When the mind becomes disturbed, what do we do?

When the mind is disturbed it can be very hard to get those disturbances out, thoughts keep rolling around in our minds, waking us up in the night, making a small problem into a mountain.  When we are angry it is easy to allow the anger to grow and not so easy to dissolve it.  When we are sad that sadness can build and embed itself without us being able to turn ourselves around to being a contented happy person whatever the situation. 

When the mind becomes disturbed it is vital that we don’t agitate it more, we have to handle our system gently and nicely.  Taking some steps back and just observing ourselves is a good way to free our minds from these lower emotions, by this observation you gain the support of the self, when the intellect becomes strong and can ride over the emotions the thoughts will subside.  One way we can support the intellect and help to overcome those emotions is by chanting or singing.  This way we can turn our mind to something positive letting go of the negativities that can eat into you.  I have found many adults to be shy to sing or chant, they are so caught up with entanglements, insecurities and fear of what they may sound like as the ego plays its part.  When we are children we love to sing, so why not when we are older, it doesn’t matter what you sound like, if you are singing from the heart it is bound to be beautiful no matter of the sound.  And it doesn’t matter what you sing, if you have a favourite song then blast it out (of course something uplifting!)  Or simply chanting Om or Maa can be a wonderful way of self-expression and can turn our anxieties, fears and depressions into joy and peace. 

There are so many mantra’s and bhajans that we can look into, but one of my favourites is the sun and moon healing mantra, coming from the Kundalini lineage from Yogi Bhajan. 

The mantra is RAA MAA DAA SAA      SAA SAY SO HUM.

Raa meaning the sun, we are evoking the suns qualities of creation.  Maa is the moon representing all female qualities of compassion and nurturing.  Daa is the earth as we chant daa we are grounding ourselves.  Saa is an uplifting vibration and saa say meaning that vibration is infinite.  So hum meaning I am that, therefore I am that sun, moon, earth, that infinite vibration of consciousness. 

You could make up your own melody or look for Satnam Kaurs version; who truly has the voice of an angel and chant with her. 

When I have been sick I have used this mantra and when you chant with belief and the right intention you can truly feel the vibrations working their way around the physical body but also around the mind, it can be a very powerful and positive thing, turning any negative health into positive health. 

So smile to yourself and chant away, you can also chant silently in your mind if you are on the bus or train you can still do it, and the effect will be just as strong.  So go ahead and enjoy bring the light back into your life.

Om Shanti

I wish all living entities to be happy, free from suffering and peaceful.

Mangala / Nicky.

Chanting class is held for free every Friday at Pranamaya Yoga Studio, Moksh, Patan, Kathmandu from 5-5.30pm, with Nicky.

My aching back, where is the pain coming from?

All of us at some time or another are experiencing back pain, even children today are suffering with it.  For some the pain can become unbearable and bring a lot of misery into our lives where normal daily things can become very difficult, causing us a great deal of unhappiness and sorrow.  And for others it is just that annoying niggle that you just can’t seem to shift, again disturbing every day life. 

In modern science it is very easy to pin point where the back pain is, but it is not so easy to cure.  And this can be because we are looking in the wrong place for the cause of the pain and hence the wrong solution.  Back pain can be physical due to injury, strain on the muscle, damage to the vertebrae or disk, or pressure on a nerve.  Also it can be caused by other diseases i.e. kidney or heart problems, cancer or tumours, obesity etc.  But quite often the pain is caused by psychological stress.  The mind is very clever and the subconscious mind can create the pain to escape reality.  For example suddenly before a big meeting you don’t want to attend or an exam or interview you are very nervous about, you get a fever or terrible headache, the subconscious creating these so you can escape whatever it is that is causing you the stress.  The pain or the physical problem is being caused by a psychosomatic issue; that of an emotional or mental issue.  To feel the pain the prana (energy) has to be disturbed, and when you have the pain you focus on the pain creating tension in the muscles.  If it is stress causing your pain then often the treatments you are having will not work as you are only addressing the physical and not the mental issues. 

