I was very impressed, very impressed indeed.

When my dear friend Jaya invited me to her very first Ayurveda, Pranayama & Yoga Therapy Workshop I was somewhat dubious. Ah… I think I can hear some of you cringing here. Don’t get me wrong I love yoga, I love the physical aspects of it, I even get down and groovy with the philosophy. However, Ayurveda has always been a little bit lost on me, as too has Yoga Therapy; a dark arts perhaps? For example, my first introduction to the Doshas was a complete disaster; my fellow YTT classmates will tell you I nearly had a nervous breakdown. My mind is a logical one (I can now hear my husband roaring with laughter at that statement), I like to be able to back up my yoga principles with modern science. That said I was more than ready to dip my little yogi toes into traditional medicine once more.

Dr. Sharma started the days learning with the chanting of prayers, this was to focus our minds and bring us together. I’m rubbish at chanting Sanskrit so I humbly closed my eyes and let my ears become absorbed with the mesmerising sound. With the chanting complete and my mind open, Dr. Sharma got straight into anatomy and physiology. YES! My comfort zone (big smiles all around.) He explained all aspects of back and spine anatomy, the various muscular layers and nervous system. He built on this learning with detailed accounts of common back pain then layered it all with yoga therapy principles. I was in awe. He took us through some very simple to do sequences for lower back pain and then upper back pain. Coincidently, my back was in pain that very day (oh how the planets align sometimes) and I have to say, afterwards, my back felt wonderful. More importantly to me though, everything was backed up by modern day science.

All in all, I enjoyed myself, I enjoyed learning from a well educated, humble person and I wish I’d had more time to attend the other days given as I have much more to learn. Deep down I know that Yoga is a very powerful practice, though I feel I am only scratching the surface. Deeper down still I feel that although modern day science plays a part – some things just can’t be explained and simply have to be believed.

(For further information, or to register for any of the workshops, please contact: jaya@yogaspaceme.com Details on YOGASPACE Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/yogaspaceme)

Integrated workshops on Ayurveda, Yoga for back and neck, and Pranayama

with 

Dr Ghanshyam Sharma

M.D. (Ayurveda), D.Y.T. (Diploma in Yoga Therapy)

Preventive Physician and Yoga Therapist, India

 

DETAILS OF THE WORKSHOPS (optional – since it is already there in the flyer attached)

Date: 2^nd-6^th May

Timings: 10am-5pm

Venue: Balance Wellness Centre, Oasis Centre Mall, SZR

Cost: aed495 per day, aed900 for 2 days and aed2150 for 5 days.

 

Come and experience the deeper healing aspects of Yoga the authentic Indian way…

Each day will begin with a chant for good health, include a session on Yogic breathing and end with a closing meditation, leaving you with an elevated state of wellness.

 

You can sign up for 1 day, 2 days, 3 days or all 5 days.

You can also book a private consultation with Dr Sharma for aed150/hour

For further information, or to register for any of the workshops, please contact: jaya@yogaspaceme.com

Details on YOGASPACE Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/yogaspaceme

And finally! After weeks of learning and frustration here I am: a fully-fledged, newfound meditator.

Despite being a yogi, regular daily meditating was something I found really tough to do. I would sit there thinking,

“how can someone – anyone – spend longer than ten minutes doing this?”

Urgh, it’s excruciating. And then to actually do it every day (insert eyes boggling smiley here.

Let me fast forward to these past two weeks. Our final technique was “Combination Plate” and we all hated it. Yup, it was a toughie. There is no specific anchor in this technique (anchor is the focus point of your meditation), instead you sit patiently and silently, waiting for a disruption to your peaceful façade and you have to notice, is it one of these three things?

Talk, inside or outside your mind / A body sensation / A visual image

Then you label them using one of these words; Talk, Body or Image. Sounds easy, hey? Err… actually, no. Let me explain: usually, during my meditation I’m acknowledging  thoughts, then quietly and consciously bringing my awareness back to a focal point, for example my breath. With Combination Plate my consciousness is drawn to multiple stimulants; noise, body sensations, images, thoughts as they happen at the same time and separately, as one causes another and so on and so forth.

