Liver and Gallbladder Yin Yoga

So here we are at the Spring Equinox of 2021. This is the time of year where the Liver and Gallbladder are highlighted.

The energy of Liver and Gallbladder is to do with the Wood element and it’s colour is Green.

Here is a couple of short videos I made on the location of the Liver and Gallbladder Meridian and the main emotions connected with them.

And here’s 70 minute a yin class. The focus is on the symbolism of Springtime, the Equinox and the Liver and Gallbladder Meridians. The fresh green buds of Springtime and new beginnings and making new things happen in our lives.

The new beginnings can be fresh ways of approaching out yoga practice or our lives. We can approach our yoga practice in a fresh way by changing how we approach the poses, taking different angles, staying at a different edge, doing poses in an active or passive way, taking a different route in. We could take a fresh approach in our lives maybe by changing the way we talk to ourselves - maybe being kinder and judging ourselves less harshly.

The Liver is also connected to our eyes and ability to see things, literally with the physical eyes, but also seeing things in our lives and seeing how to move forwards.

This fresh spring buds are in some ways very soft and tender, but they are also strong enough to push right through concrete. The invitation is to feel the strength and power in the softness. But also to know when it’s best not to push through but to travel round the corner to get to the same destination.

If we push when we should be going round the corner we can end up frustrated and irritated and angry.

These emotions: frustration and anger - are not positive or negative in themselves, it’s how we respond to them and how we flow with them that makes them positive or negative. For example if we repress and hold onto anger that’s normally not good for us. And if we lash out and let our anger go out of control that can have difficult consequences. So flowing appropriately with our anger is the key.

Here are some quotes on anger:

“The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn’t anger enough” Benjamin Franklin

“A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them” Jung

“He who angers you, conquers you” Elizabeth Kenny

“Speak when you are angry and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret” Laurence J Peter

“Anyone can become angry, that is easy. But to anger with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time for the right purpose and in the right way - that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy” Arsistotle

The Class Sequence is

Rubbing the Liver and Gallbladder Meridians
Rubbling Liver 3 - in between the big toe and second toe - good for irritability, stress, insomnia and headaches
Lying Butterfly and Gall Bladder 20 - good for calming
Lying Thread the Needle
Mountain Brook
Square
Seated Twist
1/2 Lateral Dragonfly
Sphinx
Child
Lying Butterfly

And here is a Yoga Nidra based on the Liver and Gallbladder meridians and the fresh newness of Springtime.

Wishing you happiness and fresh new beginnings this springtime

x Melanie x








Yoga Nidra by Melanie Cooper

Read more about Melanie Cooper >>> www.melaniecooper.co.uk

If you find it tricky to drop off - or get back to sleep in the middle of the night, this Yoga Nidra could help…

Recorded Live By: Melanie Cooper

One of my practices is meditating with starlight - in this Nidra we imagine the starlight touching us…

By Melanie Cooper Picture Credit: Letizia Bordoni

another Nidra to help you sleep well

By Melanie Cooper www.melaniecooper.co.uk Photo cred: Gemma F Redondo

We all need some Loving Kindness - but maybe teenagers need it especially…

With Love from Melanie Cooper and The Shala, London www.melaniecooper.co.uk Photo cred: Joshua Chun

The magic and mystery of starlight and sleep

With Love from Melanie Cooper and The Shala, London www.melaniecooper.co.uk Photo cred: Valentin Muller

Sleep Nidra and Loving Kindness

By Melanie Cooper - www.melaniecooper.co.uk Let the sound of pure happiness (a cat purring) take you to the Yoga Nidra place. Thank you Schampus (and Marion!) for your help! :-)

the sound of a cat purring can be very soothing….

By Melanie Cooper: www.melaniecooper.co.uk Photo cred: Fabrizio Chiagano

Spiral round the body - sink into sleep…

www.melaniecooper.co.uk Music by Silvertortoise. Photo cred: Unsplash

Gratitude for the Body - Sleep Nidra with beautiful piano music from Silvertortoise

By Melanie Cooper www.melaniecooper.co.uk Photo cred: Alexander Possingham

Sleep Nidra crossing the body

I have teamed up with my friend Silvertortoise to create a Yoga Nidra to piano music Find his music here https://silvertortoisepiano.com

Yoga Nidra with piano by Silver Tortoise

Move light and awarenesses around triangles in the body of energy

Yoga Nidra with triangles of energy and light

This Yoga Nidra is to help you wake up and greet the day.

