Chakras, Energy, Posture + Fulfilment in Life: a surprisingly simple primer

For the discerning modern person, very busy, atrophied attention-span and all, here is all you need to know about chakras, energy and posture- the Reader's Digest version! ; ) But more seriously this is a good review or beginning point for those interested in learning how philosophy meets practical application in our lives.

It is a very complex interaction- the body, mind, energy interface that is the human experience. We are not informed or prepared in public schools to actually understand how to take care of ourselves and trouble-shoot illness, discomfort, and negativity. So here is one small point that makes a huge difference it my physical, mental, emotional well-being on a daily basis...

Most people, even those of which practice decent posture, don't stop to be conscious of how they direct energy/the force of gravity through their bodies. Unless you are trained in yoga, or perhaps ballet, you never would think that such an opportunity even exists... However it does, in each moment, and if we are unconscious about it, we slowly deteriorate the quality of our bones and joints, and our overall health.

The chakras are subtle (invisible to the eye, or pretend for the skeptics!) energy centers along the spine corresponding with major glands throughout the body. When we sit or stand unconsciously, we compress the entire abdomen with more pressure then our structure is meant to support. Energetically speaking, this obstructs the flow of energy, life force, diminishing our vitality. On the physical side of the very same experience, we deteriorate the quality of our spinal column with this extra pressure, and we greatly reduce both nerve function and blood supply to our major organs. This causes degenerative and "chronic" disease and lots of discomfort- bloating, heaviness, digestive issues and so on.
Ideally, energetically, we want a free flow of energy from the lower chakras up through all of the upper chakras, which simply isn't possible with this caveman-collapsing-into-gravity syndrome we have going on.

So how are we supposed to be doing our thing, us human beings? Here's the rundown from the ground up!
First of all: our connection to the earth is crucial- this is our foundation. When sitting your main connection is through the pelvis, the hip bones, or sitting bones as yogis often call them. Standing, obviously, the feet form the foundation. Use the whole foot evenly, without collapsing the arch. PRESS into the earth just a bit. You will already feel the energy lifting up through your body- you will sit or stand a little straighter.

Then keep your pelvis neutral, in other words don't let your lower back round out or belly hang out, balance in the middle. Draw the navel toward the spine. This helps with digestive health, proper alignment, core strength, and promotes confidence. By doing this, you should still be able to breathe smoothly, and it directs the energy flow up from the lower chakras to the upper chakras.

From there, open your chest fully, don't let the shoulders round forward- it is like caving in your heart. Instead keep your chest high, shoulders relaxed down, shoulder blades a little bit drawn towards the ground behind. Breathe well, freely and smoothly.

Try not to let your head slowly creep forward into your monitor. Like I so quaintly joked in my personal trainer days, "you're neck ain't nothin' but a part of your spine!" (Ha ha! I am a lovable goof ball!).

All of our strength and ease currently lies in our default posture, so it takes patience and diligence to retrain the body to a healthy posture, but the results physically, mentally, emotionally are incredible. Also, we have to become more present, more aware in each moment to do this work, so our mindfulness grows. Mindfulness, or presence, is the single most powerful catalyst for creativity, joy, and fulfillment in life.

So there is it, in a nutshell- how and why bother to stand up and sit up like good human beings, from the subtle and physical perspectives. If the body feels terrible, if energy flow is blocked, our happiness and ease are sharply reduced. We feel happier and better at every level when we can move and use our energy the way it is meant to interact with the body for ideal fulfillment in life.

With love for all life~ laura

Two Feet Firm on the Earth

I have learned the hard way that there is an easy way to find a lot of freedom, confidence, and peace, almost instantly...

Our posture seems so irrelevant when reflecting on our mental-emotional state, but every layer of our being is interconnected and interpenetrating.

Our foundation, the way we touch the earth with our body, the way we connect to the ground, determines the way energy can and will move through our whole system. It changes nerve function, digestion, water regulation, bloodflow and more. It is the meaning of the word "asana", the word for pose in Sanskrit- our seat, our connection to the Earth.

