Yoga, training and health inspiration for you

A wonderful cake that don't take you more than twenty minutes to prepare, by chef Lina Bou. Just let it cook in the oven while you do your yoga  – after which you can treat yourself with a freshly baked cake with a deliciously crisp crust!

What you'll need

Servings: Makes two small loaves or one big

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1 cup buckwheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1,5 tsp baking powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1-1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted organic butter, softened (vegan alternative, use organic olive oil)
• 1 cup rapadura sugar
• 4 tbsp honey
• 2 large organic free ranged eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (basically a pumpkin cooked in the oven until soft, scrape out the seeds and mix the inside to a puree. Normally I leave the puree in the fridge over night to cool down and use it the day after for baking.)

How to do it

Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Cook Time: 50 Minutes

• Preheat the oven to 175°F and set an oven rack in the middle position. Generously grease two 20 x 10-cm loaf pans with butter.
• In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk until well combined; set aside.
• In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until just blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until very light and fluffy, a few minutes. Add in the pumpkin. It is okay if the mixture looks grainy and curdled at this point.
• Add the flours and mix on low speed until combined.
• Turn the batter into the prepared pans, dividing evenly, and bake for 35 – 50 minutes, depending if you make one or two cakes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the loaves cool in the pans for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Fresh out of the oven,the loaves have a deliciously crisp crust. If they last beyond a day, you can toast individual slices to get the same fresh-baked effect…

Photo: Bas Van Est

While the loaf is in the oven...

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About Lina Bou

Lina is an internationally acclaimed retreat chef and published author that has cooked for people from around the world. Originally Swedish, half Spanish she now lives in France since six years. As a freelance cook she travels around the world, to cook for different events, consulting for companies, restaurants and cooks. She also does limited health consultation on distance and organizing nutritional or culinary workshops. Her speciality is vegetarian foods, often including wild foraged edible plants and flowers.

Find more info about Lina on her homepage and on Instagram.

Can feelings as anxiety be a substitute for something we are too scared to encounter? For yoga teacher Frida Starvid anxiety had been a loyal companion for a long time. After hearing about a theory called Affect phobia she started digging deep into herself. What other feelings can hide there under our anxiety?

Anxiety seen as a substitute feeling

“Anguish, anguish is my heritage, the wound of my throat, the cry of my heart in the world…” The year is 1916, and the Swedish poet Per Lagerkvist, then 25, is ridden by existential angst (you might know Per – he recieved the Nobel Prize in Literature after 11 years of active membership in the Swedish Academy; another depressing story but in a different way.)

Almost a century later, I was 30 and also burdened by anxiety. During the previous years, I´d had moments in places where the light of living was overwhelming only in its absence. Sure, I had a good degree and a pretty decent CV. I was brave and free, had an exciting job and was travelling the world. But the flipside was that I felt emotionally detached. Close relationships were very challenging, and I often found myself lost; lacking some unspoken direction.

Then one day around Christmas of 2011 I overheard a conversation between my mother and her friend, and something caught my attention: “… in McCullough´s theory, anxiety is not seen as a real emotion or affect per se. Instead, anxiety seems to be a substitute feeling, produced in order to cover up or defend oneself from another emotion that one is too scared to encounter…” I looked up, contemplating what I´d just heard. My anxiety had been a loyal companion for a long time, and it defined my inner workings to a large degree. What my mum´s friend had said flipped a huge coin for me. It would just take some time and research before it finally dropped.

Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

In short McCulloughs theory is about analysing psychological issues, proposing that most of their causes are related to conflicts about feelings, or affects. The theory, called affect phobia, was developed mainly by Leigh McCullough, Director of the Psychotherapy Research program at Harvard University. Through extensive clinical research, the method is well proven to work for a variety of psychological diagnoses, and sorts under a strand of therapy called STDP – Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy. From its name, you´ll gather that the durational factor is important – the goal is to get substantial improvement, the sooner the better. You work with concrete formulations of your issues, and the therapist plays an active role. There´s no beating around the bush, no silent nods. Essentially, it´s not much Freud and very little bullshit.

