Books on Happiness / the happiness revolution - 2 students

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STRENGTHENING YOUR DIGESTIVE FIRE

There are three simple things you can do before and after every meal to improve your digestion. The entire process of digestion is based on reducing your foods to tiny molecules that can enter your blood stream and nourish your body. Once your food particles are thoroughly chewed and reduced in size, then they flow through the entire length of your intestines. Making the absorption of these nutrients easier and increasing the ease with which the remaining foods and waste are removed from the body is called “increasing your digestive fire.”

•Before and after each meal do three simple things:

1.Bend - From a standing position bend over and touch your toes or ankles three times.

2.Twist - From a standing position hold your feet steady as you twist your torso to look behind you -- three times to the left and three times to the right. Then repeat the toe touches.

3.Breathe - Take your seat at the table and breathe slowly sixteen times, expanding your abdomen with every inhalation. As you exhale, pull your abdomen toward your spine. This breathing practice increases the pressure in your abdominal cavity to encourage the absorption and removal of matter in your digestive system. Then take a few sips of water and begin your meal.

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•Chew your food thoroughly.

•Enjoy your meal in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

•Fifteen minutes after your meal is complete, repeat the stretching exercises and the breathing exercise.

1.Bend - From a standing position bend over and touch your toes or ankles three times.

2.Twist - From a standing position hold your feet steady as you twist your torso to look behind you -- three times to the left and three times to the right. Then repeat the toe touches.

3.Breathe – Sit down and breathe slowly sixteen times, expanding your abdomen with every inhalation. As you exhale, pull your abdomen toward your spine. Then take a few sips of water.

These simple exercises will improve your digestion and elimination of food. Chew the food, move the food, absorb the food, and eliminate the unabsorbed remainder.

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Chapter5

Hatha Yoga

Fitness for the Body, Breath and Mind

Bring up the subject of exercise and you’re bound to get a lively reaction out of most people. Some people love their morning run, while others dread anything that may require them

to leave their couch. Regardless of where you fall on this spectrum, exercise is an essential ingredient in a happy life. Life is movement. Just as water that sits still becomes stagnant, our body and mind can easily slip into the stagnation of discomfort, depression and disease if we do not stretch and exercise su ciently.

WHY EXERCISE?

Research has finally a rmed what every good doctor has observed for centuries. Happy people are healthy people. Happy hearts are healthy hearts. Observing indicators of physical health – such as blood pressure, heart rate, cortisol (a hormone released in response to stress) levels, immune system function, as well as occurrence of chronic diseases -- with respect to mental health, has left researchers

quality of life.

state of mind and

overall health,

improve your

Exercise will

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with one clear fact: your psychological well-being and your physiological well-being are inextricably linked.

Depression has been closely linked to heart disease. The concept of the “broken heart” is more real than you may have imagined. Doctors are beginning to understand that not only do their patients need to get healthy, they also need to get happy. Exercise has the ability to help you reach both of these goals.

You may need to encourage and even discipline yourself in order to gather the momentum to start and maintain an exercise program. Just knowing the well-established benefits of regular exercise should be encouragement enough. These benefits include increased cardiovascular health and decreased risk of heart disease, increased strength and flexibility in your joints and muscles, increased strength in your bones, lower blood sugar levels, improved function of the immune system, maintenance of a healthy weight, decreased risk of many chronic diseases such as breast cancer, colon cancer and diabetes, increased life expectancy and decreased likeliness of depression and anxi-

ety. The bottom line? Exercise will improve your overall health, state of mind and quality of life.

Exercise is particularly useful in cultivating a happy mind. From a biochemical point of view it is easy to understand why. Exercise activates and balances the levels of neurotransmitters (serotonin and norepinephrine) associated with depression and general reactions to daily events. Also, in a phenomenon commonly known as “runner’s high,” exercise stimulates production of neurotransmitters (endorphins) that result in feelings of well-being.

Through the wisdom of yoga science, additional benefits of exer-

The most important thing to remember about exercise is that any amount is better than none.

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cise are unveiled. Memories, emotions and any physical or mental stresses or traumas are all stored, not only in the mind, but also in the tissues of the body. When we exercise and stretch properly, we allow the body to process, resolve and release these impressions. This fact is easily illustrated by observing your state of mind while stretching. Notice how feelings of discomfort or irritability, that may have been present at first, are resolved as physical tension is removed. Furthermore, while exercise improves the physical circulation in our body, yoga exercise improves the pranic (energetic) flow of our body.

HOW TO EXERCISE

What is proper exercise? How much should I exercise? These are questions whose answers are less agreed upon by modern research.

In 1996 the U.S. surgeon general recommended a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week to reduce the risk of many chronic diseases. In 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended at least 60 minutes a day of “moderately intense physical activity” for adults. Other recommendations range in between. Finding the time to exer-

cise can be di cult in today’s hectic world. Ironically, the days when exercise seems impossible are the days when it may be precisely what you need. Even a five-minute walk or a quick neck roll and forward bend can be helpful and can relieve a tremendous amount of stress. The most important thing to remember about exercise is that any amount is better than none.

Similarly, almost any type of exercise is better than none. How-

Jon Hinds

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ever, di erent types of exercise will yield di erent results. It is important to consider what results you are seeking before you choose an exercise routine.

