Find a comfortable place to sit, in a chair or on the floorIN THE CENTRE of every stressful storm there is a place of total stillness: the ‘eye’. In my life, I have found meditation to be one of the most powerful tools for creating this sense of peace within, even when the world around is in a state of tremendous flux or sometimes, even, chaos. Building a meditation cleanse practice is a bit like building a deposit account that you can withdraw from in times of need.
The yoga poses and intelligent movement described in Part 2 of this book are not techniques that are ends in themselves, but rather they culminate in meditation. This means we can sit in the meditative posture, with open hips, and our minds can remain undisturbed by the whims of the body. And through the 12-Day Plan our minds are energised and are less disturbed by toxic thoughts. We can enter into union.
‘In my life, I have found meditation to be one of the most powerful tools for creating this sense of peace within.’
You cannot control what happens outside yourself or what happens to you in life, but you can control your internal state of mind and how you react to negative things. How you respond to stressful situations is really the only thing that you do have control over. Worrying, getting angry and having arguments cannot change events that have already happened. They can only damage you by releasing stress hormones into your body, and the immune and digestive systems are those that suffer the most.
The breath is how you access your still and quiet self via meditation. By paying attention to the breath you bring the mind into the present moment in meditation, which is a wonderful thing because in it you find no worry and no suffering. So much of our time is spent in the future, worrying about careers and important life choices, perhaps, or spent in the past, going over negative events that have already happened, which we regret and feel that we could have done better with.
As part of the 12-Day Plan, I include a meditation to kickstart your day. This is a great way to become present in your own body and mind and your own life. You can tune in to what is best for you and connect with your gut feelings. Your gut can only benefit from the reduction in stress hormones (see here).
The flight-or-flight triggers in modern life have never been greater (see also here). While we rely on this rush of endorphins to get through hairy situations, remaining in a constant heightened state of alert is damaging to health.
WATER FROM A WELL
Meditation is like drawing water from a well. You build up the water levels in the well over time, and then when you need water you can draw it from the well. As you practise meditation you are contributing to the water levels of your well.
As you gain experience in meditation, you will gradually gain increased awareness of when you are either tense or relaxed, so that you can take steps to calm down when you begin to notice signs of stress. Through this awareness you will stop the release of harmful stress hormones that lower metabolism, energy levels, and even cause premature ageing.
The calming effect of meditation regulates the heart rate and blood pressure and facilitates the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Stress is a huge factor in how your gut behaves, or misbehaves, and at the root of stress is the fight-or-flight response – an adaptive reaction that through the ages served to protect us from emergency situations. The fight-or-flight response is controlled by stress hormones such as cortisol. If left unchecked, this response in the body can cause gut problems (as seen in Chapter 2), numbness, memory issues and insomnia. It is vitally important to counterbalance this response with relaxation – and meditation is perfect for bringing this about.
‘Stress is a huge factor in how your gut behaves, or misbehaves.’
Meditation is an art that calms the soul and relaxes the mind, promoting an internal mental spaciousness in which troubles and fears no longer seem so menacing. Creative answers can naturally develop besides a confident detachment that provides better objectivity, perspective and the ability to concentrate.
Worrying and getting angry does not change the external events that have come about. In fact, they damage you by producing stress hormones and putting you in fight-or-flight mode, which puts your immune system and gut on high alert.
Meditation can take you out of that stressful state and into a state of peace, acceptance and gratitude.
It has also been demonstrated that meditation increases brain size. Researchers at Harvard, Yale and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found the first evidence that meditation can alter the physical structure of our brains and brain scans revealed that experienced meditators boasted increased thickness in parts of the brain that deal with attention and processing sensory input.
The structure of an adult brain can change in response to repeated practice of meditation. In one area of grey matter, the thickening turned out to be more pronounced in older than in younger people. Normally those sections of the human cortex become thinner as we age. The implication is that meditation may help slow some aspects of cognitive ageing. This is why Buddhist monks and yogis often enjoy an increased capacity for attention and memory in old age.
