Let yourself go

Our freedom from our gurus and our pundits and our chains and our insecurities, our social media, our anxiety, our fear, our destruction and our self-pity. All it takes to be free is to be brave. Either way, it's so nice to know that the subconscious has the power to rewire and release you as it forms new pathways, isn't it? Now I'm going to ask your subconscious to go as far back as you need to go--to a time when you used a habit in an unhealthy way. For this first time you see this scene from your past, just allow the scene to play . I wonder if the subconscious will help show you see this scene in a way that feels new in some way . As I count backward from three to one, the eyes will relax, and the eyes will flutter left and right just a bit more now. I'll invite you to flutter the eyes back and forth--left and right--just a bit more. Pressing play on that scene or scenes from the past--you and this habit that wasn't in line with your healthiest, happiest, and highest self . Now inhale on the count of three: one, two, three. Exhale on the count of six: one, two, three, four, five, six. While there may be a bit of tension, I wonder if you can notice the place where can feel at ease. Rile up these emotions while simultaneously noting your body's responses. Next, conjure someone who enhances your self-esteem--a teacher, a lover. Observe how different this feels. Here are some common qualities of both emotions to watch for. HOW THE ENERGY OF JEALOUSY AND ENVY FEEL Like feverish waves of heat Acidic, burning, inflamed Obsessive, pressured

Like it boomerangs to sap you Oppressive; Over the next week or so you will be assessed by various staff, including physiotherapists to try to get you back on your feet and occupational therapists who will look at whether there are any more aids or adaptations that could make your discharge home possible. A speech and language therapist may advise pureed food if your swallowing is weak and you are at risk of food trickling into your lungs and causing pneumonia. A dietician will recommend nutritional supplements as by now you are thin and your muscles are weak. There will be good days and bad days. With time there will be more bad days than good. Sometimes you may understand what is going on but the combination of being in a strange environment and the effects of infection make you delirious - sometimes you will be agitated, so that you call out, and sometimes in a stupor. You will receive subcutaneous injections of heparin, a blood-thinner, to prevent deep-vein thrombosis in your legs while you are immobile and ill. As you can't clearly give consent to be in hospital, staff, by law, have to presume you want to leave. A complex form, the DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) form will be completed and sent to the hospital DoLS officer. On a huge whiteboard somewhere on the ward will be a list of the patients. This is our enlightenment. This is our meditation. Enlightenment is something that you've been resisting to happen. It's not something you have to struggle to make happen. The key is not to get in the way! Just allow it occur11 - Amit Ray Traditional yoga, as we have come to understand, is simply about taming the monkey mind. Or, sending the monkey into a deep sleep.

Iyengar said, Everything we do in yoga is concerned with achieving this incredibly difficult task (controlling the mind). If we achieve it, Patanjali said, the goal and the fruit of yoga will be within our grasp. After all, you're here now, taking care of yourself . That's right. In just a moment, I'm going to have you play that scene again. This time, you're going to see a split screen. On the left, you'll see the same scene you just saw--that cigarette, that pint of ice cream, you biting your nails . On the right side of the screen, the subconscious brain is going to highlight something the conscious brain may have missed: the strengths you already have within you . You were using a coping mechanism to deal with stress or to feel good, but what if you were strong enough or good enough all along? Most of us are so hard on ourselves all the time. So allow your generous and kind subconscious brain to highlight what's right within you. If you can see that you have already accomplished so much, you can remember your inherent self-worth. Straight like an arrow As if you've grown taller Soothingly warm, strengthening Calm, invigorating, peaceful Supportive of good posture and eye contact Appreciating how jealousy and envy register internally sets you on course to transform them instead of letting these energies dominate you. Also, recognizing the energetic hallmarks of self-esteem makes it easier to summon, but the above list is just a starting point; Acting swiftly and decisively to champion the positive is the way of the emotional warrior.

Watch for Emotional Synchronicities Being attuned to energy makes you more sensitive to how grace can intervene to clear negative emotions. By your name will be a number of dates, probably no more than numbers plucked from the air, scheduling major decisions and a date for discharge. Anxious hospital managers will scrutinize this board several times a day, hoping for prompt discharges as already the emergency department is heaving with patients not dissimilar to you. You have difficulty getting on to the commode and now need incontinence pads to ease your discomfort. The nurses are a bit concerned about the skin on your bottom, which could be at risk of breaking down because you are now so thin, bony and immobile. A special air mattress is provided. Your family are given regular updates by staff but soon an appointment is made for them to speak to your consultant. She (most geriatricians are women) will have tried to broach the topic of DNAR with you, but you were mentally incapable of understanding. So she speaks to your children and explains that CPR would not work and all agree it would be inappropriate. A DNAR form is duly signed and the discussions with your family noted. The consultant also says that, despite treatment, you seem to be deteriorating and asks whether, when you were lucid, you ever expressed any views about what treatment, if any, you would sanction for yourself if you were near the end of your life. When I teach yoga today, in the west, I am not just trying to stretch and challenge your body but attempting to stretch and challenge your mind as well. I often tell the students in the studio that yoga is psychological. Understanding this not only helps us better understand the subject, but it helps us in our quest of mastering the yoga poses. We start to realise that restrictions and our inability to do poses are not always physiological, but that they are psychological. Our yoga practice exists in another paradox, somewhere between physiology and psychology. For some weeks or months, our yoga can be dominated by our physiology. This would be the case after an injury or setback. Then, after time, our yoga is dictated by our psychology.

Perhaps still as a result of the same injury or hindrance. The very first pose that Mr Iyengar would teach, the mountain pose (just standing upright) would deal with this arduous task concerning the monkey mind. If you can know how much you have gotten through, then you know that you'll be okay. And perhaps you could even see what was motivating the habit that was robbing you of your truest self . I wonder if you . Invite the subconscious to show you something. In just a moment, you'll see a split screen. The left side of the screen will be the same scene you just played a moment ago . Now, pressing play on that split screen, see the scene unfold--the scene as you saw it a moment ago on the left and the same scene unfolding with something kinder, more confident, or gentler on the right . Now inhale on the count of three: one, two, three. Exhale on the count of six: one, two, three, four, five, six. And bring your attention to a place in the body where you feel a bit of serenity . Once you're aware that life is about flow, that our energy fields are constantly overlapping, you'll have a fuller openness to synchronicities, a form of grace. These inspired coincidences are moments of perfect timing when things fall into place with startling precision. The emotions you're working with will shape the synchronicities you experience. Perhaps when your self-esteem needs a lift, a person you've just met offers you the perfect job. Or you can't stop thinking of a friend who senses your envy about his becoming engaged, and he lovingly calls to talk things through. The intellect may chalk these events up to mere chance, which is an ignorant underestimation. Such auspicious intersections are bona fide intuitive moments when energetic forces align via synchronicities to assist you emotionally. A gift-from-the-gods synchronicity helped my friend Tess with a job applicant.