“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you are busy; then you should sit
for an hour” – Old Zen Saying
The human mind is the same now as it was 5000 years ago. It is capable of accomplishing
your greatest potential right now. However modern busy life has hindered, clouded, and ruined
many of your mind’s natural capabilities of reaching your fullest potential. Yoga is not a
religion, yoga is not a clothing line, yoga is not acrobatics, and yoga is not a trend. Yoga shows
you that there is a sanctuary of stillness within all of us, we can access it at any time. The
further you dive into your practice, the easier it becomes to access this stillness within an
instant. You have constructed your “crazy busy life” planning brick by planning brick,
ruminating brick by ruminating brick. You can engineer a new mindset at any time. In their
April 2017 article. Noble Peace Prize winner in medicine, Elizabeth Blackburn, and health
psychologist Elissa Epel wrote about the damaging effects of thought rumination on our cells.
We have 100 Trillion cells, it only takes one the gone haywire and creates a following. Thought
rumination (the act of re-hashing problems over and over) “when you ruminate, stress sticks
around in the body long after the reason for the stress is over, in the form of prolonged high
blood pressure, elevated heart rate, and higher levels of cortisol. Your vagus nerve which
helps you feel calm and keeps your heart and digestive systems steady, withdrawals its
activity, and remains withdrawn long after the stressor is gone. Studies show that the more we
ruminate after a stressful event, the lower the telomerase in the CD8 cells, the crucial immune
cells that send out proinflammtory signals when they are damaged…..this leads to depression
and anxiety.” This is a resilience weakener to the max! It is actually a process that ages our
DNA. When you ruminate on thoughts in the attempt to solve a problem or change the
outcome it will only solidify and intensify the non-desired outcome you are worried about.
So how do we use yoga to highjack our minds so these core beliefs and thought patterns do
not continue to convince us we are so busy, ruin a would be happy event, inhibit business and
personal growth and keep us operating from a high vibrational potential reaching place? We
work on the cellular consciousness through movement, meditation and breath work. All of
which are designed to release stuck thought patterns that create blocks, accept where you are
right now, and allow your birthright of abundance to flood in…abundance of all forms, including
time to accomplish all you are needing too. A recent Harvard study described how
psychosomatics shows up in our lives because our bodies and brains are wired to source,
universal energy, divinity……so we can use this theory in an opposite way that is within our
favour. Dr. Rick Hanson is a neuropsychologist and a well loved speaker at universities such
as Berkeley, Oxford, Harvard and Stanford. He loves to talk about the concept of experience
dependent neuroplasticity. This is the act of using mindfulness and intentions to literally
change your brain. Moment to moment all that you are aware of is based on underlying neural
activity, whether it is conscious or unconscious. Your brain affects and changes your mind and
your mind affects and changes your brain. A thought stimulates the brain, creating a busy
region that will get more blood flow thus more oxygen and glucose. Genes have an
expression, whether is be positive or negative. The genes that are stimulated more will grow,
multiple and get more active, the ones that are not stimulated will wither….an example, people
who routinely practice mindfulness mediation and relaxation grow and activate genes that will
combat stress reactions, thus making them more resilient…..it is literally neutrons that wire
together fire together.
We can use the concept of experience dependent neuroplasticity during our mindfulness
meditation practice to wire the brain for happiness, abundance, success, joy, love. Wayne
Dyer put it this way…..what you focus on is what grows……When you are having a
challenging time or feel overwhelmed with busy-ness. When your struggles feel so strong, you
are unconsciously creating a deeper root to the core belief that you are failing and that you are
not enough. Instead of focusing on your failures, shortcomings, inadequacies, completely flip
your list! In these moments you are not feeling abundance and secure, I know. Recall a time
you did. Recall a time you felt so accomplished, whether with work or your personal life. Think
about it, feel it all throughout your body, sense it, watch it….hold this all for at least 30
seconds….neuron by neuron you are stitching together your safety net, enhancing your
resilience. There are many stages of being able to do this and taking it very deep, start right
here for now. Imagine being caught in a wave or the base of a waterfall, you’ll keep churning
around there if you just stay there…..how do you get out? dive down deep. Yoga practice
takes you there.
The busy-ness of your life is not the problem, it is the mindset you choose to take about it.
Yoga in all of its forms supports a more resilient mindset, offerings you a retreat from the
“crazy busy-ness” that can leave you feeling like you can’t even come up for air.