One of the reasons why we don’t address the root cause is because we do not want to feel the choices that we have been making or the pressure or strain we have been putting ourselves under. We become caught in our emotions, we react and feel hurt by what others say and do and often we don’t take responsibility for the part we play.

We then choose to bury what we are feeling and ‘get on with life’.

There are a myriad of ways in which we can bury our feelings and I could write a whole article on this alone. Food is a big one – alcohol, sport, staying caught in emotions, pushing our bodies and hardening them. In fact any activity or movement that we do in a way where we disconnect from our body and do not honour the true delicateness and tenderness that we are has the potential to bury what we are feeling.

When we bury our feelings we push those feelings that may be just on the surface, deeper into the physical body so that we don’t have to face the pain or hurt of what is actually there. As human beings, we get very good at doing this and find all sorts of ways to distract ourselves from feeling our bodies and we therefore stay caught in the mental activity of our minds.

So having understood what our hurts are and why it is not good to bury them, how then do we work with this?

Here is a simple guideline that can support you to reconnect to what is going on in your body and become more familiar with addressing your hurts.

1. Nominate the hurt when you feel it without blame. Let yourself acknowledge that the incident/person/event that has happened has actually deeply affected you and that you feel hurt by it. At this stage it is important to do this without blame. You are simply nominating what is there.
2. Feel where this hurt resides in your body. You may feel a tightness in your chest, in your lower back, in your jaw. In fact, it could be held anywhere in the body. Make this exercise physical so that you feel how the hurt affects your body rather than staying in the thought process in your mind of “he said, she said” etc.
3. Stay with what you feel, without judging or trying to fix it. Simply let yourself be with what it is that you are feeling. Practice self-acceptance and that this is a process that you are going through. Let yourself truly be with what is there without fighting the urge to not go there. Stay out of the mental dialogue that may be running in your mind and stay with the sensations that you are feeling in your body.
4. Notice if there are any patterns or behaviours that you go into to stop yourself from feeling the hurt. Try to avoid using those things as medications (chocolate, alcohol, coffee) and instead let yourself be with what you feel (as explored in point 3).
5. You may like to seek support from a friend or a practitioner so that you can see the situation more clearly. Be careful to seek assistance from a person who will not allow you to ‘wallow’ or go into blame, but who will reflect a steadiness and openness so that you can go deeper within and learn that this is a healing process for you and for you to see and own your part in it.

The way to heal our hurts is to not bury them but let them come to the surface so that they can come up and out of the body. If we over ride what we feel, pretend that they are not there and push them back down – we bury emotions deeper into the physical body and at some point this will show up via an injury or illness.

 We are all deeply sensitive human beings. Let yourself be and live in with your sensitivity. This is not weak, but in fact our true strength and power.

For further reading, here is a great article We are Not our Hurts by Jean Gamble, Psychotherapist.

Donna Nolan offers Esoteric Healing, Connective Tissue Therapy, Massage , Yoga/Meditation at the Balgowlah (Northern Beaches) and Cammeray clinics. She has a love of working with people to understand the root cause of their ill or injury and works with these modalities to support her clients to return to true health and wellbeing. For bookings contact Donna donna@yogaandhealing.com.au

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Yet when we truly practice yoga, we learn to develop a relationship with our body, where we listen to what it is telling us and respond and move in a way that is deeply honouring. After all, yoga means union and how can we be in union if there is not a true respect for the body.

This means no pushing, no hardness, no pain.

With this, there is much to actually gain.

Pain is the body’s feedback mechanism to say stop what you are doing. Our mind can often override this signal, but at what cost to the body? When pain is felt the body responds by causing the muscles to harden up around the injured site for protection to avoid further injury.

So what happens when we actively go into a movement that stretches the body to an extent where there is pain? The connective tissue (or commonly known as fascia) also hardens up in order to protect the body.

Connective Tissue is a system of tissues that runs throughout all the muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, nerves, blood vessels and organ overlapping and enveloping soft tissue structures like cling film.

So if our aim is to loosen and open the body, to have more fluidity, then why would we induce pain and cause more tension? It just doesn’t make sense.

So if we apply this in the true practice of yoga, then it only makes sense to apply this across the board with all bodywork therapies including massage.

