Tibetan Singing Bowls

My parents bought me this Tibetan singing bowl a few months back from a Buddhist monastery near Coorg (Karnataka, India) and i feel charmed to have possessed one. The monastery is the second largest in India with a hundreds of monks.

I got introduced to this ancient yet exotic thing back in Mumbai (i m currently in my hometown Ahmedabad since the past 5 months), when i saw it in a shop and really liked the tune and energy it emanated. It also wondered me as to the hows, whys, whats and wheres behind it. I have read a few articles about the bowl but i firmly believe that an ounce of practice is worth a tonne of theory.

Hence, i have been practising it daily for 5 minutes...... and the experience has been overwhelming. Playing the Tibetan bowl really energises the surroundings. It creates very good vibrations inside the area (room) thus enhancing the ambiance. The bowl when played in the background brings vibrancy in meditation, chanting, asana or pranayama. Whenever i play it around my baby he listens to it keenly. (at least that is what i feel :-) )

There are a few tips that i would like to share here :-

- playing requires a lot of practice as the sound would not be smooth & melodious otherwise. It's similar to an amateur playing a musical instrument.

- i feel that the gong when held like a pencil brings smoothness in the sound.

- you will also feel the vibrations in your palm while you are playing it, but the palm needs to be kept straight. Do not cup the fingers.

- just tapping the gong on the rim also creates an 'om' like sound of the bell which is divine.

How to select one? Well, i really don't know as they come in lots of varieties ranging from different sizes, different metals used in the making, different kinds of gongs, different inscriptions etc etc..... So the best way is to play it before buying and take the one which sounds best to your ears.

PS: here are two good articles which are worth a read...........

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_bowl

2) I was going to write an article about this long back but Shameem, who is a senior colleague and an excellent yoga practitioner, has penned this article wonderfully

Visualization

"Empty mind is a devil's workshop" - so the saying goes. I had a lot of free time during pregnancy as i stopped taking classes, travelling too much or exerting myself. This gave me an opportunity to experience various other physically passive but mentally active techniques - that i believe are much more powerful.

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Visualization is one such technique. It simply means creating a mental picture......... of what??? you decide. I feel that everything we do in life first manifests in the mind. Likewise, if we want to achieve something or wish for something to happen, it has to first be pictured in the mind. So everyday i used to create positive pictures of myself during and after pregnancy. I visualized my pregnancy to be smooth, my baby to be healthy, my growing excellence in yoga etc etc.... I don't know and can't say how effective the technique might be but i have faith in that and i feel at least the positive visualization keeps the mind at peace.

PS: visualization is a part of the ancient yogic technique of yoga nidra as explained by the Bihar School of Yoga. So open your inner eyes..........

Breathing techniques during pregnancy

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One can practice all the breathing techniques in pregnancy except those which involve compression of the belly or retention of breath. The pranayamas and breathing exercises that i practiced throughout my pregnancy are as follows:

1) Kapalbhati - but involving forceful exhalations and inhalations using the clavicles only
2) Alternate nostril breathing or nadi shodhan
3) Ujjayi
4) Sheetali
5) Sheetkari
6) Brahmari or humming bee breath
7) Long exhalations through the mouth
8) Abdominal breathing
9) Intercostal breathing
10) Clavicular breathing
11) Deep breathing

These techiniqes help at all levels - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual thus directly affecting your baby residing within you.

Breath retention is not allowed as it inhibits the flow of blood to the fetus. For the same reason it is also wise not to get breathless when one is carrying. But some retention should be practiced in the last 2 months to help during labour.

Apart from the ones listed above, there are breathing techniques in Tai Chi as well which help. Also these pranayamas or any other breathing exercises should be learned under a qualified teacher and therefore i m not elaborating too much.

Out of these i used to concentrate a lot on alternate nostril breathing (at least 15 minutes daily). That might be one of the reasons of my pregnancy going smoothly.

ps: will go into the benefits of everything i practised during pregnancy, later.

Yogic Techniques during pregnancy

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There are a host of techniques in yoga which would help in pregnancy:

Asanas
Pranayamas
Chanting
Mudras
Kriyas
Meditation & concentration

Some of the techniques can be done as they are and some have to be modified to suit the pregnant body. I would be going into detail about various techniques in my following posts according to the ones i have practised and experienced.