Avoidance of undesired feelings

Affect phobia – a fear of feelings - is explained by the fact that as small children, it´s our caretaker´s responsibility to mirror and validate our emotions. Their job is to help us understand what we´re feeling and guide us how to constructively act based on these emotions. Since no parents are flawless, however, most of us learned that some emotional expressions were less welcome than others. Perhaps you had a father who got very uncomfortable when you cried – you´d soon learn that showing sadness wouldn´t score you any attachment points; you´d probably swallow your tears and give him your best smile instead. Or perhaps you had an older sibling who acted scornful if you became overly excited about something – you will likely refrain from openly bursting with joy in the future and instead act indifferent. For small children, adaptation is a game of survival.

In this way, we establish a set of defences to help us avoid undesired feelings, and these patterns persist through adulthood. Interestingly, our defences can express themselves as thoughts (for example thoughts of self-contempt), behaviours (perhaps constant doing and achieving) or in the form of other emotions. In a typical example, someone who doesn´t dare to show grief covers up by becoming very angry. And anxiety belongs to this category, as a primordial catch-all shield.

Do you dare to really feel?

It all sounds pretty simple, but it´s decidedly complex. As the rigorous person I am, I went and bought a book – Treating Affect Phobia, a text book for psychotherapists by McCullough et.al – and started reading. After 50 pages I realized that I am indeed no therapist, but that I had to go and get myself one, now that I knew what I needed. And then, with the help of Leif Havnesköld (one of the most experienced affect therapists in Sweden, now sadly passed) I started untangling my inner life. There was stuff in there I had no idea existed, as most of my feelings – both negative and positive – had been buried under a heavy load of shame. And many of my defence responses were so automatized that my first step was to identify them and learn to hinder myself before they set in.

In the end, emotions are what makes us feel alive. We live in an era still heavily influenced by Descartian thought – I think, therefore I am – and when emotional openness is encouraged, such as in opinion-driven social media, we tend to forget that many feelings are not ”pure”, but rendered through a filter of personal experience. If we honestly don´t want to let our one-year-old selves rule our world, I hereby – joyfully and shamelessly – encourage everyone to do a bit of psychological digging.

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Read more

• What I talk about when I talk about yoga, by Frida Starvid f.d. Boström
• On the Pursuit of Slackness, by Frida Starvid f.d. Boström
• Yin & Restorative: The art of pausing – part 1, by Ulrica Norberg

About Frida

Frida Starvid f.d. Boström is a Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Rocket and Yin teacher (200+140 hr), educated in India, Sweden and Spain. She started off as an architect but after a burnout she decided to shift careers. Her first trip to an ashram in India in 2015 led to many more, and evoked her already existing curiosity about philosophy and meditation, as well as fun and physically challenging yoga. Frida gives regular classes and assists at yoga teacher educations in Sweden and abroad. Read more about Frida at her website or follow her at Instagram: @frida_bostrom

Here is a recipe that will make your mouth water! Lina Bou, a chef specialisted on holistic nutrition, shares this vegetarian polenta and potato cake with you. Maybe for dinner this weekend? Happy cooking!

What you'll need

• 100 g / 1 cup polenta
• 100 g / 3/4 cup rice flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes
• 3 free-range eggs
• 125 ml / 1/2 cup olive oil, at room temperature
• 125 ml / 1/2 cup plant-based yogurt or milk
• 1-2 spring onions
• 3-4 potatoes, grated
• 1 zucchini, (or other vegetable in season, like pumpkin or broccoli) cut in small cubes
• 1 handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 100 g goats cheese

Topping

• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, or other nuts
• 2 tsp organic olive oil
• 1 tsp local honey
• handful chive

