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A Smile Is A Curve That Sets Everything Straight

2/23/2021

The simple act of smiling has a powerful effect on your life. As you face life's challenges, make smiling your secret ingredient for maintaining a happy life and a positive mindset.

It turns out that smiling and happiness are intertwined. When you feel happy, your brain releases serotonin (regulates mood), dopamine (regulates pleasure), and endorphins (relieves stress and pain) which then transmit a signal to your face to trigger a smile. When these chemicals circulate through your system, they help to lower stress and anxiety, they help to regulate heart rate and blood pressure, and they take your nervous system out of fight and flight mode.

Now here’s the fun part… when your facial muscles contract into a smile, a signal is fired back to the brain creating a feedback loop of HAPPINESS!

Simply put:

When you feel happy, you smile.
When you smile, you feel happy.

You have a happiness controller in your hands! You can turn a bad mood around by simply smiling. You can cheat the system and make your brain release feelings of happiness.

So, be mischievous and smile that devilish grin! Make people wonder what you’ve been up to.

“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”-Phyllis Diller

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Sweet Air Extinguishes the Burn

2/16/2021

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Have you ever tried the yogic breathing technique (Pranayama) called Alternate Nostril Breathing or Nadi Shodhana? This form of Pranayama helps to balance both hemispheres of the brain bringing both effectiveness and calmness. Breathing through the left nostril is calming while breathing through the right nostril is energizing.·

Nadi Shodhana is excellent at helping you relax before an important event and can be practiced daily to reduce anxiety. It calms, purifies, and strengthens the nervous system and deepens self-awareness making it an excellent preparation for meditation.

Here's how you do it!!

Sit in a comfortable position such as Sukhasana (Easy Pose). You may want to sit on a bolster or with your back against a wall for support. You prefer to sit with your legs straight or even in a chair.
Once you have found your comfortable position, sit tall by keeping your spine straight with your shoulders down. Poor posture can disrupt your nervous system and increase physical and mental tension. Gently close your eyes.
Start to bring awareness to your natural breath. Let each exhalation and inhalation be the same length—smooth, slow, and relaxed. Do not force the breath. Gradually increase the length of your exhalations and inhalations

Use the Vishnu Mudra (see photo above) to gently close each nostril (Bring the right hand up to the nose and fold the index and middle fingers to the palm, so that you can use the thumb to close the right nostril, and the pinkie/ring finger to close the left nostril). Be sure that you are not bending forward to bring the head down to your hand. Rest the thumb or finger against the side of the nostril; make sure to use only gentle pressure.
Specifically, close your right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale through the left nostril then close the left nostril with the right pinkie and exhale through the right side. Inhale through the right nostril (always inhale through the nostril that you have just exhaled with). Close with the right thumb and exhale through the left nostril. Inhale through the left nostril.
Continue alternating between the nostrils until you have completed three breaths on each side.
Lower your hand and breathe gently through both nostrils.

Try incorporating Nadi Shodhana into your daily yoga practice. It will become one of the most relaxing and centering techniques in your practice. Your nervous system will be calmed, and your mind will become steadied for concentration and meditation.

"Breathe deeply, until sweet air extinguishes the burn of fear in your lungs and every breath is a beautiful refusal to become anything less than infinite" D. Antoinette Foy

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Compassion Olympics

2/9/2021

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Have you ever heard of Compassion Training?

Compassion Training alters the activation of certain regions of the brain associated with emotional regulation. Studies suggest that compassion can be developed by activating the parts of the brain that cultivate understanding the suffering of others, utilize executive and emotional control, and engage in reward processing. Through these reciprocal connections in the brain, healthy and productive reactive responses to stimuli are created. Compassion Training creates more altruistic behavior-empathy

What is Empathy?

Empathy is defined as a phenomenon, which can only be understood within the dyadic relationship, an interactive experience or state of separateness and sharing. Empathy is the ability to recognize “the other” as similar to the self and makes possible the common experience of an action or emotion. Empathy serves as a healing force within relationships as it reduces aggression and antisocial behavior, and correlates to forgiveness.

Ultimately, an empathic person creates a sense of safety. Safety is a prerequisite to establishing helpful strong social bonds. By being present-centered (using eye contact, softening your voice, having warmth in your voice, being emotionally attuned and using in-the-moment engagement) you enable people to shut down their defenses, which is itself healing.

How can you use Compassion Training to cultivate more empathy towards others?

Weng, H. Y., Fox, A. S., Shackman, A. J., Stodola, D. E., Caldwell, J. Z., Olson, M. C., Rogers, G. M., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering. Psychological science, 24(7), 1171–1180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612469537

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A Smile Is A Curve That Sets Everything Straight

Sweet Air Extinguishes the Burn

Compassion Olympics

Kelley Gallop

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