Yoga, training and health inspiration for you

Christmas tends to be a stressful holiday - and because of the pandemic, Christmas will be different this year. Maybe you can't celebrate Christmas with your family. Maybe your economy is at rock bottom. Maybe you are worried about your loved ones, or about the future? In this blogpost I share some thoughts on how we can meet feelings of stress and anxiety this Christmas.

A different kind of Christmas - allow yourself to face all emotions

This Christmas will be different for all of us.

It is important to allow yourself to be sad about not being able to spend time with family and friends. Take care of your sadness or other difficult feelings that may arise. Try to face your difficult feelings instead of trying to push them away. When we face our feelings, they eventually subside, but if we push them away, they remain in us and take on a life of their own. If we dare to meet our feelings, there will also be room for the positive emotions. Remember, it is okay to have fun even though you may be on sick leave. It is ok to have fun even though there is a pandemic going on.

While we need to allow the feelings of sadness and disappointment regarding that this Christmas will be different, it is also important not to forget everything that is actually available to us, even this year. Gratitude training is a powerful tool that helps us shift our focus from the negative to the positive. Starting and ending the day with a gratitude exercise can be valuable. However, it is important not to use gratitude training as a way to avoid difficult feelings.

Christmas is a holiday that often times involves a lot of drinking and alcohol. This year in particular, it may be even more important to limit both alcohol supply and alcohol intake. Sometimes we drink alcohol to alleviate anxiety and difficult feelings, but alcohol instead tends to trigger anxiety. In addition, high alcohol intake impairs our sleep, which is our main source of recovery.

Nature is always available

What is the most important thing around Christmas, for you? How can you manifest these values, despite the pandemic? Maybe you can record a digital Christmas greeting to someone you would have liked to celebrate Christmas together with this year. Or maybe something completely different, only your imagination sets the limits. Try to keep the level of ambition down so that your gift does not create stress and pressure. It is seldom the gift itself that is significant, but the intention itself.

Try to spend as much time as possible in nature. Nature is always there for us and now more than ever, there is reason to strengthen our ties to nature. Being in nature in silence adds an extra dimension to our experience. The silence opens up our senses and helps us to fully take in our surroundings. Nature also lowers our stress level and stimulates the senses in a calm way. In nature, we often feel a kind of reverence and an experience of meaning and context.

Take time for rest and recovery

For many of us, Christmas is a holiday focused on children. We want to give our children memories for life from their Christmases. This year, there may be an even greater tendency to try to compensate for this strange year by trying to create the "perfect Christmas". It is not at all difficult to understand, but it is an impulse that can be important to create awareness about and try to limit. Try to stay focused on what really matters and lower the bar so that you can be present. Try to face yourself with self-compassion instead of self-criticism when your strengths are not enough for everything you want or plan.

You can always give yourself compassion and kindness, it usually makes the difficult feelings a little less heavy to bear. Listen to your own needs and create time for rest and recovery. Showing our children that we prioritize well-being instead of achievement and perfection is probably one of the best Christmas presents we can give them. A gift for life.

Further reading

• Going outside, being lost, and staying found, by Frida Boström
• Explore the difference between goals and visions, by Gwyn Williams
• Yin yoga – balancing the Yin and Yang of yoga, by Ulrica Norberg

Video recommendations

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Are there any exercises that are good to practice after experiencing fatigue? You keep hearing that you should listen to your body. But how do we know WHAT we really should be listening for? I want to share with you three therapeutic principles that can help you when you practice.

How do you fill up with energy when feeling fatigued? 

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A client who is recuperating from fatigue asked me the question. Which exercises of the ones I recommended should she prioritize if she lacks time or energy? I tell her to listen to her body and judge herself what she needs, to be perceptive of her daily form. After considering these factors, she can decide what her body needs and what will support her system. Maybe these therapeutic principles can help you understand what you need to listen for.

​Three therapeutic principles to support your energy flow

1. Open the container 
If the body feels tense, stressed and trapped in any way – start by practicing yoga that makes you relax. It could be asanas that stretches, opens up and winds you down. When you have found relaxation, you have created an open container for prana to flow through.

