Author: pmcrose

Since we are stuck at home, many of us are involved in home improvement projects.

Now is the time to build your home into a haven of peace.

Albeit Home Depot and Lowe’s cannot help you with this project, yoga and meditation can help with this construction.

Let your heart be the master blueprint to follow.

Besides staying home, social-distancing, wearing a mask, and washing your hands, there are ways to combat this invisible terror we all feel.

Cultivate your inner peace by doing whatever brings you peace–gardening, playing or listening to music, cooking, exercising, drawing or painting, walking… yoga?… meditation?

Peace, like a sponge, will absorb the agitation and panic, yet keep you alert and vigilant.

Let’s arm ourselves with peace to battle this invisible enemy!

As we calm the nervous system with yoga and/or meditation, we become more comfortable with the emotions and tensions we find along the way.

We create space for our discomfort, and thereby become more comfortable with it.

No, we cannot meditate this virus away, but we can markedly shift how we feel, think, and act–how we respond–to these shocking times.

Even a few minutes of watching your breath can have a profound effect!

It provides an opportunity, the space and ease, to break up our usual hold on events and emotions.

As we meditate and this hold eases, we can absorb the shock and let go so that events can rearrange and integrate. We no longer feel so stuck in an uncomfortable holding pattern.

It matters not whether you sit and watch your breath and/or repeat a mantra or practice a compassion meditation. All forms of meditation can help.

We can shift how we and those around us weather this storm!

Further instructions: To meditate, take a comfortable seat either in a chair or on the ground. Your hip creases should be above your knees so if you are on the ground maybe sit on a firm blanket, a pillow, or a block. Feel your sit bones in contact with the ground or the chair and then lengthen comfortably upward. Take a few deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, possibly with a sigh. Resume your normal breath and begin the method of meditation you prefer. If you’re new to meditation, here’s a brief session to introduce you to the practice.

Hamlet seeing his father’s ghost says, “Time is out of joint.”

We, like Hamlet, are disoriented and “out of joint” with the pandemic upon us.

We are in shock. Shocked by the news, shocked by the potential approaching tragedy, shocked by the changes in our everyday lives.

Shock-Absorber Pose is actually any forward bend that allows you to rest your head comfortably on a block or blocks. Stay in this pose for 2-3 minutes and breathe or use your ujjayi or ocean breath.

This will give you space to absorb some of this shock–to integrate and to let go.

We are going through some rough times!

Shock-Absorber Pose can soften the ride and help recenter us, and give us space to gather our resources to more calmly and thoughtfully reckon with the events before us now, and with what lies ahead.

Further tips: You can use things around your house such as books or a stool insead of blocks. Be creative with how you can adapt and use what you have on-hand.

We all need resiliency, now more than ever!

Resiliency Pose is a variation of Lion’s Breath. However, rather than roaring, you laugh.

This may at first glance seem silly, but to be able to maintain one’s humor and good nature in the midst of difficulties is quite a feat!

Even practiced alone, Resiliency Pose or Laughing Lion crescendos. As you start to laugh, at first consciously, the laugh itself gathers momentum, and like a waterfall, it topples from its own gravity over the edge into real laughter and maybe a deep smile.

Laughter and a smile are contagious! Let’s infect everyone with our good humor!

Further Details: Stand in Goddess Pose with knees bent and toes pointed outward. Maybe do regular Lion’s Breath first with two good roars, followed by Resiliency Pose or Laughing Lion with two good laughs.

You need not stand in Goddess Pose to do Resilency Pose; you can sit however comfortable and able to inhale deeply and then laugh.

Make-Shift Pose is a combination of two variations on Warrior 1, Humble Warrior and Warrior 1 with goal-post arms.

With many of us sheltering-in-place and our normal lives obviously disrupted, it’s time to let go of that which cannot be done for now and embrace new possibilities given these unexpected and unaccustomed restraints. In short, we have to be flexible and creative to stay happy and fulfilled.

The Humble Warrior bows to and humbly accepts what cannot be changed and in reverence bows to the life force that surges with new possibilities.

Warrior 1 with wide arms embraces the changes and has an open heart to move forward and upward, even in seemingly difficult times.

Make-Shift Pose expresses two aspects of embracing change and helps us retain personal power and freedom in times like these.

Precautions: Move slowly as you lift up out of Humble Warrior so you do not get dizzy and move slowly into Warrior 1 with goal-post arms. You can also emphasize the opening of the heart and uplifting quality of Warrior 1 with a slight backbend drawing the elbows slightly downward so the shoulder blades glide down and lift the heart upward.

There is a twist to doing today’s coronavirus pose… No, really!

This seated version of a spinal twist uses a wall and a block to help deepen the twist. (You can sit on a few thick books instead.)

Just as we wring out a cloth or towel to let it dry and not get stinky with mildew, we can expunge lots of excess stress and make space for greater ease with Wring Out The Stress Pose (and at the same time give the belly and chest organs a good massage).

There’s nothing like a twisted pose to help straighten us out in these twisted times!

So let’s wring out the stress, and bring in the…

Precautions: Emphasize the twist beginning at the belly button or just above through the lower lungs and upper chest. Imagine a towel wringing out and feel this in your body, lengthening upward with each inhale and twisting (possibly deeper) with each exhale. Rest before twisting to the other side and feel the effects of the twist.

For detailed instructions about this specific twist, click this link.

You might also enjoy this streamed twisting practice on your back.

When you’re feeling shut in from sheltering-in-place, it’s time to venture out!

Sit quietly outdoors in your backyard or some other socially-distanced place.

Close your eyes and breathe easily.

Let your mind start to focus on the sounds, and let it light on a sound you find pleasant… a bird chirping or twilling or an interplay of birds sounds, maybe the buzz of bees or the rustle of leaves….

Feel the sounds as they interplay… and the space around the sounds, the silence. Feel the sounds that are closer… and those that are oh-so-faint, more subtle.

Close your eyes… and venture out!

Our coronavirus pose of the day is Handwashing Pose, a variation of Tree Pose.

Root yourself in the best practice to stay healthy, washing your hands, and at the same time strengthen your balance to remain steadier during these mercurial and tempestuous times.

Soap and lather with one leg up, and while rinsing and drying switch to the other.

Coronavirus is sure to rustle all our leaves and sway our branches, and yet with Handwashing Pose, we can root ourselves in the best health care practice while strengthening our ability to stay steadier to weather this storm!

Precautions/Variations: Do not practice the usual lifting of arms overhead while in Handwashing Pose. Rather in Handwashing Pose, keep your hands low to avoid soap in your eyes. As needed, use your sink counter as a prop to steady your balance.