Soul Writer and Healer from the Heart

Pranayama, Mudras and Yoga an update well overdue

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 03:49:00 -0800

It has been a long time since my last post. The reason is, life can get busy, we move and change and explore new things. We get older, and some things fall away, and new things take their place.

My life has changed a lot, and since moving to Estonia, new challenges and experiences have kept me from writing blog posts. But without breathing, there is no life, and even so, I do not sit down as such in meditation to practice pranayama; I take a short break when needed and focus on my breathing throughout the day. I use my breath to calm down during stressful times; it helps me centre and ground myself. Slowing down my breathing and focusing on my breath, I come back to it whenever I feel the need. And I am grateful for the opportunity to learn various pranayamas, which help me throughout my day, week, or month.

Mudras I still use a lot, not on a regular or routine basis, but I may stop and use a mudra to get my blood pressure down after a bit of excitement or a stressful situation. I use a mudra for a few minutes when my joints stiffen, after gardening, or after a fall and injury. When I use mudras, of course, I also focus on my breath and become more mindful again. It all goes hand in hand.

I am now 66 years old. My arthritis is minimal; I have managed it really well. I only feel it on rare occasions, so I am pleased with it.

My eyesight is the same. I don't have any problems with it; it's not different from 10 years ago, which makes me happy.

Migraines, I never looked back; they have gone, and I have been free of them for a long time now. What a blessing!

I never had any issues with my sciatica again; even so, at the end of 2024, I had a nasty fall on the right side of my back, tearing all my muscles and tendons. It was a harrowing experience, but I recovered well at home. All I needed was an initial hospital visit for X-rays to make sure nothing was broken. Pain management was with herbs only, and using breath and mudras to calm my nervous system.

My only issue is a lack of motivation and discipline to get back into yoga to strengthen my back and stomach muscles; it feels like a real chore.

I have started a new blog called Babshealing messages to offer some insights into my spiritual journey. We grow, we evolve, and the challenges never really stop, but we get stronger, find more tools and end up with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Photo by Barbara Schar from the flower festival in Chiang Mai Thailand

Pranayama for Jet lag

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 01:56:00 -0800

Pranayama for Jet lag

Last Year I travelled quite a bit and it has been the first time in more than ten years that I had been able to travel again. In the past I used to get quite jetlagged, just being tired and nostalgic for almost a week.

So, this time I got to try out the pranayama for jet lag.

Inhale for eight counts,

hold the breath for eight counts

then exhale for eight counts and then

hold the breath out for eight counts.

This is one breath cycle and you need to do 4 of these breath with holding the breath.

While doing this breath visualise you breathing a square. Do four cycles of this breath every time you take off and every time you land. This will clear each time the space between the different time lines and it works really well.

If you find that counting to eight is really hard then count quickly so that you do get to eight counts and it does not matter if it is a fast count. When your breathing capacity increases you can count slower and it becomes easier to hold the breath too.

It also helped me to adjust to a new temperature as I came from the winter into a very hot summer.

No jet lag at all, adjusted well to the new climate and could enjoy my holiday right from the time I left home. And again, right from the time I got home.

It is fantastic when you can enjoy your holiday right from the start!

Pranayama an update on my blog

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Thu, 30 Jan 2020 00:46:00 -0800

An overall update

It has been a long time since my last update of this blog. A lot has happened over the past year or two and as things are settling down finally, I wanted to tell you how Pranayama has helped me through the past two challenging years of massive change.

Firstly, I had been surrounded by a lot of grief. Five of my beloved animals all passed away within twelve months and also my aunty and a friend passed away during that time. Shock and grief consumed me and my life. And even so, I knew it all was here to open the doors of a brand-new life a new chapter, but with any change fear and anxiety and resistance goes with it.

I had also reached a certain age and gone just through my second Saturn return in astrology. So change was indicated all round.

No pets left, living at the other end of the world from where I was born, I decided to move back closer to home. After thirty-nine years living in New Zealand, I felt it was time to go back home to Europe. Financially it was impossible to move back to my home country Switzerland and so I discovered my new place to live my last chapter of life, the beautiful country Estonia.

So, you can see my life truly got turned upside down. And due to my practice of Pranayama, meditation with Ho Oponopono and mudras it made my transition so much easier. I could cope with grief so much easier, and the move almost went without any hiccups. The only hiccups, I will write a post on my on a new blog in the very near future. I almost felt guilty that things went so smoothly and that I felt so happy.

We often complain not having enough time to sit down for our sadhana, and I know this to be true for me too, but I have found instead of fretting about it feeling guilty about it even five minutes of pranayama keeps us going. And for me I had days where I just did a five-minute practice sitting on the couch during a commercial break while watching the news. Holding some mudras and chanting the Ho Oponopono prayer before nodding of to sleep helped immensely.

When I left Auckland New Zealand, I went for a holiday in Thailand catching up with my mum, which meant a temperature change from – 4 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees Celsius Pranayama can help with coping and adapting to these big temperature changes. Then I went on to Switzerland catching up with the rest of the family and comments were made why I was not feeling the effects of jetlag? Pranayama can help with adjusting and getting through the reasons for Jetlag. I will write a post about it soon here on blogger.

It is interesting for me I always come back to pranayama even if I stop for a few days when I struggle, I think of Pranayama, mudras and Ho Oponopono prayer and I get back on track quickly. What I noticed the most is the calm I felt 95% of the time and still feel. The ease I feel with my move, my new country, making contact with people and feeling content in the midst of challenges and turmoil.

Just in the last six months I have been shocked to hear of three more death of friends, and I feel there are so many things that can knock us off and into a dark hole, but my practice of sadhana even often just a five minute one has kept me going and has always restored some peace in my soul.

So many powerful tools are out there to help us with any and all challenges.

Sometimes I do feel guilty that things go so well and that I am so incredibly happy. I do have my cry for my beloved furry friends I had lost and all the friends that passed away. But I know they would all want me to be happy so I just have to work on my guilt I feel.

Keep going!

Benefits of Pranayama ebooks Babshealing

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 17:33:00 -0800

You can now download my eBooks "How Pranayama is a healing experience" HERE

And Pranayama, Mudra, mantras and Meditation HERE

Pranayama, Mudras, Mantras and Meditation can help us through all the challenges of life. There will always be challenges but we also have the tools to help us heal and get through tough times. These eBooks are my own life experiences, that I share here and giving you some ideas about how I got through my many challenges in life. I have always been in search of tools I could use for free to help me with my healing journey and certainly, pranayama, mudra, mantras and meditation are wonderful tools to work with! Enjoy!

Sometimes we go through difficult times but we can learn so much from it if we understand what it is like to struggle; My ebook "Hardship sucks" HERE

Donations are always appreciated

Pranayama helps with eating disorders, dietary problems, cravings, addictions and weightloss

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Tue, 14 Feb 2017 15:43:00 -0800

I have been reorganising my blogs and putting many old posts together here on this subject of Pranayama for food cravings, addictions and eating problems. Adding a part of a Chapter from my new eBook "Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for Health and Wellbeing."

When you are stressed, often you create exaggerated eating patterns, either by skipping meals or you may start overeating, for comfort or to get more energy, and then you become even more stressed because of your eating habits, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

If due to stress you start skipping meals, or you just feel not hungry because of worry and fear, or you feel you have no time to eat because you are under pressure due to deadlines, or for whatever reason you can not slow down or make time to eat, you need to calm down, you need to stop and breathe.

Pranayama can help in many ways;

You can work with four breath per minute, then get to three breath per minute, then get to two breath per minute and then get to one breath per minute. This will calm you down a lot, and you can take a break to eat then, you will be in a better place to complete your tasks, and you will be just as capable reaching your deadline, than if you did not take a break and slowed down your breathing, but with less stress, more calmly and balanced. Even just a couple of minutes of breathing exercises will make a great difference.

I have found that when I have a lot to do and am stressed, worrying if I can get everything done, or when I just feel totally overwhelmed, slowing down my breath gets me calm and more focused to complete my work on time.

Many of you when you are stressed tend to eat a lot me included, especially if you are feeling insecure, anxious, and depressed or feel you just do not have enough energy and you keep reaching for energy foods like sugars to get a quick energy boost or you drink lots of coffee which just makes you more stressed.

When you keep eating and especially eating bad foods you then, of course, getting more stressed because you worry about your weight gain and you get frustrated that you cannot handle your exaggerated eating habits, but you stuff yourselves fully, with more food and the stress is getting on top of you.

Pranayama can help you with getting the out of control eating back into balance and even help you to lose a bit of weight.

Pranayama Suryabhedi is a wonderful Pranayama to help with your eating habits

With this Pranayama, I lost about ten kilos overall, without going on a diet. It helped me to just get my eating habits back into balance, it reduced my binging, and it reduced my cravings, and I could just be satisfied with a normal healthy diet.

Pranayama for restraining compulsive eating;

When you just cannot stop yourselves from having to eat and overeat and eat some more, and cannot restrain yourselves when you crave things, as you just feel you must eat. Then this pranayama will help you change your eating habits, stop your cravings and make you feel more relaxed about food and not be needing to eat all the time.

If you really want to break a deep compulsive eating problem or an addiction to food, it is advisable to practice these types of Pranayama for ninety days. This is especially beneficial for people who have always had a weight issue, who have always been eating more than they should and who always binge eat and would like to break this habit. This can break through addiction to food or coffee etc. and make your life a bit more stress-free.

I have been able to break through my coffee addiction with this pranayama. I never really knew I had a coffee addiction until the day I wanted to stop drinking coffee. I had withdrawal symptoms for seven days.

Stress is often caused by your worries in how you look, your insecurities, fears, phobias and so on, and when you cannot control you're eating the stress you feel is never-ending.

Identify why you have this compulsive eating problem in the first place would help you understand and when you practice any of these Pranayamas in your mind, you can let go of these issues.

Often these overindulging eating habits are coming from your insecurities, self-worth issues and so it gets triggered whenever you feel insecure or feeling not good enough. This creates major stress. And then you have to eat some more.

For all Pranayama always sit with a straight spine and keep your eyes closed or one-tenth open with the eyes looking at the tip of your nose or half open with being grounded with the open part of the eyes and connected to your subconscious with your closed part of the eyes.

Below you can read some of my old posts I wrote during the time when the benefits of practising pranayama daily begun.

4.09.2011 Pranayama helps with weight loss

Pranayama does help with losing weight, and what I have experienced is that the weight comes off gradually and it stays down. Over the year that I have been practising Pranayama, I have lost 11 kg and have been able to keep it off. With the extra yoga I now am doing I have started to tone my body and it is just amazing that I have been able to lose all the weight I was told I had to accept because of my age and because of menopause. I had always been slim until about the age of 45 and then I just started to gain weight, even so, I exercised, walked and felt my diet was not a bad diet I still put on about 10 kg.
Now it has all gone and I am back to my slim self. I still am aiming to lose 2 more kg and then I will be completely happy. Since I had broken my back, it felt as if I had put on a bit of flab around the spine for protection and I feel this will come off when my spine is completely healed. How I believe Pranayama works with weight loss is, that Pranayama regulates the metabolism, and the assimilation of nutrients, it helps balance out the appetite and the amount of food one needs and one feels like eating. My appetite is not as huge anymore and I also do not crave all the bad foods.

18.07 2011 Pranayama changes your eating habits

When practising Pranayama, it is hard to fit your practising into a busy lifestyle and making sure your stomach is empty when practising. When I am under a lot of stress and feel the need to do some Pranayama during the day to calm myself it has become important to me that I had to change my eating pattern.
Instead of grazing through the day, I have breakfast at about 8 am fruits, cereals, nuts. then Lunch at 12 .30 which means I can do a few Pranayama before lunch. I do Agnisar and Nadi-Sodhana a half hour before lunch just 5 sets of AgniSara and 10 cycles of Nadi-Sodhana and this helps to calm my mind and to help with my digestive system. I have a good size meal for Lunch with lots of Vegetables, Beans, Lentils etc. then I have my last meal around 5 pm or even 4 pm as often I teach classes from 5 pm to 6 pm.
So my stomach is empty again by 9 pm and I can do some more Pranayama to help with calming the mind and a good night sleep. There are ways to prepare foods in advance, heating it up first thing in the morning then put pot with food into a Wondersack or Kochsack which is a bag that you can put your pot with hot food or soup in it and it carries on cooking in the bag for about 8 hours without needing a stove or microwave or oven. This is a good way of taking a good meal to work. Work out a system that helps you to fit in the Pranayama without causing stress.
To have an early dinner was hard for me at the beginning, but now I am used to it and it is no problem. It is so much healthier for the body not to have a big meal late in the evening. It helps with sleeping too. People that wake at 3 am and can not get back to sleep, would benefit greatly if they had their last light meal no later than 6 pm. Also if you learn not to snack in the evening, you can easier lose weight, and reduce body fat without being on an actual diet.

25.06.2011 Changing negative eating habits

When I started practising Pranayama 10 month ago, I made big changes in my eating habits. I stopped eating meat, eggs, white sugar, white flour, fizzy drinks, alcohol and over time I also gave up coffee, made cutbacks with cheese and chocolate. This weekend it was my birthday and a friend backed me a light lemon cake. I tried again a coffee and eating this lovely lemon cake.
I felt I could easily indulge once a year and the lemon cake was light. I only just realised of course this cake has a lot of white sugar and icing sugar. This is why I am sitting on my computer writing as I can not sleep, I am so tired but I can not sleep. I feel nauseous and to me, this proves again that Pranayama works. I will not overindulge anymore and I will not be tempted by cake and coffee,
anymore. It feels so toxic to my body and I do not like it when I can not sleep. In the past, I went on many healthy diets and then allowed myself to indulge just once in a while, but I always slipped back into old eating habits I never experienced adverse effects from overindulging before. Pranayama has changed my body, it does not want to go back into old ways, it does not want negative foods anymore, I am so glad I had this experience as it shows me the amazing effect Pranayama has it changes things at the root. It helps and makes it easy to go healthy and stay healthy. It makes it easy to want to eat healthily, it shows me how bad these negative foods really are and what they do to our bodies. I do hope these toxins will be out of my system soon. White sugar and icing sugar are bad. I do not have any problems with brown sugar or honey or any natural sugars. I do look forward to healthy foods again tomorrow.

2017 I am now not as strict anymore in what I am eating, I am still vegetarian but eat eggs again but only, free range and organic eggs. I may eat a bit of meat in the winter time, but not very often at all. My coffee drinking is mostly under control, as I love a cup of coffee I do drink it when I feel like it but it is not an addiction anymore. But I am very conscious of what I eat, and do not eat any processed foods and avoid certain brands for environmental and animal welfare reasons.