2. Boost your energy
Are you relaxed but still feel tired?  Refill your prana/energy. Prioritize practicing with a lot of pranayama, breathing exercises. The breath of fire for 11-31 minutes is amazing. Or try a sequence that gives you an energy boost when needed, to lift you out of the tiredness or resistance.

3. Aim the energy where it is needed
Are you relaxed and feel that you have prana/energy – start aiming it to the parts of the body that are in need of support. If it's fatigue you are recuperating from I recommend a session for kidneys and adrenal glands. But there are many different movements for different parts of the body, different organs, chakras and parts of the mind.

The logic is simple: If there isn't any room left, there is no space to refill with energy. If you don't have any energy, you can't aim it. Start by opening up the meridian system and relax, so that you're open to receive.

I hope this will help you in your choices of what you need when you're on the yoga mat.

Sat nam

Further reading

• Full Complete Breath technique, by Ulrica Norberg
• Managing hardship through connection, by Eleonora Ramsby Herrera
• Prāṇa - does it really exist?, by Simon Krohn

Yoga online – videos for energy and balance

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Tiesitkö että stressi vaikuttaa ihoon? Entä sitä, että läsnäoloharjoituksilla voi hoitaa ihoa? Poimi talteen holistisen ihonhoidon asiantuntijan ja Dr.Hauschkan -diplomikosmetologin , Niina Eertolan, ihonhoitovinkit.

Iho on ihmisen suurin aineenvaihduntaelin, jonka tarkoitus on suojata meitä ulkoa päin tulevilta rasitteilta. Kehon kuona-aineet, kuten tali, poistuvat ihon kautta.

Stressi imee ihon elinvoiman

Iho ilmentää kehomielen tilaa. Iho-ongelmat ovat seurausta tulehdustilasta jonka stressi aiheuttaa. Stressin takia ihossa tapahtuu solujen hapettumisreaktio, joka näkyy ikääntymisenä, ihon värin muunnoksina, kuivuutena, hormonaalisena aknena ja suunympärysihottuma. Kun elämäntilanne järkkyy, ihottuma pahenee.

”Periaatteessa kaikki hormonitoimintaan liittyvät iho-ongelmat, kuten atopia, akne ja suunympäryksellä sijaitseva, nuorilla naisilla yleinen podihottuma, ovat seurausta solujen hapettumisreaktiosta. Esimerkiksi autoimmuunisairaus atopia on kehossa aina, mutta stressin aiheuttama tulehdustila laukaisee sen ihossa näkyväksi”, Eertola kertoo.

Tasapainoinen arki elvyttää

Koska iho peilaa kehon sisäistä tilaa, sen hyvinvointiin voi vaikuttaa omilla elintavoilla. ”Itselleni tärkeimmät ihonhoitovinkit ovat säännöllinen liikunta, pilates, jooga, nyrkkeily, pitkät kävelylenkit ja saunominen. Kun olo on stressaantunut, huomaan että rupean hengittämään joogan ujjayi hengitystä, joka lämmittää kehoa ja poistaa myrkkyjä.”

Mielen rauhoittaminen auttaa kaikkiin iho-ongelmiin ja on ammattilaisen mielestä kaikista tärkein ihonhoitoniksi. ”Joogaa, meditoi, sauno, käy kasvohoidossa, tärkeintä on että rentoudut. Myös ihon kosteuttaminen on tärkeää eli käytä kasvovettä ja kosteusvoidetta. Muista hyödyntää omalle iholle sopivia hoitotuotteita eli varmistathan, että käytät juuri sinulle sopivia tuotteita.”

vihreäkissa.fi

@vihreakissakh

Niina Eertola on Dr.Hauschka - SKY- ja Cidesco-Diplomikosmetologi ja Vihreä Kissa kauneushuoneen omistaja joka aloitti joogaharrastuksen astangajoogan parissa, mutta rauhoittaa nykyään kehoa yinjoogan avulla.

Videovinkit

Yogobe Video: cfth

D-vitamiini vaikuttaa terveyteemme hyvin monella tavalla. Kaikkia tämän “vitamiinihormonin” vaikutuksia ei edes vielä tunneta, mutta voidaan sanoa, että se on yksi tärkeimmistä tekijöistä hyvinvoinnin ja terveyden muodostumisessa. D-vitamiinin tärkeys korostuu pimeässä Suomessa, sillä sitä saadaan parhaiten auringonvalosta, jota meille ei ole liiemmin suotu. Millä tavoin D-vitamiini sitten vaikuttaa terveyteen?

