2010 Archives
Undercover Yoga 4 Become and Exhaler III
340 words will take you about 2 min reading time and about 8 breath
Blogging Body Bliss turns one year old.
Seems like it’s just beginning to walk…
My kitten also turning 1 caught her first not 1 but 2 mice today. Sorry for the mice, but
as promised let us celebrate ‘growing up’ to full pleasure with the
‘Nothing happening’ Meditation
What is between the inhale and the exhale?
Make the famous U-Turn and allow your attention to focus inwards.
From the bottom of your exhale take your time and feel …
- nothing is the limit
nothing –
[In 1993 at my first daylong encounter with this question it took me hours of agonizing focus to even admit to my mind that nothing is what I was looking for]
YES!
Now I invite you to play with dropping into “nothing happening”, into the realm that IS between our constant doing [even if that’s only in- or ex-haling]. I invite you to hang out in the deliciocity of ‘space’, where you just are – until your next inhale.
Your body’s ease and relaxation is re-membered as well as your minds peace-full-ness. and overall wellbeing. It becomes ‘pleasure pure’ when you allow nothing to happen!
Notice your next inhale filling you, tipping over into the releasing exhale and than dive, fly, slide and evaporate again into nothing happening, the world between the world.
You can observe your whole body as it beats with your hearts pulse, a gurgle in your gut, the softening of shoulder tension, an internal sinking into your bones. Your sense of the immediate space around you may change. That’s ‘all’.
Your next inhale will cascade in naturally after these few moments with fresh ease.
This is the ‘walking’ meditation of your waking workday, the box stop for your racing mind, the safe heaven in the dentist chair, the instant hammock vacation for your whole body.
When nothing becomes everything
Your curiosity about your deeper you and remembering this precious space at the bottom of each exhale allow you to enter the freedom of the sacred sanity of a human being [in contrast to the up-tightening cells of a human doing that we, all to easily, try to squeeze ourselves into and be proud off].
In his book ‘A New World’ Eckhart Tolle was asked which one of all the self-improvement workshops a person should take. He told them that taking a few conscious breaths every day would be better… and cheaper.
With a big smile and thank you for exhaling
Sabine
I love to hear from you and invite your feedback, comments and your own experiences.
My gratitude for non-stop learning goes to all my clients and teachers and I trust You also will benefit from reading and feeling.
You ONLY have to let the soft animal of your body love what is loves
– Mary Oliver
The author doesn’t take any responsibility for any possible consequences that might occur from your thoughts and actions.
Sabine Grandke-Taft
Embodiment Expert and Workshop Leader
for more information please go to
Creative Commons License
Sabine Grandke-Taft holds the copyright for her Blog but allows you to copy and distribute her work provided you give her credit and link back to her website www.radiantembodiment.com Thank you very much.
- nothing …is the limit
DVD Release Coming May 1st!
Sabine is taking orders for her new DVD to be released in early May 2010. Sign up for her newsletter for notification of the new release dates and information.
Undercover Yoga 3 Become an Exhaler II
Become an Exhaler in bed in the morning
666 words will take you a good 3 minutes to read
Let’s, at least, imagine you are in bed and are deliciously awakening with greater ease as I taught in my December article Undercover Yoga I.
If you have also read and explored the February BBB you deserve the treat now; before breakfast.
This morning allow your next exhale to become slower again. Follow its sensations all the way to the end and feel what happens.
1 of 2 things happens
You have either taken a long time observing your very slow and steady exhale and really “exhausted” the oxygen content in your blood to such a degree that the inhale comes surging in as if you turned on an inner vacuum.
[To be precise, it is not the lack of O2 but the abundance of CO2 that triggers the inhalation]
…Or you followed your slower exhale to its end but less extensively and you dropped into a moment where ‘nothing’ was happening; the natural pause between exhale and inhale.
Exploring the opposite to reach our goal with even more ease
There is also a pause at the end of your inhale as the body turns around to release the air back out. Can you find it?
In our stressed bodies though, that one is often misused for holding our breath and tightening our muscles even more. This default pattern/stress response is exactly what I hope to soften within your nervous system by alerting and shifting your awareness to focus on the whole-body-pleasure that lies in an extended exhale.
The genius of Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais’ Method offers itself at this point to expand your brains sense of what I am proposing.
Please do tighten up [your shoulders and chest, neck and jaw] on purpose as you inhale normally and hold it right there for just a moment… Release your breath easily. Be gentle and “Stay within the limits of pleasure!” – as Mia Segal my first Feldenkrais Trainer always said.
It is key here not to force anything so your experience will inform your cognition positively. Try to do it with even less effort the next time. Good! Play with it another 2-3 times, each time finding more ways to do less.
Now feel into your body for any changes in the way you lie in your bed. Your body’s inner organization increases with this kind of gentle exploration. Paying attention to details in this way allows our inner intelligence to release unnecessary muscle action.
