Podcast Ep. 18 ~ Core Strength, Calm Mind – Grounding, Alignment, Pulsation

This episode is the talk from our Core Strength Clam Mind Guided Meditation Series, which is now also available in our Life Force Meditations Series.

The Life Force Meditation Series has bundled three of our programs, Prana, Core Strength, and Chakras, into one mega program divided into three phases. The first phase covers all you need to know about prana to generate and store prana.

This talk introduces phase two of this mega program.

Phase 2 focuses on developing core strength through grounding, alignment, and pulsation practices. These are the keys to self-regulation and building resilience in handling the stresses and challenges of daily life.

You will learn powerful yogic techniques to cultivate a deep sense of inner stability, strength, and connection to your body-mind. You gain essential tools for establishing a solid foundation for your meditation practice and to remain grounded, centered, and stable in daily life.

The meditations in this phase guide you in exploring how to ground yourself, align your physical and energetic bodies, and work with the natural pulsations of life force within you.

To build energy and resilience, you will learn to manipulate two important internal muscles: the respiratory diaphragm and the pelvic floor.

By the end of this phase, you will have developed practical skills for centering yourself, managing your energy, and maintaining a strong, relaxed presence even in challenging situations.

You will better understand the subtle anatomy of the body-mind system and how to work with it for greater stability and awareness in meditation and in daily life.

These practices lay the groundwork for more advanced chakra meditations and ajapa japa in phase 3 of the course.

Explore the 3 Phase Life Force Meditation Series

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Podcast transcript

Core Strength – Grounding, Alignment, Pulsation.

This series of meditation techniques on Grounding Alignment and Pulsation is designed to teach you to feel more grounded, centered, and more connected to your bodymind.

You will learn simple yet powerful yogic meditative skills. You will learn them systematically and progressively.

This series of meditation techniques focuses on developing a sense of inner stability and strength. The techniques use the breath, the mind, and specific muscles to induce conscious, positive, relaxed feelings.

First, we learn to use our gross body and muscles, then move on to more subtle control of our feelings. Then, we can control our thoughts and emotions and access deeper parts of ourselves.

Grounding Alignment and Pulsation will teach you to handle your body, mind, and emotions with greater control, ease, confidence, and awareness. Then, you can engage in a stronger, more relaxed, and more confident approach to life.

What is meditation? True meditation is not just relaxation but is a process in which we come to know ourselves and discover all the wonderful powers and abilities that we possess and can develop if we spend a little time each day working with ourselves.

Meditation is a process of self-knowledge and self-development, self-discovery, and awakening to who we are. It is based on relaxed effort and should be practiced regularly over time.

Meditation leads us to self-mastery. We aim to become the master of our body-mind under all circumstances, even difficult ones. We cannot always control life. However, we can control ourselves at any moment if we know how to do so and choose to do so. The experience of self-control is rewarding as it builds deep self-confidence. It is the basis of true happiness.

Grounding Alignment and Pulsation practices form the foundations for profound meditative experience and a more satisfying and aware life.

What is grounding?

Grounding is an essential principle in life and all yoga and meditation practices. It invokes the feeling of inner stability, strength, and security. Practice is required to access this feeling when we need it when we feel ungrounded.

If we are ungrounded, we feel that there is nothing to rely on, and this creates anxiety, fear, and insecurity. Without grounding, we cannot trust in ourselves or rely on our bodies or in life itself. Therefore, it isn't easy to progress in life in a balanced and healthy way.

When we learn to ground ourselves, we can access inner stillness, stability, strength, security, endurance, and power. We learn to remain relaxed under all circumstances, even if we feel an unpleasant emotion or any solid mental reaction.

Grounding practice enables us to deliberately adjust our feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Ultimately, this leads to deeper meditative practice that awakens intuition and higher awareness.

What is alignment?

Alignment means bringing two things into a relationship with each other to create a connection with those things, whether they are people, places, memories, concepts, emotions, or experiences.

Wherever we place our energy and focus is what we will align with.

If we align ourselves with creative and uplifting forces, we actually create those positive experiences in ourselves. If we align with unhealthy and destructive forces, we create our own negative experiences.

If our thoughts and feelings are somehow disconnected or incongruent with each other, then problems and suffering will arise.

If we are aligned strongly with past painful memories, then our life is full of that memory, and it can taint the present moment with feelings associated with the memory.

However, if we are aligned with a higher purpose, then our lives are more likely to move towards that purpose and eventually experience its fulfillment.

Yoga aims to align with and ultimately connect with our highest consciousness.

The process of realigning and reconnecting with our higher truth, with our highest Self, begins with grounding. From there, we develop a conscious relationship with ourselves, one that is based on truth and virtue and that is prepared to face the many pains of life.

This process begins with realigning the components of the body-mind, relaxing and purifying them, and then strengthening the various parts of ourselves by pulsing the life force into these parts.

Once each part has been cleaned and energized, it supports every other part. And this is the basis of higher living (6.56).

