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Marie's Blog on Ayurveda & Yoga
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Marie Mills: Posted on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 4:20 PM
To all those who so kindly commented on the few blogs I posted last year!... Jeepers I must apologise, i didnt quite have the blog settings correct, and so missed all the posts....which are now lost. Heavy sigh! but I am hoping it is all corrected now, and hopefully the blog will be running better, I am still struggling with the rss feeds, but shall try to have it sorted sooner, rather than later. Hugs to all those who have helped, may we all be well,  marie ...am plan to jump in a vat of sesame oil to reduce my Vata now...am thinking a coffee will be the last thing I need! |
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Marie Mills Yoga Ayur: Posted on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 11:51 AM
 Pratyahara is the refinement of our Five senses. There is much we can do to awaken our mind through our senses. But the most active of all practices? To shift our mind into a new space... is to reduce the barage of information and excitement coming to us through the day via our senses. Quieting the mind involves reducing our involvement in the modern world experiential way of life, and making time to just sit and wait. Our senses our what the world meets first, so it is the senses which need to be retrained to seek less and to be content with what comes to them, rather than grasping for more. Just for a moment, Sit and breathe. See where your skin feels the moment, what sounds come to your ears, what taste is now in your mouth, added to the smell in our nose, and what meets your eyes at this moment. And breathe and wait. |
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Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 11:33 AM
This modern world does love packaging. I told a friend today that the the Secret is out! The Secret being the amazing miracle of correct breathing. It has finally reached the modern world, and even newspapers are writing colums on this age old tradition of stress management. It is being called all sorts of different things, with different names and different techniques associated with the teachings, but when it comes down to it...it is the Essential Breath, and to soothe the body and mind it takes practice and patience. It can be like a new awakening for those learning how Self help has been with them all the time...but this knowledge is only good if you know it! A bit like that gameshow, 'Who want to be a Millionaire?' ...its only easy if you know the answer. And the more the answer to Stress management spreads, the better our thought processes and understanding as we move into life will be. It is great to see the packaging of specific breathing techniques magnificent claims of healing for many various ailment to name a few: coughing, wheezing, breathlessness, post nasal drip, recurrent colds and chest infections, stress, anxiety, brain fog, panic attacks, headaches, racing mind, tiredness....the list is endless to be honest. Yes indeed! Just as all the modern packaging says...physical ailments can be alleviated if not reversed (but leaving some samskara in place) with better breathing and awareness. In Ayurveda and Yoga this has been said, but the most important fact and the most difficult to develop is that it requires consistent daily practice. I do like reading packaging, and often wonder about the claims placed on some...but I trust the claims on breathing practices, but do be wary....Ayurveda and Yoga can see that some breathing practices are too harsh and forceful for certain body types, and will create stress rather than relieve it. With Ayurveda it is not always about the short term result, but there is the long term effect as well, so you may be well able to practice a restrictive breathing practice for 3 weeks, and feel much benefit. But the long term effect may be knocking your nervous system into a state of shock or distress.  So if you have been taught a new breathing practice and feel that it has some benefit, but you cannot maximize upon it, then find a teacher who understands certain body types require certain breathing balance too. There can be a fine line between Stress management and Stress mis-managed. Stress management is only a breath away. Exhale, and May we all be well. |
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Marie Mills: Posted on Monday, March 14, 2011 12:56 PM
 For all the times that we are most busy, we are no doubt, quite focused and driven to complete our efforts, to be finished, to move on to the next job or appointment. Yet, in all this expansive movement of the mind, do we ever give it a moments rest? Do we ever take it seriously that our minds can only do so much at optimum levels without a rest? (Many of us do not even know how to begin to rest our minds!) Stress brought on by the need to achieve, to get somewhere, to be accomplished is additional pressure that does not always get released upon completion of the tasks. Plus, even before we have completed one action, we are planning the next in our mind...we are so busy in our minds, so active, we are doing miles of activity in one small space. I have decided that in my mind, and in many others, we need to find a seat of rest. And to take this seat only requires awareness and presence of mind. In all repetitive action we have some hope of beginning a new pattern that could help us. I have been experimenting with 'I am present', with no attachment to outcome, and I do have to say, that it is worth working with. Our daily activity is full of tasks that have attachment to outcome, so this is the difference. To be still in the mind is helpful to soothe the nervous system...if we can add being still in the body, then this will enhance the effect. But to be still in the mind, to have focused thought, for 3 to 9 minutes, on one thing such as my breath, my footsteps, my skin...will open us to greater objectivity and our actions will be more productive and clear if we take it on as a repetitive action every hour, or three times a day or just two times a day. Do try it today, I urge you to enjoy the benefits of clarity and personal destressing. Exhale, release. May we all be well |
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Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2011 11:34 PM
 My mum is quite an amazing modern woman, she was ahead of her time I think in many ways. And one way in particular always struck me, was that she embraced new ideas if she could understand them. An example: I grew up, with a very strong catholic upbringing, and Lent came around my mum would make Lent not a suffering but a challenge, by giving me a twist on it. (I hated giving up chocolate, I still put it down to low blood pressure!) She would always remind me, that it was not so much what I would give up that could offer me Peace by Easter... but by what I would Begin, that would make me feel better before Easter came around. And thats when it started, and still continues. An annual adventure into tipping my toe into some amount of Spiritual reading. From various Saints lives and deaths, to Living Saints, to reading (perusing, skimming, and sometimes running from) different parts of the Bible...(which is a completely different subject, but I do have to add, if you want adventure, mayhem, murder, love, passion, Spirituality, joy, insight, loving kindness, hidden meanings, exquisite poetry...the Bible has it all!) to the reading of one of my favourite historical novels, by Jim Bishop, The Day Christ Died. (Now that is fantastic reading, with all the elements of a gripping story, in my view on Par with the best of Grisham and Coben, but this book is based on proven historical facts of that time. ) but Lent is also about Cleaning....Cleaning to Purify our body, our mind and open our Hearts. Reading something new, something uplifting and lightening to the Heart is one way of doing this...anything that feeds us Love (Prana), lifts our Heart above our head, this is Yoga. Rumi, The Upanishads, The Veda's, the Mahabharata, The Bhagavad Gita, The Life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Bernadette of Lourdes...So many to choose from...google one, go for it... You really wont regret it. Fascinating, mind bending, heart wrenching, Exhale....Love waits for us all. |
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