Pranayama for Jet lag

Pranayama for Jet lag

Last Year I travelled quite a bit and it has been the first time in more than ten years that I had been able to travel again. In the past I used to get quite jetlagged, just being tired and nostalgic for almost a week.

So, this time I got to try out the pranayama for jet lag.

Inhale for eight counts,

 hold the breath for eight counts

then exhale for eight counts and then

 hold the breath out for eight counts.

This is one breath cycle and you need to do 4 of these breath with holding the breath.

While doing this breath visualise you breathing a square. Do four cycles of this breath every time you take off and every time you land. This will clear each time the space between the different time lines and it works really well. 

If you find that counting to eight is really hard then count quickly so that you do get to eight counts and it does not matter if it is a fast count. When your breathing capacity increases you can count slower and it becomes easier to hold the breath too.

It also helped me to adjust to a new temperature as I came from the winter into a very hot summer.

No jet lag at all, adjusted well to the new climate and could enjoy my holiday right from the time I left home. And again, right from the time I got home.

It is fantastic when you can enjoy your holiday right from the start!

Pranayama an update on my blog

An overall update

It has been a long time since my last update of this blog. A lot has happened over the past year or two and as things are settling down finally, I wanted to tell you how Pranayama has helped me through the past two challenging years of massive change.

Firstly, I had been surrounded by a lot of grief. Five of my beloved animals all passed away within twelve months and also my aunty and a friend passed away during that time. Shock and grief consumed me and my life. And even so, I knew it all was here to open the doors of a brand-new life a new chapter, but with any change fear and anxiety and resistance goes with it.

I had also reached a certain age and gone just through my second Saturn return in astrology. So change was indicated all round.

No pets left, living at the other end of the world from where I was born, I decided to move back closer to home. After thirty-nine years living in New Zealand, I felt it was time to go back home to Europe. Financially it was impossible to move back to my home country Switzerland and so I discovered my new place to live my last chapter of life, the beautiful country Estonia.

So, you can see my life truly got turned upside down. And due to my practice of Pranayama, meditation with Ho Oponopono and mudras it made my transition so much easier. I could cope with grief so much easier, and the move almost went without any hiccups. The only hiccups, I will write a post on my on a new blog in the very near future. I almost felt guilty that things went so smoothly and that I felt so happy.

We often complain not having enough time to sit down for our sadhana, and I know this to be true for me too, but I have found instead of fretting about it feeling guilty about it even five minutes of pranayama keeps us going. And for me I had days where I just did a five-minute practice sitting on the couch during a commercial break while watching the news. Holding some mudras and chanting the Ho Oponopono prayer before nodding of to sleep helped immensely.

When I left Auckland New Zealand, I went for a holiday in Thailand catching up with my mum, which meant a temperature change from – 4 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees Celsius Pranayama can help with coping and adapting to these big temperature changes. Then I went on to Switzerland catching up with the rest of the family and comments were made why I was not feeling the effects of jetlag? Pranayama can help with adjusting and getting through the reasons for Jetlag. I will write a post about it soon here on blogger.

It is interesting for me I always come back to pranayama even if I stop for a few days when I struggle, I think of Pranayama, mudras and Ho Oponopono prayer and I get back on track quickly. What I noticed the most is the calm I felt 95% of the time and still feel. The ease I feel with my move, my new country, making contact with people and feeling content in the midst of challenges and turmoil.

Just in the last six months I have been shocked to hear of three more death of friends, and I feel there are so many things that can knock us off and into a dark hole, but my practice of sadhana even often just a five minute one has kept me going and has always restored some peace in my soul.

So many powerful tools are out there to help us with any and all challenges.

Sometimes I do feel guilty that things go so well and that I am so incredibly happy. I do have my cry for my beloved furry friends I had lost and all the friends that passed away. But I know they would all want me to be happy so I just have to work on my guilt I feel.

Keep going!

Benefits of Pranayama ebooks Babshealing

You can now download my eBooks "How Pranayama is a healing experience" HERE

And Pranayama, Mudra, mantras and Meditation HERE

Pranayama, Mudras, Mantras and Meditation can help us through all the challenges of life. There will always be challenges but we also have the tools to help us heal and get through tough times. These eBooks are my own life experiences, that I share here and giving you some ideas about how I got through my many challenges in life. I have always been in search of tools I could use for free to help me with my healing journey and certainly, pranayama, mudra, mantras and meditation are wonderful tools to work with! Enjoy!

Sometimes we go through difficult times but we can learn so much from it if we understand what it is like to struggle; My ebook "Hardship sucks" HERE

Donations are always appreciated

Pranayama helps with eating disorders, dietary problems, cravings, addictions and weightloss

I have been reorganising my blogs and putting many old posts together here on this subject of Pranayama for food cravings, addictions and eating problems. Adding a part of a Chapter from my new eBook "Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for Health and Wellbeing."

  

When you are stressed, often you create exaggerated eating patterns, either by skipping meals or you may start overeating, for comfort or to get more energy, and then you become even more stressed because of your eating habits, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

If due to stress you start skipping meals, or you just feel not hungry because of worry and fear, or you feel you have no time to eat because you are under pressure due to deadlines, or for whatever reason you can not slow down or make time to eat, you need to calm down, you need to stop and breathe.

Pranayama can help in many ways;

You can work with four breath per minute, then get to three breath per minute, then get to two breath per minute and then get to one breath per minute. This will calm you down a lot, and you can take a break to eat then, you will be in a better place to complete your tasks, and you will be just as capable reaching your deadline, than if you did not take a break and slowed down your breathing, but with less stress, more calmly and balanced. Even just a couple of minutes of breathing exercises will make a great difference.

I have found that when I have a lot to do and am stressed, worrying if I can get everything done, or when I just feel totally overwhelmed, slowing down my breath gets me calm and more focused to complete my work on time.

