Mind Body Cleanse

YOGA HAS BEEN described as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind or the state of inner felt union achieved when the mind is still. As such, yoga and meditation form the backbone of the Mind Body Cleanse system in this book. When I started my yoga journey in India, I practised a form of yoga called ‘kriya’ yoga. The term ‘kriya’ in yoga has become synonymous with the system of inner-cleansing techniques discussed in this chapter. It is the practical branch of yoga that can lead to a change for the better in all aspects of our lives. It is the ‘yoga of action’, the means by which we achieve yoga as a state of being.

The yoga sutra defines kriya yoga as being made up of three components: tapas, svadhyaya and isvarapranidhana.

‘Kriya is the “yoga of action”, the means by which we achieve yoga as a state of being.’

Tapas

‘Tapas’, meaning ‘to burn or create heat’, is something we do in order to keep us physically and mentally healthy. It is a process of inner cleansing: we remove what we do not need and whatever is burned out is purified in the same way that the more you fire gold, the purer it becomes. However, this is not the same as mortification or austerity.

AN EXAMPLE OF TAPAS – OR PERHAPS NOT?

I remember when I was in the Himilaya at Gangotri, near the source of the Ganga, where many holy men live, I came across a group of Sadhus who practised austerity in the name of yoga. One man had his arm raised, apparently a widely known phenomenon, and it had withered horribly, his fingers were blackened, his fingernails lengthened. Someone told me that this arm had been raised like this for 36 years.

KRIYA YOGA

Kriya yoga is the practical branch of yoga that can lead to a change for the better in all aspects of our lives. It is the yoga of action and is the means by which we achieve yoga as a state of being.

Svadhyaya is the process of gradually finding out where we are, who we are, what we are and so forth. We can take this step by observing the breath and body. We do this again and again, hoping that we will, with time, develop a deeper understanding of ourselves and our current state. In this way we can identify what our next steps will be. This close connection holds true for every kind of yoga practice.

However, Svadhyaya is not just ‘study,’ per se, but study of the true self, rather than mere analysis of the mind. Anything that will elevates the mind and reminds you of your true self should be studied: the Bible, the Koran or the Bhagavad Gita.

Studying means studying with your heart, not just passing over the pages.

If you want to understand me fully, you must become me.

The self cannot just be known by theory alone. By merely thinking, no one has ever understood anything that is beyond the mind. Only when you transcend the mind can you understand it. This is where yoga differs from most other psychological approaches, in which you usually have to understand everything with the mind – beyond it you cannot understand anything.

The literal meaning of isvarapranidhana is ‘to yield humbly to God’. The meaning in the context of kriya yoga relates to a special kind of attention to action: we place value on the quality of our action, not on the resultant fruits of our action. We therefore pay attention to the spirit with which we act and look less to the results our actions may bring us – indeed, the more distanced we are from the fruits of our labour, the better we are able to do this. We then bypass the tendency to set ourselves up for failure. We should remain flexible, and not just in our yoga asanas.

Cross-fertilisation

One of the most exciting developments in the last 50 years is the cross-fertilisation of Western science with ideas from ancient Eastern wisdom systems such as yoga. With increasing precision, scientists are able to look at the brain and body and detect the sometimes-subtle changes that practitioners of yoga and meditation undergo. In former times, few yoga studies were carried out in the West, and most scientists dismissed Indian yoga research due to methodological problems, such as a lack of study control groups. Now methodology is much improved and it could be argued that many Indian studies of yoga are superior to most of those done in the West. In fact, more people practise Hatha yoga in California then they do in India.

As yoga becomes more and more mainstream in the West, and as complementary health systems continue to grow, studies of yoga are getting not only better but also more numerous in both India, Europe and the United States. In just the last few years, research has documented the efficacy of yoga for such conditions as back pain, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, cancer, heart disease, gut-related problems and even tuberculosis. Studies are also increasingly documenting how yoga works. Among its many beneficial effects, yoga has been shown to increase strength, flexibility and balance; enhance immune function; lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels; and improve psychological wellbeing. One of yoga’s most prominent effects, of course, is stress reduction (see also here).

