The Practice of Mindfulness: To Judge or Not to Judge…
Judgment is an automatic practice for nearly every person on the planet: from the clothes we wear to the foods we eat to our surrounding environment and the people we associate with. As a practicing attorney in New York City, judgements were as natural to the legal practice, as is water to a sea full of fish. Without either, neither could survive. However, in the years after I left the practice of law, I began to engage in the practice of Mindfulness, which relinquishes judgment of each moment and its occurrences as they arise. Say what?!
Judgment is an automatic practice for nearly every person on the planet: from the clothes we wear to the foods we eat to our surrounding environment and the people we associate with. As a practicing attorney in New York City, judgements were as natural to the legal practice, as is water to a sea full of fish. Without either, neither could survive. However, in the years after I left the practice of law, I began to engage in the practice of Mindfulness, which relinquishes judgment of each moment and its occurrences as they arise. Say what?!
Mindfulness, a Buddhist-based practice, is a practice in which we are aware of each moment, thought, or emotion as it arises without injecting one’s preferences about what arises. It’s a beautiful practice because you can engage in mindfulness anywhere, and at any time. When you start to become more conscious of the inner workings of your mind, without judging it, you may notice a shift towards compassion, understanding and/or love for yourself, and thereby, for others.
What happens when you let go of your likes and dislikes? The attachment or resistance which accompanies judgments dissipates. We can allow ourselves and others to have the fullness of life experiences and feel good about it. Non-judgment allows each of us to accept where we are and not beat ourselves up for being where we are.
Judgement separates; it divides. The person who perceives the world through a fragmented lens, may perceive others as being ‘not good enough’ or ‘up to one’s standards’, or on the other end of the spectrum, ‘too good’, which can also create feelings of inadequacy. The thing is, people’s preferences and standards change throughout life. That’s an awful lot of people and things that must change in order to please others and keep up with one’s standards. It is just not realistic.
To cultivate this practice, try a simple exercise: journal about an aspect of life that you may be struggling with. Then, read through your journal entry, without judging yourself or anyone involved in the story. In other words, detach yourself from the situation and try to be as objective as possible.
If after reviewing, you are not able to perceive the words without injecting criticism or praise, that’s okay. When one has permission to do so, there isn’t a residue of feeling bad or inadequate. With continued practice, deep ingrained habits eventually diminish in power.
For those who are able to review their words in a more detached state, ask yourself, are you able to feel more peace, compassion and understanding towards yourself, or others? Or perhaps, you perceived the situation differently and thought up a solution or resolution that was previously blocked by the previous surveyance.
Mindfulness slowly loosens the grips of your likes and dislikes, which create division, and instead, creates ease and unification within. Life becomes more fluid and you begin to move with that flow. The practice allows you freedom to be, and be happy. Who doesn’t want that?
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KAREN NOURIZADEH
With more than a decade of experience, Karen has studied yoga, mindfulness and meditation in both India and in New York City. She holds certifications with Yoga Alliance, E-RYT 500, and through the International Association of Yoga Therapists, C-IAYT 1000. Prior to teaching, Karen was a litigation attorney in New York City, and during this time, discovered the power of meditation and mindfulness. Applying simple techniques, she found relief from chronic sinus and tension headaches, which affected her for nearly 20 years. Karen is now teaching Mindfulness and Meditation Techniques for Stress Management in Prema Yoga Institute's “Yoga for Healthcare" training in October 2019.
Yoga Hacks for Allergy Season
The Sanskrit word for “Bless you!” is Bhagavadanugrahapraptirastu!, and if you’re a New York City yogi, it’s probably a good idea to learn it. New York makes the cut when it comes to the top five worst states to live in if you have seasonal pollen allergies, and there’s plenty of suffering to go around: because of our great American variety of allergen-producing flora, every region in the U. S. offers it own unique aggravations for your histamine supply. Moreover, rising temperatures across the globe have lengthened spring and summer at both ends, creating an allergy season that begins as early as February and lasts as late as November, depending on where you live. If you travel cross-country frequently and suffer from seasonal allergies, God help you: your allergy season is basically ten months long. Bhagavadanugra-hapraptirastu! indeed.
The Sanskrit word for “Bless you!” is Bhagavadanugrahapraptirastu!, and if you’re a New York City yogi, it’s probably a good idea to learn it. New York makes the cut when it comes to the top five worst states to live in if you have seasonal pollen allergies, and there’s plenty of suffering to go around: because of our great American variety of allergen-producing flora, every region in the U. S. offers it own unique aggravations for your histamine supply. Moreover, rising temperatures across the globe have lengthened spring and summer at both ends, creating an allergy season that begins as early as February and lasts as late as November, depending on where you live. If you travel cross-country frequently and suffer from seasonal allergies, God help you: your allergy season is basically ten months long. Bhagavadanugra-hapraptirastu! indeed.
