ROCK N ROLL

Have you noticed those big hard foam rollers popping up from the baskets in the yoga studio over there near the blankets and blocks?  Occasionally you'll see someone grab one and start rolling around on it as a precursor to yoga class.  I've noticed it doesn't look very comfortable and my preferred warm up is a good long Child's Pose.  I try to ignore the over-achievers whilst burying my face in my mat and taking a short nap...

But one day, in a small class led by Karen, there was the suggestion we all grab a roller and "work on our fascia".  Huh?  Which body part is a fascia?  Is it connected to the thigh bone?  The ankle bone?  Oh well, a dutiful follower of instructions, I grabbed a roller and headed back to my mat.

Fascia is the fibrous tissue stuff that surrounds all our muscles and organs.  Here's a gross photo that illustrates this perfectly (think chicken leg, not human body, if that helps).

It acts sort of like a rubber band in that it helps pull he muscles back into place after being elongated. Stretch and "bo-ing" back into its original spot.  But sometimes an injury will occur and the springing back action will get sort of bunched up, fascia thickening, causing the body to hold onto the injury and not being able to move freely.  Chronic pain is often due to a build up of thickened fascia and scar tissue.  What to do?

Thin the bunched up fascia by stretching it!  How to break down the bunched up spots and stretch it?  Massage therapists do it and...those rollers!!! Yay!  You will be happy to know that the fascia is not connected to our nervous system, so no pain receptors are located there.  But keep in mind the fascia is covering our muscles which protest loudly when poked, prodded, and rolled upon too vigorously.  Take it easy.  Find a foam roller that has at least a little give to it.  (Some are hard as cement, in my limited experience!)

In class we rolled around on those foam tubes for over an hour -- hips, thighs, calves, buttocks, back, arms... I truly hated it at first.  It was a little hurt-y and my judge-y brain was yelling all kinds of "This is dumb!" insults at my body.  But then I told myself to shut up and just be in the moment.  I adjusted when it hurt too much and loved when it felt amazing.  The only moment that truly concerned me was when we were doing upper back and my hoody got caught under the roller and and pulled my shirt taut, nearly choking me to death, but that was a wardrobe malfunction rather than any problem with the body work.

By the end of class, I was a believer.  Rolling around on those foam things helps create stretchy, healthy fascia which allows us greater flexibility, improved posture, moves lymph, and clears out toxins.  And you don't even break a sweat!  No crazy pretzel poses to learn and hold!  

Try it!  You'll like it!

Namaste,  donnajurene

Footnotes/Resources/Pictures of how to do it:

http://goop.com/fascia-the-secret-organ/

https://www.thegeniusofflexibility.com/resistance-stretching/fascia.html

BUDDHA'S BRAIN, PART 5.

I'm going to end this book report with this short post.

Let me offer at this point a big disclaimer -- I gave you only the very briefest of overviews, filtered no doubt by those sections which I found most interesting.  You might read the book and find something entirely different to report on.  I highly recommend you do get a copy and dive in.  It's very reader-friendly and the neuroscience is so well explained you don't need a Ph.D. to get it.  It's incredibly interesting and encouraging to learn that our brains CAN change and we are in charge making our own brain more alert, more content, more wise.  We have this amazingly complex organ that calls the shots for us, but often those are not the calls that serve us any more, even if they once did.  We can change the message!  We can become who we want to be!

The last few chapters explain the idea of Mindfulness.  Our brains are constantly trying to hold onto information, update awareness, and seek stimulation.   Our job is to steady the mind to keep these activities in balance and focused.  How?  In everyday life we can prepare by slowing down, talking less, focusing on breathing, adopting a calm attitude when with other people, simplifying our lives from the familiar "too busy" state.  We can literally tell our "monkey minds" -- the racing thoughts swinging from branch to branch -- to "hush".  Have a little talk with your inner voice and tell it to quiet down for just a little while, sort of like the shushing the gallery at a golf tournament, tell it to  whisper (or just shut up) while you are "putting" (aka meditating).

