wildfire resources los angeles and prayers

Thank you to the Yoga Alliance for compiling this list in response to the California Wildfires for all, including Yoga Alliance Members.

 

If you have been affected by the California wildfires, please remember that you have free access to the Member Assistance Program, offered through our partner, AllOne Health. You and your household can receive in-the-moment, 24/7 phone support with a licensed professional counselor. If you know someone who could use these resources but is not a Yoga Alliance member, please email info@yogaalliance.org. 

Please refer to this list of emergency resources for critical information on wildfire relief and recovery, mental health services, and emergency management agencies.

You can still apply for FEMA assistance by phone at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362), on the FEMA app, or online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov

Eaton Wildfire Resources 

  • California State Senator, Sasha Renée Pérez, of District 25, has provided a list of essential resources for residents impacted by the Eaton Fire. You’ll find information on assistance programs, housing relief, recovery, and more. Visit Judy Chu’s Eaton Fire Resource Guide and LA Economic Development Corporation website for more resources.
  • Pasadena Community Foundation has launched the Eaton Canyon Fire Recovery and Relief Fund which provides support to local nonprofit organizations that are assisting with relief and recovery efforts for communities affected by the Eaton Fire. 
  • Community Aid Dena, a community aid network committed to rebuilding Altadena and Pasadena. They have also launched a GoFundMe Directory to support Black families displaced by the Eaton Fire which is linked in their bio. 
  • City of Pasadena provides news updates and official statements from the city of Pasadena, disaster recovery resources for residents and businesses, and FAQs in response to the Eaton Fire.  


On the Ground & In the Community | WalkGoodLA, MALAN, and LCF 

  • WalkGoodLA, a Black & Brown-led community wellness organization based in Los Angeles is providing in-the-moment, on-the-ground resources, support, and donation-based yoga classes. 
  • MALAN (Mutal Aid Los Angeles Network), connects people to resources to mutual aid projects.
  • Latino Community Foundation (LCF), a Latino-led organization based in California, launched their Wildlife Relief Fund to provide relief and recovery support, including critical financial aid, rehousing assistance, and emergency translation services, to Latino and Indigenous families.
The best of Deb Dana

Featured Books

The Best of Deb Dana

 

Polyvagal Practices: Anchoring the Self in Safety (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

“Here, for the first time, is a layperson’s explanation of polyvagal theory, an approach to mental health and well-being that has taken the clinical world by storm. A polyvagal approach to life is based on the knowledge that the autonomic nervous system is shaped by early experience and reshaped with ongoing experience.”

 

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Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory

 Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory “In Anchored, expert teacher Deb Dana shares a down-to-earth presentation of Polyvagal Theory, then brings the science to life with practical, everyday ways to transform your relationship with your body. Using field-tested techniques, Dana helps you master the skills to become more aware of your nervous system moment to moment―and change the way you respond to the great and small challenges of life.”

 

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The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

 The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy: Engaging the Rhythm of Regulation “This book offers therapists an integrated approach to adding a polyvagal foundation to their work with clients. With clear explanations of the organizing principles of Polyvagal Theory, this complex theory is translated into clinician and client-friendly language.”

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Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices “Deb Dana is the foremost translator of polyvagal theory into clinical practice. Here, in her third book on this groundbreaking theory, she provides therapists with a grab bag of polyvagal-informed exercises for their clients, to use both within and between sessions.”

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Tell us what you think about our pick, and remember that by shopping through our Amazon Associate link you help the GRD Center earn from qualifying purchases!

The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care, Second Edition

The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care, Second EditionFeatured Book

The Principles and Practice of Yoga in Health Care, Second Edition

by Sat Bir KhalsaLorenzo Cohen, Timothy McCall, Shirley Telles & Holger Cramer

This fully updated compendium of research, history, scientific theory, and practice amalgamates various evidence-based research findings and their practical implications for professionals who use yoga or refer patients to yoga practice.

Chapters cover the implementation of yoga for various illnesses and conditions from paediatrics to geriatrics. The expanded second edition includes updated contributions from leading biomedical researchers and therapists, brand new research on telemedicine, chronic pain, and mental health conditions, and a new chapter specifically on the implementation of yoga therapy in medical systems and healthcare with a focus on international perspectives and public perceptions.

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Tell us what you think about our pick, and remember that by shopping through our Amazon Associate link you help the GRD Center earn from qualifying purchases!

by Shanti Shanti Kaur, published in Yoga Therapy Today, Summer 2024 Issue

In late May 2023, I had a conversation with a kundalini yoga teacher trainer in Ukraine. He described missiles dropping daily into the major cities, towns, and villages, destroying homes, hospitals, and electric and water supplies. He described how men, women, and children endure the violence and atrocities of war. He wanted the new teachers he was working with to have additional skills to help meet the challenges of acute and complex trauma.