So you may find places like your neck, back or shoulders that have sunken more into your pillows or just a general sense of feeling nicer, without needing to put any specification on it. Feeling around for any shifts as you rest [even if you do not notice anything different] is boosting your awareness and deepening your learning.
If you know what you do – you can do what you want – paraphrasing Dr. Feldenkrais
Nothin’ happenin’
After this little [de]tour to get to our goal of naturally deeper exhales I like you to play with that slower exhale a few more times. You might really begin to like it, especially the space created by the pause. As you explore and hang out in ‘nothin’ happenin’, notice what is happening to your whole sense of your self.
That Healing Feeling
Breathing normally now, permit your attention to spread throughout your whole body with ease. What do you notice first?
Still that old tightness? Energy follows attention, so gently find and keep your focus and receptivity with the good, expansive, warm, spacious, lighter, flowing pleasurably releasing sensations.
Each time you look for those healing feelings you become a little bit more familiar with your bodies’ natural ability to let go.
If you have already done a few of these mindful exhales last night, [see BBB Feb.2010] your body more willingly shows your mind now how it can release even the relentless grip in your neck and shoulders, your forehead, jaw and belly, as well as around your back and hips.
Welcome your self healing capacity!
Have a great day!
Thank you for reading.
With a smile
Sabine
For next month’s 1st Birthday Celebration of Blogging my Body Bliss I might offer the “Nothin’ Happenin’ Meditation” to you
I love to hear from you and invite your feedback, comments and your own experiences.
My gratitude for non-stop learning goes to all my clients and teachers and I trust You also will benefit from reading and feeling.
You ONLY have to let the soft animal of your body love what is loves
– Mary Oliver
The author doesn’t take any responsibility for any possible consequences that might occur from your thoughts and actions.
Sabine Grandke-Taft
Embodiment Expert and Workshop Leader
for more information please go to
Creative Commons License
Sabine Grandke-Taft holds the copyright for her Blog but allows you to copy and distribute her work provided you give her credit and link back to her website www.radiantembodiment.com Thank you very much.
Become an Exhaler – Undercover Yoga 2
629 words will take you about 3 min, to read and give you a whole night of sweet sleep
Become an Exhaler I – in bed tonight
Expanding on the delicious morning ‘let-go’ from my December BBB Undercover Yoga 1 here is what you could play with tonight when you are softly covered in your bed.
For just a moment feel into what’s normally happening to your breathing when you remember you hear or see something stressful on TV, Radio, on the road, at the office, happening with your child, or when that person is on the line.
You probably recount a quick inhale “hhiiiiii” and than – - – you kept it right in. Your chin slid backwards and tensed up your neck slightly more with tension spreading into your shoulders and [at least] down your whole spine. Any further breaths go by un-noticeably and there never seems to be a release through a deep exhale. Hhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh…
If you just embodied what I was describing – that HHHaaaaahhh – “valley”, was very nice and needed, wasn’t it?
I was describing a very mild enactment of our ancient startle reflex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startle_reaction that has become a “normal” tension pattern piling up inside throughout each day. You may not have felt much of this until you begin to pay attention to these tightening responses that accumulate throughout your body during your day.
The startle reflex developed as a survival skill through thousands of years of evolution beginning with our animal ancestors and I see it as part of the freeze [play possum] strategy to avoid “being lunch”.
This clever and automated response obviously worked or we would not be here. It is still run by your “reptilian brain”.
A very useful reflex for some of those extreme life threatening situations we do encounter, but not very supportive when our “normal” daily stressors themselves become its constant trigger. In other words: when quick inhalation-tension without satisfying exhalation-release has become just another pattern that’s adding even more vigilance to our western stressed-out bodies and minds. OOOaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh
Just on the side; here’s another interesting food for thought. Ask somebody to exhale – they inhale first…. But that’s for another blog
“Exhalers live longer” –
This is one of the most foundational ideas I explore with all my clients.
Allow your exhale to be your main focus.
The slower we breathe – the longer we live – they say in Yoga.
For tonight’s comforting exploration your exhale does not need to be longer or stronger. Just notice your normal exhale! Curious isn’t it? Exhales automatically become longer when you pay attention to them. No strength needed - just sensing. You may find a release in your body, a let go, a softening of your chest and belly – and then – just an empty space —-before the next inhale cascades in ….
Your bed right now is the luscious haven of opportunity to set your internal stage for the whole night. Feel your body, bones, organs and muscles in the warm embrace we already explored in the December BBB.
Notice how noticing a longer/slower exhale relaxes you, even if only a tiny piece of your body softens. That’s it!
Your heart rate will slow down as well. Good!
