Vairagya: The Practice of Letting Go

“Vairagya” is the term in yoga philosophy that describes non-attachment. The term “yoga” itself comes from the verb “to yoke,” to be steadfast with something. This is different from clinging to things out of fear. Vairagya refers to our ability to let go of things, to leave them be, as well as to go for a challenge while renouncing the fruits of our labor. We need both action and inaction in our lives to remain balanced, and the practice of vairagya has us abstain from getting too attached. To play it cool, as it were.

Clinging to thought patterns, people or things, is the closest to what could be considered a sin in yoga philosophy. Basically, it shows lack of faith in that we are eternally provided for. “How is that?” you ask. There is no proof that a heavenly handout will materialize as soon as we let go of our attachments. But that is the definition of faith, isn’t it – the fact that we must believe without any assurance of desired outcome?

We can all agree that being flexible and having an ability to let go of an issue, a regret or an obsession, is a good thing. We are so much happier when we don’t stare ourselves blind over something we want, or a problem we can’t immediately solve. What I’d like to do here is explore a little further the lesser discussed virtue of vairagya, which is what it does to us as people.

Loosening your grip on things makes you a less fearful person. Letting go reminds you that life is temporal and that being able to hold on to anything is an illusion. Enjoyment of the moment is all you have until that moment is gone – so that you may enjoy the next one. Non-attachment lets you love people without glomming on to them, expecting them to love you in return. In this mental place, fear loosens its grip on you because you enter situations without either anticipation of what will happen or bracing yourself for the worst. Your actions become a true expression of who you are, over being directed by your thoughts of what those actions will give you.

Sometimes I have trouble sleeping. Attaching myself to the idea that I should sleep only makes it worse. I’m attached to my sleep (as well as attached to the beauty that will surely vanish quickly if I don’t get my sleep …). Below are the practices I do to open up and change my perspective in those moments, and I find that they can be applied to anything that I am attached to. Feel free to try this self-talk – I hope it will work for you too.

• First, use your breath to help you. Say “let go” to yourself. “Let” on the inhale, and “go” on the “exhale.” If you, like me, use it for sleep, know that it’s also OK just to be resting and not sleeping. When you are tired enough, you will sleep (and maybe you are just someone who has a lot of energy, and that’s why you are still up).
• Second, there is a gift housed in each situation where you think you are about to lose something. The gift differs depending on the situation, but the gift of learning is universal to most of them. Ask yourself, “What am I learning now?”
• Lastly, clinging prevents you from expanding. Holding on so tightly to what you already have or hope to gain, blinds you to what else is available to you.
  Say to yourself, “Although uncomfortable, I’m expanding now.”

In conclusion, I quote the great Swami Muktananda when he said, “Don’t be addicted to anything, but if you have to be addicted to something, be addicted to yoga.” Perhaps in our glorious humanity, we will always have to fight our urge to control circumstances. Muktananda’s advice to cling to the yogic way of non-attachment may be our best bet in directing our fear and letting go. Either way, when you feel clingy, vairagya will free you up any time you are willing to practice it.

Johanna Sawalha is a private and executive coach with 18 years of experience in the field, coaching high-powered individuals in their businesses and lives.

Photo credit: Shenghung Lin

5 Steps to Stop Overeating

Have you ever felt compelled to keep stuffing yourself to the point of discomfort?

Maybe you’ve found yourself reaching for a packet of cookies when you’re home alone, tired and lonely? Perhaps it’s even healthy foods you’ve overeaten, such as a whole bag of raw nuts.

If so, you are one of many who have overeaten for emotional reasons.

Overeating can wreak havoc on your mental, emotional and physical health if left unaddressed, and the talking down to yourself that typically follows flushes a lot of energy and self-love down the toilet. If you are binging regularly and beating yourself up about it, you’ll also have much less time to focus on what really matters to you – your dreams, relationships, contributing, having fun.

