|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kareen's Yoga by Kareen Zebroff
Ah, I remember it well. The year was 1974 and it was school clothes buying time.
My eldest daughter, a normally dear girl but also a template for the two sisters
following her, insisted on $40 Hush Puppies the latest rage.
"Forty dollars!" I squeaked, shocked out of my Army & Navy sale
shoes. Practically hyperventilating, I reached for my nostrils and began to do
the alternate nostril breath to calm me down. Peter, too, looked properly scandalized.
It was a huge sum then, comparable to $200 for sneakers nowadays.
That infamous family incident became the beginning of a clothing allowance and
of having to earn money for any extras through baby-sitting, strawberry / raspberry
/ blackberry / daffodil and chicken pickin’. In retrospect, it was a sensible
thing to have done, for none of the girls grew up to be materialistic or clotheshorses.
Having to shop with kids may be physical and material stress for the parents,
but having to be "in" surely is mental and peer-pressure stress for
the kids. This is where yoga comes in for both species, because the lovely thing
about yoga is that one can expect it to work on demand. That is especially true
of the breathing exercises because just as strong emotions can rev up one’s
rate of breathing anger or fear making it rapid and shallow, for instance deliberately
bringing the rate of breathing down can help to make one calm and relaxed.
The alternate nostril breath (Surya Bhedana Pranayama) is the most important all-round
breath for affecting our central nervous system in a stress-reducing and sleep-inducing
manner.
Close off the left nostril with your right ring finger and inhale through the
right nostril to the count of four. Now close off the right nostril as well, using
your right thumb and hold your breath to the count of four (unless you have high-blood
pressure or a heart condition). Release your ring finger and slowly exhale through
the left nostril, trying for the count of eight. Now inhale through the same left
nostril that you just breathed out through to the count of four and repeat the
cycle in reverse, to the count of 4:4:8.
For instant physical stress relief, learn to practise some of my husband’s
favorite on-the-spot yoga poses such as the sitting or standing chest expander,
lion, pose of a child, and sitting sponge. In the later you are gently telling
each part of the body, as if it were a child, to relax now.
I wish I had also known in those ‘70s, however, all that I know now about
offsetting back-to-school or to work and other stressors through such alternative
health methods as the emotional freedom techniques taught in workshops by Dr.
Alex Lees. Combined with yoga, EFT’s charmingly effective affirmations have
indeed become a powerful aid to keeping our family’s problems in perspective.
Much simplified here, EFT is based on tapping certain Oriental meridian acupuncture
points. Using a touch of humor helps to accomplish the goal of ridding oneself
of overly negative unwanted feelings around strong emotions. Take as a template
the simple example of the sullen, disappointed teenager above, but invent your
own version for whatever agitates you. Be serious with your intent, but keep the
wording just a touch ridiculous.
1. Rate your strong negative feelings from one to 10, with 10 being the worst.
Now repeatedly tap, with the three middle fingers of your right hand, against
the sharp outside edge of the palm of your left hand a kind of acupuncture point
for a psychological reversal or PR that is especially effective with such issues
as weight-control, depression and habituation, or compulsive-obsessive behaviors.
2. Tapping all the while, say to yourself something similar to what our above
teenager would say:
"Even though I am ready to explode right now with fury at Mom for refusing
to buy me the Nikes that I simply must have if I don’t want the kids at
school to laugh at me and even though she deserves to be hated and not talked
to for at least a year (except when I want the use of the car, maybe) and even
though I can’t control my temper sometimes, I deeply and completely accept
myself!"
3. Keep changing the wording, or add slightly funny variations of your own affirmation,
about the negative emotion, all the while tapping that PR point.
4. Now rate your feelings from one to 10 again. If they are not significantly
less, then tap some more on any insights that have come up since you first began
tapping.
Can it really be that simple? I have found it so. We already know that our unconscious
or inner mind never sleeps. If nothing else, it will most certainly have heard
and been comforted by the positive intent around all that loving acceptance of
your darling old self.
Dr. Alex Lees will be teaching workshops on EFT in Surrey/Langley Sept. 21
and 22 from 9 am to 4 pm. To register or for more info call 604-542-6277 or email
him at: lees@dralexlees.com Some of Kareen’s
10 yogabooks in 14 languages can be ordered from her web-site:www.kareenzebroff.com
or your favorite bookstore.
 Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