D-vitamiini on ihmiselle välttämätön, rasvaliukoinen vitamiini, jota tulee saada riittävästi. D-vitamiini vaikuttaa muun muassa kalsiumin imeytymiseen ja luuston terveyteen. Sitä tarvitaan myös osteoporoosin ehkäisyyn. D-vitamiinia tarvitaan myös immuunipuolustukseen, eli se vaikuttaa terveenä pysymiseen ja sairauksille alttiuteen. Riittävä D-vitamiinin saanti tukee myös hermoston ja aivojen terveyttä.

Lähteitä D-vitamiinille ovat esimerkiksi tietyt kalalajit, sienet ja kananmuna. D-vitamiinia on myös lisättynä tiettyihin nestemäisiin maito- ja kasvijuomatuotteisiin sekä osaan ravintorasvoista. Tärkein lähde on kuitenkin auringonvalo, josta vitamiinia ei Suomessa kuitenkaan saada tarpeeksi.

Suomessa auringonvalo ei varsinkaan talviaikaan riitä yksinään turvaamaan riittävää D-vitamiinin saantia. Siksi sitä suositellaan nautittavan myös ravintolisänä. Myöskään kesällä D-vitamiinin varastot eivät yleensä täydenny riittävästi, koska iho suojataan vaatteilla auringon haitallisilta vaikutuksilta – mikä on tietysti yhtä lailla tärkeää. Siihen ajatukseen ei siis kannata tukeutua, että D-vitamiinivarastot täydentyisivät Suomessa kesän aikana; varastot myös tyhjenevät jo 3–4 viikossa. Ravintolisä voi olla tarpeen ympäri vuoden.

D–vitamiinin saanti on yksilöllistä

Muun muassa raskaana olevien, kasvissyöjien, vegaanien, yli 65-vuotiaiden sekä pienten lasten kohdalla D-vitamiinin saantiin tulee kiinnittää erityistä huomiota. Ravintolisän suositus Suomessa koskee kuitenkin kaikkia pimeään vuodenaikaan.

D-vitamiinin saanti ja imeytyminen riippuvat henkilöstä. On hyvin yksilöllistä, riittääkö yleisesti suositeltu 10 µg/vrk annostus takaamaan riittävän hyvän D-vitamiinitason. Yleisesti ottaen luuston hyvinvoinnin kannalta riittävän D-vitamiinitason alarajana pidetään 75 nmol/l. Mikäli pitoisuus on alle 50 nmol/l, merkitsee se D-vitamiinin puutosta. Puutos lisää luunmurtumien ja osteoporoosin riskiä.

Voiko vitamiinia sitten saada liikaa tai kannattaako sitä tankata ravintolisänä varmuuden vuoksi enemmän? D-vitamiinin kohdalla yliannostus voisi periaatteessa syntyä vain erittäin runsaalla ja pitkäaikaisella ravintolisän käytöllä. Riskiä ei kuitenkaan ole, mikäli noudattaa ravintolisän annostelussa aikuisten turvallisen päiväannoksen ylärajaa, joka on 100 µg vuorokaudessa.

Lisätietoja

 D-vitamiini on tärkeä pohjoisen asukkaille

Vieraskynän kirjoittaja Mirka Tuovinen on valmentaja, sisällöntuottaja ja toinen Kasviksilla, kiitos -kirjan (Lotta Lahti & Mirka Tuovinen, Cozy Publishing, 2019) kirjoittaja. Mirkan blogista (tuovinenmirka.com) löydät terveellisiä reseptejä ja arkisia vinkkejä hyvinvointiin. Mirka vastaa palvelun kehittämisestä ja viestinnästä Yogoben yhteistyökumppanilla, Puhdilla. Puhti on palvelu, joka helpottaa laboratoriotutkimuksiin pääsyä ja tekee tuloksista helposti tulkittavia.  D-vitamiinipitoisuuden voi mitata verikokeella esimerkiksi  Puhdin kautta, jossa pääsee tutkimukseen helposti ilman lähetettä.