What is pulsation?

All life is in pulsation. Every part of our body-mind is pulsating with life force.

Pulsation is a result of the muscles expanding and contracting. For example, the heart and the lungs expand and contract continuously, pumping air and fluids that expand and contract all the body's cells. Disturbance of their cycles and rhythms can lead to illness. If the pulsation stops, we die.

Pulsation occurs in the gross body and also in the mind, the feelings, and the emotions. Tensions, demands, and life's problems cause us to contract and inhibit the flow of energy in our body and mind. Contraction distorts or blocks pulsation and needs to be relaxed if we are not to suffer.

We need to learn to become more conscious of where we are holding chronic tensions and to find ways to remove them consciously.

Yoga uses the breath as one of its main tools to remove contractions, especially those that have become ingrained and chronic.

The breath is the one automatic pulsation of the body that we can control and use to restore our natural rhythm and harmony. Conscious use of the breath, performed with an understanding of what to do, when, and how, restores health, vitality, and joy.

Ujjayi pranayama

One of the most important breaths in yoga is called “ujjayi,” psychic or throat breathing. It is called the psychic breath because it is used to awaken the deeper intuitive mind.

Ujjayi is the basic breath you will learn to perform all the Grounding Alignment and Pulse techniques.

In Grounding Alignment and Pulsation, ujjayi is combined with other methods to awaken energy and the higher intuitive mind. Ujjayi is a healing breath that breaks down old contractions, aids in eliminating impurities and negative habits and is used to control pain and aid healing of all kinds.

Ujjayi is extremely effective in transforming negative feelings into positive feelings. Ujjayi does this by awakening the life force, prana, and spreading it throughout the body.

In its gentle form, ujjayi can be used anytime and anywhere to Ground, Align, and Pulse your energy, allowing you to be centered and aware under all circumstances.

What are the diaphragms?

A diaphragm is a flat sheet of muscle or tendon that divides the body into sections. There are three very important diaphragms from the yogic point of view:

The respiratory diaphragm

The respiratory diaphragm separates the abdomen from the chest. It is the main muscle used in breathing.

Suppose we are tense, worried, or feel threatened physically or emotionally. In that case, we unconsciously contract this area, including the ribs and other muscles, in an attempt to brace ourselves and protect our hearts. This respiratory diaphragm is particularly prone to emotional tension.

It is associated with the two middle chakras, manipura, and anahata. Manipura is located behind the navel in the spine and is the basis of our power and vitality. Anahata is located behind the breastbone in the spine and is the seat of feeling and compassion.

The pelvic floor – perineum

The second diaphragm is the pelvic floor or perineum. It holds the pelvic organs in place. In its relaxed state, it can move in time with the breath, just a little. We unconsciously contract the pelvic area, especially the buttocks and lower back, when unconscious tensions arise in us associated with anxiety and insecurity.

The pelvic floor is associated with the two lower chakras, mooladhara and swadhisthana. Mooladhara is located in the center of the pelvic floor and is associated with security. Swadhisthana is located in the sacrum, behind the pubic bone, and is associated with joy.

The cranial diaphragm

The third diaphragm is the cranial diaphragm. It is not a muscle. Instead, it is a sheet of tissue that supports the brain just above where the head and neck join. This area of the body is very prone to stress and tension.

The whole area around the cranial diaphragm, including the scalp, neck, and shoulders, contracts in response to excessive thinking, worry, and the feeling of excessive responsibility. We often contract the cranial diaphragm to cut off from our true feelings. In this state, we feel confused, cannot think clearly, and have problems making decisions.

The cranial diaphragm is associated with the two upper chakras, vishuddhi and ajna. Vishuddhi chakra is located in the spine behind the throat pit and controls communication. Ajna chakra is located in the center of the head behind the eyebrow center and controls intuition.

When the three diaphragms are aligned with each other, we feel vital and experience well-being. If any diaphragm is out of alignment with another, we feel discomfort, and our energy level drops, making us feel tired and depressed.

Training the breath to combine with awareness is one of the most useful methods to align our three diaphragms. Ujjayi, the psychic breath, combined with meditative awareness, is a powerful method for stretching and relaxing the diaphragms, restoring alignment and a sense of exhilarated well-being, and inducing mental calm and strength.

Deepening meditation.

The Grounding Alignment and Pulsation techniques will teach you to consciously relax under most circumstances and to tap into your inner strength.

You will explore the great skills, abilities, and strengths that lie in all of us but which we are often unconscious of, especially when we need them.

You will learn to use this amazing body-mind, this great gift that life has given us, to live a higher and more fulfilled life.

You will learn a sequence that takes you progressively deeper and frees up tensions, releasing energy smoothly in a grounded way so that you feel strong and healthy and able to develop deep inner rest to nourish yourself. This sequence supports you in going deeper into yourself safely and enjoyably, allowing you to face the difficulties of life with poise and confidence and really enjoy the wonder and beauty of life. 

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