This has been a journey back to myself
I like what I see, feel and think
I like myself
I have needed some time to come to this conclusion. Again.
I really do enjoy silence inside of me
and it really is calm right now
like on a cold day in a white forest
where everything is frozen
and snowflakes quietly fall from the sky
in countless shapes and sizes.
I do what I plan so I need to be careful with what I wish
but I now have answers to the questions I missed to ask lately
I do not need to revenge on anyone
I need to forgive.
This time it is not me who’s the messenger,
it will be circumstances brought upon us by our thoughts and actions, our choices and decisions which we need to be aware of
either in the mind or heart of preferably both.
I just opened one door
and was invited inside
like in a fairy-tale where less is more.
Instead of running around like a madman and 
trying out doors in different shapes and sizes I just knocked on one. 
And then my heart told me to stop searching. 
Which my head has had difficulties to acknowledge. 
Like my self-value, my goodness and kindness,
like all the positive things that make me who I am.
I wanted to look past them and only see my troubles.
But realised soon that life without gratitude
is like stale water – 
yes, it clenches the thirst but does not taste good.
So I went to find the well inside of me containing spring water. 
And as soon as I forgave, as soon as I started to love and respect myself again, I embarked on a journey which took me after several ups and downs finally there. 
Pure water tastes so good, far better than any other liquid. 
The only thing is that one cannot stay by the well for long, 
like a traveler I need to keep going,
but I know that there are more wells to be found,
the universe inside of me is as vast and limitless as the one surrounding the Earth.
I just need to visit it more often. 
And treat myself with respect, gratitude and love. 
Only then I can treat others with the same qualities. 
I needed a reminder to dig deeper. 
I am so happy I did. 
I like what I see, feel and think. 
I like my inner universe. 
I know there’s the dark matter
but it is part of me, 
hiding together with my deepest fears. 
But once I cast some light onto those murky corners
I realised that the things hiding in the shadows
are scary but not too scary when I accept myself with my light and dark side,
with my matter and antimatter,
with my gravity and antigravity,
with my positive and negative electrons,
with all the cells and neurons and atoms which are part of me.
Sometimes feeling and knowing can be one and the same thing.
When this happens, I have an insight
into the mystery of life and the secret of living.

Kairi

I have been fascinated by quantum theory for a long time. Albert Einstein never really accepted it during his lifetime, his well-proved theory on general relativity does not work in quantum ways. Quantum theory is eerie to the human mind because it describes the world around us in a way that we never experience it. Quantum mechanics only functions on the level of particles. As soon as objects get bigger, that is they get from micro to macro, this theory stops to make sense and turns into a nonsense. Well, judge for yourself – how can a “yes” be even a “no” at the same time? How can you be in multiple places at the same time? Or expressed in numbers – can you really take in that something can be simultaneously 1 and 0? If you are a believer of a quantum theory, these are the rules to accept and work with. You also must acknowledge that gravity has no influence over the quantum ways of working because in the quantum world a solid particle is also a wave – that is – always in a superposition. Superposition also means that in a quantum universe one object is always in multiple states at the same time. In other words, quantum mechanics make the existence of multiple universes in the same “place” and at the same “time” possible. Although in the quantum world “space” and “time” do not function according to the Einstein rules. You cannot make use of four dimensions and locate an object which is in several places at the same time, right. Space and time take a timeout in the quantum world.

However difficult to understand, a lot of money is spent to make the world spin in a quantum way. The most well-known practical use of quantum mechanics which may soon turn into a reality is quantum computing. International corporations such as Google and IBM (just to name a few) are spending a lot of money to figure out how to make quantum computers work. Why such an obsession about quantum computers?  Well, based on the above rules, if something can be 0 and 1 at the same time, you can potentially create a superfast and superefficient quantum computer which can handle the amount of information and operations not possible with an ordinary computer. The ordinary computer can just handle “bits” for information processing and in “bits” a 0 is always 0 and 1 is always 1 (hence more energy and time spent on processing information). In addition, those “bits” do not interlink with each other like quantum qubits do. Again, we talk about mind-blowing phenomenon – quantum entanglement – which allows qubits that are separated by incredible distances to interact with each other immediately, in a communication that is not limited to the speed of light. In terms of quantum computers this means that just a few qubits can represent hundreds of numbers and carry out many operations at the same time.

This is hard to take in, I know. Imagine two particles on both ends of the universe still communicating and knowing exactly what the other is doing, assuming exactly the opposite spin direction. This phenomenon has been proved by the way, but nobody knows exactly how it works. Not yet. In any case, the work with developing quantum computers continues, although many challenges remain. But one day, perhaps not in a very distant future, these supercomputers may be on sale for an ordinary consumer like you and me.

And now, after all this introduction, I want to approach quantum theory from another angle. Scientists agree that this theory describes the world in a way we have difficulties to comprehend. But when I think of one place inside human body, quantum theory makes more sense than general relativity. In our minds and how our consciousness works. Do you agree that inside of us we have a multiverse – we carry in the present moment our past and future with us? Do you agree that in your thoughts you can be at different places and in different times in the same time? Do you agree that you are in a material and immaterial state at the same time? You are inside of your body and yet you are also inside your mind, right? And because our consciousness has different “layers”, we can have different states of mind at the same time. In addition, our brain is governed by how matter works but additionally our brainwaves interact with the matter. So, our brains are basically always in a superposition as we can even think of something and not to think of it at the same time.

