Kelly Inselmann 
Deep Breathing sustains and energizes us, benefitting the lymphatic and nervous systems.
Energize and become more alert this week with Right Nostril Breathing.
Inhale deeply through the right nostril to draw in energy and openness to possibility. Exhale completely, letting go of fatigue, stress, and anxiety.
In this moment, everything is already ok.
Feeling anxious or stressed? I’m posting this in the week before the 2016 election and there’s a lot of fear and anxiety going around.
Left nostril breathing is a simple practice to help you lower anxiety by activating the right hemisphere of the brain.
If you are feeling anxious or having trouble sleeping, often the left nostril is less clear than the right. This practice opens up the left nostril so you can breathe more easily. It can help mellow you out or induce sleep at night.
Try it as part of your meditation practice, in the bathtub or in bed, in the doctor’s office or anywhere! Let me know your experience. Sat nam.
Learn a simple practice for bringing in PRANA (life force energy) and releasing tension and fatigue. Breathe IN with 3 sniffs as you extend the arms forward, to the sides, and up over the head.
Exhale through the mouth in a sigh as you come into a forward bend. Keep the knees bent to protect the lower back. If you prefer, do not come all the way forward, simply curl forward extending your hands toward your knees.
Go absolutely at your own pace. Go at the pace that feels right, even pleasurable to you, in synch with your body.
You can do this practice 3 times to start or for as long as feels right to you.
What if I lie down Right Now? What if I trust that giving myself permission to rest is part of my healing, part of my commitment to nurturing body and mind?
This week has been a very busy one for me. I’m already tired.
October is a full month with my daughter. There is a national holiday and at least 4 half days for teacher inservice and parent conferences. Halloween looms large and costume planning begins early. There’s the sock hop, book fair and school carnival.
In my home, there’s another event in October that rises far above national holidays. My daughter’s birthday.
Last Thursday, she turned 9. Yesterday marked the end of a week of festivities for my little extrovert, who loves big parties and plans events to the last detail.
October is quite an anniversary month for me. It holds memories of excited anticipation about her upcoming birth. I remember getting her little onesies ready, diapers arranged, and the changing table set up.
Because of what followed, it also holds the memory of having a painful lump in my breast that wouldn’t go away.
Two weeks before my scheduled due date, I went to see a doctor about the lump. After examining it, he recommended that I get an immediate biopsy. I was so surprised. I remember nodding that I understood this strange suggestion. Really?
“What exactly is a biopsy?” I asked myself a few minutes later in the car. How bizarre. What would be the need for that?
I was in my best health ever and preparing for a beautiful home birth. I felt strong and full of faith in my body’s natural capacities and strength, as well as my faith in God. Things were working out exactly as they were supposed to.
I put aside the idea of a biopsy, and went to my appointment at the midwife’s office. I was planning to pick up an inflatable birthing tub so we would be ready.
After visiting a few minutes in her office and telling her of the suggested biopsy, I started labor, 2 weeks early, without getting the tub into the car!
In retrospect, I believe my body had a deeper wisdom.
Thanks to my body’s knowing, it was my daughter’s good fortune to be born in hope and joy, free of the parental fear that would soon envelop us.
In my Yoga and Talk® Groups and classes, I hear a common desire from cancer survivors to make every moment count, and to get back to “normal” as soon as possible.
But we need rest in order to heal. After surgery, chemo, radiation, ongoing medications, and adjusting to side effects, we need lots of sleep and self care.
Instead of treating tiredness and fatigue with caffeine and sugar, we must give ourselves permission to take a break.
These days I am listening for the answers to these questions:
What foods will be truly nurturing and energizing to my body?
How can I schedule my life so there is room for mistakes, forgetting, traffic, running late?
Can I schedule in some fun and play?
Can I arrange to be present for my kid when she’s sick or sad?
Can I give myself permission to lie down and rest? Even when I’m no longer ill?
Today, the answer is yes.
Meditation for improving “chemobrain” using Kirtan Kriya.
Kirtan Kriya is a simple meditation from Kundalini Yoga that has been studied at UCLA by Dr. Dharma Singh, author of Meditation as Medicine, and has been shown to improve memory and cognition and decrease inflammation, two areas of interest for cancer survivors.
There are multiple tasks in this meditation: movement of the fingers, speaking the sounds, moving through the voices, and observing your experience in a kindly way without judging yourself.
Eyes are closed. In a more advanced practice to be described later, there is an additional mental focus.
What phase of life are you in? What phase of treatment or recovery?
Meditate on Kirtan Kriya which uses the mantra Sa Ta Na Ma. The sounds represent the eternal Cycle of Life: Birth, Life, Death, and Rebirth.
Practice patience with and acceptance of the various phases of life while remaining open to rebirth and renewal.
Practice a meditation to support you when you have strong or painful feelings and thoughts. Use the simple mantra in Kirtan Kriya to match the intensity of the feeling you have with the intensity of your focus on the mantra.
This has several effects including:
1. allows strong feelings to emerge to be transformed (instead of repressed or projected onto someone else).
2.stabilizes your mind
3.stengthens the nervous system and induces a state of calm and openness
The mantra is Sa Ta Na Ma which represents Birth, Life, Death, and Rebirth. In other words, the cycle of LIFE.
