When I was 26 years old I did this course called ‘The Art of Living
Breathing Part 1 Course.’ I know it sounds really naff when people say
this, but it changed my life. It really did. When I registered for the
course I didn’t realise just how much I needed it. I’d spent so many
years of my life being really busy. I was constantly trying to fit in
as much as I could. I guess I believed that the more I did the more
fully I was living. At the end of the day what that mostly left me with
was an over-riding feeling of worn-out-ness. (Yes, I made that word
up).
On the course we learnt this breathing practice called the sudarshan kriya. It was powerful. I’d done many breathing techniques before and I’d been teaching yoga for a few years, but nothing I’d done came anywhere near this. Our teacher said that if we really wanted to experience the benefits of the kriya we should practice it once a day for 30 minutes over 6 months. I took it on. I was really keen to see how it would affect me. The benefits were huge. I was able to get so much done in heaps less time, quite effortlessly. At the time I was working as a freelance journalist and needed to produce a lot of articles quickly. I had to work long, hard hours to meet my deadlines, until I started doing kriya every day. My mind was so fresh after kriya. I was able to punch those articles out in no time. The words just flowed through me. In fact, the course had such a huge impact on me I ended up becoming a volunteer teacher of it.
How To Get Your Kriya and Meditation Done When You Have A Newborn
For the last 12 years I’ve done the kriya at home pretty much every day. When Joshi was born I missed a few days, but was back into it within 10 days or so. Kriya’s not something you can do while your baby’s awake and in need of your attention, so the way I’d fit it in initially was to do it during the day as soon as he fell asleep. It could be any time of day, because he didn’t yet have a specific sleeping pattern. Anyway, as soon as he’d fall asleep I’d drop what I was doing and go straight into three stage pranayama. There was always laundry to do, dishes to wash, rooms to tidy, etc (when isn’t there with a baby), but I knew that if I was to get my kriya done I had to seize those small and unpredictable windows of opportunity. Everything else could be done while Joshi was awake; kriya couldn’t.
Of course there were times when my practice would get interrupted because Joshi would wake soon after he’d fallen asleep. Sometimes I had to come out of my meditation really quickly to tend to him. If you meditate regularly you know how jarring that can be. But I decided I wasn’t going to complain about it. I was just grateful to have got 10 or 20 minutes in, or whatever it was. Better than nothing, right?
How To Get Your Kriya and Meditation Done When You Have A One Year Old
Now that Joshi’s almost a year old a lot has changed. When he wakes up in the morning (usually around 6.15am), instead of getting some extra sleep while Simon looks after Joshi, I get up, have a shower and spend the next hour doing my practice. I do 15-20 minutes of yoga poses, 30 minutes of kriya and 10-20 minutes of sahaj samadhi meditation, (which I also learnt through the Art of Living Foundation). When I’m done, I look after Joshi while Simon does his. This is what works best for us now. It wouldn’t have worked when he was a newborn coz I was just too tired to get up at that time of the morning.
I often wonder how parents cope without something like kriya in their day because this parenting journey is really demanding and you really need all the energy you can get.
Tip of the day for parents-to-be: Learn the sudarshan kriya and meditation now, before you become parents.
Extra tip for mammas-to-be:
Learn how to do sudarshan kriya before you become pregnant because you can’t learn it while you bub’s growing inside you. Also, once you have your baby it’s so much harder to make the time to do the course. Not that it’s impossible, just harder. The Art of Living course is a total of about 18 hours spread usually over 6 consecutive sessions, so it’s a big commitment. You also can’t miss any of the sessions, so you really need to be able to take it on fully. Having said that, once you’ve learnt the kriya you have an amazing tool with which to take care of yourself. And I promise you, you’ll need that when you become a parent, especially if you want to share your best self with your family and not your worn out, irritable, sleep-deprived self.
PS. The Art of Living Courses are taught by volunteers in more than 150 countries, so you can do them almost anywhere in the world. Oh, and when your kids are old enough they can do the Art Excel Course. They’ll love it. It’s heaps of fun.
Mums and dads reading this … have you done the Art of Living course? How has it helped you?
