So angry you could spit?

If everything in life has purpose, what could be the purpose of Anger?

Is Anger is a necessary Evil?

Feeling angry is part of the human condition and a very real human emotion.  It is a way for our mind to communicate to us when somebody has crossed a clearly set boundary. Much like the body feeling pain upon injury, the mind feels anger upon injustice experienced.

Hit the pause button before lashing out

When a situation or somebody has angered us, it is useful to first just take a step back and reflect on why we are angry. But when we are in the heat of the moment, it is very difficult to step back and assess the reason for our anger. Meditation is a great help in calming the mind and emotions and bring us to a permanent inner calm, in which we rarely feel the need to immediately react with anger. A greater inner awareness grows in which we are able to carefully assess our inner emotions and motives.

When to bite our tongue and when to say something

When faced with our own anger, reflect: Is it justified or is it ego being hurt? If it is ego being hurt, bite your tongue and keep quiet – let the raging ego subside. If it is justified anger, and a clearer boundary needs to be set, consider very carefully the words and emotions to use in setting that boundary with whoever is involved. A famous Indian Saint, Sri Mahaprabhuji of Khatu, India once said: “Words should always fall like flowers from your mouth”. By responding with Love and Kindness instead of anger, we keep from fuelling that negative fire even further and instead help ourselves and others to return to a space of Peace.

So, the next time you feel the heat under your collar very quickly rise to a point of explosive reaction, remember to step back and assess, and then decide your next step.

Energize yourself with your Breath!

Try this easy breath technique to optimize your intake of oxygen. All of the metabolic functions and chemical processes in the body require oxygen to be healthy on a physiological level, providing us with the mental energy and inner drive to achieve our wildest dreams!

The Full Yoga Breath can be practiced at any time of day:

1. Lie flat on your back, relax your body and focus your attention on your normal breath. Mentally measure your normal breath in terms of depth, length of the in-breath and the length of the out-breath. Simply be aware of what your normal breath feels like, without changing or forcing the breath in any way.

2. Now place the right hand on the lower abdominal area and the left hand on the chest, fingertips towards the left collar-bone. Keep elbows relaxed on the ground.

3. Fill the lungs from the bottom to the top: breathe in slowly and deeply and direct the inhalation first into the abdominal area, thereby filling the lowest and largest part of the lungs first, then fill the lower rib cage area, and finally fill the lungs right up to the top, toward the collar-bone area. “Spread out” your inhalation sufficiently to comfortably fill your entire lung capacity.

4. Empty the lungs from the top down: with the exhalation, allow the chest to drop down first, exhaling from the chest first. Then allow the lower rib area to deflate and finally the belly area drops towards the spine with the final full exhalation.

This is one round of the full yogic breath, using 100% lung capacity. Practise 10 rounds at a time.

TIP: As a visual aid, imagine your torso is a glass and the air is water. You fill a glass from the bottom up and empty the glass from the top down.

This practise teaches us to use our full lung capacity. Most people only breathe into the top part of their lungs, often leaving them feeling tired, exhausted, unfocused and lethargic.  Practise the Full Yoga Breath daily to increase energy, drive and vitality.

Stress and its far reaching effects

In today’s society, stress has unfortunately become a part of life. It is almost impossible to believe that one could lead a stress-free,

Role of the Autonomic Nervous System

or at least a stress-reduced life. In order to understand how we can reduce and control stress, it is important for us to understand how the body works in response to stress.

 

The Autonomic Nervous System

The autonomic nervous system forms a part of the peripheral nervous system. The purpose of the autonomic nervous system is to regulate and control the physiological functions of the human body, thereby ensuring that there is always a homeostatic balance between all the systems of the body.

The autonomic nervous system consists of two branches: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

The role of the sympathetic nervous system – “Fight or Flight”

-       To get the body ready to react in times of stress. For example, if you were to be chased by an aggressive dog, you need to very quickly get away to safety. Here the sympathetic nervous system does the following:

• Diverts blood flow away from the gastro-intestinal tract and the skin via vasoconstriction and enhances blood flow to the skeletal muscles and the lungs (by as much as 1200% in the case of skeletal muscles).
• Dilates bronchioles of the lung, which allows for greater oxygen exchange.
• Increases heart rate thereby providing a mechanism for the enhanced blood flow to skeletal muscles.
• Dilates pupils and relaxes the ciliary muscle to the lens, allowing more light to enter the eye and enables further vision.
• Provides vasodilation for the coronary vessels of the heart.
• Constricts all the intestinal sphincters and the urinary sphincter.
• Inhibits peristalsis.

