This post was actually inspired by an acquaintance of mine who spoke about equilibrium and balance in relation to the equinoxes. Here in the southern hemisphere we just had our summer/autmn one whereas the northern hemisphere is looking forward to spring after a long and cold winter with lots of snow.

I found the following definition on wikipedia: “On a day of the equinox, the centre of the Sun spends a roughly equal amount of time above and below the horizon at every location on the Earth, night and day being of roughly the same length. The word equinox derives from the Latin words aequus (equal) and nox (night); in reality, the day is longer than the night at an equinox. ”

What I find fascinating about all of this is the fact that it happens on every location on earth. Equality for a day, balance for a day, harmony for a day? Maybe these two unique days should be made worldwide days for the promotion and celebration of equality…

Then I thought about how we might create equality and balance in our daily lives through some simple yoga techniques. Was there anything like the equinox? Straight away a particular breathing technique popped up in my mind’s eye.

Evening out the breath, making your inhalation the same length as the exhalation. It sounds easy – but for most of us the inhalation is shorther than the exhalation. Some writers talk about the in breath being the “take” or “receive” and the out breath being the “give”.

A lot of my clients always had trouble receiving (even simple compliments) but had a huge capacity to give. Bring some balance back into your life by paying attention to your inhalation and exhalation. 5 minutes in a quiet place will be quite sufficient. Do long, slow inhalations and mentally count their length. Follow up with equally long, slow exhalations and count their length too. What did you find?

Practising this technique regularly will leave you feeling calm and relaxed. The feeling that there is no hurry and that there is sufficient time for everything you need to do will become more frequent. Hold on to it as long as you can, this is one of the most precious things you can have in these hectic times!

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Today Charly and I talked to Kristen Beireis who is passionate about coaching. Her motto is “everybody can benefit from a coach”. I tend to agree – we all need support, mentoring, somebody impartial who can look at our situation from the “outside” so to speak. Too often we get caught up in our own world and are unable to see where we are going wrong or causing ourselves unnecessary and unproductive stress.

Kristen shared some gems with us today:

Don’t get to the point where you say “My business in running me”.

Watch out for signs of burnout, the classic ones are:

• lack of sleep, you only manage to get 4 hours a night because you just have so much work to do
• working really long hours every day so there is no “me” time at all, no time without work
• working when you should be doing something else, having this little voice in your head saying: “You shouldn’t really be here, you should be somewhere else”. This is a very early sign of burn out.
• not knowing what to do once you manage to have 5 minutes to yourself

Kristen is adamant that we need daily and weekly “downtime”. She explained that this time has to be set aside to start with. It should be time where there is nothing scheduled. When the time comes you decide how you want to spend it – whether it be going for a walk, having a bubble bath, reading a chapter of a book….

I agree with all the things that Kristen said but I also understand that there might be patches in your life when it is extremely difficult to get “downtime”. What keeps me going through these patches is the the thought that this will not last forever, that there will be an end to this situation and that things will get back to a more normal way of life eventually. During those times a couple of minutes of yoga breathing, a simple shoulder stretch or just a big yawn or sigh might provide much needed relief.  I also keep reassuring myself that I am doing the best I can under the circumstances. 

 To hear the full interview listen here:

Till next time,

Connie Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

During today’s radio show Charly and I discussed relaxation, visualisation and meditation. Nowadays these terms are often used interchangeably and there is some confusion as to which one is which, whether it does matter in the long term which one you choose, which one you should do first, especially if you are just starting out on your yoga path.

Have a listen to our show to find out more. You might then be able to decide which is the best starting point for you.

Till next time,

Connie Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

Today I came across some very interesting information. I had always been wondering why I disliked reading large amounts of text or e-books straight from the computer screen.  After a short time, I start to feel edgy, impatient and my eyes  go out of focus, even though I have enlarged the print to a comfortable size for me. When I started asking around, a lot of my friends told me they felt the same.  I assumed it might simply be the fact that I am old fashioned, that having to get used to technology so late in life  made it too hard to adjust to it.

Yoga teaches us to always listen to our inner voice, our intuition. My intuition was telling me that reading lots on the computer and spending lots of time looking at the screen was not healthy for me. After I spend a few hours on the computer I get an unpleasant,  ”spaced out” feeling which is very hard to describe. I need to go and “ground” myself, get out in the garden, do some cooking or interact with “real” people.

It has come to light now that reading a printed book is soothing, calming and helps the body to release anti-stress hormones like serotonin and melatonin. After a while, our mind and body associate reading a book with sleep and relaxation. You just need to pick up a book and you will go into relaxation mode.  Black colour and darkness will create the same thing – it will help to release these anti-stress hormones as night time is the time when we should naturally go to sleep. The black print in the book also has some soothing effect.

What do we have on a computer screen? Black print with lots of light flooding out from behind. This light enters our eyes and stimulates our brain to intitiate the production of cortisol, a stress hormone. Elevated cortisol causes all sorts of reactions in the body, none of them particularly healthy if they go on for any length of time.  Cortisol is a stimulating hormone, so if you have trouble sleeping you certainly shouldn’t be sitting at the computer before going to bed. Give yourself some computer free time before going to sleep.

It is important for children to learn to read really well from traditional books before they start reading on the computer screen. The body and mind will form a permanent association with and an automatic response to reading depending on how you learn to read. Learn to read from a book and reading will be recognised by your mind as a pleasurable and pleasant experience – so it will be very healthy for you to read.

Take care when teaching your children to read, use real books. When children learn to read from a computer screen  reading will be hardwired into their brain as an activity that causes stress, the body will automatically produce the stress hormone cortisol which will, amongst many other things, increase blood pressure.

Don’t let your children play computer games too close to bed time – their stress hormone levels will be elevated and they will be hard to get to bed and they might develop sleeping problems.

I hope you find the above information useful. In case you want to know more about stress and stress hormones, how it all works and what effects is has on your body, consider having a look at my book:

http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/tigerebook

Till next time.

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Here is something for you to relax and just have a few minutes of bliss. I hope you enjoy it is much as I do.

Till next time,
Connie
Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com