Question 5 - Reflections on Ayurveda

A key aspect of Samkhya philosophy is that the physical universe is made up of the five elements – earth, water, fire, air, and space. In working with Ayurveda and Yoga, it will therefore be essential that you sense these five elements in your own body. Work with a partner, if possible, to experience the guided meditation “Healing through the Elements” (p 4.25). Which elements were easiest for you to sense? Which were most difficult to sense? The elements you sensed most easily and comfortably are probably the ones that make up your Ayurvedic dosha.

I recorded this meditation on audacity and played it while in savasana.  I did it twice a week a part.  I also used it in one of my Ayurvedic sessions. Each time I hear it it seems fresh and new.  It's one of my favorite meditations so far and I will try to incorporate it in my next Yoga Nidra Soundbath.  Here is a body map I made after listening to the meditation the first time.

The element I feel the strongest is fire and sunlight. That connects to the Pitta dosha in me. The sunlight was strong and very intense. I felt it everywhere and I felt it's warmth.

I also was connected with earth and water which connects with the Kapha in me.

I felt very grounded during the earth part of the meditation.  I also felt rooted and fertile like I was a garden.  Although most of the sensation I felt was from the front of the body,  During the earth portion, I felt roots coming out of my back. I also experienced flowers growing from my heart.  There was water all around my body but especially at the legs.  My hands and feet were very heavy.

I enjoyed the breathing through the left lung and the right lung and then the back. I connected the least with ether.

Body Scan #1

This morning, December 22, 2017 I worked with

45 Minute Body Scan guided by Steven Hickman
(55 Mb) This is the "regular" Body Scan.

I found it on the UCSD MBSR website
https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/programs/mbsr/Pages/audio.aspx

I really enjoyed the body scan and I felt like it went very fast.

Observations
- I have very little awareness in my feet besides the big toe and the baby toe on the right foot.  The rest of the feet is very hard to sense.
- I feel like my whole left leg from the tip of the toe to the top of the hip is rotating in while the right leg feels more like a pillar
- I feel tension behind the right calf
- There is a lot of tension around my shoulders and my neck
- My quads and inside of my thighs feel very soft
-  My knees feel pulling especially the left knee
- My buttock feels as if its strained and pulling
- My lower and middle back feel pretty much at ease
- My face feels at ease
- My hands feel somewhat stiff

Body Scan #2

45 Minute Body Scan guided by Lois Howland
https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/programs/mbsr/Pages/audio.aspx

My mind wandered more today to other imagery than yesterday.  I really enjoyed the body scan.  I really like being in Savasana. It doesn't ever feel like 45 minutes

Observations
- My shoulders feel like they are collapsing in side ways
- My right ankle to calf is tense and throbbing
- There is a lot of tension in both of my but checks
- A have awareness in the big toe but not the other toes
- My left leg feels more at ease than my right leg
- My head feels off center but I am not sure how to correct it
- Tension on the left knee
- Abdomen feels very soft
- Face feels soft
- Back of neck has some tension
- Hands feel tense and throbbing

Body Scan 3 - 20 minute body scan - Internship - Chapter 3

20 Minute Body Scan guided by Cassondra Graff
https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/programs/mbsr/Documents/MP3/Cassondra-Graf-Short-Body-Scan-2.mp3

I did a shorter body scan today because my husband practiced with me.  I have been really enjoying doing the body scans so I wanted to share it with him so I coaxed him into the 20 minute practice. He wasn't as in to it as I am.  He says I like it because I get to rest.  He says he doesn't need rest because he is not as worn out as me.

Observations
- My legs feel very uneven.  My right leg is much heavier
- My feet feel as if they are pointing in very awkward directions that seems to be effective the rotation of my legs
- there is still a lot of tension in the right side of the calf and ankle
- I have very little awareness of my individual toes besides the big toe
- There is pulling on my knees. More on my right today.
- My right buttock is very tight and tense
- My quads feel relaxed and open will my hamstrings have this slight pulling
- my hips feel a pulling especially the right hip
- My hands feel heavy and tense as if they are hooks and my arms are also tense
- My shoulders feel as if they are collapsing forward
- There is tension in the back of my neck and jaw
- My head feels as if it is leaning to the left
- I experienced a lot of sadness when we went to the left knee the knee I have had surgery on and is bothering my again right now and I am working with it through physical therapy and yoga
- My chest feels like it is collapsing in around my heart

Body awareness is the foundation of all other awareness - Journaling - "Healing into Life and Death" - Stephen Levine

When I teach my therapeutic class I feel guilty sometimes about taking the time away from the yoga asana in the beginning of class to do the body scan.  When I teach yoga nidra I completely believe in the body scan and I enjoy doing it and I know it is the most important part of the process.

I wonder what makes me embrace the body scan in Yoga Nidra but shy away from it as a beginning of the therapeutic class?   At Ananda/Expanding Light they do the energization exercises as taught by Paramhansa Yogananda which I feel are an elaborate body scan - joint freeing series combo and I didn't really like them. But at Kripalu I really enjoyed the body scans that Joseph lead.  I guess I need to practice them more and believe in them more as an opening to class.  I feel really comfortable closing with them but not opening,

In therapeutic individual session I feel comfortable opening with the body awareness exercises.  I have to explore what's the difference mentally for me.

Nischala Devi spoke to us about a woman observing a tension in her breast during a body scan that lead her to the doctor where he found cancer.

In the book on p.44 there is the Story of the Vietnam Vet with the leg injuries.  “I was closed down for so long, so afraid to feel, that I guess it took all that pain to get my attention.”

I am intrigued by the idea of on p.122 Softening the belly and
Sending Merciful Awareness and Loving Kindness into the illness – We are not just a body

Here some quotes about Softening the belly
p. 177
“And so most of us need to learn to open the body to healing. And each of us is given the perfect receptor of that openness. Keeping a soft belly is the primary foundation for opening to this level of being. For it is in the belly that we have so long attempted to control the world.”

“Perhaps the worst advice one can be given is to tighten the belly, to appear flat-stomached.  The belly is our center of control and holds much tension… The belly should be allowed its deepest breathing, its greatest sigh.”

p. 178
“But in the soft belly lies the possibility of new mind creating a new boy.”

p. 179
“The softness of the belly is a good indicator if our openness to the moment. When we are at peache, the belly is soft and open.  When we are not, it is tense and held. In the soft belly even the subtlest obstruction to the heart may be noticed. In letting go into soft belly-we open the body and loosen our grasp on the mind to expose the heart of essential healing.”

It also makes sense to me on page 133 that many sexual abused women felt their body’s were unsafe place to be“I’d like an in-the-body experience for a change. I’d like to trust life enough to be avle to stay in my body, to not always be on guard, to not always tense as if someone were going to jump out of a dark hallway and do me injury.” I believe the body scan really brings us back into the body.

I had not heard the body scan before referred to as Sweeping the body but I like that term.

p.182
“In the course of this meditation, one may discover unknown pains and joys-areas of tension as well as areas of high receptivity and openness… It may take anywhere from a half and hour to an hour to scan the body adequately.”

So I will continue to use the body scan and try to practice it on myself more.