‘Repeated thoughts and actions can rewire your brain.’
ALTERING BEHAVIOUR: NEUROPLASTICITY
Over the years, I have noticed that some of Mind Body Cleanse’s most profound effects on health have to do with its ability to alter long-standing dysfunctional behaviours. People often have unhealthy habits of thought and deed that undermine their health; habits they may recognise but haven’t been able to change so far. In addition to the direct health benefits of asana, pranayama, meditation and other yogic practices, it’s not uncommon for regular practitioners to start eating better, to cut back on caffeine or alcohol, to quit jobs that make unreasonable demands on them, or to spend more time being in calming nature. Once people become more sensitive to the effects of different actions on their bodies and minds (whether it is [positively] practising alternate nostril breathing or [negatively] eating huge, fatty meals), they increasingly want to do what makes them feel better.
The modern understanding of the brain is that rather than being a static structure, this organ is constantly remodelling itself, a phenomenon scientists call ‘neuroplasticity’. Repeated thoughts and actions can rewire your brain, and the more you do something the stronger those new neural networks become. Almost 2,000 years ago, Patanjali knew this when he suggested that the key to success in yoga is dedicated, uninterrupted practice over a long period of time. The resulting neural networks – or samskaras, as yogis call them – become stronger and stronger as you stick with the practice. Slowly but surely, these healthy grooves of thought and action help guide people out of the ruts in which they’ve been stuck, literally from lifetimes of accumulated karma.
Yogis and Taoists alike believe that every human is born with a precious pearl of original spirit deep inside the core of their being. As a human being matures from birth, this precious pearl gets buried deeper in the learned ignorance of education and socialisation. This pearl is undoubtedly our most unique human attribute and perhaps our only contact with the sacred. Sadly, many of us will go through life without ever realising it is there.
In the Himalaya, where I lived and studied for many years, I found yogic adepts transmuting essence and energy into pure spirit during meditation and pranayama. These adepts fasted frequently, controlled their diets strictly, often lived in complete solitude and spent entire days and nights meditating, strengthening their spirit-body.
‘Meditation’ is a poor translation of what the Masters simply call ‘sitting still and doing nothing’. The real point of sitting still and doing nothing is to empty the mind entirely and to let the spirit endure in stillness and emptiness. Only in this meditative state will the spirit awaken fully and seek its unity with pure consciousness.
The final stage of meditation is only reached by a handful of advanced adepts, whose singular intention in cultivating physical health and longevity is to give themselves sufficient time and prana to prepare and complete the final stages of the internal alchemy that is required to create indestructible spirit-bodies.
These yogis form ‘mysterious pearls’, which grow with practice. These pearls form the embryo of the spirit-body. The spirit-body corresponds roughly in size and shape to the physical body, but it has no material substance. It is said that at the moment of death, the yogi enters into his spirit-body, eschewing the dissolution of consciousness and achieving spiritual immortality. Such adepts thus escape the endless cycle of birth and rebirth, as have the many avatars in human history.
Whereas Western dualism sees the spirit as independent of the body, yoga and Taoism regard the spirit as the flowering blossom of human life, with essence serving as its roots and energy serving as the connecting stem.
You do not have to be a nuclear physicist to realise that the strength of the integrity of the spirit are directly dependent upon adequate nutrition and ample energy. Only well-nourished roots planted in fertile soil generate strong stems and beautiful blossoms.
‘To understand others is to have knowledge;
To understand oneself is to be enlightened.
To conquer others requires strength;
To conquer oneself is even harder.’
LAO TZE
We can spend years listening to others tell us what’s best for us, only to find that when we get our dream home, perfect body, bonus check or whatever it is we think we want, we still feel as if something is missing. Finding your purpose and passion in life isn’t an overnight thing. But dedicating yourself to happiness, to practising the art of happiness, is a choice. When you commit to it, your entire life will transform.