Many of you when you are stressed tend to eat a lot me included, especially if you are feeling insecure, anxious, and depressed or feel you just do not have enough energy and you keep reaching for energy foods like sugars to get a quick energy boost or you drink lots of coffee which just makes you more stressed. 

When you keep eating and especially eating bad foods you then, of course, getting more stressed because you worry about your weight gain and you get frustrated that you cannot handle your exaggerated eating habits, but you stuff yourselves fully, with more food and the stress is getting on top of you.

Pranayama can help you with getting the out of control eating back into balance and even help you to lose a bit of weight. 

Pranayama Suryabhedi is a wonderful Pranayama to help with your eating habits

With this Pranayama, I lost about ten kilos overall, without going on a diet. It helped me to just get my eating habits back into balance, it reduced my binging, and it reduced my cravings, and I could just be satisfied with a normal healthy diet. 

Pranayama for restraining compulsive eating;

When you just cannot stop yourselves from having to eat and overeat and eat some more, and cannot restrain yourselves when you crave things, as you just feel you must eat. Then this pranayama will help you change your eating habits, stop your cravings and make you feel more relaxed about food and not be needing to eat all the time. 

If you really want to break a deep compulsive eating problem or an addiction to food, it is advisable to practice these types of Pranayama for ninety days. This is especially beneficial for people who have always had a weight issue, who have always been eating more than they should and who always binge eat and would like to break this habit. This can break through addiction to food or coffee etc. and make your life a bit more stress-free.

I have been able to break through my coffee addiction with this pranayama. I never really knew I had a coffee addiction until the day I wanted to stop drinking coffee. I had withdrawal symptoms for seven days. 

Stress is often caused by your worries in how you look, your insecurities, fears, phobias and so on, and when you cannot control you're eating the stress you feel is never-ending.

Identify why you have this compulsive eating problem in the first place would help you understand and when you practice any of these Pranayamas in your mind, you can let go of these issues. 

Often these overindulging eating habits are coming from your insecurities, self-worth issues and so it gets triggered whenever you feel insecure or feeling not good enough. This creates major stress. And then you have to eat some more.

For all Pranayama always sit with a straight spine and keep your eyes closed or one-tenth open with the eyes looking at the tip of your nose or half open with being grounded with the open part of the eyes and connected to your subconscious with your closed part of the eyes.

Below you can read some of my old posts I wrote during the time when the benefits of practising pranayama daily begun.

4.09.2011 Pranayama helps with weight loss

Pranayama does help with losing weight, and what I have experienced is that the weight comes off gradually and it stays down. Over the year that I have been practising Pranayama, I have lost 11 kg and have been able to keep it off. With the extra yoga I now am doing I have started to tone my body and it is just amazing that I have been able to lose all the weight I was told I had to accept because of my age and because of menopause. I had always been slim until about the age of 45 and then I just started to gain weight, even so, I exercised, walked and felt my diet was not a bad diet I still put on about 10 kg.
Now it has all gone and I am back to my slim self. I still am aiming to lose 2 more kg and then I will be completely happy. Since I had broken my back, it felt as if I had put on a bit of flab around the spine for protection and I feel this will come off when my spine is completely healed. How I believe Pranayama works with weight loss is, that Pranayama regulates the metabolism, and the assimilation of nutrients, it helps balance out the appetite and the amount of food one needs and one feels like eating. My appetite is not as huge anymore and I also do not crave all the bad foods.

18.07 2011 Pranayama changes your eating habits

When practising Pranayama, it is hard to fit your practising into a busy lifestyle and making sure your stomach is empty when practising. When I am under a lot of stress and feel the need to do some Pranayama during the day to calm myself it has become important to me that I had to change my eating pattern.
Instead of grazing through the day, I have breakfast at about 8 am fruits, cereals, nuts. then Lunch at 12 .30 which means I can do a few Pranayama before lunch. I do Agnisar and Nadi-Sodhana a half hour before lunch just 5 sets of AgniSara and 10 cycles of Nadi-Sodhana and this helps to calm my mind and to help with my digestive system. I have a good size meal for Lunch with lots of Vegetables, Beans, Lentils etc. then I have my last meal around 5 pm or even 4 pm as often I teach classes from 5 pm to 6 pm.
So my stomach is empty again by 9 pm and I can do some more Pranayama to help with calming the mind and a good night sleep. There are ways to prepare foods in advance, heating it up first thing in the morning then put pot with food into a Wondersack or Kochsack which is a bag that you can put your pot with hot food or soup in it and it carries on cooking in the bag for about 8 hours without needing a stove or microwave or oven. This is a good way of taking a good meal to work. Work out a system that helps you to fit in the Pranayama without causing stress.
To have an early dinner was hard for me at the beginning, but now I am used to it and it is no problem. It is so much healthier for the body not to have a big meal late in the evening. It helps with sleeping too. People that wake at 3 am and can not get back to sleep, would benefit greatly if they had their last light meal no later than 6 pm. Also if you learn not to snack in the evening, you can easier lose weight, and reduce body fat without being on an actual diet.

25.06.2011 Changing negative eating habits

When I started practising Pranayama 10 month ago, I made big changes in my eating habits. I stopped eating meat, eggs, white sugar, white flour, fizzy drinks, alcohol and over time I also gave up coffee, made cutbacks with cheese and chocolate. This weekend it was my birthday and a friend backed me a light lemon cake. I tried again a coffee and eating this lovely lemon cake.
I felt I could easily indulge once a year and the lemon cake was light. I only just realised of course this cake has a lot of white sugar and icing sugar. This is why I am sitting on my computer writing as I can not sleep, I am so tired but I can not sleep. I feel nauseous and to me, this proves again that Pranayama works. I will not overindulge anymore and I will not be tempted by cake and coffee,
anymore. It feels so toxic to my body and I do not like it when I can not sleep. In the past, I went on many healthy diets and then allowed myself to indulge just once in a while,  but I always slipped back into old eating habits I never experienced adverse effects from overindulging before. Pranayama has changed my body, it does not want to go back into old ways, it does not want negative foods anymore, I am so glad I had this experience as it shows me the amazing effect Pranayama has it changes things at the root. It helps and makes it easy to go healthy and stay healthy. It makes it easy to want to eat healthily, it shows me how bad these negative foods really are and what they do to our bodies. I do hope these toxins will be out of my system soon. White sugar and icing sugar are bad. I do not have any problems with brown sugar or honey or any natural sugars. I do look forward to healthy foods again tomorrow.