The Mind Body Cleanse methods discussed in Part 2 (in the 12-Day Plan) require us to be aware of our bodies. Yoga asanas, pranayama and meditation begin to break down the distance from our inner selves and bring us into close contact with our sensations and feelings. Knowing how our bodies really feel, we can notice when we are stressed and can make decisions about our activities and our attitudes that can influence our actions and relationships.

Stress and the autonomic nervous system

Although yoga is so much more than a method of stress-reduction – and stress certainly adversely affects a wide range of health conditions – yoga is arguably one of the most comprehensive approaches to fighting stress and alleviating its symptoms. Stress isn’t just a factor in conditions commonly labelled ‘stress-related’, such as migraines, ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, but it appears to contribute to such major killers as heart attacks, diabetes and osteoporosis. Even for diseases such as cancer, yoga can improve not only the quality of life after diagnosis, but it appears to diminish the side effects of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and other treatments, and may increase the odds of survival.

Fight and flight/rest and relaxation

For the purposes of this book, we are most interested in the effects of stress at the level of the gut and our elimination and detoxification systems. And to appreciate the role of stress in this, it’s important to understand the function of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls the function of the heart, liver, intestines and other internal organs. The ANS has two branches that work in conjunction with each other: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) or ‘flight and fight’, and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) or ‘rest and relaxation’ response.

Sympathetic and parasympathetic are anatomically separate but most organs are supplied by neurones from both (e.g. heart, lung, gut). Some organs are just affected by sympathetic (e.g. the adrenal gland to release adrenaline, liver to release glucose). Some organs are only stimulated by the parasympathetic system (e.g. kidney).

The SNS, in conjunction with such stress hormones as adrenaline and cortisol, help you deal with a crisis situation. The PNS, by contrast, tends to slow the heart, lower blood pressure, and can be thought of as ‘rest and digest’.

During periods of relaxation, when the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system takes over the digestive, elimination and sexual systems are activated. For men, the production of testosterone occurs while in a state of relaxation. There are some serious implications for fertility here.

Mind Body Cleanse techniques, including yogic asanas, in conjunction with slow breathing, meditation, guided imagery and cleansing lead to an increase in the activation of the PNS, mental relaxation and good gut function.

Intelligent movement

The Mind Body Cleanse system incorporates ‘intelligent movement’, which is the system of yoga and coordinated breath work outlined in the 12-Day Plan.

As I have developed my yoga and life practice, I have become convinced that as we humans have become increasingly more ‘civilised’, we have forgotten how to listen to our instinctual self. The net effect is that we have become distanced from our physical bodies. We have lost our connection with the rhythm of life and with our own internal rhythms and the rhythm of our own body mind.

‘We have lost our connection with the rhythm of life and with our own internal rhythms and the rhythm of our own body mind.’

We now find ourselves eating compulsively, serving our desires and emotions, rather than what is wholesome and nourishing. When we are ‘present’ in our lives, when we listen to our intuition, we know what to eat and how to eat it; we are no longer hostages to a world of fast food and half-truths about what’s good for us – we know what the body needs and we eat to satisfy it rather than our emotions and compulsions.

Research has shown that movement is good for your heart, for building lean muscle, for improving metabolism, and for balancing moods and lowering stress hormones. New science is showing us that movement also benefits the gut and so too the microbiome – that diverse ecosystem living inside comprising trillions of symbiotic bacteria (see here). Intelligent movement can help you to quieten your mind, so that you can feel and then release the tension stored in your gut.

‘When we are “present” in our lives, when we listen to our intuition, we know what to eat and how to eat it.’

For many, ‘exercise’ means going to the gym for 45 minutes three times a week, with perhaps a mix of treadmill and high-resistance weight training. Unfortunately, this approach is unenlightened in the long term as it can over-stress joints, split muscle fibres and result in the development of scar tissue. What is needed is a varied approach to movement. This book shows you how the Mind Body Cleanse practice sequence, as part of my 12-Day Plan, is an intelligent form of movement consisting of yoga and coordinated breath work. It can help you to reconnect with your body and mind, and will help you to experience a different way of moving and relating to your internal organs that will help you tune in to what is good for your mind and body.