A wake up Nidra

Embed Block
Add an embed URL or code. Learn more

Yoga Nidra as a journey through the Brain Wave States

Yoga Nidra as a Journey Through the Brain waves 

 

Depending on our state of consciousness our brain emits different electrical frequencies. These have been divided into 5 main brainwave states – each have different beneficial effects. We can experience all of these during our Yoga Nidra practice.

 

Delta wave states give us healing and mental clarity

Delta brain waves are the slowest and deepest, we normally experience these during deep dreamless sleep. During Delta wave states we release anti-aging hormones, including melatonin and DHEA. DHEA is a hormone that slows the aging process, possibly improving well-being and cognitive function. Healing and regeneration happen in this state, time spent here reduces sleepiness, enhances concentration, motor performance and elevates mood.

Theta brain waves help us with creativity, problem solving and learning.

Theta brain waves come next. These are normally during the dreaming state. Time spent here can increase our ability to solve problems and have creative new ideas. Many artists and inventors like Beethoven, Salvador Dali, Isaac Newton and Thomas Edison used the theta state. Theta waves are also important for storing memory and learning.

Alpha waves can improve our co-ordination and mind-body integration

Next comes Alpha brain waves. This is when we’re awake and daydreaming, meditating or having slow gentle thoughts. Time here increases wellbeing and creativity It’s good for co-ordination, calmness, mind-body integration, learning.

Beta brain waves carry us through our everyday life

Beta brain waves are our normal waking state. These can range from excited or stressed to depressed or peaceful. One of the things that can put us in the excited/peaceful range rather than the stressed/depressed range is Yoga Nidra.

Gamma brain waves give us high-level understanding.

Finally, Gamma brain waves are the fastest – they are thought to be flashes of insight and frictionless understanding. They can arise when the brain is quiet and functioning in an integrated way – like during Yoga Nidra.

The Alpha/Theta boundary helps us to connect to our own unconscious.

And then we come to the magic Yoga Nidra place: The Alpha/Theta boundary or the hypnagogic state. This is where the brain is at its most flexible, where it’s easiest to change old unwanted habits. It’s where we have access to the conscious and the unconscious mind. Where we can connect to our creativity, memories and make new connections. 

And finally, according to the Schumann Resonance theory it’s the resonance of the earth. The frequency of nature, where we feel connected and at home. 

Yoga Nidra is such a magic practice that is so accessible. If anyone is ever having problems sleeping and so missing out on the healing and rejuvenating effects or Delta and Theta states, Yoga Nidra could be part of the solution.

 

7 cool things about Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is one of those practices that are becoming more and more popular, and for very good reason. It is a practice that practically anyone can do – you don’t need any special equipment or clothes. You just need to get comfortable and listen.

 

Despite being so easy and so accessible it’s also very deep and powerful. It has many far-reaching benefits, here are some of them…

 

It can increase self-compassion: A study done at the Massachusetts General Hospital found that just tuning in and sensing the body as it is, without trying to change anything, had a specific effect on the brain and people reported feeling increased self-compassion. This is huge. It seems that feeling anxious and “not good enough” is a modern epidemic. The way we’re treated as children by our parents and the education system often is not helpful in engendering self-esteem. The advertising industry (which is worth nearly $500 billion worldwide according to Wikipedia) includes some of the most creative and talented people and is aimed solely at making us believe that we are not enough as we are. Often that external message of “you are not good enough” is internalized and our inner critic goes un-checked. We often don’t even notice it’s there, it’s such an insidious part of our background mental noise.

 

It can improve memory: Part of our brain called the Hippocampus is key in memory formation. It acts a bit like a USB stick – all our impressions get stored there. Then when we sleep we go into certain brainwave states (theta and delta) where memories are transferred to our long term storage. We can experience these same brain waves during a Yoga Nidra practice. So for example if you need to do some studying doing a Nidra practice before the study will “clear” the hippocampus so you can take more in, and doing another Nidra after will transfer your new knowledge into long-term storage.

 

It can improve Creativity. Time spent in the Yoga Nidra place – the Alpha/Theta boundary can have a hugely beneficial effect on our creativity. When we are relaxed, the logical part of the brain is quieter (the Pre-frontal Cortex), and the brain can structure and integrate our experiences. It compares new impressions with old memories and puts things together in new ways to see how it works – like it does when we’re dreaming. This way we can think outside the box and come up with new connections and ideas.

