Each time I get a henna tattoo, which is on special occasions in my life, many ask if it is permanent, others wonder if I have recently travelled to Morocco and many other want to get a henna tattoo or learn how to create one. I really believe that using our skin to express creativity is a form of art. Our bodies become like a canvas for creative self-expression and individualism when decorated with tattoos, piercings and jewels. I have always been fascinated by tattoos and, although I don’t wear any, I love getting my hands temporarily tattooed with henna.
Fall in Teià
But what is henna? Henna is a powder of dried Lawsonia Inermes leaves. The dried leaves powder is mixed with water and other ingredients and is used to dye both hair and skin. It is an all-natural product and is also considered as a medicinal herb for therapeutic uses. The origins of the use of henna are difficult to trace back, but it has been used in many cultures for centuries. Nowadays, doing Henna is part of rituals across several cultures, like in African or Hindu traditional ceremonies. I first got a henna tattoo eight years ago, when I was in India to celebrate the beginning of a new year.
I feel a deep connection with the Indian culture, its rituals and the sacred ceremonies. To me, getting a henna tattoo is a way to connect with the sacred and celebrate important moments in my life, leaving a temporary mark that allows us to create it over and over.
«Stillness is a state of polarity that always has movement as its complement”. I Ching
Ocata Beach. Photo by Xavi Padrós
On this occasion I felt the need to practise one of the most basic and profound standing asanas, the Tadasana, the “Mountain” posture, with the objective of building a strong and solid structure.
The idea was brought up during my sadhana, my personal experience of yoga practice, and while holding this pose I had a revealing vision and realised that all the categories I combine in Holistic Psychology have a common goal: the study of the Self.
According to Ayurveda, which defines the meaning of Prakriti as our inherent individual nature, in Iyengar Yoga, the Svādhyāya, or the study of Self as in Jungian Analytical Psychology through the individuation process, is a path towards the knowledge of the Self that can be simple yet complex. This way of living implies commitment and responsibility towards ourselves, making us pause to take the time for self- observation.
While holding the Tadasana we are standing still and quiet, completely present in the moment at hand, resting for just an instant in the “now” without needing to know what might come next. The mountain symbolises the return to a state of internal stillness. We build a strong, firm foundation and establish the contact to access a more spiritual, higher knowledge.
In the I Ching, or the Book of changes, there is a hexagram that speaks about this:
“The image is the sign of the mountain, the bridge between the Sky and the Earth. Masculine energy is in the upper level, where it aspires to find harmony with its nature; feminine energy is in the lower level, towards which its movement is oriented. This way there is stillness, because movement comes to its natural end. Real stillness means keeping quiet when it is time to be quiet, and moving when it is time to move”.
In the practice of Yoga we work on this posture to find our own internal vision provided by this element of Nature.
With the latest global news that both informs and unites us worldwide, we must not fail to offer the information that Ayurveda can help to maintain a high level of energy and to aid the body’s defence by strengthening the immune system. In view of the current news it is inevitable that an environment of confusion and stress is created.
We all know that good immunity can help us to fight the virus, and a bad immunity creates a weakness in the body and mind to fight it and take the most of the inner mechanisms.
It is all about contamination and immunity is how we can fight CoVid19. It is important to understand that a VIRUS is not bad itself, but more so once it’s in the body that the effects takes place. This is related to the immunity one has. CoVid19 affects the Respiratory System so it is the place we have to take care of most when thinking of prevention and treatment.
The fact that it is a zoonotic virus, meaning it initially spread from animal to human being (which is still being studied), has created enough panic in society. It is known that cold climates are nutritious for the virus so the idea is to create a hot climate in our body.
Remember: It is not the virus which is killing people, but pneumonia.
To manage the immunity of the respiratory system is the key: protect our lungs and throat.
Phamarcy at home
Internal purposes
First recommendation: Start with Hot Drinks
Drink hot water all day long and if you can add ginger even better. Hot water with ginger is the best to keep the body warm and create heat inside.
Include in your diet antiviral plants and ingredients in day to day routines such as: curcuma, black pepper, garlic, onion, clove, ginger, hingu (asofetida), tulsi.These herbs/items are ama pachana, that means that can digests toxins in the body.
