Toothbrush for the soul: A simple home practice

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Sue Tupling

We live in a world that will not fail to stress us out! It is designed to wind us up: every day we are bombarded by thousands of visual-auditory stimulii from the advertisers, TV soaps, the news etc. There is so much to stimulate our senses and activate the kleshas; rajas of pleasure and desire or the dvesa of obsessively avoiding suffering (and causing ourselves more suffering, ironically!).

All this winds up our nervous system: the sympathetic fear-fight-flight branch is constantly over activated, and, on its own, cannot really wind down. We are, more than not, in ‘left brain’ mode of narrow focus, over thinking, planning our next thing to do or get or achieve. Our heart rate goes us, our blood pressure increases, we can’t sleep well, we feel ‘wired’ all the time. Our society encourages, rewards and promotes this way of being; it is now deeply engrained in our culture. That is why there is so many mental health problems. Our world is full of anxiety, fear, minds are racing, we are competitive and envious.

Symptoms

These are symptoms of not having a way to engage the other, vaster part of us: our right brain, our parasympathetic nervous system. These symptoms in us can be seen as a positive ‘calling’ to wake up to ourselves. Yes really!! A communication from our deeper self that something needs to change. We are not happy living like this, we have little ‘santosha’ or contentment. Santosha can be thought of as ‘not requiring more than you have to achieve contentment. It may be seen as renunciation of the need to acquire, and thereby elimination of constantly ‘wanting’ something or someone outside of ourself’.

But to get to Santosha we need to use the other, vaster part of ourself; we need a way of a) connecting to it and b) staying in connection so that our day to day experience of life, of ourselves is very different.

Life is complex. Simple is powerful!

All you need is a simple daily practice to unwind, open yourself to yourself and be the person you would like to be surrounded by. Even 10 mins daily is better than 90mins once a week and if you can find half an hour each day? Well, it is the best insurance policy you will ever take out; a toothbrush for the soul.

Watch the video!!

 

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Embodied Living’s Sue Tupling talks to Stuart George of BBC Radio Stoke

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Sue Tupling
 

Stuart George runs a wonderful inquiring show on BBC Radio Stoke, mid morning.
He interviewed Embodied Living’s Sue Tupling about the human need for connection
and how we can get more of it. (5 mins or so)

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Yoga for Menstrual Health and a Healthy Cycle

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Sue Tupling

Watch the short video clip here (focused on fibroids):

Most women, like me, must have reacted in dread when they were first told about the monthly menstrual cycle that they must endure for 40 years or so of their lives. Who could react positively to such news at such a young age, especially when that monthly change is accompanies by nasty side effects such as pain, mood swings, and other discomforts. Once girls realise the upside of this imposition, ie that we are the creators and carriers of life and our bodies (not men’s) have the possibility of the miracle of birth, they perhaps come to terms with this ‘wound’ and see the beauty of its cycle of birth and renewal as a symbol of their own female power. This positive attitude to our miraculous cycle goes a long way to heal the monthly process.

I think that our attitude to our menstrual cycle has a lot to do with the level of discomfort we experience. Many women suffer problems such as uterine fibroids, benign (non-cancerous) tumorsthat originates from the smooth muscle layer and the accompanying connective tissue of the uterus. These cause swelling, pain, heavy periods etc and can lead to infertility. Yoga can be of great help to relieve the symptoms and even to help reduce the size of fibroids.

But our monthly period is an important process of waste elimination and renewal. I have realised this over the years, and appreciate this almost cathartic feeling of renewal that it gives me. However, if we don’t look after ourselves the body struggles to elimate ‘waste’ effectively. Poor diet, too much caffeine, alcohol, sugar, or stress and overwork (or over play!), a generally unhealthy lifestyle and negative emotions/mental tensions are all mirrored in our monthly renewal process. The yoga term for the waste and toxins accrued by our bodies, and especially when we abuse them, is ‘ama’. If we abuse ourselves our body has more ama to expurge each month (as well as the usual hormonal, and tissue waste), so our body (liver, kidneys, lymph, digestive etc) struggles to deal with it. This is when we suffer more with PMS and the other symptoms of dysfunctional menstrual cycle.