I found the technique distracting but eye opening. To think this is what my mind does every second of the day, constantly processing streams and streams of non-stop information. It makes me realise why it is so important for our health to just stop, press the pause button on our busy lives and simply stop. Stop and notice what is around us, stop and truly be involved in what we are doing, stop and honestly say that we are present. 

So, where to now? Indeed, now we get to choose just one technique to run with over the next six weeks, while we build our meditation practice up to 20 minutes. I discovered that I’m not a fan of the labelling techniques, I find them too distracting. My favourite techniques were the breath, naked sound and private screening. My chosen technique for the next six weeks will be the breath. This was the one I found the most relaxing.

Before I wrap all this up, let me take you back to my very first blog. Before I started my eight week course I wanted beyond anything else to have a better memory. Well finally! In the last week! I surprised myself on several occasions by actually remembering something. Call that my biggest breakthrough yet (my husband will be very pleased) and adding to this I now have a new found X-Man ability – I instinctively know how much time has passed. If I set a timer for anything, I know exactly when the alarm is going to go off. I’ll be controlling weather and turning invisible very soon, I’m sure.

My sixth week was a little shaky but my teacher, Fran, tells me this was to be expected. She explains that, like a marriage, the honeymoon period is now over, the sparkle of the wedding day is a long distant memory and, although you’re still very much in love with your meditation, the novelty has worn off.

I’ve begun to experience one or two of the benefits of meditation and now I’ve become a little complacent. Fran says it’s OK to feel this way. This is the hard part, this is where I need to knuckle down and not miss a day of meditation. Luckily for me, and my fellow meditators, Victor Davich, author of our guidebook “8 Minute Meditation”, gives us a completely different technique for week seven to keep us interested and to test our abilities further. It’s called Loving Kindness Meditation. And it’s beautiful.

First you recall an event in your life where you showed someone kindness. Let the memory envelop your whole being, feel once more the emotions an act of kindness imbues in your inner being, then let that feeling manifest within your heart. Holding that feeling dear and close, you repeat a mantra in your mind:

“May I be happy, May I have ease of being.

May all beings be happy, May all beings have ease of being.”

There’s a beautiful philosophy that goes with this mantra: to be able to show true compassion to others, you must first be able to show it to yourself – there is no one in this world more worthy of loving kindness than you. So, with my newfound meditation sparkle back, I embark into week seven, but before I go let me leave you with a little story about my marriage this week and how the benefits of regular meditation are allowing me to live in a calmer, more peaceful place.

Ever had one of those days where your plans are just scuppered? I’m sure you have. In a past life, not so long ago, a dent in my plans would have left me frustrated (not to mention a little cross) and certainly looking for someone to apportion blame to. We were talking about marriage – yes, my darling husband.

I kissed him goodbye to set off for a morning of Pilates and yoga, joined the highway and realised the tank was on empty. In the red. No fuel. Some of you who read this might not live in Dubai so, to explain, we have a huge number of cars on the road here and the most pointlessly placed, hard to find and scarce fuel stations and taking a detour for fuel can add 30 minutes onto your journey. Needless to say, the fuel station was knee deep in vehicles, I then got stuck in traffic and my morning plans were dashed.

A very sheepish husband then rang me. He’d forgotten to tell me about the fuel situation and he understood completely that I would be cross that he’d unintentionally ruined my plans, and he apologized profusely. Brief pause, maybe a holding of breath waiting for a response from the disgruntled, caught-in-traffic wife, and, nothing. I just laughed, called him a big dope and said I was on my way home. No drama, no frustration, not the least bit cross, just one of those things and it meant I got to spend the morning with him instead.

Here’s to a more peaceful and balanced life! Namaste.

*Photo courtesy of Noura El-Imam – Yogalates Bliss Dubai*

I have a breakthrough and I am thoroughly impressed. I believe that my memory has improved although not in the way I expected. My biggest want would be to be able to leave the house with all the personal belongings I require for the day ahead. Mobile phone, car keys, house key, glasses, prescription sunglasses, yoga mats, blocks, lip salve, the list goes on… ah purse, a purse would help, oh and the damned swipe card to get back into the car park. My long suffering husband will tell you that morning times for me include various trips up and down our tiresomely slow lifts as I jog backwards and forwards collecting my neglected personal belongings, only to misplace the ones I’ve just had in my hands. ARGH!