2017 I am now not as strict anymore in what I am eating, I am still vegetarian but eat eggs again but only, free range and organic eggs. I may eat a bit of meat in the winter time, but not very often at all. My coffee drinking is mostly under control, as I love a cup of coffee I do drink it when I feel like it but it is not an addiction anymore. But I am very conscious of what I eat, and do not eat any processed foods and avoid certain brands for environmental and animal welfare reasons.

19.06.2011 Coffee addiction

I have given up coffee I think it would be about 4 months ago and just in the last couple of week, I have had quite strong cravings for coffee. Maybe the colder weather has set this craving off. I decided to give into it and have a coffee, but I did not like it at all. I felt this was quite strange. I was looking forward to this coffee and then it tasted yukky, I had to tip it out. So the craving is still there the taste for coffee has gone. It is great as this helps me not to become addicted to it again. I now do not even want to taste it. I am sure the craving for it will eventually disappear too.

15.05.2011 Food cravings

When I started practising Pranayama, I also changed my diet to a vegetarian diet. Over the past 9 months I have been eliminating bad foods from my diet, coffee which was very hard for me to give up, but now when I get offered a coffee, I am happy to say no thank you just a cup of hot water, please. Because I am on a very tight budget it had taken me some time to find good nutritional foods that were inexpensive, but good quality and giving me a sense of feeling satisfied and full. So my diet looks like this now. In the morning I have a bowl of cooked fruit with whatever is in the season, I cook and add spices like ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. To the cooled cooked fruit, I add some oats, some Goji berries, some dates and walnuts and currants or raisins and some milk.

For lunch I eat lots of vegetables in season, I grow as much as I can myself and shop locally for what is in the season. For me, I avoid cauliflower, tomatoes and capsicum. I use only on rare occasions, potatoes, rice or pasta. The veggies I cook with lentils or any beans, my favourite Azuki and pinto beans, but I use all varieties of beans. I use spices like turmeric, coriander, fennel, dill, fenugreek, and fresh herbs from the garden.

For dinner, I have vegetable soup with toast, wholemeal homemade bread with grains e.g. pumpkin and sunflower and sesame seeds. In the summer I do not eat soup but I have the wholemeal bread with cottage cheese, beetroot and sprouts. I have researched the nutritional values of these foods and found that it has all the nutrition, minerals and vitamins necessary. Walnuts are packed with omega 3, Lentils and beans have the proteins and iron. Broccoli has the calcium and so have many other green vegetables. I grow a variety of vegetables, broccoli different types of cabbages, Kale, Celeriac, courgette, spinach, carrots etc. In the summer I add a lot of berries to my break first.
If possible I do not add sugar to the fruits if I need some I use brown sugar only. I use only a small amount of olive oil for cooking. I have been able to get lots of walnuts locally as many people have trees but do not eat as many as I do so these are great. So I can eat a very healthy diet for a small budget. I feel not hungry, I have no cravings for chocolate, coffee, chips, salty foods or any other foods I use to love. I have tried these sorts of healthy food diets many times before, but after 2 or 3 months, have always gone back to not so healthy foods. Since practising Pranayama, I really wanted to eat healthily and I can not get myself to eat all these other bad foods. I use to think I was eating reasonably healthy, but now I feel my old diet was not that healthy at all. I stopped all the fatty cheeses and foods with artificial colourings, preservatives etc. I found when I organise myself it is not that hard to cook for myself healthy and nutritional foods. I feel so much better for it and practising Pranayama has made all this change so much easier.

21.03.2011 Diet changes come naturally

When practising Pranayama, the diet changes came naturally. I always was a big meat eater even so I did not like the thought of animals having to die. I sometimes even craved meat. When I started practising Pranayama, I thought it would be a good thing to become vegetarian but worried it would be difficult.
But it was amazing how easy it was not to eat meat anymore and now I am vegetarian for the last seven month. I have not looked back and I have never had any meat cravings again. I can not be tempted with meat and I wonder how I could ever have eaten meat. So no meat no fish no poultry. and no eggs and I feel great.
The other things to give up when practising Pranayama are alcohol and soft drinks, there were no problems as I never liked them. But my only struggle has been coffee. I always wanted to give up coffee, but coffee was the only thing that helped me with my headaches. Since my headaches have been better I had made several attempts to quit coffee but then headaches would return., I realised I was addicted to coffee. Two weeks ago automatically I stopped drinking coffee and so far it has not been a problem, no headaches no coffee cravings it just happened automatically.
I believe it is as if I am ready now and with practising Pranayama it helped me to come to this point. Every day when I practice my Pranayama, I get so excited and observe what is happening to me and in my life. It brings about change naturally without force without hard work, one has to just let go and move with it and be patient with the process. This made me realise that there is no need to give up anything forcefully, the change to a healthy and natural diet comes naturally when the time is right.
I have seen this now in some of my students who are slowly but surely making changes in their diets naturally and without any problems. Relax into practising Pranayama and everything just comes together as it needs to.
It is not a must, its a choice!

26.02.2011 Weightloss

Since doing the Pranayama, in the first 4 months, I have lost 7 kg, and have now been back to a weight I have been in my 20s and 30's. I did not go on any diets, but doing the pranayama's, it balances the body, the metabolism and digestive system and it certainly helps in bringing the body weight back to normal.
At first, I felt doing Pranayama would be hard and getting into a routine would be difficult, but the quick results and feeling overall better made it easy to keep it up and making it part of my life.No other healing modality has given me the results that practising Pranayama gives.
With my homoeopathy, I now focus more on working with animals as they can not do the pranayama, but for people, I would recommend pranayama as the best choice for getting healthy on all levels and being able to stay healthy.