As a yoga teacher, connective tissue therapist and massage therapist, I have come to understand that the best way of releasing tension in the body is through the quality of connection – not force. A stronger stretch in yoga or a harder stroke in massage may offer temporary relief, but does it solve the underlying problem in the long term? I would beg to differ.

For long term healing, the approach that I take as a bodywork therapist is to respect and respond to the connective tissue by working with the body in a connected and gentle way.

As an example, in massage, rather than forcefully working into a trigger point (a point of tension held in the muscle) to access the deep tissue and muscles, the body requires lots of repetitive strokes to first of all warm up the outer layer of muscles allowing access to the next and deeper level of muscles (hence the name deep tissue).

If you try to access the deeper muscles via force and without truly understanding the role of the connective tissue in the body, the outer muscles harden and go into protection going against what we are trying to achieve, which is to relax the muscles. Once the outer muscles have been warmed up, then we can access the deeper tissue in a gentle manner, with no force and without inflicting pain.

With the modality of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy we work with gentle hands-on healing techniques performed with slow rhythmic motion on various parts of the body. The therapy works directly with both the physical structures of the body (muscles, joints etc) and the energy that flows through the connective tissue system and in turn releases tension and tightness in the muscles.

By listening to the body and treating it with absolute care and gentleness it leads the body towards it own natural state of healing with no pain inflicted.

Donna Nolan offers Remedial Massage, Esoteric Massage, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy, Esoteric Healing and Chakra Puncture. For bookings please call Donna 0408 7838187 or email donna@yogaandhealing.com.au

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It can be easy to let life slip away without ever fully committing or with keeping some pockets in our life that lack the ‘C’ word. This can leave us feeling a bit like we are in no man’s land, maybe waiting for a relief, something better to come along, or maybe for someone else to do “the job” for us. Interestingly we also use lack of commitment as an excuse or a means to keep us small – to not grow or evolve.

Could it be that when we leave things open ended, when we keep a foot in each camp and do not fully commit, this creates a “gap” that lies between us and the person or object. The effect of this “gap” on our health and wellbeing is considerable and worth looking at.

We have all probably experienced being in a relationship whether that be a partnership or friendship with the other person not being really fully with us, even if they say they are. How does that feel? Well… this leaves a void that can often be filled with negative thoughts, doubt and ultimately lead to a feeling of tension, distance or maybe even separation.

A lack of commitment is a drain on the body and contributes to leave us feeling tired, lethargic and/or unmotivated. With commitment comes a confirmation and a deepening of purpose which in itself gives us more energy, a bounce, a fresh lease and perspective on life.

With commitment there is no force, simply an energy that says a full hearted ‘yes’ to that which lay in front of you, no matter what, it is unwavering. True commitment actually comes from a choice to hold our quality of being, be who we truly are, no matter what, no matter when, no matter who.

Ultimately, true commitment is a commitment to love, a commitment to be love and to share this love in full everywhere with everyone.

So what stops us from committing?

Are we afraid that we could get locked into something that we could not get out of, that the word ‘commitment’ means forever? Are we afraid that we could fail, make a wrong choice or get hurt? Or could it be that we also don’t commit because we are afraid of our own power or of having an amazing life?

There are so many reasons why we can choose not to commit but ultimately lack of commitment keeps us in the same patterns, the same cycles of going around and around without anything changing.

To grow and to evolve as a person, commitment is a vital ingredient and one that should be taken with more than a pinch of salt.

Commitment is a key ingredient to a healthy life. It may not be a familiar taste for some of us, yet one that once tasted, you can’t imagine a meal without. Commitment feels great in the body, it feels solid, vital and true. It offers us the opportunity to open our arms to the grandness of what life has to offer.

How about taking stock this month on the things you fully commit to and observe how that commitment feels in your body. Then how about looking at those pockets of your life where there might be a lack of commitment and try applying the same level of enthusiasm applied to when you fully commit and see how this feels.

Could commitment be true medicine?

Have a go exploring committing deeper to various aspects of your life and see what transpires. As usual we would love to hear from you.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Esoteric therapies and Massage at their clinic in Balmain , Cammeray and Balgowlah.  Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

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So what is our essence?

Our essence is found in that inner-most part of us which when we deeply connect to our body, offers us those beautiful innate qualities that we then naturally express in and from. These qualities as an example may be sweetness, purity, grace, playfulness, tenderness… and the list goes on.