Within 3 weeks of this conversation, the faculty of the Guru Ram Das Center’s International Kundalini Yoga Therapy Professional Training formed the Resourcing and Sustaining Ukrainian Resilience Program, a 5- to 7-year initiative to bring trauma-responsive yoga therapy training and support to Ukrainian teachers.

The curriculum for the posttraumatic stress training our team has delivered since 2011 was not applicable here. We developed an entirely new 4-day training specific to a war zone and delivered it to 120 Ukrainian kundalini yoga teachers, including Major General Vitalii Butuzov (ret.). This initial group practiced seven core skills crucial for teaching yoga in environments of acute and complex trauma:

  1. self-regulation to restore/maintain a teacher’s calm presence,
  2. co-regulation in a group class,
  3. cultivation of student self-regulation
  4. use of trauma-responsive language
  5. design of trauma-responsive classes
  6. application of grounding mudras, and
  7. returning an activated student to calm presence.

Soon after, yoga teacher Olesia Stoyanova, one of the Guru Ram Das Center’s representatives in Ukraine, began leading a rehabilitation protocol daily for troops in a military hospital in Kyiv. This protocol focuses on stabilizing prana through the tattvas (elements of reality), building vitality and stability that will hopefully be maintained for months following the classes when these troops return to the front lines. Preliminary data from 2 months of daily classes (June–August 2023) confirmed these results: All participants noted improvement in well-being, mood, state of health, and life satisfaction. Most practitioners said they were better able to fall asleep and that their emotional balance had increased.

The troops were reluctant to practice on the first day, Olesia said. Tuning in, the asanas, the movement, the breathing—it was too unfamiliar. Yet by day five, they were so engaged in the yoga they asked her to come to where they were going: 7 kilometers from the front lines. She is now a trauma-responsive yoga teacher in rotation for their unit and described the initial situation this way:

Students come to regular yoga classes knowing why they are going to yoga, and it is their choice to practice. In the military this is different. Most of the soldiers are not interested in yoga. There is a big prejudice among men against yoga and mantras. For them it is something too feminine or too philosophical. They don’t see yoga as a tool that can help them recover. Also, most of the troops believe that they do not need psychoemotional support or a tool for self-healing. That’s why the unit commander brought everyone who was free from direct duties at the time to the first class.

Olesia sees promising effects of the classes, especially once she had earned the students’ trust. One of the ways she did this was by avoiding practices she knew they might find too esoteric—like mantra—and choosing those she thought would provide immediate practical benefit. “I started with exercises for spinal health [because] the soldiers spend a lot of time wearing body armor, which affects the condition of their backs,” she explained. “I also taught pranayama to relax the nervous system and build prana. It was both challenging and fun for them at the same time.” In October we followed up with a 3-day training in acute trauma protocols designed to meet the needs of women and children in military families, troops in military rehabilitation, those recovering from traumatic brain injury (TBI), and amputees.

To keep reading, download the full article here.

 

***Originally published in Yoga Therapy Today, a publication of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (www.iayt.org). Shared with permission.

Overcoming Cold Depression

By Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa, PhD, from the teachings of Kundalini Yoga

Cold Depression is our single biggest challenge as we integrate into the Aquarian Age. It affects vitality of spirit and leads us to take destructive risk and to self-sabotage. As we transition into the Aquarian Age through 2042, humanity suffers from a phenomenon called Cold Depression.

What is Cold Depression? Cold Depression occurs when the external demand is greater than the internal capacity to deliver and we have spent our reserves. We are depressed but we are so numb and insensitive to our own self, we do not feel it. The depression is therefore, “cold.” This leads us to inner anger and isolation from our soul. Cold Depression is when we are cut off from our spirit, source, strength and inner guidance. At its core is a deep sense of loneliness, a prevailing sense of anxiety and a loss of meaning. Yogis call this, “The Silence of the Soul”.

Cold Depression is a factor in addiction, self-sabotage, and chronic illness.

We instinctively counter the numbness of Cold Depression with behavior that fulfills the need for stimulation. A person experiencing Cold Depression does not seem depressed to herself or others. This is because she is busy, active, and appears energized. She may overwork, create “emergencies” or drink 6 energy drinks a day. He may engage in extreme sports, risk taking or substance abuse. The insensitivity of Cold Depression leads to reactivity, impatience and drama. Do you know anyone who experiences this?

Cold Depression is not just a personal challenge, it occurs across an entire population during global transition, such as the one we are in now. When there is a major frequency change Cold Depression can increase to profound levels, like a sudden tide. This “gray period” of the planet has occurred in the past, whenever there was an epochal transition. We feel empty inside, and cover it with over activity.

