Category: Ann Grace Yoga

Ann Grace Yoga, Meditation, Yoga for Everybody, Yoga Nidra

A Guide to Intention Setting

Ann

If you’ve ever been asked to form an intention during a yoga class or meditation exercise, and found yourself floundering or resisting the request, you’re not alone. Me too, friend. Once I tried Yoga Nidra, however, I was hooked on intention-setting. I learned that the purpose is not to manifest your wishes out of thin air, but to create strength in the structure of the mind. Studies that used such intentions during meditation have shown that cognitive restructuring processes are stimulated.

While it’s better to try and find your intention (or sankalpa) in the relaxed state, some of us can get very distracted trying to find the right one during practice. To assist my Yoga Nidra practice, I sat down and did some journaling to get me started. Here’s what I came up with:

Step by Step: Finding the Seeds of Intention

  • Close your eyes and think of your current daily life.
  • Create a list of “wants” and “needs” — stay away from the trivial, go for the deep.
  • Take a break from your list and come back to it a day later.
  • When you come back to that list of wants and needs, what stands out as the most challenging, or maybe even a little scary? (Mine are highlighted in pink.)
  • Create an intention that is short, positive and present tense surrounding that.
REST AND MANIFEST – meets live on Zoom once a month

While you can set intentions at any time, they are more effective when they’re planted into a very relaxed mind. That’s where Yoga Nidra comes in. Yoga Nidra contains a systematic sequence of body awareness and breathing that can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and increase the amount of alpha-waves in the brain – a perfect time to plant those seeds! That little bit of pre-journaling work you did while in a more conscious state might help you refine your intention once you enter alpha states.

A Few More Examples “in the Moment”

  • If you experience stress and frustration: “I am calm and patient”
  • If you are scattered: “I am present”
  • If you experience illness or disease: “I am healthy and whole”
  • If you’re feeling vulnerable: “I am safe”
  • If you feel isolated: “I am connected”
  • If you experience turbulent emotions: “I am content”
  • If you have trouble sleeping: “I sleep soundly and wake refreshed”

You can use the same sankalpa for a while, and then because we are ever-changing, over time your sankalpa may change too. If you’re stuck in a rut, maybe Yoga Nidra could help. I’m not promising personal transformation, but it’s just possible that like me, you have never really explored your subconscious and practiced opening up your mind-space, allowing it to wander. Plant your intention into this open, liberated mind-space, and trust that the suggestion will take root and grow.

Join me for a live Zoom session once a month, on second Sunday of each month at 4pm Eastern Standard Time. FREE for health care workers and those affected by Waldenstrom’s.

Resources:

Through the practice of yoga nidra, we are not only relaxing, but restructuring and reforming our whole personality from within. Like the mythological phoenix, with every session we are burning the old samskaras, habits and tendencies in order to be born anew.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati
Ann Grace Yoga, Breathing Exercises, Grounding

Ujjayi Breath for Calm Focus

Ann

Ujjayi breath is a common yogic breathing technique where a soft oceanic sound is created by constricting the vocal folds in the throat. Also called Victorious Breath, it sounds like a faraway ocean, or your fans cheering for you! Try Ujjayi Breath for calm focus as you sit in meditation, practice yoga, or go about your day as a way to keep you anchored in the present moment.

I was taught Ujjayi breath in one of the very first yoga classes I ever attended, and although it took a little while for me to figure out how to find ease with it, now it’s become my number one tool in my conscious breathing toolbox. It’s also a gateway to controlling your breath for better respiratory function, improving blood pressure and overall quality of life. There are even some studies that connect Ujjayi breath with better immune function in cancer patients. Personally I use it to stay present, and to help lengthen my breath with smooth control, in order to regulate my own nervous system.

Ujjayi breath has a very soft sound to it. This sound is creating by lightly constricting the throat, or vocal folds, as if you were whispering or fogging up a windowpane. Except the mouth is closed. The sound itself is very calming and light, never forced. Never as loud as Darth Vader’s breathing.