How to do it

• Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a 30x22 cm tray or line it with parchment paper.
• Add all the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and stir until combined.
• Whisk eggs in a separate bowl, then add oil and plant yoghurt/milk.
• Finely chop the onion. Peel the potatoes, grate them coarsely and add them to the wet mixture along with the zucchini, onion and parsley. Crumble in half of the cheese. Give it a good stir and then pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the flours. Use a wooden spoon to combine the batter and then pour it onto the tray.
• Crumble the remaining cheese on top. Combine pumpkin seeds, oil and honey and sprinkle them on top as well, along with the chive.
• Bake for approximately 40 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly in the tin before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely. Store the cake at room temperature in an airtight container and it will keep for a few days.

Photo: Bas Van Est

For when you need a break..

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About Lina Bou

Lina is an internationally acclaimed retreat chef and published author that has cooked for people from around the world. Originally Swedish, half Spanish she now lives in France since six years. As a freelance cook she travels around the world, to cook for different events, consulting for companies, restaurants and cooks. She also does limited health consultation on distance and organizing nutritional or culinary workshops. Her speciality is vegetarian foods, often including wild foraged edible plants and flowers.

Find more info about Lina on her homepage and on Instagram.

How can yoga and the yoga community can help us to heal in a world that from time to time undenaibly will be changelling? Through yoga and the yoga community we can, with practice and time, learn to master the waves of life, while simultaneously enjoying the moments when we reach calm waters.

The balancing act that is life

Being human means having to encounter endless challenging waves that, more often than not, arrive uninvited into our life space. There is no way around these waves. Once we come out of one wave and the water of life calms down, it is only a matter of time before another wave arrives and challenges our strength and ability to remain above the surface. Should we live our lives in fearful anticipation of the next wave to strike? In truth, doing so would not give us much space to enjoy the richness of beauty and love that life has to offer. Instead, we can learn, little by little, to become better swimmers and to master each wave as it comes our way, while simultaneously enjoying the moments when we reach calm waters.

Hardship co-exists with enjoyment and satisfaction, love co-exists with loss, trust co-exists with fear, and in the same way movement co-exists with stillness. So too does an active lifestyle co-exist with times of recovery and rest. However, this co-existence is a continuous balancing act that requires the ability to self-regulate through awareness and conscious action. The demands of daily life can easily overwhelm us. Thus, maintaining a balanced life can feel unachievable at times. Perhaps, it may be of some comfort to know that balance in and of itself, is never a static moment in time, but an ongoing movement involving listening and adjusting to present circumstances.

Balance requires focus and strength, as well as breath and softness. It requires courage and trust and a great deal of patience. It can remain inside us in the eye of the storm and in the depth of the dark waters. In times of stress and hardship, yoga can serve as a helpful tool that brings us closer to balance. The practice of yoga offers a space and opportunity to slow down and to take care of our body-mind-heart relationship. Additionally, it can help to improve our interoceptive awareness and ability to listen to our bodies’ needs, so that we can better manage and regulate our physical sensations, psychological mood states and autonomic balance. Thus, yoga does not only have the potential to make us feel better and more balanced, but also, to teach us how to do so.

The nurturing influence of yoga
A growing field of empirical studies are examining the influence of yoga on people in workplaces, in schools and in primary healthcare. These studies show that yoga reduces perceived stress and anxiety, while improving one’s ability to manage stress and situations of distress. Additionally, studies suggest that yoga further improves aspects of well-being such as positive affect, feelings of peace, focus and endurance, self-confidence, life purpose and clarity of mind. In addition to this, an important element that is often overlooked in studies like these, as well as in discourses on yoga, is the positive influence that a yoga community can bring.

The social element of people coming together in a safe and welcoming space where social relationships can be developed and nurtured offers another layer of support and connection, which in turn cultivates the circumstance for transformational growth. Yoga is a practice that is both individual and relational; a practice that has the potential to bring us closer to ourselves and to our loved ones. Furthermore, in times of hardship, the practice of yoga, interweaved with the support and connection with people around us, is crucial to keeping us afloat and making us stronger. Love as a form of connection (yoga i.e. union) is the answer to it all. Choose love.