Life, relationships and your career are full of ebbs and flows. And many of us are so busy trying to reach a goal, or get to some ‘destination’, that we forget to pause and enjoy the moments of excitement and awe along the way. In my life, I have had the good fortune (often coupled with dogged determination) to follow my heart. I haven’t always been in the right place at the right time, but I would like to share with you the following practices that have helped me find true happiness:
It’s important to turn off the ‘noise’ because all minds need a break! Learn to schedule time into your busy diary to switch off – you can literally call it ‘switch-off time’. Turn off the TV, your phone and go back to the basics of a more simple existence. Light some candles, take a hot bath, bake chocolate brownies, read a new book, write things down. Create space and a time in your day to simply stop.
Each day I wake up with the gift of a clean slate and a chance to start afresh. How I begin my day has a huge impact on my mental and physical wellbeing, which goes to show that even the simplest habits can accumulate into huge health benefits over time. So, every day I start by reflecting on something positive that happened to me the day before. I am ‘grateful’ for the experience. I then take the positives and move forward. Being grateful creates powerful and positive emotions. My state of mind is immediately enhanced and I encourage positivity into my new day.
Learn to train your mind – otherwise your mind will control you. A detox such as the 12-Day Plan can be a period of glorious introspection and, as such, an ideal opportunity to learn how to start training your mind. Here’s how. You can designate just two minutes per day to the preparation phase and then graduate to three, then five and so on.
Find a comfortable place to sit, in a chair or on the floor
Allow your natural breath to settle
Bring your attention to your navel
Observe the gentle expansion of your breath on the inhalation: observe the contraction of the breath back towards your spine on the exhalation
Continue to observe the breath without forcing it
When your mind wanders, as it inevitably will, bring it back to the breath
Meditation occurs when the space between your thoughts increases.
When you have experimented with meditation and would like to develop it further, you can try setting intentions. Intentions are the fuel to manifesting your goals and visions. Intentions help to create more clarity in your life, especially when the seed is planted right before you start your meditation.
An intention cannot be forced. It’s a seed that you have to sow:
Here are four clear intentions to consider:
I intend to be open to success and abundance
I intend to forgive others, and myself
I intend to make someone smile every day
I intend to make meditation a more important part of my life.
Remember to keep the intention positive, uplifting and always in the present tense.
Make sure your intention can evolve, like a seed. If you stick with the same intention week after week, your mind will stop responding to it. The best way to resolve this is to make sure your intention or goal can easily be adjusted.
If your intention on your first day is to ‘invite success and abundance into your life’, after a few days you may change that intention to: ‘My intention is to enjoy the success and abundance I create in myself.’ Try not to alter your intentions dramatically or your goals too frequently. The aim is to polish and refine.
Aim your intention for the short term. You can still think of the big picture – just divide your long-term intention into a few shorter intentions instead. This will help you achieve an ambitious goal in shorter, more powerful, segments.
Once your intention is set, be sure to use it in your meditation. Start your meditation with a few deep breaths and observe the stillness within. Afterwards, bring your awareness to your heart and set your intention.
Stick to the same intention for a few days before moving on to the next one.
‘Make sure your intention can evolve, like a seed.’
A very important component of living a happy life is the nurturing and care of the physical body. Just as thoughts can affect us physically, the reverse is also true. For example, if you had a bad night’s sleep, you might be tired and irritable. Without regular exercise and fresh air, your energy levels can drop and general motivation fade. So, practise an intelligent form of movement, such as yoga or Pilates, three times a week at least. Both yoga and Pilates are transformational, focused methods of movement that facilitate positive change in the body and mind.
To lift your morale and gain perspective, start to make a list of everything that you are grateful for in your life. It can be the simplest thing. Gratitude engenders positive thoughts and is a great way to get out of negative thinking. No matter how bad you feel, there is always something to be grateful for. For the next 12 days (of the 12-Day Plan) get into the practice of expressing daily gratitude and you will see that your life will change. Take stock and embrace the positive changes you are making.