19.06.2011 Coffee addiction

I have given up coffee I think it would be about 4 months ago and just in the last couple of week, I have had quite strong cravings for coffee. Maybe the colder weather has set this craving off. I decided to give into it and have a coffee, but I did not like it at all. I felt this was quite strange. I was looking forward to this coffee and then it tasted yukky, I had to tip it out. So the craving is still there the taste for coffee has gone. It is great as this helps me not to become addicted to it again. I now do not even want to taste it. I am sure the craving for it will eventually disappear too.

15.05.2011 Food cravings

When I started practising Pranayama, I also changed my diet to a vegetarian diet. Over the past 9 months I have been eliminating bad foods from my diet, coffee which was very hard for me to give up, but now when I get offered a coffee, I am happy to say no thank you just a cup of hot water, please. Because I am on a very tight budget it had taken me some time to find good nutritional foods that were inexpensive, but good quality and giving me a sense of feeling satisfied and full. So my diet looks like this now. In the morning I have a bowl of cooked fruit with whatever is in the season, I cook and add spices like ginger, cardamom and cinnamon. To the cooled cooked fruit, I add some oats, some Goji berries, some dates and walnuts and currants or raisins and some milk.

For lunch I eat lots of vegetables in season, I grow as much as I can myself and shop locally for what is in the season. For me, I avoid cauliflower, tomatoes and capsicum. I use only on rare occasions, potatoes, rice or pasta. The veggies I cook with lentils or any beans, my favourite Azuki and pinto beans, but I use all varieties of beans. I use spices like turmeric, coriander, fennel, dill, fenugreek, and fresh herbs from the garden.

For dinner, I have vegetable soup with toast, wholemeal homemade bread with grains e.g. pumpkin and sunflower and sesame seeds. In the summer I do not eat soup but I have the wholemeal bread with cottage cheese, beetroot and sprouts. I have researched the nutritional values of these foods and found that it has all the nutrition, minerals and vitamins necessary. Walnuts are packed with omega 3, Lentils and beans have the proteins and iron. Broccoli has the calcium and so have many other green vegetables. I grow a variety of vegetables, broccoli different types of cabbages, Kale, Celeriac, courgette, spinach, carrots etc. In the summer I add a lot of berries to my break first.
If possible I do not add sugar to the fruits if I need some I use brown sugar only. I use only a small amount of olive oil for cooking. I have been able to get lots of walnuts locally as many people have trees but do not eat as many as I do so these are great. So I can eat a very healthy diet for a small budget. I feel not hungry, I have no cravings for chocolate, coffee, chips, salty foods or any other foods I use to love. I have tried these sorts of healthy food diets many times before, but after 2 or 3 months, have always gone back to not so healthy foods. Since practising Pranayama, I really wanted to eat healthily and I can not get myself to eat all these other bad foods. I use to think I was eating reasonably healthy, but now I feel my old diet was not that healthy at all. I stopped all the fatty cheeses and foods with artificial colourings, preservatives etc. I found when I organise myself it is not that hard to cook for myself healthy and nutritional foods. I feel so much better for it and practising Pranayama has made all this change so much easier.

21.03.2011 Diet changes come naturally

When practising Pranayama, the diet changes came naturally. I always was a big meat eater even so I did not like the thought of animals having to die. I sometimes even craved meat. When I started practising Pranayama, I thought it would be a good thing to become vegetarian but worried it would be difficult.
But it was amazing how easy it was not to eat meat anymore and now I am vegetarian for the last seven month. I have not looked back and I have never had any meat cravings again. I can not be tempted with meat and I wonder how I could ever have eaten meat. So no meat no fish no poultry. and no eggs and I feel great.
The other things to give up when practising Pranayama are alcohol and soft drinks, there were no problems as I never liked them. But my only struggle has been coffee. I always wanted to give up coffee, but coffee was the only thing that helped me with my headaches. Since my headaches have been better I had made several attempts to quit coffee but then headaches would return., I realised I was addicted to coffee. Two weeks ago automatically I stopped drinking coffee and so far it has not been a problem, no headaches no coffee cravings it just happened automatically.
I believe it is as if I am ready now and with practising Pranayama it helped me to come to this point. Every day when I practice my Pranayama, I get so excited and observe what is happening to me and in my life. It brings about change naturally without force without hard work, one has to just let go and move with it and be patient with the process. This made me realise that there is no need to give up anything forcefully, the change to a healthy and natural diet comes naturally when the time is right.
I have seen this now in some of my students who are slowly but surely making changes in their diets naturally and without any problems. Relax into practising Pranayama and everything just comes together as it needs to.
It is not a must, its a choice!

26.02.2011 Weightloss

Since doing the Pranayama, in the first 4 months, I have lost 7 kg, and have now been back to a weight I have been in my 20s and 30's. I did not go on any diets, but doing the pranayama's, it balances the body, the metabolism and digestive system and it certainly helps in bringing the body weight back to normal.
At first, I felt doing Pranayama would be hard and getting into a routine would be difficult, but the quick results and feeling overall better made it easy to keep it up and making it part of my life.No other healing modality has given me the results that practising Pranayama gives.
With my homoeopathy, I now focus more on working with animals as they can not do the pranayama, but for people, I would recommend pranayama as the best choice for getting healthy on all levels and being able to stay healthy.

Pranayama for stress

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 17:31:00 -0800

Here I put together many of the posts that I wrote while practising Pranayama on a daily basis, also adding a chapter of my new eBook.

A chapter from my new eBook" Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for health and well-being"

Pranayama for Stress

You all at some stage in your lives become stressed out, and many of you suffer from chronic stress. Often you are not even aware that you are stressed, you may ignore the symptoms and causes.

To become aware if you are stressed or not you need to understand and distinguish from normal stress and chronic stress. When you get yourselves into an acute stress situation, due to an accident or something you witnessed it is a normal way of your body to maybe react in a certain way. But then when the situation is over you should come back into balance. And you should no longer be affected by the situation.

But when you are chronically stressed, your body and mind are responding to the overload. And the stress is ongoing and can result in physical and mental, emotional ailments.

External causes of stress;

Major life changes, like moving home or even moving to another country. Getting married or having a child. When your lifestyle changes in some form or way.

Work and any kind of stressful work situation.

School, exams, stress with other students or with teachers etc.

Relationship difficulties

Loss of a family member.

The family, children, teenagers can all be a stress factor in your life.

Or just being too busy, everything is getting on top of you, too many things to take care of, and too many responsibilities.

Financial worries and stresses. This is often a very major one for many people.

Illness in the family

Internal causes;

Chronic worry, being negative all the time, being a pessimist.

Rigid thinking, lack of flexibility. Critical, Perfectionist.

Negative self-talk, insecurities and self-doubt.

Fears and anxieties.

Grief, chronic grief.

You all respond to stress differently and you all cope with stress differently. Some of you may even thrive on a bit of stress, like being under pressure. But it is important to become more aware when the stress is becoming too much.

If you continue to ignore stress and allow yourselves to stay under permanent pressure it can become a very unhealthy situation. You can become physically ill from stress.

Some of the physical symptoms you may experience if you have continuous stress in your life;

Headaches, muscle tension

Fatigue

Digestive troubles, stomach aches

Sleeplessness.

You may experience a lot of;

Anxieties

Fears

Guilt

Lack of motivation

Irritability and Anger

Depression.

You may end up;

Not eating, skipping meals.

Or overeating to make you feel better or to get energy

You may start to drink, overuse of coffee and alcohol, or get into drugs to keep going

You may withdraw from society

And you may lack motivation altogether.

There are many Pranayama that can help you with stress. But you may say; "You are too busy to practice any Pranayama".

Well, if you know that your life is stressful for whatever reason, stop and take a breath, always remember to breathe, bring the focus back to the breath even just for a minute. No matter how busy you are you should never forget to breathe and make a conscious effort to stop and take a few deep breaths. Just slowing down your breathing every so often during the day, can help tremendously with reducing stress. And also come back into your heart centre.

Practising the Anuloma - Viloma or alternating nostril breathing, in the evening, before going to bed or even while laying on your back in bed with a straight spine, you can practise a few rounds of alternating nostril breathing, this can help calm and balance the body and mind by reducing stress and helps with a good night sleep

Below some of my older post that I wrote while beginning with my daily practice of Pranayama

19.04.2015
Pranayama for Stress relief;

About a couple of month ago my life became quite stressful and I also get badly influenced by the energies of eclipse and as I knew we were soon to have a solar and lunar eclipse my energy became very stressed. I looked through all my pranayama books to see if I could practice pranayama to help me with my stress levels which started to push up my blood pressure. I found the eight-stroke breath pranayama for stress, that I have been practising since the beginning of March this year. The pranayama goes; Sit with spine straight, inhale in equal strokes for eight strokes, exhale forcefully in one stroke the inhale and exhale is done through the nose. The mudra is thumb tip touches the index finger tip. This pranayama should be practised for 11 minutes and in the evening. To finish off the pranayama inhale, roll the shoulders as many time possible with breath held in, then exhale, then inhale hold the breath and roll the shoulders as fast as possible then exhale.
This pranayama really works, it is so good to do this in the evening and it helps to calm that busy mind and by the morning one feels calm and energised to begin the day. And these hard knots around the neck and shoulders ease off and eventually dissolve.
The external stresses, of course, are there but with this pranayama, one can get through the day without elevated blood pressure or unnecessary worries and anxieties. To me, it is wonderful pranayama and I love practising it as I become more focused on keeping my awareness with my breath. I think to me this is one of the most potent pranayamas to relief stress. I keep doing it as it makes me feel so good.
To get real benefit this pranayama should be practised for 40 days in a row. But the stress relief is almost instant. Anyone can benefit from this pranayama, who does not suffer from stress from time to time?
Keep it up pranayama does work.

17.09.2011 Making changes and letting go

Pranayama helps with making the necessary change to move forward. It is amazing how with practising Pranayama the awareness is so great that it helps with understanding what the lesson is to learn in each challenge. I have been facing some of my hardest challenges at the moment and it has been a lifelong long struggle. I have done many therapies to overcome these struggles and challenges and I do well for a while and then the challenge is hitting me again. Since practising Pranayama I have been working through smaller challenges step by step and knew one day I would have to deal with my biggest challenge and I would have no escape from it than to face it head-on. Over the past year this challenge has been building up and I watched it coming. I tried to do anything to get rid of it and to change direction, but I could not. I am standing in front of my biggest fear, biggest worry, biggest burden and I know it here for me to work through it. Over the past 5 days while practising Pranayama the awareness I have gained from practising Pranayama it has shown me in details how these fears, worries, burdens, have been manifesting over years and even lifetimes. I can see while I am doing the Pranayama that it is feeling like I am pulling out deep roots of my biggest fears, worries and burdens. It feels like I can identify what has been the creator of such deep-seated fears, worries and burdens, and I can work and transform these fears, worries, burdens into healing, letting go, detach, into positive thoughts and I am learning to surrender which gives such a deep sense of calm and relief. Pranayama is helping me to really letting go, to let go from every cell, atom in my body, to transform every instant negative thought into positive, slowly I feel I am winning the positive thoughts are starting to push the negative thoughts out of the way even in the midst of facing my biggest fear, worries and burden. I feel like my own resistance is breaking down, I am able to break through my own resistance, my own blocks, restrictions and limitations. It is all slowly breaking away. It feels like I am winning, thanks to Pranayama.

9.09.2011 Focus and living in the now

Since practising pranayama I have become more aware of all the energies around me and within me. I have felt the pressure of needing to heal faster, to grow spiritually faster, around me people are talking about preparing yourself for the future for the year 2012 and the changes it will bring. I myself get caught up in all this, and my body feels as if it is trying to hold me back. And then every time I practice my pranayama, my energy is slowing down, my mind is slowing down, the pressure to heal fast disappears, the pressure to grow spiritually disappears. My body relaxes and I am focused on my breathing. The focus is on the now on what each breath is doing for my body, mind, soul, heart, spirit. And I realise there is no time limit in my healing process, there is no time limit in my spiritual journey, there is no fear of death or if I have to come back for much more lifetimes to complete the journey, there is nothing but the now. It feels calm and I know each breath I take is healing me it is helping me with my spiritual growth, but most of all it helps me to enjoy and to feel the MOMENT the HERE and NOW. It makes me realise how much more important the here and now is then the future. It makes me realise that it does not matter how fast I heal or grow, what matters is how I feel right now in each moment and with Pranayama it brings me back to the moment, it helps me to be focused on my inner being, in my heart space, on living each moment with depth, with awareness of joy, with love. The future will come quick enough, but the moment you miss will be gone forever. Don't waste your here and now don't waste each precious moment on the future, on trying to be there before you have lived the now.
We are so much living in the fast line, we are so much living in competition, there is even so much competition with spiritual journeys, the race is on who will get there first, who will be enlightened, who will be the most spiritual person who will be one with God first.
I may be last in line but filled with the richness that each moment each precious moment is giving me while living fully in the here and now. With Pranayama I feel I can slow down time, I can fully take in what each moment brings I can soak in the beauty, the love, the smells, the breath, the wind the whole energy and experience it fully. Why waste time on what the future may bring, when you can not fully experience the here and now, you may miss the future.

5.07.2011 Internal silence

I have learned the Pranayama Nadi-sadhana through the book Pranayama Rahasya ( with scientific factual evidence ) Swami Ramdev, and I have found this Pranayama most effective in calming my ever so overactive mind. While I am practising this pranayama it seems to block out any intrusive thoughts and it is stopping my mind from wondering. It is very effective. I have found the more traditional way of practising the Pranayamas like the once that Swami Ramdev teaches the most effective ones. Many teachers will add their own style to the pranayamas and what suits one, may not suit another. Like with all things we put our own style on things. Traditional things become improved, adjusted, refine, only to in time to go back to the traditional way or the original way. So I have been studying these books of Swami Ramdev and watch the YouTube videos and have found when I follow his instructions I get the best result. The Pranayama Nadi - sadhana showed me how amazing it is when one is able to control the breath, and that there can be an immediate benefit. It feels like it goes very deep and I have felt that I become internally silent a very amazing feeling.