Drink hot water/infusions throughout the day.(missing the herbal tea)Ayurveda recommends hot drinks (especially in winter and spring) to help eliminate toxins from the body. (here’s a link to a good infusion for this time)
Second recommendation: Pharmacy at home
Make a home remedy to have every day. Here is one formula we’d like to share with you:
Licorice + honey. Have this twice or three times a day.
Other option is to make your own formula using the following ingredients:
1 ginger part + 1 curcuma part + 1 licorice part + ¼ black pepper + ¼ clove.
Mix all the ingredients, put them in a glass with a cup and take a teaspoon every day with honey.
Sitopaladi churna is also good.
In order to clean the throat do Gandusha and Kavala using a mix of: Triphala + rock salt in curcuma decotion (video soon).This is helpful in the fist stage in symptoms of an itchy throat.
Chawanprash can also be a good rasayana for the Respiratory System.
Third reommendation: Eat well
Diet is very important, as a fact is our everyday medicine. Eat well and if possible fast once a week.
There are some items (spices) you can include in EVERY MEAL that are useful to prevent as well to treat VIRUS and strengthen the lungs. These spices are: curcuma, garlic, pepper and onion.
Here is a recipe that is nutritious, full of energy and to share with your family.
We know the impact of poor digestion and the creation of toxins in the body (ama). When we provide our organism with a rest of food, we encourage the strengthening of the digestive fire, this allows everything we can ingest to be transformed into nutrients and to be used as a source of energy for our body, our mind and our spirit.
Fourth recommendation: Stay calm
Breathe, meditate, at least once a day, do yoga, dance or the activity you like.
Yoga Online
Stress is an adaptive neuro-physiological response to external or internal changes in humans by adding cognitive-behavioral components that modulate the response.
When the stress response does not recover with a relaxation response, a burden is accumulated that produces the distress that makes you sick. Stress is good. Distress is not.
A maintained stress response generates the fight or flight response and deploys a series of physiological actions that accompanies it. This response is a conscious factor in the production of fatigue. It interferes with the body’s energy-producing systems, digestion and weakens the immune defense systems.
REMEMBER: Stress weakens the immune system.
This article was written under the assistant of Dr. Mahesh Patil Ayurvedic Dr. From Pune (write the name of your clinic).
Here I share here a very clear video from Dr. Vasant Lad from the Ayurvedic Institute
I was with Amparo in El Galpón in Badalona and asked her some questions…
In El Galpón, Badalona
Eliana: What is authentic movement? Amparo: Authentic Movement is a form of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT). It was created in 1950 by Mary S. Whitehouse, and later developed by Joan Chorodow and Janet Adler. Through a body and movement aproach, a greater state of self-consciousness is sought.
In our daily life movement is continuously present. It is the great law of life, everything moves. The clouds in the sky move with the wind, the water flows through the river bed until it flows into the immense sea, the fire travels and rises up the mountain with wind and the earth is in constant change and transformation.
Our body is a world of movement in itself: the circulation of blood, breathing, digestion and sleep are unconscious processes of movement which develop continuously from birth to death. However, we use little movement in communication, at least consciously. Words have become the main means of communicating despite being a limited way of perceiving ourselves and others. Nonverbal communication allows new and different ways of perceiving, feeling and relating.
Unconsciously movement communicates. From gestures, physical attitudes or how a person is dressed we have an impression of that person, it transmits an information to us, it evokes an image in our psyche perhaps coming from a memory or a fantasy. Small movements of hands, feet or face give a sense of restlessness or nervousness. There may be tension in raised shoulders or on someones voice. Fear may be present in limited and controlled movements. It’s something we feel automatically, without realizing it.
During the practice of authentic movement we pay close attention to all these details, both when we move and when we are witnessing the movement of another person. We are discovering something that we did not know about ourselves in a context that facilitates the opening for this discovery and its subsequent integration. In this way unknown aspects that come from internal listening of the body, in the form of sensations, images or emotions that emerge through movement or stillness, are integrated.