What Causes Cold Depression? Information overload, unrelenting stress, and rapid change contribute to Cold Depression. These are all elements of modern life. Everything seems to be happening at once and we are expected to respond to it all now. The glandular and nervous systems of most people on the planet are not sufficiently developed to meet this challenge. When we don’t have the energy within, we seek it outside ourselves. We go for the quick energy, a boost so we can keep going.

How Do We As Yogis Manage? We are all affected by the impact of the pressure of these times. We can no longer power through on the strength of our body alone. We need the power of our frequency to penetrate the Silence of the Soul.

The Quick Solution? Get your energy from Prana and not from adrenaline. The rhythmic flow of a Kundalini Yoga kriya restores the nervous and glandular systems and releases old stress response patterns from the body. Mantra breaks the silence of the soul and builds the pranic and radiant bodies. This gives both calm and vitality.

Even Quicker Solution? Breathe and chant! Let the mantra regulate your breath to restore your Prana. Let the tongue and lips move across the meridian points to balance your brain to deal with stress.

Feeling so pressured you can’t even do that? Click Play and have the mantra going as you keep going. Even play it while you sleep. In this age of change, we succeed by letting the sound current work for us.

Los sabios entendieron que somos enteros y completos para empezar. Por lo tanto, la práctica de Kundalini Yoga no es para arreglar algo. En cambio, es para despertar nuestro potencial, nuestros dones dormidos u ocultos, nuestra creatividad, talentos, y alinearnos con el propósito de nuestra alma. La intención original del Kundalini Yoga es ayudar a las personas sanas a alcanzar su excelencia y cumplir su destino. No fue concebido originalmente como un sistema de curación.

Sin embargo, muchos de los que practicamos y enseñamos Kundalini Yoga experimentamos sus beneficios curativos. ¿Cómo ocurre esto? Es a través del efecto del yoga sobre el prana.

Los componentes de la práctica del Kundalini Yoga: respiración, asana, mudra, mantra, drishti, bandha y bhavana -por sí mismos o en combinación- son los métodos prácticos para dirigir el flujo de prana. La secuencia específica y la coordinación de la respiración con el movimiento rítmico que componen el kriya constituyen la piedra angular del Kundalini Yoga. Todo ello es para construir, apoyar, equilibrar y dirigir el flujo de prana.

La experiencia transformadora y sanadora del Kundalini Yoga tiene que ver con el prana.

La conversación sobre el prana puede llenar más de un libro. Así que, para este breve artículo, vamos a centrarnos en el prana en relación con la respiración, el movimiento, el mudra y el asana, (con un toque de mantra) y cómo estos impactan en el cuerpo físico. En este artículo utilizamos el lenguaje de la tradición yóguica, en lugar del lenguaje de la ciencia y la investigación.

Los meridianos o nadis son las vías por las que fluye el prana. Se cree que estas vías se basan en la fascia, el tejido conectivo del cuerpo que contiene y conecta todos los músculos, articulaciones, plexos nerviosos y endocrinos, y órganos.

Las vías de los meridianos atraviesan las articulaciones. Los yoguis entienden que el mudra -la forma en que sujetamos los dedos y las manos (donde doblamos o extendemos las articulaciones)- dirige el flujo de prana a lo largo de los meridianos de forma específica al mudra. El asana hace lo mismo: la forma en que colocamos nuestro cuerpo (dónde doblamos o extendemos las articulaciones) dirige el flujo de prana a lo largo de los meridianos de forma específica al asana.

El mudra y el asana por sí mismos tienen un impacto en los meridianos al abrir una vía bloqueada o al equilibrar el flujo de prana a lo largo del meridiano. Si el prana es insuficiente, el mudra y el asana dan un impulso al punto del meridiano. Si el prana es más que suficiente, el mudra y el asana lo equilibran a lo largo de la vía.

Como la fascia interconecta los meridianos, los músculos, las articulaciones, los plexos nerviosos y endocrinos y los órganos, cuando movemos una zona del cuerpo, el movimiento se experimenta también en otras partes del cuerpo. Añadir el movimiento y la respiración al mudra y al asana aumenta su impacto.

El movimiento rítmico sincronizado con la respiración es lo que hace que el Kundalini Yoga sea tan efectivo para mover el prana. Las vías de los meridianos se abren, se fortalecen y se equilibran. El prana está disponible para apoyar todas las funciones clave del cuerpo. Con un prana adecuado y equilibrado, los sistemas vitales de la mente, el cuerpo y el espíritu se restauran y renuevan y vuelven a trabajar juntos. Se recupera el bienestar físico y emocional.

