Are the daily headlines causing you to lose your cool? The imminent presidential elections and current downward slope of the American economy are enough to induce fear and anxiety in all of us.
While we cannot control what happens around us, we can control how we react to our surroundings. Amidst uncertainties, rather than dwelling in fear, we can remember the abundance and support that always surrounds us.
Try the exercise below and see for yourself. Is it possible to feel fear and gratitude at the same time?
1. Stand up, take your shoes and socks off, and bring your feet hips-width apart with the outer edges parallel. Bend your knees slightly. You can do this anywhere, but on the grass is optimal.
2. Close your eyes. Relax the soles of your feet and feel the texture of the surface beneath your feet.
3. As you inhale, breathe energy up from the Earth, through your legs, and up through the rest of your body. If you enjoy visualization, you can imagine this energy as a particular color. See what comes to you. See if there are part of your body where it wants to go.
4. As you exhale, breathe any negativities, fears, or worries back out, through the soles of your feet and into the earth.
5. Continue this for 3-5 minutes. With each breath, give your weight more and more to the ground. Feel how the more you release your feet downwards, the more lightness you experience through the rest of your body and the fuller your breath can be.
6. To conclude, pause and silently acknowledge three things that you are grateful for today. Feel the energy of gratitude in your heart and through your whole body.
Follow Sara Avant Stover on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wayofhappywoman
Bull.
We CAN control what happens around us -- by taking an active role in our world.
Fancy breathing is nice (and I recommend it) but actually engaging the world in a positive and effective manner is the road to a better world.
"We need to be the change we wish to see in the world." -- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
The Mahatma's words are still true today.
Your point is well taken. But both Yogic breathing and (Yoga in action) engaging the world in a positive and effective manner together-- would be my road to a better world.
Gandhiji actually practiced and was a master of Yoga.
Of course he was.
I believe that was my point.
After a brief pause he replied...
"That would be wonderful."
.