Pranayama for stress

Here I put together many of the posts that I wrote while practising Pranayama on a daily basis, also adding a chapter of my new eBook.

A chapter from my new eBook" Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for health and well-being"

Pranayama for Stress

You all at some stage in your lives become stressed out, and many of you suffer from chronic stress. Often you are not even aware that you are stressed, you may ignore the symptoms and causes.

To become aware if you are stressed or not you need to understand and distinguish from normal stress and chronic stress. When you get yourselves into an acute stress situation, due to an accident or something you witnessed it is a normal way of your body to maybe react in a certain way. But then when the situation is over you should come back into balance. And you should no longer be affected by the situation.

But when you are chronically stressed, your body and mind are responding to the overload. And the stress is ongoing and can result in physical and mental, emotional ailments.

External causes of stress;

Major life changes, like moving home or even moving to another country. Getting married or having a child. When your lifestyle changes in some form or way.

Work and any kind of stressful work situation. 

School, exams, stress with other students or with teachers etc.

Relationship difficulties

Loss of a family member.

The family, children, teenagers can all be a stress factor in your life.

Or just being too busy, everything is getting on top of you, too many things to take care of, and too many responsibilities.

Financial worries and stresses. This is often a very major one for many people.

Illness in the family

Internal causes;

Chronic worry, being negative all the time, being a pessimist.

Rigid thinking, lack of flexibility. Critical, Perfectionist.

Negative self-talk, insecurities and self-doubt.

Fears and anxieties.

Grief, chronic grief.

You all respond to stress differently and you all cope with stress differently. Some of you may even thrive on a bit of stress, like being under pressure. But it is important to become more aware when the stress is becoming too much.

If you continue to ignore stress and allow yourselves to stay under permanent pressure it can become a very unhealthy situation. You can become physically ill from stress.

Some of the physical symptoms you may experience if you have continuous stress in your life;

Headaches, muscle tension

Fatigue

Digestive troubles, stomach aches

Sleeplessness.

You may experience a lot of;

Anxieties

Fears

Guilt

Lack of motivation

Irritability and Anger

Depression.

You may end up;

Not eating, skipping meals.

Or overeating to make you feel better or to get energy

You may start to drink, overuse of coffee and alcohol, or get into drugs to keep going

You may withdraw from society

And you may lack motivation altogether.

There are many Pranayama that can help you with stress. But you may say; "You are too busy to practice any Pranayama".

Well, if you know that your life is stressful for whatever reason, stop and take a  breath, always remember to breathe, bring the focus back to the breath even just for a minute. No matter how busy you are you should never forget to breathe and make a conscious effort to stop and take a few deep breaths. Just slowing down your breathing every so often during the day, can help tremendously with reducing stress. And also come back into your heart centre.

Practising the Anuloma - Viloma or alternating nostril breathing, in the evening, before going to bed or even while laying on your back in bed with a straight spine, you can practise a few rounds of alternating nostril breathing, this can help calm and balance the body and mind by reducing stress and helps with a good night sleep





Below some of my older post that I wrote while beginning with my daily practice of Pranayama


19.04.2015
Pranayama for Stress relief;

About a couple of month ago my life became quite stressful and I also get badly influenced by the energies of eclipse and as I knew we were soon to have a solar and lunar eclipse my energy became very stressed. I looked through all my pranayama books to see if I could practice pranayama to help me with my stress levels which started to push up my blood pressure. I found the eight-stroke breath pranayama for stress, that I have been practising since the beginning of March this year. The pranayama goes; Sit with spine straight, inhale in equal strokes for eight strokes, exhale forcefully in one stroke the inhale and exhale is done through the nose. The mudra is thumb tip touches the index finger tip. This pranayama should be practised for 11 minutes and in the evening. To finish off the pranayama inhale, roll the shoulders as many time possible with breath held in, then exhale, then inhale hold the breath and roll the shoulders as fast as possible then exhale.
This pranayama really works, it is so good to do this in the evening and it helps to calm that busy mind and by the morning one feels calm and energised to begin the day. And these hard knots around the neck and shoulders ease off and eventually dissolve.
The external stresses, of course, are there but with this pranayama, one can get through the day without elevated blood pressure or unnecessary worries and anxieties. To me, it is wonderful pranayama and I love practising it as I become more focused on keeping my awareness with my breath. I think to me this is one of the most potent pranayamas to relief stress. I keep doing it as it makes me feel so good.
To get real benefit this pranayama should be practised for 40 days in a row. But the stress relief is almost instant. Anyone can benefit from this pranayama, who does not suffer from stress from time to time?
Keep it up pranayama does work.

17.09.2011 Making changes and letting go

Pranayama helps with making the necessary change to move forward. It is amazing how with practising Pranayama the awareness is so great that it helps with understanding what the lesson is to learn in each challenge. I have been facing some of my hardest challenges at the moment and it has been a lifelong long struggle. I have done many therapies to overcome these struggles and challenges and I do well for a while and then the challenge is hitting me again. Since practising Pranayama I have been working through smaller challenges step by step and knew one day I would have to deal with my biggest challenge and I would have no escape from it than to face it head-on. Over the past year this challenge has been building up and I watched it coming. I tried to do anything to get rid of it and to change direction, but I could not. I am standing in front of my biggest fear, biggest worry, biggest burden and I know it here for me to work through it. Over the past 5 days while practising Pranayama the awareness I have gained from practising Pranayama it has shown me in details how these fears, worries, burdens, have been manifesting over years and even lifetimes. I can see while I am doing the Pranayama that it is feeling like I am pulling out deep roots of my biggest fears, worries and burdens. It feels like I can identify what has been the creator of such deep-seated fears, worries and burdens, and I can work and transform these fears, worries, burdens into healing, letting go, detach, into positive thoughts and I am learning to surrender which gives such a deep sense of calm and relief. Pranayama is helping me to really letting go, to let go from every cell, atom in my body, to transform every instant negative thought into positive, slowly I feel I am winning the positive thoughts are starting to push the negative thoughts out of the way even in the midst of facing my biggest fear, worries and burden. I feel like my own resistance is breaking down, I am able to break through my own resistance, my own blocks, restrictions and limitations. It is all slowly breaking away. It feels like I am winning, thanks to Pranayama.


