This article was originally published by Seattle Yoga News on November 16, 2015. A week of tragic events has reminded people around the world that life is incredibly fragile. Senseless acts of violence have stolen hundreds of lives across Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Aleppo – the list of affected communities is long. As I reached out to friends in ensuring their loved ones were safe, my heart grew heavy as the news became increasingly tragic with each day. Then I remembered that yoga offers us a powerful framework for moving forward in the wake of tragedy – shraddha.
The concept of shraddha Shraddha is Sanskrit for faith, a trust, or certainty of confidence. The Yoga Sutra-s introduce the meaning of shraddha in the first chapter. Sutra 1.20 reads “sraddha virya smrti samadhiprajna purvakah itaresam”. My teacher T. K. V. Desikachar interprets this sutra as: “Through faith, which will give sufficient energy to achieve success against all odds, direction will be maintained. The realization of the goal of Yoga is a matter of time” [1]. Shraddha is the foundation of one’s yoga practice. It is not a religious concept or a blind faith in life, but instead an internal faith based on one’s life experiences. Mr. Desikachar describes it as an unshakable conviction and the “energy which will hold us on the right track” [2]. The origins of shraddha further elucidate the word’s meaning. It is derived from two words: “shradh”, which means “remembering our ancestors with gratitude”; and “dha”, which means “to hold” or “to sustain”. In yoga, cultivating shraddha is paying gratitude to those who passed away and honoring the knowledge that they shared [3]. This knowledge and our gratitude keeps us on the path of yoga. It sustains us through even the darkest of times, such as when we start to doubt ourselves or the world around us. Shraddha and recent tragedies Whether or not we have been personally affected by the recent attacks, the pain of others feels raw and our sense of security has been shaken. Fear has become a dominant reaction in many circles and across social media outlets. This fear is dangerous. It narrows our view of the world. For example, in light of current events, this fear may follow a trend of wrongly blaming Islam and followers of Islam. Practicing yoga implies that we approach the world from a place of clarity and love, not fear. We cannot practice or teach yoga from a place of fear. Fear paralyzes us from following the path of yoga, from having compassion with all beings, and from extending kindness into the world. Shraddha is the opposite of fear. It is faith in ourselves that we can rise above pervasive violence and widespread fear. It is a conviction that affirms our humanity with one another – regardless of where we live or what religion we may practice. As Mr. Desikachar explains, “Faith is the conviction that we have a force in our heart which will protect us in difficult times and helps us to see the positive aspects” [2]. Shraddha empowers us to connect with our inner strengths and the resilience needed for healing. Cultivating shraddha Yoga gives us an opportunity to cultivate a stronger sense of shraddha, which enables us to move through emotions so we don’t get stuck in cycles of negativity. Where does one find shraddha? In the heart, the place of our deepest awareness. Shraddha is a light within our hearts that casts away fear. As with all concepts in yoga, it starts within ourselves and extends to others. Fostering shraddha enables us to listen, speak, and act from the heart. How does one cultivate shraddha? By practicing yoga regularly. There is always an opportunity to cultivate shraddha – especially when we are working through emotions after violent events. Below are a few ideas for focusing on shraddha in the wake of tragedy.
Try one or all of the above ideas in a single practice – and share other ways that you bring faith and healing into your practice. The ancient yoga texts emphasize that we each have a greater consciousness that shines like a light inside our hearts. That light connects us with one another. Fear prevents that light from shining. Shraddha makes it an unstoppable force of love. In times of tragedy it is even more important that we focus on the light within, because, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” A simple practice to cultivate shraddha This practice uses the mantra “Om Shraddhaya Namah”. Om is the Sanskrit syllable that embodies all other sounds in the universe. Namah means to “to praise”. Thus, this mantra is giving praise to shraddha. 1. Sit in any comfortable position, such as in a chair with your feet flat on the ground. Or you can sit on a blanket on the ground. 2. Close your eyes or set your gaze on the ground in front of you. Take a few deep breaths in and out through your nose. 3. Place your hands over your heart, with the palms facing down and one hand over the other. 4. Inhale: Silently recite “Om” while you stretch your arms out to the sides, palms facing to the front. 5. Exhale: Softly say “Shraddhaya Namah” while you bring your hands back over your heart. You can also say the phrase silently. 6. Repeat steps four and five 8 – 12 times. 7. Rest your hands in your lap and let your breath flow at a natural pace. When you are ready, slowly open your eyes. References and Notes 1. Desikachar, T. K. V. (1999). The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice. Published by Inner Traditions, 244 pages. 2. Desikachar, T. K. V. (2001). What are we seeking? Published by Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, 176 pages. 