Öhrn Life Management

There are so many ways that we can further our well being by practicing yoga. Practicing yoga can be practicing life. I like to use my yoga mat as a crash pad as I experiment with dealing with issues I have. It is amazing how yoga poses can make me see things in a different perspective and further qualities that I want to see more of in my life.

For example, referring to my last post about core values, there are excellent ways that I can work on my mat to remind myself to act according to my values.

We can all further our connection to our core values by working on our physical core;

1) by hugging in to the mid-line of the body in every pose

2) by engaging our pelvic floor and abdomen in a root lock (mula bandha)

3) by breathing deeply in to the abdomen

4) by focusing on to poses that engage our core muscles, the abdomen, such as the Boat (Navasana)

5) one of my favorite poses that guide me to my core is the Eagle pose (Garudasana) that literally has me hugging my core

After a class of core work, I find it is much easier to remember to move from my core also off my mat. What about you?

Being flexible is a wonderful thing. It certainly helps you to get in to pretzel like shapes on your yoga mat. And in real life, outside the yoga studio, flexibility helps you respect other people’s opinions, pop last minute fun into your schedule and try new, adventurous things.

Reaching far can make us reach too far. Ask anyone who ever went a little too deep into a forward bend and had to heal a hamstring for 2 months.

In other words, flexibility can draw you in the wrong direction. The opposite direction, the right one being the one that leads to your goals.

Core values are also strongly linked to goals; If your goal is to be a present parent for your children, then family may be one of your core values. Honoring your core value may then mean to say ‘no’ to such tempting things as to a glass of wine after work with your colleagues or to a business trip since you would rather be home with your children.

It may even mean to say ‘no’ to a yoga class if your family needs you more. As Anusara yoga founder John Friend says: sometimes staying off the mat is the most yogic thing to do.

Once you have identified your core values, it will be easier to take decisions in order for you to go in the right direction. For me, respecting my core value ‘Family’ meant leaving my career as a diplomat.

What implications can respecting your core values have?

Almost never lost for words, this question left me quiet and reflecting for a long time before I had to admit that I had no idea. I could hardly define the word ‘value’.

But finding my core values have actually changed my life. It has helped me find the courage to change careers and to live a more fulfilled life. More than this, it has made choices much easier, and much more ‘right’.

What are your core values?

Are you also one of the lucky persons that have many activities, friends and responsibilities? So many you cannot fit them in the calendar? Wish you had at least 25 hours a day to fill? Do you say yes, packing your calendar with appointments? Does that leave you constantly planning, figuring out how to handle the next thing on your list, stressed, never really in one place? Find it hard to choose what to do?

Find it hard to say ‘no’? Never saying ‘no’ is to never choose.

But how do we know when to say no -and to what?

Begin answering that question at your core. Just as a strong core helps us safely stretch our body in yoga, we also need to tap in to the core of our values to know what we want in life, what to say ‘yes’ to.

So, what are your core values?

If I ever have another son I will name him Mat. Yoga Mat.

Referring to my post below, rooting down through our body also draws our mind away from those airy, fast and instable heights of our head where we tend to spend most of our time. In yogic theory, the downward flowing energy is of a manifesting kind. Access it by grounding your body first and see how your production becomes smoother.

This is particularly important in front of the computer, as it tends to send our thoughts spinning. Try the grounding advice in the post below and then get back to what you are working on, to see if you experience it differently. I suspect it will flow easier.

Even if you were not producing anything in particular – maybe just surfing aimlessly reading blogs like this one – you will still feel more grounded, more focused on the page that you are currently reading.

Thoughts are spinning. You can’t think straight. Your head is about to burst. Going in to overload mode, threatening to shut down. Recognize these signs of stress? Do they usually make you stop and think, or do they keep on moving you?

I used to get so stressed that I did not know where to start, so I would start everywhere at once. I could be writing a reply to a pressing email from Head Quarters simultaneously as I was on the phone with my husband making plans for the evening at the same time as the Ambassador could stick his head in my office to ask me to get his speech ready asap, this while I was checking up on my friends on Facebook.

