Happy Relationships

In Today's Email:

• Relationships & Yoga: How practicing yoga can help create a happy love life...

• Yogi of the week: Today's winner...

• The Act Of Folding Over Yourself: Paschimottanasana...

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Relationships & Yoga

A relationship is like a yoga practice. Anyone can jump right in, bounding naively into an emotional commitment or twisting overzealously into a yoga pose.

Both endeavors can last a week or a lifetime. However, each takes time, effort, commitment, and open-mindedness. In yoga, we must listen to instructors, as well as our own minds, bodies, and surroundings. In relationships, we must listen to our partners, ourselves, and family members and friends.

Use Yoga to Soften Communication

Yoga breathing techniques provide a way for our bodies to communicate with our minds. The simple “Hmmm!” breath can allow both our bodies and minds to relax, giving us the opportunity to listen and act purposefully.

To practice “Hmmm!” breath, here are 4 simple steps:

• Begin by sitting in a quiet place.

• Cover your nose and mouth with a handkerchief.

• Say “Hmmm!” loudly with the mouth closed.

• Repeat as necessary.

Yoga Allows Love To Happen:

In yoga, as in love, the trick is allowing the process to happen. This is referred to as the “yes” mind. “Yes” is the balance needed to create a safe platform for communication, a space to rest.

Being in a “yes” mind when in a relationship means saying “yes” to giving each other space and “yes” to just being together in silence. It means saying “yes” to each other’s mistakes, unforeseen expectations, and weaknesses.

A smile shows on the surface of the “yes” mind. A couple can take the time to nourish their smiles both together and alone. Having a “yes” mind allows us to open ourselves up not only to new opportunities with others but also to new insights within ourselves. It’s equally as beneficial to your partner as yourself, both in yoga and in a relationship.

A Little Wobble Is Natural...

We wouldn’t know balance if we didn’t wobble. One of the best feelings in both yoga and relationships is overcoming imbalance.

The moment we feel as though we’re going to fall, we need not panic. Up to this point, we’ve learned to trust ourselves and our partners. We’ve listened, opened our minds, and worked on our skills.

When you feel the fall coming, breathe and focus. Start again and regain your balance. Breathe, smile, and appreciate the beauty of steadiness.

Yoga & Doubt

Whether it’s a yoga pose or a relationship, doubts may arise when something unexpected or disappointing happens.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says the mind tends to doubt the positive rather than the negative:

“You know, if someone tells you that they love you, you say, ‘Really?’ But you take it for granted when someone expresses their hatred towards you. If someone asks you, ‘Are you happy?’ you say, ‘Well, I am not sure.’ We doubt love. You never doubt your depression, but you always doubt your happiness. So doubt is always about something that is positive.”

Don’t fight your doubts. However, don’t blindly believe them, either. Simply be aware of your doubts, explore, and accept.

A Space For Love

Allowing for time alone is as important as time together.

“For love to blossom, there needs to be longing…and longing needs a little space"

“Though it is a little painful, longing is inevitable. If you don’t allow longing, then love does not grow. So, give them some space…and take some space yourself.”

Not only is space beneficial for a relationship, but it’s also beneficial for ourselves. Neglecting yourself will eventually hurt your partner. And while they should love and support you, they can’t know everything you need.

Just like the relationship, the Self must be attended to, and one of the best ways to reconnect with the Self is through yoga.

Let Time Pass

As time passes in a relationship, couples witness change. Change should be welcomed both in yoga and in our relationships. It’s an opportunity to grow, to learn, and to refocus. Without change, both yoga and relationships would be boring and of little use.

Yoga teaches us to open our minds and our hearts: it should be no different in the face of change. The only thing that time should not change, in both yoga practice and relationships, is commitment. Stay committed to your partner, yourself, and your practice.

🌃 IN THE STARS!

The Total Lunar Eclipse in Taurus greets us on November 8th, bringing us a quiet respite in the sea of emotions Scorpio Season brings. This supercharged Full Moon is an opportunity to transform and shift old patterns into new ones that allow you to heal. Over this Lunar Eclipse, remember that not all transformation needs to be dramatic and full of complicated emotions.

😇 POSITIVE NEWS OF THE DAY!

The Greek electrical system ran completely on clean renewable energy for the first time. The system was able to cover Greece’s electricity demands for five hours. As of August 2022, natural gas and renewable sources accounted for most of the country’s power.

Yogi Of The Week

The Winner: This week’s winner is Christine Taylor. Here is what she wrote to us a few weeks back. Thank you for your support and kind words Christine. We really do appreciate it.

If you are reading this Christine, then we have already sent you an email. If you can’t find it please reply to this email.

If you don’t know: In order to reward our wonderful community, we started doing a weekly giveaway every Wednesday to our most engaged readers.

And when we say reward… we really mean it!

We will be sending out one free chakra black lava stone bracelet and one free chakra necklace, every Wednesday to one lucky winner (no matter where you are located in the world).

How You Can Win: 

1. The more you read our newsletters the higher chance you have of winning. Make sure you save our newsletter in your primary inbox to read every issue we release.

2. Send us comments and feedback and you instantly get on our rewards list.

3. Generally the more you engage with us the higher chance you have of winning.

Thank you to all for your support and now it’s time to get rewarded!

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🧐 DID YOU KNOW?

Ayurvedic medicines contain not only herbs but also other substances like milk, ghee, butter, honey, molasses, gingelly oil, rock salts, minerals, ashes and self-fermented alcohol. While herbs are a major component of the medicines prescribed, other compounds are used as well. In some cases the other compounds are adjuvants or carriers (help the medicine perform better) and in others they form the medicine itself.

The act of folding over yourself...

In a pose like Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend) is like retreating into your own personal cave. Distractions recede from your awareness, making way for introspection. Paschimottanasana is also thought to improve digestive function, calm your mind and nerves, relieve headaches and menstrual cramps, and increase agility in your hips, legs, and lower back. Its gifts are many, but for years Paschimottanasana was my husband’s nemesis.

When Paul began a serious yoga practice in his 20s, he had very stiff hamstrings that barely let him nudge his torso forward. It took months of sitting almost upright with a strap around his feet and diligently lifting his back before he could let go of the strap and catch hold of his feet.

That should have been celebrated as a great milestone, but Paul was all too aware that he had a long way to go before he brought a long torso over his legs without hunching his back.

Paul put intense effort into his practice and tried to go deeper in the pose, but it wasn’t until he began to apply nonattachment that he could work on Paschimottanasana without a painful struggle.

The seemingly opposing concepts of effort or perseverance (Abbyasa) and nonattachment (Vairagya) appear early in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, and they are often referred to as the two wings of yoga practice.

You need to apply both to find the peaceful stillness that yoga promises. Abbyasa is an informed effort with the goal of self-understanding. Vairagya is detachment from the final results of your actions; it involves reflection, stillness, and surrender.

For example, if you’re sufficiently flexible in the final version of the pose, the entire front of the torso and headrest on the legs. But if you’re stiff, you may have to surrender the idea of taking your head down and instead put your effort into working patiently on folding from the hips and keeping a long spine so that the front and back of your torso lengthen evenly.

When you’re able to balance effort and surrender and apply this approach to Paschimottanasana (or to any other asana), your frustration with your limitations will lessen, and you’ll experience the pose’s physical and mental benefits. Distracting thoughts and mental agitation will decrease, and you’ll be able to enter your personal refuge, that is, a calm, wakeful state of pervasive attention.

Meme

NAMASTE ❤️

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