The Art of Extending the Self (Your Brain On Yoga series)

[Originally published on US News Health, 8 January, 2014]

The practice of yoga often invokes a sense of wonderment in who we feel ourselves to be. It is often commenced with a certain sense of who one is in that moment right before the practice. As we make our way through the various techniques, there unfolds a shift in identity. We play the edge of the moment, testing the body and mind with interlacing intentionalities of willpower and receptivity. Upon completing a certain practice, we may reflect on the new state of being. Perhaps there is a refreshed state of self-representation, or the sense of "I am", what Patanjali calls asmita.  The mind's capacity to form a new identity takes foothold in the boundaries it has stretched, thereby redefining the sense of self. We have now upgraded the mind's framework for who and what it considers "me" to be. The reframing of our boundaries is inherently a learning process. Neuroscience has repeatedly demonstrated the capacity of the brain to rewire and reshape itself based on goal-directed experience. A bona fide yoga practice constantly invites us to examine the sense of selfhood under which we operate by stimulating the physiology and bio-energy to further reaches.

When we self-reflect, our nervous system brings online the insula, a critical brain region in managing our sense of body awareness and overall sense of self. The insula relays information between parts of the brain that coordinate movement and the prefrontal cortex, a brain region crucial in conscious decision-making. By placing attention on the interface between new and prior experience, we are igniting the flame of neural change and transformation. The process of growth is one of extending self-representation into increasingly deeper and broader frameworks. Asmita is more broadly defined as the identification of consciousness with the vehicle through which it is being expressed. A challenging yoga practice is one that consciously expands this identification to higher levels. In the case of the physical body, when we first interact with a new object, the brain enters a learning mode and interprets it as a foreign object. As we experience a greater degree of comfort and skill with it, there are corresponding changes in the somatosensory cortex, an area governing the sense of touch, which now treats the object as if it were an extension of the body, a prosthetic limb of sorts. Physical instances of this include learning to use a yoga tool like the OmGym Suspension System, in which the brain must enter a state of relearning the body's relationship to gravity and movement.  A skillful use of such a device can encourage the activation of certain brain circuits responsible for learning and reframing what the brain refers to as 'the body’.

Yoga traditionally explores the potential of the body and mind as we currently know them. An activity like Suspension Yoga can serve as a representative example of a total learning process on the physical level, in which the body is extended to include an interrelating set of objects that function as one coordinated unit, creating and strengthening new and more complex neural connections in which the practitioner is challenged to continually keep up a fresh sense of self-discovery. Ultimately, yoga expands all aspects of being—body, mind, and spirit—so that the sense of who “I am” evolves into fuller and freer ways of experiencing what it means to be alive.

The Complete Breath (Your Brain on Yoga series)

[Originally published on US News Health, 16 October, 2013] 

If I trace back my yogic journey into the depths of the mind and body, I can immediately recall certain events and encounters that made a powerful impact on the larger unfolding of the Path. The simplest of these was learning how to breathe properly. By this point I had already made substantial headway in the physical domain of exertion, strength, flexibility and control in yoga. All of these undoubtedly helped to form a solid foundation for further progress; however, it was unlocking the potential of the breath that opened new doors. It cultivated an experiential link between gross physical awareness and the more subtle perceptions of the body and mind. It actually empowered the physical movements by building vitality, endurance and steadiness of mind.

When most of us breathe, we employ shallow chest breathing. This looks like holding the belly relatively still while the sternum lifts, and it feels like only the upper lungs exchange air. If you place one hand on your chest and one on the belly, see which one moves first. If the upper hand moves first, that is shallow chest breathing. Conversely, the Complete Breath makes use of the full capacity we have to breathe. The mechanism of the Complete Breath has four components: pelvic, abdominal, thoracic and clavicular. To start, relax your abdomen like you're holding a basketball inside it. Feel that it is expanding forwards, sideways and even backwards into the kidneys and adrenal glands. Then gently let the belly open downwards and relax the pelvic floor, almost as if you are releasing the bladder to urinate. When you inhale, the breath should similarly relax the pelvic floor downwards and the abdominal area in all directions. Once the belly fills on inhalation, let the rib cage, chest and shoulder blades expand passively as the breath fills that area, feeling as if there is another basketball there. Once the thoracic (chest) area fills, allow the clavicles (collar bones) and shoulders to naturally lift and feel as if they are expanding outwards. All of the above – pelvic, abdominal, thoracic and clavicular expansion – filling up in order upon inhalation and emptying in reverse order upon exhalation, all with smooth even breaths, together comprise the physical mechanism of the Complete Breath.  

