Sunday, February 18, 2018

Memory Recall: Great Ideas that Drifted into Dreams

You know how, when you're comfortable in bed, waiting for sleep to take you off to dreamland and you suddenly get a great idea? Sure, you could get up and write it down, or type it out on a presumably close-by mobile device, but either of those physical actions will undoubtedly jostle you from near-slumber. As someone who lies in bed for at least an hour before actually falling asleep, that's the number one thing I'd like to avoid. So here's a trick I've learned, and it can help you make sure those brilliant ideas don't drift off, while you do.


It's simple, really. All you've got to do is visualize each curve, line, and dot, of each individual letter as you mentally write your idea down with your visual pen or pencil. I don't even bother visualizing the paper, or even my hands holding the writing utensil; just the bare necessities, baby. 

I've tried this exercise with a visual keyboard on a laptop, or even visualizing typing it out with my thumbs on the note app and found that didn't work nearly as well. Even as I was visualizing it, I could tell, 'this isn't going to work; even reading actual digital things doesn't stick as much as reading actual physical books'. What works for one, may not work for another though, so this may work for you better than it did with me. 

Whichever writing utensil you decide to visualize, the important thing is focus. Repetition also helps tremendously; sometimes when I visualize writing my idea, my mind will wander and I'll have to re-visualize a letter. Whenever I re-visualize a letter, I'll usually finish visualizing the word of the idea, then repeat the entire word or phrase all over again, just to be sure. 

When the next morning comes around, you'll quite possibly be surprised at just how well this works, and how quickly you remember your post-sleep idea. I am the farthest from being a morning person, and typically my visualized pre-sleep ideas will bubble up to the surface of my mind between the first and second cup of coffee. Give it a try tonight, even if it isn't a great idea you have, just try to store one of your pre-sleep thoughts for retrieval the next morning; it's a fun exercise nonetheless.

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Cues to Improve: Standing Forward Fold [Uttanasana]

There's several cues to follow with any given pose, sometimes so many, there ends up being a whirlwind of instructions flying around in our minds. It can get distracting, and distraction can lead to silly, avoidable injuries. We just need to figure out which cues to focus on.

Personally, I'll typically choose three cues; I know that's my mental limit before my mind starts becoming overwhelmed. Which three I choose depends on what I feel I'm struggling with the most at the time. For example, if I feel like I've been incredibly irritable and stressed out lately, I'll make the cue, "focus on your breath: in and out" a top priority. 



Here's an incredibly helpful and descriptive infographic you should save for future reference:

[Click to enlarge]


Sunday, February 04, 2018

Help Hush Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts are inevitable, unavoidable; as much apart of the great balanced Yin and Yang as the positive. The trick is to not entertain those negative thoughts, turning them into a hurricane and letting them take you down. Now, we're not talking about serious sad moments, we're talking about silly forgivable mistakes that your inner-voice takes advantage of you for, making you feel worse and for longer than necessary. Of course there will be times when the negativity of sadness and grief are appropriate - we don't all live forever, and we've got connections. When something hugely negative happens, embrace it, it's good for you, it's life. 

Visual negative thoughts, like daydreaming scenarios that'll probably never happen, is the most common visual-type of negative thought I deal with. They aren't always necessarily negative, I've just noticed that when I get too wrapped up in my daydreaming world, it can trigger my anxiety. So, to avoid that, and to pull myself out of my daydream, I'll simply visualize a background layer of blank paper; then, imagine it crumpling up, along with the daydream, into a paper ball. Chuck it in the mental fuck-it-bucket and move on with your thoughts. Sometimes I find that daydream resurrecting itself, making it's way back to me, and I'll have to imagine that background layer of paper crumpling it up again, and sometimes for a third or fourth time. Usually the third time's the charm, though, it'll vary depending on what I'm worried about and how worried I am, but that's okay! 


Inner-voice's negative thoughts (ie: self-loathing, self-depreciating, just beating yourself up in general) are a little more challenging to silence, for me anyway. The hard part is realizing you are not your inner-voice; I still struggle with this idea. But it's definitely an empowering idea. Once you grasp the concept that You are Not your Inner-Voice, you can (ironically, using your inner-voice) literally, "Hushhhhhhh" your inner-voice's negativity. Use your inner-voice to tell it to "Hushhhhhh" (extend the "Shhhh" for as long as you can). This actually tricks your tongue and throat muscles into moving the slightest bit to turn your breaths into a less extreme Ujjayi pranayama breath, which does calm the mind. Again, sometimes I'll have to tell my inner-voice to Husshhhhh a few times before it actually quiets down, but again, that's fine. 

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Cues to Improve: Tree Pose [Vrksasana]

There's several cues to follow with any given pose, sometimes so many, there ends up being a whirlwind of instructions flying around in our minds. It can get distracting, and distraction can lead to silly, avoidable injuries. We just need to figure out which cues to focus on.

Personally, I'll typically choose three cues; I know that's my mental limit before my mind starts becoming overwhelmed. Which three I choose depends on what I feel I'm struggling with the most at the time. For example, if I feel like I've been off balance lately, I'll make the cue, "level your hips" a top priority. 

Here's an incredibly helpful and descriptive infographic you should save for future reference:

[Click to enlarge]

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Visualization Technique: Breathing Into Certain Muscles

Breathing into certain muscles to go deeper into a pose is a common cue yoga instructors give. What exactly does that mean, though? How does one breath into anywhere other than the lungs?


Sunday, January 14, 2018

Cues to Improve: Downward Facing Dog [Adho mukha śvānāsana]

There's several cues to follow with any given pose, sometimes so many, there ends up being a whirlwind of instructions flying around in our minds. It can get distracting, and distraction can lead to silly, avoidable injuries. We just need to figure out which cues to focus on.

Sunday, January 07, 2018

Yoga Progress is Slow Progress

There's a reason they say patience is a virtue. In this day and age with instant messaging, overnight delivery, and even Netflix releasing full seasons at a time, we've basically been programmed to anticipate instant gratification in nearly any situation. And when we don't receive that instant gratification, we instantly become frustrated; ironic, isn't it?