‘Intelligent movement’, consisting of yoga and coordinated breath work, is great therapy on all levels. First, it can be a wonderful way of reducing stress, especially when practised with good breathing techniques. Second, you can become more flexible and stronger, though it’s important to be aware that the practice is not meant to be competitive in any sense, either with others or with yourself, which is sometimes hard for Westerners to take on board. Internally, the Mind Body Cleanse intelligent-movement sequence stimulates detoxification and metabolism, while mentally it establishes awareness and clarity plus a confident and calm sense of self. Moreover, the technique is a dialogue with your body. And through this dialogue you can develop a deeper awareness of it so that you know when you can push a little further and when you can rest.

‘Intelligent movement can help you to quieten your mind, so that you can feel and then release the tension stored in your gut.’

Start wherever you are

My teacher in India used to tell me that you can start your practice wherever you are now. This means that you accept wherever you are now. And this includes sickness or injury. When you move with this understanding, you switch on your parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system (PNS); your rest and relaxation response. When the PNS is activated through the 12-Day Plan, your stomach, liver, pancreas and gall bladder secrete acidic and alkaline juices and hormones to promote healthy digestion. Research has shown that the natural balance of healthy bacteria in the gut can be affected positively by this.

So when you eat on the run, or ‘inhale’ your food at your desk, you are eating with your flight-or-fight response switched on, or the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. Your blood flow is shunted away from the digestive system, so your gut slows down and comes to a halt. This is useful in an emergency, when you need to increase blood circulation and oxygen to be directed into your arms, legs and brain for a speedy response. However, when the flight-or-fight response is prolonged, your abdominal muscles contract and peristalsis comes to a halt, resulting in constipation, abdominal pain and gut disorder.

Using the breathing and meditation techniques listed in the 12-Day Plan you can trigger the PNS to give your body a natural state of balance. Through the Plan sequence you can change your focus towards health and connection and instantly begin the process of healing and disease resolution. This is the mind – body – gut relationship that you want to create. The 12-Day Plan helps to connect your mind to your body and your gut.

When these three elements (mind, body and gut) are fully connected, you awaken a deeper connection to your authentic self; to the inner knowing of things that are not learned but are an innate part of you, encoded in your DNA: your real human nature. In this connected state you can begin to care for yourself and stop abusing your own body.

Sadly, in the modern world the trinity of the mind – body – gut is poorly understood and supported. To begin with, our eating habits have deteriorated. We have lost our Sundays, in which we traditionally had a day of rest, gathering for a family meal, and participating in other activities that allowed us to relate to each other and listen deeply to one another. And with the advent of the Internet and widespread use of social media, we have begun to ignore the body further while the mind is ceaselessly connected to the white noise of technology. We have begun to lose our human touch. It is clear that our lives need to be returned to balance; we need to slow down, take leisure seriously, learn how to switch off, relate to each other better, get better work/life balance, listen to the body, get enough sleep, learn how to cook and make time for it, eat wholesome food, take time for exercise, vacation and regular downtimes.

The yoga poses described in Part 2 are designed to let us remember the body and listen to its intelligence. However, they are not meant be a substitute for yoga classes, if you attend them. If you are new to yoga, I recommend attending introductory classes or private sessions prior to starting the 12-Day Plan. The poses are a guide to those who already have a semi-regular practice but who want to make it more regular. A home practice can help you delve a little deeper into your yoga and create consistency. As we progress through the 12 days of the Plan, I will continue to add poses to your yoga practice – but feel free to add other poses as you like. Ideally, this home practice is meant to be done on the days when you can’t make it to a full yoga class.

And remember, when you are listening sensitively to your body, you will notice that its responses are continuous, which means that you will be able to engage at a different level with the world, and you will become more sensitive to the goings-on around you.

Twists to help gut health

Twisting poses, which you will be using as part of the 12-Day Plan, when combined with the breath, teach the importance of a healthy spine and inner body. The action of a twist squeezes and flushes the pelvic and abdominal organs with fresh blood – a ‘squeeze-and-soak’ action. As the organs compress, blood filled with metabolic byproducts and toxins is pushed out. When we release the twist, fresh blood flows in, carrying oxygen and the essential building blocks for tissue healing.