Our brains are wired to help us be mindful.  We can employ the compare and contrast portions of our brain to help with setting a goal for focusing attention during meditation and gauging if we are meeting it.  We can ask the language centers of our brain to count breaths. We can call on the compassion centers to help us appreciate our efforts by sending loving thoughts to ourselves.  We can filter out distractions by employing our senses to attend to each and every sensation, then to watch as they eventually fade away -- itches, thoughts, cold feet, stinky socks -- it will all pass like clouds.  Boredom means stimulation seeking is "up" and we can address that with a few tricks like walking meditation, mantra meditation, and pranayama (breathing techniques that require some effort and thought).

Mindfulness is a meditation but also a way of life.  Finding the empty space between the thoughts in every moment of the day is an outcome of being mindful.  There is no past or future, which is where our thoughts reside.  There is only the vast spaciousness of now.

The very last chapter of the book deals with the idea of "apparent self"; the "I" that we think we are and identify with.  This is always a difficult concept for me and I'm not going to go into much detail here.  You can wrestle with it.  I've read and heard from many teachers that the ego doesn't really exist; that we are all part of a vast and openhearted spaciousness that is all inclusive and not individuated.  I am the tree and the tree is me.  OK.  Still working on that....but I'll get there.

Thanks for coming along on this journey into Buddha's Brain, where happiness, love, and wisdom abide.©

Namaste, donnajurene

Photo Credit: pixabay.com

BUDDHA'S BRAIN, PART 4.

I've read two books in the past month, both of which devoted a considerable amount of time to this story and what it has to teach us:

A Native American Elder, when asked how she had become so wise, so happy, and so respected answered: "In my heart, there are two wolves; a wolf of love and a wolf of hate.  It all depends on which one I feed each day."

Well, that about says it, doesn't it?  How about you?  Does your "wolf of hate" roar when you make a mistake? Or do you hear that roar when the neighbor mows his lawn at 8:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning?  Or the guy in the pick-up truck cuts you off on the freeway?  Or maybe, just maybe, when a presidential candidate you are not supporting surges ahead in the polls?  Every time we fall into the habit of snarling and growling, we are feeding the wolf of hate.  That doesn't serve us or our Buddha Brain.

As it turns out, the "wolf of love" has evolved to be much more powerful, even if we don't hear as much about it on the evening news.  Empathy and compassion helped our species survive and thrive.  We have neurons that fire and brain sections that light up like a Christmas tree when we feel what another feels, when we act on compassionate impulses, all of which makes us want to attach to another, which is love, which feels darned good.

The "wolf of love" sees all as interconnected.  The "wolf of hate" sees "us" vs. "them" -- also a survival tool, but one that so easily gets out of whack.  We might want to howl at any hint of threat, but we must gain some experience in restraining the "wolf of hate" when there is no threat at all, when "different" is just "different", not dangerous.

Empathy paves the way; being comfortable with closeness, strengthening the brain circuits for compassion, and learning to communicate clearly and effectively will help us find places of connection and calm where before we saw only anxiety and fear.

One way to practice this skill is to practice a Loving-Kindness Meditation.  It's easy, but not so simple.  Here is the beginner version:

Sit comfortably and breathe deeply.  Call into your mind's eye someone you love to pieces -- spouse, child, friend -- and say, "May you be safe.  May you be healthy.  May you be happy.  May you live with ease."

Next, call into your mind's eye someone who is sort of neutral to you, perhaps the Safeway checker or the guy you nodded to in the elevator.  Holding this person in your sight, again repeat, "May you be safe.  May you be healthy. May you be happy.  May you live with ease."

Now the tricky part:  Call into your mind's eye someone you don't like, someone who is your nemesis, or enemy.  You know where this is going, right?  Yep.  Hold this person in your meditation and say, "May you be safe.  May you be healthy.  May you be happy.  May you live with ease."  Whew!  Tough one, huh?  But really, if that person lived in a fully happy, peaceful, healthy way, would they have to be a jerk?  No; so let's wish them well; maybe it will help.

One more person is worthy of your Loving-Kindness, of course.  You. And sometimes it's hardest to give ourselves the gift of love.  Try it.  Repeat, "May I be safe.  May I be healthy.  May I be happy.  May I live with ease."

Ahhhh....doesn't that feel good?  Feed your "wolf of love" and your Buddha Brain will get stronger and stronger.©

Namaste, donnajurene

Photo Credit:  pixabay.com