So, this is still an ongoing saga.

However, this week I have started my Pilates teacher training with the lovely Caroline Leon at Exhale Studio in JBR. I love learning, I think being the eternal student is fast becoming my favourite pastime.  I remember during my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training (see I actually do remember some stuff) I would quite often go into class and during the re-cap at the start of every day fellow classmates would reel off the answers to Erica’s questions, time lining yoga history perfectly. I had to study hard, had to write out important dates and names several times before the information stuck, going over and over my notes.

Imagine my surprise this week! Oh how things have changed. This is the good bit.

We read through the history of Joseph Pilates, just once in class. That evening when I went home my dearest mother (visiting from the UK) asked how things had gone. I started telling her all about Joseph Pilates, when and where he was born, how he’d studied as a young boy, his time in the UK during the war. There I was reeling off facts and dates. I couldn’t believe it was my voice. From reading through something once I’d retained all that information.

This led me to experiment, before I did my studying I did my meditation. It made me feel like there was more space for new information to go in. It’s like having a good clear out of your filing system or de-fragmenting your PC. My meditation teacher Fran says this is most certainly a result of daily meditation, it improves concentration so when you study more information will be processed.

Needless to say I now love meditation. Now where did I put my phone…?

I have very exciting news! I’ve noticed my first benefit of meditation.

I usually grab lunch on the go, well not even on the go as such. I usually grab lunch and rush through eating it as a billion thoughts go through my mind checking off my internal ‘To Do List.’ I’m not really eating dinner, I’m stuffing food into my body while I run through the check list in my head. Sometimes I’m not even sure I’ve tasted the food I’ve just prepared and the consequences that arise end in indigestion medication being bought and taken. No one else knows I give myself this to do list, but I assure you it’s there buzzing away – or at least it was.

Last week I discovered I have a different internal pace. Externally I still function at the same speed but internally I’ve slowed right down. I sat down for my lunch and as I was taking my first bite I told my mind ‘not now.’ I was able to switch it off and concentrate on eating. It sounds such a simple task and maybe it’s something that you are doing anyway but for me it feels like a milestone, a beginning to change, maybe an end to stress and anxiety altogether. What it did bring home to me is just how busy my mind was before and how something as simple as our thoughts can cause our bodies to go into stress overdrive.

As I embark into week 4 I feel refreshed, eager and happy. I’m looking forward to more benefits and enjoying the ones already present.

I think I’m on week 3 of the 8 minute, 8 week meditation course from the book by Victor Davich. Apparently it improves your memory amongst other fabulous treats… I believe I am yet to receive this benefit. Let me check the book, yes, it’s most certainly week 3 and this is reaffirmed to me when I read page 89 headed “Where are you?” to see that point 4 of where I am is

“Impatient that you’re not progressing as fast as you might have expected”

Davich is not wrong, I really want my memory to improve! And yes I’m getting impatient. Fran (Yoga Guru and Meditation Teacher) very patiently tells me to let go of my expectations and allow the benefits to come to me in their own time. She assures me that it will happen.

Before I embark on week 3, let me tell you how I got on with Naked Sound Meditation. And before you ask, it was the sound that was naked not me. This is a technique that “treats sound in all its pristine nakedness.” As you settle into your meditation you draw awareness to the sounds surrounding you, allowing them to drift by without defining or judging them.

I found this technique extremely educational regarding how sounds affect my body. The sound of a car horn always kick starts a flight/fight response resulting in a tightness in my chest (I imagine this is a common occurrence for a lot of Dubai city drivers.) The drilling of neighbouring construction sites set my teeth on edge – again a tight chest. This constant response to sound waves resulting in the release of stress hormones can’t be a good thing. But it happens, before I’m even aware my brain has gone into overdrive following neural pathways that have been reaffirmed time and time again and “BOOM” here’s some adrenalin.