Videovinkit

Yogobe Video: 62xd Yogobe Video: rg86

Sound healing helped him find his inner strength when struggling with addiction, today he gives gong concerts and sound healing sessions on a weekly basis. In this interview with yoga teacher and gong player Mateusz Krawiec you can read more about his work and learn how sound healing changed his life. 

Sound healing offers a free ride to meditation

The first time I participated in one of Mateusz Krawiec's gong concerts was a couple of years ago and I was struck by the calm and presence I experienced only by lying down and tuning in to the sounds from the gong and the singing bowls. Recently, I took a sound session class at Urban Om and had a little chat with Matuesz about his gong concerts and the phenomenon of sound healing.

How did you get into gong and sound healing?
– In my mid twenties, almost twelve years ago, I was addicted to alcohol and also struggled with drugs. My friend had a big awakening through theta healing and bought himself gongs and singing bowls, and played them for me once a week. After each session, I found myself in an amazing space, reconnected to my inner resources. I found the motivation to deal with my addiction, and from that on, sound healing became a part of my life.

When did you start giving concerts?
– It just happened to me. One day, I was carrying all my instruments and my neighbour asked me: Oh, I didn't know you were also a musician! (because he's a musician) and I was about to say no. But then I looked at all my instruments and I realized that this weekend, I have five sound journeys and I was like.. Am I a musician? Wow. So it just happened, it just sprouted, it wasn't my plan. I woke up one day and realized, this is what I'm doing. 

Cool! It seems like more and more people are getting curious about sound healing?
– Yeah, it's growing and I'm glad to see more people playing gong. I want to see gong in hospitals, prisons and schools.

What is it about sound that makes it so calming and healing?
– There are so many aspects of that. Scientifically there are theories about the physical structures of the blood cells, change in brain waves, electrical impulses from neurons, different markers of wellbeing like heart rate variability and so on. And it's all great to be able to measure such things, I honor that, but in the end, what we need to remember is that something holistic, something that works so holistically, is very difficult to capture and to grasp as a whole definition. One of the greatest confirmations for me is what I see people experience and what they are telling me about their experience, the testimonials of the participants. Like qualities of how their life improved, physical and spiritual healing processes, I even heard some interesting testimonials from cancer patients.

Do you have any special memory or experience with sound healing that you want to share?
– I remember waking up after a white sound session, and for like 30 seconds, I didn't understand that I was born into a human body on planet Earth. I was just traveling through space, and the feelings I had were like explosions of light in darkness, when traveling at light speed through the galaxy. And yeah, it took me a while to realize that I was born in a human body and that I was at Reimersholme in Stockholm. It was amazing. People use drugs, breathing techniques and other methods to experience such a deep state, but I think sound is the most accessible and safe way.

Is sound healing for everyone?
– It's for every human being. For most people it's relaxing, it’s a free ride to meditation. But in some cases there's fear, tension or trauma involved, and then I would recommend not so much of a public space, rather a private session. For the therapeutic parts of sound healing it's important for the facilitator to create a safe space for the participants.

– The sound goes where it's needed so you just have to trust the process, you don't need some special skills. The Art of Union, as I call my work with sound and therapy, emphasises on the therapeutic part of sound healing, but it’s also a spiritual practice and a form of art, so you can enjoy gong from many different approaches.

Further reading about meditation, breathing and chanting

• Breathe life into your life - part 1, by Ulrica Norberg
• Meditation as a sacred practice, by Yogobe
• Hitta din inre röst med chanting, av Yogobe (in Swedish)

Yoga online - videos with sound and singing

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About Mateusz Krawiec

Mateusz is a yoga teacher, gong player and movement entusiast from Wroclaw, Poland, now living in Sweden where he gives concerts, classes, workshops and teacher trainings. With the intention to keep his perspectives as wide as possible, he has studied many different traditions and disciplins of yoga, movement and sound healing. If you are interested in attending one of Matusz's gong concerts, book a private session or learn how to play gong you can visit his website here or check out Mateusz Facebook-page for upcoming events.

To find balance in our yoga practice it is important to balance yin, recovery, and yang, activity.  In this blog post I will guide you through the practice of yin yoga, the concept of yin and yang, and explain how yin yoga may help you release tension and find balance in life.