24.05.2011 Pranayama and the mind

Since practising Pranayama, now nine months, I would have to say that my absolute biggest challenge in my mind. It is just incredible how strong thoughts are and how hard it is to let go of negative thoughts, negative thought patterns, distraction, pictures in your mind. The mind creates worries anxieties and negativity. When I work on being positive negativity just pops in, when practising Pranayama I work on getting rid of all the negativity, and the words the pictures the thoughts, it seems endless what is coming out and needs to be dispensed of. Kapalabhati helps in getting rid of negativity, negative behaviour patterns, negative thought patterns, but sometimes I feel my mind is just so determined to keep me in a negative mood. It is unbelievable how strong the mind is. The mind soaks in outside influences, from the radio, TV, from people around me from things I have experienced, things I read, and it seems as if it only wants to store the negativity. Pranayama helps with changing that negative mind to a positive mind. What is happening now for me is that I am aware instantly when a negative thought, word, picture enters my mind and I can change it straight away into a positive thought, picture or word. Since practising Pranayama, pranayama has given me such a deep awareness and has helped me to go deep into myself. It has helped me to draw out all the negativity that is deep within me from my childhood, from my past, may even from my past lives. There is still more coming out, but now I can stop the negativity from going in. The awareness helps me to change the negative into positive before it enters my being. I still have a long way to go, but it is so healing to know I can let it all go now I need no longer to hold on to my demons, my negativity, my hurt, my grief. Pranayama is simply amazing. Sometimes it's so much hard work and I think why am I doing this, but then I realise I have come so far already I will not give up on it. The other day a friend of mine said that she did not think I would ever give up practising Pranayama as I have been doing it now for nine months and it is just so much part of my life. I believe, it takes about three months of disciplining yourself to practice Pranayama, after that it just becomes part of your life and daily routine.

3.05.11
Stress relief

It has just been an amazing experience for me; Major stress just did not throw me down this time around. I have felt so much calm it has been amazing in the past these major stresses would just get me down and make me angry and frustrated and this time around I feel calm, just the occasional feeling how do I deal with this now, but then solutions come and everybody around me is understanding, allowing me to be late with my payments without charging penalties or late payment fees, things are just able to be sorted. I have become creative in making things last longer, I have been more creative in making things myself and finding solutions for everything. This has made me positive and I am quite excited about trying out new ways finding solutions and solving problems. The challenges have become fun and I feel on top of the world in the middle of great turmoil. Since practising Pranayama, life, in general, has just become easier, things to deal with have become easier, people around me have become more helpful, due to my calmer nature. I truly feel like a new person. Pranayama is just amazing.

Pranayama diffuses stress 30.04.2011

We are living in a stressful world and it is the story of my life that I have always stressed due to finance. I have chosen to live a lifestyle different to many people, self-employed and always choosing an occupation which is hard to make a living from. I have times where things just go smoothly and great and suddenly things turn to mud and get really difficult. I stress about finance to the max. I often felt I could not move as moving costs money. Since practising Pranayama, I have been able to relax more about finance, even so, I still have days I stress, it seems to get easier as more I practice Pranayama. I find solutions I never been able to find before. I am able to live in the moment more, then worry about next weeks bills and payments. It feels now that slowly but surely I am getting on top of things. Finding ways to cut back costs, realising, I do not need so much, realising one can be happy with less, realising that becoming more in tune with the rhythm of nature allows me to find better solutions, understanding myself better finding my strength and weaknesses, helps me in sorting my ongoing financial issues. Often when practising Pranayama I get distracted by my thoughts about my stresses, but then automatically I focus back on my breathing. I realise I can not force change it comes automatically. When practising Pranayama the focus comes naturally, the changes come naturally letting go and surrendering comes naturally in time at the right time. The healing is a transition that takes time but practising Pranayama makes it easier, my aggressive nature is calming down and I feel I can cope with life better each day. We will always have challenges but with Pranayama these challenges are easier to work with.

10.04.2011
Pranayama brings about awareness

Practising Pranayama brings about an awareness that helps understand one's emotions, thoughts, behaviour patterns, mood swings, anger, frustrations and depression. Since practising Pranayama, I have become aware of all my mood swings, negative thoughts my negative behaviour patterns, and my lows and highs. What I have found is that the negative thoughts and the negative behaviour patterns are fighting with me they try to block my healing process and they try to intrude when I practice my Pranayamas. The awareness helps me to identify this and helps me to work through these struggles. I have found that every time I sit down to do my Pranayamas despite my negative moods or anger and frustration, I calm down and can put things in perspective with every out breath I can work on letting go of negativity, old negative behaviour patterns, old hurts, negative thoughts and emotions. It is not an instant cure, but with the awareness that Pranayama has given me I have been able to come through the lows and the negativity much quicker. It is hard to let go of old hurts, grief, anger frustrations that have been part of my life since a young age, the behaviour pattern one has created over the years, it's as if all these negatives have a hold on me and show up out of the blue. With Pranayama I feel I have been able to work through so much already, it has given me the strength to change, and to let go. Pranayama is not an instant cure like when taking a pill, but it works on a deep level, changing me from the root of my being. It seems to bring a lasting change.

1.03.2011
Pranayama to calm the mind

Pranayama calms the mind and heals the emotions. Since practising Pranayama I have become much calmer and have been able to deal with stress much better. Practising Pranayama brings about an awareness of emotions that need to be healed and it helps to deal with these emotions and to bring about a calm and focused mind.
Pranayama, breathing, helps deal with any kinds of stress it helps deal with natural disasters better and helps to focus on the moment rather than dwelling on what has been and what will be.
My thoughts are with all my friends and all the people in Christchurch. Pranayama helps to get through each day.
Breath deeply in any situation. Stop what you are doing and take a deep breath to see what it feels like! Can you feel your lungs expanding?

Walk the journey, your path in peace

Pranayama for Arthritis,Joint problems and Frozen Shoulders

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 15:51:00 -0800

A chapter from my eBook on;

Arthritis and Joint problems

For most of my life I had been hating my body for holding me back, for causing me so many pains and troubles, often I felt like I was a cripple, and often got bullied at school for not doing well in any sports, wondered why I had to live in a body like this. Some of you are born with many physical disabilities, some of you are prone to many physical ailments, and you just have to put up with it, or do you?

All my life I had issues with my joints and had been very accident prone and it had caused me to suffer from arthritis at an early age.

Well, what can you do? I was told I would need shoulder replacement surgery, and don't worry you can do the knees and hips too when they have enough deteriorated. And for pain, you can use all sorts of drugs no worries.....And nobody ever suggested that there may be a natural way to keep arthritis from getting worse and that there were natural ways to manage pain.

As I had always been looking for natural ways, and also had no intentions having all my joints replaced through surgery, I began a journey of trying out various things. When I started practising Pranayama and gained so quick relief for my migraines and back issues I continued my practice in the hope to help me with my arthritis, joint issues and my very bad shoulder problems.

The shoulder problem started around 1988 when I had to drive a lot and my left shoulder started to become very painful from the shifting of gears in my van. In 1991 I had been diagnosed with frozen shoulders and the start of abnormality in my shoulder joint, the beginning of arthritis. I was then told within the next ten years I would need surgery. And of course, my right shoulder also started to deteriorate as time went by. It is 2017 now and I have not had surgery, and I am feeling better than I have back then.

Arthritis is a deterioration of the joints, it causes inflammation, stiffness and pain in the joints. Often the cause of arthritis can be due to injuries to the joint, infections of the joints or due to a family history of arthritis. When you get older there is a natural deterioration of cartilage and the joints, but it does not have to cause inflammation or pain.

When you suffer from arthritis, there is inflammation most of the time. You may have times during the year that the arthritis flairs up and other times where it is quite good. There are foods that can cause more inflammation and there are foods that can help in reducing inflammation. There are natural herbs that can help with the management of arthritis, without causing the nasty side effects that many pharmaceuticals do.

Arthritis is a chronic condition and therefore will not heal overnight and there is no real cure for it. But Pranayama and mudras has helped me and has slowed down or even stopped the further deterioration of my joints.

So when I started my practice of pranayama I started to feel a difference in my joints and my level of pain and stiffness also.

Now I hardly ever experience any pain unless I totally overdo things, like a lot of gardening or long hours of typing on the computer, can bring on stiffness in the joints, but by the next day after a good night sleep and doing some Pranayama with mudra and a few stretches I am fine again.

I sometimes take a few Ayurveda herbs, but my budget often does not allow me to buy them for long-term use. I think that if I could afford to buy the herbs I may even have a chance to rebuild the joints and become even more flexible again. But for now, the Pranayama with mudra gives me very satisfactory results, actually, it gives wonderful results.

Symptoms of arthritis;

Stiffness

Inflammation of the joints

Swelling of the joints

Redness of the joints

The heat of the joints

Restriction of the movements in the joint.

In the advanced stage of arthritis, there can be nerve pain due to bones touching or pinching the nerves. I had this often on my shoulders when the bone hit a nerve I was in agony and for a short time, a few minutes my whole arm would become paralysed. I had to just wait and allow it to settle down. And certain movements could set off the aggravating pain as well.

Aches and pains in the joints. Pains can come in waves, they can get aggravated due to the weather, or too much of acidy foods.

The finger joints, they can become thicker and nodules can grow from the calcium deposits in the joints these will cause stiffness, pain and restriction of movement.

I no longer hate my body, I feel my body has been a blessing for me as it has given me the opportunity to work and experience Pranayama and mudra on this physical level. Amazing when your health improves with age!!!

Below, my old posts on Trauma, Shock and Pain, Excruciating pain, Arthritis and Frozen Shoulders

29.03.2014 Trauma, Shock, Pain

Just over a week ago I experienced a very traumatic time, I will not go into the situation that happened on Friday but it did shake me up very badly. I was shivering and shaking uncontrollably and felt very traumatised, with anxiety and worries. I noticed my breathing was rapid and I just about hyperventilated.
Quickly I thought of Pranayama and started to slow down my breathing. Closing my eyes and just breathing deeply and slowly. I felt my heart slowing down and my whole being started to relax.
Friends around me and neighbours also worried about me and it was interesting how everyone was trying to comment on the situation reading into it in many different ways. Listening to this all was trauma in itself and I realised how we make a situation worse by just talking about it twisting it in all direction. I had to keep on breathing and reminding myself of breathing deeply and not to read to much into the situation.
I felt the breathing really helped me not to take everything in a bad way, but to turn the situation around and be grateful as it could have turned out much worse.
The next day early in the morning as I was taking my dogs for a walk I knew I had still been a bit shaky from the trauma the day before but felt a walk with the dogs would do me good.
I did not make it very far, as soon I was outside my gate my dogs pulled me in one direction, I tripped and fell onto my knees and flat on the stony ground. I had smashed both my knees, twisted my wrist and pulled a chest muscle. I was feeling very nausea and hobbled back into my house. Sitting down and again my breathing was panting like a dog and I was in shock again and in pain.
Again I started to focus on my breathing and wow it was amazing how it helped me to calm down and then to assess my injuries and just getting my Homeopathics sipping them with just resting and breathing. At first, I was quite angry thinking that I had to get through hell twice, I felt again traumatised and all my friends and neighbours came to my aid. And I guess it is human to talk about it all in a negative way and to see just the negative about the trauma, but I could feel as more I had focused on my breathing and doing breathing exercises, slowing the breathing down to three breath per minute just relaxed me and also helped with pain and shock. Then doing the alternating nostril breathing helped me to focus and do the right thing for my injuries as I do not like to go to doctors and take pills and have them squeezing and fiddling around my bashed knees.

Later on in the day I also did an hour of my usual Kundalini Yoga meditation and then added a fifteen-minute pranayama meditation for the neutral mind. This went like this, just breathing long and deep and quiet and when relaxed, then focusing on the third eye point silently chanting wa- he- gu- ru while breathing slowly and deeply. After the fifteen minutes of this meditation I felt relieved, I felt positive and I was feeling so grateful that I got through all this trauma so well and that everything turned out so well, I felt I had been protected and looked after as it all could have turned out so much worse.
I also realised when being honest with myself, it is nice to get all the sympathy from friends and neighbours and I know that I often thrive on getting sympathy, but with Pranayama I was quickly feeling better and the healing of my body also happened more quickly, with this, people often do not believe that a situation was as bad as it truly was because they can not see that pranayama and meditation can be so powerful. So the sympathy from others quickly disappears.
I often have been hoping for a bit of recognition that being able to think, while going through trauma, of pranayama and meditation takes discipline and great awareness. It is easier to just fall back into the trap of negativity and allowing trauma to have a hold over you than to focus and do Pranayama and meditation for a speedy recovery and for a more positive outlook on the situation.
But breathing is so important, it calms, it relaxes, it takes you out of shock, it helps to think positive instead of negative, and it helps to see the blessings in the trauma.
So think of your breathing, when stressed stop and breathing consciously deep and slow, when traumatised think of slowing down your breathing, breath deeply, when in shock, breath deeply and focus on your breath. Pranayama and meditation are wonderful tools to see the sun rising again after a very dark night.

Excruciating pain; 6.09.2011

A couple of nights ago I woke up with excruciating shooting pain in my left cheek and jaws, my teeth were hurting my ear and the cheekbones, the pain was 10 out of 10. I tried to do some pranayama, but the pain was so bad I could only cry. I had found some orthodox painkiller and decided to take some as I could not bear the pain. I got only slight relief and went to sleep for a short time then woke again with this horrible pain. I got up and tried to do more pranayama and could only do some Bhastrika and some Anuloma Viloma, this gave some relief enough for me to focus on finding some homoeopathic remedies to take. This only gave slight relief. I went to see a friend to try and keep my mind away from the pain but it was so bad. My friend wanted to take me to a dentist, but I did not want to go. I continued the day with homoeopathy and some deep breathing and relaxation. The evening came and I felt I just needed some more relief, I was worried I would have a sleepless night again. So I sat down to do more Pranayama and my cat came and sat very closely by my side. I could do Bhastrika, Anuloma Viloma, some Nadi-sodhana with three bandhas and some Bhramari. Any other Pranayama hurt my jaws too much. In the end, I decided to do a self-heal kriya kundalini meditation, and as I started with this meditation, my cat put one paw on my knee and its head gently on my knee. He purred loudly and it felt like he was humming. I felt strong energy, warming energy entering me, coming from my cat, and when I finished the meditation and the pranayama all the pain had gone I felt at ease again my teeth, my jaws were fine and I had a very good night sleep. My cat looked at me and it was as if he'd smiled. He is my miracle cat as I had lost him once and found him very badly injured at a shelter a few days later and he had surgery on his jaw that was broken in six places. he recovered so well and it is now five years since his accident. We are very in tune with each other and it felt so nice that he assisted me in my Pranayama and my meditation to heal my pain.