Therefore stress management has a very important role in back pain.  Of course there are heat treatments, wearing supports, strengthening exercises, sleeping on a hard mattress and massage,changes to our diet and lifestyle that can help.  However by following some simple relaxation techniques you can really relieve your back pain.  De-stressing your mind can make the pain vanish. 

The practice of yoga can help to both relieve stress to the mind and to the body, in practising meditation, yoga nidra, chanting of mantras, chanalysing your prana lying in savasana and a technique called cyclic relaxation, where the relaxation takes place in a standing position, for those of you who simply can’t lie in savasana. 

These techniques are vital for all of us but for those of you suffering with back pain, I believe that this is where you should start to approach the problem by de-stressing.

A simple meditation technique is to simply sit in a comfortable position that you can maintain for some time, place your hands in your lap the right over the left (dhyana mudra) you may sit on a chair as long as the spine is free and straight, or you can do it lying on the floor or standing upright, close your eyes, making sure you are not going to be disturbed for the duration of your practice and begin to watch your breath.  Follow your breath from the tip of the nose up through the nostrils feeling all the sensations, keep following deep into your lungs, then follow it back out again from the lungs up and through the nostrils.  Become aware of nothing but your breath, the subtle sound it makes and the gentle movements of your tummy as it rises and falls, letting go of everything else going on in your life, just breathe and find your peace.  You will naturally begin to release any tension in the muscles during this process.  Choose a realistic amount of time that is going to be doable and stick to that time for the practice, it could be just a few minutes or up to half an hour or even longer, that is up to you. 

It is amazing how stressed we can become without even being aware of it, so be careful and really take the time for proper relaxation where the whole body and mind can rejuvenate and you can free yourself from the pains in your body.

For now be calm and content and find peace

Om Lokha Somasta Sukhino Bhavantu

May all living entities find harmony and balance

Om shanti shanti shanti

Peace peace and perfect peace

Mangala / Nicky.

Smile from within and be content!

Contentment is one of the four gateways to liberation according to the Yoga Vasistha; the supreme yoga.  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to not be worried about what is around the corner, to not be worried about what the future holds, but to just have that warm smile from within in contentment of any situation, ready to flow with the river to wherever it may take you.  To not need to quench the thirst of our senses and sense pleasures but just be able to sit in good and wise company and simply be content.  Here is what the Yoga Vasistha says, an ancient scripture that can answer all the questions that arise from the human mind.  It is a dialogue between the Sage Vasistha and a young Lord Rama who has fallen into a depression, it has been a favourite scripture of spiritual seekers over the past few centuries and has a real rational and accessible approach of Vedanta philosophy, so enjoy -

“Contentment is another gate-keeper to liberation.  He who has quaffed the nectar of contentment does not relish craving for sense-pleasures: no delight in this world is as sweet as contentment. 

What is contentment?  To renounce all craving for what is not obtained un-sought and satisfied with what comes unsought, without being elated or depressed even by them -  this is contentment.  As long as one is not satisfied in the self, he will be subjected to sorrow.  With the rise of contentment the purity of one’s heart blooms.  The contented man who possesses nothing owns the world.”

It goes on to tell us that as well as contentment that also self-control, enquiry and keeping company of the good and wise are also gateways to liberation.  It is very hard to just be content the same as it is very hard to just stop being sad if you are sad, but through our practice we can find the answers, through the practice of just one of these gate-keepers then the other 3 will follow, but it has to be through our own self effort.  The highest wisdom will then seek you of its own accord, it explains that until you can tame the wild elephant we call the mind through these 4 practices of contentment, wise company, self enquiry and self control there can be little or no progress towards the supreme goal, to free ourselves, therefore we must practice!

So let us smile from within in contentment of our beings, sit in your own love and light, beautiful people will want to be with you when you yourself are content and have calmed all wants of this and that.  Be satisfied in the fact you have this wonderful human life where you can discover yourself, that is enough to be contented with isn’t it?