Al practicar la kriya “Experimentar la relación del cuerpo pránico y el cuerpo físico”, lleva tu conciencia sensorial al flujo de prana en la postura y los movimientos de cada ejercicio. Por ejemplo, nota lo que ocurre con tu respiración en los ejercicios 1, 2 y 3, simplemente a través del movimiento de los mudras y el ángulo del asana. Observa cómo te sientes con los diferentes patrones de respiración en los ejercicios 4 y 5. ¿Qué es diferente en tu experiencia de 6a, 6b y 6c dentro de la postura de la cobra? Con tu atención a la conciencia sensorial, puedes sentir el movimiento del prana a lo largo de los meridianos en tus muñecas, dedos, piernas, brazos y cara.

El último ejercicio antes de la relajación profunda integra toda la kriya mediante un movimiento rítmico en el centro pránico entre los omóplatos. Haz el punto focal del movimiento en la escápula en lugar de la cuenca del brazo y nota cómo tu respiración se profundiza y sincroniza con facilidad. Esto también apoyará tu resistencia durante los 11 ½ minutos.

Los yoguis saben que el prana se transporta en el mantra, ya que la corriente de sonido resuena a lo largo del nadi. El mantra Pavan Guru es el mantra del cuerpo pránico. Esta corriente de sonido vincula el cuerpo pránico individual con el cuerpo pránico universal y es el mantra de la meditación del mantra Pran Bandha que se incluye aquí.

La meditación comienza con la atención a tu experiencia sensorial mientras escuchas y sientes el mantra. Una vez que el sonido está incorporado, entonces cantas el mantra en voz alta.

Lleva tu conciencia a los meridianos de tus labios, lengua y paladar superior mientras creas el sonido. Escucha el sonido al mismo tiempo que lo emites. Siente la resonancia del sonido y nota cómo el ritmo del mantra afecta al ritmo de tu respiración. Estos sencillos pasos favorecen la encarnación y profundizan la experiencia del poder curativo del prana.

Cuando hayas completado la meditación, quédate un minuto quieto en conciencia para integrar tu experiencia.

Sat Nam.

The sages understood that we are whole and complete to begin with. Therefore, the practice of Kundalini Yoga is not to fix something. Instead, it is to awaken our potential, our dormant or hidden gifts, our creativity and talents, and align ourselves to our soul’s purpose. The original intention of Kundalini Yoga is to assist healthy people to reach their excellence and to fulfill their destiny. It was not originally intended as a healing system.

Yet many of us who practice and teach Kundalini Yoga experience its healing benefits. How does that happen? It is through the effect of the Yoga on Prana.

The components of Kundalini Yoga practice: breath, asana, mudra, mantra, drishti, bandha, and bhavana – by themselves or in combination — are the practical methods of directing the flow of Prana. The specific sequence and coordination of breath with rhythmic movement that comprise kriya form the cornerstone of Kundalini Yoga. All of it is to build, support, balance, and direct the flow of Prana.

The transformational and healing experience of Kundalini Yoga is all about the Prana.

The conversation about Prana can fill more than one book. So, for this short article, let’s bring our focus to Prana in relationship to breath, movement, mudra and asana, (with a touch of mantra) and how these impact the physical body. We use the language of yogic tradition in this article, instead of the language of science and research.

Meridians or nadis are the pathways through which Prana flows. It is thought that these pathways are grounded in the fascia, the body’s connective tissue that contains and connects all the muscles, joints, nerve and endocrine plexuses, and organs.

Meridian pathways cross over the joints. Yogis understand that mudra—how we hold our fingers and our hands (where we bend or extend the joints)—direct the flow of Prana along the meridians in ways specific to the mudra. Asana does the same: how we position our body (where we bend or extend the joints) directs the flow of Prana along the meridians in ways specific to the asana.

Mudra and asana by themselves impact the meridians by opening a blocked pathway or by balancing the flow of Prana along the meridian. If the Prana is insufficient, mudra and asana give the meridian point a boost. If the Prana is more than sufficient, mudra and asana even it out along the pathway.

Because fascia interconnects the meridians, muscles, joints, nerve and endocrine plexuses, and organs, when we move one area of the body, movement is experienced in other parts of the body as well. Adding movement and breath to mudra and asana augments their impact.

Rhythmic movement synchronized with breath is what makes Kundalini Yoga so effective to move Prana. Meridian pathways are opened, strengthened and balanced. Prana is available to support all key functions of the body. With adequate and balanced Prana, the vital systems of mind, body and spirit restore and renew and work together again. One returns to physical and emotional well-being.

As you practice the kriya, “Experiencing the Relationship of the Pranic Body and the Physical Body” bring your sensory awareness to the flow of prana in the posture and movements within each exercise. For example, notice what happens with your breath in exercise 1, 2 and 3, simply through the movement of the mudras and the angle of the asana. Notice how the different breath patterns in exercise 4 and 5 feel to you. What is different in your experience of 6a, 6b and 6c all within cobra pose? With your attention to sensory awareness, you may feel the Prana move along the meridians in your wrists, fingers, legs, arms, and face.