Avoid the mistake of only focusing on what’s missing in your life. Instead, focus on the changes you want to bring about from a balanced and optimistic perspective. Remember to be realistic. Balance your drive for change with an appreciation of the here and now and your sense of disillusionment will go. If you are visual person, you can make a mood board of how you see yourself in wellness and optimal health. Pin up cuttings from magazines of things that inspire you. This will keep you motivated during the 12-Day Plan and once you have completed it.
Our words affect every action and thought we have, either positively or negatively. As our words can affect people around us, the same is true for their effect on us. Positively worded statements can create a positive mood and therefore a positive outcome. Choose your words wisely. The universe and your subconscious are listening and they will respond according to what they hear.
In today’s society, we are constantly fed information telling us that we’re not good enough just as we are. In the media, we’re fed Photoshopped fairy tales in the form of an idealised appearances and lifestyles.
It has become clear throughout the quest to overcome my neck injury that I sustained in 2000 (see here), no matter how hard or often I practise, I am just not going to be able to bend my spine into certain positions that I used to pre-accident.
The miracle of this realisation is the recognition that my heart lives in this imperfect body. Embracing my body has helped me to learn how much pushing and striving is not only valuable, but it can also be highly destructive. Dwelling in my imperfect body has made me a more understanding teacher.
The biggest shift for me came when I stopped looking at past mistakes as ‘mistakes’. Instead, I realised how much I’d learned and grown as a result of each blunder. I forgave myself and realised that all is in perfect order.
Likewise, when you’ve crossed into adulthood, whether your childhood was happy or unhappy, understand that your parents just did their best for you with what they knew at the time. You will feel closer to them and accept them as they are. At the end of it all, it is love that matters most of all.
Probably the most underrated of any of the issues listed here is sleep. Sleep is very important, so make sure that you are getting enough of it: lack of sleep is a modern malaise because people work long hours and then remain available 24/7 and this approach disturbs the body’s delicate internal rhythms. A culture has also evolved that applauds those who exist on very little sleep – they have become focuses of our admiration because it is our perception that they work harder, are more dedicated and are somehow tougher because they ‘need’ less sleep. However, your mind and body gravitate towards predictability and the body becomes used to rhythms or routines. So stick with a daily routine and try to establish a regular sleep pattern: going to bed at the same time each night and getting up at the same time each morning. If you keep to a pattern, you are more likely to sleep well. Or practise some Pranayama (see below) that will engage with your rest and relaxation response.
Pranayama is the ‘nutrition’ provided by air through breathing and it is even more vital to our health and longevity than the nutrition provided by food and water via digestion. Breathing influences the body’s bioelectric balance, just as diet influences its biochemical balance.
There are basically two functional types of breathing: cleansing and energising. Cleansing breath detoxifies the body and stresses exhalation, while energising breath collects and stores vital energy and focuses more on inhalation. Though people take breathing for granted, everyone unconsciously practises both types of breath spontaneously throughout the day, whenever toxins in the bloodstream reach a critical level or energy is running low. Thus, a sigh is a spontaneous cleansing breath, for it involves a quick inhalatory gulp followed by a long, forceful exhalation. By contrast, a yawn is a spontaneous, energising breath – a long, slow, deep inhalation, briefly retained in the lungs, followed by a relatively short exhalation.
Since breath and energy form a bridge between body and mind, breathing may be controlled either mentally or physically and is the only vital function that straddles the border of voluntary and involuntary control. Left unattended, breathing occurs as spontaneously and naturally as a heartbeat; when controlled by the mind, breathing becomes as deliberate as walking and can be made to regulate all other functions, including pulse, blood pressure, digestion, ejaculation, hormone secretion and so forth.
THE DIAPHRAGM AND THE BREATH
What distinguishes ordinary shallow breathing from deep abdominal breathing is the role played by the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a resilient yet flexible muscular membrane that separates the chest from the abdominal cavity. When the lungs expand, they push the diaphragm downwards; when they contract they pull it up into the chest cavity.