Om Lokha Somastha Sukhino Bhavantu

May you all find peace, balance and happiness

Om Shanti Shanti Shantih

Peace peace and perfect peace

Mangala / Nicky

How 3 types of food effect your mind - which would you choose?

“The body is the temple.  The soul is the idol in it.  It is made out of bricks of food.”  Bagavad Gita.

If we don’t feed our bodies with the right food our soul will leave!  The quality and quantity of the food we eat directly affects our whole system, how we think, how we react and how we feel.  Not only is the food we eat our energy for the day but it is what is making our bodies, that energy directly turns into tissues and cells so we must think carefully about what we are making our ‘body home’ with.  Would you make your house out of a packet of biscuits or bars of chocolate?  Maybe the answer is yes!!  But what we eat and drink also really does have a profound effect on the mind, that monkey that likes to jump here and there and cause lots of trouble!  So by what we eat we can also start to manage our minds a little more.  Certain foods will make us more prone to gossiping and being more egotistical whilst other foods can make us lazy and lethargic and others can make us calm, peaceful and have good morals, so which would you choose?  Eating wrongly can cause big in-balances in the body and mind system; this affects the pranic level (your energies e.g. respiration, circulation, excretion, reproduction and digestion.)  Any in-balance in the pranic level is going to weaken the immune system and cause disease, maybe of the body but also of the mind.  In fact any disease that is of the body effects the mind directly and visa versa, so we have to really take care of both.

There are three different types of food, Satvic, Rajasic and Tamasic.  Satwa induces harmony and balance, where rajas induces action and tamas induces lethargy and fear. 

These three qualities or ‘Gunas’ we can apply to our food.

Satvic food would be fresh organic vegetables, fruits, natural foods, cereals and grains, nuts and seeds.  Reasonably cooked not overly or under cooked.  Satvic foods are mildly spiced.  They bring cleanliness, calmness, wisdom and spirituality, harmonic thoughts and good morals.

Rajasic foods would be piping hot food, bitter, sour and saline.  Fried foods, coloured and with preservatives, processed foods.  White sugar, MSG, anything in a tin, packet or can.  Anything artificial.  With these foods arises a competitive mind, gossiping and listening to gossiping.  A fast paced mind, talkativeness, a big ego and self-boasting. 

Tamasic foods would be completely tasteless, cooked all night or overly cooked, impure food or food which is decaying.  Fermented foods are tamasic as are meats, alcohol and caffeine etc.  Tamasic foods bring fear and ignorance, lethargy and laziness, sadness and depression.

However having said this and it is quite clear that you can see what we should be eating as opposed to what our minds tell us we would like to eat, it is also important to know that we do actually as people living in the material world need all three of these types of food, but it is in which quantity that is important.  If we eat too much tamasic food we are likely to become depressed, too much rajasic food and we become too full of ourselves so we have to find the balance leaning toward a Satvic dominant diet with a few little bits from rajas and tamas.  Fermented foods are tamasic like dairy products and dosa or idly, but we need a little bit of the B12 contained within them.  If we are working hard which most of us are in this modern world then we need a little rajasic food for our energy a little biscuit now and then is not going to hurt you.

Recommended is a simple healthy vegetarian diet and eating similar types at a time so it easier for the digestion.  You should work toward satwa, but we need to use the right combination of the three according to your situation.  If you are a yogi living in a cave in deep meditation then only satvic food is needed but if you are working then it is different, you need to work out how much of rajas and tamas your system is demanding, but EXCESS of these two will lead to disease of your system that is for sure.

So the important thing is to bear in mind what the types of food are and what effect they have on your mind and behaviour.  It is all about finding the balance and leading yourself more towards being a calm and peaceful person that others love to be around. 

For now have beautiful days full or fresh pure organic vegetables and fruits!!  Become a tree!!

