<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=1514203202045471&ev=PageView&noscript=1"/> YOGA THERAPY for PELVIC HEALTH | Core Spirit

YOGA THERAPY for PELVIC HEALTH

Presence
Online
Format
class
Duration
90m
Language
English
Price
$100 USD
Practitioner
$100 USD

This is a one time session of 90 minutes, a collaboration between You & Me.

We’ll look at your pelvic condition, alignment, daily habits that might excerbate, what patterns you have and what you can do to create pelvic health.

WHAT YOU’LL GAIN
\* Understanding whichmuscles, bones and ligaments are involved
\* Learn to strengthen, relax and activate the muscle properly
\* Gain body awareness for pelvic stability and congruency
\* A PDF for a daily practice to increase stability
\* Improve physical and muscular integrity

A brief description of the muscles will help you understand how they al work together and why and imbalance leads to incontinence, back pain, less pleasure during sex.

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Provided By
Zoutmanstraat, Den Haag, Netherlands

Yoga teacher, Yoga therapist, Ayurvedic Wellness Educator and Writer at Shira Cohen Yoga

My passion is guiding you to physical health, and emotional and mental wellbeing, through Yoga therapy, meditation, Ayurveda and emotional literacy. So that together we’re a world of empowered people, able to co-create an intelligent, naturally healthy world.

On Core Spirit since March 2021

Certificates


Shira Cohen
YOGA THERAPY for BETTER SLEEP

Waking up in the middle of the night, trying to fall asleep, seems like an eternity. (Especially when we need to be fresh for that VIProject!) You’re not alone. Worldwide 51% of us have sleep woes. And not just adults, more kids struggle with sleep issues.

Sleep issues include trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, not refreshed upon waking, or insufficient sleep. Yoga for Better Sleep uses simple practices to calm the nervous system, integrate our body, mind and emotions to ensure we sleep soundly, improving sleep, ensuring fresh upon waking and alleviating these issues.

Some fun facts of common places we fall asleep due to lack of sleep;

10% of people fall asleep while at work

7% while driving- OMG can you imagine!

7% in church

6% on public transport

1 % on the toilet, oops..

On a more serious note, let’s look at sleep woes and the havoc they wreak in body, mind and emotions.

Sleep, our Foundation of Vitality

Sleep is vital to our physical and mental health and quality of life.

Continued insufficient sleep disrupts our entire bodily system. Causing energy levels to swoon and soar, fatigue, brain fog, depression, anxiety, nervousness, accidents, mood swings, hormonal changes and other physiological shifts, can occur. This increases, inflammation, immune function becomes impaired, inhibiting muscle, organ and tissue repair and recovery from trauma, injury or stress.

Chronic sleep deprivation leads to deep seated physiological changes such as; obesity, diabetes mellitus, septicaemia, hypertension, heart conditions and vascular changes leading to strokes.

Let’s look at human sleep history and understand what constitutes healthy sleep in realistically.

Sleep History & Reality

So, what’s healthy sleep and how can we contribute to creating better sleep patterns to avoid sleeping on the toilet?

A million, even three hundred, years ago, every night our foremother naturally woke up just before the dawn, between 3-5am, when the air was at its’ coldest, to tend the fire, check everyone’s still alive and well, before getting back into the warmth of her bed. We rarely slept much more than 6-7 hours at a stretch in our short human history.

That might come as a surprise with the constant myth of 8 holy hours.

News flash- We’ve had this pattern till the arrival of artificial light. No wonder some of us more sensitive souls still wake up between 3-5am. In Yoga we call this the hour of the Creator, or Brahma Muruhta, 90 mins before sunrise. It’s the best time to practice meditation, Yoga and contemplation on our existence.

So, the next time you wake early in the morning, or in ‘middle of the night’, know that you’re completely healthy. It’s a totally natural rhythm. Waking up in the wee hours of morning actually means your still in-tune with nature and our old cycles.

And one of our worst sleep thieves are thoughts like, “I’m not getting enough sleep.”

So, What’s Healthy Sleep?

Really, it depends!

Healthy sleep and sufficient sleep depends on many things. Your goals, your present health, your age and responsibilities, your levels of stress, and your physical and mental constitution or nature.

Long before becoming a mother, I spent 10 days at a Vipassana meditation centre, and for the life of me, I couldn’t sleep more than 4 hours a night. While awake I just lay there bringing my awareness back to breath again and again, thousands of times. And I got up feeling as great as a Gladiator ready for the next day of mental demons.