We discover the intimate connection of body and psyche through experience. We discover that the physical condition is somehow the psychological condition. Just as the body changes through working with the psyche, the psyche changes working with the body. They are not separate entities but a mysterious totality. In this sense, from the practice of authentic movement, the body is perceived not as something alien, an object that we can train or manipulate, but as the house where our feelings, our emotions and memory live. It is a place to inhabit, discover, listen, transform …
The movement thus becomes an experience. We experience the truth of our body, what it wants to express, show, unlock, recover, articulate, save, confront, unite, separate, … ultimately what we have to live. The axis around which all this work is articulated is the relationship between the mover and the witness. The mover remains with his eyes closed, bringing his attention to inner listening, waiting to feel an impulse that leads him to movement or to stillness and deep rest. Who observes, silently accompanies the experience, attentive to his own internal experience as a witness, enabling the creation of a respectful, safe space, in which the judgment or interpretation of the material that emerges is not involved.
E: How does authentic movement practice relate to Jung’s analytical psychology? A: Authentic Movement can be practiced for psychotherapeutic purposes, as a meditative practice or as a creative resource.
In the beginning, the practice of authentic movement was closely linked to analytical psychology and C. G. Jung. It arose from Mary Whitehouse’s need to integrate her work as a dance teacher and her analytical process with Hilde Kirsch, a Jungian analyst from Los Angeles (CA) who was trained with Jung. Recently divorced, and with two children in her care, Whitehouse needed to work and dance was her job. However, both her training with contemporary expressionist dancers Mary Wigman and Martha Graham, as well as her Jungian analysis, slowly led to a new understanding of herself, of dance and of the world around her. This made her undertake a search that materialized in the practice of authentic movement, where her entire process found meaning.
As an authentic movement teacher, Whitehouse provided a context of openness and tools for her students to discover something new and different from themselves through body and movement. This creative aproach, present in Jung’s principle of individuation, encourages everyone to seek their own path, honoring the uniqueness of each person. In this sense, authentic movement is not intended to be a method or a theoretical approach to movement. Whitehouse used to tell her students that movement could not be imposed from the outside as a suit or choreography, but rather should be searched and found internally. Jung developed in his book “The Secret of the Golden Flower” the concept of Wu wei, which means to be able to let something psychically happen, non-action in action and action in non-action, a principle of totality that governs life according to Taoism.
Whitehouse takes this principle and applies it to movement in the sense that: if we do nothing we let something happen, we let something move us from the body, we let the body be. She Illustrates this concept through the difference between moving and being moved. To be moved is the experience of life expressing it self, to be moved is to let oneself be.
It also uses Jung’s active imagination in movement as a way to integrate unconscious contents. It proposes a symbolic approach to understand internal and external events. The practice follows a process orientation, where the emphasis is placed on the discovery and experience of the psychic reality of the unconscious through the body. Without this experience our perception of reality and the world is incomplete. Perceiving the world implies an introversion, making contact with an internal psychic reality that is alive and moving within us. This is why after taking a session of authentic movement we have the feeling of something that makes sense, of something that is ben completed.
E: Is the practice done in a group or individually? A: The practice can be in a group or in individual sessions. It is more organic to start with individual sessions and after some practice try in a group. The experience you have is very different. Different aspects are worked out. In an individual context, the relationship between the witness and the mover becomes more relevant, where they can work from pre-verbal related aspects to the relationship with the internal authority or Self.
This is a process that develops in what Jung describes as the ego-Self axis. In a group context, we work in relation to a group process where aspects of relationship with the collective emerge, and the relationship between the individual and the collective becomes more relevant. Analytical psychology offers a fertile context to elaborate and work in a process those aspects that emerge from the practice of authentic movement giving them meaning and enabling an expansion of consciousness.
E: Can everyone engage in authentic movement? A: As it is a practice that is destined to work with the unconscious, it is aimed at people with an ego structure that allows a descent into the depths of the psyche. Each case must be carefully evaluated. In people with psychosis or borderline personality disorders, this practice is not advised since it can greatly challlenge ego structure.
A previous interview is recommended, and starting very slowly, creating a strong container and sufficient body, kinesthetic and proprioceptive awareness so that the body can sustain the process and be sufficiently aware of what is happening internally.
Sometimes practices that make use of the body as a therapeutic tool are too cathartic, and body-psyche connection is lost or severely impaired. We must always be attentive to our own personal limits, maintaining a strong position of self-care. We follow the homeopathic principle according to which “less is more”.