Though most Western physicians still regard the diaphragm as being a relatively unimportant muscle that is only passively involved in respiration, a cursory glance at nature reveals the fact that humans were meant to breathe primarily with the diaphragm, not with the ribcage and clavicles. Owing to laziness, ignorance and other factors, adults these days invariably become shallow chest-breathers rather than the deep abdominal breathers we were built to be. Chest-breathing employs the intercostal muscles between the ribs to forcibly expand the upper ribcage, thereby lowering air pressure in the chest so that air enters by suction. However, this leaves the lower lungs, which contain by far the greatest surface area, immobilised. Consequently, you need to take about three times as many chest-breaths in order to get the same quantity of air into the lungs as provided by a single diaphragmic breath.
‘It is the most powerful muscle in our body; it acts like a perfect force-pump … we have only to visualise the surface area of the diaphragm to accept the fact that it acts like another heart.’
The internal alchemy schools of Taoism that flourished during the early centuries AD thought of air as being the ultimate ‘essence’ of nature. Their aim was to purify their bodies and minds to the point that they could live on nothing but air and water, a diet they described as ‘supping wind and sipping dew’. Prana, the vital energy contained in air, was literally regarded as a nutrient. While only the most advanced of adepts ever reach the goal of relying entirely on wind and water for sustenance, even the most ordinary of us can cultivate breath control as an effective means of promoting health and prolonging life. The act of breathing not only extracts prana from the air, it also drives and distributes prana through the body’s invisible network of energy channels, or nadis. Nadis transport vital energy throughout the body and, when they get blocked, a condition called ‘energy stagnation’ occurs, resulting in insufficient blood circulation, which in turn causes such common ailments as lethargy, fatigue, weak libido and so on. Poor blood circulation and all its attendant ills can usually be remedied by correct breathing.
In the orient, breathing is regarded as a science. China has its chi-gung (meaning literally ‘life energy cultivation’), which is a holistic system of coordinated body posture and movement, breathing and meditation used for health, spirituality and martial arts training, and India has pranayama, but the Western world lacks a specific term to denote breath control, nor do Western physicians understand how atmospheric energy serves as a vital ‘nutrient’ for human health. The implications for human health are manifold because understanding how the breath works and the importance of prana or life force are paramount.
‘When correct breathing is practiced, the myriad ailments will not occur. When breathing is depressed or strained, all sorts of diseases will arise. Those who wish to nurture their lives must first learn the correct methods of controlling breath and balancing energy.’
DR SUN SSU-MO, PRECIOUS RECIPES
Chi is the equivalent to the term ‘prana’ in the yogic tradition, taking many different forms within the human system. The most basic form is ‘yuan-chi’ or ‘primordial energy’. This refers to the original burst of pure energy that occurs at conception and breathes life into the foetus in the womb. Yuan-chi can perhaps be compared to the potential energy that is stored in an ordinary battery. It begins to dissipate from the moment we are born and it determines our lifespan. One reason why children are so much more active and energetic than adults is that they have not yet polluted and dissipated their original primordial energy to the degree that adults have. That’s also why children don’t show as severe symptoms of poor diet and breathing as adults do; they are still protected by strong primordial batteries. But by drawing on these batteries to compensate for poor diet and other bad habits, they accelerate the rate of energy dissipation and sow the seeds of chronic debility in adulthood. Yuan-chi may be toned and enhanced though diet, herbs, proper breathing, sexual yoga and regular exercise.
Among the other forms of chi are:
Yang-chi, which refers to vital energy in its volatile, kinetic and active form. It is the sort of energy that builds in the body during sexual intercourse and is absorbed directly from the atmosphere when breathing.
Ying-chi is nourishing energy, which is extracted from the purest elements of digestion, from food and water.
Wei-chi is protective energy, which is produced from the coarser byproducts of digestion. It circulates across the surface of the body, protecting the entire organism from invasion by extremes of the external environment.