We therefore need to look after ourselves, and appreciate the monthly reminder of this by having a positive mental attitude to our body and menstrual cycle. In addition, the above yoga exercises help to open the pelvic area, release blockages and let go of tension and accumulation. It can help with the process of expurging ama (waste).

The full 45 minute DVD sequence can be purchases via paypal:

Yoga for Menstrual Health & Fibroids DVD- 45 min, a sequence to relax the pelvic floor and release tension in the pelvic area, releasing tension and toxins and increasing health energy flowCost: £5.50 inc P&P

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what is wellbeing?

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Sue Tupling

It is widely known that the Government is looking into a measure beyond GDP, of progress outside of economics: wellbeing. The recent report on the debate shows considerable public support for this measure. BBC Radio Stoke recently focused on the issue of wellbeing and asked me to comment. This blog post elaborates on what I didn’t have time to mention in those brief 5 mins of airtime!

A rounded definition of wellbeing is physical, social and emotional health. Many of us are aware of the issue of physical health, of which regular exercise plays a part. But relaxation is equally important. Physical health might be measured by heart rate , blood pressure etc, but a better measure is HRV (heart rate variability). HRV provides a window into the autonomic nervous system and its state of balance or imbalance. The balance between active and inactive, dynamic and relaxed: the ultimate aim of physical health is this. Quick recovery back to the resting heart beat. High HRV gives us this, it is a buffer against stress too, a measure of physical and emotional resilience.

Social health is important. Not least because of the well proven links between good relationships and wellbeing. Those in marriages, albeit happy ones (as there are many who’s unhappy marriages make life harder), are likely to be healther, live longer and be happier. Strong social networks can also provide this – they are important to our wellbeing. So make sure you put time aside for your family and friends!

Social health also includes financial security and job satisfaction. Perhaps explaining why stress levels (and depression and anxiety) have hit record levels lately, during the recessionary times. At these times a strong social network is important.

Good Emotional Health

Emotional health is often the neglected side of wellbeing. But I argue the most crucial. If you are free of mental problems you are more likely to be happy and content, therefore more likely to be in a happy relationship and have more close friends. And good emotional health goes hand in hand with achievement, satisfaction, and even better financial health.

I define good emotional health as freedom from mental problems. Everyone has mental problems of some sort, if you don’t you are enlightened already! Mental problems create tension in our minds and in our body. Freedom from mental problems means that our bodies and minds are free of tension; the nervous system is in balance and there is less dis-ease (most of our diseases are a result of mental problems). When the mind is free of tension, we are more able to relax. The result is a state of happiness, self acceptance, optimism, hope and tolerance.

Clearly there is not enough of this around. One in four people are diagnosed with depression and anti depressants are being prescribed by GPs at record levels. So what can we do to improve our emotional wellbeing?

Most people start with the wrong thing, they look to external things to make them happy. But there is extensive evidence that increasing levels of wealth do not correlate with increasing levels of happiness. We need enough money to live but beyond that, happiness actually plateaus. And whilst I find it important to be physically healthy, as this prevents disease and helps to slow the ageing process. But physical health does not correlate with happiness as directly as you would expect.

How to Be Happy?

So how can we be happier? Emotional health is important because it increases optimism, hope, and promotes a sense of purpose and increases tolerance, creativity, productivity and compassion. It increases our joy in life, boosts our resilience and reduces our chance of suffering , stress and disease.