The reason being, I wasn’t physically very active, and mentally I was focusing and then calming the mind; not ingesting lots of mental impressions. This meant very little exertion of mind and body, and therefore needing less sleep.

Since having a child and running my own business, I definitely need 7 and a half hours. And when I do it in one go, which isn’t often, I’m healthy as a hummingbird amongst the flowers, all day long. If not, I come back to my breath again and again. And most mornings, even with a few hours of broken sleep, I can feel refreshed if I don’t stress out and breathe calmly.

So we don’t need those holy 8 hours let’s look at Fascinating Falling Sleep Facts. Reminding yourself of these next time your awaketo ease your mind.

- 6-7 hours sleep a night ensures longevity, more so than 8hrs!

- Most of us wake up 6 times a night but just don’t remember!

- Don’t count sheep, it activates the Left-brain hemisphere = wakefulness. Instead, imagine you feel the sheep’s soft wool, it activates the Right brain hemisphere = rest

- It’s natural to wake up between 3-5 AM, think cave-woman

- Our circadian rhythm determines our sleep pattern, and is controlled by the stress and sleep hormones, adrenalin and melatonin. These both respond to daylight and darkness, levels of stress during the day and moments we allowed ourselves to de-stress through yoga, meditation, prayer, journaling or contemplation.

- Every 90 minutes we’ve been through a complete sleep cycle of sleep, dream sleep and deep sleep. Between these cycles and during dreams we tend to turn and wake up

So, don’t get your knickers in a knot if you ‘only’ get 7 or 6. Maybe that’s all you need. Some people live their whole lives with just 5 hours and feel fresh, alive and fit, when they get up.

The most important is how you feel upon waking.

4 Sleep Robbers

1. Irregularity- causes our nervous system activation. Observe your schedule, eating habits, sleeping habits, and daily routine for irregularity, if more than 2 are irregular, creating more routine/ rhythm will calm to your nerves.

2. Poorly timed activities & exercise- will raise the heart rate, release adrenaline and disturb sleep. Spicy food, coffee, sugar, intense exercise. Remember the adrenaline and melatonin. Intense events in the early part of the day gives us time to rid our body of excessive adrenaline by moving it out of the body. If we don’t have that time to be physically active in the afternoon, Yoga can really help. Intense Yoga practice increases adrenaline.

3. Screens before sleep disturbs our melatonin release. Strong lights, sounds, or screen before bed are best avoided 90-120 mins before sleep. Artificial light and not honouring our body’s signals, and natural cycles of melatonin and adrenalin, are huge contributing factor. Even excessive screen time exacerbates our woes.

Our present sedentary lives doesn’t allow tension release before sleep.

4. Thinking, “I’m not getting enough sleep.”

Simple Yoga Steps for Better Sleep

First, be happy when you wake up after 6 hours. Don’t fret!

Even if you only sleep 3 or 4 hours and feel you need more rest, just remain in bed, don’t turn the light on. Ignore the ‘I must sleep more’ tune and feel your body breathing and sensations within. The body is in the now, the only place you need to be.

• Breathe soft, slow, belly breaths for about a few minutes. Tell yourself it’s completely natural to wake up and allow yourself to let go of any tension you might be holding onto in your neck, shoulders and back body.

• Do some soft gentle movement of the pelvis and hips with pelvic tilts, until you feel more embodied.

• Roll the shoulders gently, releasing any tension from neck shoulder and head.

• Slowly lift the hips up of the bed coming into a semi-bridge then roll them back down. Do it like waves raising and lowering your body, activates the rest and digest system.

• Allow your body to become soft and heavy and come back to the slow belly breaths for a moment.

• Let the mind become calm.

Let your mind rest in the body, even if you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t worry, or even try to get back to sleep. Just say to yourself you’re ok and restoring by not doing anything. Just be.

By not being active your body, mind and soul are getting the rest and integration they need.

In Yoga Therapy for Better Sleep I teach body awareness and effective, simple yoga practice to ensure a deep letting go of any unconscious holding. You’ll learn to turn off the active Nervous System and move physiology into the restorative, the parasympathetic system. We release excess stress from the back body, which often holds all our unconscious stress of the day, preventing us from going into a deeper state of rest.

When you learn to work in tune with your natural cycle, your body, mind and emotions, you can use Yoga as a tool to regulate and integrate your day, your tensions and even your stress.

In my classes and Courses, I teach you to feel what your body, mind and emotions need, and how to use Yoga’s practices and teachings as tools.