As I see it described in quantum terms, our mind can be expressed in wave function without any mass. The body, on the other hand, can expressed as matter (a constellation of particles), measurable and subject to gravity. Our consciousness is like a parallel universe to the body. And amazingly and inexplicably, those two universes somehow interact. When I started to look at quantum theory from this perspective, it suddenly started to make sense to me. In my mind, I can be on the other end of the universe. In my thoughts I can travel faster than the speed of light. I have a quantum mind.

Kairi

More reading about quantum theory:

• Physics of the Universe
• Forbes – six things you should know about quantum physics
• New Scientist – latest on quantum physics

 

This text is an approximate translation of the original article which was published in the Estonian health magazine “Kodutohter” in October, written by Siiri Lelumees. Photos: Pauline Hegner

Yogamassage combines useful and pleasant: Ayurveda massage relaxes and assisted stretch help the body be relieved from tensions in the muscles.

Certified yogamassage therapist and yoga teacher Kairi Ilison says that the roots of yogamassage are in yoga and Ayurveda – the ancient art of healing which treats the body as whole. Yogamassage enables the body to relax and the stretches assisted by the therapist release the body from muscular tensions. The third important component is breathing.

Forward looking

The yogamassage technique has been created by Kusum Modak from Pune who was inspired by Iyengar yoga (B.S.K Iyengar lived also in Pune) and massage. Yoga is quite masculine but yogamassage has many feminine features – balancing, avoiding sharp pain and extreme stretching and this combination is good for both men and women. The technique is carefully thought through and very contemporary. Kusum Modak has used the best and most modern parts of yoga and Ayurveda. “This technique is forward looking and this is what I like about it,” says yogamassage therapist Kairi Ilison.

In Scandinavia yogamassage has been taught for 14 years and more than 400 people have been trained. Although yogamassage is not yet very widely known in Sweden and not at all in Estonia, Kairi Ilison hopes that this technique has a great future because it is based on sound principles.

A union of old and new

Yogamassage combines ancient knowledge and contemporary science, it respects anatomical structure of human body and latest scientific evidence on how to handle different health problems. With some stretches the massage therapist works with big bodily regions to be able to really influence fascia – the connective tissue – which is difficult to stretch when focusing only on muscles.

But the most important principle of yogamassage is its holistic approach – massage and stretches are always applied to the whole body during the course of the treatment. Only by massaging the whole body one can address the causes of different tensions. Assisted stretches enable the body to stretch without compensation patterns which otherwise are very common. Our bodies are often likely to adopt different poses in a way which is not always beneficial. People who have had an operation which has led to an overexploitation of one limb, know what it means when this limb is compensating for the work of the other. The same problem can occur when we stretch and therefore assisted stretches are good as they teach the body to let go of compensation patterns.

Relaxing massage prevents health problems, produces feel-good hormone oxytocin and energises. Yogamassage can also complement yoga practice, reduce or avoid muscle tensions. “Massage is done with sesame oil containing antioxidants and producing a warming and antiseptic effect on the tissue”, says Kairi Ilison.

Yogamassage has a well thought-through sequence

Yogamassage consists of three main components:

• Breathing – to induce relaxation and the effect of stretches
• Stretch – to make joints and the body more elastic
• Massage – to improve blood circulation, lymphatic system and nerve impulses.

Yogamassage has a good effect to the overall well-being of the body – muscles, fascia and the nervous system. To create this positive effect, the massage therapist is using her/his hands and feet adjusting the pressure to individual needs.

This massage has a well thought-trough sequence:

First a warming-up massage is done to be able to do stretches. The therapist is starting from the spine because the health of our spinal column gives the therapist lot of valuable information about the condition of the body. After warming up the back, arms and neck one receives assisted stretches to the upper part of the body in a seated position. This is followed by massaging the legs from the back and the front and then working with the front of the upper body. The massage session is completed by massaging the neck, face and head. Assisted stretches are important because one cannot take those positions without the help of the massage therapist.

One interesting element in this massage is opening the shoulder blades. When there is tightness in this area, the whole back is affected.

The most important thing for the author of this article (Siiri Lelumees) seemed to be massaging the area next to the spine. Our spinal column is literally our column which holds us upright with the help of muscles and is at the same time is elastic enough to enable us bend and rotate. The spine protects our internal organs and is a communication channel between the brain and the rest of the body. Between vertebrae there are nerves sending signals to different organs and muscles. When the spine is not sufficiently elastic, this will affect the balance and well-being of the body.

Yogamassage is also encouraging co-operation between the therapist and the person receiving the treatment – they need to work together during the session. The person receiving the massage is required to be present and breathe deeply throughout the treatment according to the instructions of the massage therapist.

“Yogamassage can relieve back, neck, hip problems and sciatic nerve problems. This method suits well to people who are not very bendy as it improves their flexibility”, Kairi Ilison explains.

Yogamassage benefits

• Improves breathing
• Stimulates blood circulation
• Improves flexibility
• Improves the posture
• Teaches the body to relax better
• Boost the immune system, speed up healing
• Balances the mind and body
• Energises

This massage has been helpful to treat people with sleeping problems and relieve stress and headaches.

