Did I mention that my laptop has finally died? Well yes, it has. My entire life is now on a portable hard drive and several memory sticks. I battle on regardless, remembering four little words….

breathe in, breathe out

We have to keep doing it, regardless of what else is going on, so we may as well do it well.

So that’s your Friday flow for this week readers,

breathe in, breathe out

Sometimes I think we get so entangled in our asana practice that we forget the other 7 limbs – and dare I say it, we especially forget to breathe.  I see students sometimes (hell and teachers, I’m guilty of it myself), desperate to get more deeply into an asana, straining, gritting their teeth…..and holding their breath.  And there right then, the yoga has gone out of the window.

breathe in, breathe out

Lie down, bend the knees, feet flat on the floor and relax.

breathe in, breathe out

Place your hands on your upper abdomen, just below the bottom ribs.  Feel the movement of the breath, rising, falling.

breathe in, breathe out

After a few breaths move the hands up to the ribcage.  Feel the movement of the breath as the ribs expand and contract.

breathe in, breathe out

Finally place one hand on the floor beside you and the other on the upper chest, just below the collar bones.  Notice if there is any movement here, there shouldn’t be much!  Be aware of the breath passing through the throat and chest on it’s way to the lungs and on it’s way back out again.

breathe in, breathe out

There.  Don’t you feel better about everything now?

(image source)

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Lauren’s blanks today are all about Thanksgiving – this not being something we celebrate here in the UK (although isn’t every day a thanksgiving? ) I’ve gone back through the archives to nab an old one…. it’s music related, my favourite thing

1. One song that always takes me back to my youth is “Mad World” by Tears for Fears. That’s the original version folks, not that bloody awful dirge that was covered for Donny Darko. If, for whatever reason, you’ve never heard the original, listen to it now, it’s beyond awesome. It was one of the first records I bought for myself with my own money on 7″ vinyl (remember them?) from Woolworths (which also no longer exists). Sigh…

2. My first concert ever was … ever I’m not sure as I went to various things with my parents growing up, but the first concert I went to on my own was Fields of the Nephilim at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in September 1988. I was 14. I wore a lot of black eyeliner and over crimped my hair. There was a lot of dry ice. Everything smelt of Patchouli. It sticks in my memory like it was yesterday.

3. If I could create my dream music festival I’d want these bands to be there: Led Zepplin (c.1972), Aerosmith (c.1973), Motley Crue (c.1983), New Model Army (any and all eras), Mudhoney (c.1990), Scream (c.1988), Nirvana (c.1992),Foo Fighters (obv although clearly Grohl will be exhausted by now it being his third band in a row) … ah you get the idea…. my musical preferences kind of died out in the early 90s….

4. The best make-out song ever is Everlong – Foo Fighters

5. The best concert I’ve ever been to was probably in hindsight seeing Nirvana at Reading but not really realising the importance of it all at the time. Two more recent ones that spring to mind are the Foos at the Astoria in ‘05 (for many reasons) and NMA at Holmfirth Picturehouse in ‘06 (that was a really good one!).

6. A memorable musical moment for me was hearing “Penny Lane” for the first time aged about 4, with my dad.

7. The song on my iPod that’s getting the most play these days is …. I have no iPod. I have nothing whatsoever to do with Apple since an iPod wiped my hard drive 4 years ago. I have a Creative Zen but that is full of yoga and massage music. So I guess the answer to this is “Om Mani Padme Hum”! In my CD player TCATS gets very heavy rotation to this day!

I’ve had a strange relationship with sleep for years. I love sleep, I look forward to long lie ins, epic 12 hour sleepathons, at the weekends and I’ve yet to find that I’ve grown into early mornings! However long ,deep sleeps are, on the whole, a thing of the past for me.

picture credit

It hasn’t always been thus. As a child I slept the sleep of the dead.  Nothing would wake me.  On one famous occassion, I had a dream I was being eaten by a lion.  I was thrashing around in bed fighting for my life, but nothing could wake me, not even my parents!  Oh to be able to sleep so deeply now.

It’s a bitter irony that people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and/or Fibromyalgia, despite being almost always tired, do not sleep well. Some of us (like me) sleep poorly, and not for very long at a stretch and some of us can sleep for long periods of time but just don’t feel rested.  It’s a bit of a Catch 22 really because this lack of sleep can cause the extreme muscle pains of Fibromyalgia, those same muscle pains that can keep me awake at night!

But it is not just people with CFS/Fibro who suffer. Millions of us aren’t getting enough sleep, whether it is because of sleep related disorders, stress and worry or simply not having enough time on top of all the other things we feel are expected of us. Once chronic insomnia starts we have to ask ourselves whether to drug or not to drug.

Personally I decided against the pill option. One of the huge advantages of being a yoga teacher is I have many a wide ranging toolbox of aids for relaxing and so I thought I would share one with you today that I feel has helped me more than anything else when it comes to falling asleep.

The Square Breath
Just begin by focusing on the breath and try to establish a gentle even rhythm, e.g. inhaling for the count of four, exhaling for the count of 4 (I’m using 4 as the count here but use what is comfortable for you).

1. Take four even breaths (inhale 4, exhale 4)
2. Begin to add a retention to the inhale (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4) – repeat 4 times
3. Begin to add a reention to the exhale (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4) – repeat 4 times
4. Let go of the inhale retention (inhale 4, exhale 4, hold 4) – repeat 4 times
5. Let go of the exhale retention (inhale 4, exhale 4) – repeat 4 times

It does look a bit complicated written down like that but you only have to practice it a few times adn you will soon know it.

Lying with your legs up the wall (Viparita Karani – see picture) is very beneficial for sleeplessness – try the square breath in this postion!

How do you sleep at night dear readers?