Yet despite what your reason and intelligence tells you to do (i.e., stop overeating), you are still unable to close the bag of processed (or raw) chips.

Emotional eating can be a very challenging habit to release as usually:

• It is a deeply ingrained behavior.
• You have been doing it for a very long time both consciously and unconsciously.
• It can be frightening to consider a life where you don’t numb yourself with food, even if it is a conscious choice.
• Processed foods and junk foods are highly addictive, so even without the emotional component they can be extremely hard to stop eating.

But it can be done.

What is needed is support, compassion, kindness and a safe space without judgment where you can release your fears, and identify your emotions, triggers and real needs. Having a toolbox of strategies is essential to do this.

Here are some tools that you can start using immediately:

1. Identify what’s really going on
Do you stop long enough to see what emotion you are feeling before you stuff them down with food?

One of the most powerful things you can do is to train yourself to stop when you have the urge to eat, and ask yourself “Am I really hungry?” If the answer is no, ask yourself “What emotion am I really feeling?”

This alone can bring so much awareness that small shifts in your eating behavior will occur. You will realize that your heart and soul wants to be heard and fed, but the late-night box of candy isn’t doing it.

2. Find a safe place or person to release to
To heal your relationship with food, you need to safely express yourself and release the emotions you feel. A safe place or person will allow you to do this. There can also be a lot of shame and embarrassment around overeating, particularly binging, so a safe space to release becomes even more important.

Get into a journaling practice where you can write about whatever you are feeling with no talk back, criticism or judgment. Find a person you can speak to about your behavior and what’s really going on for you. Create or find a space where you can go to be quiet, think, cry, laugh, journal, talk, meditate. Having a space that you can always go to will give you a sense of comfort, nourishment, familiarity and a haven as you heal.

3. Create a sacred ritual
One of the best ways to nourish yourself every day is to create a sacred ritual that makes you feel centered, strong and harmonious. When you include this in your routine, you will find that over time you are better able to identify and address thoughts, feelings and stress that contribute to overeating (and other unhelpful habits).

What you include in your ritual is entirely up to you. For most people, one or a combination of the following works well:

• Meditation
• Deep breathing
• Affirmations
• Setting intentions
• Nourishing movement
• Yoga and stretching
• Journaling
• Drinking water or herbal tea
• Reading inspirational material
• Listening to music
• Speaking to a loved one
• Playing with your pets
• Having a hot bath or shower
• Resting

4. Understand and appreciate what food gives you
For many people who suffer from disordered eating patterns, food is the enemy. You stuff yourself and make yourself sick with it. You feel compelled to eat copious quantities until you feel heavy, tired, unwell and miserable. It adds the kilos to your body that you despise. It is the enemy you have to avoid at all costs to stay thin because that’s what you see as beautiful, worthy or your way of maintaining a sense of control in your life.

For many of the women I work with, an important step in their healing is helping them to understand what food really is – how it gives life, nourishment, beauty, joy, pleasure, energy, healing and comfort. Nourish yourself with real, high-quality whole foods that are not filled with chemicals, refined sugar, salts and fats, and learn how they produce beauty, health and energy. Respect is built for the role food plays within your body and a respect for your body itself also grows.

5. Unleash your creativity and do something you love every single day
You have endless creativity and passion within you. When you don’t allow yourself to express, create, be and do as you’d like to, you end up repressing yourself. Repression leads to out-of- control binges as a temporary way to numb that undirected energy.

Find a way to build in some time every day to do something you love, that gives you a creative outlet for self-expression, and that allows you to be exactly who you are or takes you a step closer to that.

Before you start using the “no time or energy” excuse, know that you only need five minutes to start doing this. If you have more, that’s great. If you are honoring your needs and desires by acting on them every day, you will be far less likely to look for the answer in cake. Self- satisfaction and happiness comes with nourishing your whole being – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually – consistently. This is your way out.