“Know all the theories. Master all the techniques, but when touching a human soul, just be another soul”.
When my patients come into my office in El Masnou, their attention often gets caught by a painting on the wall with the image of a man. Some ask who the man is and why the painting is there, others wonder if he is a relative or a guru, given the central position I gave him in my working space. Well, the man inside a beautiful black frame hanging on my wall is Carl Gustav Jung. He took the place of a mandala that used to be there, and is now inspiring my work, while he also gets known by the people who step into my office. Now, who was Carl Gustav Jung and why is he hanging on my wall? When I say his name many do not know him, so I prefer to explain him through another relevant figure.
Jung was born nineteen years after Sigmund Freud, who is the father of Psychoanalysis and the theory of the unconscious mind. However, when I used to study Psychology in Buenos Aires, during the 1990’s, Jung was only mentioned as the one who disagreed with Freud’s theories and choose a more “mystic” approach, which is why he then parted ways with his early mentor. Years later, while I was studying to become a yoga teacher, more or less twenty years ago, I heard again about Jung: I learnt that he studied oriental techniques and arts, including yoga and spontaneous production of mandalas, and opened a dialogue between East and West about these topics. When I arrived in Spain, fifteen years ago, I felt the need to know more about him and his work, so I started to read about him as an autodidact, and then took a specific course on his school of thought and contribution to Modern Psychology. He was born in Swiss on 26th July in 1875 from a family of humble origins, his father was a pastor and his mother a medium. He died at 86 years of age, on the 6th of June in 1961. Unlikely Freud, who was a neurologist, Jung, who was a psychiatrist, never saw the existence of the Unconscious as a means to treat mental illnesses, while his work was focused on athorough analyses for self-realisation of the human being to the fullest potential, the development of personality and creative activities. His objective was to find the connection between the individual and the universal soul, or the Collective Unconscious. Jung was a pioneer in the field of the soul and believed that the soul is connected to the spirit. This also shows a connection with the ancient oriental practices, such as the philosophy of yoga. The study of soul was Jung’s passion and damnation too, because his own soul was also troubled. Due to his breakup with Freud in 1913, to define his approach, Jung abandons the word “Psychoanalysis” and chooses “Analytical Psychology”, as it is known nowadays.
Collective Unconscious, archetypes, extroverted/introverted, the analysis of the “shadow archetype” (the unknown side, everything a person is not fully conscious of) are all words which we have to thank Jung for. He also created a number of important concepts: the “anima/animus”, describing the animus as the unconscious masculine side of a woman, and the anima as the unconscious feminine side of a man, each transcending the personal psyche; the symbolism used in the work with dreams to access the Shadow, and the differentiation of it from the Self and the Ego. In Analytical Psychology, through the “individuation process”, individuals become conscious of the Persona, which is the mask we take on in our every day life. After different stages which to be explained would require an extensive writing, the experience of the Self happens with greater self-consciousness.
I’d like to finish this post with a powerful sentence that I bring with me in my daily work as a psychologist and is related to the creation of a relationship that can heal: “Psychotherapy is basically a conversational relationship between a physician and a patient, a dialogue as a tool for knowledge and understanding”. (Carl Gustav Jung, Complete Works, Volume 11).
“To Agni we speak and to the trees, to the plants and to the herbs; to Indra, Brihaspati, and Sûya: they shall deliver us from calamity!”. Atharva Veda
In Ayurveda, the ancient Indian holistic medicine, treatment comes from plants and trees, that is mainly from the plant kingdom, but also minerals can be used to heal. Ayurvedic physicians know the importance of respecting Nature for its boundless healing power.
At Christmas time, trees take on a particularly important meaning, because some of them become the “Christmas Tree”.
X-mas Tree in Woodstock. Dec.2018
Decorated with lights and special objects, these trees spread their enchanting power and catch the attention of those who can feel it. Nevertheless, have you ever wondered why the Christmas tree is decorated?