The Three As
According to Ayurvedic medicine, allergies are the result of an inefficient immune response: a poorly calibrated or depleted immune system perceives a basically harmless allergen as a threat to the body and releases histamines to attack it. It’s this over-production of histamine that causes the classic allergy symptoms: a runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing, itching, and so on. Antihistamines, the go-to allopathic treatment for allergies, can result in particularly adverse side effects for yogis, such as dehydration and fatigue. (Diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, causes both.) Happily, yoga and Ayurveda offer a protocol for combatting the root cause of allergies, with the primary goal of strengthening the immune system so it can respond efficiently to allergens. In short, to conquer allergy season, remember the Three As:
• Strengthen the Abdominals
to
• Increase Agni
and
• Reduce Ama
Agni, the Hindu God of Fire
In the Ayurvedic conception of wellness, proper immune function is linked to sufficient agni, or digestive fire. Weak digestive fire results in poor digestion, which in turn results in the production of ama, a toxic by-product of undigested food. (If you want to know how ama shows up in the body, invest in a tongue scraper.) Excess ama compromises immune function and makes allergic reactions more likely. From an Ayurvedic perspective, if you want to minimize allergic reactivity, you must ensure that you are fully digesting your food by eating appropriately for your dosha. If you have yet to determine your dosha, you can take an Ayurvedic Constitution quiz here.
Provided that you are eating to balance your dosha, the first step in boosting agni is strengthening the abdominals, including the solar plexus. Asana that target the abdominal muscles include phalakasana (plank pose—make it more intense by lowering to the forearms) purvottanasana (upward plank) utthtita trikonasana (extended triangle) and virabhadrasana (warrior) III. Strengthening the lower back muscles will also contribute to your core strength, so make sure that your on-the-mat practice includes plenty of vinyasas (adho and urdhva mukha svavasana are both excellent for increasing back strength) as well as urdhva danurasana (bow), salabhasana (locust) and/or setu bandha sarvangasana (bridge).
In addition, try practicing the simple but highly effective pranayama/asana hybrid agni sara. Considered an indispensable practice in Hatha yoga, agni sara (literally “essence of fire”) targets the solar plexus, lower abdominals and pelvic floor muscles. The practice stimulates the digestive system and aids in proper elimination of waste. Efficient elimination derives from proper digestion; because ama is literally a waste product, it’s impossible to overstate the role of thorough elimination in peak immune function. You can view a step-by-step guide to agni sara here. For beginners: start in sukhasana or malasana and contract the lower abdominals. Breathe deeply into the belly and pelvic floor, pulling the navel firmly towards the spine on the exhale and relaxing the belly fully on the inhale. Three rounds of ten breaths—ideally on an empty stomach—are sufficient.
Heating spices such as turmeric and ginger help balance kapha dosha.
Finally, in the Ayurvedic model, allergic reactions such as sneezing, a runny nose and watery eyes are considered a consequence of the heavy, wet qualities of excessive kapha dosha. Heating and drying yogic practices combat vata and pitta vitiation (impairment) and balance kapha. If you’re anticipating the onset of allergy season, stimulate your inner fire with kaphalabhati (breath of fire) and aerobic exercise or hot yoga to “dissolve” the ama. If your allergy symptoms are acute, try cutting out heavy and oily kapha-aggravating foods (such as hard cheeses, gluten, sweets and dairy). Adding spices to your food and indulging in drying foods such as popcorn, white potatoes and dried fruit can also help in balancing excess kapha.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, approximately 36 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies every year. If you are among them, take heart: your yoga practice needn’t be curbed by lethargy, dehydration, and other side effects of allopathic allergy medication. By keeping the Three As in mind and thoughtfully balancing kapha, you can address seasonal allergies yogically to ensure that you stay on the giving end of “Bhagavadanugrahapraptirastu!”
Would you like to learn more about the Ayurvedic perspective on health and wellness? All PYI therapeutics courses reference Ayurveda, and our Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Course is offered yearly. For more information, visit our Trainings page.
Online Sources
Image Sources
Sneeze: https://www.consumerreports.org/medical-symptoms/why-youre-sneezing-sniffling-wheezing/
Spices: https://chopra.com/articles/light-and-aromatic-herbs-to-balance-your-kapha-dosha
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Molly Goforth is a yoga and meditation teacher and a student at Prema Yoga Institute. She specializes in accessibility and trauma-informed yoga teaching and practice.
Yoga for Pitta Season
Do you change your diet in hot, humid weather? What about your sleep? Or how and when you exercise? Summertime, which here in the eastern U.S. means hot, humid weather with lots of sun and light, is also known as “pitta season.” Pitta is one of the three Ayurveda doshas.
Ayurveda is a technology - a skill - that teaches us how to live optimally through creating balance physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in relation to ourselves and the environment we live in. Ayurveda understands that all things are made of the elements - earth, water, fire, air and space - and that combinations of elements create the doshas. The doshas - vata, pitta, and kapha - are discernable states produced by relationship to the elements, and an expression of the qualities of the elements. Pitta, for example, is made of the elements fire and water, and expresses the qualities of hot, liquid, sharp, light, spreading, and oily.