Here are a few points for starter – 5 top Tips for Happiness:

  1. Let go – let go of what life should be like, ought to be like or must be like. Learn to accept yourself, others and circumstances for what they are. And let go of trying to change the things you can’t.
  2. Learn to appreciate yourself. Look for your strengths. Write a list of the 10 things that you are passionate about, that you ‘lose’ yourself in.
  3. Practice gratitude. Notice, everyday, at least 5 things that you can appreciate about yourself and your life.
  4. Plan for fun. What gives you joy, pleasure, what is fun for you? Just make sure you do more of it.
  5. Time is money? but which would you choose at the crunch – for me it’s time every time. Take a careful look at how  you spend your time, and think about how you can spend it more wisely. What can you cut out? What do you need to do less of? More of? How good are you at just saying plain ‘No’. The most precious gift you can give someone is your undivided time and attention. Who are you going to give the gift of time to today?

Perhaps you can share your own ‘happiness tips’ here? What makes you happier? What do you think should be on this list?

Hear my recent interview on BBC Radio Stoke with Stuart Gordon about wellbeing: http://embodiedliving.libsyn.com/sue-tupling-interview-on-bbc-radio-stoke-what-is-wellbeing-

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Interview on BBC Radio Stoke

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Sue Tupling

 

in a short interview on Monday 21st July 2011, Stuart George of BBC Radio Stoke interviews Sue Tupling of Embodied Living about wellbeing. This was in response to the Government’s wellbeing report on the debate – which was published on Monday.

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Help with Fibromyalgia and chronic pain

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Sue Tupling

Fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue, even migraine headaches all share similar patterns and habits. There is a sense of emotional blockage, that emotions are not being digested – the person has emotional indigestion.

This emotional indigestion manifests as symptoms such as constipation, and pain.

Perhaps because, on some level, they recognise that they can’t digest difficult emotions (a difficult ‘truth’) they keep themselves away from feeling, particularly away from the strong, more uncontrollable emotions, such as anger.

So, at some level, people with fibromyalgia have a truth that they are hiding from. The Illness is an attempt by the system to make the truth more evident. The louder the pain shouts, the harder it is to ignore.

People hide from their ‘truth’ by doing too much, shallow breathing, holding the breath, speeding up and getting out of control.

This truth, or difficult emotion, may be a result of some traumatic event in their past (and the ‘traumatic event’ is not always obvious). This event has not been properly registered and dealt with by the conscious mind so it has become ‘locked down’ in the body – a neuromuscular lock.

Often you will find that their body has taken on a somatic anatomy of rigid/density: the body has hardened inside against the ‘assault’ it has received. The muscles – such as the gluteals, thighs, hips, abdomen – have tightened to protect against the onslaught. And in that tightened have held onto the emotion behind the assault.

Over time this has led to chronic passive tension which prevents feeling and leads to respiratory and/ or metabolic acidosis.

Breathing affects pH balance of body, by affecting the level of CO2 in the system. Poor breathing habits ( chest breathing, frozen breathing, breath holding etc etc) reduce the ventilation rate which increases CO2 levels and therefore reduces pH [here the lungs control CO2 levels], result being respiratory acidosis.

Metabolic acidosis refers to anaerobic respiration of muscles, hypoxia and release of lactic acid. This deep muscular and resulting myofascial tension persists even during sleep. The tension and perhaps the lactic acid/acidosis perhaps causes the pain. The muscles need to be retrained to change the muscle memory (and the associated emotional memory needs to be released) – this retraining will restore resting length of muscle (rather than contraction) and proper alignment.

Essentially the system is toxic – the pain is a physical pain because the system is toxic.

Having this understanding we can see that physical pain is of course a manifestation of emotional pain that is not being heard, that has been ignored for many years. And now the body is having to shout very loud indeed to try to be heard!

Breath retraining goes a long way to reduce the pain. You can help them breathe using the following –
• hand on rib cage/other on solar plexus and pump
• hand raised above belly – ask her to breathe in a touch it
• use sandbag breathing – weight on abdomen – or crocodile breathing (both train the diaphragm and strengthen it)
• use the pulling prana exercise – only once they have truly got the hang of abdominal breathing
• (plus other ideas from yoga)

Nevertheless, in most cases, the only way of dealing with the physical pain is to deal with the emotional pain and release it in a safe supportive way through psychotherapy.