Because it is a smooth, controlled breath, practicing Ujjayi can help you avoid gulping air in, or just huffing the air out. In this way we can really explore lengthening the breath, and in turn calming the nervous system. It’s as if you were sipping air slowly through a straw, sweetly savoring it and releasing it out luxuriously, like a stream of oil flowing, smooth and uniform. Even inhale, even exhale.

Ujjayi Pranayama is detailed in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written by Yogi Swatmarama in the 15th century. He writes, “closing the mouth, inhale with control and concentration, so that the breath is felt from the throat to the heart and produces a sonorous sound…it helps relax the physical body and the mind, and develops awareness of the subtle body and psychic sensitivity.”

This oceanic sound really helps you become more conscious of your breath – by itself Ujjayi breath can be a concentration practice. We can also control our breath better, because as we lightly narrow the throat, we’re increasing airway resistance and controlling airflow so that each phase of the breath cycle can be prolonged to an exact count. It helps me breathe more slowly, show up more fully. When we can consciously slow down the breath, or regulate the length of inhalations and exhalations, we can regulate our own nervous systems.

Once you get the hang of Ujjayi breath on its own, see if you can practice Ujjayi breath while doing something else – of course, yoga comes to mind, but maybe you have PT exercises you can add the breath to, or try it while you’re out walking. Let me know how it goes!

Resources:

Exploring the Therapeutic Benefits of Pranayama (Yogic Breathing): A Systematic Review

Ujjayi Pranayama

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Personal Practice over the last 10 years



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Ann Grace Yoga, Breathing Exercises, Yoga, Yoga for Everybody

Hum Your Way to Health with Bee’s Breath

Ann

I discovered Bee’s Breath, or Bhramari Pranayama, many moons ago when it was offered as a tool to help reduce my anxiety. Back then, before I began a regular yoga and breathing practice, sometimes “taking a deep breath” or even focusing on the breath at all wasn’t helpful or made things worse. However, in the first few moments of trying Bee’s Breath, my unhelpful mental thought-loop was literally drowned out by the humming sound I was creating, and its vibration immediately grounded me in my body. I started to feel calm right away, and return to this practice again and again for these benefits.

Bhramari is the Sanskrit word for “bee,” so this meditative breath exercise is named for the humming sound produced: like that of a bee, droning in the garden. As we’re exhaling and creating the droning sound, we’re also lengthening our exhalations – which in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the side in charge of “resting, digesting, and healing.”

But wait, there’s more! I recently learned that humming could also improve immunity, by releasing a beneficial gas called Nitric Oxide into the system (NO.) NO is a critical component in the eradication of viruses.

Here’s how it works:  Nasal NO levels increase dramatically during humming compared with normal quiet nasal exhalation. This effect is likely due to increased contribution of NO from the paranasal sinuses. Humming causes the air to oscillate, which in turn seems to increase the exchange of air between the sinuses and the nasal cavity.

However, to receive the full anti-viral and anti-bacterial benefits of NO, we need to inhale through the nose after the humming is finished, to draw the NO back into the respiratory tract via the bronchial passageways. Nitric Oxide is a free, naturally produced, anti-viral, anti-bacterial gas and can be made available at any time!

Bee’s Breath Potential Benefits

•      Calms and quiets the mind
•      Releases Nitric Oxide into the nasal passages, NO is naturally anti-viral and anti-microbial
•      Improves immunity
•      Increases lung capacity
•      Initiates the “Rest, Digest, and Heal Response,” lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and calming nervous system
•      May aid in loosening blockage from the sinuses

Bee’s Breath may also have a positive effect on tinnitus, bolster the health of the throat, and strengthen and improve the voice. Practicing for at least 5 minutes may help you achieve a more meditative state. Try it with me in the video below, and let me know how it goes.