“This massage does not have many contraindications. It is done to people with different diagnoses, for example to cancer patients or to people with attention deficit order. The only thing to consider are acute states of medical conditions or injuries, and age – it is not advised to be done full-scale (the full treatment is ca 1,5 hours) to children because their bodies are still developing and too receptive to certain stretches.

Hopefully yogamassage will also find its way to Estonia – it is one of the most unique massage forms which combines massage, stretch and relaxation and improves the wellbeing of the person. In addition, yogamassage teaches to breathe and to be a better receiver – these skills are handy in all situations in life.

This is an approximate translation of the article published in “Kodutohter”

More information about yogamassage:

History & Master Kusum Modak

In yoga, depending of course on the yoga style(s) one practices, one should be able to breathe without heavy panting. Yoga is thus happening mainly, if not invariably, in aerobic respiration. Yoga produces many positive cognitive, metabolic, physiological and emotional changes. But it does not develop and prolong short term endurance while the body is required to cope with heightened levels of lactic acid.

Muscles produce energy either from oxygen (aerobic) or from glycose (anaerobic). Our body needs to be able to handle both aerobic and anaerobic respiration for a healthy and balanced functioning. It is like two sides of one coin – the aerobic one is the heads and the anaerobic one is the tails. And when you turn the tails, lactic acid is a by-product for energy created in an anaerobic mode.

That yoga offers the lower range of cardiorespiratory fitness can have its downsides should you ever need to attempt to run fast like Usain Bolt or otherwise increase your heart rate close to your MHR (Maximum Heart Rate).  Not being able to handle anaerobic respiration well can make one more vulnerable to the consequences of a fast-paced urban life. It may be worth, for the sake of balance, like the Yin and Yang concept envisions, to teach the body to handle anaerobic respiration without the mind being blown off from its quiet course next time lactic acid swells in the muscles.

MHR= 220 – your age

At rest, our hearts beat ca 70-80 beats a minute. In most yoga styles, when your heart starts racing and breathing gets into panting, you are advised to take a resting pose and calm your breath so you can get back to the slower heart rhythm again. The body is kept at the lower endurance end of the aerobic respiration mode. Best benefit of aerobic exercise in terms of cardio fitness comes at exercising at 60 to 80 percent of your maximum heart rate (MRH) per minute. In yoga you may not get to this level of MRH (which calculated as 220 minus your age). And this is all very good for the mind, especially for people living stressful lives with a lot of stimuli and expectations. Should you, however, only practice slow-paced yoga but live a fast-paced urban life and one day need to speed up your pulse for some reason, your body will not tolerate accumulated lactic acid so well anymore.

There are times when I do a lot of yoga and no other sport with a racing heart. When my body needs to work suddenly in an anaerobic mode after this interval, it starts to grumble. It does not like the accumulation of lactic acid, it cannot use the energy produced from breaking down glycose as efficiently anymore. Additionally, the body gets into anaerobic mode faster and muscles painfully crave for oxygen almost immediately after the supply is cut off. Like many other things in life, handling aerobic and anaerobic respiration modes efficiently means constant practicing. No train, no gain.

How does anaerobic and aerobic respiration work?

Life starts as a bunch of cells sticking together and dividing. Respiration, either aerobic or anaerobic, also begins in the cells. Even though we have bigger organs such as the lungs which take in oxygen (oxygen makes up about 30% of the gases we inhale, the rest being mainly nitrogen) and exhale carbon dioxide. But understanding anaerobic and aerobic respiration is easier on the cell level.

Cellular respiration with oxygen – Aerobic respiration

More energy in the equation: Glycose + oxygen > carbon dioxide + water;  which releases energy – adenosine triphosphate  ATP

Cellular respiration without oxygen – Anaerobic respiration

Less energy released in the equation: Glycose>lactic acid; which releases energy (but smaller amounts than in aerobic respiration)

Observe that lactic acid has to be broken down by oxygen. This means that after a short anaerobic spell one needs to switch back the oxygen supply (by stopping or slowing down the exercise)

In aerobic respiration, oxygen helps enzymes metabolize energy through the glycolysis process. In anaerobic respiration, the cells have to use fermentation to keep the metabolism going and fermentation creates a waste-like by-product called lactic acid.

Training the body to handle heightened levels of lactic acid can lead to greater performance in short duration. But lactic acid in blood plasma is significantly elevated during stressful situations. There is also a connexion between adrenaline and lactic acid – when the body starts to produce the hormone adrenaline in a flight or fight/stressful situation, adrenaline directly increases lactate release. But not to create more waste, our bodies are far too smart for this – increased lactate production seems to be an evolutionary protective mechanism which facilitates bioenergetic efficiency in muscle and other organs.

I suggest combining physical yoga with physical exercise which increases your heart rate up to 80% of your MHR on regular bases. Or in other words – make yourself pant, sweat and your heart race fast from time to time. My main complement to yoga is interval running. Whatever you prefer, do it wisely, especially if stressed by work, consult a PT or an expert who can help you design your own training practice. And if you want to deepen yourself in yoga, go beyond the physical asana (positions) and pranayama (breathing) realm. Who said that going up the mountain is easy? But before you can go down, you need to climb up the mountain, right?

