Posted by Isidore Goodfellow in Spirituality | 0 Comments
Sit Up Straight, Breathe and Smile
Each and every single element, no matter the size, the nature, the shape or the distance between different elements, is part of an entire system. I would even say that systems are also connected to each other in a certain way. Our body and mind follow the same order. You cannot shift one without affecting the other. The way we sit, the way we sleep, our facial expression, any body posture we take in our daily life has an impact on our emotions, our minds and our spirit. Meditation is a practice that facilitate that body and mind harmony, resulting in a complete freedom of mind.
The difficulties facing these men and women are enormous. Many try to talk themselves out of hyper-vigilance by reciting practical mantras, such as “I am just walking into a shopping mall; there is no danger there; I don’t have to brace myself and be afraid,” or “I’m just driving along the highway; there won’t be any IEDs; no need to sweat bullets.” But such efforts rarely work by themselves. Many self medicate with alcohol or drugs. Some are given powerful prescription drugs that can create other problems.
In partnership with a program called Project Welcome Home Troops, we have been researching a spiritual approach to combat stress that uses yoga postures and yogic breathing to ease the minds of these veterans. Although our formal data is still pending, participants in our pilot programs say they are sleeping better, feel more relaxed, have less anxiety, and feel more positive emotions. If these practices can help alleviate the suffering of our veterans, imagine what they might do for the overall population.
Lessons from Manhattan
I began thinking about the benefits of yoga as a graduate student at Columbia University in Manhattan. No matter how anxious or exhausted I felt when I plopped down on my mat at the beginning of a class, I always walked out of the studio feeling elated, calm, and energized. Unlike so many ways of coping in which the pleasure is fleeting and the side effects long-lasting (think hangovers and love-handles), the bliss I experienced from yoga seemed to build. My après-yoga glow left me more likely to amble at a slow and peaceful pace and to hold doors for other Manhattanites to rush through. I began to wonder about the role of the many physical postures and practices developed by spiritual traditions and how they might impact the mind.
What I have learned is that our body’s postures exert a great amount of influence on how we feel and even think, often without our own awareness. While much of the Western world still pooh-poohs the notion that anything but our brain cells and intellect impact our mind, this will change as science catches up with ancient wisdom.
Bodily Feedback
Whether we realize it or not, posture alone can predict how we feel and act. For example, your mother’s instructions to sit up straight may reflect an intuitive understanding — supported by recent research — that an upright spine leads to increased confidence, while a slumped posture leads to more helpless behaviors. Indeed, experimental participants who had been sitting with a rounded back tended to feel and act more powerless and to give up more quickly in the face of challenge than those with straight backs. The hunched group also felt more stressed compared to participants who had been placed in an expansive, upright posture.
Body position can also impact the intensity of feelings such as anger. For example, a recent brain-imaging study at Texas A&M University found that anger and hostility may be reduced by simply lying down — suggesting that there is much more to the yoga corpse pose, or shavasana, than simple relaxation. Adopting shavasana in a time of heightened anger may be a therapeutic way to calm hostile impulses. There is real wisdom to the suggestion that people sit down or lie down to receive bad news.
Physical movements also can impact how we think and feel about others. In a recent study using speed-dating, for example, participants who moved from table to table liked their partners more than those who sat and waited for a new partner. Why? Unbeknownst to us, our mind interprets our bodily states as signals for how we feel, so moving toward a person typically indicates openness, friendliness, and liking of that person.