Sat Nam.
As you move through cancer, there are many phases, starting with detection and the shock of diagnosis. Next come urgent decisions and active treatment. At the end of treatment there is relief (and sometimes anxiety) and the beginning of recovery. In many cases, there is ongoing treatment or ongoing maintenance. You are an active participant in looking for the best answers and working on survival.
You are encouraged to DO a variety of things with your feelings: stay eternally positive, become a warrior and fight, research and advocate for yourself, walk to raise funds, all while reassuring loved ones that you are ok and nothing is going to change. All the while being grateful for every moment. And everyone likes it when you are cheerful too.
Often, authentic feelings of terror, anger, fear and grief are set aside, stuffed, and sacrificed because you are focused on beating the cancer, but also because you are trying to maintain your equilibrium. And if you have a partner or children, you focus on managing their distress as well.
Jennifer remembers having her blood drawn before her first chemo session at MD Anderson. She could see her sweet husband across the lobby as she walked out. She had tears rolling down her cheeks but when she saw his worried face, she swallowed the tears and as they caught each other’s eyes across the large room filled with patients, she gave a big (fake) reassuring smile. By the time she got to him, her tears were dry. He said with great relief when she reached him for a hug, “You don’t know what it means to me to see you smile.” But she did. That’s why she did it. She set aside the sadness to make him feel more comfortable
So what happens to feelings that don’t get expressed but instead are stuffed or ignored so that others feel encouraged and comfortable, or so that you can focus on getting through the treatment at hand?
Over years of teaching my weekly Yoga Warriors Class and Yoga and Talk® Therapy Groups, I’ve learned that many of us are encouraged, either subtly or directly, NOT to share the more difficult feelings. Anger and fear, loss and pain, and the intense ways they can be expressed, are hard for loved ones to handle hearing, at least on a regular basis.
And yet we have these feelings on a regular basis. They are a normal part of our human experience, especially when faced with a life or death challenge.
Research in neurobiology finds that ignoring or repressing emotions or memories does not make them disappear. Instead, the limbic system, the emotional part of the brain, stays activated as though the initial experience is actually happening.
You might not be talking about it, but you are still feeling unexpressed emotions, in the mind or in the body.
Stuffing your feelings leads to these 5 painful behaviors:
1. Self attack
2. Loneliness and isolation
3. Expressions of anger that cause relationship problems
4. Depression
5. Fearfulness and daily anxiety
Here are some things you can do instead:
1. Write out your feelings in a private journal, especially the “unacceptable” ones.
2. Tell a trusted friend or loved one what you are feeling inside.
3. Get enjoyable exercise to discharge tension. Try lifting weights (if permitted by your physician) to maximize tension and release.
4. Practice gentle yoga.
5. Learn to stabilize your mind through meditation. Join the Joyboots for Cancer Survivors community (free) that receives a short meditation each week.
6. Seek out safe, quality therapeutic spaces where you can really let yourself express the fear and pain and anger.
Once the feelings that are bottled up get expressed and understood, you will have more energy and vitality and stability of mind as you move forward. And move forward you will!
New Yoga and Talk® Therapy Groups for Cancer Survivors start in October.
Cancer survivors benefit from having an uplifting mantra to help neutralize thoughts and fears. In kundalini yoga, we use the mantra Sat Nam, a “seed sound” which can begin to take root and substitute for negative thinking. Sat Nam means True Self, the sacred part of you connected to the Divine. Link your breathing to the mantra to practice remember your sacredness anytime, anyplace. Simply think to yourself “Sat” as you inhale, “Nam” as you exhale. Inhale and exhale feeling identified with your divine essence as you let go of worries, expectations, negative predictions, to do lists and feeling responsible for everything that happens around you. From a more neutral frame of mind, it is easier to think clearly and take good care of yourself in the moment.
Shock, fear, and anxiety during the cancer experience (or any very difficult time) cause the nervous system to react automatically. The “sympathetic nervous system” gets activated into fight, flight, or freeze and, in cases of prolonged stress, is in a state of ongoing high alert.
Long deep breathing can be an essential antidote to calm the body and mind by activating the “parasympathetic nervous system.” It seems simple but requires mindful awareness and intention.
Let’s spend a few minutes practicing together. This week, use moments of anxiety as “cues” to remind you to return to a long deep breath. Let me know how it goes! Sat nam.
DISCLAIMER
I’m a licensed clinical social worker and yoga teacher practicing in Austin, Texas. My writings and videos represent a combination of my own personal opinions and my professional training, but they do not reflect professional or medical advice. Interaction with me via the vlog or blog does not constitute a professional therapeutic relationship. For individualized professional advice, you should seek the services of a therapist who can dedicate the time necessary to get to know you and your physical and mental health needs. I do not assume liability for any portion or content of material on the vlog/blog and accept no liability for damage or injury resulting from your decision to interact with the website.
© 2024 Kelly Inselmann. All Rights Reserved.
Website Conception & Design by Tracking Wonder
When I remember my Joy Boots… I feel grounded, connected to the earth and my place in it. I accept my body with its vulnerabilities and sensations. I am aware of my breathing and able to breathe deeply. I am connected to my own life force energy.