These rapid physiological changes in the body enable a “Fight or Flight” response, which is appropriate if we were being chased by an aggressive dog. These days however, our stress has its source in modern day living, on a daily basis, too often than what our bodies are designed for.

The role of the parasympathetic nervous system – “Rest and Digest”

-       After a “fight or flight” reaction, the physiological functions of the body need to be returned back to normal. Some of the functions of the parasympathetic nervous system include:

• Increases the blood flow leading to the gastro-intestinal tract by dilating the relevant blood vessels. This enables digestion to return to normal, and the body again receives the nutrition it needs.
• Constricts the bronchiolar diameter when the need for oxygen has diminished.
• Causes constriction of the pupil and contraction of the ciliary muscle to the lens, allowing for closer vision.
• Stimulates salivary gland secretion, and accelerates peristalsis, assisting further digestion of food and absorption of nutrients.

Chronic stress and allostatic load

When the body is frequently and repeatedly exposed to stress, the organs and tissues involved in the “fight or flight” response can suffer long term damage, especially the cardio-vascular system. The main hormones involved in responding to stress, cortisol and adrenaline, are a necessity in the short term to enable us to respond to stressful situations. However, if these hormones are released frequently and repeatedly, it can create an “allostatic load” in our vital organs that could lead to the acceleration of disease development.

Symptoms of Chronic Stress

• Anxiety
• Depression
• social isolation
• headache
• abdominal pain
• lack of sleep
• back pain
• difficulty concentrating
• gingivitis
• upset stomach
• headache
• backache
• insomnia
• anxiety
• depression
• anger
• intense mood swings
• rash
• loss of concentration / poor concentration
• heightened confusion in mildly stressful situations
• inability to complete tasks
• hypertension
• hemorrhoids
• varicose veins
• suicidal thoughts
• panic attacks or panic disorder
• stress plays a role in triggering or worsening depression and cardiovascular disease and in speeding the progression of HIV/AIDS

The practise of Yoga stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby assisting the body to attain a state of “rest and digest”. Taking up the practise of Yoga in our daily lives can only help to manage our stressful daily existence and enable us to achieve optimum health in Body, Mind and Soul.

Make your issues go BANG!

Tradition dictates that we have to formulate behavioral resolutions for every new year. We always feel that we have to exercise more, eat better, do more. These resolutions suspiciously have one thing in common – it requires you to take on even more responsibility. What about rather letting go of unwanted things…

Try this:

1. inflate a balloon of your favourite colour
2. write a concept on the balloon, something you would like to let go of. Perhaps anger, jealousy, insecurity, or whatever it is for you
3. hold the balloon and internalize the idea of letting go of your particular issue
4. take a pin or something sharp, and POP the concept that is causing you unnecessary anguish
5. go into the new year with a smile in your heart
6. whenever your issue rears its ugly head, remind yourself that you’ve popped it, and it no longer is welcome in your consciousness

If you are comfortable with it, you could share this activity with someone, and you can remind each other of issues popped when clarity gets clouded.

A much loved and revered Saint, Swami Madhavanandaji, once said: “Renounce and enjoy”. So go on! Renounce the things that don’t serve you, and enjoy your life more!

Why do people sometimes act like idiots?

Try this effective visualization to understand why people sometimes act in ways that hurt you, mostly  without even being aware of it!

You will need:
20 minutes quiet time alone
A comfortable sitting position
An open mind

Step 1:
Sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and steadily start focusing on the gentle rhythm of your breath. With each out-breath, consciously relax your whole body. Continue like this, consciously relaxing and focussing on your breath. Allow a peaceful stillness to settle within you.