The last exercise before deep relaxation integrates the entire kriya through rhythmic movement at the Pranic center between the shoulder blades. Make the focal point of the movement at the scapula instead of the arm socket and notice how your breath deepens and synchronizes with ease. This will also support your endurance over the 11 ½ minutes.

Yogis know that Prana is carried on the mantra, as the sound current resonates along the nadi. The mantra Pavan Guru is the mantra of the Pranic body. This sound current links the individual Pranic body with the Universal Pranic body and is the mantra of the Pran Bandha Mantra Meditation included here.

The meditation begins with attention to your sensory experience as you listen to and feel the mantra. Once the sound is embodied, then you chant the mantra aloud.

Bring your awareness to the meridians of your lips, tongue and upper palate as you create the sound. Hear the sound at the same time that you make it. Feel the resonance of the sound and notice how the rhythm of the mantra effects the rhythm of your breath. These simple steps further the embodiment and deepen your experience of the healing power of Prana.

When you are complete with the meditation, give yourself a minute to sit still with awareness to integrate your experience.

by Dr. Japa

A version of this article was originally published in Greenfiretimes.com, Santa Fe, NM, March 2017. Meditation is a key topic in all of Dr. Khalsa’s presentations and courses.

I didn’t grow up with a contemplative practice but began meditating years ago in college. I knew very little about what meditation was and there was no internet at the time to cruise for ideas. I knew that I wanted to feel less stress about my sense of life. Looking back I see what an easy life I had at the time, no mortgage, no kids, and no job, but at the time it seemed truly overwhelming just because of my own brain and it’s activities. I picked up a book at the library on the topic and began a simple mental focus meditation; where you focus your mind on one object like a candle flame. When your mind wanders bring the focus back to contemplation of the object in all of it’s details. But it can be hard to jump right into a contemplative practice unless you have worked on training the breath first. This connects the brain to the nervous system in a way that cuts through the stresses of life and gives you an ability to clear out your brain and reset it.

PENETRATE OVERWHELM BY CONTROLLING THE BREATH

Breathing exercises can reduce feelings of overwhelm, even if you are a long time meditator it can add to your experience. Try the Dr. Andrew Weil “4 7 8 Breath” as he speaks to the myriad possibilities of how this one very short exercise can contribute to health, especially if done every day. Right now the billions of dollars on research that are spent on pharmaceuticals are preventing research on meditation; which is a free, harmless activity that anyone can do without fear of all the problems caused by pharmaceuticals. The emerging research about meditation, although not as comprehensive as the dollar driven pharmaceutical research, clearly indicates multiple health and wellness benefits.

HOW TO DO THE 4 7 8 BREATH

Come into an easy seated position. Before you start the sequence of controlled breathing, first blow the air out through an open mouth in a strong puff. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system through the vagus nerve and helps you relax. Just do this one time, then begin the following sequence and repeat it four times:

Inhale slowly through the nose to the count of four, hold your breath for a count of 7 and then slowly exhale through the mouth to a count of 8. Exhalation is longest. Do this at a rate that is comfortable for you. Try this twice a day. You can feel spacey afterwards, so have a glass of water and integrate the experience.

Consider squeezing this practice in at certain moments. Say you wake up at night and can’t sleep, try it. Or make it a habit to do this breath at the end of the day when you park your car at your house.

Mental Focus, softly gazing at a candle flame while it flickers, is a form of meditation

MEDITATION AND THE VAGUS NERVE

Meditation retrains the brain and nervous system towards greater relaxation. When you take a deep breath out with force, or do a segmented breathing pattern this activates the vagus nerve. What does the vagus nerve do? In multiple yoga traditions, it’s known as the “nerve of compassion”, the longest nerve in the body as it controls parts of the “rest and relax” or parasympathetic nervous system. This wandering nerve is located in the neck and head and spreads through the body, innervating the heart, digestion and lungs. The Center for Compassion in Berkeley California has made a mission of figuring out how to enhance and train the vagus nerve to have greater “Vagal tone”. Studies have proven that when this nerve is activated, a person will behave in more loving ways. Certain life activities like singing, bonding with others and sitting in meditative postures with the neck tucked down all activate the vagus nerve through the muscles in the neck, tongue and head. Through meditation and controlled breathing, you train this unconscious part of the nervous system to be under your conscious control.

WHY IS MEDITATION IMPORTANT?