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The four directions of opening up to the generative self

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Sue Tupling

I have a practice that is inspired by two of my most influential and inspiration teachers – Dr Stephen Gilligan (self relations therapy) and Swami Pragyamurti (Satyananda yoga).

The practice – Chaturdik pranam mudra (the four directions) – owes its development to Sw Pragyamurti. It is a beautiful standing practice designed to open the heart space, connect us to the bodymind and open us out to the field/quantum mind. It makes us feel truly connected to the universe and the whole world around us.

In the Four Directions we are not only connected to our somatic mind (unconscious mind) or body mind, we are connected to the ‘field mind’ – that which is bigger than us and to which we are all connected. It is the field mind (Jung’s collective unconscious, perhaps?) that we begin to get a sense of in yoga. This practice, I have realised recently, therefore serves to connect us to the Generative self – the state where we open to our full potential of creativity, inspiration, healing, breakthrough. The state of ‘being’ where transformation is made possible.

The practice is a greeting an ‘opening up’ to the four directions – East, South, West and North. The name – chaturdik pranam mudra means “four directions prostration”. It encourages us to open to the four directions, attuning all four directions as a generative/quantum field of connection.

Inspired by Dr Gilligan, in his exercise ‘The Tetra Lemma Diamond of Multiple Truths’,      I’ve started using this practice as a very simple, very powerful way to work on a problem that is bothering me, a truth or belief about myself or another person or the world. It transforms the problem or issue.

I worked on this on my problem yesterday, which was: “I am too busy!”. I am running two businesses and I keep worrying about being too busy.  As soon as I connected to the East the problem statement started changing – I immediately had an image of Swami Satyananda in Munger, knowing how hard he worked for yoga. My unconscious mind was grateful to start this. ”Ok,” my conscious mind thought. “That’s good hard work. I’d love to be busy doing that.” To the South, I realised: “I’m not too busy, I do lots of chilling and I’m generally relaxed and happy.”.  To the West: “I need to do less stuff that isn’t my life calling and more of the stuff that is truly important to me.” To the North: “I’m doing great as is, MOST of the time. I need to find a way to be in that generative space 100% of the time.” It was amazing – the practice swept all the worry away!!

Watch a quick (literally :-) ) video of this practice:


The Four Directions

  1. Identify a problem – a truth, belief or statement about yourself, another person, or the world (e.g. “I am too busy”, “I am depressed”, “He is a difficult person”)
  2. Start standing in tadasana (feet about 2 inches apart) and face the East. Make your connection with the East, whatever the East symbolises for you, whatever from the East you wish to embrace, whatever resources you need. Bring the hands together in ‘prayer’, pushing the backs of the two thumbs into the heart centre in the middle of the chest (acupressure point CV17 ‘sea of tranquility’ a balancing and calming point), and breathing in deeply to this point.
  3. Sensing your statement (“X”), attune to its meaning and truth value, “X is true”, until you feel complete resonance with it. Keeping this sense of resonance and connection, then exhale the hands down to manipura chakra (just below the navel) turning fingertips to point down (in yoni mudra). Inhale the hands up, keeping the fingertips pointing strongly downwards (Note: this might feel difficult, but it is important to keep the fingertips pointing down as it gives maximum opening in the heart). Exhale and open the arms wide, inhale them up hands together and exhale the hands back down to the heart, chanting “Ommmmmm”.
  4. If you have kept this space open and resonant, perhaps you already have new insights into your truth?
  5. Let go, re-centre, and step to the right, South. Breathe deeply and slowly into the heart area, and make your connection with the South, whatever the South symbolises for you, whatever from the South you wish to embrace, whatever resources you need.
  6. Sensing your statement, attune to the opposite truth value, “X is not true” ( or “Not X is also true”), until you feel complete resonance with it. Once again perform the practice, keeping the resonance with your statement: exhale the hands down to manipura chakra (just below the navel) turning fingertips to point down (in yoni mudra). Inhale the hands up, keeping the fingertips pointing strongly downwards (Note: this might feel difficult, but it is important to keep the fingertips pointing down as it gives maximum opening in the heart). Exhale and open the arms wide, inhale them up hands together and exhale the hands back down to the heart, chanting “Ommmmmm”.
  7. Notice any new insights or truths that may be evolving out of this space.
  8. Let go, re-centre, and step to the right, West. Breathe deeply and slowly into the heart area, and make your connection with the West, whatever the West symbolises for you, whatever from the West you wish to embrace, whatever resources you need.
  9. Sensing your statement, attune to the truth value, “Both X and not-X are not true” ( or “X is BOTH true and not true”), until you feel complete resonance with it. Once again perform the practice (as above), keeping the resonance with your statement.
  10. Notice what changes, what stays the same.
  11. Let go, re-centre, and step to the right, North. Breathe deeply and slowly into the heart area, and make your connection with the North, whatever the North symbolises for you, whatever from the North you wish to embrace, whatever resources you need.
  12. Sensing your statement, attune to the truth value, “Neither X or not-X is true” ( or “X is NEITHER true and not true”), until you feel complete resonance with it. Once again perform the practice (as above), keeping the resonance with your statement.
  13. Keep the space open and spacious, allow the transformations to happen as they come in. Stay here and centred, let go. Feel the opening of your centre to the four directions, attuning to all four truth values as equal and valid.