Step 2:
Now, visualize the face of somebody that you do not get along with, somebody that seems to push all the buttons without even trying or realizing that they do so. Or visualize somebody whom you feel that you have nothing in common with. You lead very different lives and in your opinion, no parallels can be drawn between you and the person in question.

Step 3:
Consciously start to push out of your mind all the differences or distances between you and the person you are visualizing. This may take some time as our perceptions of others are deep-seated and difficult to overlook as we have invested time and energy to create these perceptions.

Step 4:
When you can simply visualize the person’s face with no associated feelings or thoughts, start seeing them as just another person trying to get through their busy and stressful days. This may be someone who, like you, has to make sacrifices for their families. This person probably also has dreams that they are chasing, goals that they would like to reach. They most likely also sometimes feel unsure and insecure.

Step 5:
The more time you spend attempting to better understand somebody else through this visualization, you are likely to find many similarities between you and the person in question. It may surprise you that you have more in common with this person than you ever thought possible. Perhaps the person is that you chose to focus on in this practise has hurt you or has wronged you in some way, and it is true that people disappoint us almost on a daily basis, but now having found some common ground between you, perhaps it is possible to better understand why someone acts in a certain way, why they do the things they do.

Conclusion:
In the end, we are all ultimately in search of happiness. Some of us have been fortunate enough to have found it on the inside, most of us are still searching outside of ourselves, and this causes us to act in ways which might bring us short-lived happiness, but may also be harmful to others in our surroundings in some way or another.

If we can understand each other a little better, we’ll be in a good place to develop compassion and forgiveness. When we feel empathy for someone, perhaps we’ll feel inclined to communicate to that person, with compassion and love, the error of their ways and how it hurts us. When we start to communicate, we start to connect, and true connection is what we need today.

Meditation is an integral part of Yoga and is key in achieving mental health and spiritual happiness. Visit our official website for more information on Yoga and Meditation.

Yummy Butternut Curry

Ingredients
1tsp curry powder
1tsp turmeric
1tsp whole coriander
1tsp paprika
1tsp breyani masala
salt to taste
2tsp cooking oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 large clove garlic, chopped finely
3 medium tomatoes, cubed
1 medium butternut, peeled and cubed

Method

1. In a medium to large cooking pot, slightly brown the onion and garlic in the cooking oil over medium heat
2. Add the tomatoes and half a cup of water
3. Stir in all the spices
4. Add the butternut and add more water – only barely covering the butternut, stir through well
5. Place the lid on the pot at a slight angle, leaving a gap for steam to escape
6. Leave to slowly simmer over medium heat, stirring through every now and then, until butternut is cooked through and most of the water has been absorbed
7. Serve with a Fry’s Vegetarian Schnitzel

Yoga – much more than just good exercise!

When you think of Yoga, do you think only of people twisted into pretzel-like shapes?

The benefits of yoga extend much further than on a physical level. Yoga also has a positive influence on our mental health, social wellbeing and our spiritual awareness.

1. Physical health

Through the regular practice of yoga we condition our bodies on all levels. Each stretch strengthens our muscles, releasing all stress and fatigue, allowing fresh blood carrying nutrients and oxygen to enter the muscles. Yoga increases our joint flexibility, strengthens our bones and stimulates all our glands and organs to perform at optimum levels.

2. Mental health

The health of our body has a direct impact on the health of the mind – when the body is healthy and conditioned, the mind is clear and focused.  We are able to concentrate, focus our efforts and meet our goals.

3. Social health

With body and mind happy and healthy, we are more likely to connect with others with an open interest. We don’t have the discomfort of an unhealthy body or a stressed and worried mind to distract us from the value that we can bring to others and that we are now open to receive. We start to see the beauty in our interpersonal relationships and caring, forgiveness and understanding begins to blossom.

4. Spiritual health

When we feel happy, healthy, connected to others and the environment we live in, we are in a better position to become aware of the inter-connectedness of everything.  We start to realize the truth in the saying “that no man is an island”. We start to live our lives with a consideration for others, recognizing ourselves in them and seeing the Divinity in everything. We discover our inner Self and express in our thoughts and actions a higher Truth.

Being healthy on these levels through the practice of Yoga in Daily Life surely can contribute to a happy and healthy society.