 

It can improve sleep. Having problems getting off to sleep at night is very common. Yoga Nidra can help us fall asleep by fully relaxing the body-mind and gradually bringing the senses inside. It can also give a busy mind something to do. Some people can fall asleep ok but wake up during the night and can’t get back to sleep. Yoga Nidra can help us to “navigate” these wakeful parts of the night. We naturally go through cycles during the night. We dive down into deep sleep then we come back up towards the surface several times during the night. It’s often during these periods of shallow sleep that we wake up. If our Yoga Nidra practice can help us to be in shallow sleep without fully waking up we can dive back down to deep sleep more easily. And finally if we wake up and can’t drop off again Yoga Nidra can give us something positive to do.

 

It can help with stress and worry. During the Yoga Nidra practice we often focus on holding pairs of opposites. For example, we feel warm, then cool, then warm again. Then we hold both at the same time. The idea here is that we can learn to flow with everything life throws at us. If we can feel anger and love at the same time - we don’t get caught up in one. The problem isn’t feeling the anger, the problem is getting stuck in it: falling out of the flow. Yoga Nidra can help us to flow with all our emotions and feelings positive and negative.

 

It can improve self-connection. As well as our regular 5 senses we have another sense called “interoception”. This is our ability to feel our own body, so that we can feel when we’re hungry, thirsty or tired, so we can care for ourselves well. In the Nidra practice we breathe slow and deep and become more relaxed and we “drop down” out of the head and into the body. When this happens the mind tends to slow down and we can feel what’s there more clearly. The body scan where we feel the body is practicing this sense so we can tune into our needs more.

 

It can help with emotional regulation: This is our ability not to have a tantrum! During everyday life things will always happen to knock us off our centre. If we can breathe and feel the body and have some space between our reaction and our response we can sometimes choose not to lash out or lose our temper we can choose how to respond.

 

It can build a bridge between the conscious and unconscious: When we are in the Yoga Nidra space, at the Alpha/Theta boundary, in the Hypnogogic state the brain is functioning in a different way. Normally when we’re awake our pre-fontal cortex is the logical voice of reason, but at the Alpha/Theta boundary its voice is often quieter so we can think more freely. During the “Images” section of the Nidra, we send images to our unconscious (which is sometimes said not to communicate in language but in images). Then in the “Free Flow” section at the end, our unconscious can let images surface, a rare space for images and memories to float freely.

 

It can Pick you up after a bad night’s sleep: Yoga Nidra can include brain wave states we normally only experience when we’re asleep such as Delta and Theta waves states. It’s here that our body heals and rejuvenates and it’s here that we get our ability to think clearly and remember things. If you wake up with a foggy mind despite having been asleep it could be because you didn’t have your deep Delta sleep (alcohol for example can block this). So practicing Yoga Nidra can give you a much needed boost and help you feel refreshed and clear minded.

 

 

 

Yoga Nidra and Sleep

Yoga Nidra can help us get a good nights sleep. This is so important for our health and wellbeing.

Nidra can help us get to sleep in the first place, it can help us navigate the times in the night when we wake up and give us something positive to do if we’re lying awake.

Some of my free sleep Nidas here>>>>

7 questions about Yoga Nidra

1) What is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra is many things, but at its heart, it’s an exploration of different states of consciousness. You could say the aim is to find and stabilize consciousness in the hypnagogic state between waking and sleeping. 

It’s a practice during which we have the possibility of experiencing pure consciousness, where the body is deeply relaxed or even asleep and the mind is awake and aware but deeply still.

2) What´s the difference between Yoga Nidra and meditation?

This obviously depends on how you define meditation. I would say Yoga Nidra is one form of meditation. If you define meditation as a set of techniques which aim to have a clarifying effect on our relationship to the mind leading to more peace, compassion and awareness, then Yoga Nidra fits into that category. So you could say Yoga Nidra is a form of meditation we do normally lying down.

3) What happens if my mind is busy?

This is completely normal. Sometimes the mind will be peaceful and sometimes we will have a storm of thoughts. Even if it feels like “it’s not happening” or “I can’t do this” or “I’m just lying here thinking” – something is still happening. There is a process going on – a “cooking”. In meditation the mind thinks – that’s what it does – we can’t stop it. If we try it’s just fighting the mind with the mind – it just makes it worse. So allow the thoughts – observe them – trust the process. It’s not just you.