Whenever you sit, put your weight into your HIPS, not your spine, pressing into the chair or ground a bit. Lift your chest and open it with comfortable effort. Feel the buoyancy return to your center. Try not to cross your legs, but if you do, take turns to remain even or cross to the side you normally wouldn't. Otherwise leave your feet flat and gently pressing downward, which helps to keep your chest open.

When you stand, press through the forefoot and heel evenly, leaving the arches floating. Notice if you shift your weight to one side more then the other. Evening out will retrain your body and help you to overcome imbalances that actually can mess with your entire muscular-skeletal alignment. Pressing through your feet and evenly left-to-right, allow your chest to be open and navel to engage gently toward the spine to neutralize your pelvis. It sounds like work, and can be at first, but it is well worth it.

When I feel slugglish, frustrated or insecure in any way, I notice that fixing my connection to the earth, my posture, makes it all but disappear, instantly, or at least pretty rapidly at worst. It is worth it to apply ourselves to find a healthy, free, quick fix with no negative side-effects to remedy the dark side of our unhealthy modern world.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Feet as an expression of integrity in consciousness

Freeze. Notice your feet. Are they equally and evenly touching the earth? Are your legs crossed? Try this while you are standing, while you are walking. Just notice the quality of awareness and the degree to which your feet twist or do not press into the ground actively with every step.
This is like a physical representation of how conscious you aren't in the moment. We resist Reality, the way our feet resist the floor. We can activate our feet, and feel the corresponding blossoming upward and opening of the chest. The degree to which we engage the feet is the degree to which the heart/chest can open. It is the degree to which we can be free and compassionate.
In our asana practice we should strive. Strive for engagement, strive for eveness, strive to activate. In shavasana, we relax fully, and the degree to which we can open, relax, transcend is the degree to which we were able to strive, work, strengthen. The harder we push without strain is the harder we can let go.
The we open up physically the more we can transcend the physical in meditation.
It all starts with the feet, our foundation, telling us how our relationship to the divine Consciousness is. Are we really open and accepting of everything life brings? Watch your feet and take the challenge to embrace life entirely.

Oh, pity us, the lumbering sleepwalkers!

eIn the introduction to Will Johnson's "Yoga of the Mahamudra", he discusses the idea of correlation between degree of human consciousness and how straight and upright the spine is. The straighter we become the more conscious we become.

You might be saying, "hey, well now, aren't we all standing up pretty straight?" No, well, some of us more then others but no. We are much straighter then our ancient ancestors but evolutionarliy speaking, we have more work to do. "What?!" Yes! Check your posture. Even after six years of sleeping, eating, breathing, teaching, living, constantly seeking yoga I am still day by day discovering a new degree of alignment and a new degree of awakening consciousness, and I think that I may have quite a ways to go.

Thankfully, yoga and the awakening of consciousness (and the awakening of alignment, for that matter), is a process-oriented experience-- their isn't a need to struggle or race to the goal, because the goal is the process.

I am not an engineer, but if we talk in basic terms about the body as a structure, we can feel and understand this concept. Think of the four-leggeds, the quadripedal animals. Imagine them standing up onto two legs and prancing around. Oh, isn't the idea of prancing doggies and kitty-cats so cute? :) But seriously, whenever meow-meow and woof-woof come up, they can't stay long, because their entire structure is designed for their four-legged lifestyle. For humans to make the jump from knuckle-dragging apes (said with love) to bipedal beings was nothing short of radical, revolutionary and maybe even random.

Coming from that vision of humankind's two-leggedness, we can now shift to contemplating gravity- a force that we have to work to overcome, or that can effortlessly stabilize us, depending on our alignment. Posture has gone by the wayside, sacrificied to the frantic multi-tasking monster devouring our society. In ages long past, parents consistently worked on their children's last good nerve with postural reminders. Even if it was done just out of ettiquette or tradition or habit, it was quite beneficial. In the last century and especially last few decades, people don't seem to pay attention to their own banana-like posture, let alone their children's, we have just forgotten to care. We plod along like dinosaurs, with the posture of a jumbo shrimp.

