Stress reduction and Namast

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I had a few rough days last week and by Friday I was pretty much about as pleasant as a wolverine that someone was poking with a stick.

Saturday was not bad but it was busy and I was still not myself and I had no time at all to do any yoga. On Sunday Afternoon I finally had time to do Yoga and I did my usual routine and I then added another DVD that I found recently that I had forgotten about (Rodney Yee) and as it ended he said (per usual) Namast? which I believe translates to I bow to you (I could be wrong here).

But after that I began to think about my week and the people that had been the trigger for my pleasant disposition and I started to wonder if I could actually say Namast? to those people and if so would it reduce anger. I came to the conclusion that it is likely that I couldn?t, I am just not that enlightened, but the whole process of thinking about it and what it meant and what it would mean calmed me down considerably and per usual after yoga I felt great. It also gave me a different perspective on my past week.

I really do not know the point of this post and likely I am missing the point all together and I don?t even know why I posted it but I felt I needed to.

Thanks

#2

Namaste Walter,

Change your mind and your world will change eventually. What we think about must manifest at some stage as it is energy.

I have shared this a few times here on this forum, but I would like to share two things again: the breath of gratitude and the blessing breath. These are two practical things everybody can do anywhere. Try it.

Breath fo Gratitude: Give praise and thanks for those difficult and easy people and situations in your life (it is karma doing it’s rounds). Do that 3 times and then conclude by saying inwardly I surround the person or situation with all my Love, Light, Peace and Harmony and do 3 Om’s.

Blessing Breath: Bless the people or situations in your life, no matter how difficult. Do that 3 times and then conclude by saying inwardly I surround the person or situation with all my Love, Light, Peace and Harmony and do 3 Om’s.

My teacher shared this with me years ago and it has changed my life in ways I cannot even start to explain.

Here is a beautiful explanation of Namaste:

Namaste.

This simple word
uttered with a gesture of folded hands
is among the finest salutations,
mankind has ever been able to vocalize.
It simply means:

I honour the place in you
In which the entire Universe dwells
That place of Love and Light
of Truth and of Peace
When you are in that place in you
And I am in that place in me
We are One.

#3

Thank you for sharing Pandara. I too had a Saturday something like WalterJ’s.
And felt bad at the end of the day that I had been grumpy and short tempered and not behaved in way that I can be proud of :frowning:
I think offering praise and blessings to the people around us is wonderful, however, it seems so with insight - when I have had time to reflect that my reactions were wrong.
I am wondering if it is wrong to offer these thanks and blessings when they are motivated by guilt in light of actions already past? Or do I first need to let go of guilt and practise without any agenda … but guilt is a pretty persistent thing :frowning:

#4

Namaste Jen,

Doing these two breaths are not easy, even I still find it sometimes very difficult in certain situations to do. But, when I do it, it always amazes me how things then suddenly start to fall into place, how I would change, how people would change all of a sudden. I was standing in a long que over the weekend, getting impatient with the staff who was slow and I am in a hurry. Eventually I said to myself, now calm down, deep breath in and out and I started to give praise and thanks for the situation and for my inpatience etc and then I blessed the que and the staff and as I said my last Om inwardly, three tellers suddenly appeared from nowhere and the que started to move along and in a matter of minutes I was helped by a friendly lady and on my way.

Now some people will say they would have come in any case, we will never know. I like to think this is the Divine working in mysterious ways if we learn to let go and flow.

What I am trying to say, give praise and thanks for the guilt and then bless those feelings of guilt and let go! :slight_smile:

#5

My personal perception is that when I cannot forgive someone it is usually because I cannot forgive myself. When i am loving and kind to myself then I am loving and kind to others. If something irratates me about others it is usually because I am irratated about somehting in myself. I pose this to you, not to attack you but as a possibility for personal growth. Look in a mirror and ask yourself. Do I forgive myself for anything I think I need to be forgiven for, if there is anything you cannot forgive yourself for there will always be something you cannot forgive others for.
just my point of view from my limited perspective
my best to you
Neil

#6

Thanks for replies - will try to have the presence of mind to try it next time! Sometimes a potentially irritating event can have no effect on me at all and at others it drives me crazy! Who knows why. Yes, Neil, you may be right it is because I am irritated with myself first.
Maybe if I’d blessed the locksmith on Saturday he wouldn’t have tried to charge me more than twice as much as my neighbour for cutting the same key! Ah well, next time :wink:

#7

I can completely relate to both the bad day and the Namaste Walter.

I was teaching my usual “relaxation” class to the adolescents at my workplace and had everyone in shavasana and was just about to get them to start bringing their focus back to the room and ease them back into the day when the PHONE RANG! One of my coworkers who is rather self involved thought this would be a good time to check to see if I was on time. Argh! All seven bodies on the floor jumped a mile when the phone rang and of course this was not the gentle reentry to their day that I had envisioned. I was rather grumpy and it took a lot of my self control to just let her know that was not an opportune moment to call and could she please not do that again?

So Walter, I was in no way able to say Namaste to my coworker at that moment and as you see, I’ve carried it with me for the last few hours. Alas, I fear it harms me more than it bothers her and so I will try to meditate and let it go. Perhaps Namaste helps us to acknowledge that we can only change ourselves and we need to honor others just as they are. Thats where I’m going with it anyway.

#8

First Thank You Pandara for sharing the breath of gratitude and the blessing breath with me, I am going to try it.

Thank You JenW for sharing it is nice to know it is not only me

And justwannabe I do not feel like I was attacked I actually feel you are onto something there in the situations that got to me last week.

Alix thank You as well and I can honestly say that when I first posted this I would not have agreed with Namaste helps us to acknowledge that we can only change ourselves and we need to honor others just as they are but after all of the wonderful responses I do believe that is very true.

I want to say to all here that this has been one of the most meaningful group of replies to any post I have ever made anywhere on any site

Thank You all very much
Namaste

#9

Namaste WalterJ, reading your post has been a nice start to my day. :slight_smile:
Thank you