Embrace the sparkle and insights of the generative field, and sense yourself transformed through this opening and connection.

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Asana as a route to mastery of mind and body

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Sue Tupling
Relaxation is literally a life or death issue. Deep relaxation induces a response of the part of the nervous system that brings about mental and physiological bliss. This is when our heart rate is low, our muscular and nervous system is relaxed, our brain waves are in alpha and our whole bodymind system can maximise metabolic efficiency. But many people can’t relax. They might think they are relaxed but really their system is still wired. Many people don’t really relax even when they are sleeping; waking in the morning and still feeling tired.
We live in a world that is not conducive to relaxation, so we need to learn techniques to help us systematically relax our entire system so that we can, for increasing periods of time, experience a deep state of relaxation and bliss. It is during deep relaxation that our cells renew, so we age less; deep relaxation improves our cognitive and brain functions so that we can use more of our creativity and intelligence; our personality is also affected by deep relaxation we become more expansive, accepting, tolerant, compassionate, gracious, joyous, peaceful, loving, kind, humble. Deep relaxation helps us to live to our fullest potential as a human being.
Yoga postures (asanas) are a way to deep relaxation: ultimately they help us tread the path to higher consciousness so that we can begin to understand our relationship with existence. But let’s start with relaxation! Yoga postures help us to relax much more so than any other ‘exercise’ because asanas demand two important things from us: 
  1. a focus on the breath – we practice asanas with a conscious effort and control of the breath. Asanas bring about a change in our breathing. Rapid and irregular breathing is a sign of tension in body and mind. The breath is a bridge between the body and mind. Breathing coherently during asanas (deep, smooth breathing) tonifies the parasympathetic nervous system (the relaxation side of the NS) and has a calming expansive effect on the mind. Asanas bring about mental and emotional balance by slowing down and deepening the breathing.
  2. Mindful awareness – the best systems of yoga (such as my Satyananda system) use awareness and mindfulness as an essential feature of the asana practice. Whilst performing the postures we need to be fully aware of what is going on, the mind is focused on feeling tone of the body during the work. We are aware of the breath movement. we are aware of the subtle or not-so-subtle sensations of the body, we are aware of the subtle moment-by-moment changes in our mental and emotional state. In doing this we relax our very personality – we become more of who we could be. Moment by moment.
Asanas have a massive influence on one’s mental outlook. They help us have a more optimistic and resilient attitude to life. How? Under the guidance of a good teacher, asanas influence many important systems of the body.
One of these is the endocrine system. The endocrine system and is various glands located around the body, is controlled by the brain via the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. This system has a major impact on our emotional makeup and personality (can be the root of depressive and anxiety illnesses etc). Asanas automatically and gently bring this system into balance and proper working order.
Asanas bring other major bodily systems into harmony. These systems are rythmical in nature and work as a gestalt, as a whole, together. The blood, nervous, respiratory, digestive and endocrine systems are all affected positively by asanas.
Mental problems or tension is the main cause of most diseases which afflict us today. Yoga asanas release all mental and physical tension. It helps the body to heal itself. By ridding the body of disease and the mind of tension, asanas help the body to resist disease and have strength and flexibility and overall wellbeing. Regular practice of yoga asanas (and regularity is key) helps to make us master of mind and body, bringing about a strong, healthy mind and body.
That is what the 2500 system of yoga is designed to do. It is not a passing fad, a system based on only a few years’ experience; it is a well tested system for attaining physical and mental health. And when we have attained health and eliminated ‘dis-ease’ we can work to higher levels of human consciousness. Little by little.
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16 point exercise for deep relaxation