Meditation at this time isn’t just a wellness or a lifestyle practice but a necessity. As we see the overwhelming polarization in this country where people are attacking and disparaging each other for differing views, it is critical that each person take responsibility for contemplative practice of some kind in his or her own way. We have to develop that inner seed of compassion, where the mind and heart are connected and were we see ourselves reflected in each other, no matter what the differences are.

Take the time to sit down and contemplate, breathe deeply, meditate and be in the moment. Your contemplation practice can be sitting quietly in the morning as you drink a cup of tea and listen to the morning birds. You can adopt a formal program if you like or just cultivate a moment to moment sense of gratitude and connection.

This is not just for yourself, so that you can have wellness, this is for humanity at large. Dedicate your contemplative practice to the world, feel connected with every being that is out there and shatter the illusion that you are separate and alone. Every breath that you take is literally a small piece of the universe, when you hold it inside of yourself and then let it go back to the world a piece of you merges with everyone else. This simple and crucial act of defiance can change the world one breath at a time as you break through the lie that you are separate from everything. Multiple research studies have shown that if you have the courage to take the time to meditate daily, the structures in your brain will be fine tuned so that you begin to experience the world with a sense of oneness. That the actions you take will have greater compassion, less reactivity and more kindness.

Meditation reminds you that you have a choice. If you choose to meditate daily, it brings you back to self responsibility and that your life is a mirror to the inner you. All of what you see around you and how you participate with it is completely up to you. When you give yourself time to meditate daily, you dump a lot of personal negativity and you will take life less personally and with a bit more panache. Try this and see how it affects you. It does take time to change.

THE “O” MOUTH: EMOTIONAL RELEASE BREATH This is something very easy to try the next time life takes you by surprise and you feel emotional or overwhelmed. Close your eyes and make your mouth into an “O” shape. Breathe loudly with a strong inhale and a strong exhale of equal measure. You should be able to hear a loud “whoosh” sound and your diaphragm should move with every breath. Feel your diaphragm/stomach contract as you exhale and expand with every inhale. Do this for a minute or two, even if you feel light headed. Then stop and rest with a normal breathing pattern. See if this powerful breath changes the situation in your mind.

Try the “O” breath to release your stuck emotions

by Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa, Ph.D.

On a cool Tuesday morning in January 1990, Jonathan called. I had been teaching yoga to people living with serious illness for about five years in Los Angeles.

“I’m calling to let you know I may not make it to class on Friday, ” Jonathan began in his soft British accent. “I’ve gone to the doctor this morning and he told me I have just three days to live. Mind you, I am not actually canceling. If the doctor is right, my partner David will give you a ring.

If the doctor is wrong, I’ll be in class, in my usual spot.” Jonathan spoke with ease and calm. From the time he had first started classes in Kundalini Yoga for people living with HIV, he took to heart the yogic perspective on living and dying. He used this time to explore his life.

What was he afraid of? What was holding him back from fully enjoying the gift of his life? Jonathan used the practice of meditation to help him become aware of his feelings, beliefs, decisions, words, and actions and to transform them.

He then made a conscious choice to live in a way that honored the sacredness of his life. He was 39 years old. When it came time for death, he was prepared. It was with this fearless depth that Jonathan heard the doctor’s prognosis.
In the early evening on that same Tuesday, David called to let me know that Jonathan had passed away peacefully in their home.

When I first started to teach Kundalini Yoga to people with HIV, cancer, and other life-threatening illness, a renowned health care leader told me bluntly, “Death is a medical failure. We don’t want our patients to die, so when it looks as though they will, we start to pull away. We turn our attention to the patients where we can win.”

At that point, there was nothing in my life experience that had taught me how to serve people facing death, and I was seeking the wisdom of those in the field. I stood in front of a leading representative of modern medical health care, astounded.

So, I thought, this is how medical people are trained away from a dying person. How would a yogi respond? Simple. Move closer. Closer to the dying person, and especially move closer to the realization and acceptance of one’s own death.

Yogi Bhajan says that to know how to live, we must know how to die. To a person following a yogic way of living, life is a conscious preparation for death. When we remember in life that we are to die, our awareness does not allow us to do a wrong act. We remember the preciousness of our life and choose right action.

Roger’s Story

Roger was a chemical engineer and a methodical man. For him, everything had to have a reason, an explanation, and it had to make sense. When he received a diagnosis of stage IV colon cancer, he approached his treatment with the same one-step-at-a-time system that he used in his lab at work. When his oncologist told Roger there was no further treatment he could give him, Roger said, “I’ll just keep turning over more stones, until I find a solution.”

His efforts led him to meditation and yoga practice and the inner work of facing death and finding new life.

“I have discovered a world beyond my intellect and this has been an extraordinary experience. Now, to me every place is an altar, every experience is a blessing. Life has become magical, even though I am doing the same routine.” Roger encouraged his family, friends, and colleagues to explore this process with him. He made new friends along the way and continued undaunted, even when others around him did not share his enthusiasm for addressing death.