How to Practice Bee’s Breath:

  1. Sit comfortably but upright, with a stable foundation to support you.
  2. You can rest one hand on the heart, another on the belly if you want to really feel the vibration of the hum.
  3. If it’s comfortable you could close your eyes, or gaze softly downwards.
  4. Gently close the lips, and try to keep the jaw relaxed throughout your practice.
  5. To begin, take a deep breath in through the nostrils.
  6. As you slowly exhale with the mouth closed, make a steady, low-pitched ‘hmmm’ sound at the back of the throat—like the humming of a bee. Focus on making the sound soft, smooth, and steady.
  7. When you inhale, be sure to breathe in through the nose, thus distributing the beneficial NO throughout the respiratory system.
  8. Continue for as many repetitions as you like. After the final exhalation, allow your breath to return to normal and observe any effects from your practice.
  9. Maybe you can even feel the vibration continue after you’ve stopped humming!

Let me know how it goes by typing your comments below or on the YouTube video‘s comment section.

Resource Links:

•      Effects of Bhramari Pranayama on health – A systematic review
•      The Effect of Bhramari Pranayama (Bumblebee Breath) on Tinnitus
•      Humming Greatly Increases Nasal Nitric Oxide
•      Nitric oxide and redox mechanisms in the immune response

Ann Grace Yoga, Chair Yoga, Yoga, Yoga for Everybody

Chair Yoga is for Everyone

Ann

My very first yoga teaching job – fresh out of my 200-hour teacher training in 2015 – was to “adapt” vinyasa yoga for folks of varying mobility levels living in a senior assisted living facility. One of the most participatory students was my 97-year old grandmother Ellie, who had been really active all her life but had become confined to a wheelchair. I’ll never forget wondering how I would cue the breath to those who might not be able to hear – so I made a sign attached to a paddle: one side said “Breathe In;” the other said “Breathe Out.”

In chair yoga, we move the spine in all directions. We breathe a lot too.

The experience was so much fun, so rewarding, so challenging and so humbling, that I’ve taught Chair Yoga ever since. And I’ve learned so much from the diverse souls seeking and finding freedom in their bodies and minds through this practice. Because…if you have a body, you can do yoga.

If you can breathe, you can do yoga. Yoga is for everybody.

* Chair Yoga is “real” yoga.
* Chair Yoga moves the spine in all directions.
* Chair Yoga can improve your balance.
* Chair Yoga can provide a “good workout.”
* Chair Yoga includes all limbs of yoga!

Join me LIVE ON ZOOM – Tuesdays at 11am ET. Learn calming breathing practices, refreshing stretches, and specific yoga poses adapted for the chair, including some standing poses which are optional. Cap it off with a relaxation practice and tips for how to take your yoga practice into your everyday routine.

“Yoga is not about having a flexible body; it’s about having a flexible mind, and it’s accessible to all of us.” -Jivana Heyman, author of Accessible Yoga (an indispensable book!)

Ann Grace Yoga, Chakras, Grounding, Yoga, Yoga for Everybody

Getting Grounded

Ann

The human is a finely tuned instrument capable of receiving and transmitting an enormous variety of energies – but you need to plug it in! Grounding is like plugging yourself in to the Earth.

“As a lightning rod protects a building by sending excess voltages into the ground, grounding protects the body from becoming overloaded by the tensions of everyday life,” according to Anodea Judith in her book Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System.

Makes sense to me! I use simple grounding exercises every day to help manage the stresses and challenges of daily living.

5 Take Away Tips to Stay Grounded

  1. Stick to a daily routine
  2. Practice setting healthy boundaries
  3. Sit or lie down and take 5 breaths, feeling your earthward connection
  4. Move your body, go out in nature
  5. Work with your feet – oil feet before bedtime

Grounding starts with your feet, which are your earthward antennae, the foundation of your balance and movement. Try these simple toe exercises to keep your toes in good shape!

Finally, a great way to ground is to actually lie down and do a Yoga Nidra, guided relaxation practice. I recorded this Yoga Nidra with Grounding in mind. Enjoy!

Yoga Nidra – Relax the body and free the mind with Yoga Nidra, the art of conscious relaxation. Today’s recording gently encourages grounded stability, and could be wonderfully healing for any root chakra imbalances.

How do you like to ground yourself?