BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD IV.4.5
What you see, feel and take in from your environment is a huge amount of stimuli. Your mind cannot possibly take in all this, so it filters out all but a small amount. Your personal selection is very individual and controlled solely by your way of interpreting the things around you. For example:
Two people are on holiday abroad together and they go on a tour to see an ancient architectural site. They have to walk about a mile from their coach stop to see this building. It is hot and the road is dusty and dirty; the site, however, is magnificent. On returning to the coach, one person is overjoyed, as the ancient building was bigger, better and more beautiful than her greatest expectations, whereas the other grumbles about the heat, the dust on the road and the dirty, dishevelled appearance of the villagers pestering them to buy souvenirs. She hardly noticed the incredible architecture.
This is just a small example to show how different people can interpret the same experience totally differently. This extraordinary ability of the mind has an incredible effect on our lives, especially with regards to ageing. In his brilliant book, Grow Younger, Live Longer, Deepak Chopra tells us of the following experiment.
Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a fascinating experiment. She took groups of men in their seventies and eighties and encouraged them to think, act and be as if they were 20 years younger. After doing this for only 5 days these men showed a number of physical changes associated with age reversal. Their hearing and vision had improved, they performed better on tests of manual dexterity and joint mobility had improved.
This goes to show that how we think has a huge influence on our body.
Back to the power of focus. If we continually focus on something and keep it in our mind it will grow stronger, whereas if we take our focus away it will gradually wither and disappear. Here is another simple example:
Say you wanted to change your car, and fancied a dark green sports car. You had always wanted a car like this, but only recently felt you could afford it. Every magazine or newspaper you pick up seems to have a dark green sports car in it that catches your eye. As you drive you notice the green sports cars coming in the opposite direction. In car parks you will automatically be drawn to green sports cars.
Now, these cars were there all the time, but you never noticed them because your mind can only take a small selection of the vast amount of stimuli around you. Until you concentrate your mind on something, it does not grow in your consciousness.
We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.
THE TALMUD
How does this relate to our bodies? Enormously. Every day, focus on excellent health, a beautiful body shape, your body radiant with energy and your life filled with exciting new ideas and projects. See yourself as happy, beautiful, young and vital. As you step into your shower imagine you are stepping into the fountain of youth, which will renew and refresh you daily. Do this every day for a week and you will feel the difference.
Life is the movie you see through your own unique eyes. It makes little difference what is happening out there, it is how you take it that counts.
DENNIS WAITLEY
THE WINNER’S EDGE
4. The Secret of Flexibility
When you meet someone for the very first time, don’t you notice their flexibility and posture? Don’t you get that feeling of youth and vitality if they stand or sit up straight and move with a relaxed agility? On the other hand, if the person has a stoop and walks stiffly and slowly, don’t they immediately look old? The joints and spine normally stiffen with age. Yoga again demonstrates that for life-long flexibility it is necessary to work the joints carefully and in all possible directions of movement. By doing this we stimulate the flow of synovial fluid over the shiny cartilage covering the surfaces of the joints. This acts as ‘joint oil’ to ensure that the joint moves smoothly, and also gives nourishment to the cartilage. Correct exercise also strengthens the muscles around the joint, giving it support. Yoga will also add to the elasticity of your ligaments and tendons, and can help to remove the calcium deposits that can collect around the joint surface, so helping your joints remain flexible for life.
A major yoga teaching is ‘You are as young as your spine is flexible.’ This is so true-just look around you and you will find that delightful ageless quality in people with a flexible spine.
The spine has six directions of movement: forwards, backwards, side to side, and twisting in both directions. In our normal waking state, however, over 90 per cent of our time is spent bending forwards. Without correction, this can easily lead to the dreaded stoop. For perfect spinal health and flexibility, the spine needs exercising daily in all six ways. Exercises such as the upward stretch, forwards and backwards bend, or Salute to the Sun, sideways stretch or Half-moon posture and Triangle make a perfect routine that I have recommended to my pupils with back problems for the last 10 years, helping them to achieve amazing success.
For joint flexibility I usually recommend these postures:
Chest Expansion standing
Dancer’s Posture
Tree Balance
Big Toe Balance
Eagle Balance
Alternative Leg Pull
Thigh Stretch
The Twist
Backstretch
The Cow
The Mountain
Pose of a Camel
Pose of a Cat
Pose of a Dog – followed by Deep Relaxation.
If you are really stiff and aching, then it is best to see your doctor in the first instance. With his or her permission, go gently and carefully without strain into each movement. My experience with very many pupils is that yoga’s gentle movements can carefully ease the stiffness away and have very beneficial results.
Most people start yoga stiff and uncoordinated, but even after just a few weeks their flexibility improves tremendously, they feel, look and act younger and, as stretching the body releases its tensions, blood flow to the joints is improved, resulting in increased flexibility, healthier joints and the agility of youth.
One of the wonderful things about yoga is that it is never too late, pupils start yoga at all ages and I have many in their late seventies and eighties and all are improving with practice, so never give up.
A tree that can fill the span of a man’s arms grows from a downy tip; a terrace nine storeys high rises from hodfuls of earth; a journey of a thousand miles starts from beneath one’s feet.
LAO TZU, 6TH CENTURY BC
5. The Secret of Perfect Weight
People frequently ask me this question: ‘If yoga doesn’t burn fat, then how on earth am I going to get slim?’
In yoga, we don’t huff and puff with repetitive movements to burn off calories and fat, but instead we work on fine-tuning the entire body, helping it to relaxed, vibrant, positive health.
By working the entire body we stimulate the glands – the Shoulderstand, Fish and Cobra in particular are excellent for stimulating the thyroid gland in the neck, which of course can help energize a sluggish metabolism.
As the body’s health improves you will find that your