps immensely. A long bath, a soak in the hot tub or hot shower can help relax tense muscles that contribute to a migraine intensifying and going full-blown.
If you can, go to sleep! Stay cool (but not shivering cold) and relax your body and especially the face/scalp. Use a wet cloth and keep flipping it to the cool side when you stir. I used to put my forehead up to the wall to keep it cool when I was younger.
If you have to work or stay alert, relax your facial muscles as much as possible. Cool down, or quiet down, if sound is your trigger. Keep your mind present as much as possible, you will feel much more pain as soon as you even subtely stress.
Migraines can be treated with regular meditation, yoga, and staying well hydrated, in addition to observing and respecting your triggers. I have been able to make a full-blown migraine go away with some feverfew, a cold-cloth, consciously relaxing, and resting a little bit. Even while teaching yoga classes, or playing with my toddler, I have been able to keep migraines down to a dull roar with increasing success using these techniques. I have never taken migraine medications and don't plan to. And yes, I experience real migraines. Regular meditation/yoga practice is key because it hones the powers of observation and conscious relaxation that are crucial to recognizing the triggers and actions that make it feel better and worse.
One blessing of migraine pain is it can help you become more acutely conscious of the way you tense your facial and scalp muscles. There is a Guru in everything! namaste!
Feverfew is an herb that can be taken (always check with your doctor and pharmacist!) preventatively, or regularly when you feel one coming on, or have one more full-blown.
Fasting once my headache gets strong helps to avoid severe nausea, but with a weak headache or while fighting one off, eating something comforting helps. Sometimes low blood sugar contributes to tension and pain.
Relax the facial muscles, massage the face and scalp, especially the points around the forhead, temples, eye sockets... Use peppermint essential oil on the temples and hairline.
Shirodhara is an ayurvedic treatment in which warmed oil is slowly dripped from the hairline over the scalp, while you relax on a massage table. It is very excellent for regular migraine sufferers.
I love using a cool, wet cloth over my eyes and forehead, it helps immensely. A long bath, a soak in the hot tub or hot shower can help relax tense muscles that contribute to a migraine intensifying and going full-blown.
If you can, go to sleep! Stay cool (but not shivering cold) and relax your body and especially the face/scalp. Use a wet cloth and keep flipping it to the cool side when you stir. I used to put my forehead up to the wall to keep it cool when I was younger.
If you have to work or stay alert, relax your facial muscles as much as possible. Cool down, or quiet down, if sound is your trigger. Keep your mind present as much as possible, you will feel much more pain as soon as you even subtely stress.
Migraines can be treated with regular meditation, yoga, and staying well hydrated, in addition to observing and respecting your triggers. I have been able to make a full-blown migraine go away with some feverfew, a cold-cloth, consciously relaxing, and resting a little bit. Even while teaching yoga classes, or playing with my toddler, I have been able to keep migraines down to a dull roar with increasing success using these techniques. I have never taken migraine medications and don't plan to. And yes, I experience real migraines. Regular meditation/yoga practice is key because it hones the powers of observation and conscious relaxation that are crucial to recognizing the triggers and actions that make it feel better and worse.
One blessing of migraine pain is it can help you become more acutely conscious of the way you tense your facial and scalp muscles. There is a Guru in everything! namaste!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
5 Easy to Grow Natural Remedies
c/o care2.com...
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-easy-to-grow-remedies.html#ixzz1IloCPg8t
By Dorothy Foltz-Gray, Natural Solutions
Luckily, you don’t have to head to landscaping school to create a medicinal garden. You don’t even need a backyard, since many healing plants do well in containers. Growing herbs is so simple that even people who routinely kill houseplants will find they can do it. Many herbs, in fact, thrive on benign neglect; the less water they get, the stronger their medicinal compounds. And in most cases, there’s no need to fertilize them. Turning the herbs into soothing teas and tinctures is easy, too. Below, we’ve picked five of our favorites and asked experts to help us understand just how to grow and harvest them—and how to transform them into aromatic, and often tasty, healers.