Kairi

Additional links:

• https://www.fitness19.com/aerobic-and-anaerobic-exercise-what-is-the-difference/
  https://www.medicinenet.com/aerobic_exercise/article.htm#what_are_the_health_benefits_of_aerobic_exercise
• Target heartbeat calculator – https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/heartrate
• Brain electrical activities of dancers and fast ball sports athletes are different  – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378580/
• https://www.verywellfit.com/what-is-the-aerobic-zone-3436575
• https://kairiilison.com/2016/06/20/what-would-your-muscles-tell-you-if-you-had-time-to-listen/

The older I get the more I notice how lack of sleep can turn me into a completely different person – easily irritated, more emotional, tired, insecure and oversensitive to external stimuli. It causes lots of incoherent noise in the head and obstructs logical reasoning. I know that in some yoga styles you are expected to start your yoga practice with or even before the sunrise. My biological needs have never allowed me to accommodate this to my practice. I do not function well if my sleep is disrupted and this goes in fact for all of us regardless of age and sex.

Based on what contemporary researchers have discovered about how the lack of sleep affects us, there should be nothing more important than to let the brain and body get those 7-9 hours of rest. But often we choose to downplay the healing effects of a good night sleep. I will not focus on the reasons why because they are individual, but rather share the latest insights into the effects of a good sleep and sleep deprivation.

 

Women need more sleep and are susceptible to depression when in short of sleeping hours

One important thing for women to be aware of is that we need more sleep than men. This is a biological requirement found out in the studies where women and men have been able to create their own sleeping patterns. As a result, women choose a pattern where they prefer to sleep ca 1 hour longer (up to 9 hours) than men (up to 8 hours). Another finding is that when women’s sleep is disrupted, they are much more prone to depression. This makes me wonder how Mother Nature developed the mother and baby relationship after giving birth when the majority women loose out on a good night sleep. It obviously suggested using the time during the day for power naps when the baby is asleep. But young mothers rarely use the daytime for sleep. So perhaps this is the reason why more than a third of all new mothers nowadays will develop PPD (Postpartum Depression) – they simply get extremely sleep deprived which in turn affects their mental state.

Moving on to the topic of power naps – there seems to be a good reason to have a siesta. In 2007 a study on 24 000 people in different ages conducted during 6 years’ period found out that those who regularly took power naps where less likely to die from heart disease. People who took 3 naps per week lasting ca 30 minutes had 37% reduced risk of heart disease. Power naps seemed to keep the stress hormones in check and blocked the deterioration of performance. I interpret this as additional advice for mothers with small children to take power naps during the day. If their lifestyle allows it.

Tired people make stupid decisions

Investigations on how sleep affects our behavior when we have a sleepless night have shown that first if affects our emotional behavior. Then it impairs our judgement and neutral is not neutral any longer (in the brain there is a region called amygdala which starts having problems with control of emotions after a sleepless night). Additionally, problems to distinguish between fact and fiction occur and should sleepless nights persist, it finally starts to affect our memory. Should a sleep deprived person testify in court, they can give a false testimony (judges usually do not ask how many hours the witness slept though).

The brain is moving short-term items to the long-term memory during the sleep, especially during the first half of the night. When our rest is disrupted, our brain is crammed with yesterday’s news. Even provocative images are easier to handle with good sleep as it dampens emotional response.

For REM sleep those last hours in the morning are vital

REM or rapid eye movement sleep is when we dream. As sleep occurs in ca 90 min cycles, REM sleep increases with every cycle through the night. By the morning we spend most of the 90 minutes in REM sleep. It has been discovered that REM supports creativity and response to emotional reactions so if we wake up to the alarm clock thinking that we do not really want to wake up yet, we get dream deprived. Note that there is a difference in being sleep deprived and dream deprived. But both can have consequences, especially to our emotional well-being and in case of REM sleep, even to creativity. The effects of dream deprivation are subtler, though.

There’s more to the gut feeling than just the gut

The brain and the gut are connected as a large number or neurons control the messaging of different stimuli between the brain and the gut.

You know from personal experience that thinking about food when hungry can make your stomach growl and mouth water. This is a mutual relationship. A troubled intestine can also send signals to the brain. People with stomach problems may have also difficulties with emotions. Intestinal distress can cause mental anxiety. It is worthwhile to check out this relationship and sometimes one may realize the cause of distress may not sit in the head but in the stomach.

Biological clock changes over time and yes, teenagers need to wake up later and go to bed later

Our biological clock changes over time and even though this topic has been raised, there is still too little done to help the teenagers to cope with the fact that their bedtimes and waking times get later in puberty. Waking up 7 o’clock in the morning feels for them line 5 o’clock. This rhythm changes after we get about 20 years old (different in men and women, for women the reversing starts ca 1 year earlier than for men). What has also been discovered is that teenagers need 9 hours of sleep or they get moody, grumpy, angry or stressed. To cope with the modern lifestyle, teenagers have started to increasingly use stimulants to compensate for the lack of sleep. I see with growing concern more and more youngsters with energy drinks, some of them containing substances like taurine which is a neurotransmitter and which has been found to have a bad effect on a developing brain especially if used together with caffeine and alcohol.