Om Lokha Somasta Sukhino Bhavantu

Om shanti shanti shantih

May you all find happiness, harmony and peace peace and perfect peace.

Mangala – Nicky.

The meaning of life - 'To be like a Tree!'

I have just returned once again to Kathmandu after another amazing, revealing and illuminating time in India.  How lucky am I to be able to keep growing and learning and then to see so many faces from around the world at Pranamaya’s opening of our new studio in Thamel last night, to share all this with.  All this wonderful yoga.  How privileged I am.  How lucky we are to have these human bodies as our abodes, to experience life through.  To be able to work through all 5 layers of our existence through the practice of yoga, to experience our physical selves, our pranic selves, our minds and mental layer, our intellect and our bliss.  What joy to have this human existence and what an adventure of discovery we can have. 

On this trip I had the great fortune to meet and be in the presence with Swami Bhoomananda, as his eyes shone brightly he explained that we should be like the plants, like a tree that gives fruit, giving to all and causing no harm.  We should have no possessiveness, no ego and be desire less.  It is our birthright to be happy; to feel joy and that we should be laughing.  However we should feel pain, pain is a good thing he explained, if we feel no pain this would be a very dangerous thing, if you cut your hand off and you felt nothing you would very quickly bleed to death.  We need pain, but suffering that is different.  By studying Vedanta that suffering can be relieved and eradicated.  By studying Vedanta we can become free there is no doubt he says. 

Although we are lucky to have these body homes we must remain unattached to them, they are not permanent, death of the body will come, the soul is eternal.  Don’t get caught up with the body, with ideas of perfection and appearance.  Does a tree worry about what it is looking like?  I think it just enjoys its life. 

Swami Bhoomananda’s response to the question of what is the meaning of life was to be like the tree, give your fruits, be compassionate, and be kind.  Keep growing with your experience, and having the honour of sharing yoga certainly is a way to keep growing. 

We are all teachers, the teachers learn from the students and the students learn from the teachers, we are all students learning from each other.  Staying in an Ashram environment teaches us so much as we are thrown together with a whole bunch of people that we have to live, sleep and eat with side by side.  When there is no personal space we learn a lot about tolerance and acceptance and how to love one another.  To not judge others but to work on ourselves, don’t worry about what so and so is doing, worry about yourself, keep working on yourself.  Yoga isn’t just about the time when you have your yoga stuff on and have laid out your mat, yoga is something that should be with you every second, it is an attitude not just breath and postures.  Yoga is being able to remain calm, happy, contented and compassionate in every situation, in our success and in our failure.  To simply be like a tree, feel like the tree and give as the tree gives.

Have beautiful days and sway in the breeze!

Om shanti

Mangala - Nicky

love for 2013 and joy for 2014

As I am preparing to head off to India once more for some time of self-reflection and study, these will be my last words posted here for 2013.  This year has brought many blessings and I am truly grateful.  I have been again so lucky to be able to share my joy of yoga with so many and have had quite a few students now go through the Sivananda teacher training and become teachers themselves, so a huge congratulations to them and I am so proud of you all spreading this beautiful way of life to others and helping them to become more confident in themselves, overcome their obstacles and find peace.  Let us continue to breathe through our master of Swami Sivananda.  I read a beautiful quote from Swami Vishnudevanda the other day that said ‘If I have ever given you anything good then it has come from my Master Swami Sivananda.’  And with that I always say to my students when they thank me for this or that, that it has not come from me but it is Sivananda always at work through us, he was so full of love for all of humanity that I hope this love is reaching out to you all through us. 

I have had the great pleasure to meet so many different people from around the world from all different backgrounds and different ages, I have had students from 8 years old to 77 in my classes, workshops and retreats and it really has been a joy to meet you all and share OM, laughter and tears. 

