22 Aug Awakening Your Inner Pharmacy with Amy Weintraub [Oct 8, 2012]
Amy Weintraub is a long time friend who is also one of the most accomplished yoga teachers around. She recently wrote a new book, Yoga Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management. I couldn’t put it down. It was chock full of practice ways of using yoga that I was easily able to share with my clients. To get a 20% coupon click here I recently talked with her about her book. I couldn’t scripple notes fast enough. Her wealth of knowledge and passion about sharing the benefits of yoga are infectious!
Before I forget, make sure you check out her website to see the current trainings and workshops. If you’re in the Boston area, Amy will be leading a one day workshop October 8, 2012 Awakening Your Inner Pharmacy. Come join me there!
Notes from my talk with Amy recently about her book:
Yoga really saved my life. I became passionate about sharing what saved my life, what enabled me to re-engage with meditation after months of not being able to have a regular practice. Yoga gives us a window into infinite possibilities. Whatever story we’re telling ourselves about what has happened to us, what yoga does and gives us. We’re not even talking about the mat or the breathing practices having a practice gives us a window – some clear space and in the clear space there is infinite possibility that life can go on and be so much better.
Life can stir us up and the soothing, calming practices in my new book Yoga Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management give ways to deactivate that limbic brain and help the hippocampus grow.
For example, the smile breath is so simple. When we’re smiling is so effective at changing biochemistry. Lifting the corner of mouths…. Give it a try right now as you reading this. Lift the corners of your mouth and see what happens. What effect does this have on you?
When stuck in sympathetic nervous system we’re way too revved up and hyper vigilant. The Ocean Sounding breath is calming and creates a state of mental vigilance – attention. The breath naturally moves us between parasympathetic and sympathetic.
There are also Kriya practices that are more stimulating that help when we are more depressed, deflated and lethargic. They effect the body’s seat of power and identity and self-esteem. There are kriya breathing practices that can stimulate the solar plexus and can actually put people over the top especially if they are feeling too much activation. If doing it with extreme speed you can create a euphoric breath.
The calming practices are the alternate practices which is pictured in my new book, using left nostril breathing. Inhaling through the left nostril and exhaling through right with a hand mudra is very calming as well. It’s excellent for people who have OCD by focusing and calming the mind. That’s the overview of the different styles, primarily calming or activating with calming afterwards.
Here’s a breathing practice you can try right now: Deep Durga breath. Start by placing one hand on belly. Feel your belly rising. Inhale 2, 3, 4. Exhale drawing the navel back and and then inhale 2, 3, 4, Exhale to the count of 6 – 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 — feel free to modify. An extended exhale is calming to the nervous system.
The way that I teach is that I really like to incorporate visual images which is something yogis have been doing for thousands of years.
Something that is important to remember is that we can dive down too quickly into calming when we’ve been too revved up. I’m thinking of someone I worked with who had a history of trauma. When she first came to me she couldn’t breathe into her belly. Her breathing was a little shaky. Little bit by little bit she could begin to tune in, access her breath and lower and modify her mood.
Another important Yoga Skill is Yoga Nidra which is a way for the mind to relax. Once we’re in the deeply relaxed state we can gently explore more easily the emotion and sensation in the body and the beliefs that are there. What that does is create a tolerance for all the changes that life brings without being caught in the fear.
With that kind of acceptance we step into the fuller awareness, hovering into spacious pure awareness and encompassing the darker and the more positive moods so we don’t get stuck on either side of the spectrum.
Yoga Nidra is a tremendous healing for PTSD especially for anxiety, for times when we can’t sleep. I do Yoga Nidra every day before I get out of bed in the morning. It’s a deeply restful state where we come into a place of wholeness where we are with everything that is arising without reactivity –that’s why it’s being used in the VA hospitals for military.
If you are waking up in the middle of the night try using Yoga Nidra and it will put you in deep spacious state of awareness. [Amy has a wonderful CD on Yoga Nidra which guides you through the process.] On my particular Yoga Nidra. LifeForce Yoga Nidra is a 10 minute practice for insomnia which can be helpful for sleeping or for guided meditation.
There’s cd’s for sale on her website, DVD’s with sound and breath. You can actually get 20% discount on the new book. There’s a coupon code there to use.
For more information you can sign up for Amy’s ezine which she publishes monthly with tips and research on yoga. All copies are archived on her website: www.yogafordepression.com