Yoga and sleep are interconnected

Yoga and sleep are very much connected. There are techniques in yoga which support the equivalents of power naps in a yogic way. But even some yoga styles may disrupt sleep. Especially if you are expected to do your sun salutations at 5 a.m. As described above, regardless of the reason why we are encouraged to wake up before our biological clock, this should be avoided by all of us who lead a modern lifestyle out of sync with our biological rhythm.

And then there are the brain waves. I have blogged about the importance of running on lower frequencies, so I will not repeat this story. Just good to know that the lowest frequency brainwave (which even slows down the metabolism and induces healing and growth of tissues) – delta brain wave – is active in deep sleep and even in deep meditation. There is a connection with delta brainwave activity and sleep – if delta activity is disrupted so is the sleep. And our memory will deteriorate should this disruption be of a long-term kind.

And just as I was writing this, one more article on sleep research caught my eye. A recent research in the US showed that people who get less than 7 hours at night are more likely to have mood and mental health problems. So. Whatever you do, think twice before you stay up late and wake up too early. As a parent – ensure that your child or children get a good night sleep. Tired brain = tired life, well-rested brain = happy life…

Special thanks to Jaak T Arendi for helping me to illustrate this post with his amazing photos!

Kairi

*This blog post has among other things been inspired by multiple articles which have previously been published in New Scientist.

More reading:
Harvard Health Publishing – the brain and gut connection
Is taurine in energy drinks dangerous?

Have you met a superhuman on a street? At work? In your family? Most of us are common people – we all have our own talents but none of us can fly, none of us can walk on the water and none of us can pull out metal claws out from their hands and shred someone into pieces (thank goodness). But it also shows a massive conflict between reality and wishful thinking. A conflict we have created by worshipping those multitalented, always in their prime, never aging, superfit and superhealthy role models. And yet we know that everyone who has an adjective “mega”, “super”, “star”, “top” has a disclaimer – it comes at a terrible cost.

I am very sorry that Aviici died so young (28). But then I am also sorry for all other young and talented artists who are glorified, turned into mini gods or saints and leave this world far too early because they cannot handle their fame. I am sorry that these talented people get consumed by less talented people around them. What disturbs me even more is that “normal people” painstakingly refuse to accept famous people as ordinary people. They demand fairy-tales. They renounce that superstars get tired and that they also want to go to the toilet and pee.

We all contribute to this pop culture where it is not OK to be normal. Extraordinary powers is a must. Most of the films with record number of viewers contain heroes with supernormal abilities. As a top athlete, you are expected to break records, does not matter if you do it with the help of some prohibited substance or not. A new trend has emerged in the entertainment business – to spot top talents so the Youtube is filled with wonderchildren who can do amazing things. Everybody is clapping and cheering but have you wondered what becomes of those children afterwards? Are they happy when their dreams (or  their parents’ dreams) come true? Will they be able to handle their lives under constant pressure of elevated attention?

The world we live in provides us tools to consume but it rarely provides us good mental habits and thinking patterns that help us make sense of the most important rule of life and living. Balance. Why do we always strive away from it? And why do we accept this constant brainwash from the media, social media, friends, colleagues, relatives – that it is OK to demand too much from others without giving back. I really have started to get sick of this consumerist world where every living thing has a price tag.

So how can we prevent more Aviicis from dying at an early age? We should not expect them to perform over 300 gigs per year and force them continue when they already have had life-threatening health conditions. We should not expect top athletes to test another still not illegal substance to boost their performance so they break. Masses are watching TV, eating junk food and yelling at their heroes to do more, spring faster, jump higher as if we really had the right to do it. It does not even occur to us that we do not. We should kill the myth of Santa Clause (yes, it is just another angle of the same problem – lying and deceiving and creating a superhero regardless of how noble the ends are). Managers of famous people should provide their clients therapists – psychologists and mental coaches who help them cope with a stardom which has more faults than virtues (except for money which obviously is not a solution and will not buy the client a panacea that will cure all their health problems). And please stop wooing over young kids who hardly know themselves why they stand in the spotlight with tearful fame-hungry parents on the back-stage or in front row. By the time these kids are grown-ups, their minds are so twisted that they have no joy of life left.

If there is anything we have too little in this world – it is balance. Mental, physical, social, societal, environmental. Pop culture is just one example where we show our endless lust to go into extremes. We can change this and make this world a much healthier place for you and me and our children. Are you ready to renounce your superheroes?

Kairi

Previous blogpost: Meditation continued: Standing on one limb can be quite unstable

Some people who practice ashtanga yoga may perhaps know that ashta means number eight in Sanskrit. What is more, ashtanga yoga is claimed to be the “original” yoga. This is where opinions and beliefs may divert from the facts but I understand that it is kind of nice to believe that you practice “superior yoga”. Like the Jews may believe that they are the God’s chosen people.