9.09.2011 Focus and living in the now

Since practising pranayama I have become more aware of all the energies around me and within me. I have felt the pressure of needing to heal faster, to grow spiritually faster, around me people are talking about preparing yourself for the future for the year 2012 and the changes it will bring. I myself get caught up in all this, and my body feels as if it is trying to hold me back. And then every time I practice my pranayama, my energy is slowing down, my mind is slowing down, the pressure to heal fast disappears, the pressure to grow spiritually disappears. My body relaxes and I am focused on my breathing. The focus is on the now on what each breath is doing for my body, mind, soul, heart, spirit. And I realise there is no time limit in my healing process, there is no time limit in my spiritual journey, there is no fear of death or if I have to come back for much more lifetimes to complete the journey, there is nothing but the now. It feels calm and I know each breath I take is healing me it is helping me with my spiritual growth, but most of all it helps me to enjoy and to feel the MOMENT the HERE and NOW. It makes me realise how much more important the here and now is then the future. It makes me realise that it does not matter how fast I heal or grow, what matters is how I feel right now in each moment and with Pranayama it brings me back to the moment, it helps me to be focused on my inner being, in my heart space, on living each moment with depth, with awareness of joy, with love. The future will come quick enough, but the moment you miss will be gone forever. Don't waste your here and now don't waste each precious moment on the future, on trying to be there before you have lived the now.
We are so much living in the fast line, we are so much living in competition, there is even so much competition with spiritual journeys, the race is on who will get there first, who will be enlightened, who will be the most spiritual person who will be one with God first.
I may be last in line but filled with the richness that each moment each precious moment is giving me while living fully in the here and now. With Pranayama I feel I can slow down time, I can fully take in what each moment brings I can soak in the beauty, the love, the smells, the breath, the wind the whole energy and experience it fully. Why waste time on what the future may bring, when you can not fully experience the here and now, you may miss the future.

5.07.2011 Internal silence

I have learned the Pranayama Nadi-sadhana through the book Pranayama Rahasya ( with scientific factual evidence ) Swami Ramdev, and I have found this Pranayama most effective in calming my ever so overactive mind. While I am practising this pranayama it seems to block out any intrusive thoughts and it is stopping my mind from wondering. It is very effective. I have found the more traditional way of practising the Pranayamas like the once that Swami Ramdev teaches the most effective ones. Many teachers will add their own style to the pranayamas and what suits one, may not suit another. Like with all things we put our own style on things.  Traditional things become improved, adjusted, refine, only to in time to go back to the traditional way or the original way. So I have been studying these books of Swami Ramdev and watch the YouTube videos and have found when I follow his instructions I get the best result. The Pranayama Nadi - sadhana showed me how amazing it is when one is able to control the breath, and that there can be an immediate benefit. It feels like it goes very deep and I have felt that I become internally silent a very amazing feeling.

24.05.2011 Pranayama and the mind

Since practising Pranayama, now nine months, I would have to say that my absolute biggest challenge in my mind. It is just incredible how strong thoughts are and how hard it is to let go of negative thoughts, negative thought patterns, distraction, pictures in your mind. The mind creates worries anxieties and negativity. When I work on being positive negativity just pops in, when practising Pranayama I work on getting rid of all the negativity, and the words the pictures the thoughts, it seems endless what is coming out and needs to be dispensed of. Kapalabhati helps in getting rid of negativity, negative behaviour patterns, negative thought patterns, but sometimes I feel my mind is just so determined to keep me in a negative mood. It is unbelievable how strong the mind is. The mind soaks in outside influences, from the radio, TV, from people around me from things I have experienced, things I read, and it seems as if it only wants to store the negativity. Pranayama helps with changing that negative mind to a positive mind. What is happening now for me is that I am aware instantly when a negative thought, word, picture enters my mind and I can change it straight away into a positive thought, picture or word. Since practising Pranayama, pranayama has given me such a deep awareness and has helped me to go deep into myself. It has helped me to draw out all the negativity that is deep within me from my childhood, from my past, may even from my past lives. There is still more coming out, but now I can stop the negativity from going in. The awareness helps me to change the negative into positive before it enters my being. I still have a long way to go, but it is so healing to know I can let it all go now I need no longer to hold on to my demons, my negativity, my hurt, my grief. Pranayama is simply amazing. Sometimes it's so much hard work and I think why am I doing this, but then I realise I have come so far already I will not give up on it. The other day a friend of mine said that she did not think I would ever give up practising Pranayama as I have been doing it now for nine months and it is just so much part of my life. I believe, it takes about three months of disciplining yourself to practice Pranayama, after that it just becomes part of your life and daily routine.

3.05.11
Stress relief

It has just been an amazing experience for me; Major stress just did not throw me down this time around. I have felt so much calm it has been amazing in the past these major stresses would just get me down and make me angry and frustrated and this time around I feel calm, just the occasional feeling how do I deal with this now, but then solutions come and everybody around me is understanding, allowing me to be late with my payments without charging penalties or late payment fees, things are just able to be sorted. I have become creative in making things last longer, I have been more creative in making things myself and finding solutions for everything. This has made me positive and I am quite excited about trying out new ways finding solutions and solving problems. The challenges have become fun and I feel on top of the world in the middle of great turmoil. Since practising Pranayama, life, in general, has just become easier, things to deal with have become easier, people around me have become more helpful, due to my calmer nature. I truly feel like a new person. Pranayama is just amazing.

