Loving Kindness for self

Live in the Now

I was teaching a yoga class this week and was sharing a portion of Eric Schiffmann’s work “Moving into Stillness”.  The paragraph I was reading had to do with shifting from thinking mode into feeling mode to live in the now.  I love this precept and many of the students did as well.

Afterwards a student came up to me and said, “I don’t like that idea of living in the now.”

I laughed, mentioned yes it can be a struggle and went to the washroom.  While I was in there I started wondering what she really meant.  I had to find out.

“What did you mean by that?”  I asked.

“Well, my Mom had Alzheimer’s disease and she lived every moment in the now.”  She replied.  “She only knew the now, no past, no future.  We were thankful on some levels because when we told her my dad (her husband) had died she simply said oh that’s too bad.  There was no pain, no recollection.  It could have been anyone who died.  But then we’d say things like I love you Mom and she’d say I love you back without even knowing who we were.”

Interesting.

It was then time to teach meditation and my mind was still whirling from the 5 minute conversation.

“Is living in the now important?”  I asked the group.

“Oh yes,” was their vibrant response.

“I don’t know of any other way to live!” replied another.

“Is living in the now a bad thing?”  I was still trying to get my mind around how the ‘now’ could be bad beyond dealing with the obvious issues of the disease.

“Is this a trick question?” asked one.

I told them I would explain in a moment, as I was simply working on figuring a conversation out, but was very curious what they thought about living in the now.

“That’s the bad thing with kids then,” Suggested another student.  “They are always spending all of their time focusing on what to do in the future.. planning, planning and more planning so they never live in the now.”

“Not that you are wrong,” I explained.  “But planning is a necessity.  It is about being present with what they are doing.”

Then a lightbulb went off!

“That’s it!  We have to be present.  Someone with Alzheimer’s is not present.  They are not even ‘in there’ for the most part.

So instead of thinking of living in the now maybe we need to shift this for some and say be present in the now.  Our gift of presence is key.  Whew.. took me awhile, but now I’ve got it!  I’ll have to remember to pass this along to her.

Inversions and Menstruation

I just posted a video on my YouTube channel about sleeping and how to help with sleep.  And one thing I mentioned was legs up to help relax the body.  Which leads to the question…

Is it safe for me to do Legs up the wall or Shoulderstand during my monthly cycle?

Ok, here’s the thing about Shoulder stand (Sarvangasana), Legs up the wall (Viparita Karani) or any inversion really when it comes to your period.

If you have a scanty period or if you are wanting to bring on your period (say it’s late with no chance of being pregnant) then you may want to do these asanas (poses).

However if you have a heavy flow already, then stay away from them.  Wait until your period is finished.

Here’s why…

When we do inversions the blood that pools into the legs is sent back to the heart to be replenished with fresh oxygenated blood.  However during you’re period it will increase the blood flow.  It’s not necessarily dangerous by any means, but if you do not want more blood flow, then it’s best to avoid doing it.

Basically think of gravity.  Take a half full (optimistic thinking… lol) bottle of water and turn it upside down – obviously all of the water will flow to the bottom.  Same thing goes when we do inversions.

Now some people even have this ‘issue’ when it comes to little bridge pose (Setu bhandasana) so it too is a pose you may wish to avoid.

Most women however will not have increased flow (that is noticable anyhow) from little bridge, but will definitely notice it from the other postures mentioned.

So as I said, if you’re period is late or if you wish more flow then by all means get those legs up!  But if not… well… there you go.