At the core of all those qualities is a stillness, joy, harmony, truth and love – all there for us all to tap into and live from. Those qualities are always there despite the fact that we may have lost sight of them as we get bogged down or burdened with our issues, hurts or simply the intensity of life.

Living from our essence…

We can liken living from our essence to the feeling of what it was like to live as that innocent and buoyant child where the days seemed timeless, where the joy, bounce and love for life was in every step. An image that comes to mind is that little girl skipping along the footpath enjoying simply being herself without a care in the world, or that little boy staring in awe at a bee or caterpillar.

When we are in our essence, there isn’t a holding back, rather there is openness, expression, a joy that wants to shine through for all to see. When we live from our essence, there is an abundance of energy there to be shared with all.

So why is it that most of us are not living from our essence? Why is it that we do not fully shine? Could that be a choice?

Ultimately the key reason is that we have not yet dealt in full with our unresolved issues or hurts. We all hold the responsibility to look at why we are not living with that full honouring and connection with our body, the essence of who we are and the world around us. We can blame others for the way our life is and how we feel or take full responsibility for the fact that we carve out our future by the way we choose to live in the present moment.

One difficulty behind letting our essence out is that if we were to truly shine, then we will stand out from the crowd, people will notice us, we could no longer play it small and will have to step up our responsibility.

Could it be that for many of us it is easier and more comfortable to hide or stay hurt then to make the choice to live all the love that we actually are?

Living from our essence IS a choice, a choice that is there to be made – moment to moment. Connect with our body, our gentle breath, our inner-being and live and express from this place – no matter what.

When we live from our essence, we offer that reflection reminding another that they can choose to live from theirs too.  It is a lot more fun and joy-full to live from your essence than not to. Go on, try it, work with what’s in the way, see how you feel.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Esoteric Healing, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and Massage at their clinics in Balmain ,Cammeray and Northern Beaches. Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

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We are always in relationship. Every time we have an interaction with a person, whether that is meeting, emailing or passing someone on the street – we are in relationship.

Often we can think that how we are doesn’t affect anyone else but ourselves, but live in a house or work in an office with other people for a few days and notice what plays out and what you feel daily. As an example,  we all feel it if someone in the house or at work is angry, unwell or upset. Nothing needs to be said, it can be felt.

This shows that how we feel and how we are within ourselves is always affecting everyone, that we are all connected. Each of us make up a part of a grander whole, and upon this realisation comes a RESPONSIBILITY for the quality in which we choose to live our lives daily.

What we have been exploring of late is our body language in relationship with others and how our quality of connection with ourselves changes depending upon who we meet and the type of interactions that present.

As an example, we may be able to hold our quality of connection when we are alone and go about having a merry old time enjoying this connection, but what happens when someone else comes on the scene? Does our body stay open to being in relationship with that person or does it close down, contract, harden, maybe going into protection based on past incidences of feeling hurt/misunderstood by people or because we feel that the other person is not in a good mood.

True movement, that is naturally moving our body with a quality of connection, awareness and with free expression of who we are in full, requires an evenness and full honoring of ourselves in all our movements (i.e all aspects of our life) ALL of the time – whether we are on our own or with others.

With true movement, our body language, tone of voice, gaze and our every move are naturally saying “yes” to being open, transparent and “yes” to love, connection and equalness with everyone. True movement is inspiring and non imposing to others.

True movement is healing and offers others the powerful reflection of what it means to live in one’s fullness and the fact that this is accessible to everyone.

The more the quality of our movements reflects an ongoing openness, the more we begin to feel the joy that is there to be shared with others. It feels deeply healing for all.

This month, how about deepening your awareness of how your quality of movements is – not only with yourself but with others. How about starting to observe, clock and explore when you are able to simply be you, when you open up or when you close down and go into protection or hiding. Can you bring a level of consistency across the board in all of your movements, regardless of who you are with, meet and where you are?

When you are able to hold yourself in your quality, no matter what and no matter who, there is a real beauty and powerful reflection that is felt – by you and others – that comes from living the true you, ALL of the time.

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This blog was inspired by the sharings from Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon at the recent Universal Medicine retreats.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Yoga/Yoga Therapy, Meditation, Esoteric therapies and Massage at their clinic in Balmain, Cammeray and the Northern Beaches.  Contact us for enquiries or bookings.