Yin yoga can reduce tension in body, mind and soul

Our world’s biggest problem is not poverty, drugs, fear of war, or hunger. It is tension. All kinds of tension lead to all kinds of imbalances and insecurities. If one knows how to free oneself from tension, one has the solution to one’s problems in life. If you are able to balance your tensions, you then automatically learn how to balance your emotions, anger, and passions.

Yogic philosophy as well as modern psychology sum up three basic types of tension that are responsible for all the agonies in modern life. These are muscular tension, emotional tension, and mental tension. Through the art and practice of yin yoga, these tensions can be progressively reduced. Yin yoga focuses on the fascia, the type of tissue that keeps us together. Fascia is the soft tissue component of the connective tissue that provides support and protection for most structures within the human body, including muscle. Fascia is what gives us our form and what makes it possible for us to work our amazing bodies in the ways we do.

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The fascia is interlinked with our nervous system and our brain through what’s called tensegrity, or “The Architecture of life.” Tensegrity indicates that the integrity of a structure—in this case the human body and mind—derives from how all parts are wired together, not how they are stacked.

We have fascia everywhere, and our nervous system is enclosed in fascial membranes and continues as nerve sheaths to every corner of the body. Thus different types of strain or tension affect the structure in different ways. From a yogic perspective you could say that we are wired together by spirit, and if spirit is limited in its expresssion, the prana, or life force, will be disrupted, and there will be less freedom for energy to move. Yogis would say that less Shakti equals less flow in life. Better flow of Shakti equals better flow in life.

Passivity is the key to find release in yin yoga

Our yoga practice should be a blend of yang/out/action/contraction and yin/in/observation/extension to make the whole balanced and to affect our entire health to move towards homeostatis (the maintenance of equilibrium). Yang yoga is a more vigorous yoga practice that targets the muscular tissue and through movement create heat. Examples of yang based yoga is Ashtanga Vinyasa, Poweryoga and Anusara yoga.

Through the practice of yin yoga, one targets the fascia/connective tissue in the body, which makes it a marvellously therapeutic tool for healing bodily, mental, and emotional imbalances.

When you participate in a yin yoga class, you will experience mostly seated, supine, or prone poses, and you will stay in the poses, not moving, with your muscles relaxed for long periods of time—up to five minutes, sometimes longer. Staying muscularly passive for long periods of time gently stress the connective tissue (which gets stiff and immobile with age and through too much or too little use). Yin yoga poses focus mainly on the lower parts of the body because the abundance of dense connective tissue around the joints in this areas requires extra care and attention.

Balancing Yin and Yang

Yin yoga introduces us to the natural edges of our beings in a graceful way. If we push our edges or lead a life that is constantly yang; we move into too much yang, burning energy rather than conserving. On the other hand, if we draw inward too much or lead a too passive lifestyle, we start moving away from life and being present, into the past, sliding backward. Too much yin or too much yang creates imbalances. They need to co-exist side by side in order for us to live our lives in harmony and balance.

Yin and yang can be described as two variables; they are either on the opposite ends of a cycle, like the seasons of the year, or opposites on a continuum of energy or matter. The opposition is relative and can only be understood through relationships between the two.

For example: Water is yin relative to steam but yang relative to ice. Nothing is totally yin or yang. Just as a state of total yin is reached, yang starts to grow. This is evident in the yin yoga practice, since after you have gotten deep into relaxation and mental stillness in a yin yoga pose, the blood circulation increases and you can start to feel heat inside. They constantly transform into each other, just as there can be no energy without matter and no day without light.

If you are accustomed to sweating your way into cool poses, yin yoga may at first glance seem too simple, slow, and boring to some. But this practice of long, passively held floor poses is deeply nourishing and has a myriad of benefits for any yoga practitioner.

Yin yoga – the practice of letting go

In yin yoga you move inside with the mentality as the observer, not the as the force of action where you want to change and go to the outer edge. If one does yin yoga and aim to push and move away from discomfort, one experiences no effect rather than more frustration and tension and less circulation. With the attitude of the observer, the opposite happens. So when one practices yin yoga, I find it valuable to have some techniques like breath and visualization in order to calm the restless and aggressive mind down.

When you come into a position, move slowly and gently into it. Don’t try to follow a picture or an idea of how far you should go in the exercise. In yoga there are no aesthetic ideals and no end result to strive for. Pause frequently and listen to your body. Wait for the body and mind to respond before going deeper into the position. Finding your limit doesn’t always need to mean pushing yourself.