We work too hard.
We’re too tired to fall in love.
Therefore we must overthrow the government.

We work too hard.
We’re too tired to overthrow the government.
Therefore we must fall in love.

– Rod Smith, “Pour le CGT”

References

• Hartfiel, N., Havenhand, J., Khalsa, S. B., Clarke, G., & Krayer, A. (2011) ’The Effectiveness of Yoga for the Improvement of Well-being and Resilience to Stress in the Workplace’, Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 37, 1, pp.70-76.

• Köhn, M., Persson Lundholm, U., Bryngelsson, I., Anderzen-Carlsson, A., & Westerdahl, E. (2013) ‘Medical Yoga for Patients with Stress-Related Symptoms and Diagnoses in Primary Health Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial’, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2013.

• Noggle, J., Steiner, N., Minami, T., & Khalsa, S. B. (2012) ‘Benefits of Yoga for Psychosocial Well-Being in a US High School Curriculum: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Trial’, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 33, 3, pp.193-201.

• Prasad, L., Varrey, A., & Sisti, G. (2016) ’Medical Students’ Stress Levels and Sense of Well Being after Six Weeks of Yoga and Meditation’, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 16.

• Sarkissian, M., Trent, N., Huchting, K., & Khalsa, S. B. (2018) ’Effects of a Kundalini Yoga Program on Elementary and Middle School Students’ Stress, Affect and Resilience’, Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 39, 3, pp. 210-216.

• Wolever, RQ., Bobinet, KJ., McCabe, K., Mackenzie, ER., Fekete, E., Kusnick, CA., & Baime, M. (2012) ‘Effective and Viable Mind-Body Stress Reduction in the Workplace: A Randomized Controlled Trial’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 17, 2, pp. 246-258.

Photo: Talitha Gamaroff

Mindfulness videos with Eleonora

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We are not in control. We are governed by reaction and fluctuation. By our own patterns, habits and programming. Can you really say that you are light, free and can you communicate with yourself and others in a way that leave you inspired and motivated? Happy even? If yes, you have got it. If no, then you don't ride the waves of prana. But you could! Here, in this months concluding fourth part on the theme of breathing I'll tell you more.

Go to part one, part two and part three in this series about breathing to learn even more.

Learn to listen to your breath

When prana is spread evenly throughout the cellular body, compassion and equanimity arise and the fluctuations of the mind ceases. This phenomenon can be achieved by cultivating the art of listening intentionally to your breath. To let go of the need to manoever and control the breath. Pranayama and meditation are acts of letting go. With these practices you learn how to let go of psychological blockages and attachments. They will over time help you to free yourself from who you think you are and get you in touch with the essence of who you really are. 


Really, the only thing that stands in between the percieved y o u and the real y o u is the identification of yourself. What you can and can't do. Our emotional dams block the flow of prana. This disruption creates an increased tension in your body, mind and spirit that directs itself as pain, stress, anxiety, anger and frustration as well as weakness in the body due to poor circulation and breathing musculature. When you see yourself as separate from everything conflict with everything often arise. There is little peace and relaxation in that mode, mostly wear and tear. Fight and flight. 


During pranayama we literally drink litres of vitality and immunity. We supercharge the blood with extra oxygen. When we retain the breath, we literally inject more oxygen into the bloodstream.

Practicing pranayama is tenacious. Few people keep at it. Maybe for a few weeks, then something more ”fun” and ”important” takes over. Some people just want the quick fix and others notice the rapid changes and that can be confusing and some get afraid of the gained insight and strength. Pranayama practice is subtle and affect us at the root of mental and physical exictense. That is why we need it daily; since it is delicate and powerful. It will change you towards your optimal potential.