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Year to year it is always interesting to observe the changes in my life since the diagnosis I had of breast cancer in 2008. In the years leading up to the breast cancer, I was convinced that I was self-nurturing by practicing yoga, meditation, having a good diet and exercising regularly. However, although I thought I was doing all of the right things to be healthy, what I hadn’t considered or was aware of is the push, the drive and protection that I had been living in and therefore the fact that how I was approaching everything in my life came laced with a hardness and lack of trust. Therefore there was no true self-nurturing in my life and there wasn’t a quality of connection and gentleness in how I was with myself.

As women there has been and is a tendency, a drive to have it all – the career and family, being everything to everyone. Our focus has been on ‘doing’ and ‘achieving’, putting everyone else’s needs before our own, thinking that this is self-less, but it has led me to ponder at what expense has this come? In all of “the doing”, have we not lost our connection to the innate qualities that we all hold within as women – those qualities of gentleness and stillness?

Since breast cancer and through the Esoteric Healing Modalities I have come to understand that the most important thing in life is not what we do or what we achieve but the “HOW” we go about it all. The “HOW” being the quality of being in which we choose to approach or attend to everything in life. The other realisation I’ve come to is that unless we learn to self-nurture we cannot truly support another. The foundation of love for ourselves must be there first of all. As an example, if we are feeling tired or exhausted it is easy to snap at our partner, friends, work colleagues or the kids compared to if we have honoured our needs and supported ourselves we are then less likely to react.

By changing how we treat our body in a truly caring way, we develop a self-loving relationship that becomes a foundation of love from which we live. Life then feels very different, there is a stillness and a connection that comes from deep within that we are able to feel as we go about our daily deeds.

A woman’s breasts on an energetic level are her self-nurturing centres. What I have come to understand is that the cause of my breast cancer was a lack of self-nurturing.

Before breast cancer I was not truly honouring the precious woman that I am which is the same preciousness that is found in every woman equally.

With breast cancer (and other cancers) on the rise is it not time we question why illness and disease have and are exponentially increasing despite the amazing advances in medicine and technology? Could it be that we have lost the connection to the innate qualities of the woman, we have forgotten the preciousness of who we are. In all of the ‘doing’ we have left behind our connection to our essence which can only be felt through a deep honouring of ourselves.

Disease stems from a dis-connection from our body. When we as women learn to truly self-nurture I feel that the current trend in breast cancer may change.

So this month, as you see pink all around you, don’t just think pink, feel your own connection, your own quality of connection in all that you presently are doing.

Donna Nolan offers Cancer Support Sessions which are complementary to medicine. For further reading My Reflections – 5 years on from Breast Cancer,  My Unfolding Path to Understanding the Root Cause of Breast Cancer,  5 Tips for supporting you through chemotherapy and Yoga for Breast Cancer.

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This sense of deep well being, simplicity and joy experienced and expressed by our clients is a feeling that naturally derives as they re-connect back to themselves and their body.

Another typical comment they share with us is “if only I could feel like this ALL of the time.” Well the fact is that this is possible. “Really? How? I feel so relaxed, I would never get anything done like this” – we hear you say.

Well, the truth is that we become far more productive when we connect with our body and our inner presence before we actually do anything, then hold and honour that connection as we attend to whatever it is that we do.

In this quality of being (connection), there is no push, no drive, no expectation nor waste of energy, and the things that need “to be done” don’t feel like a “chore”, a “bore” or a “drain”. Rather ALL the activities of life become something that you simply and effortlessly attend to where “you” take “you” to everything – being an activity that you could have so far considered pleasant, unpleasant or have no particular awareness of or feeling for.

In other words when we live from connection, we do not compartmentalize how we are and feel in life anymore, accepting to maybe be grumpy at work versus relaxed and playful during the week-end or the holidays. As we commit to ourself and a way of living that is harmonious, we develop a consistency in how we are and feel in everything everywhere with everyone.

We would like to offer is some simple tips that you can playfully explore throughout your day, to develop or deepen your connection with your body and your being so that you gradually and naturally live with this quality of being ALL of the time.

1. Offer yourself moments to feel your breath throughout the day.

   Enjoy developing an intimate relationship with your breath starting to notice its quality throughout the day. Can you feel the touch of the breath on your nostrils, its temperature, its texture? Are you holding its flow or breathing more rapidly or shallowly in certain situations?  A gentle breath through your nose is a good indicator that you are connected with yourself and your body, with your body and physiology relaxed – breathing your own breath as opposed to stress or situations.