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Sue Tupling

How does relaxation happen? We can’t just tell ourselves to relax because

often we simply don’t know how to. The patterns of tension have become so ingrained and deep that we don’t even know we are doing it. This tension, mental, emotional and physical, is the root cause of many illnesses and ailments from headaches and high blood pressure to chronic pain and anxiety disorders.

Tension most often starts in the mind. The brain sends neurochemical signals to the muscles to tense up. And some areas of the body are quicker to tense than others, partly because they have a larger area of the brain dedicated to them and hence more motor control governs these areas. This includes the eyes, jaw, throat and tongue, diaphragm, perineum, hands and feet. Whilst these areas tighten and tense with lightening speed, letting go is a slower more difficult process. Sometimes tension may never fully leave these areas, because the mind has a constant baseline of tension, so these areas are held tense. This restricts the flow of energy in the body, affecting our breathing, and circulation etc.

This simple exercise will help you to relax deeply and let go of tension in these areas:

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Balance the autonomic nervous system for perfect wellbeing

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Sue Tupling

In my 6 years’ experience of working with people therapeutically with my Embodied Living programmes, I can honestly say that stress and disease happen when the autonomic nervous system is out of balance.Harmony, wellbeing, balance and performance happen when there is balance between the two sides of the nervous system: the Headstandsympathetic (SNA) and the parasympathetic (PNS).
These are like yin and yang. The SNS is the active, dynamic side and the PNS the passive, relaxed and expansive side. We need balance between the two for an optimal state of being where we are creative, open, relaxed yet active and engaged enough to get things done.
But the SNS gets a bad press: it is associated with the fear, flight or fight response and stress. But we need it.
Nevertheless for most of us today, our SNS is in overdrive to a greater or lesser degree.
We feel tired and wired. We have poor memory, short attention spans, feel fuzzy headed. We over react to situations and people. All sure signs that the SNS is hyper and all illustrative of how this ‘out of balance’ state affects the mind.

The SNS is easy and quick to engage: we perceive something (or someone!) that is challenging and instantaneously various muscle centres (particularly the eyes, jaw, throat, tongue, hands, feet, diaphragm and pelvic area) tighten and tense up. These muscle centres find it hard to subsequently let go; it takes time. Often we are in over drive so much of the time that they never fully relax (this leads to conditions such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue perhaps ME). The PNS invariably is under used, and often like anything that we don’t use, has atrophed to such an extent that it is useless.
The very nature of the autonomic nervous system (involuntary) implies that we have no control. But there is a unique window into this system – not only to see how out of balance it is, but also to control it. Heart rate variability (HRV) is related to the frequency, regularity and responsivness of the changing beats of the heart. It is intimately linked with breathing and in particular, with the range of movement of the primary muscle of breathing: the diaphragm.
Yoga, though likely you will find no book that says this, is all about bringing the autonomic nervous system into balance through extending the range of the diaphragm (especially the exhalation phase, which is key to PNS engagement) to achieve high HRV. This brings about emotional and physiological coherence – a state of bliss, flow state where we are expansive and whole, ultimately the state of turya or samadhi. 
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