Hello, Beautiful Friends! I hope you are doing well today. Have you thought about last week’s post, The Body As A House: Rebuilding Through Pranayama & Meditation ? I would love to hear your thoughts and offer you some encouragement along your beautiful journey. As you sit quietly to read, “The Body As A House: Rebuilding Through Pranayama & Meditation” Part 2, I hope you’ll consider the references and remember that your body is a house. As promised, here it is!
“The Body As A House: Rebuilding Through Pranayama & Meditation” Part 2
Copyright 2023
The Sanskrit word, pranayama, is meditation with the focal point being the breath. ‘prana’ means life force. The word, ayama, is to extend or direct the life force via the breath. B.K.S. Iyengar describes pranayama in his book, Light On Pranayama, as “a conscious prolongation of inhalation, retention and exhalation”.2 Mr. Iyengar goes on to explain that “the inhalation is an act of receiving primal energy, the retention savors that energy and the exhalation allows us to empty all thoughts and emotions. While the lungs are empty, there is space to surrender to individual energy of ‘Self or I’, the Atma.”2 He goes on to say that, “The practice of pranayama develops a steady mind, strong will-power and sound judgement. Pranayama is the connecting link between the body and the soul of man, and the hub in the wheel of Yoga.”2
In nursing school we briefly discussed the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in very general terms. I didn’t appreciate its importance until I found myself in my personal health crisis. I like Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk’s definition, “The autonomic nervous system is our brain’s most elementary survival system, its two branches regulating arousal throughout the body. Roughly speaking, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) uses chemicals like adrenaline to fuel the body and brain to take action, while the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) uses acetylcholine to help regulate basic body functions like digestion, wound healing, and sleep and dream cycles. When we’re at our best, these two systems work closely together to keep us in an optimal state of engagement with our environment and with ourselves.”3
For numerous years, Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk studied trauma and its negative effects on the body. In 1998 he teamed up with Jim Hopper to explore the idea that heart rate variability (HRV) was a good measure of how well the ANS functioned. In Van Der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score, he stated that, “Heart rate variability measures the relative balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. When we inhale, we stimulate the SNS, which results in an increase in heart rate. Exhalations stimulate the PNS, which decreases how fast the heart beats. In healthy individuals inhalations and exhalations produce steady, rhythmical fluctuations in heart rate. Good heart rate variability is a measure of basic well-being.”3
In their research, Van Der Kolk and Hopper stated, “Since the autonomic nervous system organized arousal in both body and brain, poor HRV – that is, a lack of fluctuation in heart rate in response to breathing – not only has negative effects on thinking and feeling but also on how the body responds to stress. Lack of coherence between breathing and heart rate makes people vulnerable to a variety of physical illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer, in addition to mental problems such as depressions and PTSD.”3
After a couple of research studies, Dr. Van Der Kolk and Hopper found that a yoga practice that emphasized breath awareness did in fact improve heart rate variability, which triggered a positive response of the parasympathetic nervous system. Van Der Kolk stated, “yoga cultivates body awareness, which is critical to trauma recovery.”3 He went on to share that, “In yoga you focus your attention on your breathing and on your sensations moment to moment. You begin to notice the connection between your emotions and your body – perhaps how anxiety about doing a pose actually throws you off balance. You begin to experiment with changing the way you feel. Will taking a deep breath relieve that tension in your shoulder? Will focusing on your exhalations produce a sense of calm?”3 He defines reconnection to body awareness as interoception, and goes on to share that, “Yoga turned out to be a terrific way to (re)gain a relationship with the interior world and with it a caring, loving, sensual relationship to the self.”3
In his book, The Body Keeps The Score, Dr. Van Der Kolk added a quote from Stephen Cope’s book, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, “As we begin to re-experience a visceral reconnection with the needs of our bodies, there is brand new capacity to warmly love the self. We experience a new quality of authenticity in our caring, which redirects our attention to our health, our diets, our energy, our time management. This enhancement for the self arises spontaneously and naturally, not as a response to a should. We are able to experience an immediate and intrinsic pleasure in self-care.”3 This spoke to my heart in a beautiful way. My reality was that I had lost all connection with myself along the journey of life. To rebuild my house, I had to slow down, take several steps back and become aware of my heart, mind, body and spirit. Learning to meditate on the breath helped me rebuild my house one cell at a time.
Although I no longer work in the medical industry as an RN, I remember the heavy stress of the job and believe I held a lot of that stress in my body. Your past directly affects your well-being. Recently I completed a continuing education course written by Dr. Cheryl M. Lindy. In her article, ‘Ethics and Moral Distress for Healthcare Professionals’, Dr. Lindy mentioned two studies. Nurses were offered meditation activities in Dr. Halm’s study and social workers were offered similar medit ation options in Dr. Beer’s study. Dr. Lindy noted, “Meditation activities in the studies were diverse, such as being mindful of body sensation, sitting meditation paying attention to breathing, yoga breathing and stretching, and focus on thoughts of self-kindness.”4 Although both studies were small, Dr. Halm and Dr. Beer reported that the nurses and the social workers who engaged in a 10-minute mindfulness activity during the workday experienced reduced stress. Dr. Lindy went on to share, “The use of mindfulness has been found to have a positive impact on well-being and reduction of stress. Mindfulness facilitates individuals to become aware of emotions and reduce the response to those emotions. This enables the individual to address situations and move forward, which promotes resilience.”4
Dr. Lindy’s article was focused on healthcare professionals, but pranayama and meditation can benefit everyone. Every person has stress that can be difficult to manage. Stress is both positive and negative. Whether positive or negative, stress activates the sympathetic nervous system. Stress activates the fight or flight response. While we cannot avoid stress, we can utilize tools that will help us rebuild our own personal house.
Mr. B.K.S. Iyengar shared in the Foreward of the book, Yoga The Iyengar Way, “There are many different types of cells in the body, with physical, physiological, emotional, intellectual and spiritual functions. It is known that each cell has a life of its own. These cells are pearls of life. In the practice of Yoga every cell is consciously made to absorb a copious supply of fresh blood and life-giving energy, thus satiating the embodied soul. With serenity one then experiences the self by the self, and rests the self in the lap of the soul (jivatman).”5 I consider myself lucky to have discovered the gifts of pranayama and meditation. Using these gifts daily strengthen the foundation of my house and help maintain its structure. With a well-maintained foundation and structure, I am able to decorate my house with numerous life-giving pearls such as love, joy, hope, enlightenment, wisdom and precious peace.
My hope for you is that you will welcome those life-giving moments as you embrace the idea, “The Body As A House: Rebuilding Through Pranayama & Meditation” is an attainable gift you can give yourself. We change what we can change and accept (I never say we have to like) what we cannot change. 😉 Remember that You! Are! Worthy!, My Friend, and I Believe In You!! Why you may ask? Well, because I believe in the promise #ThereIsSoMuchHope. And I try to never miss a moment to Make! It! Count!
Sending you light, love & hugs,
Cristina Lynn Zen