I would love to hear from you.

With Love,

Shira.

Shira Cohen
YOGA THERAPY FOR PELVIC HEALTH

Pelvic health helps relieve hip and lower back pain, improve bowel and bladder function, and contributes to sexual pleasure. Pelvic floor muscles hold all our vital organs, support our spine, connecting lower and upper body. Imbalances in pelvic floor health cause 25% of lower back pain, 50% of constipation and 80% of incontiennece can be helped by pelvic health.

Our Pelvis, Place of Pleasure, Playfulness & Prosperity

Do you ever wonder where your pleasure went? Did you know being rigid, controlling and critical has to do with our pelvis? Or that feeling drained, disconnected or never … enough, is equally related to pelvic health. Because our pelvis is our place of pleasure, playfulness and prosperity, it’s integrity is essential.

Because the pelvis is linked to our emotions and our energy, pelvic integrity can amount to our life being fun, fulfilling and easy, or dreary or demanding. When our playful, go with the flow nature dries up, guilt, rigidity, disappointment, exhaustion, explosiveness, bitterness or feelings of never good enough, surface.

Pelvic integrity is key to enjoying life’s gifts, that sense of aliveness is born in our Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha.

To feel alive, joyous and at ease with whatever comes our way, pelvic integrity is es-sensual.

• Our pelvis- initiator of movement- connects our upper and lower body, the sensual self with the thinking self, which results in creativity

• Feeling prosperous is an overflow of the movement between the two banks

• Our sense of pleasure arises through the contact of inner and outer world, and the infinite possible combinations from these interactions

• Because our original emotion is bliss, our part in the play, our movement or lack of it, determines the deviations of this original emotion

To flow fully the banks need to be firm and free.

Energetic Holding Patterns of the Pelvis

Excessive stress causes our tissues to tighten unnecessarily. Ease and our ability to flow, physically, energetically and mentally, become blocked. Chronic holding patterns might express themselves as guilt, feeling rigid, controlling, critical, self conscious, or lacking spontaneity and playfulness. The river of abundance, prosperity and possibilities dry up, along with our creative and joyful juices.

Not enough stressors can leave us with excessive emotions as our energy reserve overflows. Without containment, we may feel overly emotional, watery, let our energy gush from us without discernment and end up feeling drained, lacking, down, lost; our energy and emotions lack direction.

Our pelvic tissues might have a combination of both holding patterns simultaneously.

Translated to our energy body, we don’t feel contained and able to respond with integrity to any given situation. Resulting in further controlling or flooding. Because of unconscious guilt here, and emotions are energy in motion, both holding patterns waste immense, enjoyable energy, and we’re not even aware of it.

But we can learn to contain and live with pleasure

Our rivers just need some TLC.

Our golden womb needs to be honoured, heard and felt.

Pelvic Flow is the Key to Pleasure

Releasing tension and creating integrity of our sense of self in relation to the world, feels like flow, fun, pleasure and prosperity naturally arising like a bubbling spring.

The key to pelvic health is movement. Like water, the pelvis loves to flow and move. To play out the constant ebb and flow, give and take. This ensures and allows us to contain our sense of delight and joy. It enlivens our abundance.

As babies, this free abode of joy and delight is with what we began to crawl. We use our pelvis to propel us forward and move into the world. This exploration of feeling for ourselves creates pleasure.

When my toddler first picked up little pebbles in her chubby sensitive hands, there was sheer joy, wonder and excitement all wrapped into one. This is essence of water. It’s all emotions rushing from and back into bliss.

This endeavour to sense the world also created our lumbar curve. Our ability to relate, connect and withdraw. And our first impressions of sensual experiences, plus the arising emotions, are all contained here.

Create Pelvic Integrity to Enjoy Life More

To create pelvic integrity and enjoy life fully we need to get to know this area. We need to move past our guilt, build body awareness, self acceptance, and begin to strengthen and relax this area, until all the tissues and energy rivers flow free and firm.

Without guilt.

You need to body awareness to feel what holding patterns you have.

Are some muscles really tight and resist letting go?

Maybe you don’t contain but let it gush out, leaving you empty?

After you feel if you hold or release excessively, you can build back the integrity of this area by doing strengthening, movement that warms up this area, and slow soft, stretching to open and release the tissues.

Create firm freedom.

A sure way to ensure feeling prosperous and playful is being present with sensations, feeling this area’s ability to create another life, and all that being will co-create and experience through Her projects, ideas and senses. The potential combinations of the inner and outer world coming together in countless ways. The pure potential alive here.