Without the drain of overeating, think about how much time, energy and health will be freed up to focus on what you really want out of your life! As someone who has a long history of emotional and disordered eating, I can tell you that you can overcome it, and the freedom and reward you will feel is truly worth the effort.

Casey Lorraine Thomas, certified detox, health and life coach, shows you how to get radiant health and energy, lose weight and heal naturally so that you can live the life you want in a body you love. Casey conducts phone consultations internationally.

Photo credit: wintersoul1

Roasted Vegetable Tacos

By Jennifer Zimmer

Yield: 4 tacos

-1 red pepper, cut and trimmed into thirds
-6 cremini mushrooms, chopped in half
-1 shallot, sliced
-2 large cloves of garlic (leave the peel on)
-4 ounces of firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
-3 tablespoons flaked nutritional yeast
-2 tablespoons sesame seeds
-1/2 cup shredded romaine lettuce
-1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
-2 tablespoons Veganaise
-olive oil
-sea salt
-shredded vegan cheese (optional)
-4 tortillas

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Place the pepper, mushrooms, and garlic cloves (peels still on) onto a baking sheet.  Drizzle a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt over everything and pop into the hot oven to roast, about 15 minutes.

Caramelize the onions in a bit of olive oil in a skillet, stirring frequently.

Put the shredded lettuce on a plate, along with the olives and onions and set aside.

In a medium bowl, gently toss the tofu cubes with the nutritional yeast and sesame seeds.  Cook the tofu over medium heat in a non-stick skillet, adding a bit of olive oil if desired. Turn the cubes frequently so all sides cook evenly.

Remove the tray from the oven, let the vegetables cool slightly.  Dice the pepper and mushrooms into bite-size pieces and put in a bowl.  Squeeze the garlic out of the peel, chop them up, and add to the vegetables.  Gently stir until all the ingredients are mixed.

Warm the tortillas in the oven for a couple minutes, then spread the veganaise on one half. Layer all the ingredients over the dressing, fold the tortilla in half and serve right away.

Tip: Alternate ways to serve this filling are piled high on top of your favourite whole grain (brown rice, quinoa, etc), or adding a spoonful of salsa.

The Neti Pot

Getting to Know the Nose

Before we go into the details of the nasal wash, let’s begin with a science lesson. The nostrils are the interface between your body and the atmosphere—they filter, clean, heat, and moisten the air you inhale. This is why yogis advocate breathing through the nose instead of the mouth.

The sensitive lining of the nostrils secretes mucus, which effectively traps dust, dirt, and other particles when it is moist. The mucus also contains antibodies, which help protect the body from infection or irritation by foreign materials or organisms. This is important because you inhale 18,000 to 20,000 times daily. All day the moist, sticky mucus collects dirty particles from the air you breathe and keeps it from entering the lungs. If you don’t clean this matter out of the nostrils, it will end up in your stomach, because the mucus lining of the nostrils slowly moves everything backwards until it is swallowed. What’s more, when the mucus becomes dry or laden with dust, it loses its protective function. The nasal wash dissolves and clears away dried mucus and stimulates the nasal linings to secrete fresh, moist mucus, which will help keep your nose—and the rest of your system—healthy.

How It Works

You can use the neti pot to rinse away pollen, dust, germs, and other airborne contaminants; to remove excess mucus when you’re congested; to moisturize the nasal membrane after spending time in planes or in heated or air-conditioned rooms; and to open the nostrils as you prepare for meditation.

The anatomy is simple. As holistic expert Carrie Demers, MD, explains: “Your nose is divided into two passages, and there’s a septum in between. You pour the water in one nostril, it goes around the back of the septum, and gravity helps it flow out the other side.”

The nasal wash, she says, can also prevent or treat sinus infections. “Your sinuses drain into your nasal passages through little openings called meatuses. It’s when these openings get blocked that mucus accumulates and causes pressure and infection. The neti water washes over the meatuses, keeping them open and the mucus inside the sinus cavities flowing out—the water doesn’t actually go into your sinuses.”

