Read Online The Tibetan Yoga of Breath: Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom by Anyen Rinpoche, Allison Choying Zangmo - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Anyen Rinpoche, Allison Choying Zangmo
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us escape the suffering of the world we live in. Despite making even the best choices, all of the same old unknowns and uncertainties of life remain, and lasting happiness eludes us. No matter how many choices we have at our fingertips, we lack control over life and death. Although we tend to equate choice with freedom, choice alone will never free us from suffering.
Another aspect of choice that can be stressful is that it involves our appearance to the rest of the world. Our self-attachment can grow as a result. Every choice we make is a statement to those around us about “who we are.” Because we are so personally invested in our choices—because we identify with them—we feel even more pressure to make the so-called right choice and even greater regret if we feel we have made the so-called wrong one.
Constantly seeing life through the lens of countless choices can contribute to feeling a lack of stability and continuity in our day-to-day lives. It can also contribute to feeling a lack of purpose and commitment. When we are constantly considering alternatives to what we are doing right now, we may feel unsure about our present path. With the distraction of many possibilities, staying the course can be difficult. The stress and mental anxiety caused by this thought pattern also fuels other strong physical and emotional responses. As the energy of stress builds up and develops, we begin to worry unnecessarily about things that will never come to pass. We do not feel like ourselves. We lose sleep. We are tense and restless. This, in turn, leads to more stress, and becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.
Stagnation. Physical movement contributes to our physical, mental, and emotional health. But when we think about physical activity, we tend to think about serious exercise, such as running, hiking, or lifting weights. We do not have to run a marathon to bring ourselves more into balance. While physical training does support a healthy body, any kind of movement and any effort that we make toward balancing body and mind will benefit us.
In the past, when our own society was less technologically developed, movement was a part of everyday life. We walked or biked instead of driving everywhere. We did not spend eight to ten hours a day in front of a computer screen, and then time at home in the evening in front of the television. In less economically developed countries, most people are still very active. For example, in Tibet, farmers are out working with the livestock, or nomadicgroups are in the process of moving to a new camp. In such countries, staying in bed late and not doing daily chores and activities is not a choice—people have to move! They have to get up even if they are tired, and because they lack machines and technology to do things for them, they have to use their bodies to get things done. The end result is that in these societies, people are in constant motion and the body’s energy is not stuck and stagnant.
Without a physical response to stress, the stress hormones released within our bodies take longer to disperse and can accumulate. Stress builds up, and we get stuck in that stressed-out state. This is another way of saying that the energy within the body and the wind-mind cannot move, flow, or adapt properly. Physical movement helps to break down and disperse this stagnant state of body and mind, regardless of the cause of stress. Thus, movement helps to bring us back into balance.
When we think of yogis and retreatants, it may seem like they are not really working with the physical body. We may think that they are just sitting still all the time. But as we will talk about in the next chapter, sacred movement, proper posture, and wind energy training are all forms of movement that provide an important basis for mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Research shows that sacred-movement systems such as yoga reduce the presence of stress-related responses in the body, thereby reducing pain responses as
Another aspect of choice that can be stressful is that it involves our appearance to the rest of the world. Our self-attachment can grow as a result. Every choice we make is a statement to those around us about “who we are.” Because we are so personally invested in our choices—because we identify with them—we feel even more pressure to make the so-called right choice and even greater regret if we feel we have made the so-called wrong one.
Constantly seeing life through the lens of countless choices can contribute to feeling a lack of stability and continuity in our day-to-day lives. It can also contribute to feeling a lack of purpose and commitment. When we are constantly considering alternatives to what we are doing right now, we may feel unsure about our present path. With the distraction of many possibilities, staying the course can be difficult. The stress and mental anxiety caused by this thought pattern also fuels other strong physical and emotional responses. As the energy of stress builds up and develops, we begin to worry unnecessarily about things that will never come to pass. We do not feel like ourselves. We lose sleep. We are tense and restless. This, in turn, leads to more stress, and becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.
Stagnation. Physical movement contributes to our physical, mental, and emotional health. But when we think about physical activity, we tend to think about serious exercise, such as running, hiking, or lifting weights. We do not have to run a marathon to bring ourselves more into balance. While physical training does support a healthy body, any kind of movement and any effort that we make toward balancing body and mind will benefit us.
In the past, when our own society was less technologically developed, movement was a part of everyday life. We walked or biked instead of driving everywhere. We did not spend eight to ten hours a day in front of a computer screen, and then time at home in the evening in front of the television. In less economically developed countries, most people are still very active. For example, in Tibet, farmers are out working with the livestock, or nomadicgroups are in the process of moving to a new camp. In such countries, staying in bed late and not doing daily chores and activities is not a choice—people have to move! They have to get up even if they are tired, and because they lack machines and technology to do things for them, they have to use their bodies to get things done. The end result is that in these societies, people are in constant motion and the body’s energy is not stuck and stagnant.
Without a physical response to stress, the stress hormones released within our bodies take longer to disperse and can accumulate. Stress builds up, and we get stuck in that stressed-out state. This is another way of saying that the energy within the body and the wind-mind cannot move, flow, or adapt properly. Physical movement helps to break down and disperse this stagnant state of body and mind, regardless of the cause of stress. Thus, movement helps to bring us back into balance.
When we think of yogis and retreatants, it may seem like they are not really working with the physical body. We may think that they are just sitting still all the time. But as we will talk about in the next chapter, sacred movement, proper posture, and wind energy training are all forms of movement that provide an important basis for mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Research shows that sacred-movement systems such as yoga reduce the presence of stress-related responses in the body, thereby reducing pain responses as
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