Many yoga practitioners loose their sensitivity to the body’s signals as they go through the motions of a yoga practice day after day, perhaps focusing too much on achieving a physical goal, such as a sculpted body or mastering a new pose. Look instead for just the right amount of intensity in each exercise. Aim for a sensation that you, through the breath, can just be with during each moment of breathing, not having to do or fix anything.

This text has been inspired by content from my book: Yin Yoga – An individual practice. If you like what you read you can buy it here!

Learn more about yin yoga:

• How to understand yoga through gravity, by Frida Starvid
• 4 anledningar att praktisera yinyoga, av Leila Andersson (In swedish)
• Evening Routine - How To End Your Day Feeling Relaxed, by Yogobe

Video recommendations

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Did you set any intentions for this year, got started, and then got lost on the way? That happens a lot of the time when trying to change our patterns. Therefor I want to inspire you to get back on track through the concept of Tapas, discipline. But what is this and how do we apply it in a good way? Learn more here and get started! 

Make you your top priority

Many of us started the year with great intentions (maybe), to do more yoga, meditate, eat more greens, watch less television, go out in the nature more, cut sugar, go vegan, no alcohol... you name it.

But then, as we usually dive into it too fast and too strong, comes February, comes summer, comes atumn, and we realize that we have collapsed and dropped everything along the way. Does this resonate? Well it truly resonates to me and I want to hold space for you to carry on with your intentions and make YOU your top priority. Always. 

Tapas – discipline

You can think of Tapas as that little flame or that little voice inside of you that motivates, gives you a little kick in the butt and keeps you on track with anything that you hold dear and important in your life. Without Tapas, we would procrastinate forever and ignore the sometimes difficult and hard things in life. Without Tapas you would not go so far in owning your life and becoming who you truly are meant to become. What you leave behind, you are sure to find in front of you at some point, in the same form or another.

The word Tapas is derived from the root Sanskrit verb "tap" which means "to burn", and evokes a sense of discipline or passion. It’s that inner motivation that gets us, for example, on the yoga mat day after day (when healthy). Discipline doesn’t mean pushing ourselves harder and harder in our physical practice though. Just actually making the time to get on the mat, meditate or practice for even 15 minutes every day is enough, but can also be difficult to maintain- for that we need Tapas. It is the discipline and determination that fires us up about our goals and our dreams. As one of yoga’s core philosophical principles, Tapas is one of the 5 Niyamas, or "contracts with oneself"- practices that greatly magnify our progress on the path of, not only yoga, but life.

In the Tantric approach (as I have introduced to you as our core philosophical approach at my yogastudio Pranama), we summon and invoke goddesses to support us in our tasks and further more, in our lives.

Meet Durga - the goddess of power and strength

Durga is perhaps the most important goddess of the Hindus. She is a multi-dimensional goddess with many names and many personas, just like us. We are all unique with our gifts and powers, still doing this/being in this together.

Durga is the embodiment of purity, knowledge, truth and self-realization. Everything that supports our Tapas. Durga is often also associated with the energy of protection and is known not only for her strength, but also for her firm mothering energy.

Invite Durga to your practice 

Chant out/ recite in your head 9 times:

Aum dum durgaye namaha [Ohm doom Door-gai-yey nuh-mu-hu]

“Om and Salutations to that feminine energy which protects from all manner of negative influences.”

I promise you it will be powerful and just that little bit of extra to get you in the mood for your practice – Your offering for the healing of the World.

Reading recommendations

• Cut yourself some slack, by Satu Tuomela
• Stay a while, by Ulrica Norberg
• Evening Routine – How to end your day feeling relaxed, by Yogobe

Online classes for inspiration and guidance

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Ilo, valo, rakkaus, rauha. Nämä ovat kaikki ihania asioita, mutta ne korostuvat usein liikaa sosiaalisessa mediassa epämukavien ja rumien, mutta kuitenkin aitoon elämään kuuluvien asioiden kustannuksella. Mielestäni hindujumalatar Kali symboloi hienosti sitä, mistä joogassa on lopulta kyse eli autenttisuudesta olla se, kuka olemme – maailmassa, joka yrittää jatkuvasti muuttaa ja muokata meitä. Mitä voimme oppia Kalilta rohkeudesta olla oma aito itsemme?

