Stay Cool This Summer

As it gets hotter outside, the activities add up. The cook outs, the beer gardens, weddings, short trips to the beach, festivals and the like. In Ayurveda (the Indian system of health or life science) we call this Pitta season. Ayurvedic technology is based on being in relationship to yourself and your environment. With each turn of the season, we get more chances to gain deeper awareness and insight as to how we work, how we influence our environment, and how our environment influences us. This season is composed of fire and water, Pitta is oily, hot, light, spreading. This can create agitation, low digestive fire, and skin irritations. We balance ourselves by changing our diet to a lighter, fresher diet ( at least we try ;) ) and observing how we react and interact. Diet aside, What I want to share is a simple technique for centering. There are a lot of techniques from many spiritual systems, so a little exploration and experimentation can go a long way.

This can be done with anywhere from 5 minutes to hours if you desire.

Find a safe space, where you know no one will disturb you.

Sit up onto something, or in a chair so that your spine is erect.

Now, in the tradition of yoga there are 3 “Locks” to provide most efficient meditation.

1. Is the throat lock, you gently slide your neck back, not to be confused with tucking the chin. Just a slight slide back
2. The belly lock, you firm the abdominal muscles in towards the center of your body, and even the right and left sides of your waist.
3. The root lock, somewhat like a kegel but it’s a lifting up of your pelvic/deep abdominal muscles

Try to maintain that and close your eyes. Lock your eyes to the center behind your closed eyes and start to breath really slowly and deeply. Meditation is about going beyond thought. As you continue the locks, maintain the breath and inward gaze drink in nourishing breaths that will vitalize you and every aspect of your life. Breathing out feel the descent and cleansing properties. With practice this can start a wonderful rhythm your body and mind will get comfortable slipping into.

A multitude of things can happen from here, slouching, short breaths, eyes darting around even though the eyes are closed, thoughts, etc. You have the body, the breath, and your inward gaze to come back to when any of those things happen.

Use the technique of holding your body, gathering the periphery inward. I think of it as drawing your aura inside to cleanse and recharge it before you go back to this demanding world we live in. Paramahasa Yogananda (Author of Autobiography of a Yogi) says that meditating is like recharging the body with cosmic energy. It really does feel like a big boost, better than coffee or a nap that leaves you confused on what time or day it is. Once you get comfortable you can even use this technique on the train, sitting in a park, where ever you can to hit the reset button on your mind, and nervous system.

Enjoy experiencing your self that isn't  dependent on a body, things, stimuli, etc and when you emerge back into the world share your most unique self!

XO