” I was an old guy, 68, when I was diagnosed. I didn’t think there was anything more I could learn about life. I never thought spirituality or religion had any value. I was mistaken. After I reached the limits of medical treatment, I learned to see and to serve the purity and piety in all. Shocked the hell out of me and everyone who knew me.”

“Facing my death has been the most important work I have done in my life. I believe death needs to be more openly discussed and planned for in families, the same way that education of the children, retirement, and buying a home are discussed and planned for. Understanding death has such an impact on living life that we need to give it more attention.”

Roger lived four years longer than his doctors foresaw, and at the time of his passing he was surrounded by loved ones who were at peace with his death, and who could support him calmly. His wife, Melinda, described his last moments. “His breathing became difficult for a minute or two, then calm and even again until it stopped altogether. I noticed he had a slight smile on his face. Though I was right next to him, it was clear that he was not smiling at me.”

What happens when we die? According to the yogis, at the time of death, each of the nine gates close, one at a time, until the energy of spirit is consolidated at the crown chakra. The soul is carried with the subtle body through the tenth gate. The person exhales, the soul is released. There is no next inhalation. Stillness follows.

Divine Grinding

At the time of the passing of the soul from the body, each of us experiences 30 seconds of “divine grinding.” This divine grinding comes in three stages. During the first 10 seconds you face the entire panorama of your life. The next 10 seconds, you judge yourself. During the final 10 seconds you take your last breath, your last exhalation, and your soul and subtle body pass.

Once the soul passes from the body, it enters a “cylinder,” the tunnel of white light described by so many who have had near-death experiences. As it moves along in this space, the soul may sense the passing of other souls. At the end of the tunnel, there is a choice.

The left side is hot; the right side is snowy cold. On both sides are your relatives, calling you.

The message of the yogis is, “Go toward the snow.”

At 17 days after death, the soul chooses to stay in the electromagnetic field of the earth, or to cross through the electromagnetic field, into the blue ethers. Most souls remain in the first level of blue ether for a period of time before entering the next life.

In the process of death, it is important to keep connection with the neutral mind. This is the time to be deep in our identification with the infinite, undying self. Yogi Bhajan says, “You and your mastery must come through at the moment of death.” We develop mastery when we wake up during the early morning hours, take a cold shower, and meditate before the sun rises.

In the darkness, in the resistance of that time of the day, meditation practice gives us skill to penetrate the mind with the light of the soul. This ability is necessary during the divine grinding just before the soul leaves the body.

It is also said that chanting Wahe Guru or the pran sutra, Nanak too lehna too hai, guru amar too vicharia, (You are Nanak, Guru Angad, and Guru Amar Das) at the time of death helps to connect us with the neutral mind, and release the soul.

Long Ek Ong Kars

The chanting of Long Ek Ong Kars, for example, is part of the Aquarian Sadhana and is an excellent means to command freedom within one’s self, increase vitality, and break through blocks. Yogis recommend practice of it to allow ease and vitality into the process of dying.

Also called the Morning Call, this is the 2 and 1/2 cycle mantra of Ek Ong Kar available on most sadhana CDs from Ancient Healing Ways

Yogi Bhajan describes death as “a process where your consciousness does not exist within the control of your ego.” This means that we must have a relationship of trust with the unknown, the unseen, in order to die peacefully. Much of yogic life practice is to deepen this trust.

Nam Simran, the repetition of the sound current, such as a mantra, with each breath develops such trust. The practice of the one-minute breath can have this benefit as well. The practice of giving to the unknown, such as in charitable giving, and the practice of taking right action without attachment to outcome, are examples of deepening the relationship of trust with the unknown.

Instead of judging oneself and others, practice blessing and forgiving so you can bless and forgive all that you see in the panorama stage. Practice releasing all attachment to what happened or did not happen during the course of your day and forgiving and blessing every person and every event.

Roger found that this practice became his greatest power in life. “My best achievement is that I can bless all, forgive all. It has brought boundless joy to my life.” And a peaceful, transcendent death.
The poetic words of Guru Nanak convey the feeling of vastness, joy, and deep calm that is the movement of the soul from life into death.

The nine gates are closed by the True Lord’s Command and the Soul Swan takes flight into the skies.

Be at peace.

by Shanti Shanti K. Khalsa, Ph.D.
IAYT Advisory Council; Guru Ram Das Center for Medicine & Humanology, Espanola, NM

The day before I started to write this article I sat with eleven other Yoga teachers, each representing a member school of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, each a steward of their Yogic lineage and tradition, each a pioneer in bringing Yoga as a therapy into Western medicine. We met as a standards committee intended to create minimum requirements for Yoga therapist training. Under the skillful facilitation of Dan Seitz and John Kepner, we sorted through such concepts as scope of practice, knowledge base, clinical experience requirements, and core competencies— areas few of us considered when our first Yoga student with a health condition came to class. What a difference twenty years makes!