Be in your body
I cannot emphasize enough that one needs to be in the body in order to succeed with pranayama. To stay safe you should not overestimate your vitaly and stamina. Your mind might want to achieve a lot. But this is a powerful practice and one needs to cultivate a sensitivity towards hearing the bodys signals since it tells you the state of your inner organs and systems. Therefore a solid asana practice (or martial arts, pilates, tai chi or qigong is great as well) is important.

First, asanas help to revitalise our limbs, organs and nervous systems. Then they open up our vital force that lies dormant in our pranic sheath. Asana and breathing in asana help purify the channels, which if clogged, can overwhelm the system and practitioner. So if your heartbeart races, you experience shortage of breath, increase itch, powerful headaches, pressure in the head, eyes or ears; your body tells you that it cannot release the pressure inside its systems due to toxins, tensions, weakness and/or stress.

Pranayama is the next step after you can sit still. Think about it. You might be able to do advanced asanas, run and move a lot but have a problems sitting still. Sitting still can be hard. And that is where you can really strenghten the mind, brain and nervous system. When the body can circulate itself for 30 minutes and leave the power of awareness over to you to cultivate, train and practice what governs all of you; the BREATH.

The practice of pranayama takes us beyond our skeletal, muscular and circulatory systems, even beyond the nervous and endocrine systems. In its essence, this practice aims to attain mastery over the life force itself. And in that pursuit, your body heals, your mind gets strong and focused and your spirit free and happy. You are on you way to your strongest and truest you.

• For further reading go to my YINYOGA book (Skyhorse Publishing)

• Take part of my new 10 weeks course here on Yogobe - The Art of Breathing

Videos for your breath practice

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Breath carries everything. Breath is a life force; we begin our life with a breath and we end it with a breath. The breath, body, and mind all work together. If one of these is agitated, the others will follow. If one is calmed, the others will follow. From the breath we receive oxygen, which nourishes the blood, organs, and cells, and Prana — life force — travels on oxygen. Join this second part in our month of breathing!

Body, mind and spirit are one

You can read part one in this series about breathing here.

The main objective of hatha yoga (physical yoga), is to create an absolute harmony of the interacting activities and processes of energy, mind and physical body. In hathayoga ha represents prana, the vital force, and tha represents mind, the mental energy. Therefore hathayoga is about the union of pranic (prana shakti) and mental forces (manas shakti).

When this occurs, the awakening of higher consciousness happens in the individual. Every object in the universe, from the atom to the star is composed of these two energies. When they interact with each other, creation happens and when they are separated they move back to their source and creation is dissolved. This is described as the total annihilation of matter; the same way as physics do.

All matter in this creation is alive and conscious. Therefore everything has potential and everything is alive. In yoga, consciousness and life are known as purusha and prakriti, in tantra they are named shiva and shakti. In hathayoga they are named pingala and ida and in taoism as yang and yin and in physics as energy and matter. They have different names in different times and philosophies.

Even so, the dualities of matter and energy can be translated to the human nature. We have a physical body but we also have a subtle counterpart too. So what happens on the inside when you think? What happens inside you when one thought results in the next?

In yoga, one should always keep in mind that the body, mind and the spirit are not three; they are one. At one level you see the body and at another you see it as the mind. The spirit is never different from the body and vice versa. They are one.

It's all about the focus – conscious breathing

The prana shakti and manas shakti are usually in an unbalanced and unharmonized form in us. Either of them are usually predominant over the other, creating imbalances in mind, body and spirit. Due to this imbalance, physical disease and mental diseases manifest. The techniques of yoga like asana (body posture), pranayama (the art of breathing properly) and kriyas (to focus the mind) is to bring these into better harmony and learn how to calm the nervous system and cleanse the body from toxins.

The nervous system needs to be trained since it is the carrier of impulses through the sensory and motor channels. For an uninterrupted flow of energy to pass throughout the body, it is vital that you move into pratyahara, or sense withdrawal. If not, then it is hard to meditate. Pratyahara is the bridge between the physical/mental and the subtle body awareness and of spirit.