2. Develop an intimate relationship with your body – moment by moment.

   As well as noticing your breath, become aware of how your body feels or reacts in different situations. What is your posture like generally, when you stand up or sit, when you are on your own or with others? Does your body language change depending on who you are with or who you talk to how and what does this reflect, to yourself and to others? Our body gestures and postures communicate far more than our words.

3. Listen to your voice and its tone as you speak.

   Does the quality of your voice and tone change depending on who you are talking to? Are you putting on a voice in certain situations such as one of authority or are you communicating with your natural and true voice with everyone everywhere? Do you think and or plan what you are going to say (i.e are you going into your head), or do you trust, connect with your body, feel what to say and express in full?

4. Choose to move your body with awareness and in a way that feels gentle.

   The quality of our movements (e.g rushed, jerky, anxious versus gentle, precise and graceful) reflects the energy we hold in our body and as such the awareness of the quality of our movements is a powerful tool to catch ourselves when we are off and bring ourselves back.

5. Develop a repertoire of activities you commit to attend to from connection.

   You could explore sitting down and standing up making the commitment to yourself that each time you do this action, you will do it gently, with absolute awareness of feeling what you are doing and all that there is to feel. Once you have mastered the first couple of actions, choose another and continue to slowly build your repertoire.

The practice of living with the awareness of your inner presence and your body (conscious presence) starts with little steps to lay down a foundation, then a bit like any good building, you slowly steadily and lovingly build on top of this.

Give yourself the space to explore the above tips playfully and gracefully, holding yourself in love and acceptance of where you are at – i.e no judgement or criticism. Living with conscious presence and awareness is our natural way to be, so even though it may feel difficult and challenging at the start there is nothing that you need to better, improve, fix or achieve.

There is immense wisdom, healing and beauty in the practice of connecting back to ourselves and our inner essence and in living in that quality of being. This is something worth exploring and a gift that only you can give to yourself.

Alexandra Plane and Donna Nolan offer Esoteric therapies, Massage therapies, Yoga/Yoga Therapy and Meditation at their clinics in Balmain, Cammeray and Balgowlah. Contact them for enquiries or bookings.

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When we talk about healing, we are not referring to some miraculous recovery from an illness, or taking a magic pill and all of our woes go away. Healing as we refer to it here, in our yoga classes and in the context of our esoteric therapy sessions, is about getting to the bottom of the underlying root cause of what is going on for us in our body or with those thought patterns, reactions or behaviours that we know are not conducive to our health and wellbeing.

Healing is not about reducing the symptoms of an illness or disease, nor about making a situation or a reaction more manageable. There are many quick “fixes” and a myriad of “solutions” offered out there these days but healing is not about fixing or temporarily relieving either.

Healing, in its true meaning, is about bringing honesty and truth to what is coming up to the surface and clearing what is underneath the manifesting issues/symptoms so that these issues/symptoms are not repeated (fuelled) anymore.

So how do we go about true healing? Here are some simple steps.

1) Put your HONESTY cap on

Be honest about what is there in the body, the mind and what might currently be going on in your life (relationship wise, at work, sleep rhythm, eating patterns etc). It is easy for us to put on a happy face and say it’s all OK, but really, is it? With honesty comes a surrender and an openness to the truth of what is there underneath our issues or symptoms. It is from this place that we can begin to truly look at and address them.

2) Tune into your body

What can you feel? There will be some tension, emotions, aches & pains, stress, heaviness etc somewhere in the body. All of those, along with anxiousness, bad quality sleep, emotional eating, dis-functional body systems etc are all ways for our body to communicate with us. Are you listening? Be open to feeling your body as “ The body is the marker of all truth”  – Serge Benhayon.

3) Take responsibility & deepen your expression

If someone has done or said something that makes you feel hurt, sad, annoyed, upset, angry, go into jealousy or comparison, or brought up any other form of reaction – look at your part in this. Could it be that your reaction comes from an underlying hurt in your body being triggered? This is worth considering as if you heal the underlying hurt, you won’t react anymore. What are the particular circumstances reflecting to you? Are you allowing whatever is hurting you to happen? If what has been said or done did not feel like it was coming from a loving or caring place, consider that this may need to be expressed.