What is perhaps less known is that yoga, according to the most acknowledged source, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, also consists of eight limbs. Please note that the two limbs most commonly known in the yoga practicing communities – Asana and Pranayama – are not coming first in the list of the eight limbs. They are preceded by:

• YAMA – Restraints, moral disciplines or moral vows, the foundation of spiritual life for a yogi including non-harming, non-stealing and truthfulness.
• NIYAMA – Positive duties or observances or rule of conduct. Yama and Niyama are interrelated – it is a moral code (Yama) which one puts into practice through niyama. One can learn from self-study, for example, how far one has advanced with truthfulness or non-violence.

And only now we come to:

• ASANA – Posture, the physical yoga we know best because almost every posture in Sanskrit ends with the word “asana”. Trikonasana, Eko Pada Rajakapotasana, Parvsottanasana, Dandasana, Sirasana, etc, etc
• PRANAYAMA – Breathing techniques. The knowledge that breath plays the key role in yoga is widely known. Asanas are mostly practiced together with pranayama.

Could this affect the quality of yoga that the first two limbs are overlooked and not so well distinguishable in the contemporary yoga world which is transfixed on physical yoga? Yes, absolutely. But there are more limbs to be aware of:

• PRATYAHARA – Sense withdrawal. This means narrowing one’s senses to what is going on inside of oneself. Being able to listen to one’s heartbeat, being able to eliminate the noises around by stopping listening to them.
• DHARANA – Focused concentration
• DHYANA – Contemplation or meditation, also called effortless concentration.
• And the final limb of the eight – SAMADHI – Enlightenment. A state of being totally aware of the present moment, being one with it.

When we look at meditation in this context, it is surrounded by much more substance to take in. But this substance also helps to give meditation a bigger meaning and a clearer understanding. I am a firm believer that safe meditation can be practiced as part of the eight limb yoga. It is possible in other ways too, most certainly. But the Patanjali way is definitely safer than cutting off one limb and trying to make it work without the seven. Without Pranayama, Asana, Yama, Niyama, Pratyahara, Dharana and Samadhi meditation may be like a homeopathic pill – diluted. Sometimes it works but sometimes it does not. Believing plays equal role to the act of administrating the pill.

Several years ago I participated in a Yoga Nidra training which lasted for about four (4) days. It is a technique which puts people into hypnagogic dream and works with the subconscious part of the mind. I remember thinking – this here is a serious and complicated psychological tool. I had full trust that the teacher knew what she was up to – she was amazing and had full control of the technique.  But I doubt that the ca 30 yoga teachers who participated, including me, left the training after four days in a complete mastery of this tool. Hopefully no brain has been harmed and no state of mind fucked up by any of us who has put the technique to use. I have actually not dared to use the full specter of what I learned at this training until now.

As a yoga instructor, you are sometimes taught yoga techniques during a very short time which means that the training ends before you fully understand and grasp them. If you were a psychiatrist, nobody would take you seriously if you start receiving patients after half a year of studies. But as a yoga teacher you turn to a doctor, psychologist and a therapist after about 200 hours, sometimes even less if you do not want to invest your time and money to be Yoga Alliance certified.

No contraindications when you put some people into a trans-like state? Hmm… I saw some of the participants getting wild emotional outbursts, crying or laughing in an unrestrained manner.  It is often said in yoga that when people lose control over their feelings, this is how you start to release your tensions. This is the start of your healing process, you are assured. I call it an understatement. More than just the release of tensions happens when you start influencing people’s thinking patterns and consciousness.  It is rather programming or deprogramming the mind. We are not alike, some people are more susceptible to hypnosis. For some it takes one sniff of coke to turn into an addict. Some people need a higher dose of a painkiller in order not to feel pain. When you are testing out techniques which tweak your mind, you have to be very careful. Your limits are not known beforehand. Nobody can tell you in advance how it will work out for you. When you are susceptible, you start to act according to the “expected” behavior and launch the self-fulfilling prophesy.

The brain changes physically each time when we learn a new skill. Meditation is also a new skill. Therefore the studies which conclude that the brain changes after a course on meditation prove what is already known. More about other studies  can be read in my previous blog post about meditation.

Meditation is not something that can be bought and consumed as a product. This, more than anything else, triggers of the dark side of meditation.

Let’s try to differentiate between side effects and true purposes of meditation:

Relieve anxiety – side effect
Calm down – side effect
Enjoy sense of freedom – side effect
Learn something new about yourself – side effect
Feel bliss – side effect
Experience being in the now – yes
Improve focus – yes
Show more compassion/love – yes in some meditation type
Be more self aware – yes
Complement your yoga practice – yes
Reduce fluctuations of mind (brain wave frequencies) – yes
Feel the union with the universe – illusionary effect of body and mind as certain regions in the brain either decrease or increase their activity to allow to experience this sensation
Know your true self – imaginary purpose, regardless of whether you like it or not, you are always your true self

Adverse effects of meditation:

When there is a tremendous expectation that meditation can be good for you, people silence some warning signals inside them. It is possible to unwillingly program the mind during meditation for behaviors/outbursts/actions taken outside the yoga/meditation class without being aware of this happening. And equally important to consider – meditation loses its effect when we start attributing values to meditation experience and become emotionally attached.

To cut the long story short, to be on the safe side, treat meditation as part of the eight limbs of yoga. It is a solid stand when you have more limbs than one to rely on. Standing on one limb can be quite unstable.

