Vedic Chant: Sound, Beauty, Healing

Elizabeth Health, Knowledge, Mantras , ,

Vedic ChantsIf you attended my yoga classes, you probably have had the experience of chanting a word or words in Sanskrit. The words I would have chosen for us to chant would have supported the focus for the class. For example, if we were focusing on the concept of “peace,” we would chant the Sanskrit word for peace, “shanti,” and allow that sound to help create a sense of peace in our bodies, our breath, our minds, and our hearts.

Because of my love of chanting and my desire to learn more, I spent ten days in May, 2013 in the 2nd module of a two year training in Santa Fe, New Mexico, focusing on Vedic Chant. The word “Vedic” comes from the noun “Veda,” meaning “knowledge” in the Sanskrit language. The Vedas, which are about 4,000 to 5,000 years old, are a collection of chants, poems, rituals, hymns, and mantras in Sanskrit passed generation to generation through chanting. What we chant from the Vedas is Vedic Chant, learned with attention to rhythm, meter, and pronunciation. The chants are pleasant to hear and chant. The sound of the chants has the potential to influence our entire system. Many of the chants are about Nature, health, and healing and can help bring about positive change for us.
 

Press to hear an example of a vedic chant.

 
In our ten days of Vedic Chant training, we chant a lot in small and large groups, receiving instruction and feedback from chanting teachers. We also study the Sanskrit language and the context and meaning of chants. When we finish the ten days, we chant and study on our own, seeking others who might also study Vedic Chant or requesting help from a teacher, often via Skype or phone.

I can’t tell you how many times I am asked why I am studying Vedic Chant or what I want to do with it. The answer to the first question is that I love the sound of the chants. I love the focus on Nature. I love that I am part of a group seeking to assure that Vedic Chant will continue to be passed on. I know the sound of the chants are special: they move energy; they support health; they heal.

The answer to the second question is that I hope to create a community of people who want to learn, experience, enjoy, and benefit from Vedic Chant. As I complete my training next year, I look forward to sharing my love of chant with you.

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Summer Solstice & Full Moon Yoga for All!

Yoga 4 Healthy Living Special Events ,

2013-0514_Blog

Feeling a little off center? Come join us for:
Summer Solstice and Super Full Moon Yoga for All!
Led by Elizabeth Terry

 
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Loaves and Fishes Farm
1810 York Road, Dover PA 17315

Yoga from 10:00-11:30am, followed by a farm tour, a light lunch, fun and fellowship!

Bring your own yoga mat, walking shoes and “farm friendly” clothes for playing with the goats. A free will offering will be accepted to support the work of Loaves and Fishes Farms.

Please reserve your spot by June 15, 2013:
Elizabeth Terry eterryyoga@gmail.com or (717) 645-0067

 
For more info on the farm, check out their Facebook page – Facebook.com/LoavesAndFishesFarm or contact:
Farmer Jen Briggs jenbriggs@comcast.net or (717) 774-0794
Farmer Bonnie McCann bonniejmccann@comcast.net or (717) 319-7721

 
Directions (from Harrisburg area)

Interstate 83 south to the Yocumtown Exit. At Light make a left and then an immediate Right on to Taylor Road. Follow that road for about 3.5 miles. You will cross over Rt. 382 (Lewisberry Road) which then becomes York Road, this is curvy and you will pass the Susquehanna Speedway and the farmer market on your left and you will pass a church and school on your right. The Loaves and Fishes Farm is on the corner of Red Bank and York Road. It is a white house with green shutters – the kitchen is in the garage (doesn’t everyone have a kitchen in the garage?)

1810 York Road
Dover, Pa 17315

Some Revelations on Astaya

Elizabeth Advice ,

BraceletNo, I am not a thief, but…

When I completed my 500 hour yoga teacher training, I, along with five others, received a wooden mala bracelet from our teacher. For me, this bracelet was a symbol of two years of work and dedication and the acknowledgement by my teacher of this accomplishment. I wanted to wear this bracelet when I taught as a reminder of what stood behind me as I worked with students. The bracelet, however, was too big for my wrist and would drop off if I wasn’t careful. I was fearful of losing it.

I took it to a jewelry store and asked if they could make the bracelet small enough to stay put on my wrist. When I returned a week later, I was dismayed to find the mala knot and bead in a little plastic bag and the beads restrung on a piece of clear stretchy plastic. The woman who had restrung the beads explained there had been no way to shorten the bracelet and still preserve the head bead and knot. While I could now wear the bracelet, I was unhappy with the reconfiguration, feeling that it had now been cheapened. I left the store without paying.

In spite of my initial reactions, I found myself starting to wear the bracelet. In fact, I wore it everyday I taught. And I wore it when I went away to study yoga. And, I found when I wore it I still felt its reassurance, its reminder of everything and everyone at my back as I took up new yoga-related endeavors.

While it might appear a happy ending, in the back of my mind I was remembering I had not paid for the work allowing me to have this connection. “I have to pay for it,” I thought. But I felt embarrassed to go to the store and tell them what had happened. The memory continued to nag at me.