4) No intense analysis – come back to surrender and feeling

DON’T try to work it out from your mind especially if you are in reaction – it won’t work! When we lose our inner-connection, we can quickly get stuck or lost with repetitive thoughts and go nowhere. It is very difficult to get a true feeling of what is going on for us from our mind when we are in reaction. From steps 1, 2 and 3 – clarity will gradually and naturally come.

5) Be open to support – from you and others

This may come in the form of talking and sharing what is happening and how you feel with a trusted friend, creating space for some “me time”, re-connecting with yourself with the Gentle Breath Meditation, enjoying a gentle yoga practise or maybe seeing a practitioner for a healing session. When we open up to support it is always there. It may not always come in the form we expect it, but it will be there.

As we return to a greater level of connection with our body and inner presence, our ability to hear and listen to the messages from the body increases and our understanding deepens. With this we can address more easily the root cause of our symptoms and ways of life that cause us harm and suffering – either mentally or physically. As we heal and clear the underlying causes of the symptoms/issues, those symptoms/issues will NOT resurface anymore because there will be nothing (no source) to create them in the first place – this is the key.

The process of true healing goes hand in hand with developing self-love.

As we start to deepen how we relate with ourself, applying basic self-care routines, refining our rhythm and exploring self-nurturing, we gradually open up to self-love. It is during this process that the underlying root causes of all our ”ills and woes” (held in our bodies) become exposed for what they are and a choice to heal them is being offered.

Ultimately, healing is a natural part of a way of life where we leave no rock unturned and choose to open up to true health and wellbeing.

Written by Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane. Contact them

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At the physical level, our yoga classes focus on moving, stretching and strengthening all the body parts in a way that considers and nurtures the whole of our body – our body being energy well before it is function. In our yoga classes we also focus on re-developing conscious presence (mind and body in union/aligned together), as well as re-learning to feel the flow of energy in our body, which can only be done with a true honouring and consideration of our connective tissue.

The connective tissue is a system of tissues that runs throughout the entire body. It is everywhere and runs throughout all the muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, nerves, blood vessels and organs. Every part of our body is connected to the others through this fascinating interconnected web.

The connective tissue allows for friction free fluid movements and supports all our body systems from the inside out. Energy flows through our connective tissue, and in its ideal state, the connective tissue supports our natural elongated posture and our organ systems to work together harmoniously. When can picture our connective tissue like a river that flows throughout our entire body.

The status of our connective tissue has a direct relationship with our levels of health and wellbeing. In its ideal state our connective tissue naturally feels fluid, expansive, gliding and sliding in movements.

Often when we feel tight in the body, lacking in health, wellbeing and/or vitality, it is not just a result of our muscles being tight, but rather that tension, tightness, hardness or scars are present within our connective tissue, affecting and potentially blocking the natural flow of energy.

As an example, we come across a lot of people who have tightness and tension through their upper back, neck and shoulders. Often what people are used to doing is trying to stretch strongly to relieve the tension. And yes, the stretch may give an instant temporary relief, but long term and even medium term, nothing really changes. What this means is that they are left with constantly having to stretch for relief with the tightness, hardness never truly going away and the core issue behind the tension remaining unaddressed and thus un-healed.

So how do we address truly releasing tension in the body?

We do this in our yoga classes through a gentle dynamic practise with a focus on feeling and being with the body as we move. We emphasize and encourage moving the body with conscious presence, gentleness and tenderness – in breath and body – because this is what the connective tissue loves and responds to. These qualities of movement allow stress and tension to be released from the connective tissue.

The way we are with and treat our body has a direct relationship with how we feel. Say for instance that we are always slamming doors shut or stomping as we walk. These harsh qualities have an impact on our body, i.e on our joints, ligaments, muscles and connective tissue amongst others.  If we were to truly choose to feel our body as we performed these actions, we would connect with the fact that it really doesn’t feel very nice nor self-honoring. But what if we were to close the doors gently, walk gently? How would this feel? No doubt you would find, as we do, that it feels lovely in the body.

So the same goes for stretching or strengthening exercises. If we do them harshly and with force, this has an impact on the body that brings or magnifies that same quality of hardness and harshness into our body.  We may push the body thinking that it is good for us/our health, and yes temporarily it may feel good relieving some stress and tension, but what are the long term affects? Could it be that the long term affects are a hardening, more stress and tension in the connective tissue, thus in our entire body?