Arthritis
25.05.2011

Over the past six weeks, the weather has been very wet, windy and it is now getting cooler, winter is approaching. This is the kind of weather that usually upsets all my joints, especially my ankle, wrist, fingers, knees and hip. Since practising Pranayama, my joints have started to improve, pain is much less I now have pain -free days. I would say the pain is better by 80% the swellings have also reduced a lot and the only swelling I get is on my left ankle which has been a problem since as long as I remember. The biggest improvement I can see in my fingers as the nodules in my finger joints have gone. All the finger joints look normal again. I still get twinges in my lower back and a bit of an ache in my left hip. Since practising Pranayama I have not been able to sit cross-legged for a long time, now I can sit cross-legged for about 30 - 40 minutes comfortably. It's just great how Pranayama works.

Update 4.09.2011

Over the past 10 or so years, I have had problems with arthritis in my hip, knees, shoulders, wrists and fingers. It is now a year that I have been practising Pranayama and the pain that use to be about 8 out of 10 is now down to 1 out of 10. I only get pain or stiffness if I have been lifting too much or doing a lot of physical work. The weather has not affected me anymore and arthritis in the finger joint has gone the swellings and nodules on the joints have gone. I can now sit cross-legged during my one-hour Pranayama practice with only very slight discomfort towards the end of my practice. With the extra yoga I am now doing regularly my flexibility has also improved a lot. The only restriction and inflexibility I have is the shoulders, but as they had been frozen for 20 years and had very bad arthritis in it, I know it will take more time, I had been offered to have shoulder replacement surgery but have not accepted it as I have hardly any pain and I believe my shoulders will heal completely. It is just amazing how well Pranayama works and I can not put it into words how amazing Pranayama is. It has changed my life, it has given me life back.

Update 28.10.2011

I have found that Pranayama is continuing healing my arthritis and my joints. There has been more improvement since my last post. I can now sit cross-legged for any length of time without any pain I now sit for 1 1/2hours during my Pranayama practice without any problems, except maybe that my legs go to sleep a little bit, depending on how I am sitting.
All my joints seem to feel better and become more flexible. I have only slight twinges in my knees, but my hips are fine now. During my week of working a lot on the computer my wrists and fingers flair up a bit but after each Pranayama session, it went back to normal. The swelling in my ankle is very minor and it does not flare up as much as it used to.
Overall I feel great no pain and move so much easier. I teach now four classes of yoga without any problems and I can stay a step ahead of my students which I could hardly do before. Coming down from a pain level 9 out of 10 to 0 is a great achievement. As the joints had been badly deteriorated I would imagine that it takes a long time for them to maybe even regenerate and heal but be pain-free and not feeling so restricted in my joints with stiffness is wonderful and well worth the effort of practising Pranayama daily
It is just great!

Frozen shoulders;
10.05.2011

It is now 9 month since I started practising Pranayama and doing some gentle yoga exercises. I have been having frozen shoulders diagnosed in 1989. First, the left shoulder ceased up and 2 years later the right shoulder started to give problems. I was offered steroid injections which I refused. I was told most likely by the time I am 50 I would need shoulder replacement surgery. I am 52 now and I was in a lot of pain day and night often the pain would be about 8 out of 10. I often was tempted to take painkillers but just put up with the pain and the restriction. It was very difficult for me to hang out the washing I could not reach up high with my arms. Cleaning windows I could just not do. At night it was so painful I could not sleep on my side on the shoulder it felt as if I was lying on raw bone. The restriction got worse over the years and the pain eased if I did not use my arms too much. When I started practising Pranayama, I could not hold my arm up for the Anuloma Viloma for the opposite nostril breathing I needed arm support. Also, I needed arm support for the Bhramari Pranayama, and after this Pranayama, my shoulder was sore. Now 9 month into practising Pranayama, I do not need any support for my arms and I can do the Anuloma Viloma for 20 minutes in one go without any pain. The pain has improved 75% and the restriction has improved by about 50 % I am much more flexible now in my shoulders and can hang out the washing without any problems. I have many days now where I am completely pain-free. I feel pain only if I have been on the computer too long or if I have been doing some gardening for a few hours, or the weather is wet and damp. I teach now exercise classes, including Yoga and many stretch exercises and I can do almost all of the exercises now. It is just amazing what benefit I have gained from practising Pranayama. Doing an hour of Pranayama each morning and about 1/2 an hour in bed before going to sleep is not much hard when I think that I have gained so much relief in only 9 months. I think I never really knew how much pain and restriction I was until now where I often do not even feel my shoulders and the hardness and knots in my shoulders and muscles have gone completely. How much money could be saved by the health system if we all just gave an hour a day to practising Pranayam Make a start today! I am happy to help you along.

Update 28.10.2011

My frozen shoulders are improving too, the healing is slow, but considering that my shoulders had been so bad that doctors suggested shoulder replacement surgery, they are doing just fine. The flexibility is getting better, the pain is down to 1 out of 10, I only get pain if I have been on the computer too long or have done too much gardening.
But after a session of Pranayama, the pain goes. The tension in the muscles around the shoulders is easing and sometimes now the knots are gone for a few days. I feel there are just amazing improvements and people have commented on how my flexibility is improving on my shoulders. All thanks to Pranayama.
In my yoga classes, people are always commenting on how my flexibility in my shoulders have changed and how well I look and move now. The arms flow much better.

This is all about my personal experiences,copyrights@BarbaraSchaer all rights reserved

Pranayama; Benefits for your eyes and eyesight

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sun, 12 Feb 2017 13:31:00 -0800

This is an updated post where I have put all my other posts together so you can read my blogging about Pranayama for eyesight all in one place.

It is now the 13th of February 2017 and I am still practising Pranayama, Mudra, listening and chanting Mantras and do Meditation daily, as it has become part of my life and it is helping me with all my challenges, all my ailments and it is a wonderful tool for healing yourself and for staying healthy.

A chapter from my new eBook;

How many of you are doing anything for your eyes? I think you may often neglect your eyes and yet they are so important. Pranayama can help you heal and look after your eyes. The breath is incredibly powerful, and through many breathing exercises, you can relieve symptoms, heal ailments and live a happier life. I was born with a defect in my eyes, and am nearly blind in my left eye and my right eye vision was deteriorating. I have been wearing prescription glasses since the age of three years old and never thought that there was anything I could do for my eyes.

When I started learning the Pranayama’s I was told it would be beneficial for my eyes too. Yes, right I thought I do not quite believe this, especially as my vision and eye problems have been since birth.

What I noticed first in regards to my eyes after practising Pranayama for a while was that my eyes did not get tired so quickly and the burning I experienced often, was getting less. As a child during my school years, I remember well that it was very difficult for me to read or write for more than about ten minutes at the time. Often after reading one page in a book would make me so tired I could just drop off to sleep. I was often told off, because in reading or writing I was considered of not being much focused, and nobody ever thought it could have anything to do with my eyes. Thankfully as an adult, I did not have to read books ha-ha. So when I experienced while practising Pranayama that all of a sudden I could actually read a book or spend lots of time writing on the computer without any eye strain I was impressed.

By my eye specialist I was also told that due to the eye disease I have, there would be a fifty % chance I would go blind through acute glaucoma and that I need to keep a good eye on the pressure in the eyes, by a yearly checkup with my optometrist. A reading of nine to about fourteen was considered normal and anything above would require close watching. My pressure in the eyes had climbed over the years to eighteen, so, there was no panic but it was in my eyes, a sign things could deteriorate. After practising Pranayama for about three years daily my pressure had come down to twelve, hurray, who would have thought this could happen. Then at my last appointment at the optometrist, my eyesight had also improved ever so slightly, but that is so cool I think!! I do not go to my yearly appointment as I can just not afford it, so it is hard for me to really say how much improvement I get each year. To me it is wonderful that my pressure has come down and that my eyesight has slightly improved, I never expected this and the fact that I can read and write as much as I like without dropping off to sleep is just amazing. No more burning in my eyes, no more feeling of sand in my eyes.

Eye exercises can also help you with tiredness in your eyes and it will strengthen your eyes. Check out my forty-day eye exercise blog here

The Pranayama and Mudras I practised to help me with my eyesight, you can read and learn through my eBook; "Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for Health and Wellbeing"

Below I have put together all my previous posting about my eyesight and improvements while practising Pranayama on a daily base. Starting from the 3.03.2011 - the end of 2013

3.03.2011; Pranayama for eyesight
It has just been over six months that I have been practising pranayama regularly on a daily base and this week I have noticed an improvement in my eyes. I have had bad eyesight since birth, my left eye is just about blind, my right eyesight has deteriorated over the years. Also, I have been diagnosed 6 years ago with Swalbsline and Axenfeld-Reiger's syndrome which means I could get acute glaucoma and there is a 50% chance of going blind, I have been wearing glasses all my life.
I have felt this week that I can cope working on the computer for much longer, my eyes do not get tired as they use to 15 min on the computer was enough in the past now there has not been a time that I have a need to stop. My eyes do not get blurry and no headaches from eye strain anymore. Wow, I am excited about this. It means that I can now work on my book without needing a break all the time. Makes life so much easier.

20.03.2011
Over the past few weeks, my eyesight has improved a bit more. My prescription glasses are 5.5 which is very strong. And now my eyes have improved needing prescription glasses of 4.8 quite a big improvement really.
I still am able to read for longer periods of time without getting tired and my eyes feel clearer and fresher. There is a lot of discharge from the eyes in the morning and I am hoping it is all the toxins coming out. I feel better about flushing my eyes out in the morning. In the past, I would feel sick if I attempted to flush my eyes with water. In fact, anything coming near my eyes, eg. eye drops would make me sick. Going to an optometrist was always an ordeal for me anything to do with my eyes made me hypersensitive and often very nauseous, not anymore I feel so much stronger in regards to my eyes.
It will be slow and long progress, but it is all worth it at the end and I am already happy if my eyes do not deteriorate, I am used to be wearing glasses, and all I am grateful for is if my eyes do not get worth.

24.04.2011
Two weeks ago I also started using the Ayurveda eye drops Drishti, as I felt I was ready to use eye drops, so in the past it had been such a job for anyone to put eye drops into my eyes as I would feel sick just thinking about it and often vomited at the eye specialist when he would put drops in my eyes. I felt I was ready to try these drops as I want my eyes to heal completely and as there is a 50 % chance I could develop acute glaucoma and go blind overnight I wanted to try the drops together with doing my Pranayama's every day. Well, I can now put these Drishti drops into my eyes myself and even so it burns terribly for about a minute I do not vomit or feel nauseous. I been putting the drops in for a week now and noticed today having my better eye closed because of the drops in it and my left eye open which I hardly see anything, today I could find the lid of the eye drops and the little box and found my glasses too I could see the outline of the box, lid and glasses. Not clear but I could find it without any troubles. This was not possible in the past, I could not see enough with my left eye to find these items. I always needed my right eye to look for glasses. So I can say there is a slight improvement in my vision. I guess any slight or minute improvement is a lot for me as my eyes have been bad since birth that is now 51 years. I still feel positive about gaining good vision and know it may just take time. I am practising Pranayama for eight months now.

19.06.2011
Ten months into practising Pranayama, I have now noticed that my night vision has improved a lot. In the past, I stopped walking my dogs early in the morning before work as I could not feel comfortable walking in the dark. It was as if I was completely blind walking early mornings and could not see where I was putting my feet. I now have continued my early morning walk with the dogs again even so it is winter here now and it does not get light until 7. 30 am. I start my walk at 6.45 am and feel quite confident walking without a torch. My eyes are adjusting and I can see where I put my feet. this is just great. I also noticed that my left eye which had been almost blind, use to have a lot of black shadows when trying to see without glasses. Now, most of the black shadows have gone and I just have blurred vision. Without glasses, I can not see anything sharp, with both eyes. When doing the eye test without glasses I am still what they call legally blind, but to me, it is a huge improvement as I can find things without glasses now and even with my left eye I can find things it is just very blurred. The blurred vision in my left is slightly worse than my right side, but I feel my left eye is catching up with my right eye. If this makes any sense. With my glasses on, my left eye is still very much in the right eye, which I find interesting. But I feel confident that things will improve more.

28.10.2011
Over the past few weeks, I had a lot of work to do on my computer and especially working and reading small prints. It has been amazing that my eyes have not got tired and that I have been able to read for hours all the small print and work on my computer. I had no problems with my eyes. I felt amazed that I could even read the small print as in the past it was always very hard. It is hard to tell if my vision has improved or not but I would say it has improved a very tiny bit. I feel that because my eyesight has been bad since birth I will need to do a lot more healing and work on getting rid of all the mental and emotional stuff as well before the eyes can heal completely. With Pranayama it is possible to heal as it works on all levels. Just the fact that my eyes do not get tired as quickly and I can do a lot of reading now is a great improvement for me

Optometrist result;
19.09.2012
I finally made it to the optometrist to get my eyes checked. I dislike going there as I hate anything to be done to my eyes, but I went as I needed new glasses.
Well they made for me the same prescription,(this is the prescription of the 4.8 glasses that were an older one as my last pair of glasses were a 5.5 one, but I felt an improvement after the first six months of practising, and I changed my glasses to the 4.8 pairs without telling the optometrist about it,) but with a slight improvement on the reading lens. This meant that my glasses now are a 4.8, I did not have to go back to the 5.5 prescriptions. But there was still more improvement as in the past with my prescription lenses I could not read the two smallest paragraph on their charts, now I can read the two smallest paragraphs with my glasses. The smallest one it is straining my eyes, but had no problem to read the second smallest paragraph. For the first time in my life with my left eye, I could read the biggest letters on the eye chart with glasses. In the past, I could not even guess the largest letters.

So there is for me great improvement. The eye pressure for glaucoma had climbed over the past 15 years to a steady 16.5 in my right eye and 18 in my left eye. This time my pressure in my right eye came down to 12 and in my left eye to 15. It had been the first time that we did a scan on my eyes which showed that I had very healthy eyes and the optic nerve was healthy and strong. I also was for the first time relaxed and had no problems with the whole eye examination. It was all a happy experience.
Well this to me proves that pranayama, meditation and Kundalini yoga does work on improving the eyes. It may be slow but it works.

End of 2013; It has been now over three years that I have been practising Pranayama, and so my vision has only improved slightly, what has been a real improvement, is that I can work on the computer all day, or I can read and use my eyes all day without getting any eye strain and the eyes have not deteriorated as in the past. In the past, my eyes got so tired after only about an hour or two reading or working on the computer. My vision feels clearer if that makes any sense, it just feels so much better. I do still feel very positive that the vision will improve more too and I am so excited that the eye pressure has reduced from 18 to 12, this is just about down to normal really. So I am keeping up with Pranayama and my eye exercises.