The first tool to apply to move into pratyahara is learned how to breathe properly and through breath to start to move and direct energy, or Pranayama.

The subtle body is the energetic mold of the physical body. It is more accessible to the mind and consious control. On a subtle level, change is somewhat fragile and demands powerful intention. Once change on a subtle level has filtered down on a physical level it tends to be more stable. This means it is difficult to make and maintain change purely on a physical level. For example; a person can exercice and eat properly and perfect and yet be affected by ill health.

“Whatever controls Prana controls the minds and whatever controls the minds controls Prana”

– Hathayoga Pradipika 4. 21

Through breath our physical body is linked to the mind, and the mind to the life force, Prana. The breath enhances the mind-body connection, so when we start to cultivate the breath, we connect to our higher self.

The yogic texts and masters state very clearly that in order to balance the mind, one needs to control the prana inside. If prana is restless, mind becomes restless and vice versa. The mind is very difficult to control by the mind and the more ones tries the more the split grows. By practicing pranayama correctly, the mind is automatically stilled.

The general idea is that pranayama ought to remove blockages in the autonomic nervous system in order to have the breath run even in both nostrils.

When the flow is even in both nostrils, your nervous system is in harmony and you move easily into meditation and flow better with life.

About the breath

• The breath is one of only two functions of the body that is both voluntary and involuntary (the other function is blinking). If we can master breath consciously, we can control other functions in the body like heart rate, blood pressure, and breath. Through the breath, we can access the parasympathetic nervous system and activate the relaxation response in the brain, which results in stress reduction for our entire system.

• Most people are not breathing to their fullest capacity, which actually means that the nerve cells do not get fully activated, which chokes the life force in us. Through conscious breathing, we can mindfully generate more oxygen for the body.

• Tightness or stress in the body often creates tightness in the breath. Think of wearing a body suit that is too tight — it is hard to breathe. When your body is tight and tense, you can’t breathe fully. You can be tight in your breathing body just like you are tight in your physical body. Some of this is physical strain impinging on the breath volume; some is emotional or mental blockage preventing us from breathing fully.

So the more we can learn conscious breathing the better. 
We enhance our quality of life via how we breathe. 
Welcome to my Pranayama Course where we embark on learning the magic techniques of pranayama.

• For further reading go to my YINYOGA book (Skyhorse Publishing)

• Take part of my new 10 weeks course here on Yogobe - The Art of Breathing

Videos for you

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More reading

• Creating a space for the wild birds to settle down, by Eleonora Ramsby Herrera
• Yin & Restorative: The art of pausing – part 1, by Ulrica Norberg
• Yin & Restorative: The art of pausing – part 2, by Ulrica Norberg

Gwyn Williams from Team Yogobe is the founder of the ZenThai Shiatsu practice and facilitator at BaliSpirit Festival since its second edition. In this interview with Elisabetta Crovara he talks about balance, letting go, and the festival.

“Life is a balance of holding on and letting go.”

Simple and on point. But, how many times are we told to hold on and how many to let go? Growing up and even during our adult life, holding on is associated with strength and resilience. We do rarely let go, because we feel like we are giving up. Somehow, it’s counter-intuitive.

However, these two, need balance. And balance is what BaliSpirit Festival 2019 wants to restore. This edition will be Gwyn’s 11th — and when he talks about it his voice has the same excitement as if it would be his first time attending BaliSpirit Festival.

“At BaliSpirit Festival, people get out of their suits. It’s a space where we’re not defined by the other life that we’re living.” Gwyn says: “While our ordinary identity fades, we dance and celebrate in true freedom. We’re finally present.” It’s a beautiful image, the one of the festival grounds. Some holding on to asanas, or practicing the stillness of meditation. Others singing their heart out and dancing in pure liberty. A kaleidoscope of colours, darkness and light. Sounds and silence, ecstasy and calm. An image of balance, unity and community. Like the practice of ZenThai Shiatsu, brought to the festival by Gwyn, since 2008.