3. There is a specific practice called “Shraaddha” in Hinduism that entails honoring ones parents after they pass away. In the Yoga Sutra-s, Shraddha is not linked with any religion but instead one’s beliefs and practices. This post was written for and originally published on Kids' Adventures website - check out their holistic approaches to after-school programs, which are based on movement, mindfulness, and nutrition. Does it ever feel like there are hundreds of thoughts swirling around inside your head? If so, you know how hard it can be to focus on one activity, thought or feeling when your mind is full. Mindfulness, the practice of present-moment awareness, can help us learn to be more attentive. A key aspect of mindfulness is observing ourselves and our surroundings without judgment. In essence, mindfulness promotes being “in the now” with an open and kind attitude towards others and ourselves. Mindfulness is a positive activity for kids because it helps them learn stress reduction tools. We live in a fast-paced world. Classes in school, dynamics at home, social activities, and digital distractions demand more, faster decisions than ever before. This constant pressure can burden kids with anxiety, trigger worry about the future, and cause them to feel burnt-out. It is mentally and physically exhausting to juggle dozens of choices and evaluate decisions. Kids today need tools that enable them to create space to focus on the task at hand and recognize how they feel. This visualization can illustrate how mindfulness promotes focus. Imagine filling a glass jar with sand and swirling it in circles. Each grain of sand represents a thought you have today. As you twirl the jar around and around, try to focus on only one grain of sand. It might feel impossible – and that’s ok! Now, what happens when you set the jar down onto the counter? It becomes easier to focus on one grain of sand! There are dozens of ways to practice mindfulness. Yoga is one scientifically proven way for kids to learn and benefit from mindfulness. Yoga programs that promote mindfulness often include:
How does mindfulness in education work to benefit our kids? A growing amount of research shows that kids who practice in mindfulness become more present and have greater control over their emotions. This happens because of an amazing concept called neuroplasticity – our brain’s ability to adapt throughout our lives. Essentially, our brain creates new neural pathways when we perform new actions more frequently. Our mind uses these pathways as a blue print for creating habits. During mindfulness activities, for example, kids repeat actions such as the practice of observing one’s feelings, taking a deep breath to relax, or reflecting on something they are grateful for each day. Over time, these actions lead to happy, healthy habits. How does mindfulness promote stress-reduction? Mindfulness helps kids (and adults!) develop stress reduction skills by:
In addition to stress reduction, these skills clear the way for a range of other benefits. Less stress leads to better sleep, heightened creativity, enhanced focus in school, improved body image, and increased self-confidence. When the burdens of stress are lifted, kids feel a deeper sense of peace and calm. Mindfulness in action
I have taught (and learned) mindfulness practices with kids for the last six years. My students and I have found that our attention begins with the breath, a concept that ancient yoga teachers wrote about thousands of years ago. When we engage in the simple act of breathing consciously – e.g., feeling our belly rise when we inhale and relax when we exhale – our mind is focused in one direction. Breathing practices are tools that kids can draw upon on a daily basis. For example, in my yoga programs for kids with cancer, I teach participants how to do several types of breathing practices to use if they feel tired, nervous, or sad. Many of them do these practices during medical procedures. One girl did the Peace Breath whenever she received chemotherapy. One day she shared that, “the breathing [practice] helped me forget about the injection and I didn’t feel nervous. I always feel nauseous from the medicine – but the breathing [practice] helped me feel better!” This spring I saw firsthand another example of how mindfulness helps kids with anxiety. I was teaching breathing practices to Syrian children who had fled their homeland because of ongoing violence and conflict. Many of them suffered from difficulty sleeping and nightmares. In class they learned how to do a relaxing breathing practice that they repeated before bedtime each night. Children shared that the practice helped them forget about their worries and fall asleep more quickly. Some of the parents noted their children had fewer nightmares too. When children experience traumatic events, they often lose control of their feelings. Mindfulness enables them to retake that control and experience a sense of relaxation. Try it out! What makes mindfulness practices successful? They have to be FUN! Mindfulness can seem like a complex topic – so keeping activities simple is best. One of my favorite activities is Peace Breath. It’s a fun way to learn how to focus your mind and it promotes a sense of relaxation. Give it a try! Peace Breath For this practice we will say the word "shanti". Shanti means "peace" in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is a language from India. Shanti is the kind of peace where you feel calm AND happy! How do you say Shanti? Start by making the sound "shhh" and slowly saying "aawwn". Just like the name Shawn! Then say the word "tee", and make the "ee" sound at the end last a long time. Let’s practice!
Download a PDF of Peace Breath and see other practices for children. This year’s summer solstice, on June 21, marks the first International Day of Yoga. The day was declared by the United Nations after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi put forth a resolution for the day in order to promote India’s traditions and invaluable contributions to holistic health and wellbeing. People around the globe will be celebrating the summer solstice and International Yoga Day. Here’s an overview of how people will mark the event, including my upcoming Yoga, Mantra, and Mindfulness program.