Play with it again. You can feel how your bodies weight sinks towards your mattress, how your shoulders are moving away from your ears to where they can rest. No need to keep your head up any longer. [In Germany we say: hold your ears stiff… same up-tightness] This frees up your neck and even your jaw, your spine, your belly and your pelvis.
Luxuriate in another exhale. Can you feel how you are beginning to let go deeper? Look for a sense of slow flow and softening inside your tissues as you rel-ease your day.
I wish you a good night and very sweet dreams!
With a delicious exhale
Sabine
Onward with Undercover Yoga
Next months Themes include:
Become an Exhaler in the morning
Schlappe Noodle Fun
Life Spirals
Touch for Pleasure
Ocean Motion in your Hips
Disclaimer
Please! Whatever you do – Stay within the limits of pleasure. Make it simple and easy.
The author doesn’t take any responsibility for any possible consequences that might occur from your thoughts and actions.
Sabine Grandke-Taft
Embodiment Expert and Workshop Leader
for more information please go to
www.RadiantEmbodiment.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinegrandketaft
Creative Commons License
Sabine Grandke-Taft holds the copyright for her blog but allows you to copy and distribute her work provided you give me credit and link back to my website www.radiantembodiment.com Thank you very much.
Light for your Mind
Before I’ll offer more Undercover Yoga to you this pressing theme offered itself.
578 words will take your about 3 min to read
This winter my client Roxana experienced a heavier load of the bleak depressed feelings many of us dread repeatedly during this season. The “Happy Holidays” are not so happy for many of us often based on our family history in combination with THE weather and too many clothe, keeping us away from direct skin contact with [our] nature.
Roxana noticed how the darker shorter days made her feel just like that – emotionally darker and physically collapsing inside her chronically problematic spine. The “usual” stress she manages more or less well now had cut her off from feeling her light. Her painful im-pressions piled up on one another until one more finally broke her strength to cope.
The De-pressing of our Well-Being
Because of Graduate schools’ strain and added psychotherapy, which led to the re-incarnation of her unresolved traumatic experiences, Roxana had dropped her self care. She had stopped her long walks in nature that had given her a sense of groundedness. She gave up cooking and stuffed herself from the fridge. She also drank more wine to relax her growing tensions which only supported her dis-embodiment.
Sounds familiar?
“If it’s not one thing – it’s your mother”……
Her straight-A achievements couldn’t help when finally her mother’s demand for Roxana’s face at several parties [that included long air trips] pulled her even further outside her sense of self.
Especially during heightened pressure we women learned to pull-our-selves-together for the world. Forced by hyper masculine ‘normalcy’ we are numbed against the human nature underneath our skin. We vacate our body and crunch into our mind only narrowly surviving. We separate from what moves our spirit and abandon the nurturing self-care we depend upon.
That day at my office Roxana just managed to close the door before her dams broke. When she offered her desperate hope to just die her body trembled with exhaustion and angst.�
She had just come from her therapist leaving a very difficult session of profound insight into the lack of interest in life. Than she hit massive traffic and was late for our session. Roxana felt like a total failure and was ready to give up.
Touching for Life
I held her gently and long. I moved her achy body to reconnect with her awareness mainly guided by the Feldenkrais® Method. As we ‘touched’ on all her overwhelming issues, her body began to soften and expand. Roxana’s breathe deepened and her head could let go.
When she left she was glowing from inside, she felt calm and present all the way through her feet. Roxana was emanating the beauty, vulnerability and softness that comes from finding our inner connections, our true strength of aliveness.
Later Roxana reported how this treatment had freed her from her minds life-less prison. She was able to feel her whole self again. Her body gave her a spacious sense of being HOME. The self-compassion that followed gave her desire to go out to the beach where she buried all of 2009’s burdens. She had fun cooking and certainty that she could get through the next family gathering with a healthy ability to find the positive.
Roxana’s journey highlights again that our body, not our mind, can contain life’s challenges. Our minds re-membering of our body’s vast capacity for well-being in the midst of overwhelm can return when we keep taking loving care of it first. Hugging and touching every day keeps us connected to our real power.
Thank you for your attention
with pleasure
Sabine
Onward with Undercover Yoga
Next months Themes include:
Become an Exhaler
Schlappe Noodle Fun
Life Spirals
Touch for Pleasure
Ocean Motion in your Hips
Disclaimer
Please! Whatever you do – Stay within the limits of pleasure. Make it simple and easy.
The author doesn’t take any responsibility for any possible consequences that might occur from your thoughts and actions.
Sabine Grandke-Taft
Embodiment Expert and Workshop Leader
for more information please go to
www.RadiantEmbodiment.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinegrandketaft
Creative Commons License
Sabine Grandke-Taft holds the copyright for her blog but allows you to copy and distribute her work provided you give me credit and link back to my website www.radiantembodiment.com Thank you very much.