“Asteya” is the third ethical principle or “yama” in the Yoga Sutra. It directs us to avoid taking or receiving something without agreement or compensation. It prohibits stealing. While most of us do not think of ourselves as thieves, practicing this principle requires greater awareness and subtlety than appears at first.

When, without planning to do so, I found myself driving past the jewelry store, I swerved into their parking lot. I entered the store, and the sales clerk greeted me, asking how she could help me. I explained what had happened two years earlier and told her I wanted to pay that bill. The clerk looked surprised, smiled, and told me that she was sure it was fine and not to worry. I insisted. I told her I felt badly about not having paid them, and I really wanted to make this right. She spoke with the manager, who came out and also told me not to worry. Finally as I continued to insist, she said, “We will not take your money. Just come back again when we can serve you.”

While I didn’t leave having compensated the store for my old outstanding debt, I had tried to make things right. That is what the practice of “asteya,” and the other yamas or ethical principles help us to do. They help us to keep things “right.” When we slack on how we live, our hearts and minds cannot be a peace, nor can those of others we might fail to treat ethically. When we practice living with compassion for other beings, being truthful and honest in our thoughts, our words, and actions, we keep things right. With things right, we can live with settled, content hearts and minds. Living the yamas is a path to happiness.

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Saying “No” and “Yes”

Elizabeth Advice , , ,

Saying Yes and No“You have to say ‘no’ to what you don’t want in order to be able to say ‘yes’ to what you do want.” My yoga teacher, Fran Ubertini, told me this almost every time we met in our private sessions. It took me a long time to grasp what she really meant and apply it in my life.

One area of my life I did not want to accept was age and its effects. I didn’t want to accept a decline in my energy from what it had been ten years earlier. And, I didn’t want to acknowledge a connection between the time I was putting into my yoga studies, teaching six to eight classes a week at the Community College and Movement Center, other varied activities, maintaining a home life and the fatigue I was feeling.

At the same time, I wanted to do some things for which I hadn’t the time or energy – writing a blog, offering workshops and study groups, participating more in the community, gardening and cooking. Likewise, there were things I had tired of in my job – having to grade my students in yoga, teaching 8 am classes, and being tied to a semester calendar.

One thing I have learned is the importance of viveka, or discernment. Yoga teaches that if we do not have the ability to discern wisely, we are destined to make choices and act based upon unconscious behavioral patterns. Critical to viveka, then, is awareness of who we are, how we tend to react, and what we want and don’t want. If we are saying “yes” to too many things, how do we know we are correct in our choice of what to give up? Discernment requires a process of verification.

In my case, I recognized what I wanted to do and what I had tired of doing. Even so I found giving up teaching at the college to be very difficult. At first I would tell myself I couldn’t leave because I needed the money earned there. I had to think about what it would be like without that income, as well as talk with my husband about the implications for us as a family. When money was cleared as an obstacle, I had to face my attachment to the job, to a certain credibility it gave me and to the fear of change leaving raised.

I could never have made my choice to leave college teaching if I had not been able to discern that ego and fear were keeping me attached to a path no longer serving me and limiting my ability to move in the direction I wanted. It was viveka, and the process of reflection and verification that allowed me to feel confident of my choice to say “no.”

The eight-limbs of yoga give us tools to develop viveka. The Yoga Sutra identifies the eight limbs in II.29: ethical principles, guidelines for self-care, postures, breathing practices, discipline of the senses, and the inner limbs of concentration, meditation, and complete absorption. With a regular practice of these tools of yoga over time, we can come to know ourselves better and to create a space from which we can discern and verify a positive direction for ourselves.

I had to say “no” to teaching yoga at the college in order to be able to say “yes” to feeling rested, to having time to write a blog, start a yoga study group, start a training in chanting, spend more time with my newly retired husband, and to making more time to cook and bake. I am a believer in my teacher’s mantra of “saying ‘no’ to what you don’t want to be able to say ‘yes’ to what you do want” – and a huge believer in the ability of yoga practice to help us get there.

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Letting Go

Elizabeth Advice ,

Letting GoI was so moved by the message given in the Ash Wednesday service I attended this year that I had to share it with you. In the past the messages I heard this time of the year were about “giving up” something – like chocolate or coffee shops or sweets or movies – as in letting go of something we enjoyed.

But the message I heard this year was “letting go” – as in letting go of those things that burden us like a heavy stone we carry. I am sure you can begin to see the difference from my earlier understanding. Instead of deprivation, the message I heard this year calls for a time of self-reflection, so we recognize what fails to serve us, what causes suffering in our life. With that awareness, we can begin the process of “letting go.”

You might ask how we know what the real problem is? Why do we seem to be facing the same struggles again and again? And, even if we discover “the real problem,” how do we let go?

The teachings of yoga tell us that we all have patterns of behavior, of thinking, of responding that have become so ingrained that we may be unable to even see them. These are called samskaras. Samskaras may be positive or negative; they may support us or cause us suffering.

All of us receive messages as children from parents, institutions, and our culture that become part of how we look at the world. All of us, as we live our lives, experience events or face situations to which we have responded in ways we later regret. Most of us have had experiences that left emotional scars. We may have feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and anxiety, among other debilitating responses that cause us to continue to suffer.