Pranayama diffuses stress 30.04.2011

We are living in a stressful world and it is the story of my life that I have always stressed due to finance. I have chosen to live a lifestyle different to many people, self-employed and always choosing an occupation which is hard to make a living from. I have times where things just go smoothly and great and suddenly things turn to mud and get really difficult. I stress about finance to the max. I often felt I could not move as moving costs money. Since practising Pranayama, I have been able to relax more about finance, even so, I still have days I stress, it seems to get easier as more I practice Pranayama. I find solutions I never been able to find before. I am able to live in the moment more, then worry about next weeks bills and payments. It feels now that slowly but surely I am getting on top of things. Finding ways to cut back costs, realising,   I  do not need so much, realising one can be happy with less, realising that becoming more in tune with the rhythm of nature allows me to find better solutions, understanding myself better finding my strength and weaknesses, helps me in sorting my ongoing financial issues. Often when practising Pranayama I get distracted by my thoughts about my stresses, but then automatically I focus back on my breathing. I realise I can not force change it comes automatically. When practising Pranayama the focus comes naturally, the changes come naturally letting go and surrendering comes naturally in time at the right time. The healing is a transition that takes time but practising Pranayama makes it easier, my aggressive nature is calming down and I feel I can cope with life better each day. We will always have challenges but with Pranayama these challenges are easier to work with.

10.04.2011
Pranayama brings about awareness

Practising Pranayama brings about an awareness that helps understand one's emotions, thoughts, behaviour patterns, mood swings, anger, frustrations and depression. Since practising Pranayama, I have become aware of all my mood swings, negative thoughts my negative behaviour patterns, and my lows and highs. What I have found is that the negative thoughts and the negative behaviour patterns are fighting with me they try to block my healing process and they try to intrude when I practice my Pranayamas. The awareness helps me to identify this and helps me to work through these struggles. I have found that every time I sit down to do my Pranayamas despite my negative moods or anger and frustration, I calm down and can put things in perspective with every out breath I can work on letting go of negativity, old negative behaviour patterns, old hurts, negative thoughts and emotions. It is not an instant cure, but with the awareness that Pranayama has given me I have been able to come through the lows and the negativity much quicker. It is hard to let go of old hurts, grief, anger frustrations that have been part of my life since a young age, the behaviour pattern one has created over the years, it's as if all these negatives have a hold on me and show up out of the blue. With Pranayama I feel I have been able to work through so much already, it has given me the strength to change, and to let go. Pranayama is not an instant cure like when taking a pill, but it works on a deep level, changing me from the root of my being. It seems to bring a lasting change.

1.03.2011
Pranayama to calm the mind

Pranayama calms the mind and heals the emotions. Since practising Pranayama I have become much calmer and have been able to deal with stress much better. Practising Pranayama brings about an awareness of emotions that need to be healed and it helps to deal with these emotions and to bring about a calm and focused mind.
Pranayama, breathing, helps deal with any kinds of stress it helps deal with natural disasters better and helps to focus on the moment rather than dwelling on what has been and what will be.
My thoughts are with all my friends and all the people in Christchurch. Pranayama helps to get through each day.
Breath deeply in any situation. Stop what you are doing and take a deep breath to see what it feels like! Can you feel your lungs expanding?

Walk the journey, your path in peace

This is all about my personal experiences copyrights@BarbaraSchaer all rights reserved

Pranayama for Arthritis,Joint problems and Frozen Shoulders

A chapter from my eBook on; 

Arthritis and Joint problems

For most of my life I had been hating my body for holding me back, for causing me so many pains and troubles, often I felt like I was a cripple, and often got bullied at school for not doing well in any sports, wondered why I had to live in a body like this. Some of you are born with many physical disabilities, some of you are prone to many physical ailments, and you just have to put up with it, or do you?

All my life I had issues with my joints and had been very accident prone and it had caused me to suffer from arthritis at an early age.

Well, what can you do? I was told I would need shoulder replacement surgery, and don't worry you can do the knees and hips too when they have enough deteriorated. And for pain, you can use all sorts of drugs no worries.....And nobody ever suggested that there may be a natural way to keep arthritis from getting worse and that there were natural ways to manage pain. 

As I had always been looking for natural ways, and also had no intentions having all my joints replaced through surgery, I began a journey of trying out various things. When I started practising Pranayama and gained so quick relief for my migraines and back issues I continued my practice in the hope to help me with my arthritis, joint issues and my very bad shoulder problems. 

The shoulder problem started around 1988 when I had to drive a lot and my left shoulder started to become very painful from the shifting of gears in my van. In 1991 I had been diagnosed with frozen shoulders and the start of abnormality in my shoulder joint, the beginning of arthritis. I was then told within the next ten years I would need surgery. And of course, my right shoulder also started to deteriorate as time went by. It is 2017 now and I have not had surgery, and I am feeling better than I have back then.

Arthritis is a deterioration of the joints, it causes inflammation, stiffness and pain in the joints. Often the cause of arthritis can be due to injuries to the joint, infections of the joints or due to a family history of arthritis. When you get older there is a natural deterioration of cartilage and the joints, but it does not have to cause inflammation or pain. 

When you suffer from arthritis, there is inflammation most of the time. You may have times during the year that the arthritis flairs up and other times where it is quite good. There are foods that can cause more inflammation and there are foods that can help in reducing inflammation. There are natural herbs that can help with the management of arthritis, without causing the nasty side effects that many pharmaceuticals do. 

Arthritis is a chronic condition and therefore will not heal overnight and there is no real cure for it. But Pranayama and mudras has helped me and has slowed down or even stopped the further deterioration of my joints. 

So when I started my practice of pranayama I started to feel a difference in my joints and my level of pain and stiffness also.

Now I hardly ever experience any pain unless I totally overdo things, like a lot of gardening or long hours of typing on the computer, can bring on stiffness in the joints, but by the next day after a good night sleep and doing some Pranayama with mudra and a few stretches I am fine again. 

