chapter ten
Global 24/7
Each time I travel or explore somewhere new, I get brand-new perspective, because I leave my comfort zone. Yoga helps you explore places within your body and mind that you don’t normally visit. This chapter is dedicated to the more mindful, quiet, and meditative side of yoga that is truly for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
The ancient yogis knew it, but now modern doctors are on board with mindful meditation—more than ever before. A recent study from Massachusetts General Hospital, the original and largest teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, found that in just eight weeks, these mind-quieting practices made measurable changes in the brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress, which can help improve our well-being and quality of life. These five universal Happy-Go-Yoga practices can really be done in any situation. The more you do them, the more you help yourself to yoga’s greatest benefits: mental clarity, the ability to recognize happiness within, and inspiration to live your life to the fullest.
Keep exploring.
In this chapter:
Free Your Mind
■ relax
■ calm
■ balance
The rude person in the latte line this morning was just the beginning. Ever since then, people have been getting on your nerves or getting in your way. Time to free yourself from the frustrating clutter in your head with a meditation practice that helps clear clouds from your mind.
Happy-Go-Yoga
1. Inhale deeply, open your mouth, and let out a big sigh.
2. Visualize actual clouds in your mind.
3. Start to breathe deeply in and out through your nose, inhaling and exhaling evenly, without gasping for breath or sighing heavily.
4. Draw your focus to a single cloud. Inhale.
5. Exhale, and imagine your breath creating a soft breeze that pushes the cloud aside, out of the field of vision in your mind’s eye, as if the cloud were one of your frustrations. (If you’re really frustrated, one cloud might be stubborn and require a few extra breaths.)
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5, letting individual clouds drift away one by one.
7. With each cloud that clears, take a moment to notice the beauty and clarity of the blue sky in its place.
About Free Your Mind
As you imagine the clouds appearing in your mind and gently passing by with each breath, you allow thoughts to arise and dissolve, rather than allow those thoughts to remain and fester for self-created stress. (It’s a little bit like that old saying, “This too shall pass.”)
Happy-Go-Yoga’s Free Your Mind is also an important yogic practice from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (SOO-truhz of puh-TAHN-juh-lee), the written philosophy that guides many types of yoga practices. One of the early sutras, setting forth the intent of yoga, is Yoga citta vritti nirodha (YO-gush-EE-tuh VREE-tee nee-ROH-duh-huh), which means: to stop the fluctuations of the mind, or calm the vibrations of the mind that cloud our ability to see clearly; to not react, and instead act from the best of ourselves, which usually emerges when we give ourselves space. If that means not getting worked up by the irritating guy in the latte line, and being able to reduce stress on my own, sign me up for a double shot of that.
The Snag
■ de-stress
■ empower
■ strengthen
This problem you’ve been having is standing in the way of everything and seems as immovable as a stubborn elephant. Embrace the obstacle. As they say, sometimes things happen for a reason! Use The Snag to empower yourself for whatever happens next. Sometimes challenge can illuminate a totally different path.
Happy-Go-Yoga
1. Standing or sitting, bring your arms to a T shape, at shoulder height.
2. Bend your elbows, keeping them shoulder height, and bring your hands right in front of your heart.
3. Flip your left palm to face away from you, with the back of the hand close to your heart.
4. Flip your right palm to face toward your chest.
5. Join the palms, opposite fingers to opposite wrists.
6. Start to slide the palms apart in this position.
7. Snag the fingers in a grip.
8. Inhale, and tighten the snag.
9. Exhale, and slightly loosen the snag.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 a few times and start to feel tension dissolve.
11. When you start to feel a release, prepare to finish The Snag.
12. When ready: Inhale, tense your grip, then exhale, letting your fingers slowly release and move away from one another.
About The Snag
The Snag is a yogic hand shape called Ganesha mudra (guh-NESH-uh MOOD-ruh), inspired by the Hindu elephant-headed deity, Ganesha. He is the remover of obstacles that stand in your way, but he sometimes places obstacles in your path to guide you in a different direction, for a reason. Happy-Go-Yoga’s The Snag helps you practice releasing tension intentionally. Roadblocks in life will always arise, but you can rise to the occasion and move beyond the snag that seems to be in your way. Meanwhile, you’ll strengthen your shoulders, chest muscles, and hands while stretching your wrists. Holding hands at the heart helps circulation and keeps the blood flowing (not boiling) with the courage to face your obstacle. Now, you can move through it or head in a new, creative direction.
Pause and Proceed
■ calm
■ focus
You’re overscheduled and rushing around; life is a blur. You find you’re losing things, forgetting things, and even dropping things. Time to implement a personal pause before you proceed, so you can collect your thoughts and give your full attention to what you need to do.