It’s time we enjoyed what is instead of thinking what isn’t. It’s time to drop our uncertainty and walk into the world with a sense of certain fulfilment, pleasure and delight.

Joyous and prosperous in each moment, as water moves, content and playful. Our golden womb contains the feeling ‘I’m good enough’ and ‘there’s more than enough for all of us’ out there, and more importantly, in here, all the time.

With love,

Shira.

Shira Cohen
Yoga Therapy & Our Koshas

Yoga therapy works with our five Koshas, aspects or bodies of living. Effective, deep and skilful Yoga therapy is an art successful where other modalities fail. It’s effectiveness lies in working with the Koshas.

According to Yogic philosophy, we’ve got five bodies, and in some traditions, even seven. I’ve been trained, meditate upon and experience five Koshas, so I’ll stick to that theory.

Let’s dive in.

The Koshas are our different sheaths, or aspects of living. Our different layers of receiving, perceiving, experiencing, expressing and responding. These sheaths are physical, energetic/emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual. Taking into consideration not only the desires, abilities and needs of body, mind and soul, Yoga therapy also of our personal, family, social, work and culture, Yoga therapy, is personalised, individualised and holistic.

WHY YOGA THERAPY IS EFFECTIVE WHEN OTHER TREATMENTS FAIL

Yoga therapy is very different from a general yoga class. Click here to read the differences. Also known as medical yoga, Yoga therapy gets to the root of conditions. Improving our quality of living, wellbeing and health, because it works with all aspects of living. Exploring and integrating our physical, emotional, mental, psychological and spiritual aspects, Yoga therapy not only treats the dis-ease but helps us understand the underlying cause and how we can affect it. We can create long lasting beneficial effects, long after the work between client and therapist ends.[1] Yoga therapy teaches the tools for the why, what and how of the challenge. It’s personal development of body, mind, emotions, psyche and spirit. Using observation, intention, motion, breath, and knowledge as tools. Yoga therapy has become a bit of a craze right now amongst Yoga teachers and medical researchers searching for alternative medicine. This is because we use the Koshas as the foundation it integrates body, emotions, mind, psyche and spirit, through the Koshas and activates our natural healing system throughout.

HOW YOGA THERAPY WORKS

Yoga therapy is about uncovering and bringing to light the conscious, subconscious and unconscious patterns of body, emotions, mind and psyche. From this discovery, the client and therapist, develop an accessible daily practice together over a period of weeks, months or years. The practice is physical, includes movement that honour the energies/emotions at play, sets an intention for the mind to return to again and again, and builds toward a goal for the psyche to identify with someone/thing to motivates and inspires us to grow. Even though it’s subtle, the practice has aim, dynamism and remains objective to guide the client through their challenge and develop their personality. It’s a wholistic approach, making sure of success by creating a practice that’s sustainable long term, and on a daily basis. Yoga therapy works with the attitude, stance and posture of the five Koshas. The bearing of our physical, emotional, mental and psychological bodies. So that we embody, empower and embrace each layer of ourselves with strength, adaptability, beauty and confidence. The development of this practice ensures that, in all these layers, our fire burns up impurities. Our willpower is ignited. And our radiant intelligence softens our natural healing system. This way our energy begins to flow again. Our Koshas are integrated and we sense our inherent wholeness. We embody our wellbeing.

THE FIVE KOSHAS AND YOGA THERAPY

We honour the five Koshas when we listen to their individual needs, desires and abilities. If, we oppress these natural urges too often, we cause imbalance, which eventually results in dis-ease. Either in one, or more, of these Koshas and aspects of living. Desire is labelled as ‘Witch’, devil or step mother. But She is change, and the power of life flowing to initiate the transformation. Desire is just Prana, life-energy, asserting Her creative power wants to flow in a certain direction. If we can hear Her yearning and open up the channels, without greed or force, Life flows through us. Wellbeing. This is the art. Knowing and hearing the silent messages of the five Koshas.

Annamaya Kosha

Literally means our food body, or physical sheath. Nourished by food, water, exercise, massage and all the physical sensations that feed our physiology. Health of this body is honoured when we pay attention to our natural biorhythms, our need for sleep, hunger and pleasure, our menstrual cycle and just plain physical desires, needs and abilities. We can influence it by asanas, movement, breath and mudra.

