Nirvana Diet

A Diet For the Mind

You are here: Home / Archives for meditation

Breathe and Lose Weight

by Leave a Comment

meditation-croppedHow breathing can help you lose weight

I remember reading in Be Here Now by Ram Dass a part where he talked about a woman who began to use the powerful yogic breathing techniques for weight loss. Not only did she lose weight, she overdid it and ended up with psychic powers as well.  Putting the attainment of those powers aside, I think many of you would be interested in knowing how yogic breathing can provide a holistic natural way to lose weight.

The breathing technique Ram Dass was talking about in his book was the breath of fire. Many of you might recognize this if you have studied Kundalini yoga. This is an advanced technique designed as it says to build fire in the body. This type of breathing has the effect of stoking the metabolism by oxygenating the system according the beliefs of Ayurveda, a system of traditional medicine that originated in India and complements the practice of yoga.

Pranayama is of course the fourth limb of yoga according to Patanjali who wrote Yoga Sutras and explained how yoga is a powerful system of spiritual transformation.  Recently I had the pleasure of taking a unique yoga class, Yoga Heart Meditative MovementTM with Dinndayal Morgan in Napa. He shared with me a way to incorporate the notion of using breath to fire up the metabolism, build more heat and heart I may add, which can be practiced by beginners.

Many of you may be familiar with the three part breathing which is the basic one that is taught. You inhale through the nose slowly (I can’t emphasize that enough), letting the diaphragm drop and the rib cage expand for  5 counts, you hold or pause the breath for 20 counts and exhale for 10. This should also be done with caution as the breath holding called kumbakh brings on or resembles a deeper meditative state as the body’s oxygen requirement is reduced. This technique is considered to be the royal road to deeper meditative and mystical states so it should always be practiced gently without forcing it. I recommend one build to holding the breath for 20 counts or just do a few to get started. Start with a series of 5 and build to 20 holding the breath for 20 counts.

The ideal way to use this type of breathing is to set up your meditation practice. Imagine…breath and lose weight. What I found happened from using these techniques and teaching them to my clients is my cardio vascular capacity increased exponentially. I do not get out of breath easily when I do cardio exercise.

I am happy to announce that Dinndayal will be joining me in a retreat I am creating in Napa on personal power that will include Yoga Heart Meditative MovementTM, breathing, guided meditation, journaling and a creative process. In the meantime if you want to supercharge your metabolism, reduce stress, and practice healthy weight loss I recommend you try the breathing. These techniques are also included in the Nirvana Diet™ Home Study program if you want to learn all of them.

Drop the Story ! How to Reduce your Stress with a Pause

by Leave a Comment

jump-joyI have been taking a fabulous tele-class with Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God.

Neale explained very clearly the reason we are stressed, get stuck in ruts and repeat behaviors that do not serve us is because we  see things as an imagined truth as opposed to the actual truth. It is has been said that if you want to change your “life” you have to change your reality… shift out of the imagined to the real truth.  This is possible, because you create your reality by virtue of what you believe to be true.

There are according to Neale three levels or layers to the truth: the imagined, the apparent and the actual truth. Most of us operate at the level of the imagined truth based on beliefs we integrated throughout our life and the “data” we collect to support it. That is why we imagine things to be true. The problem is usually this imagined truth formed when we were very young and lacked to ability to discern if we really think it is true. This is what is called “our story.” Until we become conscious of this, we create our reality based on data we have been collecting that may not be true but supports the story.

The problem or opportunity is what we think is true can also be untrue, and or spun a different way.

The goal is to live one’s life at the level of the actual truth without the filter or lens we have in place that created the imagined truth. It is like getting to a higher level of how you perceive the experience based on better data. Neale suggested this higher level is called using the mind to communicate directly with the soul which is the storehouse of the real truth. To get to that level you have to drop your story, this allows one to live in a stress free zone.

To me this is just like changing a habit.

I recommend that you try it. First you have to be open to why this is beneficial for you to “drop your story.”)

Here’s an example of what I am talking about:

A woman I once coached had a pattern of being overweight because her romantic relationships ended with her feeling dumped. In reality, she brought that outcome on by being fearful that she would end up getting hurt and abandoned. This was a childhood misconception she picked up by watching her mother relate to her dad that way. The “story” she had to dump so she would avoid getting dumped was that she was unlovable.

To do this, you start with noticing the emotion you feel in your body when a situation comes up that triggers you and feels familiar. Start paying attention to your internal dialogue.  Then pause…take a few deep breaths and become the observer of the experience as you remind yourself that you are not more than your ego. It is your ego that feels hurt. By practicing meditation you gain an awareness of an expanded sense of your self that is beyond suffering.

Secondly, you come to understand that “story” is an imagined truth. It is not really true. You understand thoughts such as “I’m not loveable” were really based in a false interpretation of the past coming from a part of the brain that is stuck in the past. The part Neale added that was brilliant was to go one step further and to try to access the wisdom of the Soul.

Once you stop and, breathe you can ask the Soul for new data to come in that is informed by the Soul not the ego. This is how you shift your truth about an event and reduce your stress in a Nano second. You use your mind as a doorway to the Soul, not the past. This is what I believe transformation is all about. If you start up a daily meditation practice, it will eventually become second nature to you to reduce your stress by dropping your story naturally.