There is a way to stretch and strengthen our body with a quality of presence and gentleness that honours, supports and cares for our entire being, and that can release stress, tension and tightness that is held in our connective tissue and muscles.

We share this way of exercising in our yoga classes where the focus is on the quality of how we move the body and not about how much you do or how far you stretch.  The focus is on learning how to reconnect with our body and ourselves, and moving our body in a way that promotes long term health, wellbeing and vitality.

Exercising our body with consideration and honouring of our connective tissue brings a meditative quality to exercise. It is like a meditation in action and feels exquisite, deeply nourishing and healing.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane assist people in their healing via the modalities of Yoga, Meditation, Esoteric Healing and Massage. They share Connective Tissue release exercises in their Yoga group classes and Private Yoga/Yoga Therapy sessions on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, in Balmain and Cammeray.  They can be contacted at info@yogaandhealing.com.au

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Yoga is the practice of connecting to the innate preciousness, tenderness, beauty and stillness that we already are and resides within us all.

Yoga for breast cancer is about re learning as a woman how to connect to our inner beauty and stillness – to live a life of true joy and harmony.

As women, could it be that we have moved so far away from the essence of who we are, that we have forgotten how to tend and nurture ourselves – that we have forgotten who we really are?

Perhaps we have got caught up in the midst of life. We may have identified ourselves through the roles we play such as; the mother where the children come first no matter what, the friend who is always there to support others, the wife who cares for the family but puts herself last, the career woman who strives to be equal to any man – just to name a few examples.

Could it be that we have forgotten that we are delicious, we are tender, we are beautiful?

Could the roles we play, stop us from feeling who we really are?

Stillness is an energetic quality that we can all connect with and that is inside of us all (both men and women). It is a deep sense of connection with self where there is no doing, just a sense of being. Within this, lies a quietude – harmony within and contentment without any lack or need.  Once this energetic stillness is felt, it is a matter of taking this quality into all that we do (taking stillness into motion), but the key here is to connect with the stillness before going into motion.

To re connect to our inner-most part of ourselves requires us to work through the hurts (or emotions) that we hold onto that occupies lots of space in our minds and body. We can do this by allowing ourselves to stop and feel what is really going on rather than distracting ourselves with all of our ‘doing’ (motion). These hurts, which we identify with, are what stop us from feeling the essence of who we truly are.

We can re connect by making the choice to feel our body and develop a connection moment to moment that is gentle, loving and tender.

When the mind and body are with each other in whatever activity we are doing in a gentle and loving way, we are practising conscious presence.  As examples, when we walk, we can be with our body through feeling our feet on the ground and feeling our hips and shoulders swaying, when we sit at the computer and type, having an awareness of sitting within our body and feeling our finger tips tap at the keys. When conscious presence is developed and stillness is the energetic quality that we live from, this is yoga (union).

Conscious presence can be developed through making the choice to bring the qualities of gentleness and tenderness into all that you do.

If we took the time to stop and feel, we may notice that there could be anxiousness in the body or a quality of raciness that stems from living in a way where we are rushing around with too much to do, pleasing others, putting everyone else before ourselves. Perhaps we have been caught up in thinking that this is what makes a ‘good woman, a good mother, a good friend or wife’.

What if as women, we put how we are moment to moment and the quality of energy that we live in as the most important before we actually did anything? Would this not change how we live? Would this not allow us to make self loving choices that support us? And as we learn to truly support ourselves, would this then not allow us to naturally support others?

Could this quality of living from stillness be true yoga for breast cancer?

Yoga for breast cancer is not about fancy postures or breathing practises, yoga for breast cancer is about re connecting back to this stillness that innately resides within us all. When this is developed we are then living in yoga.

This article is inspired by the Work of Serge Benhayon, Universal Medicine and the modality of Esoteric Yoga.

Donna Nolan offers Breast Cancer Support programs, Gentle Yoga, Meditation, Counselling and Esoteric Healing Cancer Support sessions to assist people through cancer at  the  Cammeray and Balgowlah clinics.. For more information Contact Us. Other related articles My Unfolding to Understanding the Root Cause of Breast Cancer, My Reflections – 5 years from Breast Cancer, Top 5 Tips to Support you through Chemotherapy, Tips for Self-nurturing during and beyond Breast Cancer.

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