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 B
Authors: Anyen Rinpoche, Allison Choying Zangmo
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well as the causes for stress-related disorders like anxiety and depression. 13
Yogis and retreatants work with movement when they practice traditional forms of Tibetan Yantra Yoga, or engage in prostrations—devotional movements that align and soften the energetic channels in the body. As we will discuss in the next chapter, sacred movement, working with the wind-mind, and purifying the energetic channels are an integral part of a sacred society such as that of Tibet.
Physical rigidity. Notice how your body feels when you get up in the morning. Often, the body is hard and cold, like ice. It hurts when we move, so we do not feel like doing anything. When thebody is inflexible, the quality of the body’s energetic channels is unnaturally rigid. However, this rigidity doesn’t just occur in the morning. It is often part of our daily life, and we carry that rigidity with us throughout the day. When the body and the channels are rigid, the wind-mind cannot move freely, and our energy gets stuck in certain patterns. The rigidity and inflexibility of the body contributes to the cycle of imbalance.
Anxiety. Anxiety is a state of mind brought about by extremely high wind energy: wind energy that is so high it builds upon itself. When we experience anxiety, we overestimate the strength and number of stressors in our environment. As stress becomes chronic and repeated, the increase in the wind element becomes stronger and more pronounced. This disrupts our physical and mental health in more noticeable ways. For example, increased wind fuels racing and obsessive thought patterns that cause us to relive painful or uncomfortable situations. We chase after these thoughts, bringing worry and unease. Our unease gives rise to even greater wind energy, which brings even more thoughts to chase after. Whether or not these thoughts and worries are reasonable, we are so overwhelmed by the energy and the momentum of anxiety that we do not take the time to examine them. We do not, or cannot, dismiss them. Our emotions spin out of control. We long for rest, but the mind, riding the racing energy of the heart-wind, is moving so fast that we cannot seem to calm down. The harder we push ourselves without allowing the body to rest and recharge, the closer we get to a mental or physical breakdown.
Overstimulated mind. We can feel that we are in a state of tremendous motion because of the motion of the wind-mind. Because of the experience of motion, we do not realize that anxiety is actually a state of stagnation, another expression of imbalance that we get stuck in. From a Western medical perspective, anxiety is a cyclic overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, or, using the concepts of Tibetan medicine, the buildup of heart-wind. Because of this increase in the wind element, the nervous system is unable to relax and reset itself.
Traditionally, according to Tibetan philosophy, the tendency toward high wind energy, or heart-wind, is more prevalent in intelligent individuals. Wind energy, or the air element, is related to thoughts, creativity, and mental flexibility. With intelligence naturally comes an abundance of thoughts and ideas. Working with wind energy training can help to relieve the anxiety caused by having an overabundance of thoughts and ideas, not only by helping to calm the sympathetic nervous system but also because it helps us gradually purify and let go of our habitual thought patterns.
When we experience anxiety, we engage in shallow, thoracic breathing, which stimulates the sympathetic nervous system so that we are unable to relax. We are in great need of rest and relaxation because the body’s normal mechanism to help us relax is not functioning properly. Even when the anxious body and mind does sleep, that sleep is often disrupted in quality or length, so we rarely feel recharged. Being deprived of rest, we also begin to eat improperly. Without proper rest and nutrition, mental imbalance leads to physical imbalance.
Yogis and retreatants work with movement when they practice traditional forms of Tibetan Yantra Yoga, or engage in prostrations—devotional movements that align and soften the energetic channels in the body. As we will discuss in the next chapter, sacred movement, working with the wind-mind, and purifying the energetic channels are an integral part of a sacred society such as that of Tibet.
Physical rigidity. Notice how your body feels when you get up in the morning. Often, the body is hard and cold, like ice. It hurts when we move, so we do not feel like doing anything. When thebody is inflexible, the quality of the body’s energetic channels is unnaturally rigid. However, this rigidity doesn’t just occur in the morning. It is often part of our daily life, and we carry that rigidity with us throughout the day. When the body and the channels are rigid, the wind-mind cannot move freely, and our energy gets stuck in certain patterns. The rigidity and inflexibility of the body contributes to the cycle of imbalance.
Anxiety. Anxiety is a state of mind brought about by extremely high wind energy: wind energy that is so high it builds upon itself. When we experience anxiety, we overestimate the strength and number of stressors in our environment. As stress becomes chronic and repeated, the increase in the wind element becomes stronger and more pronounced. This disrupts our physical and mental health in more noticeable ways. For example, increased wind fuels racing and obsessive thought patterns that cause us to relive painful or uncomfortable situations. We chase after these thoughts, bringing worry and unease. Our unease gives rise to even greater wind energy, which brings even more thoughts to chase after. Whether or not these thoughts and worries are reasonable, we are so overwhelmed by the energy and the momentum of anxiety that we do not take the time to examine them. We do not, or cannot, dismiss them. Our emotions spin out of control. We long for rest, but the mind, riding the racing energy of the heart-wind, is moving so fast that we cannot seem to calm down. The harder we push ourselves without allowing the body to rest and recharge, the closer we get to a mental or physical breakdown.
Overstimulated mind. We can feel that we are in a state of tremendous motion because of the motion of the wind-mind. Because of the experience of motion, we do not realize that anxiety is actually a state of stagnation, another expression of imbalance that we get stuck in. From a Western medical perspective, anxiety is a cyclic overstimulation of the sympathetic nervous system, or, using the concepts of Tibetan medicine, the buildup of heart-wind. Because of this increase in the wind element, the nervous system is unable to relax and reset itself.
Traditionally, according to Tibetan philosophy, the tendency toward high wind energy, or heart-wind, is more prevalent in intelligent individuals. Wind energy, or the air element, is related to thoughts, creativity, and mental flexibility. With intelligence naturally comes an abundance of thoughts and ideas. Working with wind energy training can help to relieve the anxiety caused by having an overabundance of thoughts and ideas, not only by helping to calm the sympathetic nervous system but also because it helps us gradually purify and let go of our habitual thought patterns.
When we experience anxiety, we engage in shallow, thoracic breathing, which stimulates the sympathetic nervous system so that we are unable to relax. We are in great need of rest and relaxation because the body’s normal mechanism to help us relax is not functioning properly. Even when the anxious body and mind does sleep, that sleep is often disrupted in quality or length, so we rarely feel recharged. Being deprived of rest, we also begin to eat improperly. Without proper rest and nutrition, mental imbalance leads to physical imbalance.
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