Twists are quite remarkable because they not only massage, tone and rejuvenate your abdominal organs and promote digestion and peristalsis, but also improve the suppleness of the diaphragm and relieve spine, hip and groin disorders. The spine also becomes more supple, allowing for the correct spacing and alignment in between the spinal vertebrae. This in turn improves the flow of blood to the spinal nerves and increases energy levels. (See here, here and here for twists.)

Twists for living younger longer

Spinal rotation is important for posture and structural alignment. However, many people lose full spinal rotation because of living a sedentary lifestyle, because they do not move around enough and spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. Some movement losses occur if joints fuse due to trauma, surgery or arthritis, but most loss comes from the shortening of soft tissues. If you don’t work the muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissues fully at least a few times a week, they will gradually shorten and limit the joints’ mobility. In the case of twisting, the limitation is usually in soft tissues around the upper or lower spine.

If you regularly practise twists, there are clear benefits for your joints and soft tissue – you maintain the normal length and resilience of the soft tissues and help to maintain the health of the discs and of the facet joints. This will help to maintain good posture and structural alignment into your old age without gravity making a negative effect.

As you twist, the layers of muscle and bone revolve deeply; your attention is drawn into the stable, unmoving centre of the pose. This ability to stay centred, as the hubbub of the world swirls around you like around the eye of the storm, will help you live your life more calmly and serenely.

Anatomy of twists There are a few anatomical points to keep in mind with twists. Most important is to elongate your spine with the inhalation; a slumped-over posture significantly limits spinal rotation. So before you start the twist, take a moment to ground your sitting bones and draw your spine straight up towards the crown of your head. Make sure that your spine is perpendicular to the floor, rather than listing to the side, front or back.

Each section of the spine has a different rotational mobility. The cervical (neck) vertebrae, for example, are the most mobile in twisting. Because the 12 thoracic (mid-back) vertebrae have ribs attached, they can’t twist as freely as the neck vertebrae. And because of the orientation of the lumbar (lower spine) facet joints, the rotation of these five vertebrae is the most limited. Each time you move into a twisting posture, be conscious that you don’t over-twist in the more mobile areas.

To ensure that you don’t over-twist at your neck, begin your seated twist by bringing your awareness into your tummy, and begin the twist from there – as if you were using your abdominal obliques to twist your body around. Let the twist gradually unfold up your spine, as though you were walking up a spiral staircase, so that each vertebra participates in the twist. If you twist quickly and without awareness, your neck will likely do most of the twisting and whole sections of your spine can remain stuck. Rather, keep your chin in line with your mid-chest. It’s easy to turn your head around your shoulders, but it’s certainly a lot more challenging and beneficial to twist your upper body around your lower body.

Muscle activity Many muscle groups are involved in twists, contracting and shortening or stretching and lengthening. There are several groups of back muscles of varying length: the rotators, semispinalis and multifidus all contribute to spinal rotation. Some of the muscles that actively rotate the torso are quite small, like the intercostals, the layers of muscle between each two ribs. And several sets of muscles contribute to your ability to turn your head; the easiest to see is the sternocleidomastoid. The two SCMs sit on the front of your neck, forming a ‘V’ starting at the top of the breastbone and running to the base of the skull just behind each ear. Look in a mirror: if you turn your head to the right, you’ll see your left SCM contract, and vice versa.

Probably the most important muscle group in active twisting are the abdominal obliques. The obliques form two layers of muscle on either side of the better-known rectus abdominus, the ‘six-pack’ muscle that runs vertically up the centre of the abdomen from the pubic bone to the ribcage. The two internal obliques, left and right, originate primarily from the pelvis and travel diagonally up across the abdomen, while the two external obliques originate primarily from the lower ribcage and travel diagonally down across the abdomen. All of the obliques have strong attachments to the substantial fascia of the lower back and to the gut.

Taken together, the four obliques form a diagonal cross that girdles the abdomen and they have important functions in supporting the lower back, pelvis and internal organs. The diagonal lines of the muscles also give them strong leverage in rotating the torso. When you turn to the right in Bharadvaja’s Twist (see here), for example, the left external oblique will team with the right internal oblique to rotate your torso. At the same time, the opposite pair of obliques will have to lengthen. (And so your twisting range of motion can be reduced by the inability of one pair – one external oblique and the other opposite internal oblique – to lengthen, while weakness in the opposite pair could limit your ability to actively draw yourself into the twist).