A few caveats to be taken care of
- Each pregnancy is different and each individual is different. So something that might help someone might not be of help to the other.
- The exercises have to be done according to ones comfort level only.
- It's wise to consult your doctor before taking on the asana practices.
- Faith, conviction and a positive attitude at all times.........

ps: pregnancy is a time to concentrate on, explore and experience the beautiful techniques of yoga which remain ignored due to our focus on the Asanas.

No stretch marks???

Hi everyone, it's been a long long time since i last blogged. Partly because i just delivered a beautiful baby boy a month and a half back and partly because i was simply lazy. I just felt like enjoying my pregnancy and the time with my baby without thinking too much about what to write. But i feel happy to be back in circulation and share stuff with like minded people. Since i have just gone through a pregnancy ( a beautiful, sometimes a bitter-sweet experience), i am going to blog a lot on that in the coming weeks.

Firstly to tom-tom a little bit, i would like to say that i have escaped this pregnancy unscathed i.e. without a single stretch mark on my body (yeah....) - completely cosmetic and not that it mattered much, but it feels good to know that it's because of my yoga practice. No amount of anti stretch mark cream is going to help as much as yoga. A rigorous yoga practice tones the skin so well that it prepares it for the extreme stretch of pregnancy. The extreme back bends, deep twists etc help in keeping the skin supple and elastic and prevents tearing....... well that is what did the trick (although unknowingly). But i hope this, although a trivial benefit of yoga, might inspire a few of you to take yoga seriously.

more later..... ciao!!!

Vision

"I am an excellent yoga practitioner"
"I am a loving, dutiful & respectful daughter"
"I am a great cook"
"I am creative and confident"
.......

Before you get ideas about my tom-tomming, let me make it clear that it is a part of my VISION.

A vision is an expression of your goal for yourself. It's how you see yourself or wish for yourself but in a present positive tense. Let me make it more clear. For eg. an architect wants to build a house, the first thing he'll do is to create it in his mind, followed by a drawing, a model and then the actual house. In the same way what we want to be in life (in all aspects) also begins with a thought.

We have always focused on what we "don't want" or what we "don't have" in life and tried to strive to attain that. But a vision talks in a way as if we already have that. Those of you who've read the book "The Secret" or seen the movie would be able to relate to this better.

But it does not mean that you have a perfect sounding vision and sit back. Nothing will happen. It's just the "right" beginning. You can take a few minutes to make your own vision and then keep adding and editing it as and when required. In fact you can have your own vision book which you read first thing in the morning instead of the newspaper. You'll spend just 2 minutes reading it, but the effect it would leave on your phyche and persona would be profound.

I learned about it in the SSY (Siddha Samadhi Yoga) course and the ISP (Infant Siddha Programme - The art of joyful parenting) which concluded yesterday. Believe me, our mind is much much more powerful than we can fathom.

Please take a few minutes out during the day today to open the eyes of your mind to build your own vision.

Happy visualizing!!!

A STARK REALITY OF LIFE

Something borrowed..... My friend Janu from Italy sent me this a few days back & i thought i must share it.

Eagles are the most long-lived birds in the world. By the time they reach 40 years, their claws start to age, losing their effectiveness and making it hard for them to catch prey. The lifespan of an eagle is up to 70 years old. But in order to live this long, it must make the toughest decision at 40. At 40 its beak is too long and curvy that it reaches its chest. Its wings, full of long, thickened feathers, are too heavy for easy flying. The eagle is left with 2 choices - do nothing and await its death or go through a painful period of transformation and renewal. For 150 days, it first trains itself to fly beyond the high mountains, build and live in its nest and cease all flying activities. It then begins to knock its beak against granite rocks till the beak is completely removed. When a new beak is grown, the eagle will use it to remove all its old claws and await quietly for new ones to be fully grown. When the new claws are fully grown, the eagle will use them to remove all its feathers, one by one. Five months later, when its new feathers are fully grown, it will soar in the sky again with renewed strength and is able to live for the next 30 years.

In life, sometimes, we have to learn to make difficult decisions so as to make room for changes. Changes bring about renewal. And the only way for us to soar again is to let go old ways, old habits, old lives. For as long as we are prepared to put aside our old baggage - past glory or shame, past success or failure - be willing to become zero, with an empty cup mentality, we will be able to discover our potential and head towards a renewed perspective in any aspect of our lives.