Certainly, trees are significant in many of the world’s mythologies, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. They symbolise the cosmos and its perpetual regeneration; the evolution of life with death and regeneration after it. Their leaves fall and a new cycle begins. As seasons go through their changes, trees react to their cycle. Have you ever noticed that? Which is your favourite tree? As symbols, trees allow us to communicate with the three levels of cosmos: through their roots we can go deep into the Underground and reach hidden and buried places; throughout their trunk and lower branches we can touch the Surface of the Earth, that is the worldly and material, everything we can see and touch, the experiences we live through our senses; and lastly, through the upper branches and leaves, we can build a bridge with the celestial heights and the Light. This help us establishing a connection with the Divine, the Spiritual and the Transcendent. That is why trees are considered a connection between Heaven and Hell. Trees also put together the five elements of Nature: they have a place in space, air nurtures their leaves, water flows through their lymph, fire can be made thought the rubbing of their branches, and the earth blend in their bodies through their roots.
Vero in Tree Pose
In yoga, “the tree” or vrikshasana is a popular body pose of balance and concentration, where weight is shifted to one leg and the entire sole of the foot remains in contact with the floor. The knee is bent and points straight out to the side. Hands are first kept in prayer’s position at heart level, and then over the head to finalise the asana. Being a symmetric pose, vrikshasana requires to repeat the exercise with both legs. While practising vrikshasana your mind should focus on these questions: “Am I more into the material through the contact with the earth? Or is my weight more on the spiritual level and its relation with heavens? What is your mind attached to? The drishti, the focal point or gaze we use in Yoga, will bring us steadiness, clarity and consciousness, any thought during the asana can hinder the balance we have reached. Going back to the lighting Christmas tree and its meaning during Holidays, wasn’t it Buddha, Siddhartha Guatama, who also “enlightened” under the Bodhi tree or Ficus religiosa?
Also, trees give shelter to many animals of the earth and air, and provide shade and protection to those who are looking for them. Perhaps the ritual of tree hugging is a sort of saying thank you for everything they give us.
What is your relation with trees? Do you put up a Christmas tree? What’s your bond with it? I’d like to further explore this topic with you, and I invite you to look a the the image in this post and let me know what it says to you.
Let me conclude for now with a quote I want to share: “If the branch is to flower, it must honour its roots”. Fréderic Pacere Titinga
Turn everything around. Be upside down. In the yoga posture, the headstand or Shirsasana in Sanskrit – meaning “rooted into the earth – like in the “Mountain” or Tadasana, is like a tree whose roots reach straight for the heavens in the air.
Turning everything upside-down means we see the world upside down. This also brings increased focus, because inversions require all of our concentration, and improved circulation: flipping upside down quite literally moves things in a different direction, which helps move blood and lymphatic liquid through the body and towards our head. When the head is rooted into the earth it can’t be “in the clouds”. Feet, pointing towards the sky, are nurtured by spiritual and not intellectual energy. According to Swami Sivananda Radha (a German yogini):
“Being rooted in the sky means being nurtured by the Divine”.
The practice of the headstand invites the yogini to get deeper into the unknown dimension of the self. It means going down into ourselves and exploring those places we don’t visit everyday. Headstands involve a complete turnaround of the body, which gives a totally different perception and allow the yogini to see the world in a new way. With the head in the place of the feet, we are faced with the lowest layers of our psyche, those for which most of the time we can’t find the time nor the place.
In Western cultures, consciousness is in the head and we live disconnected from our spiritual roots. This asana requires a certain effort and sacrifice, because while holding it we can’t go anywhere else and we have to keep calm and be fully conscious. The balance and strength of this asana allow us to understand that the weight comes from our own body, and the burdens in life are only ours. Seeing the world upside down offers a different perspective to see things from a different angle, perhaps the opposite to the one we are used to.
Becoming our own opponents sets us free from other external opponents. This asana is among the most important and difficult poses of yoga, because it requires a lot of concentration and effort, of body and mind. If you are interested in this asana and want to practise it with your body and mind, I invite you to read my blog post at http://3vedicas.es/yoga/shirsasana-tocando-el-cielo .
Please, avoid risks and always be supervised by a professional yoga instructor. “When you lower your head into position on the mat there is no duality. But in the moment you raise your feet from the floor, you are experimenting the identity of the “I”; take that away and retain the oneness, the total awareness that must remain throughout the posture”. B.K.S. Iyengar
When the world is upside down, let´s follow… (Covid-19)