“On a superficial level,” Gwyn explains, “ZenThai Shiatsu is the integration of Zen Shiatsu oriental medicine, Thai Massage and osteopathic techniques,” practices that he explored at the Queensland College of Oriental Medicine and in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Here, he discovered the osteopath Arnaud Le’ Hermitte, who combines osteopathy with the art of Traditional Thai Massage.

With a strong background in martial arts, until 1997, Gwyn utilised the prana, the life force, to fight and compete. Then, he slowly realised the importance of the yin and yang, in other words: of a balanced life. If energy goes out, energy needs to come back in. And so he discovered and got into alternative therapies and yoga. Balance is at the very core of ZenThai Shiatsu: “beneath the superficial level is the practice of getting to know who we are in our true nature, in our stillness state, where we can melt away all the boundaries and just let go.” Holding on to stillness, we can then let go.

Photo: Rosa Chen

By creating balance in our bodies and minds, ZenThai also embraces a full sense of unity and acceptance, and is also a great reminder of the power of community. During Gwyn’s classes and workshops, participants work in pairs and in group as a whole. They gather together, practice, share, grow and offer their own healing, kind and loving touch to others. “The hand being an extension from the heart.”

ZenThai is like music

ZenThai creates a safe space of belonging, where people feel nourished and supported, no matter what is going on in their life. In Gwyn’s words: “ZenThai is like music. It’s an intention to move back into unity and a great modality to eliminate the conditionings. It’s a feeling of ‘we’re doing this together — and of going back to balance.” A practice that perfectly merges with BaliSpirit Festival’s vibe and energy. When we asked him a little sneak peak of his workshops he will offer this year, he replied with his main intention instead: to bring people together through movement and therapy. He won’t plan the content in advance, he will listen to the planet and to the family gathering on that day. What do they feel, wish and need. What are their intentions. And then the practice will start.

The common thread, as the festival’s theme, will be “Restore the Balance.” As Gwyn puts in, we live in a world overwhelmed by negativity, tragic dynamics perpetuated by the media and other channels we are constantly bombarded by. Well, it’s time to look at the positives and not to panic. Time to look at the flower growing on the cement. He continues: “The Earth works on a state of congruent vibration, like a pendulum. It’s a sequence and we need to embrace changes because everything is temporary. It’s a continuous swing from darkness to light.”

Movement from darkness to light is balance itself. One cannot exist without the other. So, for us, falling out of balance doesn’t matter really, because if we sharpen our senses, relax and become more aware, we can always swing back to balance. Yin and Yang. Sekala and Niskala. Dark and Light. All strong opposites that we need to accept and learn how to deal with. To meditate in stillness and in movement. To find serenity in the darkness and compassion in the light. To find silence when surrounded by hundreds of people and to speak out loud without saying a word. That’s what Gwyn’s practice is about and common thread to all BaliSpirit Festival’s workshops and events.

Gwyn gave one more blissful message, that we’d like to share in particular for any first-time attendees: “At BaliSpirit Festival, just say ‘Yes,’ and you’ll feel in the perfect place and time.” Shake your conditioning off and find your OWN way back to balance.

Photo on top: Caroline Schiff

Read more about BaliSpirit Festival here!

Practice with Gwyn here on Yogobe

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No matter how rich we are — in money, power, houses, cars, or sex — it means nothing if we do not appreciate and respect life’s pleasures. At the same time, if we live in harmony with spirit and experience the feeling of joy and satisfaction, we will be happy just to be alive. This month we will discover our breath and our power to educate the brain into balance. This is the first blog post of  four. Now, let's begin our journey into the art of breath. 

Just breathe – it is your right

Our yoga practice should help us to live fuller lives. Our practice should help us climb a little higher every day, and if we climb too high, teach us we have to come down and rest, and next time, learn how to equalize.