When I was trained as a Kundalini Yoga teacher in 1971, the focus was on teaching healthy people. Sure, people came to class to increase their flexibility and energy, to reduce stress or improve sleep, but these were not considered people with health conditions. Fifteen years later, students came to my class on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles with fevers that had no known cause. Many had orange fungus growing in the creases of their skin or long white filaments growing from their tongue. They were in late-stage HIV disease. This was out of my realm; I had no medical background and had no idea how or even what to teach these students. Fortunately, my spiritual teacher Yogi Bhajan lived in the same city and was available to train me to teach Kundalini Yoga to people with health conditions. Though I did not recognize it at the time, nor label it so, it was under his direct guidance that I moved from being a “Yoga teacher” to becoming a “Yoga therapist.”

Yogi Bhajan did not use the terms “Yoga therapy” or “Yoga therapist” and encouraged us not to use this language. We call what we do “bringing Kundalini Yoga into the healthcare field” or “teaching Kundalini Yoga to people with… (name the condition).” He felt that until there is adequate research on the application of Yoga practice to support health outcomes, it is not appropriate to call what we do “therapy” or “therapeutic.”

Other Yoga teachers were in a similar situation, with students who had identifiable conditions and for whom a regular Yoga class did not serve. We found each other. Larry Payne knew Richard Miller; I knew Larry, who introduced me to Sherry Brourman, who influenced my work with the lymphatic system. Lisa Walford was teaching people with HIV; so was I. Eric Small was down the road from me, teaching Yoga to people with MS. Most of us taught specialty populations: just people with cardiovascular conditions, just people with back pain, just women with breast cancer, just people with depression.

Through the centuries Yoga has been taught and practiced as a way for healthy people to reach their excellence. Even though there are Yogic texts on the therapeutic applications of Yoga, it is not historically a therapeutic method or intervention. Fortunately, most of us had a lineage, a Yogic tradition we followed with a living teacher who guided our work.

We helped each other connect with physicians and allied health professionals, supported each other with marketing and outreach, made connections to participate in professional conferences. We formed a tribe of sorts.

Defining what Yoga therapy is and what a Yoga therapist does? Who had time for that? I don’t recall that we even used these terms in 1986. For many of us, it was more than enough to address what was in front of us. In my own situation,

new medical information about HIV and the immune system came out almost daily, requiring me to constantly learn more and modify how, what, and even where (hospital, hospice, home) I taught. Students died almost every week. It was messy, chaotic, enormously demanding, and changing fast. This is a field?

After a few years of this, it started to dawn on us that something bigger was happening than just us teaching Yoga to people with a health condition. Larry hosted a training by A.G. Mohan at Meadowlark. From this we got a glimpse of our range and impact and began to put language to what we were doing: We were pioneers in the West for the therapeutic application of Yoga.

Larry and Richard got reflective, and one day in 1989, Larry called to tell me they were forming the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Would I like to be a charter member? Absolutely. Now our tribe had a name and a home. Were we a field yet? Probably, or at least getting close.

We started training other Yoga teachers to do whatever it is we did, and we began to expand what we offered. My work with the immune system and HIV disease led to courses on the practice of Yoga for people with cancer, for chronic pain, for grief recovery, for support during major life change. This led to work with people with depression, anxiety, heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic conditions. By 2004, we knew we had to offer training not in specialty conditions, but in —dare I say it—the field of Yoga therapy. We need to train Yoga therapists, not just Yoga teachers who can teach to specialty populations.

From this evolution, neither Yoga therapy nor Western medicine is the same. Over the past twenty years, Western medicine has influenced the delivery of our Yoga therapy programs and how we work with clients. In turn, we are influencing Western medicine. There is more widespread acknowledgement of the contribution the practice of Yoga brings to health, and the ability of the body/mind/spirit to restore health. In addition, popular books such as Yoga as Medicine by Timothy McCall, MD, and Meditation as Medicine by Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD, have brought the practice of Yoga and the Yogic way of living as a therapy to a broader audience.

Today, the International Association of Yoga Therapists holds conferences to bring together Yoga therapy practitioners and researchers. We are working to create a unified professional identity. We are creating standards and guidelines for the training of a safe, effective practitioner of Yoga therapy. Faculty qualifications, regulation of the field? Areas we did not dream of twenty years ago are now essential elements of the conversation.

The conversation continues and expands. What do you want to contribute toward the future in the next twenty years?