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Yoga, Holistic Detox Techniques for Health and Well Being and More
- Swarmi Saradananda
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Welcome to “Healing From Within.” I am your host Sheryl Glick author of The Living Spirit: Answers for Healing and Infinite Love which shares stories of awakening, spiritual communication, healing energies, miracles and ways to know intuition for higher awareness and consciousness. Today I welcome Swami Saradananda author of The Cleansing Power of Yoga which explains how removing stuck energy can have not just far-reaching physical benefits but also emotional and spiritual ones from increased clarity vitality and focus to a more interconnected relationship with the people and world around you
As listeners of “Healing From Within” are well aware Sheryl and her guests share intimate experiences and insights into increasing our understanding of both our physical and energetic life force so we may begin to create lives of balance, health, prosperity, improve ourselves and the human world condition.
In today’s episode of “Healing from Within” Swami Saradananda will share her life time study of eastern healing modalities and discuss the importance of yoga understanding Ayurveda medicine, dosha energies along with dietary and exercise programs, and meditation practices to realize our soul needs to refine, rebalance and restore our physical and energetic life force. As we discover yoga poses, visualizations, mudras, meditations and other specific cleansing exercises, explained step by step in this book we may enhance each of the five senses and our mind.
When asked to think back to her childhood or earlier life and remember a person place event that may have shown them or others around them the possible pathway or lifestyle they might live as an adult we often discover our life purpose. In Swami’s case she became interested in Eastern healing philosophy, techniques, yoga and the study of the chakra system to encourage a healthy life style. She remembers having polio as a child and her parents were told by the doctor she wouldn’t be able to walk, but her parents didn’t tell her, and she continued to improve, because that thought wasn’t imprinted on her mind. She thought and worked towards health, not sickness, which is exactly the right way. We have the responsibility to work with any health challenge and choosing positive approaches is a great way to succeed. Our thoughts determine much that comes into creation in our lives. Never buy into the expectations of others, but choose your own direction.
Swami remembers being in Florida in 1967 and when looking in the newspaper discovered a yoga class which she joined and there she met her spiritual teacher who she studied with for the next twenty years. Often when the time is right, the teacher or situation appears that opens our mind or connection to Universal energy and our etheric or soul destiny, and we find the skills, talent and desires of our heart to enhance our life journey.
Swami offers a specific way to utilize her book The Cleansing Power of Yoga and other spiritual books. Often, if you ask for help on a certain issue and then open the book randomly you will find helpful information or suggestions for that moment in time. The best way to read this book is to dip in regularly and try out whichever practices appeal to you, rather than feeling you need to read it from cover to cover. Chapters 1-6 focus on ways to cleanse the five senses and the mind offering ways to purify them literally, mentally, spiritually, and working on the chakra related sense. There are chapters on clarifying your vision as well as your third eye or inner way of seeing or knowing, enhancing your communication by unblocking your throat chakra, breathing more deeply to cleanse your respiratory system as well as your muladhara (root chakra) which controls your sense of smell, nourishing yourself based on plant foods that calm the mind and reduce the negative effects of a stressful lifestyle and of course strengthening your connection with others where life tends to “touch ” or inspire you at the heart chakra.
Swami describes Ayurvedic Constitutions which are necessary for understanding balance and physical health. Cleansing techniques are found in many therapeutic approaches such as reflexology and kinesiology, but in order to understand how yogic cleansing works, it is helpful to have a basic knowledge of how Ayurveda the best known traditional healing system of India which perceives the body and mind. Much of the basic philosophy is shared with yoga. Ayurveda is a medical system in which treatments are prescribed by a doctor and massage is given by therapists. Ayurveda recognizes three basic types of physical and mental make-up “These three constitutions known as doshas are composed of three energetic types; vata kapha pitta. Ayurveda medicine places great emphasis on keeping them in balance. Many factors internal and external can disturb the balance of one or more of the doshas. Cleansing yoga practices are a powerful way to counteract many negative influences on your constitution.
Swamu shows us how to set up a cleansing intention known as a Sankalpa and how this technique will begin to help us. A sample Sankalpa she gives to begin with is: This week I will do Neti each morning after brushing my teeth. Then I will do 3 rounds of Kapalabhati, 10 rounds of Alternate Nostril Breathing before sitting for 20 minutes for heart-cleansing meditation. Then I will write in my journal for 10 minutes.
Cleansing Throughout The Day is recommended and the following are some ways to help detox, declutter, and clear your mind.
Clear your desk kitchen and work space before leaving it.
Purify your air by ventilating rooms, changing air filters and using natural furnishings.
Raise indoor plants to cleanse the air and amplify the concentration of prana.
Select wisely from all the food, emotion and thought options available to you.
Eat more organic and locally grown foods.
Remove one potentially negative item from your diet noticing the effects.
Decrease alcohol consummation if you drink and take steps to quit.
Try not to gossip or spread negative opinions and judgments.
Resolve to say what you mean in a non-hurtful a way as possible.
Try to be aware of emotions and ideas you tend to sweep under the carpet.
Enjoy a period of introspection in the evening and ask yourself how transparent your communications were during the day.
When home alone do not turn on the TV or music: enjoy the purity of silence for at least an hour each day.
Notice how your thoughts and emotions are disturbed by violent conflict in the media.
Take a regular yoga class and practice at home to increase the benefits of all the cleansing techniques in the book.
In order to care for ourselves we must take care of all parts of our bodies. Swami discusses how exercising the eyes helps to clear away the negative effects of daily stress strain ad environmental toxins such as intense artificial lights.
The first series of exercises increases circulation to the eyes and warms up the muscles around them.