Benefits to your consciousness of twists

Like any yoga posture, you should practise twists with mindfulness and care. Remember the following principles as you move through them.

Let the breath be your guide. Because twists tend to compress the diaphragm, they leave you with little breathing room. But there are ways to let your breath support and guide you through your twisting explorations. Here’s one approach: as you inhale, lengthen the spine; as you exhale, revolve gently into your twisting posture. Pause and lengthen again on the next inhalation, then rotate further as you exhale. Continue breathing and moving in this wave-like fashion until you feel you’ve nestled into the depths of the pose. Breathe as steadily and rhythmically as possible for several breaths, then slowly come out of the pose.

Practise evenly on both sides. Because twists are asymmetrical postures, it’s a good idea to spend equal time revolving in each direction to promote balance. That said, if you know that one side of your body is tighter than the other, you might try doing a twist for longer on that side.

Enjoy the after-effects. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enjoy the sensations of clarity, vitality and ease once you’ve emerged from your favourite twist.

Finally, you may have heard that a ‘twist a day keeps old age at bay …’ well, there is good reason to say this! To maintain or restore the normal spinal rotation, I recommend that you practise a simple spinal twice a day.

CONTRAINDICATIONS

If you have a spinal disc injury, consult your health-care provider before practising twists of any kind.

Practise one of the seated twists every day during the 12-Day Plan, and for full spinal movement into old age I recommend a daily twist for the rest of your life!

Inversions for fighting gravity

The ancient yogis called gravity ‘the silent enemy’. Gravity has a profound effect on the physiological processes of the human body; it slowly but surely weighs us down and saps our strength. We stand, sit or walk with the head above the heart, and the legs and pelvis beneath. But as the years rack up, so do the damages. Subcutaneous fat sags, varicose veins appear and, finally, the heart can become overworked.

There are four major systems in the body that the practice of inversions is said to positively influence: cardiovascular, lymphatic, nervous and endocrine systems. In particular, the lymphatic system is responsible for waste removal, fluid balance and immune system response. Lymph vessels arise among the capillary beds of the circulatory system, but comprise a separate system that transports stray proteins, waste materials and extra fluids, filtering the fluid back through the lymph nodes and dumping what remains into the circulatory system at the subclavian veins, under the collarbones.

Lymph, like the blood returning to your heart via the veins, is dependent upon muscular movement and gravity to facilitate its return. Because the lymphatic system is a closed pressure system and has one-way valves that keep lymph moving towards the heart, when you turn upside down the entire lymphatic system is stimulated, thus strengthening your immune system, relaxing the gut and stimulating the elimination system too.

To receive these palpable benefits, and to prevent injury, it’s essential to learn the correct setup and alignment for each pose – so learn the poses from a qualified teacher first before you practise them at home.

When I first started practising yoga in India, my teacher told me that a yoga practice without inversions is like ‘marriage without wife’. And I have since been drawn to inversions for two simple reasons – they make my body feel good and they’re fun. They bring out my inner sense of adventure and playfulness.

Psychologically, inversions allow us to see things from an alternative perspective and they require stability and awareness. They make you feel stable as well. One feeds into the other. Emotionally, they guide the energy of the pelvis, the kernel of creation and personal power, towards the heart centre, enabling self-exploration and inner growth. Physically, they stimulate the immune and endocrine systems, thereby invigorating and nourishing the brain and the internal organs. When done correctly, inversions also release tension in the neck and spine.

Until very recently, there was little interest in the West in objectively documenting the effects of inversions on health, but now the benefits of inversions are built on expert opinion, case studies and educated reasoning. We can cite biomechanical principles, measure indices such as heart rate or blood pressure, and witness the effects of inversions on people who practise regularly.

‘I have been practising a 10-minute head balance every day for the last 12 years. Its therapeutic application has helped me enormously with maintaining a healthy blood pressure and weight. I also feel confident and relaxed throughout the day as a result. The area around my neck and shoulders has definitely strengthened, as well as my core strength. I have a very stressful job and I swear by the benefits of this one yogic pose.’