How will people celebrate International Day of Yoga? To mark June 21 as International Yoga Day, the Indian Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) called upon several leading yoga institutes to create a 35-minute Common Protocol that people around the world will practice. The institute where I studied, Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), has been part of this collective effort. There are hundreds of classes around the world that will follow this protocol. The full practice is available on YouTube. In addition to the Common Protocol, yoga practitioners will pay tribute to the summer solstice by practicing Sūrya Namaskāra, the Sun Salutations. In India, Sūrya Namaskāra was traditionally a sequence of mantras that were chanted to honor the sun. A mantra is a set of syllables, sounds, or phrases, which can be chanted orally or silently. The mantras were chanted at sunrise every day, facing the direction of the rising sun, and took a full hour to recite. After each passage the practitioner would perform a complete prostration. Today in North America and Europe, Sūrya Namaskāra is more commonly known as a sequence of postures. The earliest known reference to postures in Sūrya Namaskāra is found in the teachings of Sri T. Krishnamacharya, who was the guru to several prominent yoga teachers including K. Pattabhi Jois, B. K. S. Iyengar, and his own son T. K. V. Desikachar, whom I have had the honor of studying under. The asanas that Sri T. Krishnamacharya instructed are internationally recognized as the basis for the modern version Sūrya Namaskāra as it is practiced in several yoga traditions. His original sequence was used as a sadhana, a spiritual practice, because it drew upon asana, pranayama, mantra, and meditation techniques equally. Interested in practicing Sūrya Namaskāra this Sunday, as the sun makes it’s longest journey across the sky? Robin Rothenberg, director of Essential Yoga Therapy in Fall City, Washington, has an excellent post outlining three versions of Sūrya Namaskāra (including photos, instruction, and videos!). Upcoming Yoga, Mantra, and Mindfulness Program: Sūrya Namaskāra One of the most profound lessons that I learned while studying yoga at KYM was how to deepen my personal practice by using mantras. In honor of International Yoga Day, I am kicking off a series of posts with programs on how to incorporate mantras into your own practice. Why am I focusing on mantras? Focusing on a mantra in yoga is a powerful tool to direct our mind’s attention towards the practice, thus helping us achieve greater mindfulness. In Sanskrit, mantra is a term that combines two words: mananat (reflection) and trayate (protection). According to yoga tradition, we see and experience the quality of a mantra when we chant and reflect on its meaning. For example, mantras that focus on the sun embody the qualities of light, energy, and radiance. Research has also found that chanting, which creates vibrations in the throat, chest, abdomen and jaw, stimulates vagal sensory afferents. The first program will focus on the bija mantras associated with Sūrya Namaskāra. Bija means “seed”, and bija mantras are syllables in the Sanskrit alphabet that connect to different energetic points. There are 6 bija mantras for Sūrya Namaskāra: hram, hreem, hroom, hraim, hroum, hrahaha. I hope that you will join me for this inspiring (and free!) practice based on the teachings of Sri Krishnamacharya and Mr. Desikachar. You will receive handouts that outline simple sequences, steps, and ideas for tailoring mantras to your personal yoga practice. Sign-up for my newsletter to get the kick-off email updates. Until then, I leave you with a quote from Mr. Desikachar that captures the essence of yoga: “The success of yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.” This article was originally featured on Seattle Yoga News, May 27, 2015. I spent this spring sharing yoga with Syrians seeking safety and refuge in southeast Turkey. I arrived well versed on the four-year Syrian crisis, prepared to teach yoga in Arabic and ready to be of service to people as they healed the wounds of conflict. When I arrived, the crisis was entering its fifth year and more than 220,000 Syrians had lost their lives. The news was always grim. Grief, distress and heartache were omnipresent when I arrived. But the most tangible sentiment I perceived was the sense of support and community that the Syrians brought to each yoga session. After only a few weeks of sharing yoga in local organizations, it became clear that their social spirit was their strongest source for healing. Yoga became a unique opportunity for them to connect with each other as they coped with distress from the crisis. Life in Turkey The Syrians who participated in my yoga classes had all endured immeasurable loss and survived harrowing circumstances. Many had watched in terror as their towns had been bombed or raided while their loved ones were imprisoned, executed or abducted. Many had fled after being targeted by the Syrian regime or extremist groups such as Daesh (the Arabic name for the Islamic State). The crisis disrupted all aspects of their lives; they were forced to postpone marriages, close family businesses and withdraw from university studies. The crisis unraveled the social fabric of everyday life; families were torn apart and communities were polarized by new religious and ethnic lines. One participant shared that her husband was en route to seek asylum in another country — a dangerous journey — and she had not heard from him in one month. Unfortunately, life in Turkey did not guarantee safety or hope for the future. Many people concealed their identities by taking on new official names and using pseudonyms in public. A large proportion of the 1.8 million Syrian refugees in Turkey currently live in camps that offer basic levels of shelter, food and healthcare. The