These are all my personal experiences copyrights@BarbaraSchaer all rights reserved

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Benefits from practicing Pranayama, Mudra with Mantra

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 15:15:00 -0800

The benefits you get from practising Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra, Meditation, Visualisation and using Colours all depend on how often you practice and for how long you practice. This means, the longer you practice the greater the benefits. But even eleven minutes twice a day can make a great difference. So whatever time you have is just fine.

If you working with chronic ailments to rip the benefits you need a longer practice. If you work on emotional and mental issues, remember you learn and grow for the rest of your life, but a long practice or integrating the practice into your day will benefit you the most and will help deal with everyday challenges.

An example, I had suffered from severe migraines for close to thirty-eight years, and when I started my practice of Pranayama and Mudra, I practised for about one to three hours a day and I was free of Migraines within two to three weeks, and at the same time I also got rid of very bad sciatica I had for about ten years. It is not always possible to do such a long practice, but the result was just amazing.

And I was impressed with how quickly it worked for my migraines.

So what benefits can you achieve, I will give you my experience here, and as you are all different, and your practising time varies, you may experience different benefits.

Benefits;

1. No more migraines or headaches

2. No more Sciatica problems.

3. My menstrual problems disappeared, and I had the easiest transition into menopause. No menopausal problems at all. I use to suffer badly from PMT.

4. Bowel motions became regular and daily, use to suffer from constipation

5. My breathing became better, I use to be a very shallow breather and could hardly hold my breath, now I feel my lungs expanding and I can take a very deep and long breath. It will also help asthmatics.

6. My fitness improved a lot, my heart rate used to go up very high at any stage I did cardio exercises or hill walking. Even as a child, I had great difficulties in walking up hills or stairs, now this is much better. My heart rate could easily get into the 200, and now even when I do not exercise regularly my heart rate may go to about 170 if I work out hard.

7. My immune system is much stronger, many of my friends comment why I am not getting a cold or the flu, have not had it for many years now, when others come down with it yearly. I have not needed to go to a doctor in ten years.

8 My gums have improved, use to have gingivitis off and on.

9. My joints are much better, use to sprain my ankle yearly, now I have not had a sprained ankle for a few years.

10. My eyesight and pressure in the eyes had improved, so this is a difficult one to judge as my problem has been since birth, but now I can read longer, my eyes do not get so tired anymore, I can concentrate longer and my eyes just overall feel better.

11. I have been able to lose weight, and it has brought awareness to my eating habits, and I have been able to make easy lifestyle changes. I use to eat a lot of meat and loved it very much, now I am vegetarian and the transition was very easy. I am so much more conscious of what I eat, I eat to nourish my body, and have no need or desire to overindulge. It takes away cravings and any addictions to certain foods.

12. My circulation has improved so much that I no longer get chilblains even so I have now moved to a colder climate.

13. I have got rid of sinusitis and do not have a big problem with allergies anymore.

14. My digestive system is working so much better, my metabolism improved too.

15. It helps with depression, lack of energy, grief, anger and so many emotional problems. It keeps picking me up and integrating Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra, meditation and colours into my day it feels so much easier to get through any challenges. The challenges will always come into our lives, but it is how we deal with them and how we cope with them, and for me, I can cope so much better with any challenge that comes along. I recognise quickly what the challenge is all about, and therefore it does not need to cause me any stress.

16. It reduces high blood pressure. And it is very calming and relaxing, at the same time it can be energising too.

17. It reduces stress all kind of stress.

18. It helps with any aches and pains, and for me, I started getting arthritic fingers, swelling and stiffness, this has all gone now. It is helping my frozen shoulders a lot, it reduces rheumatoid arthritis, and here it is important to do a longer practice as these problems are very deep and for joints to heal it takes a very long time.

I believe that using all these tools can make you healthy again, and it will keep you healthy and strong. It also helps you to be happier, more content, more peaceful and connected to your heart. Things become clearer, you will gain clarity about yourselves and how you function. The awareness that it creates on all levels is just amazing.

Being able to live a peaceful, stress-free and pain-free life, practising pranayama, mudra and meditation daily are certainly worth it!

Using colours and becoming more aware of how you can learn through the colours you choose to wear or to eat and how they can help you with many things is wonderful.

Using mantras as background music to cleanse your environment, changing your energy and energy field with positive energy gives extra healing.

Below some of my older blogs posts that I wrote during the time the benefits from practising pranayama daily begun.

4.08.2011 I have been practising Pranayama for a year now

I have been practising pranayama just about a year now and the benefit is just incredible. Sciatica completely went. Headaches, migraines have gone since February. Arthritis has improved by 80 %. Frozen shoulders improved by 80% there is just a bit of restriction in movement left but no pain. I have lost 9 kg and kept it off I am the weight I was in my 20's and I was always told I had to accept the weight gain at my age, I proved them all wrong. A great improvement I am feeling is with my mind, I am so much calmer, my anger is very short lived and I snap out of frustrations very quickly, I feel I cope with stress so much better and I do not fight and struggle with things I can not change, I relax in to it and allow things to unfold without resisting the changes and the challenges of everyday life. My only weakness; coffee, but I feel it will sort itself out in time. I feel myself moving on to a new path, I feel so much healthier and stronger, energy is increasing and I feel I got my enthusiasm for life back. My eyesight, I feel my eyes do not get tired so easily and so the eyesight had improved a little over the past month there has been no more improvement. I am still hopeful as I know it will take time. To achieve the things I have done in one year is more then I could have ever asked for. I feel positive, excited and motivated. Thanks to pranayama.

3.11.2016

And I am still here, using Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and meditation as a tool to get through the challenges of life. I am still free of Migraines, Sciatica and feeling great. My sadhana is part of my daily living, it is my tool to stay healthy, to help me on all levels as Life will always throw challenges at all of us. The amazing part of Pranayama, mudra, chanting mantras or meditate, it is absolutely free and it is so beneficial in so many ways.

1000 days of working with Pranayama, mudra and meditation daily 28.05.13

I have now been working with pranayama for a thousand days. Some days my session has been three hours, some two hours some days ten minutes, but I have done some pranayama each day for one thousand days. Over these days I have introduced meditation and kundalini yoga to my practice of pranayama.
The benefit has just been great. I had my ups and downs and still have ups and downs the journey is not without its challenges, and there will be challenges to come along for the rest of my life. But it has all been worth it and I will continue my journey with pranayama, meditation, and kundalini yoga daily.
I think for me the highlight is NO MORE MIGRAINES! this is just so wonderful. Next is NO MORE SCIATICA that is also so great. All my physical pains from my problems with joints, frozen shoulders, and arthritis has reduced by about 85% this is huge as I now have many complete pain free days, it is unbelievable.
The improvement with my eyes is great and especially that the eye pressure has come down so far I am really pleased with it. I feel especially the pranayamas work on the physical level and it really is so easy but also I feel I sleep better and can relax on a deeper level than in the past.
The meditation and Kriyas have helped me a lot on my mental and emotional level. It is so great to get through grief, through anger and frustration, through insecurity and most of all, it opens doors to creativity, calmness and inner peace.

If we want to win a gold medal at the Olympics we have to work hard without the guaranty of winning, if we want to become rich and famous we have to work hard and without the guarantee of success. Whatever we want to achieve takes a lot of hard work without any guarantees. Yet most people are not prepared to put in some work toward their health and wellbeing. Our bodies mind, emotions and our souls are being neglected and always come last.

To me, my health and wellbeing are my top priorities now as when I feel happy, content and balanced and pain-free than I am able to achieve anything I want. With pranayama meditation and kundalini yoga, I learn patience, I learn to keep going, I get the energy, creativity, and motivation to go for what I desire. I also become aware and learn to see what is really important in life. I can make changes and I can be grateful for the things I have rather than chasing the things I can not have. Learning to live in the moment and understand life is all about, how one is living and appreciating each moment of our lives.

For me, my journey is with my practise pranayama, meditation, and kundalini yoga it is now truly part of my lifestyle. I have fou7nd the tool I have been looking for that is free of charge and that is helping me with any challenges it is helping me to live a happy and healthy life!

started back on my practice

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 14:56:00 -0800

Starting back at my practice of pranayama came as a surprise to me. A few months ago I quit my practice, as I just felt I needed to stop and feel what it would feel like without practising pranayama daily. I had got myself into a daily practice that felt like a must do, a pressure on me and I developed fears in stopping and feeling guilty if I'd stop my practice, but it felt like it all was too much and did not bring me the benefit I had expected.
During the time I had stopped my practice at first I felt the fears and guilt, but very quickly I felt relieved and enjoyed sleeping a bit longer and not having this pressure on me. The world continued, my life continued even without me practising pranayama. Then I developed the flu with a very bad eye infection in both eyes and I felt miserable. It had taken me about three weeks to really get over it and I remembered that over the past five years that I practised pranayama I did not get hit with the bad flu like this. But I did not think about pranayama during this lot of flu nor wanted to be told I should practice pranayama.
I still had a lot of awareness and it was as if I started to really observe myself., I am a vegetarian but one day had a huge craving for a chicken burger and I realised that I could make my own rule, I did not have to answer to anyone and I should just go ahead and eat a chicken burger. So I did and it was horrible. I am happy now with the choice to stay a vegetarian. But a good experience it was, as I started to drop all my should and shouldn't and having too and so on. I started to feel free again and in control of myself knowing that I really was my own boss and living from moment to moment I could choose from moment to moment what I wanted to do, I could break my own rules and make my own rules. That started to feel really good.
A couple of weeks ago in the evening I suddenly felt the urge to practice some pranayama. So I sat myself down and started to practice pranayama. I felt myself smiling and I remembered how Ajay my teacher from Divine Yoga UK told me to smile while practising pranayama. The smile came naturally and I started to feel like I was getting an endorphin fix. I could not stop myself from smiling and feeling of deep joy and then I felt deep compassion for myself, this was very new to me to feel compassionate toward myself. It felt just so good. After finishing my practice I thought about it all and I realised that practising pranayama for me was a way of pampering myself, of doing something for me, for my health and wellbeing. But most of all it feels just like I am giving myself some tender loving care, some nurturing, some self-love. Since then I am back at practising some pranayama daily again, in the evening at the moment and it is just a wonderful way of giving myself some me time and some pampering.
I do not pressure myself to do it daily, or I do not look at how much time I spend on it and I do not do it at the same time each day, I just do it when it feels right and the whole experience is wonderful.
So the things that have already changed for me since practising pranayama again is that I feel so much more loving toward myself, the word compassion is in my mind and it feels very powerful. My energy level is up and I have been bubbling over with inspiration and creativity and ideas, feeling motivated to move forward again in my life.
So pamper yourself with pranayama!!

Compassion

A feeling of deep compassion for the world and myself. Compassion is deep within the heart and when it comes to the surface it creates and radiates a warm and fuzzy feeling touching anyone that comes into the space of this compassionate being. May there be compassion for all sentient beings.

when everything becomes too much

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:49:00 -0700

I have been holding off writing this post as I have been feeling like a failure, I have been feeling that I have let myself down and everybody who's been reading my blog! And why? When everything becomes too much; this is what has been happening to me. My daily practice all of a sudden out of the blue had become too much for me to keep up. About six months ago I could feel myself struggling with my practice, I did not want to get up in the morning, I was becoming more irritable with my practice, I felt I should have achieved so much more by now, I started to doubt if my daily practice really was doing me any good. At the same time, I did not want to give up my practice, I feared that all my ailments would return, I feared I would fall back into old bad habits. Also, I kept hearing the voice in the back of my head that if I did not do my practice daily I would have to start again from the beginning e.g. practice for 40 days, 90 days 1000 days to make it effective. I started to create new fears and my daily practice became a struggle, a having to, a should do and a huge pressure and a burden on my shoulder. The fear of stopping became quite big I kept thinking what will happen if I give my daily practice a break I was terrified to try and from knowing myself I knew I had to just quit and give it a break. I knew I had come to the end of a cycle in my life and as with all endings, it is so hard to let go and to keep the faith that it would all turn out fine.

So I had quit my daily practice, two months ago after having been so disciplined in getting up early in the morning to do my pranayama and meditation every day. I slept in to 6.30 am from my 4 am rising, and I felt somewhat sad and scared. Somehow I could not completely let go and through the day I did some breathing, some mantra chanting and did some chakra healing. But after a while I became more relaxed I did not push myself to do any practice at all but I just felt the need to listen in the background to some mantra music.
Guilt stayed with me for quite a while, I also did not want to tell anyone, I felt a failure! and I then realised, that automatically I started to sit with these feelings, with these emotions and I started to breathe. My focus turned to my breath whenever I felt down, negative or had an emotion that I could not get rid of, or when I felt a pain in my joints.
I just sit down and started to focus on my breath. When I think about something when I gather my thoughts when I walk whatever I do I now notice my breath. I notice my breathing if it is rapid if I am holding my breath if my breath is shallow. I am completely have become aware of my breath all the time all day long!! I did not have this deep awareness before as I had focused on my practice and then when I was finished I started my day and never gave my breath another thought....

Pranayama is not just daily practice. We do pranayama constantly. We never really stop breathing and I am filled with joy that through my daily practice over the past 5-6 years and now with this so out of the blue ending of my daily ritual of practising pranayama, I have become in tune with my breath. I feel happy about this and I feel it was worth all the struggle, all the fear to experience this. I follow my breath throughout the day, I notice my breath throughout the day and sometimes it is so nice to just stop myself in my tracks and breath slow and deep. I am aware if one nostril is weaker then the other, I am aware when my breath is out of rhythm and I can bring my breathing into balance, and I can slow my breath down to become calm. Becoming so focused and tuned into my breath also makes me feel safe, it makes me feel calm and it makes me feel centred and whenever I am out of balance I become aware of my breath and all I need to do is bring the focus back to my breath and it feels like I am home and safe.
Living my life in this deep awareness helps me to go deeper into myself, it helps me to connect with my soul my spirit the me. It also brings me deeper into getting to know myself and so it is bringing on new challenges and new awareness, it also brings the awareness to be able to focus on the breath and just sitting with the breath and the challenges, which then makes the challenges disappear without me having to put any effort into them.