Kairi

More reading:

• https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/22/seven-myths-about-meditation
• http://www.health.com/mind-body/can-meditation-trigger-panic-attacks-the-weird-effect-making-news
• https://thehumanist.com/magazine/september-october-2007/features/can-meditation-be-bad-for-you
• http://www.wiseattention.org/blog/2014/03/24/rude-awakenings-zen-at-war/
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_at_War
• https://liveanddare.com/types-of-meditation

Is there a medicine that cures all ills? So far it has not been invented but with the raise of the popularity of yoga, meditation has been turned into a panacea by people who earn big money on it. It is commonly believed that it has a miraculous power to open the gate to inner peace, happiness and enlightenment. But it can also turn people into killing machines (Japan II WW) or disturb their mental health to the point they become anxious, confused or even suicidal.

Don’t you just start to wonder about things which are marketed to you as purely good, very effective, with almost instant change for the positive and no negative side effects? I do, especially after years of dealing with yoga and meditation and having seen weird things happening around me on the yoga mat.

Negative effects are unfortunately too little discussed as they do not fit into the overly positive mainstream rhetoric about yoga and meditation.  I do not want to say that meditation in general does not have a positive end purpose for the individuals who practice it regularly. My point is – meditation is it is not a miracle ailment that suits everyone at all times. And to make the matters worse, capitalistic brains around the globe have managed to commercialize, decontextualize and deliberately misinterpret this powerful tool for the mind.

More and more people meditate without taking the time to understand what they expose themselves to. I feel concerned. But not just me. Two psychologists, one a heavy meditator himself, wrote the book – The Buddha Pill published in 2015 / which somewhat disparately but objectively displays both the dark and light side of meditation.

To start with, the research on meditation is almost invariably positive wherever you go and read. But the authors of the book found out, when diligently digging into the reports, that a big lot of this material is biased. Many reports were based on somewhat flawed (no control group) or inaccurate research methods. They even found the evidence that the statistics used in some reports was tweaked in order to prove the positive hypothesis.

When I lately looked up the articles on meditation published in one of my favourite magazines -New Scientist I found that quite many of the positive ones had a disclaimer that more studies and further analyses had to be done before the assertions could be proved for sure.

Is meditation generally positive or negative?

Meditation in general does have positive effects but the results of a regular practice are comparable with other therapies which aim to heal people’s anxiety, depression or compulsive behaviour. Meditation is not necessarily better than those other techniques. In addition, all depends what type of meditation you are into. The vast yoga world hosts a multitude of different styles and techniques. Some are intended to work with the subconscious mind or put people into a hypnagogic state.

Regardless of how experienced yogi you are, strange things may happen during and after meditation. If you feel like you are not fully inside your body or are disconnected from your emotions or cannot deal with them anymore, it may be OK if it lasts for a brief while. But living like that for days is not OK. Both experienced and inexperienced meditators have needed medical and psychological intervention after yoga retreats where they were exposed to extensive meditation. They don’t yoke anymore – get panic attacks or strange sensations. And they don’t want to openly talk about it. This is not supposed to happen – meditation is supposed to be only positive phenomenon which only brings peace and enlightenment, right?

How can you protect yourself and others?

Big amounts of stress should not be countered with big amounts of meditation

If you are stressed, close to a burn-out or have recently been though one and believe that meditation is something to try, start with small doses. Start with breath awareness. Dosing meditation is similar with taking a medicine – avoid large portions at once. Several days spent meditating at a retreat as a newcomer to the yoga world can be like drinking a full bottle of tranquilizers. Whatever your teachers tell you – the fact is that we still know far too little about what happens with the brain and body during meditation. They are not always able to guarantee a safe experience.

Stop when you get scared or strange sensations confuse you

If you come to a point where you get scared, it is time to stop. If you start to panic during meditation, stop immediately. When the teacher(s) tell you to continue and promise that it will go over, do not continue. It may not go over.

Start regularly and with small doses

No one expects to start composing music like Mozart or play violin like Yehudi Menuhin after a week of training. But for some reason we expect to turn into meditation gurus within a couple of weeks. Wrong assumption – it takes years of regular practice. You cannot take one big meditation pill once and expect it to last your whole lifetime. You need to keep doing it regularly. Like you brush your teeth every day. Or go for a jogging every week.

Find a good teacher

Find a good yoga and meditation teacher who you can trust. Easier said than done. Certified by Yoga Alliance is good but not always sufficient, a guru or a Hollywood hyped yoga instructor is not always a safe bet. A good yoga teacher is not necessarily in fashion and does not need to recite you the list of famous people that are his/her clients. The quality of yoga teachers and different meditations that serve different purposes is varied. Choose carefully and do some homework. Try several teachers and meditation types before you stick to one.

Choose the mediation that suits your needs

There are different meditation techniques like there are countless yoga styles. Here are just a few examples:

• Mindfulness – focus on the present moment – awareness and acceptance (of thoughts and feelings during present moment)
• Compassion/love meditation – focus on breath, calmness and love (different versions out there, some religious so be careful when you choose)
• Kriya or mantra meditation – breathing and focus complemented with sounds (Om) or repeated words/sentences in Sanskrit, can sometimes be complemented with chakra meditation
• Chakra meditation – focus on calm breath and 7 energy centres in the body, (different versions out there so be careful when you choose)
• Zen meditation – self-study in stillness

All meditation techniques, as quite recently proven, seem to activate different parts of the brain and lead to different results. The heart meditation works more with feelings whereas mindfulness can improve attention control. Surprisingly, the heart meditation seems to decrease the activity in the part of the brain responsible for visual and special orientation so this could be the reason why over-practicing this technique may lead to feeling disoriented or “part of everything” in the end of the session.