If you have any other questions or comments that you’d prefer to ask me directly, or if there is something specific you’d like to see me write about, you can reach me via email at meggan@megganmamma .com
Original Article :- http://www.megganmamma.com/2013/08/23/how-to-take-care-of-yourself-sudarshan-kriya-and-meditation-for-mammas-and-daddas/
On the course we learnt this breathing practice called the sudarshan kriya. It was powerful. I’d done many breathing techniques before and I’d been teaching yoga for a few years, but nothing I’d done came anywhere near this. Our teacher said that if we really wanted to experience the benefits of the kriya we should practice it once a day for 30 minutes over 6 months. I took it on. I was really keen to see how it would affect me. The benefits were huge. I was able to get so much done in heaps less time, quite effortlessly. At the time I was working as a freelance journalist and needed to produce a lot of articles quickly. I had to work long, hard hours to meet my deadlines, until I started doing kriya every day. My mind was so fresh after kriya. I was able to punch those articles out in no time. The words just flowed through me. In fact, the course had such a huge impact on me I ended up becoming a volunteer teacher of it.
How To Get Your Kriya and Meditation Done When You Have A Newborn
For the last 12 years I’ve done the kriya at home pretty much every day. When Joshi was born I missed a few days, but was back into it within 10 days or so. Kriya’s not something you can do while your baby’s awake and in need of your attention, so the way I’d fit it in initially was to do it during the day as soon as he fell asleep. It could be any time of day, because he didn’t yet have a specific sleeping pattern. Anyway, as soon as he’d fall asleep I’d drop what I was doing and go straight into three stage pranayama. There was always laundry to do, dishes to wash, rooms to tidy, etc (when isn’t there with a baby), but I knew that if I was to get my kriya done I had to seize those small and unpredictable windows of opportunity. Everything else could be done while Joshi was awake; kriya couldn’t.
Of course there were times when my practice would get interrupted because Joshi would wake soon after he’d fallen asleep. Sometimes I had to come out of my meditation really quickly to tend to him. If you meditate regularly you know how jarring that can be. But I decided I wasn’t going to complain about it. I was just grateful to have got 10 or 20 minutes in, or whatever it was. Better than nothing, right?
How To Get Your Kriya and Meditation Done When You Have A One Year Old
Now that Joshi’s almost a year old a lot has changed. When he wakes up in the morning (usually around 6.15am), instead of getting some extra sleep while Simon looks after Joshi, I get up, have a shower and spend the next hour doing my practice. I do 15-20 minutes of yoga poses, 30 minutes of kriya and 10-20 minutes of sahaj samadhi meditation, (which I also learnt through the Art of Living Foundation). When I’m done, I look after Joshi while Simon does his. This is what works best for us now. It wouldn’t have worked when he was a newborn coz I was just too tired to get up at that time of the morning.
I often wonder how parents cope without something like kriya in their day because this parenting journey is really demanding and you really need all the energy you can get.
Tip of the day for parents-to-be: Learn the sudarshan kriya and meditation now, before you become parents.
Extra tip for mammas-to-be:
Learn how to do sudarshan kriya before you become pregnant because you can’t learn it while you bub’s growing inside you. Also, once you have your baby it’s so much harder to make the time to do the course. Not that it’s impossible, just harder. The Art of Living course is a total of about 18 hours spread usually over 6 consecutive sessions, so it’s a big commitment. You also can’t miss any of the sessions, so you really need to be able to take it on fully. Having said that, once you’ve learnt the kriya you have an amazing tool with which to take care of yourself. And I promise you, you’ll need that when you become a parent, especially if you want to share your best self with your family and not your worn out, irritable, sleep-deprived self.
PS. The Art of Living Courses are taught by volunteers in more than 150 countries, so you can do them almost anywhere in the world. Oh, and when your kids are old enough they can do the Art Excel Course. They’ll love it. It’s heaps of fun.
Mums and dads reading this … have you done the Art of Living course? How has it helped you?
If you have any other questions or comments that you’d prefer to ask me directly, or if there is something specific you’d like to see me write about, you can reach me via email at meggan@megganmamma .com
Original Article :- http://www.megganmamma.com/2013/08/23/how-to-take-care-of-yourself-sudarshan-kriya-and-meditation-for-mammas-and-daddas/
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