So the journey never stops, pranayama never stops, but pranayama is the most beautiful thing we have and can experience.
For now, I realised I am not doing a daily sit down practice, but instead I am fully living pranayama all throughout the day in full awareness and this is such a blessing.

forty days of doing eye exercises as a sadhana

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Fri, 5 Jul 2013 23:04:00 -0700

Day one, starting to do eye exercises on a daily base for forty days but really I hope I will continue with them for much longer as it is so important to look after your eyes.
First, tune in and take a few deep breaths before starting.
Exercise one; roll the eyes up, down, left, right, 21 times
               two; circle your eyes in one direction 21 times and then in the other direction, nice and slow and big circles without moving the head.
               three; look up to the right corner and down to the left corner 21 times then reverse right down left up.
               four; look to a spot in the distance and then bring your hand close to the head and look at it, distance than close feel the muscles working 21 times.
               five; close your eyes tightly then open wide quickly 21times
               six; bend head back looking at a spot on the ceiling with wide open eyes then do the breath of fire for three minutes. Take a deep inhale and slowly move the head to centre again.
To finish close your eyes inhale deeply into the eyes hold the breath for fifteen seconds then exhale do this three times. Hope you will join me on this forty-day journey!

Day four;
The eye yoga exercises take me about fifteen minutes a day. It feels a bit weird, my eye muscles get a bit tired during the exercises and with some of them, I feel a bit dizzy. And with the exercise crunching the eyes tightly closed then open making big eyes creates a few teary eyes. But when I finished the exercises I do feel clearer in my eyes, I can spend more time on the computer without getting tired eyes. It does feel good doing them. My eyes do feel better after doing the exercises. I had a few friends who wanted to do the forty-day eye exercises with me but they have now chickened out telling me they too busy. One friend suggested to me I should get paid for doing the exercises for others and sending the benefits from the exercises telepathically to them. Ha, I think I could become rich from this, doing the exercises for others sending them the benefits telepathically and get paid for it? Are there any takers?
As there are some many out there that need to do these exercises but are just too lazy to do them.
So I hope that many of you have joined me and are already starting to feel the benefits of actually doing these exercises. It takes only 15 minutes a day!

Day five;
Before starting my exercises I always close my eyes first, tuning into my body mind and soul. Taking a few deep breaths, calming the mind and body. Then bringing the awareness to doing my eye exercises. I breath consciously getting a rhythm going with the exercise and breath. When closing the eyes after a set I take a deep breath hold the breath bringing it into the eyes, then exhaling, consciously breathing out through the nose all the negativity from the eyes. When I finish with all the eye exercises again I close my eyes tune into my eyes and become aware of the healing breathing into the eyes again and exhaling all the negativity from the eyes. This is pranayama being conscious of the breathing, using the breath with the exercises. Being aware and in tune with doing the exercises is yoga, be conscious of what you are doing get a rhythm going get the flow going between breath and exercise. Don't rush the exercise, don't think of it as a chore thinks of it as healing. Be positive while doing the exercise and focus on the exercise don't let the mind wander to what else you need to do today etc.
When I truly focus on the exercise I can feel all the muscles around and in the eyes working, I feel calm and relaxed.

Day ten; Hope you are all doing well with doing these eye exercises daily. I am doing great with them, feeling all the muscles in my eyes working, especially the muscles in the forehead. It is a strange feeling to feel muscles one did not even be aware of in the past. I feel it is important to take time with these exercises and not to rush them, to have the rest with closed eyes in between sets and breathing into the eyes feeling the energy going into the eyes. I have been able to cope easily with sitting on the computer all day without getting the usual eye strain.
The improvement in the eyesight will be different for everyone as it so depends on what the eye problem is all about and for how long one has had eye problems. If your eyes have just slowly deteriorated over time you may find the improvement is better than of someone who has been wearing prescription glasses all their life.
But don't give up, keep going as it does help your eyes even if it is just stopping the eyes from getting worse or from developing glaucoma or cataract. The eyes are as important as the rest of the body so it would be just natural to include eye exercises in your daily routine. I know it is hard to get motivated, but the eyes are so important.
Are you feeling a difference from doing the exercises?

Day seventeen; How is everyone going with doing their eye exercises?
It has been good so far have been able to make it part of my morning Sadhana. Doing the exercises is very calming I have to work on focusing while doing the exercises as I feel so relaxed and could easily go to sleep while doing them. The eyes feel good, and I can work all day on the computer without feeling any tiredness in the eyes that are just great. I use to get so tired from working on the computer or reading, but my eyes can focus better. I still get a bit sore eye muscles while doing the exercises but it does not last.
So hope you all are keeping up with them. These exercises should become a routine to do always, to help heal problems with the eyes and to prevent problems with your eyes.
As more work one puts into the greater the benefit.

Already day thirty-three; and it has been going well. I feel now that doing the eye exercises is part of me now and even sometimes during the day I do a few more eye exercises just before I do a lot of computer work or sometimes after I have done a lot of work on the computer and I do feel it is helping to keep my eyes from getting tired or blurry or getting eye strain. This is what I wanted to achieve with doing the eye exercises for 40 days, that I will naturally think of doing them regularly or to avoid eye strain or make a job in front of the computer easier. I now think of the exercises and in the long run, my eyes will benefit from it.
So keep up I am hoping you are all keeping up with these exercises!

Well, the forty days are up and I feel that I have achieved the goal I had set for myself which is to get myself to do these eye exercises on a daily base have them included in my daily sadhana, without skipping them or making excuses to myself not to do them. It has felt good doing these exercises regularly and I even enjoyed them. I still can feel the muscles when doing them and it still sometimes feels a bit weird doing some of the exercises but my eyes feel better they feel less irritated after a long day in front of the computer. I just feel more strength in my eyes more able to focus and not getting any tired eyes at all. I will now continue them, I will see at my October appointment with my optometrist what changes I have achieved. I know these exercises will help my eyes to get healthier and to stay healthy.
Will you keep up with your eye exercises?

changes are happening on a deep level

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 13:42:00 -0800

15.09.2011
Pranayama goes very deep, it works on a very deep level and when you start working with pranayama, there is no escape from having to heal on a very deep level. Emotions, thoughts and a strong awareness are stirred up and you are phased with learning to understand what your challenges are, what your hang-ups are, what emotions you have been carrying with you all your life. Pranayama helps with the healing of your deep inner being. Pranayama helps to unlock blockages, self-imposed restriction, self-sabotage, and all the stuff we are holding on to. Pranayama helps with healing deep inner feelings, burdens, stresses and all the underlying causes. The hardest part about it all is that these challenges come to the surface to be healed to be released, to be let go of. In these situations, it is good to have a teacher who can help you through those challenges and stop you from giving up. Pranayama has helped me to find my inner teacher and has helped me to be aware of what is going on and has helped me to work through all these challenges to heal myself on a very deep level. It is a wonderful experience, but it is also very challenging and is testing my faith daily. It is wonderful so to come out on the other end and while practising Pranayama the warms and the healing energy that flows through my body, my mind, my heart and soul is amazing and words can not even begin to describe these feelings. Pranayama gives you the strength to conquer all challenges.

18.11.2011
It has been interesting for me to observe myself. Changes are happening on a deep level from practising Pranayama regularly. It has come to my attention that my reactions to stress or difficult situation are changing. I do not react in the old ways any more. My response to stress or difficult situation is calmer, it is more focused and it is not affecting me in a negative way. I noticed that the old feelings are there just for a short moment and then from deep within the new and positive response is coming to the surface.
In the past I would react negatively, then become aware of my negative reaction, then I would try to change and to work through it, now it is changing from deep within. This made me realise that the healing is now starting to happen deep within me and as a result of practising Pranayama, I no longer react negatively to stress or difficult situations, it is automatic that I do not react negatively now, which means by being calmer the physical body can continue to heal and deep physical, mental and emotional ailments can now heal at the core.
In the past, the negative reactions came automatic and it was as if I could not stop it. Now the positive reactions come automatically which shows that Pranayama can change negative behaviour patterns on a very deep level. The power of healing from Pranayama is continuous impressing me just amazing. Bad I still do have these bad days too but they are easier to cope with now.

The behaviour pattern is changing from deep within

Pranayama and its effect on animals

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sun, 4 Sep 2011 15:35:00 -0700

Since I have been practising Pranayama I have noticed a change in all my animals. I have two large breed dogs, 3 cats and two Lorikeets. One of my dogs is still very much a puppy and wants to play and chase the cats. When I get up early in the morning she is all up and ready to run and play, but as soon as she sees me sitting down to practice my Pranayama she calms down and goes to sleep next to the cats. The cats often sit around me and they sense when I am calming down they come closer. They know when I need space and they move. The connection between the animals and me has changed, we are much more in tune with each other, we can communicate better and the animals just feel so much calmer. When one of the animals get sick they try and sit on my lap when I do my Pranayama and it seems to help them they seem to feel better when we finish our practice. After practising Pranayama I go and open up the bird aviary and the two Lorikeets sit on my shoulders and start to smooch me and I can feel they are soaking in the energy. I am sure since practising Pranayama it has made my environment more pleasant and calmer, it is benefiting my whole family.

Pranayama heals headaches and migraines

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:06:00 -0700

February 2017
A Chapter out of my new eBook; Pranayama, Mudra, Mantra and Meditation for health and well-being

Pranayama does work, and I have been blogging about this many times. To me, it was such a huge relief when finally something worked for my migraines. I had suffered from migraines from the time I was about eight years old until I discovered the power of Pranayama.

My migraines were very debilitating, started always at four am in the morning. I could not lay down as this made it all worse. I could only sit up and hold my head back. This caused my neck to become very painful. I always had to yawn a lot with a migraine and many times I dislocated my jaw from the intense yawning. The intensity of a migraine resulted in vomiting and diarrhoea and nothing really gave any relief, I had to sit it out for the twelve to sixteen hours that it had taken for relief to come. Anything would set off a migraine, the weather, the food, the stress and so on.

Often I had one or two migraines a week. Very exhausting as I could not sleep with it and my back and neck were hurting from the sitting position that would slightly ease the intensity of migraine. No medication worked and I just had to put up with it. My stress in life increased and the migraines increased and then the death of my soul mate the dog tipped me over the edge...I was at the end of my strength and screamed at the universe for not helping me!!

Then I sat at my computer checking my emails and here an email was in my inbox, that was not addressed to me but I did read it and it was from a Pranayama yoga teacher from London who offered his help to this person the email was meant for.

I checked out his website and thought what on earth is Pranayama yet I was very drawn to it. So I emailed him and asked if he could teach me the Pranayama via Skype as I am living in NZ and the response was that we could try. I had eleven sessions to learn about ten Pranayama’s and they made me feel so good. I then practised the Pranayama’s daily and within two or three weeks I was free of migraines. Six years later still no migraines.

Your sufferings can become your biggest blessings for me learning about the Pranayama and yoga has changed my life so much I cannot put it into words and I just keep wanting to scream about it from the rooftop!!! Thanks to these awful migraines I have come to experience the power of Pranayama yes your sufferings are your blessings. I wish so I did not have to suffer for so many years.

Here below are all the old posts I wrote during my time of healing my migraines and headaches while practising Pranayama daily.

16.08.2011
I had suffered from migraine headaches since childhood, as long as I can remember. Pranayama has healed my migraines, my headaches for good. I use to get the migraines from stress, from a storm approaching, from windy weather, around my menstrual cycle, from foods, from sinus problems, anything would set off a migraine often with vomiting and always with diarrhoea. The pain would be so severe that it waked me at about 4 am in the morning and I could not be lying down I had to sit or walk around to get a little relief. Walking around gave only short-term relief as my legs would get so tired I also had to yawn a lot and sometimes so much that it hurt my jaws. No medicine helped as I would vomit it up as soon as I had taken it. They use to last from 4 to 12 hours and the next day I was always so exhausted. I got them 2 - 4 x a month. When I started practising Pranayama I noticed immediate relief. The migraines turned into headaches within 1 month and then I had no migraine and no headache for 3 months. Then I had a week of just niggling headaches and then nothing for a month then one more headache and now it has been a good six month without migraines or headaches or even a niggle. It is just such a relief and I do not know how I ever coped with all these migraines as it is such a great feeling to be free of them. Pranayama does really work it is amazing.

Updating!Dec.2013
It is now over three years that I have been practising pranayama and since my migraines disappeared I have not looked back. I have not had any migraines since and I may get a slight headache once in a while like maybe every six months or so if I have been straining my neck but a headache is so light that it does not really bother me. It is just so amazing to be rid of them and that they have not returned anymore. Pranayama truly works!
Pranayama really works! Dec. 2013

Update!20.04.2015
Just a quick update, just about five years since my start of practising Pranayama and my migraines have not come back, this is just so wonderful!!! It is beyond words, to be free of a life full of migraines!! I can get an occasional headache in the morning on waking if I strain my back or neck, but it is only a very mild headache, and it goes within an hour or two of getting up and moving. So Pranayama is brilliant!!!

UPDATE: 1.10.2016
it has been now about 5 or 6 years since I started practising Pranayama and I am still free of migraines. I worked out, that I had suffered from very bad migraines for about 40 years and no medical Doctor had ever been able to help me. And I must say I had never been successful with natural remedies either. But with Pranayama and mudras, I am totally free of migraines and headaches. I wish I knew about Pranayama much earlier.

Pranayama warms the body regulates body temperature

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:54:00 -0700

We have just been experiencing one of the coldest time here in New Zealand, and Pranayama has kept me warm. The polar storm has bought us snow and icy cold winds and the houses in New Zealand are not well insulated, the icy wind is getting through the tiny gaps in the windows and it is hard and expensive to keep the house warm. I have always suffered from bad circulations and get cold easy, but since practising Pranayama I have been so much warmer. I do not feel the cold, in the same way, I use too. The cold wind is not getting into my bones any more, I am staying warm it is just amazing. I can not believe, how I am feeling warm while everyone around me is freezing. With Pranayama, Ujjayi, Suryabhedi or Suryanga pranayama breathing in through the right nostril, and the breath of fire, doing more of these pranayamas have made a marked difference in my body temperature keeping me warmer then I have ever felt. I also noticed that I have had no pains in my joints, even so in the past in these extreme weather conditions my joints would hurt. Its because my joints feel warmer and the cold does not penetrate me. The extent of benefits one can get from practising Pranayama is beyond words.

Pranayama what you should avoid doing

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:00:00 -0700

When practising Pranayama there are a few important things to do or not to do:

Some Pranayama like Kapalabhati and the breath of fire should be practised on a completely empty stomach only, as when they are practised straight after eating they may cause heartburn and can raise your blood pressure, therefore, doing it first thing in the morning is best so you have no food left in the stomach for a good three or more hours.

When doing Kapalabhati it is important to do it correctly, to do the speed and rhythm correct as if you do it incorrectly you can get acidity, heartburn and shortness of breath, and you should avoid doing Kapalabhati straight after having had any surgery.

When doing the three bandhas with the Bahya Pranayama, you also do them on a completely empty stomach as you do not want to hold in and pull up toxins while holding the bandhas. You should not do any bandhas if you are menstruating, this is important. These three bandhas with the Bahya Pranayama could be practised fifteen minutes before a meal as they fire up the digestive system which is very beneficial.