One thing would be left undone since something more pressing drew my attention off track. In the middle of doing that other thing a third thing seems more important and yet another task is left undone just to give way to another which is just barely started until another thought would pull me in yet another direction.

Working like this meant that starting a new thing constantly made me interrupt a flow of focus -and left (yet another) task unfinished.

With meditation and yoga we train our mind to be more focused and steadfast. Here’s a simple yogic practice that has helped me: Instead of starting new task, start at the bottom to anchor yourself and your thoughts.

Feel your feet on the ground. Sit down and let the chair support you for a few seconds. Draw your focus away from all those tasks, if only just for a moment. 3 seconds, or invest a generous 10 seconds in yourself. Or even better, just lie down and receive a giant hug from Mother Earth for 10 minutes.

I promise, the tasks will not go away. But they will seem much clearer once you come back to them.

As the world immerses itself in a pink shimmer, on this holy Hallmark Day of February 14th, let’s take a moment to think about how we spread the love the other 364 days of the year.

Commercial as this day may be, I think we have Mr Valentine to thank for a great reminder. Not a reminder to by roses or silly hearts of plastic, but a reminder to express our love. Expressing our feelings is not something that most of us practice on a daily basis. In fact, even knowing what we feel is for many a challenge daunting enough.

One way of helping ourselves to express love that resides in our heart is to is to open our hearts on a physical level. Obviously not in a surgical sense, but by focusing on softening the parts of our body that surround our heart we can make it a bit more accessible.

We spend most our waking hours doing things in front of our body. Take just the example of where you are now: in front of your computer (or mobile).

Look at how you are sitting. Do you have a tendency to sink in to your back, hunching it and letting your shoulders climb up towards your ears? Is that a protective shield your are building around your heart? Is your rib cage a cage that barely permits your heart to beat? Give that great, pumping, life sustaining and loving heart of yours have some space!

Draw your shoulder blades together and see how that gently opens the sliding door to your heart on the frontal plane of your body. Then take a deep breath in and fill your inner body with a bright light that shines out to all sides.

Let that light have a tone of pink and instead of buying a rose for just one person today, see how far you can reach with your pink light, how many people you can touch with it and see if it doesn’t radiate even further, far beyond Valentine’s Day.

Yoga tip: Include more heart opening postures in our yoga practice so that your body gets used to open up to spread the love.

Moving on
Jumping from one thing to another
How high?

I have just come back from an Anusara Yoga Immersion, packed full of inspiration from the teachings – and from the students. James, an Immersion assistant, healing body worker – and big biker – could lighten up any breakfast blues with his answer to the mundane, no longer that caring and inquisitive, but rather automatic question ‘How are you?’:

-I’m UNBELIEVABLE.

Really, aren’t we all unbelievable, even at seven in the morning? Unbelievable that we have waken up at all. Unbelievable that the body, this system of constant wonders, takes us to work, or to yoga class, transforms carrots to cells and grows nails.

I believe in the power of the spoken word (Anudea). Even if we at breakfast do not feel unbelievable, just try saying it (like you believe it!) and see what happens.

How are you?

Do you have a nagging feeling there is always some email hiding in your in-box that requires your attention? Maybe even your urgent attention?

I have the antidote for that problem: just empty your in-box!

This may sound like a virtual way of sweeping everything under the mat, but it works wonders. I just did it myself. Put everything in the archive. Just like that.

My dear in-box looks so fresh and clear. Almost innocent. And I must say I feel the same. Fresh and clear that is, not so innocent.

Funny how a clean in-box should affect my mind. Feels like I have just come home form a 7-day cleanse.

Further, I have also canceled most news letters -except www.thewayofthehappywoman.com and www.pilates.co.th of course. I never got around to read the others anyway. They were just using up space in my in-box –and in my mind.

How many of the newsletters you get do you get around to read, really?

Now I can easily see what emails require my attention, as there are only unread ones there. I answer emails directly if needed, otherwise they go straight to the archive or in the bin, leaving the in-box nice and clean.

This way it is more inspiring to deal with emails directly, as the result is a clean in-box – and a clean mind.

This move was inspired by www.zenhabits.com where you can find more great ideas of how to live a decluttered life.

Try if for yourself, how a little in-box saucha (purity) can do wonders.