Do you change your diet in hot, humid weather? What about your sleep? Or how and when you exercise? Summertime, which here in the eastern U.S. means hot, humid weather with lots of sun and light, is also known as “pitta season.” Pitta is one of the three Ayurveda doshas.
Ayurveda is a technology - a skill - that teaches us how to live optimally through creating balance physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually in relation to ourselves and the environment we live in. Ayurveda understands that all things are made of the elements - earth, water, fire, air and space - and that combinations of elements create the doshas. The doshas - vata, pitta, and kapha - are discernable states produced by relationship to the elements, and an expression of the qualities of the elements. Pitta, for example, is made of the elements fire and water, and expresses the qualities of hot, liquid, sharp, light, spreading, and oily.
Cool for the Summer?
Summertime here is hot and humid - the most pitta of all our seasons. The excessive heat and humidity can push us out of balance in a fiery way, and so we need to understand how to pacify pitta to bring us back into balance. Furthermore, people who already have a pitta dominance are more susceptible to pitta imbalance in the summer.
Each of us has aspects of all three doshas in us in differing amounts, and expressed in different ways. For example, I have pitta expression in my body size and facial features, kapha qualities in my sleep, dreams, and emotions, and vata qualities in my taste preferences.
Take this short quiz to determine your constitution of vata, pitta, and kapha. Perhaps more important than your constitution generally, is how you are today, as a result of how you are living and taking care of yourself (called vikruti in Ayurveda). I drink a fair amount of coffee, multi-task, and sometimes don’t sleep enough. These contribute to too much vata in me some days.
This short quiz can also assess your current state. This can help you see ways to live in greater balance.
The Pitta Personality
Pitta shows up as type-A personalities - people who are competitive, intense, driving. Pitta is fiery, hot, driven. For example, Pitta folks love hot yoga and ashtanga. They love challenges and competition. They love to stoke the fire. Stoking the fire too much can lead to burn out, exhaustion, dehydration. This is why balance is important. Ayurveda follows the principle of “like increases like,” so balance is achieved by looking to opposing qualities. To pacify excessive pitta we look to increase the qualities of cool, dark, dry, and soft.
Yoga to Chill Out
July and August weather stokes the fire of pitta, so everyone needs to pacify pitta at least a little bit during the summer months. Those who already are more pitta or live a pitta lifestyle will find more balance and ease by learning how to pacify those fires.
The most important pitta-pacifying yoga you can practice starts with your approach to your practice and each pose. As pitta is driven, competitive, hot and goal-oriented, adopt a curious, explorative mindset to your practice. Do not seek to achieve any pose. Instead, find your edge, then back off 20-25% and to feel a more nurturing, nourishing sensation in the pose. Soften your ujjayi breathing, making it audible only to yourself during your practice. Let go of trying to go deeper or achieve a new pose or new variation of any pose. Instead explore what it takes and what it is like to back off a little, to feel a supportive calming in your body, and to focus your mind on nourishing rather than pushing your body. This might sound a little bit like a yin or restorative yoga class - and both are excellent to practice a few times a week during pitta season.
Asana “Medicine”
The main sites in the body for the pitta dosha are in the belly - the small intestine and the liver -- so poses that open these areas are pitta-pacifying, while poses that close or contract these areas can aggravate pitta. Pitta-pacifying poses include backbends, while pitta aggravating poses include many forward bends because they can increase heat in the middle of the body. Forward bends are also calming, so do not avoid them all together, just limit them.
Side bending poses and open twists are also helpful in releasing excessive pitta energy in the solar plexus area. While standing poses are generally heating, trikonasa as a side bend is also pitta-pacifying.
Breath “Medicine”
Cooling breath, as in the pranayama practice of shitali, is also helpful in decreasing heat and pitta. Guided meditation and yoga nidra are also good practices to help cool the fires of pitta during pitta season.
Avoid the sun between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when it is at its strongest, and avoid working out during the hottest times of the day. If you can, exercise in a cool room without direct sunlight - early morning or late afternoon swimming is great for pacifying pitta. Drink plenty of cool (but not ice cold) water. Pitta-pacifying tastes are sweet, bitter and astringent. Sweet fruits - melons, peaches, cherries, and the like - and cooling vegetables - leafy greens, cucumbers, fresh salads are good choices to bring balance during pitta season. Avoid hot, spicy foods. Moonlight is particularly calming for pitta imbalances, so a leisurely night-time stroll when the moon is out can be nourishing during pitta season.
Care to learn more about Ayurveda? Our therapeutics courses all refer to the ancient science of Ayurveda, and our Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy Course is offered every year. For more information, check out our Trainings page.
Image Sources:
Summer city https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/nyc-weather-forecast-sunny-weekend-ahead
Melons https://www.foodnetwork.com/healthyeats/in-season/2017/08/market-watch-melons
Moonlight https://www.pinterest.com/pin/166422148701144089/?autologin=true
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Deb McDermott is a first-year student in Yoga Therapy at Prema Yoga Institute. She has been a Yoga teacher for 20 years and recently completed a 40-hour training on Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) with David Emerson and Jenn Turner.