If you got a cold or have a sinus infection you should not do Sitkari, as it will make your infection worse, because it cools the body.

When practising Pranayama make sure you have enough time, if you stressed and rushed doing Pranayama it will not be very effective. Check and recheck yourself that you do the Pranayama correct, stay mindful, focused and aware throughout your practice, it is easy to slip and rush them or get tired, or not doing them correctly or not sitting straight etc.

After practising for eleven months I still catch myself out and need to focus on doing all the Pranayama correct. You will feel a difference when you are focused and do all the pranayama correct. It takes time but it is worth it. Don't be too hard on yourself it will all come together, make sure you are relaxed when practising Pranayama and you have an inward smile and feel positive.

Another thing is important, make sure you are warm during practising and the air you breathe in is warm and not icy cold.
I just made the experience, over the past few weeks it has been very cold here minus six degrees and colder and my house was chilly when I was practising the pranayama. A few days later I could feel my lungs were very sore as if I had pneumonia, very painful. I thought about what I had done and realised that I was breathing in all this chilly air. I now make sure the room temp is warmer and I wrap myself in a warm blanket and have a hot water bottle on my back to keep warm. I am on a very tight budget and can not heat my home too much so it is important to find other ways to stay warm. My lungs healed quickly when I kept myself a bit warmer during practising Pranayama.

An eleven-minute practice a day is better than not practise any at all. Many other pranayamas can be done during the day even about 15 minutes after eating.

Ujjayi Pranayama should not be practised while having a sore throat but is a wonderful Pranayama as a preventative for colds, sore throats etc.

Sitkari is a wonderful Pranayama to cool off if filled with anger, and also is cooling when feeling over heated, but should not be practised in cold air and on cold winter days.

Be sensible, and always be observant, aware and focused when practising any Pranayama.

Pranayama Flu and colds, chilblains.

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:31:00 -0700

It has been amazing how Pranayama also helps with colds and the flu. I have found when I get symptoms of a cold or the flu increasing the practice of Ujjayi pranayama will nip it in the bud.
Pranayama boosts the immune system making you less susceptible to colds and flu.

At first, I had difficulties in learning the Ujjayi Pranayama, it is a sort of breathing through the throat it is a scraping sensation in the throat, but have found on YouTube many different ways to learn this Pranayama.
A word of caution if you already have a sore throat do not practise this pranayama as it will aggravate the throat, but if you include this pranayama in your daily practice and increase it a bit in the month where these flu and colds are doing their rounds you should be free of getting them.

When I had finally mastered it I followed the instructions of Swami Ramdev doing this Pranayama with kumbhaka, holding the breath and doing the bandhas., then exhaling through the left nostril, by closing the right nostril.

This Pranayama has put a stop on my colds and flu very quickly. Some Pranayamas also warm the body and some cool the body which is great I increase the warming Pranayama practice at the moment as the weather has turned quite wintry now. And feeling so much warmer for it.

In the summer I increase the practice of the cooling Pranayama and this is just so amazing. Pranayama also helps with circulation and adding some mudras specific for circulation also help with pumping the blood all through the veins and capillaries, which has helped me this winter with my problems of chilblains. Pranayama does work you just have to practice it.

Some Mudras we can practise with our pranayama help in preventing sore throats, ear infections and flu are the Shunya mudra and the bear grip mudra

Breath and transform your life

Pranayama creates true freedom, abandon excuses, let go of being controlled

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:41:00 -0700

There are two things that people find hard about making the decision to practice Pranayama. One thing is, people, tell me they have no time to practice Pranayama. My question why? We can all get up a bit earlier in the morning to practice Pranayama or we can do it before going to bed instead of watching TV.
We could go to bed earlier so we can get up earlier really it is no excuse in my books. You lose your freedom if you are hooked on TV or if you are a workaholic because you want a boat a flash car etc. Take stock about your excuse why you could not practice Pranayama and find out how you are being controlled by these reasons.
The next thing is people tell me they would not want to give up coffee, white sugar, meat, junk food, fast food, alcohol fizzy drinks etc. Why because these are all addictive things and they have great control over people. You are being controlled by all these things. You can't have any treats hm you can change your mindset and see that all the healthy foods are treats for your body they give nourishment to your body, vitamins, minerals, energy, good health so why would you want to be under the control of negative foods that keep you sluggish, hyperactive, stressed, iron deficient, hangover, give you diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, etc.
You go to the doctor who prescribes you medication and he tells you this will control your blood sugar, this will control your cholesterol, this will control your blood pressure, this will control your aches and pain this will control your headaches, this will control your mood swings, hey you are being controlled!!!!
You have to go to the doctor regularly for your prescription the drug companies got you under their thumb and you have to become a workaholic to pay for it and to pay for the health insurance!!! Where is your freedom???

All you need is a bit of discipline to start practising Pranayama and soon you can start to experience some freedom. Isn't it a fact that when you go on holiday somewhere nice you take a deep breath and say wow I can do what I want for a little while, you take a BREATH!! that gives you a sense of freedom.
Studies have proven that people with a bit of discipline are happier than the once that allow themselves to be controlled.

Well I have turned the table on people, I know when they feel sorry for me that I have hot water instead of coffee or healthy food instead of junk food, I tell them how I feel sorry that they are under such control of their so-called treats, they really treat themselves with poison, that every time they have these so-called treats brings them closer to disease.
It saddens me to see how people, doctors drug companies, fast food places are so irresponsible only because they want control over the human race. When will people wake up and realise how they are really not free and how they have been under such control.
Break free from it, start practising Pranayama take a deep breath and with each inhales, breath in the freedom and with each out breath let go of being controlled.

I have found that when I started practising Pranayama, my body automatically wanted to change and my awareness grew to eat and drink more healthy, and I am so aware that if I feel I must have something every day it has a hold over me. And we all on occasions overeat or have something that is not completely healthy, and this is fine, so long it has no hold over us so long we can be without it.

Pranayama can be incorporated throughout your day if a sit-down practice is not possible, as we can stop a few minutes during the day and take our focus to our breath, become aware of our breath even if it is only for a few minutes and it will already make a world of difference.

There are many ways you can fit a pranayama breathing exercise into your day, no matter how busy you are. It creates awareness and with it freedom and the ability to choose and make changes. Remember you can choose to have junk food, coffee, alcohol all these things, but do you really enjoy being controlled by it? Now I can really enjoy a coffee once in a while without getting hooked on it or I can eat junk food, I must say so that when I do I wished I did not as it makes me feel unwell, and this is why I choose not to have it very often, is it really worth it to feel sick after overeating, is it worth it to get indigestion, is it worth it to get a hangover the next day????
Observer yourself and listen to your mind chatter, what are the things that control you, what are the things you do without thinking about it just because you need it and are hooked on it?

Everything becomes crystal clear just like these ice crystals on this branch.

Pranayama with Ayurveda or other healing modalities

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sat, 2 Apr 2011 15:10:00 -0700

During my years of practising pranayama, I have noticed that when I can afford some Ayurveda medicine that it works in extremely well with Pranayama, and especially in chronic conditions. Ayurveda helps in speeding up the recovery and cure of most ailments. These herbs are powerful helping with giving fast pain relief in chronic conditions like arthritis, and many more symptoms.

Ayurveda also helps in accidents sprains, dislocated joints swelling etc. but Ayurveda can be quite costly, and if you can afford it, it is well worth using in conjunction with practising Pranayama.
At the same time, Pranayama works wonders even if you cannot afford the Ayurveda medicines. This is why I love Pranayama as it costs nothing and all we need to do is practice it, it is so simple. And the brilliant part about Pranayama is that it does not interfere with any other healing modalities or healing medicines, but it will enhance the power of any other healing modalities and medicines.

For chronic ailments, Pranayama may take a bit longer for the healing to come about, but it can work quite quickly in acute situations and as it works on all levels, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual it is a wonderful tool to use.

I love using Aura-Soma products like Pomanders and Quintessences before and after a Pranayama session as I feel it has made me more sensitive and aware during my Pranayama practice which I love very much.

When I have a bit of spare cash, I use Ayurveda for my chronic and physical ailments if need to, I also use Homeopathic if need to, as I have been a practising Homeopath for many years, and I love using homoeopathic in severe acute situations together with Pranayama and mudras.

There are so many healing tools around and for me, the most important thing is that I can use a tool even when I do not have much money....so Pranayama costs nothing!!

Pranayama improves your Lungs

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sat, 2 Apr 2011 14:45:00 -0700

5. 07. 2017

It has been incredible to watch the improvement of my lungs, and with a special mudra, I could learn to feel the difference between breathing just with the upper part of my lungs, or then the mid part of the lungs, and it had taken quite a while before I could feel the breath in the lower part of the lungs.
At the beginning when I learned to really take a deep breath I had quite a sore chest. I think the expansion of the lungs bruised the chest walls as it was a very new experience.
Only very recently I noticed, even so, I had been a bit unfit again when I climbed a very steep hill I did not get as puffed that I use to and very quickly my breathing settled down again. Something that is very new to me. It feels like even when I am not exercising regularly I can stay fit and my heart and lungs work really well. I must say so, that just practising Kapalabhati pranayama, it is like doing a fitness practice and it definitively keeps me fitter than if I did not practise it. Pranayama really improves the lungs and the heart and circulation. I can now hold my breath for quite a bit longer than I have ever been able to and my inhaling in the past could not be deeper than a four second inhale, now I can inhale for about fifteen sometimes even twenty seconds. the same with the exhale. When your lungs improve and heal you are less likely to catch these chest colds and coughs, Since practising Pranayama I have had hardly any colds, a snuffle maybe for a very short time that is all.

2. 04. 2011

I have always been a shallow breather and often huffed and puffed while walking up the hill or upstairs. Even as a child I huffed and puffed, but nobody ever thought it was a problem. I just lived with it and felt that I was just unfit. But even after doing a lot of exercises and becoming quite fit my breathing did not change. I was never diagnosed with anything but often wondered about my huffing and puffing. Never was I able to hold my breath or hold out my breath for very long.
Since doing Pranayama it has certainly improved, but I noticed that holding my breath in or out I could not do for very long. I can take a deep breath, but it has never been as deep as others have been able to do. So when I was reading the book Yog in Synergy with Medical Science especially the chapter Role of Pranayama In Yog practice and its effectiveness, I have learned more in depth how to control the breath and how to hold and do the bandhs and have felt in a short time great improvement. At first, I also felt a bit light headed, but now this has settled and I am feeling my lungs expanding and filling with air. It makes a big difference. Learning to do the Pranayama and experiencing the depth of Pranayama is just amazing. Being focused while doing Pranayama and really having control, following the breath inside the body is a great experience.

Mudras with Pranayama; the power of Mudra

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Wed, 9 Mar 2011 11:50:00 -0800

16.02.2017 some snippets from my new eBook; Pranayama, Mudra, Mantras and Meditation for Health and Wellbeing

What are mudras? They can also be called Hand and finger Yoga.

Your whole body is in your hands, and by holding your fingers in a certain way, pressing certain energy centres, will bring healing to your body, mind and soul.

For the people who have an understanding of the five elements;

1. The thumb represents Fire

2. The index finger represents Air

3. Middle finger represents either

4. The ring finger represents Earth

5. And the little finger represents Water.

For the people who love the concept of chakras your energy fields, just the five chakras who represent the physical body are in the hands;

1. Thumb Solar Plexus

2. Index finger Heart Chakra

3. Middle finger Throat Chakra

4. Ring finger Root Chakra

5. Little finger Sacral Chakra

For the people who are interested in Acupressure, you have the acupressure points in your fingers and hands and by simply pressing these points can bring relief for many ailments without the use of needles.

My old Post; 9.03.2011 Mudras with Pranayama

Doing the different Mudras while practising the Pranayama is very powerful. I did not know what effect Mudras have until I could really focus on my breath while practising Pranayama. My mind wandered a lot and it was at first very hard to stay focused.
When I was able to really focus on my breath (prana) I realised the powers the Mudras had. Especially during practising Kapalabhati changing the Mudras every 3 - 5 minutes was amazing.
When doing the Vayu Mudra, I could feel prana moving around my arthritic joints and pushing out any toxins in my joints, then changing to Sunya Mudra, the prana was very strong around the throat and ears. It was a marked difference each time I changed the Mudra and prana became very strong in the particular area and I could feel the toxins removed from these areas. It made me feel so refreshed. Mudras are amazing. Hand mudras regulate the elements.

Vayu Mudra

Sunya Mudra

There are so many different Mudras it is just amazing. Make sure you drink plenty of water after practising Pranayama with Mudras as your body needs help with flushing out the toxins.

Difficulties when practicing Pranayama

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sun, 6 Mar 2011 13:26:00 -0800

10.12.2011

Crisis does happen;

Over the past few weeks, the energy around me has been so hectic and I have felt like my Pranayama has come to a crisis point. I am tired in the morning, I do not feel like practising Pranayama everything is hectic around me, the energy around me is fast and everyone is stressed and feel like this stress is coming on to me and is taking over.

It is the Christmas time around here where everyone is planning, organising, partying, drinking and overindulging. Somehow I feel it has nothing to do with this spiritual time that Christmas suppose to be. In our street all the holidaymakers are coming, kids are running and cycling up and down the road, stressing out my dogs.

Dogs roam early in the mornings around the streets and it is hard work when I want to walk my big dogs before anyone is up. I feel stressed and to top it all I had a fall and banged my head quite badly, realising a few days later that I may have had a concussion as I have been feeling bad and the head hurts.
I have been doing Pranayama for quite a while now and wondering when the road would become a bit smoother, I can see how easy it is to just quit and go back to the old ways. But then I take a good look at what is happening around me. I see how far I have come, so much less pain in all my joints and I do recover from falls so much better. I feel not tempted as much to eat negative foods, in fact, I always feel really good when I can resist it so easy.
I can see what's going on and I can pull myself back and practice my Pranayama and feel so much better in the end. A crisis is part of life and I feel I get through it so much easier now. I do have my moments and have had days where I may only do twenty minutes of Pranayama, but I always feel like I need to do some as I just do not want to fall back into old habits. And often it is only one or two days where I feel a bit low and then I pick up and automatically my Pranayama sessions become longer again. Hang in there through any crisis look back and see how far you come, then you realise it is worth the effort, practising Pranayama does heal the body, mind and soul. And it is a great tool that carries you through any challenges you may encounter.
We will always face challenges, but when we do a pranayama practice or focus on the breathing throughout the day we can easily get through all our challenges.