When the chi of earth extracted from food and water meets with the chi of heaven absorbed from air, the two blend in the bloodstream to form the unique variety of vital energy that gives life to the human system. This is why diet and breathing are complementary approaches in cultivating health and longevity.
Despite its central role in yoga and other oriental philosophies, prana, or chi, remains the biggest stumbling block for Westerners studying mind-body cleansing techniques. Although Western scientists have no trouble dealing with radar, radio and gamma rays, ultraviolet light, electricity and other invisible forms of energy, they buck like wild horses when told that similar currents flow though and control the human system.
‘The myriad ailments all begin with energy. The moment there is energy imbalance, any ailment might occur.’
YELLOW EMPEROR’S CLASSIC OF MEDICINE
Since there is no equivalent term in English for ‘chi’ or ‘prana’, you can refer to it simply as ‘bionic’ or ‘bioelectric’ energy. This combines the idea of living energy uniquely associated with living organisms with that of electricity and negatively charged ions, which in scientific terms comprise the essential nature of chi or prana.
In the case of living organisms, the polarity of yin and yang and the tension that exists between them establishes the dynamic force field required to move chi, much as positive and negative polarity causes electric currents to move. The dynamics of ying and yang keep chi or prana in constant motion.
‘(Chee) the vital force is the most subtle, most penetrating, most invisible agent we have known until now in nature. In this respect it surpasses even light, electricity and magnetism, with which in another respect it seems to have the greatest analogy.’
HUFELAND’S THE ART OF PROLONGING LIFE, 1838
In March 1968, the French newspaper Le Monde reported that the presence of negative ions in the air we breathe facilitates the absorption of oxygen and elimination of carbon dioxide in the alveoli of the lungs, whereas positive ions have the opposite effect. Toxic gases, dust, chemical fumes and so on all take the form of positive ions when released into the atmosphere, and these big spongy ions trap and absorb the light little negative ions, leaving the air virtually devoid of vitality. Pure country air contains an average ratio of two to three negative ions for every positive ion. In cities, the ratio drops drastically to one negative ion for every 300–600 positive ions.
Negative ions, prana or chi are thus the vital difference between pure and polluted air, not oxygen. A healthy body can purge itself of airborne toxins, but it can do absolutely nothing to compensate for a critical lack of prana in the air it breathes. The prime importance to human health and vitality of strong electric fields in the atmosphere is just beginning to be understood by Western science, although oriental mystics have realised it for thousands of years. So the lesson is clear, keep those bionic batteries fully charged at all times by breathing air that is full of vitality.
In the early years of the space programme, scientists observed that astronauts became exhausted after just a few hours in their space capsules despite their robust health and physical fitness and it took decades to figure out why. The reason was the lack of good-quality air particles circulating in the enclosed space they inhabited.
Your office is not such a different environment. Good air – air that is full of vitality (or chi or prana) – is destroyed by air conditioning, central heating and closed windows. Working all day in air-conditioned or heated offices and factories often leaves us feeling totally drained, while farmers who spend the same number of hours outdoors doing strenuous physical labour do not suffer from the same feeling of depletion. It’s not the work that is exhausting you by 6pm each evening, but rather the lack of vitality in the air you are breathing during the day. This explains why you feel refreshed after spending a day walking or mountain-biking in the countryside.
Just as correct diet enhances the body’s store of nutrition, correct breathing of good quality air enhances the body’s vitality and promotes blood circulation. Without this, lethargy, chronic fatigue, irritability, headaches, poor digestion and weak libido soon set in.
It is not the germs that make you ill – they are everywhere – it is the lack of resistance in your body because of toxins in the bloodstream that cause you to catch a virus. Having a low immune system opens a ‘window of opportunity’ in the body and permits germs to invade. In other words, germs are attracted to your internal condition. If you work in an office, the onset of the cold season can play havoc with your immune system and air conditioning merely circulates viruses among colleagues. But armed with a healthy, strong immune system you can keep the office flu at bay and avoid an energy slump during the winter months.