Tania Singer is a social neuroscientist and the lead researcher of the study which looked at the effects of three different meditation techniques on the brains and bodies of more than 300 volunteers over 9 months (ReSource Project at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany). Due to different effects on the brain Tania concluded, that meditation courses should be better designed for specific outcomes, just as exercise programmes might target certain physical weaknesses.

The contemporary yoga/meditation “market” of is not sufficiently mature for an unbiased individual approach. But there is a huge demand out there for adaptive meditation classes which take into consideration different needs. I am confident that those who smell money are already working on a concept of a meditation wholesale store. Today you can get lost in the abundance of different body treatments in a spa which range between anything from classical massage to Chinese, Thai, hot stone or Ayurvedic massage. In the future you will have a similar situation when you want to learn to meditate.

I will continue writing on the topic of meditation in my next blog, stay tuned!

Kairi

Living and observing us, humans, oftentimes reminds me of this anecdote: A missionary travelling to a place where there used to be cannibals and asking a local if they had finally got rid of this atrocity. “Yes”, the local cheerfully answers. “There are no cannibals left. We ate the last one yesterday!”

This topic has been fascinating me for a long time – the irrational behaviour of homo sapiens. Irrational both on and off the yoga mat. I would like to write about satya which means truth or truthfulness in Sanskrit. It is one of the five yamas or in other words, ethical rules for yogis. Like ten commandments but condensed into five. Don’t be disillusioned that yoga has a simpler moral code than Christianity. In addition to 5 yamas or “don’t do this”, there are 5 niyamas or practices of “do this”. And in addition to yamas and niyamas there are six more limbs of yoga. Yoga consists in total of eight limbs. It has a special relationship with number eight. When you turn eight lying on the side, it turns into infinity. But today I want to write about satya which means being true to oneself, being consistent with reality.

If people were practically minded and would not accept the distortion of the truth, Hollywood would be bankrupt of would not even exist. We would throw books with fairy-tales to the bin. So why do we rather believe in fairy tales than the truth? We know that our experience is dependent on our mental state. Even the most analytical of us slip from time to time and enjoy moments, films, you name it which are larger than life.  And not only this but why our five senses – seeing, touching, tasting, feeling, hearing – can lure us and distort reality? As the five senses have evolved together with us, the fact that they trick us on daily bases should evolutionally have a competitive edge. It is just that after all those years of existing and researching, we still do not know exactly why it is OK that we do not see or feel things the way they really are.

On the other hand, perhaps this gave us the edge that has made us the most dangerous and dominant species on earth. We are the most adaptable of all species – put a baby chimp and a small child together and the child soon masters the chimp ways, not vice versa. As children, we learn by playing, by combining a reality with different alternatives to it. So perhaps, when we get older and stop playing, we start fusing play and reality. We start to live in a bubble, an alternative to the reality. We may call it our personal reality if we like.

Truth is challenging. We lie constantly. To ourselves, to our dearest ones, to strangers. We lie in FB, we lie in newspapers. People with power and money lie to the whole nations. Lying is embedded in what we do and I guess there is none in the world who has never lied in her/his life.

And then these people meet on the yoga mat. And…. keep lying. Just by switching the reality, we cannot change our nature. A very easy manifestation of not being able to follow satya is that often people hurt themselves when practicing yoga. They go too deep and approach yoga practice as if it were a sport with the primary aim to test one’s limits. The idea of yoking disappears in this mental battle where the mind tells the body to shut up and just perform. What I am trying to say is that there is real balance and there is the illusionary balance. People usually start to practice yoga in search of a balance. But  they end up chasing the illusionary balance, another bubble to hide in.

Social media has done a lot of good things, I hope. But the way yoga is popularized in the social media, is not about sharing the yoga passion but rather about marketing, ego tripping or promoting consumerism. And none of it really matches with the idea of satya. If I buy new yoga mat, how does it improve my yoga experience? If I take a yoga retreat – will I be able to be this better and balanced person after I come back to meet my prosaic life? Yoga is not entertainment but like with most of the things in the social media, we have started to treat this amazing phenomenon like a product we can consume. The difference is that the products we consume wear out whereas yoga, when practiced regularly and with eight limbs, fortunately improves over time.

When I direct my attention towards myself, I realise how little I know. And I painfully realise how all I know about the world and the things around me are put to a test. But when I add yoga as a coefficient, I start to come out of my bubble. The reality becomes less distorted and the world, beyond our limited understanding, starts to make sense. Yoga is a way to glimpse satya, the truth.

When I teach yoga, I focus on the positive. But the truth is neither positive nor negative. The balance is neither + nor -. Whatever is your truth, whichever bubble you live in, I hope that you did not eat the last cannibal yesterday…

 

Further reading:

5-mind-blowing-ways-your-senses-lie-to-you-every-day