There are many factors compounding the Western constellation of issues- illness, unhappiness and unconsciousness- one of which is poor posture. While we stopped paying attention, or where we never thought to pay attention, we have left our bodies to fall slowly into gravity. Most people don't actually think much about posture and bodily structure, how they sit or relax or stand or sleep. To stand in poor alignment increases structural pressure to 150% and to sit slouching increases that preasure to 200% or more. This constant, daily pressure is the equivalent of carrying that much extra weight, it prematurely grinds down joints like the spine and knees. It chokes circulation to a minimum, it starves the major organs very, very slowly. It pinches nerves and diminuishes their ability to function profoundly. It also makes our torso distend, get bloated, feel heavy and look much bigger then it is, making us feel very uncomfortable and unhappy with ourselves. It can cause major digestive issues, including contributing to IBS. We are paying a heavy price for our ignorance and laziness.
If we don't give any thought or attention to how we sit, stand and move, then we are relying on unconscious support, gravity is having its way with us, and we actually spend a lot more energy whenever we sit, stand or move just to stay up. Proper alignment takes months of transition to make it past getting some sore muscles (because they have to strengthen in new ways), and years of transtion to newer and newer levels of straightness and lightness. But its only work for a short while. Once we reach a critical mass point, we suddenly feel horribly uncomfortable if we slouch and have to stand up straight because it just feels so much better.

Consequently, since it takes reminding ourselves every time we notice postural deviation, we also strengthen our ability to be conscious. We have to develop a level of mindfulness, a low-level watching that monitors at least the body position, if not the body's other senses and signals as well. This is where the mind-body consciousness connection becomes clear. As we develop posturally, we develop a clearer and clearer level of consciousness.

So how should we be using our body, to stay well and evolve our brains in all our true bipedal glory?

step by step...
Whatever part of us touches the ground is our foundation- feet or feet and hips when sitting. Feet should be flat (watch how you may be habitually shifting weight to the side of one or both feet!), and especially when standing, should apply a gentle to moderate amount of pressure downward into the earth. Pushing down just a little activates the legs, and those big muscles do the majority of the work of overcoming gravity for us. Next, point the tailbone down toward the earth a little, drawing the lower-belly diagonally up and in, navel toward spine. Continue the gentle lifting upward through the chest, and allow your heart to be held high and openly, shoulders opened out to each side. The muscles in the upper-center area of the back will become much stronger and the chest muscles will need to get a bit looser. Slide the ribs back a bit to place them over the hips, and I know, it feels like leaning back at first, it's okay, it just takes practice.
So, to recap, feet (and hips when sitting) push downward, which encourages a lifting motion. Engage navel to spine and lift and open the chest high, allowing the ribs to slide back over the hips.
The stranger this feels the more important it is that you patiently and dilligently practice EVERYDAY, even weekends and holidays. The more you practice the more quickly it becomes natural. Practicing yoga poses helps speed this process tremendously and make it more comfortable. Working out usually makes it harder, because unconsciously, or maybe unavoidably, when we do resistance training we tend to strengthen our muscles in the same imbalanced patterns we hold all day- in other words the imbalanced tightness-looseness of the muscles is what causes improper posture, so working them out gets them stronger, but at the same level of imbalance- unless you work with a very exceptional personal trainer. ( I can help you with that, actually.)

To work on building proper posture similtaneously stimulates the opening of awareness. When we pay attention to our posture and regularly check in on it, we begin to develop body awareness. We hear the body's signals more clearly, we may even start to listen. In time we have found greater all-over health, we eat better because we feel the effects of junk food, we are more joyful because we are better taken care of, we have less stress because we feel better. Just by practicing better posture, we have practiced better mindfulness. We transition from unconcious living slowly to more and eventually fully conscious living, enlightenment.

So physically and mentally, practicing proper posture is one of the most powerful and important endevors possible. It is crucial. It is the work needed in our times. Through the doorway of the body we become more truly human, more alive, fully conscious. In this very lifetime we make a huge leap in evolution. By finding bodily peace we find mental/emotional peace, and with that, our desire to harm or hate others melts away. We become peace.