I sometimes take a few Ayurveda herbs, but my budget often does not allow me to buy them for long-term use. I think that if I could afford to buy the herbs I may even have a chance to rebuild the joints and become even more flexible again. But for now, the Pranayama with mudra gives me very satisfactory results, actually, it gives wonderful results. 

Symptoms of arthritis; 

Stiffness

Inflammation of the joints

Swelling of the joints

Redness of the joints

The heat of the joints

Restriction of the movements in the joint.

In the advanced stage of arthritis, there can be nerve pain due to bones touching or pinching the nerves. I had this often on my shoulders when the bone hit a nerve I was in agony and for a short time, a few minutes my whole arm would become paralysed. I had to just wait and allow it to settle down. And certain movements could set off the aggravating pain as well.

Aches and pains in the joints. Pains can come in waves, they can get aggravated due to the weather, or too much of acidy foods.

The finger joints, they can become thicker and nodules can grow from the calcium deposits in the joints these will cause stiffness, pain and restriction of movement.

I no longer hate my body, I feel my body has been a blessing for me as it has given me the opportunity to work and experience Pranayama and mudra on this physical level. Amazing when your health improves with age!!!

Below, my old posts on  Trauma, Shock and Pain, Excruciating pain, Arthritis and Frozen Shoulders

29.03.2014 Trauma, Shock, Pain

Just over a week ago I experienced a very traumatic time, I will not go into the situation that happened on Friday but it did shake me up very badly. I was shivering and shaking uncontrollably and felt very traumatised, with anxiety and worries. I noticed my breathing was rapid and I just about hyperventilated.
Quickly I thought of Pranayama and started to slow down my breathing. Closing my eyes and just breathing deeply and slowly. I felt my heart slowing down and my whole being started to relax.
Friends around me and neighbours also worried about me and it was interesting how everyone was trying to comment on the situation reading into it in many different ways. Listening to this all was trauma in itself and I realised how we make a situation worse by just talking about it twisting it in all direction. I had to keep on breathing and reminding myself of breathing deeply and not to read to much into the situation.
I felt the breathing really helped me not to take everything in a bad way, but to turn the situation around and be grateful as it could have turned out much worse.
The next day early in the morning as I was taking my dogs for a walk I knew I had still been a bit shaky from the trauma the day before but felt a walk with the dogs would do me good.
I did not make it very far, as soon I was outside my gate my dogs pulled me in one direction, I tripped and fell onto my knees and flat on the stony ground. I had smashed both my knees, twisted my wrist and pulled a chest muscle. I was feeling very nausea and hobbled back into my house. Sitting down and again my breathing was panting like a dog and I was in shock again and in pain.
Again I started to focus on my breathing and wow it was amazing how it helped me to calm down and then to assess my injuries and just getting my Homeopathics sipping them with just resting and breathing. At first, I was quite angry thinking that I had to get through hell twice, I felt again traumatised and all my friends and neighbours came to my aid. And I guess it is human to talk about it all in a negative way and to see just the negative about the trauma, but I could feel as more I had focused on my breathing and doing breathing exercises, slowing the breathing down to three breath per minute just relaxed me and also helped with pain and shock. Then doing the alternating nostril breathing helped me to focus and do the right thing for my injuries as I do not like to go to doctors and take pills and have them squeezing and fiddling around my bashed knees.

Later on in the day I also did an hour of my usual Kundalini Yoga meditation and then added a fifteen-minute pranayama meditation for the neutral mind. This went like this, just breathing long and deep and quiet and when relaxed, then focusing on the third eye point silently chanting wa- he- gu- ru while breathing slowly and deeply. After the fifteen minutes of this meditation I felt relieved, I felt positive and I was feeling so grateful that I got through all this trauma so well and that everything turned out so well, I felt I had been protected and looked after as it all could have turned out so much worse.
I also realised when being honest with myself, it is nice to get all the sympathy from friends and neighbours and I know that I often thrive on getting sympathy, but with Pranayama I was quickly feeling better and the healing of my body also happened more quickly, with this, people often do not believe that a situation was as bad as it truly was because they can not see that pranayama and meditation can be so powerful. So the sympathy from others quickly disappears.
I often have been hoping for a bit of recognition that being able to think, while going through trauma, of pranayama and meditation takes discipline and great awareness. It is easier to just fall back into the trap of negativity and allowing trauma to have a hold over you than to focus and do Pranayama and meditation for a speedy recovery and for a more positive outlook on the situation.
But breathing is so important, it calms, it relaxes, it takes you out of shock, it helps to think positive instead of negative, and it helps to see the blessings in the trauma.
So think of your breathing, when stressed stop and breathing consciously deep and slow, when traumatised think of slowing down your breathing, breath deeply, when in shock, breath deeply and focus on your breath. Pranayama and meditation are wonderful tools to see the sun rising again after a very dark night.

Excruciating pain; 6.09.2011

A couple of nights ago I woke up with excruciating shooting pain in my left cheek and jaws, my teeth were hurting my ear and the cheekbones, the pain was 10 out of 10. I tried to do some pranayama, but the pain was so bad I could only cry. I had found some orthodox painkiller and decided to take some as I could not bear the pain. I got only slight relief and went to sleep for a short time then woke again with this horrible pain. I got up and tried to do more pranayama and could only do some Bhastrika and some Anuloma Viloma, this gave some relief enough for me to focus on finding some homoeopathic remedies to take. This only gave slight relief. I went to see a friend to try and keep my mind away from the pain but it was so bad. My friend wanted to take me to a dentist, but I did not want to go. I continued the day with homoeopathy and some deep breathing and relaxation. The evening came and I felt I just needed some more relief, I was worried I would have a sleepless night again. So I sat down to do more Pranayama and my cat came and sat very closely by my side. I could do Bhastrika, Anuloma Viloma, some Nadi-sodhana with three bandhas and some Bhramari. Any other Pranayama hurt my jaws too much. In the end, I decided to do a self-heal kriya kundalini meditation, and as I started with this meditation, my cat put one paw on my knee and its head gently on my knee. He purred loudly and it felt like he was humming. I felt strong energy, warming energy entering me, coming from my cat, and when I finished the meditation and the pranayama all the pain had gone I felt at ease again my teeth, my jaws were fine and I had a very good night sleep. My cat looked at me and it was as if he'd smiled. He is my miracle cat as I had lost him once and found him very badly injured at a shelter a few days later and he had surgery on his jaw that was broken in six places. he recovered so well and it is now five years since his accident. We are very in tune with each other and it felt so nice that he assisted me in my Pranayama and my meditation to heal my pain.