Happy-Go-Yoga
1. Either sitting or standing, inhale normally. Notice if you’re breathing quickly, and try to slow down your breath.
2. Inhale, exhale, and let all the air out.
3. Inhale while counting slowly to four.
4. At the top of your breath, with relaxed shoulders, suspend your breath for two counts.
5. Exhale while counting slowly to six.
6. Inhale normally, and exhale normally.
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6.
About Pause and Proceed
When life gets so busy that you don’t remember what you did a few minutes ago, it’s time to slow down. Happy-Go-Yoga’s Pause and Proceed helps remind you how to shift from the fast-moving treadmill of life to appreciate individual moments that make up your life. Based on yoga’s breathing technique kumbhaka (KOOM-buh-kuh), or retaining the breath, Pause and Proceed asks you to take a deliberate pause in the inhale-exhale cycle, putting you in control of giving yourself permission—and a valid reason—to pause. There is a moment of doing nothing—neither inhaling nor exhaling. Over time, the practice of giving yourself a “nothing” moment will help you feel less pressure to do the next thing on your list as quickly as you can, because you trust that it will come, even if you pause. That, in turn, helps give you more clarity to actually move on to the next thing, feeling secure, calm and focused. On those days you think you don’t have a moment to breathe, take a moment to put a pause in your breath—and then proceed with a clearer mind.
Not So Ho-Hum
■ balance
■ inspire
You feel nothing can pull you out of these blahs, but you really want to snap out of it. If you’re uninspired, unmotivated, and uninterested in almost everything but procrastinating, try repeating this simple phrase to get your mind and spirit going in a productive direction again—from “ho-hum” to “oh yeah”!
Happy-Go-Yoga
1. Close your eyes.
2. Take a deep breath in through your nose, open up your mouth, and exhale with a sigh.
3. Close your lips and begin to breathe normally.
4. Start to say, either out loud or in your mind:
Not
So
Ho
Hum
5. Repeat step 4 at least three times—more, if your blahs have a capital B.
About Not So Ho-Hum
Mantras (MAHN-truhz) are spiritual phrases that can empower, inspire, heal, and guide in the context of real life. Not So Ho-Hum is Happy-Go-Yoga’s take on one of yoga’s most powerful mantras, “Om hum, so hum.” With no literal translation (though So hum translates to “I am that”), this mantra combines energy and breath to help elevate and awaken your state of mind as you stay connected to the rest of the world. As you say it, you may feel a teeter-totter kind of energy as the words make a sound pattern (either aloud or in your mind), which helps you to balance and unite the opposite energies within yourself. By changing the words to Not So Ho-Hum, Happy-Go-Yoga gives this ancient mantra a whimsical, but potent and modern spin that is relevant to that ho-hum feeling you might have every now and then. Not So Ho-Hum keeps it real and gives you a real way to try to beat the blahs right here, right now.
Make a Change
■ calm
■ relax
■ empower
■ inspire
You feel stuck. You would like to make a change, but you’re not sure. Sometimes, you’re scared that change might not be good, but a small voice inside keeps telling you that if you take that first step, your life could go in a brand-new direction. This is some scary stuff. Start by inspiring yourself. Let go of something that no longer serves your desire to grow, and make room for new energy. It’s in your destiny.
Happy-Go-Yoga
1. Sit comfortably.
2. Inhale and exhale normally a few times.
3. Close your eyes; lay the backs of both hands on your knees with your palms facing up. Inhale.
4. Say “Saaa” as you exhale, and touch your thumbs to the tips of your index fingers. Inhale.
5. Say “Taaa” as you exhale, and touch your thumbs to the tips of your third fingers. Inhale.
6. Say “Naaa” as you exhale, and touch your thumbs to the tips of your fourth fingers. Inhale.
7. Say “Maaa” as you exhale, and touch your thumbs to the tips of your pinkie fingers.
8. Repeat steps 4 through 7.
About Make a Change
When you repeat this spiritual phrase, it’s said you flood your mind with happy neurochemicals. At the same time, it’s believed to boost your intuition, balance the hemispheres of the brain, and spark a catalyst for change by connecting your mind, body, and spirit to the cycle of life. Make a Change in Happy-Go-Yoga is a blend of one of Kundalini yoga’s original practices and the symbolism of the hands in the chakras (CHUH-kruhz) system, the subtle energies of the self. Touching the thumb to the tip of any finger is said to bring energies and elements into balance. There are several interpretations of the finger-element connection, but in this take, your thumb represents the transformative fire energy within.
Tap it to your…
- Index finger to balance your love and compassion (Sa = infinity).
- Third finger to balance your self-expression and creativity (Ta = life).
- Fourth finger to balance your foundation and roots (Na = death).
- Pinkie finger to balance your emotions and relationships (Ma = rebirth).
There are days when change seems impossible, but trust that, with each breath, the potential for change is in your hands. You can shape your destiny.