The meaning of life is hidden inside our emotions. Us humans often get caught up in the so called “I-ness,” in which we live our lives in our feelings and everything else has no real relation to life. It may sound strange, but our life is our feelings, moods, and emotions. When we are in a good mood, we are inspired by everything — the world around us, people, atmosphere, and even possessions. When we are in a bad mood, nothing can force us to feel pleased and satisfied, not even the most valuable and vital things that usually lead to happiness. When we are happy the whole world is in harmony and everything brings us joy. In other words, the meaning of life is to experience the feelings that give pleasure and joy.

The great, ancient yoga masters understood that one system was superior in connecting all the other ones: The breathing (respiratory system), since it affected the mind and energy of the individual (endocrine system, cellular system), and in adding breathing with asana they saw that the overall health and balance (homeostasis) improved dramatically. They learned that a person’s balance has a lot to do with how well the body circulates blood (circulatory system), since the blood carries nutrients and oxygen to all the building blocks and maintenance stations in our bodies and brains.

Conscious breathing as a way to battle stress and tension

A great step to a healthy attitude about stress is to realize our ownership over our brain and learn to engage our brain intentionally to manage the consequences of the fight and flight response.

It is actually very simple for us to learn to intentionally engage the parasympathetic nervous system, which controls the relaxation response in our body. The relaxation response returns the body’s resources toward the digestive system but also the brain balance needed to maintain a healthy brain wave. We have the power to educate our own brain to do so intentionally. Once the over stimulated fight and flight response returns under control, the true potential of our brain becomes accessible, our learning ability is enhanced, and our executive reasoning functions become strong again.

The only autonomic nervous system function that can be directly affected by our conscious mind is the breath. Conscious breathing is a great way to experience deep levels of relaxation and to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Start here and now. 


Read this text first and then try to take ten Deep, Full, Complete Breaths:

• Sit comfortably. Elevate your seat if you have to in order for your spine to be long and erect. You can sit against a wall if need be. Place pillows or a block underneath the thighs if you have tightness in your hips.

• Rest your hands on your knees. Roll your shoulders back so you can lift your chest a little. Close your eyes and your mouth. Keep your lips soft and jaw as relaxed as possible.

• Exhale slowly and empty your lungs. When the inhalation appears, let it evolve until you have reached your fullest expansion. Then pause two seconds and slowly start to exhale, and follow the exhalation until it ebbs out completely. Pause two seconds. Repeat.

• Do this ten times. When breathing, try to stretch your breaths by making the start of each inhalation and exhalation long and listen to the sound of the breath more and more. Pick up its sound in the middle of your head. Try to really listen; notice the sound of the breath.

• After the ten breaths, sit quietly for a moment, sensing the effects of your breath.

I bet you will be calmer. It is because you have altered the distribution of energy from the sympatheic nervous system (activating part of our NS) to parasympathetic nervous system (calming aspect of our NS). 

The Full Complete Breath is a great technique to bring into the practice of restorative yoga. It is the breathing method I often recommend my students apply in order to start to release, unwind, and keep their mind occupied with something other than reacting, while their body sinks deeper into the poses.

When the body is calm, the mind quiets and the breath lets go. Then the breaths just happen. No technique is needed, and you are in floating state; in being with the moment. When you arrive here, the stress hormons are down to a low minimal. In this state your creativity can flow, oxygen levels increase in your blood and you often feel calmer, clearer and more present.

• For further reading go to my YINYOGA book (Skyhorse Publishing)

• Take part of my new 10 weeks course here on Yogobe - The Art of Breathing

Videos for your breathing journey

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Reading suggestions

• Full Complete Breath technique, by Ulrica Norberg
• Dare to let your dreams guide you, by Maria Paulsson Rönnbäck
• Ayurvedic tips for a healthy skin, with Dr. Venu Sasikumar