Pranamaya Kosha Is our breath and life energy body. Also our emotional body. When energy is allowed to move through us uninhibited, we feel well. We’re moved by our natural intelligence, the desire of our soul. Breath and emotion are intimately connected. The same place in the brain that regulates our breathing is also full of neuroreceptors for mood enhancers. We can influence it by asana, breath, mudras, mantras and movement. Manomaya Kosha

Is the mind body. It is formed by our memories, thoughts, fantasies, dreams and the mental impressions left by our perceptions based on these. The mind body is a tool that loves movement and change, it’s versatile, agile, and calculating. Manomaya is the realm of logic, the known, busy comparing, analysing, and measuring. Our mind body is fed by impressions from visual, audio and emotional sensations, that are repeated. We can influence mind with mantras, mudras, breath, concentration, meditation and mindfulness.

Vijnanamaya Kosha

Wisdom or intelligence body. Vijnanamaya Kosha is the psyche that knows our connection to something bigger; a complete sense of self. It identifies with archetypes, heroes and heroines. It connect our consciousness with the sub- and un-conscious. It’s intuitive, unlimited and knows our inherent wholeness underneath all challenges and changes. We can influence it by the people we associate with, aspire to and the goals we set for ourselves.

Ananadamaya Kosha

Is the bliss body, the causal body. The essence that starts our journey as conscious beings. Our will to fully embody our core desire to live, love and flourish. The part of us that has a unique gift that only we can bring into this world. The serve and thrive aspect of our being. Our bliss body is affected the by the clarity and wholeness of our other Koshas. We experience different aspects of bliss whenever one of the Koshas feels clear and whole, in relation to our level of consciousness.

INTEGRITY OF THE FIVE KOSHAS

Like a seed, we all start life as whole beings. In our natural state we grow in our entirety. Nourished on all levels of existence we become healthy, whole and integrated humans in the field of life. A seed’s protective husk contains the energy of vital sustenance and within that kernel, the embryo, our potential of divine existence. Similarly, our soul, protected by our physicality, directs our experiences and expressions, through different bodies of perception, to live fully. Our physical body, holding the bodily systems, Body Beauty, our emotional body directs our energy, our mental body houses our memories, thoughts and perceptions, , and our psychology influences who we hang out with and want to become. Each sheath, like a husk of grain, encases the deeper and richer sense of who we are. When we start working with all the bodies, we begin to touch our divine and whole sense of self. That gives us access to the only healing energy any of us need. Take a moment now and ask, “Which aspect of my life is most delicious, giving me a feeling nourishment, warmth and wholeness?” Go into that feeling recall the memory of it, bring it back again and again until that is the pattern of your mind, memories and let your body soak it in. Which Kosha or layer of life is most stressful or feels a struggle? What’s one thing you can do, read a book, do a course, speak to a friend or therapist, to improve your experience of that layer? Leave a comment below, share your insights, feelings and knowledge. Love to all your aspects of being, all your beautiful, blissful bodies,

Much Love,

Shira.

Shira Cohen
Prana is Life Energy, Breath & Soul

Life is energy. Energy defines life. Energy as defined by physicists, according to Dr Daniel Siegel, is the movement from possibility to actuality. Very similar to anciet and traditional philosophies.

And Prana is the Sanskrit word for the intelligence of life’s energy and movement.

WHAT PRANA IS & WHY IT’S VITAL

A seed holds Prana, and with it, the potential to become a tree and forest. Cut that seed open, and though we won’t see anything, once cut, the seed has lost it potential and ability to become- live, thrive and give. That invisible, unfathomable intelligence and life force is Prana. The primal life force and breath of life itself.

This subtle intelligence behind all psychophysical functions is also responsible for the movement of breath, senses, mind and emotions. The vital life force responsible for the animation of every organism and the life of everything in the universe.[i] Without Prana nothing would exist. This life energy fuels evolution, powers the vital life processes in all life forms, and becomes the thoughts and desires of the mind[ii] ready to be redirected or stored.

HOW IT AFFECTS US

Because energy is the basis of all life, all creation is made up off energy. The first living forms on earth, were self sufficient, able to sustain themselves merely through energy synthesis, using sunlight, carbon and water. Stem cells removed from the body still hold life intelligence and form into diverse cells to perform different and intelligent functions. This wonderous feat is the power of universal Prana, or Self.

On a physical level all organisms use energy to survive, grow and thrive. The process of changing energy from one state to the next, transformation, allows growth. Our primordial DNA. Einstein understood energy as eternal, continually changing shape and state. A process of transforming from potential energy to kinetic, heat, light, electrical and chemical energy, releasing and condensing into another form. From potential to solid and back.

