The Language of Yoga: Exploring Dimensions of Language and its Relationship to the Study, Practice and Teaching of Yoga ~ by Chrissy Boylan

“Words have the power to destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.” ~ The Buddha

In 2005, David Foster Wallace, the iconic writer and author of Infinite Jest, gave a commencement speech at Kenyon University. The speech, titled “This is Water,” opened with an anecdote about two young fish. The fish were swimming around one day when they came across an older fish swimming in the opposite direction. “Morning, boys,” the older fish called to them in passing. “How’s the water?” Some time later, one of the young fish turned to the other and asked, “What the hell is water?!”

That is how I feel about language.

I love language, and have always loved language. Language is how we understand the world and our place in it. And though many overlook language the way fish do water, humans generate and rely on language as automatically and naturally as we draw breath. Can we even think without thought? Maybe. But language is what allows us to know what we think.

Language also suffuses Yoga—from transmitting the sacred teachings of the sutras to learning to ‘find ease’ in a certain asana. This paper will explore three specific ways language impacts and informs the practice and study of Yoga: using language to counteract our brain’s innate negative bias, using the vibrational element of language to heal, and acknowledging the benefit of different styles of writing for studying the sutras. …

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Yoga at Midlife: Insights on Samvega and Healthy Aging ~ by Marjorie Ames

“For those who seek liberation wholeheartedly, realization is near.” (1.21)  ~ The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (Hartranft, p. 98)

Yoga at Midlife

One of the many benefits of the increased integration of yoga into modern life is that, along with more people practicing yoga throughout the United States and experiencing the physical and spiritual benefits, health scientists have begun to take notice. For decades, there has been a strong and accepted link between physical activity and health, to include countering the effects of aging. Emerging scientific evidence demonstrates that yoga and meditation practices can slow physical and mental decline – even on a cellular level – and more importantly, contribute to extending health and well-being.

Popular sources as varied as The New York Times and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) are now discussing the results of research into the health benefits of yoga to form recommendations for healthy living. …

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Trauma and Mindful Practices to Relieve Suffering ~ by Sandi Marino

“Go in and in. Be the space between two cells, the vast, resounding silence in which Spirit dwells...
Go in and in and turn away from nothing that you find.”

 –Danna Faulds

Many Yoga masters, therapists, and somatic psychologists believe everything we’ve ever experienced is stored in the body. Even when the memory is repressed, the body remembers. While some people think of trauma as a mental problem or disorder, trauma actually occurs in the body. This trauma may be held somatically, expressed as a chronic aches or pains or a sense of injury. While talk-based therapy serves a critical role in the healing process, it fails to address the ways trauma is held in the body. Yoga addresses the somatic experience through physical movement and restorative action patterns, which is why trauma-sensitive yoga is emerging as an effective adjunct treatment for trauma survivors. …

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Juicy Joints Workshop ~ by Terri Surabian

… Think about that stiff feeling you sometimes get after a long car ride, a trip in an airplane, or simply as long day sitting at your desk. Immobility in the body for an extended period of time creates this stiffness, and when we have an opportunity we usually stretch our bodies, in hopes of relieving stiff knees, hips, shoulders and back. We are seeking joint freedom. Joint freedom is the ability of each joint to move freely through its full range of motion without muscular stress or discomfort. Your activity level, sex, age weight, genetic postural imbalances, injuries, pain, body conditioning and emotional state will all impact your flexibility. Our optimal age for joint freedom is between 3-5 years old. The activities we engage in will have an impact on our joint freedom as we age. For example, running makes hamstrings tighter and stronger and reduces hip flexibility. People who are knock kneed will have less distance when opening the legs and drawing the hips away from each other. Depressed people often collapse forward, round the upper back and cave in the chest, tightening chest muscles and making it more difficult to pull the shoulders back. … Yoga is proving to have more and more significant effect on healthy joint function as certain poses promote release of fluids while strengthening the muscles supporting the joints. …

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This is Your Brain. This is Your Brain on Meditation. But This is Your Brain (Mind and Body) on Transcendental Meditation ~ by Chris Liss

The modern world is filled with a variety of stressors that bombard our brains and bodies. These stressors - diet, especially sugar and caffeine, a noisy or polluted environment, an alarm waking us in the morning or a timer going off to alert us to the next item on our daily agenda, the bicycle horn, or “Bell tower,” “Robot,” or verse of a favorite song telling us we’ve received a text message, traffic, or simply surfing the internet and trying to keep up with all the news that’s “fit to print,” at least electronically - triggers our sympathetic nervous system, our “flight or fight” response. Our sympathetic nervous system is a survival tool, an ancient survival tool that should be used only in “fight or flight” – life-threatening - circumstances. It is a perfect, vital marriage of function between the brain’s amygdala and adrenal glands. It has kept us alive for 500,000 years. So, it works.

We can think we are multi-tasking throughout the day: texting and driving, cooking dinner while helping our children complete their homework, or practicing our yoga while distracted by our agenda for an important meeting with a new client at work. The brain and body suggest otherwise. In fact, try balancing in standing bow pose for a minute while creating a Thanksgiving dinner menu and I bet you fall! Studies have shown that our brains actually do not multi-task, but shift focus from one task to another a micro- second at a time. This results in ineffective work and actually lower productivity. More importantly, our bodies cannot multi-task when it comes to the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system, the “rest and digest” system. It’s either one or the other. The default is the “fight or flight” mechanism, putting tremendous stress on our body and brain, flooding our system with adrenaline and cortisol. Our primordial self wants to survive and this system has been successful for 500,000 years. Why fix something that isn’t broken, right? …

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Accepting Fear: Yoga & Living Fearlessly ~ by Kristine Olmen Healy

This paper is a discussion on fear--the good and the bad. What is fear? How does it positively and negatively affect the human body? How can yoga help you recognize and manage it? Through my research and sharing of my personal story, I hope to answer these questions, as well as help you reconcile your fears, let go of those that are not serving you well, and step out of your “comfort zone.” (Mackler, 2014)

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Yoga for Teens: A Valuable and Enduring Gift ~ by Jill Schroeder

Ever since I began doing yoga eight years ago, I have tried to instill in my daughters an appreciation for their body and an ability to go inside and calm themselves. One of my favorite sayings has been “You can’t control what happens to you in life, but you can control your reaction to it.” I am not sure where I first heard it, but there is something very empowering in that statement, the knowledge that we can in a very real way control how we approach life. In effect, we can create our own happiness. Yoga provides a great opportunity to teach this life lesson, and teenagers are often a receptive audience because they are trying to cope with life’s increasing demands on them.

A regular yoga practice can provide many physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits for teens. Yoga’s focus on the body, mind, and breath awareness helps strengthen muscles and improve flexibility, promotes relaxation and reduces stress, and boosts self-confidence and body awareness, important to a healthy lifestyle. The poses can help loosen teens’ tense muscles from team and aerobic sports, while the meditation and breathing exercises help them focus and calm the mind, promoting further relaxation. (Lyness) Another benefit for teens with yoga is that it is very low cost; besides the mat, no special equipment or clothes are needed, and it can be done anywhere at any time.

Yoga is a useful “life tool” for adolescents, which can help them blossom into their full potential with a healthy body, a calm mind, and a belief in their own intrinsic worth. …

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