The Practice

If you’re wincing at the memory of getting water up your nose while swimming as a kid, don’t worry—jala neti uses a warm saline solution that’s the same temperature and salt concentration as your bodily fluids and is soothing to the sinuses. Neti pots vary in shape and size, so here’s a basic recipe: Mix one-half heaping teaspoon of pure noniodized salt with two cups of warm water until the salt dissolves completely. Adjust the mixture to your own salinity—it should taste like warm tears.

Fill your neti pot and lean over a sink, face downward. Keeping your nose slightly higher than your lips, twist your head to the left. As you breathe through the mouth, insert the spout into the upper nostril until it forms a tight (but comfortable) seal. Raise the handle of the neti pot and let the water flow through the nose and out the lower nostril. When you’ve emptied the pot, exhale through both nostrils into the sink or a tissue. (Do not close off one nostril while blowing, because this could force the water back into the ear.) Then repeat on the other side.

To clear loose mucus and water from the nose after the practice, exhale forcefully into the sink 5 to 10 times with both nostrils open and the face relaxed. Next, do a simple forward bend, turning the head from side to side as you do another round of vigorous exhalations. Remember, one of the goals of the nasal wash is to reduce excess mucus—so don’t be squeamish about blowing it out. You’ll feel better if you do.

The yogis have numerous variations of jala neti. In addition to the beginner’s nostril-to-nostril version described above, you can also learn how to pull water from your nose into your mouth, or push it from your mouth to your nose—which is especially useful if you’re away from home without your neti pot. To try the mouth-to-nose practice, fill your mouth three-quarters full with warm saline solution. Lean over the sink, facedown. To expel the water, tuck your chin toward your neck and press your entire tongue against the roof of the mouth, forcefully exhaling the saline into the sink. Keep the throat relaxed through the entire process. Repeat several times. This nasal wash reverses the natural motion of the cilia and cleans them in a different way. It also reduces postnasal drip.

The Neti Pot Challenge

For those of you who are new to the nasal wash, try spending three to six days learning how to do it. Then use the neti pot every morning for a month to observe its overall effect.

Next, figure out how often you need to do it and what time of day works best for you. To check whether you would benefit from the nasal wash at any given moment, breathe deeply through both nostrils together, then through each nostril separately; if you feel any blockage, you will find the nasal wash helpful and soothing.

Here are a few more suggestions: Use the neti pot before your asana or meditation practice. Try rinsing your nose after exposure to dusty, smoky, or sooty environments and notice the relief you get from it. Anticipate allergy seasons by getting started on a regular schedule of two or more daily washes. Generally, use the pot before meals, instead of afterward, to stay in harmony with the body’s natural mucus-producing schedule.

Meet You at the Sink?

So there it is: nasal irrigation is both comical and practical. It cleanses and protects the nasal passages, counteracting the effects of environmental pollution and treating colds, allergies, and sinus problems naturally and effectively. It improves the quality of your breathing, and hence, your yoga and meditation practices. Now, that’s a pretty convincing argument, isn’t it?

Written by Shannon Sexton, Yoga+’s Editor-at-Large

Originally published in Natural Health Magazine.

Originally published on September 4, 2009.

Vegan Creamy Cauliflower Soup

by Kristin Klein

Yields: 4 large or 6 small servings.

-1 onion chopped
-1 head of cauliflower
-4 stalks of celery w/o leaves
-4 cloves of garlic diced
-1 tablespoon sea salt
-1 3 by 3 inch piece of kelp/kombu
-6 cups water
-1/2 cup parsley
-2 tablespoons coconut oil or olive oil

Begin by boiling the water and chopping the veggies up.

Place all ingredients in water except basil/parsley and oil.

Once the water is boiling, cover and turn down heat to medium and simmer for twenty minutes.

After twenty minutes, blend hot soup in blender in two batches and add basil/parsley and oil.