On a universal level Prana is the eternal energy, breathe and soul which can’t be destroyed or created. It’s the all-vibrant, intelligent essence of life, the continual movement of awareness pervading all. All energy follows a movement of inhalation and exhalation, like the breath, expanding and contracting in a perpetual ebb and flow.[iii] And life changes from one state to another. As do we, when we allow Prana to flow freely through us. This is when we feel most alive.

On an spiritual level our soul enters this world through Prana. Our first act, to breathe. We live because of this breath and when we breathe out our last, our soul leaves along with our individual Prana to merge once more with universal Prana.

Like waves or currents, gathering and dispersing.

It’s the movement that enlivens and transforms.

ANCIENT WORLD KNOWLEDGE

Cultures all over the world honour this invisible life current with name and purpose. The Chinese call it Chi, Japanese, Ki, Polynesian, Mana, Islam, Baraka, Hebrew, Ruach Adonai, and Christians, the Holy Spirit. In Greek, Psyche, literally means breathe, life and soul, and in Latin the same word means animating spirit within mortals.

Prana sustains our individual life energy from the moment of birth to our very last breath. With it comes and goes the love, passion, purpose and desires with which matter is imbued. It invigorates, innervates and initiates every change, movement and growth through cellular intelligence. The difference between a body that breathes fully and one that has limited breath, is the quality of our Prana. It lets us feel alive, exuberant and awake. It’s the transforming power to becoming.

It’s the source that nourishes, sustains, maintains and transforms all living things. It’s universal presence within us for a time. And Prana is only in the present. Pulsating in us, as we live, move and breathe because of this wonderous force. Bringing to life each and every cell, system and body, with it’s intelligence and incredible gift of life. And we are most present when we’re aware of our breath and energy.

PRANA AS A PRACTICE

Prana embodies all knowledge of life because it is the awareness and intelligence behind creation. Bridging the manifest to Unmanifest, as breath mediates between ego and spirit. Because of this prana is the single most important factor for wellbeing. All Ayurvedic therapies work with prana to bring about balance. All higher forms of yoga work toward developing prana[iv].

We can enhance our Prana through breathing well, called Pranayama. The control and extension of breath. Breathing techniques from Yoga and other integrative traditions help us to clear, clean, strengthen and relax the muscles and organs that support healthy breathing.

To function fully the lungs need to be supported, held and free to move fully. Remember movement is the expression of energy and life. Without a full range of movement we can’t expect the body, brain, nervous, endocrinal, immune and cardiovascular systems to function well, let alone in an integrated way, Which leads to optimal wellbeing. And healthy pulmonary system affects all physiological processes.

The part of the brain that affects breathing is intimately connected and effects our emotional and sensory part of the brain. In turn affecting our mood, energy, sense of safety and feelings. A Yoga teacher well versed in Ayurveda, Pranayama and mindfull breathing can help others self-regulate, regain health and even retrain the nervous system, if they themselves have been able to do so in their own journey of becoming a good enough being.

IMPROVE YOUR BREATHING & ENERGY

The most basic practice is also the most effective practice. Breathing out fully while sitting with dignity and allowing the belly to be relaxed.

It will clear the lungs, calm the nervous sytem through the vagal nerve moving into parasympathetic mode, make space for more incoming breath, and give relieve to asthmatics who tend to breathe in more than out. This allows the empty lungs to rid itself of old stale air, making way for more fresh vital breathing.

An average adult has a lung capacity of 3.5 litres. The average person only takes in about 0.3 litres. That’s less than 10%!! That explains why most of us feel exhausted most of the time. Another factor is we breathe in the upper lobes of the lungs which absorb less effectively. Combine that with poor posture and compression of the lungs, and we lose that refreshing and energising inspiration of vitality.

So let’s get back our vitality.

Just sit yourself up on a block, bolster or something so the hips are higher than your knees.

This relaxes muscles of the pelvis, lower spine and belly.

Allowing you room to move, breathe and be.

Observe the out breath moving slowly, smoothly and softly.

Let the in breath come by itself.

With each out breath feel the belly muscles moving in and up.

Let them actually move the breath out from underneath the ribs.

Do that for 3 rounds.

Then extend the out breath to a count of 6, letting the in breath also become 6 counts by relaxing the belly and pelvic muscles. Do 10 rounds.

Repeat this everyday for a week. Once this is easy and comfortable, you can extend the count to. Always let the practices of prana be comfortable and easy.