All the evidence points to one principal, galvanising effect that inversions have on the practitioner – they change your relationship to gravity.

In a 1992 Yoga International article on headstands and the circulatory system, Coulter, Master of Anatomy and Physiology, wrote: ‘If you can remain in an inverted posture for just 3 to 5 minutes, the blood will not only drain quickly to the heart, but tissue fluids will flow more efficiently into the veins and lymph channels of the lower extremities and of the abdominal and pelvic organs, facilitating a healthier exchange of nutrients and wastes between cells and capillaries.’

Finally, inverting gives your heart a break. The heart works to ensure that freshly oxygenated blood makes its way up to your brain and its sensory organs. When you are inverting, the pressure differential across your body is reversed and blood floods the carotid arteries in the neck. It is believed that baroreceptors, mechanisms that calibrate blood flow to the brain, sense the increase in blood, and slow the flow, thus reducing blood pressure and heart rate. It has not, however, been clinically established whether the practice of inversion could lower blood pressure in the long term and, in fact, high blood pressure is typically considered to be a contraindication for inversions. But this depends on the individual, and each person is different.

To receive these palpable benefits and to prevent injury, especially to the neck, it’s essential to be taught, and therefore to learn, the correct setup and alignment for each inverted pose. Also, I recommend that women don’t do inversions during menstruation; reversing blood flow goes against the body’s natural urge to release stale blood and the endometrial lining, and it may lead to a backflow of menstrual fluid known as ‘retrograde menstruation’. Other contraindications include neck injuries, epilepsy, high blood pressure, heart conditions and eye problems. So be mindful about your body as you approach these poses.

Forward bends

Forward bends are important in the Mind Body Cleanse because, during forward bends, your abdominal organs are compressed and this has a unique effect on your nervous system as these organs relax, your frontal brain is cooled and the flow of blood to your entire brain is regulated. Your sympathetic nervous system is rested, bringing down your pulse rate and blood pressure. The adrenal glands are also soothed and they function more efficiently. Since your body is in a horizontal position in forward bends, your heart is relieved of the strain of pumping blood against gravity, and blood circulates through all parts of the body easily. Forward bends also strengthen the para-spinal muscles, inter-vertebral joints and ligaments.

Forward bends can be wonderfully relaxing and make you feel pleasantly introspective; however, they can also strain or injure your lower back, especially if the backs of your legs are tight, so you need to be careful.

Learning to practise forward bends correctly means that you must pay close attention to the mechanics of your body. The crucial muscles to understand are the hamstrings, particularly in their interactions with your pelvis. When the hamstrings are pushed to the limit of their flexibility, they rebel and avoid further stretching by either bending the knee or extending the hip. The tighter your hamstrings are, the more likely it is that this will happen. And that can be bad news for your back. It is important, therefore, that you keep your back straight during forward bends.

If you have been attending yoga classes already, you may have heard your teacher tell you to contract your quadriceps (the muscles on the front of your thighs) in forward bends. If your hamstrings are tight, this is an excellent way to help them loosen up. The quads will stabilise your knees and hold them straight in forward bends while the hams try to cheat and bend the knees. Not only that, but by contracting your quads, you’ll be taking advantage of a kinesiological law called ‘reciprocal inhibition’, in which your nervous system tells a muscle to let go of its contraction when the opposing muscle has work to do. In forward bends, contracting your quads facilitates the release of the hamstrings.

Keep your spine straight at all times. Never push yourselves in forward bends, either to overstretch the hamstrings or to the point of feeling pain in your sitting bones. To develop strong, stretch-tolerant hamstring tendons, start them with warming poses, including mild hamstring stretches such as Downward-facing Dog.

And, finally, a word about patience. The hamstrings are layered with lots of tough connective tissue – the gristly fibres that help hold the muscles’ structure together. So you can’t rush or hurry the hamstrings into flexibility; they need time to change their length – time in the sense that longer stretches, held with a belt (for 90 to 120 seconds), seem most effective with connective tissue.

CHAPTER 5

Yoga and intelligent movement

The history and legacy of yoga