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 World Spirit
PNW
Registered: 07/27/01
Posts: 9,817
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 Re: Anyone else using yoga?  [Re: MountainMist]
#1284534 - 02/06/03 08:17 AM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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Deleted by admin
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 shaggy101
Registered: 08/16/00
Posts: 1,816
Loc: ..still waiting for godot
Last seen: 11 years, 5 months
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 Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: World Spirit]
#1284647 - 02/06/03 08:42 AM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
I feel like I'm doing something I know is good for my inner peace and good for my body - thus good for mankind.
..Niice
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peruvian spark
Stranger
Registered: 02/03/03
Posts: 680
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: World Spirit]
#1284823 - 02/06/03 09:38 AM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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Here's a meditation that I practice sometimes with my plants. ( I have a LOT of houseplants, really ) I sit in front of them and imagine that when I exhale the CO2 that I breath out goes directly to the plants and the plants immediatly release O2 back into the air which comes back to me when I inhale. I use it to establish a better connection with them and I'm pretty sure it makes them grow better too. I also think its more fun than talking to them. I bet this would be nice out in the woods in the spring 
--------------------
"The only unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain and everything is changeable."
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MountainMist
Stranger
Registered: 01/01/03
Posts: 53
Loc: Seattle, Washington
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: World Spirit]
#1285343 - 02/06/03 12:10 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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I haven't read that book, but I read something very similar in a book called "Phantoms in the Brain" by a respected neuroscientist named Ramachandan, I think. He had a number of patients who had lesions or other damage to a particular part of the brain (probably the same one talked about in "Why God Won't Go Away") and these people went through life with the constant, non-stop feeling that divinity was everywhere around, and in some cases that they themselves were God. Ramachandan hypothesized that this part of the brain may in fact be the seat of "God-consciousness," religious devotion, spiritual feeling, etc.
Which raises an interesting question: if God or Godhead or divinity or whatever one wishes to call it is supposed to be a spiritual, non-material entity, why is it that spiritual experiences and feelings can be traced back to a particular part of the brain, which is a material object? To which one can simply reply: "Well, why not?" If one refuses to make arbitary distinctions between the material and the spiritual, it makes perfect sense.
From a scientific point of view, it also suggests that belief in God or some higher power (and that higher power can be imagined in a lot of different ways) has served some sort of evolutionary or survival purpose, or else it probably wouldn't be there. Beats me what that purpose might be, but my own guess would be that the absence of belief in a higher power or in a spiritual realm would have probably induced extreme fear and depression in those pre-scientific individuals who lacked it. Today, atheists have recourse to science, to rationality, individuality, or to something like "wonder," but the interesting thing is that often this belief in science or rationality or the ego takes on an almost worshipful tone. Let's face it, in this world we are all like castaways lost at sea, trying to grasp onto something, anything to keep ourselves from drowning. And even many avowed atheists will start praying if told that they only have three months to live.
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LoverofEarth
spirit on ajourney
Registered: 10/09/02
Posts: 206
Loc: the in-between
Last seen: 19 years, 10 months
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: World Spirit]
#1285590 - 02/06/03 01:46 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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A few days ago I was in a local thrift shop browsing through paperbacks hoping my subconscious, or whatever, would give me a tug. I happened to find a cool book called Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation by Jess Stearn. Just trying out some simple stretches and warm-ups shown in the book I found were really revitalizing. Plagued by anxiety, tension, and general poor health, I feel 18 going on 60. I'm hoping this is what I need to get my body back into good health.
About pranayama(sp), the breathing excercises, you are supposed to breathe with your diaphragm right? How do you isolate the diaphragm.. does it feel like a band of elastic around the middle of the torso?
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World Spirit
PNW
Registered: 07/27/01
Posts: 9,817
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: LoverofEarth]
#1285843 - 02/06/03 02:52 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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Deleted by admin
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MountainMist
Stranger
Registered: 01/01/03
Posts: 53
Loc: Seattle, Washington
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: LoverofEarth]
#1289295 - 02/07/03 03:28 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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About pranayama(sp), the breathing excercises, you are supposed to breathe with your diaphragm right? How do you isolate the diaphragm.. does it feel like a band of elastic around the middle of the torso?
It's hard to isolate and feel the diaphragm itself. But a simple, foolproof way to breathe with your diaphragm is:
first, exhale . . . as you do so, gently, gently pull in your belly until all the air in your lungs is evacuated
now, simply release the muscles in your belly . . . when you do so, you will find that you AUTOMATICALLY begin to inhale whether you're trying to do so or not. Inhale steadily while at the same time gently allowing your belly to expand. This usually happens quite naturally because it is a release in the tension that was in those muscles.
keep inhaling until your belly feels distended, like you've just eaten a full meal. Then exhale and repeat the above.
One more thing: BREATHE IN THROUGH YOUR NOSTRILS. You may exhale through your nostrils or your mouth, whichever suits you. This is strict pranayama practice and obviously doesn't apply if you're trying to breathe deeply as a singer or athlete, etc.
Most people, when told to breathe deeply, open their mouths wide and just start sucking in air. This quickly fills the upper portion of the lungs but puts little air into the deeper parts. That's why you feel "top heavy" when you breathe in like that. When you breathe in through the diaphragm, you feel full in the belly. It FEELS like that air is in your stomach, but it's not. It is actually in the deepest part of the lungs.
Of course, if you want to take in a REALLY huge dose of air, you start with the diaphragm and once your belly is fully, you keep sucking air in until it feels like you've "topped up" your lungs. This is good to do occasionally, but it's really overkill as a regular practice and actually strains your respiratory system to no good effect.
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funkymonk
Get's down, withthe get-down.
Registered: 11/29/02
Posts: 8,160
Loc: saskatchewan
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: World Spirit]
#1289423 - 02/07/03 04:21 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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stretching is great, i try to stretch before bed everynight...i've read yoga book's, but would really like to have an instructor for a bit...
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World Spirit
PNW
Registered: 07/27/01
Posts: 9,817
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: MountainMist]
#1289554 - 02/07/03 05:34 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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Deleted by admin
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MountainMist
Stranger
Registered: 01/01/03
Posts: 53
Loc: Seattle, Washington
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Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: World Spirit]
#1291441 - 02/08/03 03:48 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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About eight years now. But it's not as if I've been making constant progress all of that time. I have on periods and off periods depending on the outside demands being made on me in life. But I have to say the on periods are generally so much better than the off periods.
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World Spirit
PNW
Registered: 07/27/01
Posts: 9,817
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 Re: Anyone else using yoga? [Re: MountainMist]
#1291626 - 02/08/03 05:13 PM (21 years, 7 months ago) |
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Deleted by admin
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