Valo ja ilo voivat helposti muuttua keinoiksi piilottaa ja jopa niellä vaikeat tuntemukset jotka herättävät meissä kipua ja epämukavuutta. Asioita piilottamalla tai karkuun juoksemalla menemme kuitenkin pois päin itsestämme ja autenttisesta kohtaamisesta itsemme kanssa - asiasta, josta joogassa perimmiltään on kyse.

Jooga on aidon ihmisyyden kohtaamista

Mielestäni jooga on ennen kaikkea matka, jonka aikana löydämme takaisin oman itsemme luo. Siinä ei ole kyse vain mielenrauhasta vaan se on ihmisyyden kohtaamista sen kaikkine puolineen; kokonaisena, epätäydellisenä ja riisuttuna mutta rehellisenä. Se on polku kohti sitä, joka olemme aina olleet. Se on tutkimusmatka, jonka aikana vähitellen hyväksymme kaikki puolemme.

Minua ovat aina kiinnostanut joogassa enemmän synkät sävyt eli juuri ne epämukavat tunteet ja tuntemukset joita emme mielellämme kohtaa. Henkisessä kasvussa on lopulta kyse  meidän oman kapasiteettimme löytämisestä ja vahvistamista kohdata maailma ja oma itsemme sellaisena kuin ne ovat.

Vapautumisen ja transformaation Kali

Hindujumalattarista Kali on juuri se pimeän puolen kapinallinen ja epäsovinnainen jumalatar – yksi omista suosikeistani. Kali on yksi tunnetuimpia hindujumalattaria ja hänen energioita kannattaa muuten kutsua apuun silloin kun tekee varjotyötä.

Kalilla on villi tukka, paljaat rinnat ja hänen kaulassaan roikkuu irtileikattuja päitä. Hän kantaa usein miekkaa ja hänet voi monesti tunnistaa suusta roikkuvasta kielestä. Häntä kuvaillaan vallankumouksen ja tuhon jumalattareksi - ja kieltämättä hän näyttääkin siltä.

Katsoessamme tarkemmin, pelottavuudessaan Kali on kuitenkin myös samaan aikaan kaunis nainen. Myytin mukaan Kali on noussut sodan jumalatar Durgasta auttamaan taistelussa demoneja vastaan.

Kali symboloi

• henkistä ja psykologista vapautusta
• kuolemaa ja uudelleen syntymää - elämän luonnollista kiertokulkua
• demonit, joita Kali nurjertaa, symboloivat egon demoneita
• absoluuttista todellisuutta
• shaktia, eli dynaamista elämänvoimaa ja energiaa
• kundalinienergiaa
• vapautumista
• vahvuutta, joka meistä kaikista löytyy ja jonka avulla voimme voittaa egon kahleet ja kohdata aidon itsemme

Ensimmäisessä joogaopettajakoulutuksessani kuulin lauseen, joka jäi resonoimaan sydämessä The only way out is through. Se on viisaus, jonka vahva voimajumalatar haluaa meille kuiskata jos pysähdymme kuuntelemaan.

Anna-Mari on helsinkiläinen joogaopettaja ja yogoben sisällöntuottaja jonka mielestä vapaus on sitä, että tiedostaa omat pelot mutta ei anna niiden hallita omaa elämää ja toimii peloista huolimatta.  Hän järjestää joogaretriittejä Suomessa ja Sri Lankalla ja pitää omaa pientä tunnelmallista kotijoogastudiota Katajanokalla Helsingissä.

@annamariyogax

annamariyoga.com

Tulevat tapahtumat ja joogaretriitit

• Lokakuun viikkotunnit Katajanokalla
• 20.10 Täydenkuun Taika –työpaja
• 12.–14.11 Feminiinisen viisauden jooga– ja meditaatioretriitti Pyhtäällä
• 3.–5.12.2021 Jumalatar minussa –aromajoogan joogaretriitti Tuomiston kartanossa
• Sri Lankan joogaretriitti kaudella 2022–2023

Videovinkit

Yogobe Video: et82 Yogobe Video: zf54 Yogobe Video: r6f9