In America, much of the fitness industry has been influenced by the world of “body building” – which focuses on appearance, not performance. When you want to show clear definition of a specific muscle, then you exercise that muscle or group of muscles in isolation in order to gain maximum engorgement of the muscle. This is not fitness, but purely for show. In everyday life, when we perform practical actions such as walking, lifting, running, pushing and jumping, we do not use our muscle groups in isolation. Rather, our whole body works in synchronicity to provide balance, strength and grace to our movements.

Jon Hinds, a renowned fitness instructor, has been studying, teaching and writing about fitness for more than 20 years. When he pointed out the absurdity of exercising my muscle groups in isolation, and the fun of moving my entire body, my interest in fitness finally returned. For 25 years I had been a desk-ridden homeopath and teacher, although previously I was an active martial artist for many years. The exercise

schemes sold on the television – I bought several – were just not much fun to do alone in my living room. Jon introduced me to a mentality toward fitness training that is enjoyable and makes sense.

He warned me that even if I avoided the “ab-rollers” and the weight lifting machines of the world, I may still fall prey to the “core stabilization” programs and become fixated on core stabilization. “There are whole programs on core training,” Jon said to me. “I don’t agree that you should solely focus on strengthening the central core of your body. To do so is good, but it is not enough. In my mind your core

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is your whole body. Instead of saying core, I use the term alignment stabilization. Whatever is the first point of resistance in your exercise, be it your feet or hands or head, from that point on, you have to be stabilized.”

Jon went on to explain why. “If I am in a handstand, my hands are the first point of resistance – resisting the ground and the force of gravity. My hands and feet have to stabilize first and foremost when pushing a car. If they are in poor alignment, the next joint up the line will be in poor alignment too. For example, people with flat feet have ankles that are in poor alignment - they lack stability. It is impossible to have stable knees if your ankles are out of alignment - it’s a domino e ect - your ankles, your knees and then your hips. In reality, if you have back pain, you might have a foot problem. If you exercise with misalignment and don’t correct it, your problems will come to the surface quicker in the form of pain and possible disability. You could work your core all the time, but if you aren’t working it correctly, from the extremities in, then you are missing the boat. It’s impossible for the domino e ect not to occur.”

I asked Jon how he works to prevent this domino e ect. “One of the things I do is I intermix yoga with modern fitness styles,” he replied. “I teach you to stabilize the entire body, beginning with your first point of contact with resistance – which is usually the ground or floor. The greater stability you have at each joint the less likelihood you have of injury. Yoga has been around for thousands of years and focuses on alignment of the whole. The better we place our head, feet, hand and butt on the ground with more stability and more squareness to the ground, the more prepared we are for a dynamic natural exercise, such as running, jumping and climbing.

“When you start to do hatha yoga, you naturally learn how to stabilize your joints. Adults lack this basic stability today and then when they try to do some basic calisthenics they are terrible at them.

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Consequently, they are more apt to get injured. Much of the fitness industry furthers this problem by not acknowledging the fact that you should stabilize on your own. Instead, they provide you with machines to sit on.”

Jon went on to point out that even in the practice of yoga it is important to be mindful of how you do your practice, and explained how an instructor or partner can be useful in this respect.

“A good yoga instructor provides you with essential feedback. You can go through a yoga sequence, but if you are not aware that you are out of alignment, you will adapt to mal-alignment and you will continue to do the movement sub-optimally. For those who do not have access to live instruction, if you do your exercises with regularity and awareness, there is a good chance that because you are constantly repeating each movement in a systematic fashion, eventually you will self-correct in the end. However, if you get feedback on certain areas that are collapsing and you strengthen those weakened muscles, then over a shorter period of time you will perform more e ciently.

“Optimal feedback means working with an instructor or partner. A mirror does not provide enough feedback and mirrors can promote the ‘appearance’ mentality of body building. I want you to focus on fitness-based function and performance, not appearance.

“The feedback you can get from a partner should come in the form of encouraging internal resistance. To start with, your partner can put their hands on di erent parts of your body that are collapsing so that you can work into those areas and strengthen them. Eventually you will develop an internal awareness of your body. Bring your attention to your areas of weakness so that you can work into them. Pain is an amazing feedback mechanism. If your lower back is painful, try to resist into it, push into it, because these are the muscles that have collapsed. You want to engage into them instead of hanging in that position. Don’t hang! Instead straighten, extend and expand!

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Lengthen and expand that area. Engage your muscles from the inside out, learn how they feel. Your tone, strength and function will improve over time as you activate, contract or expand your body. Remember, engagement usually begins in the hands and the feet. But more importantly, please remember that freedom of movement is the ultimate goal.

“Everyone has imbalances in the body. Often times it is created through habit. All I do is try to create more balance in the body through basic movement and internal awareness. Yoga is the perfect exercise for working the synergy of the whole body.”

Jon continues to introduce yoga and fitness through his seminars and classes throughout the nation. He gave life to my hatha practice and continues to encourage me to push back from my desk everyday and go move, stretch and expand.

Thus, in this chapter we will introduce and enthusiastically recommend a unique and comprehensive system of exercise that has withstood the test of 5,000 years. This system is referred to as hatha yoga.

HATHA YOGA – FITNESS FOR THE BODY, BREATH

AND MIND

In hatha yoga there is a systematic series of postures and stretches that help strengthen and rebalance the body. What makes this system unique is its underlying philosophy. In yoga, all methodologies are aimed in the direction of self-transformation and self-understanding. The human body can be a wonderful tool or a cumbersome burden. It can be a source of joy or a source of misery. To transform it into a vessel for happiness, you will have to understand how both joy and misery are created. At first glance, this may seem obvious. You know that you won’t be very happy when your back is in spasm or your