Week 3: Emotions effect on the mind

As you continue with your daily practices of releasing physical and mental holding, allowing the mind to calm and settle, and deepening your awareness of all that is in your present moment, you will become much more conscious of how this mental clutter accumulates in the first place. All of our daily emotions, big or small, have on our mind.  We are human beings and will have many emotions and feelings throughout each day, yet we must be aware of the grasping and clouding of the mind that can occur.  We can have an emotion in one moment, the source of our reaction can disappear, yet we take that feeling into our next moment, and so on. We can even feel angry or frustrated from things that occurred long ago, that have no relevance in our current moment, yet our body and mind are still holding on to those emotions, clouding our view of our current experience.   

In a talk by Swami Karunananda at the Yogaville Ashram in Virginia, she describes this process:

Imagine the space of mind as a clear glass bowl of water and the ‘self’ ( soul or seer) as a clear crystal within the bowl.  If the space of mind is clear, the self can see their world clearly for what it is and the world can see the self clearly for who it is. Now imagine that emotions are like food coloring dropped into the water in the clear glass bowl of the mind. Red is anger and with even just a drop of anger the space of mind becomes colored red, covering the self and causing everything it sees and experiences to be a little angry.  Purple food coloring is sadness, when covering the self and causes everything it sees and experiences to be a little sad. After emotions build, you begin to not even be able to see the self and everything the self sees and experiences is through the cloudiness of old emotions. Thankfully, we have these wonderful yoga practices of meditation and pranayama that are like soaps to cleanse the space of mind, to experience each moment clearly.  

With meditation and breathwork practices we are able to cleanse the self and allow the space of mind to return to its clear state. This allows us to see people and experiences in our life for what they truly are, without adding our prior frustration, anger, or any other emotion we may walk into a situation with.  Many times our difficulties in relationships or daily interactions are due to previous feelings we may have and not about the actual situation or person in front of us.

We are emotional beings and we will daily have a wide variety of emotions from extreme sadness or anger, a continuous subtle frustration or feelings of unease, or to elation and joy, the list can go on and on.  Some will be subtle, some more intense yet, the key is to not allow the emotions that create tension, stress, and clouding of mind to linger once the cause has past. It is also helpful to have a clean, clear mind, so that our daily experiences can pass more easily through us and not attach to a previous emotion.  Through our daily meditation and breathing practices, we are able to clear the remnants of all the day’s emotions and experiences. We are then able to expand the “self”, our true self, beyond any of our feelings of anger, frustration, anxieties, or judgement, and open into all that we are, at our core. Then not only can we see the world and all who are in it, for what it truly is, but everyone around us can also more clearly see us for who we are, verses an angry, nervous, frustrated, or sad person.  These are things that describe fleeting emotional states, not you.  Release any of those labels. Reveal your true, authentic, you!

Practice #3 -

Ocean Breath:

Ujjayi pranayama, meaning “victorious” breath, is also known as Ocean Breath due to the soothing sound it creates.  This breathing practice is energizing, as well as deeply relaxing. It helps create focus in the mind, as the subtle sound of the breath gives another place for the mind’s eye to land.  It is also a wonderful breathing technique to incorporated with gentle movements of the body, to elevate any physical tension or holding before seated practice and infuse the body more deeply with prana.

Begin with your long, smooth 3-part breath.  Then create a slight constriction in the back of the throat as you inhale and exhale through the nose.  This slight tightening of the throat also occurs naturally when you exhale to fog up a mirror...TRY THIS! Pretend your hand is a mirror and use your breath to fog it up.  Now continue with that feeling that occurs in the back of the throat but also when you inhale. Then close the mouth and allow this “ocean sounding” breath to glide in and out of your nose.

Gentle movement:

*See Practice #3 Pictures

Mantra meditation:

We will also add the technique of  Mantra to our practice.  A mantra is a repeated word or phrase to aid in the focus of our mind in meditation.  We will “silently” attach a mantra to the awareness of breath at the nose.  This technique will add an additional focal point for the mind to rest on and is especially useful as a guide into practice.  For instance, there are times that seated practice can feel difficult. These typically are the times when we need meditation the most and when our techniques come in!   When streams of thought, feelings, outward noise, or even physical discomforts distract the mind, we can include a silent mantra to our breath awareness practice and this will aid in focusing the mind and allow us to dip a little easier into a meditative state.  

For our beginning practice of this technique, we will just “report the news”, meaning we will just simply observe the stream of breath naturally flowing in and out of the nose, and with every inhale think IN and with every following exhale think OUT.  As you continue with a mantra practice, you can also add words with meaning to you.  This brings in the energy of intention to your practice. (Track 3)