Remember breathing is closely linked to emotions, when it becomes strained so will our emotions.

This is called Sama Vritti, meaning same movement. It calms the mind and nervous system and is the basis of all other breathing techniques, which build on this foundation.

Let’s start reclaiming our health, wellbeing, intelligence, nature and world, starting by ourselves.

Much love,

Shira.

Shira Cohen
Yoga to Empower Emotions During Difficult Times

Emotions and mental states were always very intriguing for me.

On a journey of reclaiming wellbeing since I was young. Passionate about finding answers to pain points for loved ones and understand health on all levels, I was drawn to Yoga, meditation and herbalism early on. Seeking foods, plants, practices and philosophies as remedies for issues of body, mind and soul. I observed, for some obstacles led to opportunities, while for others the opposite.

As yoga teachers or practitioners, our practice is vital to our wellbeing on many levels. But what happens when one, or more, of those levels isn’t transformed by our practice? What if, even after decades of study and practice, we feel lost and have no idea what’s going on?

As a yoga therapist, with decades of yoga, mindfulness, meditation practice and continuing education, I hit that point. My emotions were wild seas, my energy levels volatile, my mind unclear at best. Outbursts, frustration, fears, doubts, power struggles, relationship issues, feelings of loneliness. Like a blade of grass breaking through concrete, no matter how solid our practice, inevitably emotions begin to break through unseen cracks. If we don’t deal with our unconscious, it’ll deal with us. Breakdown got me facing my shadows.

Our shadow work is vital to our Yoga journey. It’s the healing process of reclaiming all we repressed, rejected, neglected and abandoned long ago. Ultimately emotions showed me the limiting unconscious beliefs holding me back in fundamental ways. And so the journey to a fuller wholeness began.

Beyond Peace to Breakthroughs

Within the dis-ease lies the cure.

Feelings and thoughts can’t be divorced. And how we think and feel influences our life and our practice. Yoga and other modalities help us access our relaxation response, calm and restore the nervous system and mind while integrating bodily systems. Bringing integrity, peace and a sense of bliss. But sometimes it’s not all about peace and bliss. Wholeness also includes aspects preferably denied.

Getting stuck in seeking bliss isn’t a solution in itself. The wholeness guides us in our daily choices, but its not a state most of us can remain in, let alone lift others up from. Yes, we can show or clear the paths for others, or we walk together. And others show us the way, but without shadow work, it becomes ego world. We’ve got to do the heavy lifting for ourselves first, if we want to do any in the world. And right now we’re all being asked to do that.

Switching gears and moving beyond bliss through breakdowns and into breakthrough, allows us to embody consciousness fully.

‘Mastering’ and masking the less glorious aspects of our nature is spiritual bypassing. To unconsciously avoid, deny or resist certain aspects of our selves, lives and the related necessary changes, out of fear, shame, guilt or some other difficult emotion, is ignoring our shadow. Pushed into the unconscious. Yet wherever we go, there it is. Seemingly irrelevant, we override these emotions for years. Or our ego, the ingenious dividing principle, whispers, “We’ve conquered it!”

Now think about this; just as strong as your resistance is to that change, that much energy and possibility lies beyond the breakthrough. Sure it asks us to our explore our anger, fears, shame, and our responsibility. To dig deeper and find that motivational force which we all have within, to change our present situation. Which is exactly what emotions are. They’re calls to action. To step up, raise the bar.

Our present world situation is asking us to take action in integral, sustainable, collective and proactive ways. We need collaboration to find solutions together. What better time than now.

Stepping up to find our strength and empower ourselves, each other and our environment proactively, means a pretty impressive impulse. A push. Emotions are energy in motion. Some very convincing; anger, fear, exhilaration, guilt, have lots of potential behind them. That’s why we struggle, we’re forced to find sustainable solutions.

The Power of Emotions

Apart from ‘positive ones’, emotions aren’t often talked about, freely to expressed or embodied. Yoga, equally powerful, brings about healing and associated ‘positive’ emotions. Popular positive think culture sees happiness as the ultimate goal. Spilling into our Yoga process, we miss the deep transformative potential of breakdowns beyond breakthroughs. Being emotionally illiterate can inadvertently causes feelings of being inherently flawed and broken. Outcast.

Can we co-create a world of harmony, honesty and integrity, when certain aspects are left in the dark? Off course not.

Beyond feel good are untold overlooked opportunities of growth. Only when we move through our pain, fears, and other ‘negative’ emotions, can the phoenix rise. And fully step into who we came here to truly be. Turning wounds into wisdom, instead of vice versa.