Rosemary
What it’s good for: Sharpening memory
When British herbalist Anne McIntyre was a student, she kept rosemary sprigs on her desk during classes, squeezing the oils onto her hands. “The scent stimulates blood flow to the brain and aids concentration,” says McIntyre, author of The Medicinal Garden and ten other herb-related books. Years later, science came to the same conclusion. In a 1998 study, University of Miami researchers exposed 40 adults to three minutes of rosemary scent. The group showed increased alertness and worked math problems faster—and no less accurately—than they had before the aromatherapy session.
How To Grow It: Rosemary is a Mediterranean plant, thriving in sun and well-drained soil. If your winters are very cold, grow it in a pot and take the pot inside for the winter. It’s hard to grow from seed, so start with a plant. Or cut a spike from a friend’s plant at the woody end. Add rooting hormone (available at plant centers) to light soil, insert the cutting, and chances are it will root.
How To Use It: Ancient scholars used to wear wreaths of rosemary around their heads, but you don’t have to go that far. Nurse Dorie Byers, author of Herbal Remedy Gardens, simmers a cup of rosemary needles in two quarts of uncovered water, letting the smell waft through the house whenever she’s doing brain work. Or you can brew rosemary tea, adding one to two teaspoons of rosemary needles to one cup boiling water. Steep it for five minutes, strain the herbs, add a squirt of lime juice, and enjoy.....
...Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-easy-to-grow-remedies.html#ixzz1IloZnPTa
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-easy-to-grow-remedies.html#ixzz1IloCPg8t
By Dorothy Foltz-Gray, Natural Solutions
Luckily, you don’t have to head to landscaping school to create a medicinal garden. You don’t even need a backyard, since many healing plants do well in containers. Growing herbs is so simple that even people who routinely kill houseplants will find they can do it. Many herbs, in fact, thrive on benign neglect; the less water they get, the stronger their medicinal compounds. And in most cases, there’s no need to fertilize them. Turning the herbs into soothing teas and tinctures is easy, too. Below, we’ve picked five of our favorites and asked experts to help us understand just how to grow and harvest them—and how to transform them into aromatic, and often tasty, healers.
Rosemary
What it’s good for: Sharpening memory
When British herbalist Anne McIntyre was a student, she kept rosemary sprigs on her desk during classes, squeezing the oils onto her hands. “The scent stimulates blood flow to the brain and aids concentration,” says McIntyre, author of The Medicinal Garden and ten other herb-related books. Years later, science came to the same conclusion. In a 1998 study, University of Miami researchers exposed 40 adults to three minutes of rosemary scent. The group showed increased alertness and worked math problems faster—and no less accurately—than they had before the aromatherapy session.
How To Grow It: Rosemary is a Mediterranean plant, thriving in sun and well-drained soil. If your winters are very cold, grow it in a pot and take the pot inside for the winter. It’s hard to grow from seed, so start with a plant. Or cut a spike from a friend’s plant at the woody end. Add rooting hormone (available at plant centers) to light soil, insert the cutting, and chances are it will root.
How To Use It: Ancient scholars used to wear wreaths of rosemary around their heads, but you don’t have to go that far. Nurse Dorie Byers, author of Herbal Remedy Gardens, simmers a cup of rosemary needles in two quarts of uncovered water, letting the smell waft through the house whenever she’s doing brain work. Or you can brew rosemary tea, adding one to two teaspoons of rosemary needles to one cup boiling water. Steep it for five minutes, strain the herbs, add a squirt of lime juice, and enjoy.....
...Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-easy-to-grow-remedies.html#ixzz1IloZnPTa
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Top 10 Household Toxins for Pets ( c/o care2.com)
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-10-common-pet-toxins.html
Lots of information to help you protect the precious companion animals, including natural alternatives to keep them safer and lists of foods and plants that are poisonous as well, in addition to the overall top ten dangers.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-10-common-pet-toxins.html#ixzz1G1uaZHzV
Lots of information to help you protect the precious companion animals, including natural alternatives to keep them safer and lists of foods and plants that are poisonous as well, in addition to the overall top ten dangers.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/top-10-common-pet-toxins.html#ixzz1G1uaZHzV
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