- Up and down Open your eyes wide: imagine popping them out of your head keeping your head and neck up and look as high up as you can, then down. Repeat 10-15 times. Then close eyes and relax
- Right and Left. Raise your left arm thumb pointing up. Slowly move your hand to the left and follow with the eye. Then Change arms and do the right eyes.
- Diagonal Making gentle fists straightening elbow raise right arm thumb up and lower left thumb slightly out. Look up at your right and then diagonally at left arm and thumb. Change arms and repeat.
Practice Tips include the removal of glasses and contact lens, performing all the movements slowly and gently, trying to move just your eyes not your head and if your eyes start to water while practicing count it as an especially successful cleanse.
Bathing the Eyes…Cleaning the eyes is a useful antidote to the drying effects of central heating and air conditioning and spending hours at a screen which can cause tear ducts to become congested. Some ophthalmologists recommend a few drops of well dilute tearless baby shampoo to clear debris from the tear ducts and combat dry eyes and eyelid disorders like inflammation.
Rejuvenating eye compress of a little castor oil heated ghee or honey a face cloth and an old towel. Lie on a towel and place the dipped cloth over your closed eyes for 20 minutes.
Swami and Sheryl discuss how during these challenging modern times with communication issues complicated by social media and lack of purity of speech we must find ways to improve the quality of our spoken words and seeking Purity of Speech
Adhering to the truth—known as Satya in Sanskrit—is one of the basic tenets of yoga- is about making a conscious effort to speak the truth and make sure your words as well as your thoughts and deed are clean, authentic and respectful. This purifies the mind, strengthens inner resolve and attracts positive energy. Expressing feeling in a negative way-even if we don’t mean the words we say—tend to draw us away from this state of inner peace and activated distressing energy that flows to the heart and brow chakras and out into our environment. The way we speak creates vibrations that not only affect us, but everyone we come in contact with—so cultivating purity of speech encourages us to develop more harmonious relationships with the world around us.
- Begin by watching yourself for a few days just as you are.
- Set a practice intention or sankalpa, a positive statement that states exactly what you want to do.
- Now create an affirmation , a suggestion to repeat to help change your negative speech patterns into a more positive ones. Avoid phrases such as: try to, if possible, should and platitudes like, “be more peaceful.”
- Then just be a silent witness. Notice how with regular steady practice your language and speech patterns become more positive and compassionate.
Swami goes on to describe Voluntary Silence -Mouna is necessary for giving yourself some quiet time each day when you are not distracted by a noisy environment or goal oriented task. As you decrease the external noise you make, note the busyness of your internal environment. In the beginning thoughts may arise encouraging you to break your silence old worries, troubling emotions an urgent call you need to make. Do not allow yourself to become involved. Watch the thoughts as if they were bubbles, which soon pop or float away. Your anxieties will gradually lessen.
Practice Tips
Try to observe a period of silence every day –an hour is ideal
Practice yoga poses or breathing exercises, walking or simple manual work during your periods of silence
Do not listen to music watch television or read engage in fast exercise or do anything that requires intellectual focus when silent
Try eating one meal a week in full silence-notice the positive effects on your digestion
Before speaking “edit” your words. Say only what is required and truthful
We know that the Breathe is a vital component of optimizing energy and enjoying life. Yoga puts especially great emphasis on purifying the respiratory system the body structure that begins with the nose and relates to your sense of smell. Breathing exercises can encourage stronger lungs, clearer skin and a calmer more transparent mind.
It seems important or advantageous to simplify our lives and make space for happiness, How can we begin to do that? You have a quote by the Buddha that says, “We are shaped by our thoughts, we become what we think.
You wrote, “When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”When the mind becomes more firm and strong as you engage in the purifying practices you may notice that you have increased self-control, feel less distracted by the sensory world and are more aware of your inner self, which is peaceful vibrant and content.
Most people confuse the brain and mind. The brain is in your physical body, but your mind is more subtle, existing in what yogis refer to as the astral or energy body. Perhaps the best definition of the mind is a bundle of thoughts. However, your mind is a living thing that wants to stay alive and will strongly resist extinction.
Your mind is much more powerful than you realize and when it is scattered you lose energy, making it difficult to realize your true potential. You can clean your space to clear your mind. Decluttering your space and creating a cleaner space with plants and light or burning incense and smudging herbs is helpful.
Sheryl thanks Swami Saradananda for writing a most comprehensive book of practical exercises, beautiful pictures, and an understanding of energy healing Ayurveda
Medicine, yoga, and the ways to know our astral body and how to protect and enhance our natural energy systems for a healthy physical life experience.
In summarizing this episode of “Healing From Within” we have explored the world of energy or prana which surrounds and energizes the physical body, and which animates our physical life, though it is not a physical energy nor made up of physical elements. Prana flows through the subtle channel known as nadis and is referred to as meridians in acupuncture, and make up the subtle wiring system of your astral body. Any major place where major nadis cross is referred to as a chakra. We have learned in today’s discussion how to purify and help the main energy points or chakras with simple techniques, and a practice that can improve our physical emotional and spiritual lives.
Swami writes, “ Acting as the interface between your physical body and its etheric double the pranamaya kosha chakras can be thought of as multi-dimensional balls of radiant energy. As each chakra vibrates at a different rate, its cleaning takes a different form. ‘’ Our body and life force is interconnected to energy and to each other and learning about healing techniques is the key to knowing oneself in our miraculous and eternal form.”
Swami and I would have you care for yourself, body mind and spirit, and learn to love yourself and life, moving through challenges and concerns, by nourishing the body and mind, and finding peace, calmness, and love, which is indeed your birthright as a soul.