Arthritis
25.05.2011

Over the past six weeks, the weather has been very wet, windy and it is now getting cooler, winter is approaching. This is the kind of weather that usually upsets all my joints, especially my ankle, wrist, fingers, knees and hip. Since practising Pranayama, my joints have started to improve, pain is much less I now have pain -free days. I would say the pain is better by 80% the swellings have also reduced a lot and the only swelling I get is on my left ankle which has been a problem since as long as I remember. The biggest improvement I can see in my fingers as the nodules in my finger joints have gone. All the finger joints look normal again. I still get twinges in my lower back and a bit of an ache in my left hip. Since practising Pranayama I have not been able to sit cross-legged for a long time, now I can sit cross-legged for about 30 - 40 minutes comfortably. It's just great how Pranayama works.

Update 4.09.2011

Over the past 10 or so years, I have had problems with arthritis in my hip, knees, shoulders, wrists and fingers. It is now a year that I have been practising Pranayama and the pain that use to be about 8 out of 10 is now down to 1 out of 10. I only get pain or stiffness if I have been lifting too much or doing a lot of physical work. The weather has not affected me anymore and arthritis in the finger joint has gone the swellings and nodules on the joints have gone. I can now sit cross-legged during my one-hour Pranayama practice with only very slight discomfort towards the end of my practice. With the extra yoga I am now doing regularly my flexibility has also improved a lot. The only restriction and inflexibility I have is the shoulders, but as they had been frozen for 20 years and had very bad arthritis in it, I know it will take more time, I had been offered to have shoulder replacement surgery but have not accepted it as I have hardly any pain and I believe my shoulders will heal completely. It is just amazing how well Pranayama works and I can not put it into words how amazing Pranayama is. It has changed my life, it has given me life back.

Update 28.10.2011

I have found that Pranayama is continuing healing my arthritis and my joints. There has been more improvement since my last post. I can now sit cross-legged for any length of time without any pain I now sit for 1 1/2hours during my Pranayama practice without any problems, except maybe that my legs go to sleep a little bit, depending on how I am sitting.
All my joints seem to feel better and become more flexible. I have only slight twinges in my knees, but my hips are fine now. During my week of working a lot on the computer my wrists and fingers flair up a bit but after each Pranayama session, it went back to normal. The swelling in my ankle is very minor and it does not flare up as much as it used to.
Overall I feel great no pain and move so much easier. I teach now four classes of yoga without any problems and I can stay a step ahead of my students which I could hardly do before. Coming down from a pain level 9 out of 10 to 0 is a great achievement. As the joints had been badly deteriorated I would imagine that it takes a long time for them to maybe even regenerate and heal but be pain-free and not feeling so restricted in my joints with stiffness is wonderful and well worth the effort of practising Pranayama daily
It is just great!


Frozen shoulders;
10.05.2011

It is now 9 month since I started practising Pranayama and doing some gentle yoga exercises. I have been having frozen shoulders diagnosed in 1989. First, the left shoulder ceased up and 2 years later the right shoulder started to give problems. I was offered steroid injections which I refused. I was told most likely by the time I am 50 I would need shoulder replacement surgery. I am 52 now and I was in a lot of pain day and night often the pain would be about 8 out of 10. I often was tempted to take painkillers but just put up with the pain and the restriction. It was very difficult for me to hang out the washing I could not reach up high with my arms. Cleaning windows I could just not do. At night it was so painful I could not sleep on my side on the shoulder it felt as if I was lying on raw bone. The restriction got worse over the years and the pain eased if I did not use my arms too much. When I started practising Pranayama, I could not hold my arm up for the Anuloma Viloma for the opposite nostril breathing I needed arm support. Also, I needed arm support for the Bhramari Pranayama, and after this Pranayama, my shoulder was sore. Now 9 month into practising Pranayama, I do not need any support for my arms and I can do the Anuloma Viloma for 20 minutes in one go without any pain. The pain has improved 75% and the restriction has improved by about 50 % I am much more flexible now in my shoulders and can hang out the washing without any problems. I have many days now where I am completely pain-free. I feel pain only if I have been on the computer too long or if I have been doing some gardening for a few hours, or the weather is wet and damp. I teach now exercise classes, including Yoga and many stretch exercises and I can do almost all of the exercises now. It is just amazing what benefit I have gained from practising Pranayama. Doing an hour of Pranayama each morning and about 1/2 an hour in bed before going to sleep is not much hard when I think that I have gained so much relief in only 9 months. I think I never really knew how much pain and restriction I was until now where I often do not even feel my shoulders and the hardness and knots in my shoulders and muscles have gone completely. How much money could be saved by the health system if we all just gave an hour a day to practising Pranayam Make a start today! I am happy to help you along.

Update 28.10.2011

My frozen shoulders are improving too, the healing is slow, but considering that my shoulders had been so bad that doctors suggested shoulder replacement surgery, they are doing just fine. The flexibility is getting better, the pain is down to 1 out of 10, I only get pain if I have been on the computer too long or have done too much gardening.
But after a session of Pranayama, the pain goes. The tension in the muscles around the shoulders is easing and sometimes now the knots are gone for a few days. I feel there are just amazing improvements and people have commented on how my flexibility is improving on my shoulders. All thanks to Pranayama.
In my yoga classes, people are always commenting on how my flexibility in my shoulders have changed and how well I look and move now. The arms flow much better.

This is all about my personal experiences,copyrights@BarbaraSchaer all rights reserved