And emotions are vital. Guideposts to finding out what any situation calls for from us as individuals part of a social group. Being awake and on a spiritual path means we see everything we can, with clarity. And from that clarity take steps to move ourselves, and our collective family, forward. To do that we need to honestly face our shadows first. We can only handle the shadows of the world, a reflection of our collective shadows, once we manage to hold our own.

Reframing Emotions as Life Energy in Motion

Emotions, powerful messengers between soul, body and mind, are transient. They have no substance. If we can just contain them long enough to hear their call to action, we can move mountains. They’re that powerful! Why waste their potential for change?

There’s inherent intelligence behind each emotion. Energy is Shakti’s deepest desire is to live, thrive, give, fulfil and become. Her moving through us as emotion. It’s a conversation. A message between our inner guidance conversing with the inner guidance of another, both filtered through ego. And the way we experience and express emotions, and their underlying needs, depends on our many filters of past experiences. Memories and perceptions, influenced by family, culture and anything with which we identify.

We have thousands of emotions. A vast universe. Imagine allowing yourself the freedom to experience a limitless space of emotions. Instead of pinning it down to a limited few, hear the actual conversation between your soul and the present situation. Use this precious time to see yourself living in the immense possibilities of all visceral sensations. A movement from our beautifully wise, nurturing bodies, nervous system, mind, and limitless self.

This time is an opportunity for exactly that.

Emotional Literacy, Reframe & Transform Your Emotions into Actions

Our mind and body are incredibly malleable. We can rewire our feeling of anxiety into an invitation into newness. Just 5 minutes daily of reframing emotions using feeling your sensations, feelings and holding them with mindful self compassion in meditation, can be powerful when practiced consistently over months. Then we can take these emotions onto the mat, move with them, then take them into the world, as bold statements.

With reframing and consistent practice, we begin to experience nervousness in a universe of emotions, instead as a fluttering exhilaration for a fresh, young anticipation to explore. Adventurousness. Nervousness re-examined gives us extra energy and alertness to raise our ability, intelligence and consciousness in a more engaged, creative and curious ways.

Feeling anger doesn’t ‘make us angry’. Anger is a powerful, dynamic and concentrated energy. It can be explosive. Explore it’s quality and ability before it’s a state. Through consistent mindfulness practice we learn to feel anger in our spacious awareness moving through our body-mind. We befriend our emotions. Slowly learning to channel it into action steps for radical change instead. A new project, plan or activity, or conversation, creating change in relation to what triggered our anger in the first place.

And so we explore the universe of emotions, learn their vast language and movement. Emotional literacy. It’s yours and unique. You’re a master of your emotional vocab, no one else. No more shadows, no more projecting your beauty, power and fears onto others. It’s all You.

By giving back the full scope of emotional experience through a more nuanced language, we reclaim the potential energy within emotions. Allowing ourselves unlimited expression to experience our feelings, allows energy to move through us, rather than to us. We’re called to action and the universe is waiting for our soul response.

Begin to have a deeper conversation with your feelings. Step into your power, feel and see the subconscious speak through subtle pathways as Shakti’s wisdom and Prana moving through you. Let your universe of emotions expand and your shadows dissipate. Let’s have some truly deep, transfromative and real conversations. Leave a comment below and reclaim your voice, wellbeing through self expression.

With Love,

Shira.


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Hey Taysha!

If you have lower back, sacral, hip, pelvic or SI joint pain, pelvic floor muscle imbalance is often a likely cause, or contributor. Muscular and ligamental imbalance, such as weakness, tightness or both, pulls fascia, organs, joints and bones out of place.

Pelvic floor muscles hold all our vital organs, support our spine, connecting lower and upper body. Imbalances in pelvic floor health cause 25% of lower back pain, 50% of constipation and 80% of incontinence can be helped by pelvic health.

These imbalances affect the rest of the organs, spine, shoulders and neck causing aches in joints, nerves and muscles.

I hope this answers your questions. Feel free to tell me why you think you might need this.

Taysha Duckworth3y

Wow, this is super interesting! But how would a person know that there are issues with their pelvic health? And what does typically cause those issues?

Yoga Therapy
Shira Cohen
Apr 1, 2024, 07:00
$100
YOGA THERAPY for PELVIC HEALTH
Yoga Therapy
Shira Cohen
Apr 1, 2024, 07:00
$100
YOGA THERAPY for BETTER SLEEP