majority of people I met, however, lived in urban areas without access to even these basic resources. Even within this context, people warmly welcomed me into their organizations and homes to share yoga. Yoga for Syrians A growing number of humanitarian agencies are discussing the need for conflict and post-conflict programs to incorporate ‘psychosocial services’ – a broad term used to encompass a range of activities that increase emotional resilience. In this case, Syrian health and civil society nonprofits were receptive to yoga as a psychosocial activity that promotes relaxation techniques. I collaborated with organizational representatives to discuss the context of classes, give presentations on the psychosocial benefits of yoga and schedule classes. Within this framework, I taught one to two yoga classes each day, each one lasting anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes. I offered daily classes to employees in a civil society organization, and periodic classes at youth schools and women’s clubs. Adult classes typically included four to ten participants per class whereas the classes in schools ranged from 20 to 50 students. The sequences consisted of breathing practices, guided relaxation and simple poses that could be done wearing normal attire. Over the course of a few weeks, I introduced participants to home practices and provided handouts in Arabic. Handouts for adults were short relaxation practices to address the most common ailments reported: back pain and difficulty sleeping. Children received copies of breathing practices (with a fun twist) that we did during class. Classes were positively received across organizations. Nonprofit employees reported better concentration in their offices after lunchtime yoga sessions. School teachers expressed amazement at how effectively the children learned to focus on their breath, and they enthusiastically asked for resources to continue yoga activities. Children shared that they not only enjoyed the take-home practices, but also shared them with siblings. Women described a weight being lifted from their chests when they completed breathing practices before bed. However, there were moments in several classes when the grief was so palpable that I had to pause and take a few deep breaths to ground myself while teaching. This sorrow was particularly salient when I was teaching a women’s group whose children had been abducted by Daesh. The walls where we practiced yoga were laminated with photos of smiling children, their names and ages inscribed at the bottom of each image. Their mothers were all from the same town and it was unlikely any of them would ever see their beloved children again. The feeling that was more substantial than grief was the social spirit that the Syrians brought into every yoga session. During classes, people would affectionately joke with one another about the challenges of the new activity. They playfully debated if yoga could cure conditions such as a smoker’s cough. After classes, participants were eager to keep spending time together. Women served cake and tea as they caught up on news about each other’s families and quizzed me enthusiastically about my family plans. Nonprofit workers organized post-yoga luncheons and city excursions where we discussed yoga philosophy. At the conclusion of their classes, children sang and performed dabke, an Arab tradition that consists of holding hands and dancing in a circle. The solace and joy they created and found in each other’s company was unmistakable. Community and Collective Healing Syrians in Turkey are seeking at least two avenues for healing. First, they are searching for ways to cope with their individual experiences of violence and loss. Second, they are processing a collective memory of painful events and injustices — all while striving to build new communities. Syrians are actively building support networks that reinforce the significance of collective healing after a collective trauma. In fact, a growing body of research on collective trauma emphasizes that psychological outcomes are more closely linked to social support than with an individual’s history of direct exposure to events like violence or torture. The World Health Organization even recommends large-scale programs to promote healing from trauma as a necessity to prevent further violence, and as a prerequisite to post-conflict reconciliation. Integrating yoga into programs for survivors of collective trauma is a relatively new type of intervention. In the U.S., the majority of trauma related programs (yoga and non-yoga) are modeled after a biomedical framework focused on the individual’s experience. The Syrians taught me the importance of moving beyond this structure so that yoga also fosters collective healing. In each of the settings where I taught, it was important to ensure yoga was part of and contributed to existing support mechanisms. Yoga simply represented an opportunity for a social activity that led to community discussion and goal setting. The social spirit that Syrians brought to our yoga sessions created an environment that nurtured resilience and healing — for them, and for their communities. Their sense of togetherness reminded me of a quote by my teacher, Mr. T. K. V. Desikachar, on the topic of faith and healing: “…the energy of togetherness is much more than the sum of individual energies” [1]. I hope that all of my future yoga classes vibrate with such a strong sense of togetherness, from Syria to my new home in Seattle. [1] Desikachar, T. K. V. and Martyn Neal (2001). What are we seeking? Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai, India. |
It is a tremendous honor that my article on sharing yoga with Syrians won "Yoga Article of the Year" in Seattle Yoga News. Endless gratitude to everyone who was part of and supported this inspiring project.
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