I have always said that I am more of a yoga sharer than a teacher, your greatest teacher lies within your own heart but we need someone to share the knowledge to reach that guru, to give us some direction on the pathway.  A few days ago the great man Nelson Mandela passed away or his great spirit left this physical prison that we journey in, now Nelsons heart is truly free and he has left this plane of existence in the knowledge that he really did try to bring change to this world, that he really worked for humanity.  I remember being in South Africa maybe 10 years back and visiting his cell that he spent most of his imprisonment in on Robin Island.  The thing that I brought away with me the most from that visit were the words of the ex political prisoner that was showing us around.  We were in a small group and one of the couples there had a child with them of about 3 years old.  The child was taking much delight in rolling around on the mats that were the prisoners beds and making quite a noise and some of the people in the group were getting quite cross about it.  Then the ex political prisoner told us a story, he said that one day whilst out on hard labour with Mandela and others, whilst they were crushing stones with useless tools, they heard a sound that made them all stop, after a few moments they recognised that sound as laughter from small children and they all begin to feel the tears flow down their cheeks.  The sound of these children was coming from outside the prison but the sound of their laughter was being carried by the breeze to where the prisoners were working.  The prisoners had not heard children for so many years that they had forgotten what that sounded like and once they remembered they had shed tears for their loss of this sound.  Of course then nobody was cross any more at the sounds that this small boy was making on our trip and we were all humbled.

With this in mind I really want to encourage this sharing of yoga with the younger generations, to allow them to think differently and to find their own destiny in hope that we are creating more peaceful people with mindfulness over the planet and themselves, that they can breathe peace back to the Earth.  That we can all rejoice in each others company and accept each other without entanglement and labels, without borders and colour, that we indeed can find the harmony in our hearts and live in it, finding compassion for all living entities.  Finding the knowledge is a beautiful thing but then sharing it is even greater.  For this you don’t all need to go off to study to become a yoga instructor but for some simply sharing chanting OM with somebody can bring empowerment, joy and peace.  So think of how you can share what you learn and let us make this world an even more wonderful place.

“Serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realize.” Swami Sivananda

I will be back to my studies until mid February so I won’t be posting here until I return to Kathmandu.  Then I will be ready to give my full attention to share as much as I can.  Looking forward to connecting with you again then,

For now

I salute you Nelson Mandela and may your soul be truly free.

Om Lokha Somasta Sukhino Bhavantu

May all beings find balance and harmony

May you all find joy in 2014 Happy New Year!

Pranams – Love

Mangala - Nicky

Natures Glow - home natural facials!

We all have a natural beauty than can shine from within and without.  It is not necessary to use expensive cosmetics to enhance that natural beauty and in fact those cosmetics can sometimes be more damaging.  So here are a few natural ways you can spend some time with yourself and glow!

Tomato Glow- cut a red tomato in half and place a towel under your head, rub the juice of half of the tomato all over your face and neck and allow it to dry.  Once it has dried rinse of with lukewarm water.  It removes the wrinkles of the face and gives the face a beautiful glow.

Potato shine- Apply the juice of a raw potato on the black rings under the eyes or slice a raw potato and rub it on the face especially to any darker areas, leave for 10 minutes then wash the face with water.  This reduces dark areas especially under the eyes.

Milk, honey and lemon pack- Rub the face with a little unboiled milk and leave to dry for a couple of minutes, then very gently rub some sea salt that has been grounded to be fine particles onto the face, this will remove any dirt and cleanse the skin also removing any dead skin cells.  Gently rinse off then apply a paste of lemon juice with honey over the entire face and leave it to dry.  Once dried wash with lukewarm water, this will really improve the complexion.

Cleansing mask- Mix 3 teaspoons of curd and 1 teaspoon of good honey making a paste, apply all over the face and leave for 10-15 minutes.  This is a deep pore cleanser, it opens the pores and removes the dead cells and dirt and leaves you completely revitalised!

So enjoy your home facials and shine even more than you do already!!

Om Om Shanti Om

May you all be in peace and harmony

Mangala  /  Nicky.