22.09.2011

Making Time;

I often hear people say to me they have difficulties to make time to do the pranayama. My response to this is, that we all make time to have a shower, to brush our teeth to washing our hair, to eat, to sleep., to exercise. This means we make time to care for our teeth, for cleanliness, we care and make time to fuel our bodies with food, we make time to sleep, to rest our bodies, but we do not make time to breathe!!

When a child is born the first thing it does is taking an independent breath, the most important thing, without breathing we can not live. Without breathing our body cannot function, yet we do not want to make time to work with our breath, the one thing that we need the most, the one thing that helps to restore the body to health, the one thing that keeps the body healthy the one thing we call life.

In the beginning, it was hard to make that time, I know and what I did, was telling myself how important breathing is! When I woke up in the early hours of the morning and just wanted to turn around and go back to sleep, I told myself that breathing is so important and I asked myself what it was I wanted to achieve. This made it easy for me to get up and practice my pranayama.
Now I can not wait to get up in the early morning to practice my pranayama, as it gives me such a boost. It fuels my body with oxygen, with energy, with strength with calm and with focus. If we can make time for all these other things it should not be hard to make time for our most important tool our breath. You gain so much more from practising pranayama then from that extra hour of sleep. The benefits from working with pranayama are far more than you would ever get from sleeping that extra hour. Make time for your breath for the most important part of your being alive. If the early mornings are so difficult, then why not practise Pranayama at the end of the day or make short breaks during the day to breath.

02/07/2011

Pranayama a journey not always a quick fix

Pranayama can give instant relief, but the true healing comes with time. When I first learned pranayama I was on a high, I was motivated by my teacher and felt great. The deep breathing gave me a "fix," it felt like an adrenal shot, I felt on top of the world. But when my lessons finished and I had learned what I needed to learn I dropped like a hot potato, it was back to reality.
No one there that motivated me no one that wanted to hear about the struggles no one that wanted to hear about healing crisis etc. I was on my own and this is a reality.
We have to walk our journey alone. There may be friends around us that will listen and support us. But what I have found is that I could not get any answers on how long it would take to heal, I could not get answers on how to deal with difficulties, with struggles, or with healing crises.

What I have observed as a healer, as a Homeopath over the past 20 years is that healers, teachers, therapists often cannot answer these questions, and often have not the time to guide you along the way unless one can spend large amounts of money for the time of these people.
My experience is that we all are different, we all heal differently and it takes each one of us a different amount of time to heal. It all depends on how long we have suffered from an illness, how deep the suffering is, where does the suffering come from etc. I have always been fascinated about the journey of healing, because I have learned that nothing really is a quick fix, nothing comes easy nothing changes unless we do the work.

I believe that most of our physical symptoms are an expression of our mental and emotional state. Unfortunate most of us are unaware or dispute or refuse to accept, or just do not know ourselves and what makes us stressed, emotional, happy or unhappy etc. We often do not know ourselves, we do not know our hang-ups our negative personality patterns. When practising Pranayama these things all come to light. Awareness happens and you have to learn to deal with what you find out about your self.
When your mind your emotions start to heal your physical body can heal too. Often you start feeling a relieve in your physical body when your mind and emotions calm. But then the Journey begins and we have to acknowledge and work through our negative personality patterns, sometimes the physical ailments can get worse before getting better, and sometimes they get better but hit us again with a vengeance a few months later. It is a Journey to work through and not to give up.
We will feel like quitting or even quit for a while and then take it up again, we want to feel better sooner than later, and when do we really know that we are healed? I believe that we need to be free of symptoms for at least 12 months before we can say we are healed. Pranayama is a Journey and you should practice it for life, It should become part of your life it should fit into your lifestyle. That is the hard part. Hold in front of you the goal you like to achieve, the reason why you chose to practice Pranayama and remembering that the most important part of life is the Journey.
When starting practising Pranayama you can feel dizziness, vertigo, lightheadedness, tingling sensations, coldness, heat, hunger, thirst and energetic or exhausted. You may feel emotional, old grief, hurt sadness can surface. You may get discharges, runny nose, weepy eyes, smelly pooh, dark urine, all depending on your physical ailments.
Pranayama works on a deep level it heals on a deep level, therefore, you can experience all these things. Your body will detox so it needs to get rid of the toxins somehow. Therefore it is important to start making changes on your diet so you stop loading your body with toxins again. The good thing about Pranayama is it does work it will get you there if you really want to get there. This is one of the reasons I have been blogging about my experiences, to share what it is like when we practise pranayama on a daily base. It has been my experience that many teachers may not practise what they teach on a regular base and therefore often have no answers to the questions. This is my reason for publishing my two eBooks to help you the reader to get more understanding and help when you take up a daily practice.

20/05 2011

The challenges when practising pranayama

Since practising Pranayama, I have not met anyone else who practices Pranayama regularly and who has also made all the diet changes that I have made. It is often difficult when going out with friends, who drink and overindulge and who do not look after themselves.
When I pop in at friends places, they like to tempt me with coffee or with foods I do not have any more they try to tell me oh once in a while you should be allowed to have it. It is hard to get the message across to people that I am allowed to have whatever I like, but that I have made these changes consciously and do not want to have all these junk foods.
People can not understand that one can have fun without alcohol, without coffee, without junk food. But since practising Pranayama I have no desire for these things and I often feel sad for all my friends that they still need all these things to make them feel better. I find it hard to watch people being so careless about their health. They happy to go on drugs, they do not worry that diabetes is just around the corner for them even when they have been told by the doctor they do not care.

People find it easier to pop a pill than to practice Pranayama. My friends tell me they would not want to get up so early to practice Pranayama. Yes at first its hard to get up at 5 am, but now it's easy. I tell myself I can have one sleep in a week and do the Pranayama a bit later, but every time I do have the sleep in I feel heavy and tired all day. I now prefer to get up at 5 am and feel fresh and a life. I find it sad that people do not take responsibility for their health and well being when it is so easy.

It is hard to be the only one in a big community, but when I feel all the benefits its worth it and I guess people have a choice. Because I feel all the benefits that practising Pranayama gives I would love to motivate others to do the same, but this is such a hard challenge, people are so ignorant to it, they come up with all the excuses in the world, but no excuse is good enough, when it concerns your health and well being. Practising Pranayama is easier then to pop a pill for the rest of your life with all its side effects. Practising Pranayama is easier than waking in the morning with a hangover or heavy and tired. Practising Pranayama and changing your diet is easier than living a life with aches and pains and stress and tension, anger and frustrations. Practising Pranayama has become a way of life for me and it is no harder then brushing my teeth every morning. I wish others could find their way to practising Pranayama and feel the amazing benefits.

When first starting to practice Pranayama, one will have many excuses why one can not do it today, it is easy to put it off, its easy to feel, not wanting to get up in the morning to practice Pranayama. During practising the mind wonders its hard at first to focus on the breathing. I had problems with yawning at first I just had to yawn all the time. My body had to get used to all the oxygen. Then it became so relaxing that I had difficulties with falling asleep during practising but not giving up helped overcome all these obstacles and having in my mind that I wanted to get healthy and feel better. The healing process is a journey and it does not happen overnight. When I studied Homeopathy we were taught that for each year we had an ailment it would take one month to heal providing we have the correct remedy, but we were not taught that it could take month or years to find the correct remedy that would have such a deep healing effect. But with Pranayama if you do them right you will feel better pretty quickly and then for the ailments one had for a long time or since birth, it will take its time. I wrote the following after practising Pranayama for 3 weeks. In these 3 weeks, we had an earthquake and a storm.

Carry On; September 2010

Doing Pranayamas now for 3 weeks on a regular base 2 hours a day, getting up at 4 am and making changes in my diet has been a challenge. In the morning at 4 am I wake to get up and do my practice of Pranayamas a voice in my head tells me; “you need your sleep close your eyes you can start tomorrow” I ignore the voice and carry on.

I get ready and sit down to start my practising a voice in my head tells me; “you do not need to do them all just a few and then go back to bed.” I ignore and carry on.

The next morning the same happens and I ignore and carry on.

Then one morning I get ready to do my Pranayamas and the house starts to shake. The voice in my head tells me; “an earthquake surely

you do not need to do your practice now!""get over the fear its only a small shake and sit down!"The other voice said.

I ignore and carry on.

The next day I hear the wind howling and I fear the roof of my

house will be ripped off and the voice tells me; “no you do not need to

practice today give it a miss once will not matter.”I ignore and carry on.

Pranayamas give me the strength to carry on no matter what, but it is not easy to go against the voice, the negative thoughts, my personality, my old habits, my weaknesses and I realise how my old lifestyle is like an addiction, it will try to hold me back from moving into a new lifestyle. I take one step at the time and working on “carry

on” with the changes I have put in place. I turn my back on my old lifestyle on my addiction and it feels like I am going through withdrawal symptoms the voice is finding every excuse why not to do Pranayamas, I struggle and I fight it, and I do not give in as at the end of the struggle ...

Today I feel more grounded a stillness has come over me, I feel more centred, I feel the end of the struggle is near. Patience now is needed for the healing that is starting to take place.

Hope and Determination are getting stronger, the knowledge that I am

on the right path helps me to carry on. And Faith that the healing is starting on all levels is stronger.

I take a deep Breath and know I am coming home to a place of peace

and contentment. OM

Some points;

You can practise Pranayama in the evening if early morning is just not possible.

You can take a break during the day and practise some Pranayama if this helps

Check out my other blogs, as I progressed with my practice I have become aware of how to make my daily practice easier and more fitting to my lifestyle and my daily routine.

What is Pranayama

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Fri, 4 Mar 2011 12:59:00 -0800

What is Pranayama?
Many of my friends have been asking me this question.
Pranayama is controlled breathing, yoga breathing exercises, to control vital energy, life force and especially prana ( breath).

Regular practising of Pranayama increases the oxygen intake and regulates the flow of oxygen throughout the body. Without breath, we die. The baby takes its first independent breath as soon it is born. Pranayama is proven science. The following book helps us to see how science is proving that Pranayama works. "Yog In Synergy with Medical Science"
Acharya Balkrishna this book is available through Amazon.com

Yog in Synergy....

Pranayama should be practised daily and best between four am and seven am as during these time the oxygen intake increases by 40 %. Pranayama should be practised on an empty stomach. The power of Pranayama is beyond words. Even if Pranayama is practised outside the above times it will be very beneficial. Some Pranayama can be practised easily an hour after eating, and some should be practised at least three hours after eating.

But take a deep breath any time during the day, slow down your breathing and focus on your breathing that will make a big difference right away!

And then you can explore all the different breathing exercises available through many books and on YouTube. It is just amazing you will be surprised when you start all these different breathing techniques called Pranayama!
If you have the option of learning the pranayama from a qualified teacher this would be preferred, as it would be best at the beginning to learn the Pranayama from a qualified teacher.

When I got introduced to Pranayama, I did a course via Skype through http://www.divineyoga.co.uk Ajay Kumar, he was a wonderful teacher, and I was able to learn the most important Pranayama through him. This helped me to become more observant, and it helped me to identify quickly if I was doing a Pranayama correctly or not. So if you can please take the opportunity and learn the Pranayama through a qualified teacher.

If you do not have this option to work with a qualified teacher at first, you can learn the Pranayama through books and Youtube videos, but it is essential that you are very good at observing yourself and identify the differences in doing a breathing exercise correct or incorrect. After I had learned the main Pranayama through Ajay I then was able to learn much more Pranayama through books and Youtube and they all have been really great to learn them correctly. As there are so many different breathing exercises, just about one for any ailment it is great to learn all the ones that work for you best.

You can experience hyperventilation if practised incorrectly, you can experience dizziness, vertigo and even fainting if practised incorrectly or for too long at the beginning. So be aware and really be focused when you are learning the Pranayama, as they are very powerful and go very deep.

Deep healing on all levels can be achieved by practising Pranayama correctly and daily. By learning to observe your breathing, your breathing pattern, and by learning to control your breathing, by slowing your breath down, by practising many different breathing techniques you will become aware how powerful breathing and breath control is.

How Pranayama is a Healing experience

Pranayama, Mantra, Mudra, Meditation for health and wellbeing

Why practice Pranayama Breathing

Babshealing@xtra.co.nz (Babshealing@xtra.co.nz) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:32:00 -0800

2011
As I have been a Homoeopath for the past twenty years, I have always been on the lookout for new ways to heal myself. Homoeopathy had been working well for me especially in acute situations, but it had failed to help me with the many of my chronic ailments. And it does really work well for my animals and my client's animals.
So last year in 2010 I got so fed up with my physical emotional and mental/ spiritual symptoms I started searching for something that would give permanent relief. I was convinced that there was something that I could do to achieve complete healing in a natural way.
I stumbled on Pranayama last August. I learned the Pranayama through a teacher from London via Skype and then started practising every day for 2 – 3 hours I also did Asana exercises.
The very first thing I noticed was that my energy was increasing. Within 2 weeks of practising Pranayama and Asana my sciatica, I suffered from over the last 6 years, due to a spinal injury, had completely healed. The sciatica was so bad I could not move at night in bed and it always had taken me about 5 – 10 minutes to get out of the bed the pain during the night was about 8 out of 10. I did not have any pain during the day much but as soon as I went to bed it started.
The doctors wanted to put me on an anti-anxiety drug which I refused. Homoeopathy gave only slight relief.
Since doing the Pranayama and Asana I have not had any back pain at all now for about 6 months. And I have been teaching exercise classes 4 x a week including many of the Asana which has helped many of the people in the class. Pranayama and Asana is an amazing tool to heal your body mind and soul.
Due to some physical symptoms, I have had since childhood I decided to include Ayurveda with my Pranayama and Asana. So since January this year, I have been adding Ayurveda herbs which speed up the healing process and goes well with Pranayama and Asana. As these Herbs are quite expensive, I just take them when I can afford them but for now, I have got a good supply of them and they add to the healing process. I’ll keep you posted

19/2/2011
Over the past six months, I have been practising pranayama regularly and the result has been life-changing.
Doing pranayama on a regular base has helped me with many health problems. There has been a major improvement in my joints, the swelling has reduced, pain has reduced, flexibility is coming back. Migraines have gone and I get only the occasional headaches now. I have suffered from migraines and joint problems since childhood. I have become more calm and relaxed and stress levels have reduced as well. I am wrapped in the progress and all one has to do is practising pranayama daily. It is so simple to take charge of one's own health. I have learned the Pranayama via Skype with www.divineyoga.co.uk

It is so easy breathing is magic! breath in the fresh air consciously and you feel the difference!

Transformation happens on a deep level!