Seven days of allowing sound to rise and fall around me was an excellent learning adventure. I was able to observe all manner of responses to different sounds, to acknowledge them and let them go. I learnt a lot about myself and my reactions, I’m hoping that my meditation practice will help overcome these stress responses, undo years of programming that I wasn’t even aware of. I’m looking forward to week 3.

My first week of the 8 week meditation plan is finished, I’m rather proud to say I remembered 6 days out of 7, it’s more than I thought I would do. Our task, set by Fran MacKay, was to use the breath as our focus. I found this technique comfortable in its familiarity. Rather than try to elongate the breath, as I would during pranayama before my yoga practice, I simply sat and observed. As I expected the usual avalanche of thoughts, memories, feelings came crashing in. I would love to say I quickly acknowledged them and brought my attention back to my breath. But no, I went on the most intricate of daydreams, was in the supermarket, skiing in France, on a building site, I was old, I was a child again… many, many thoughts. Then back to the breath.

For the first few days I continued to lose myself in my fantasies before returning to my breath, my meditation. Then on the 5th day, something magical, something quite unexpected happened. It all went quiet. In my head that is, obviously 24 hour “Dubai… sparkling, car honking, sky diving, bar hopping… city” was still in full swing. However, in Sarah’s world, for a moment, a hair standing, breath holding moment, all went quiet and I was at peace. I thought to myself “There I Am.” I had been there all the time, solid, steadfast, calm, but for some reason the chitter-chatter of my mind, the constant racing and buzzing had distracted me from seeing me. That was my “ah-ha” moment and it was bliss.

Now, Fran tells us that when we feel this moment of stillness and calm it is the right side of the brain that is functioning, the part that is responsible for concentration. We’re back to the weight training again. Exercising the brain to concentrate and centre. I don’t know much about the physiological aspects of meditation however in my own words I would say this; our thoughts are responsible for the release of our hormones which are in turn responsible for our feelings. These hormones and feelings have a direct, physical effect on the functioning of our bodies. Having suffered with anxiety and panic attacks in the past I believe it is so important to re-train our minds, form better neural pathways rather than allowing our bodies to react to situations, thoughts, feelings in the same old destructive ways.

So, we move into week two. A little more self-assured and ready for action. This week’s technique is to meditate to the sound that surrounds us. I’m finding it a little more testing but I have noticed one thing, my eyes flicker open just as the timer chimes 8 minutes.

 It’s week 1! I’m a little bit apprehensive… Will 8 minutes of meditation do everything that it says it will? Yoga guru and meditation teacher Fran MacKay assures me (and the rest of our class) that it will. So, week 1 home work is to read the introduction. Done, box ticked.

Over the next 8 weeks Fran will be guiding us through 8 different meditation techniques, each week we have to continue to use that same technique every day for 8 whole minutes. The theory is that by doing short, manageable periods of meditation every day you build up a compound effect. I’m really looking forward to the coming weeks of discovery and learning. However, that said, I am trying not to have any preconceived expectations… I would love to improve my memory though! Fingers crossed hey.

The first technique that we have been given is to concentrate on our breath, similar to yoga, however you do not change the breath, you simply observe it. Focusing on an area of the breath, be that the sensation of the cool air on the nostrils, the rise and fall of the chest, wherever you feel the breath most is where you fix your concentration. Fran says the most important thing is to allow any thoughts and feelings to rise up, acknowledge them, then let them pass, always brining your mind back to the breath. It’s like weight training for the mind. She also says to watch out as the mind is tricky, it wants our full attention all the time and will use many tactics to distract us. That pesky sneaky mind.

My first meditation goes well… I think. My mind is a billion miles an hour with several thoughts happening all the time, however each time I come back to the breath. What surprises me the most is my feelings of frustration and annoyance. Mostly annoyance due to the clattering and banging around of my neighbours, I’ve no idea what they are up to but they are making one hell of a racket. Each time my mind screams: “Will you shut up! Can’t you see I’m trying to meditate in here!” This makes me smile, tricky old Mind trying to distract me from my breath. Well Mind, this is a competition that you are not going to win… hahaha who’d have thought, me in a competition with my own mind.