4) Do I have to stay still?

It is preferable to stay still if that’s possible. But if you absolutely have to move then go ahead and move. It’s always good to observe the first impulse to move – sometimes it can be resistance to going deeper. But sometimes you just have to move to get comfortable – so move. But try to keep your movements as minimal as possible so you don’t disturb yourself or others if it’s in a class situation.

5) What if I get bored?

Rather than thinking “I’m feeling bored and impatient” turn it into: “I observe a feeling of boredom and impatience – but that is not who I am! It won’t be like this forever!” Often boredom is a sign we are in the mind – so try getting into the breath or the body. Boredom can also be resistance. If we are about to see or feel something the mind is uncomfortable with, it can flip into boredom to avoid it. So try staying with the boredom – it could get interesting!

6) What if I can’t concentrate or understand what the teacher is saying?

Yoga Nidra is a place of paradoxes – we hear a voice but can’t understand the words, we feel deeply asleep but fully aware. If you find yourself asleep or not understanding the words -don’t block this – flow with the experience. This is normal and a good sign that you’ve gone deep beyond the conscious mind. The best thing to do is to go with the flow, don’t worry about consciously understanding the words and stay deep.

7) What happens if I fall asleep?

Sometimes you need sleep more than anything else!

However, there are different layers of sleep and sometimes it FEELS like you were asleep during the practice – but you were actually floating in a different state of consciousness than what you are used to in everyday life. Since the teacher “disturbs” you by talking throughout the full practice (with just a few, short pauses) – you most likely won’t fall into DEEP sleep.

If you can hear the teacher when he/she asks you to return from the Nidra – it means you were not in a deep sleep. Although you seemed asleep you were, on some level, aware of the teacher’s voice and still practicing Yoga Nidra.

If Yoga Nidra is an exploration of the state of consciousness in-between waking and sleeping then we have to fall asleep in order to experience that state. At first we will probably pass through the state pretty quickly, often not even noticing it at all. But with time and practice we learn to recognize the falling asleep state and learn to stay there.

/Melanie Cooper 💖

What is Yoga Nidra?

DEFINITION OF YOGA NIDRA
By Melanie Cooper

Like Yoga itself, Yoga Nidra is a process and a state. You can be in the “state of Yoga Nidra” which is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. And Yoga Nidra is a set of techniques put together to help you get into that state. There are many techniques in the Yoga Nidra “tool box”, so you can design a practice to suit different purposes from simple relaxation to getting to sleep at night to unlocking creativity.

Since Yoga Nidra first became popular there have been huge advances in our understanding of what happens in the brain in situations such as stress, insomnia and creativity (to name just a few) and Yoga Nidra has evolved to become an incredibly rich diverse set of practices that can have a positive impact on many levels. It’s so important not to be dogmatic about yogic practices but to let them evolve to include new knowledge and so become richer and deeper.

Yoga Nidra can help with many things such as enhanced memory, creativity, sleeping well, enhanced connection to the body and many many more.

It’s main contra-indication is Schizophrenia and anxiety and trauma are cautions. You really need specialised training and knowledge to share Nidra with these groups.

It’s a form of meditation we normally do lying down. When we are lying down it’s easier to access that ‘in between’ state between waking and sleeping. There are times when lying down is not possible or comfortable so then it can be done supported in a comfortable seated position.

Yoga Nidra literally means “Yogic Sleep” but it’s not about sleeping – it’s about exploring different states of consciousness so we can wake up. You could say this is the first paradox relating to Yoga Nidra. As in Yoga in general there are many paradoxes when talking about Yoga Nidra – when one statement is true but the opposite is also true. So Yogic Sleep is about awakening.

Yoga Nidra is a state that occupies the borderline between waking and sleeping – not fully awake or fully asleep – something in between. And here comes the second paradox, although Yoga Nidra is a borderline state, at the same time it is a state in its own right.

When we become able to stay in this place we can experience a new state of consciousness, and in this state of consciousness things change in the brain and the nervous system; we can rest deeply and connect to our creativity.

Opening and Closing Chants of Ashtanga

Here is an article I wrote about the Ashtanga Opening Chant in Elephant Journal - it's THE most popular thing I've ever written!

Here

Here is a vid I did of the Ashtanga Opening Chant with each line repeated twice and the words written underneath.

Here

Here is an article I wrote about the Ashtanga Closing Chant 

Here

And finally an article about chanting in general

Here