Our work in yoga is about eliminating our suffering. To do this we develop self-awareness as we work in postures, breathing practices, meditation, chanting, or apply other tools of yoga. Yoga’s message is always svadhyaya – self-study –no matter what our practice. Through the process of self-observation, we can come to see patterns blocking us from living fully. Our relationships offer a huge mirror for us to observe our patterns. Likewise, a trusted teacher can help us to see patterns causing us pain.

When we see the samskaras that burden us, we can start the process of change. We can begin to let go of the power these samskaras have over us as we move to replace them with something positive. The old ones never completely go away, and we may find ourselves letting go of them again and again – but yoga offers tools to keep the old small while growing new positive samskaras.

As we move toward spring, we might keep in mind the image of the March winds. As they blow, we can make an intention to be observant so we can identify the burdens causing our suffering. We can imagine the freedom of allowing them to blow away on the winds. We can visualize making room for something new and special to take root and grow and allow that image support us as we begin the journey of letting go – of healing.

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Vulnerabilities

Elizabeth Health, Informational , ,

Santa Fe earth and skyThe greatest gifts of yoga for me have been the reduction of suffering in my life and the ability to experience joy. On a physical level, I have experienced pain from problems with my spine, which my yoga practices have helped me to manage so they do not debilitate me. But my greatest vulnerability has been a susceptibility to anxiety and depression. At its worst, I experienced panic attacks and debilitating depression.

After I began practicing yoga, about twenty years ago, I started noticing a change. As I continued with yoga, the panic attacks went away. At the time, this amazed me. Of course, now I know that yoga can induce the relaxation response, the body’s natural way of counteracting the stress response, which is at the heart of panic attacks. But while the panic attacks disappeared, I still experienced free-floating anxiety and cycles of depression.

Over the last ten years, as I have worked with my teachers, done a regular yoga practice, and studied the teachings of yoga, I have experienced a more profound healing. It is not that everything has disappeared. Instead, I have become more aware, and, with this awareness, I have had insights into the patterns of thinking that led me to feeling anxious and depressed. My teacher has taught me tools from yoga that helped me to move my mind to a more positive space when I was worried or felt myself in a negative or fearful spiral of thinking. As I have continued to study, my insights and understanding have grown, and so has my ability to make changes in old negative patterns and to create new positive patterns that support my life.

The teachings of yoga guide my life. The Yoga Sutra, yoga’s most important text, has helped me understand how the mind works, and that has helped me greatly with self-understanding and acceptance. As well as insight, the Yoga Sutra also gives me answers – how I can change from where I am to a place of greater clarity and peace, which ultimately is the source of joy.

We all have vulnerabilities. For some of us, it is a physical issue, like back pain or neck strain that reoccurs; for some it may be asthma, for others high blood pressure, migraines, anxiety, or an eating disorder. While yoga does not claim to cure all these maladies, it offers many tools to support our healing. As we practice regularly, over time, with the guidance of a teacher, we can find our suffering reduced and our hearts open to the joy that lies within us.

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Stress, Meditation, and the Heart

Elizabeth Advice, Health , ,

In a recent blog I wrote about stress and how yoga offers us the possibility of moving from a place of tension and constriction, when the stress response is activated, to a place of spaciousness, ease, and calm.

Most of us have heard of the litany of ailments that are stress-related – everything from asthma to high blood pressure to depression and anxiety to heart disease to irritable bowel to reduced immune function. Some of us may even experience a stress-related condition.

As heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States, the medical community has been looking at whether the practice of meditation can reduce the risk of death, heart attack, and stroke. The results of a study published this month in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes indicated that, indeed, it can. The heart disease study directed participants to meditate twice a day for twenty minutes and followed them for up to nine years. Study participants practicing a form of meditation known as Transcendental Meditation decreased their risk of death, heart attack, and stroke by 48%. For those participants who followed the meditation guidelines strictly the result was even more dramatic – risk was reduced by 66%. If you have a family history of heart disease, as I do, this is important and encouraging information.

While recognizing the benefits, the medical community is not yet able to explain how meditation works. But yoga, ancient as it is, has recognized the role the mind plays in what our physical body experiences. Meditation is about moving the mind from agitation to a focused state. When the mind become focused and quiet, the body relaxes, blood pressure is lowered, muscle tension releases, breathing is slowed, heart rate slows. And, as those of you who practice yoga most likely notice, the focus required to coordinate breath and movement in yoga postures, to do a breathing practice, to chant, all of these quiet and calm the mind as well. The whole practice is a meditation leading to a sense of well-being. Our whole system responds.

The focus, calm, and sense of well-being the yoga practice supports requires our attention and dedication. It requires that we have a “correct practice” which we follow consistently over a long period of time and with a positive attitude about our success. While it requires discipline, our yoga practice offers the possibility of a wonderful journey. A journey that is more than caring for our physical bodies.. In the quiet created in the mind by our practice, we have the space to see ourselves and our relationships more clearly, and to come to ultimately find a compassionate, “settled heart.”

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