When consciously breathing in this way, we affect control over physiological mechanisms that directly correlate with physical, mental and emotional health. The vagus nerve, which runs from the brain down through the viscera/organs, is intimately modulated by the breath. This nerve regulates autonomic physiological functions such as heart rate, respiration, digestion and immune response. The responsiveness of heart rate to changes in respiration, termed respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), is directly linked with the vagus nerve, and 'vagal tone' is often used as an index of the whole state of the parasympathetic nervous system, for the readiness with which we can calm the body's stress responses. On the micro level, inhalation increases heart rate and decreases vagal tone, and exhalation decreases heart rate and increases vagal tone. Therefore, performing a 1:2 breath ratio (exhaling twice as long as the inhalation) can result in a greater sense of relaxation. On a macro physiological level, greater vagal tone is associated with vasodilation, decreased inflammatory responses, and decreased circulation of stress hormones. Moreover, studies have demonstrated a direct correlation between loving-kindness meditation, superior emotional regulation, positive social behavior, and a decrease in headaches, chest pains, congestion and weakness.  

Learning and practicing the Complete Breath helped me to progressively feel more relaxed, open and aware, and it increased conscious performance in many areas and activities. It also served as the basic training to control physiological responses and provided experiential proof that conscious attention can alter bodily processes. Experiencing this principle along with feeling the scientifically demonstrated biological effects served as the jumping board for more advanced practices that improve bone health, neuroendocrine functionality, cognitive stability and strength, sexual vitality, intuitive ability, and much more. 

In addition to the physical benefits above, as well as massaging the internal organs, breathing in this way – when applied to any activity, physical or otherwise – also increases the awareness of subtleties that the mind may otherwise not notice due to habitually higher immune and stress defenses. Both of these are correlated with the lower vagal tone experienced most of the time by the majority of people, in which the mind's scope is dialed into a more gross/solid physical state of awareness. After learning the physical mechanism of the breath, being able to perform it automatically and joining the components so that it occurs in a fluid manner, the next step is to open up the nervous system to greater subtle awareness. By increasing and sustaining the resolution (fineness) of attention, the nerves increase their connective strength, capacitance and sensitivity. Feel the interconnection between the air outside of the body and the air inside of it. Become aware of the larger system of respiratory exchange within you and in all of nature. Feel the ionic charge of the air around you and that electricity continuing in through your body. Play with carrying this conscious, smooth full breathing into daily activities such as eating, showering, thinking and exercising. Play with combining it with these four-dimensional breathing exercises. It can also be coupled with sound and mantra by inhaling and exhaling the subtle sensations of sound. Observe the differences in sensation and experience over time, and continue playing.  

Without the Complete Breath, I would probably still be struggling to find a sense of inner calm and steadiness of mind, two invaluable factors for a healthy body, mind and spirit – and certainly necessary for further progress on any serious path that cultivates higher human potential. It is a prime example of how yogic tools are designed as technologies for improved health and wellness. The breath is a gateway that can, with conscious attention and intention, unite the physical with the subtle, the outer world with the inner world, the physiological with the psychological, movement with stillness and the mundane with the spiritual. 

Your Brain On Om: a Brief Intro to the Self-Science of Mantra

[Originally published on US News Health, 2 October, 2013]

In response to my first post on yoga and the brain, I received a thoughtful question from a reader: "Why would my brain want to love saying Om?" We have often heard (or heard of) yoga students or ourselves chanting the sound Om or Aum at the beginning or end of a yoga class. When I first took a yoga class, I was curious as to the reason and significance of using this sound, feeling slightly awkward uttering aloud this unfamiliar sound. Indeed, in some of my yoga classes, there may be students who opt out of participating in this part, instead choosing to remain silent. As a scientist by birth, so to speak, and thus a true skeptic in the sense that I enjoy questioning unfamiliarities to a healthy degree – rather than the self-serving doubting of everything that doesn't agree with the limited convictions of the personal mind – I figured that chanting such a sound may have a functional purpose if I experimented with it. I soon discovered that there is a vast science of sound in yoga used for increasing awareness and expanding emotional states of the human personality in ways that align with some recent investigations in neuroscience.

In the course of human evolutionary history, the auditory faculty evolved to process some set of constant features in nature, which make up the core grammar of auditory perception. These are the bite-sized pieces of sound information that the brain has evolved to process and of which to make sense. Through our sense of hearing the brain detects forms in space, much like echolocation in bats, by recognizing the sounds of interactions among solid-object physical events. Imagine that you hear the sound of a car's tires screeching, followed by a crash, and then the reverberation of the impact. What you've just heard is a series of events: a slide (tires screeching), a hit (the impact) and a ring (the reverberation), the three major types of physical interactions. Neuroscientist Mark Changizi has posited that the major phonemes of speech have evolved to resemble these kinds of interactive events, in a sort of onomatopoeia, where the sounds of the words resemble the events themselves, such as in "screech" and "crash." Speech, and even music as an ordered narrative of sounds, make use of our brain's evolved capacity to perceive natural sounds.

Mantra is a Sanskrit word for "sound tool," and Om is one of myriad such mantras. Sanskrit and some other ancient languages such as Tibetan, prototypical Egyptian and ancient Hebrew evolved as complex systems of onomatopoeia, where the sounds evoke movements of energy. This evocation is qualitative and subjective and is linked with interoception (inner body sensations) and emotional sense of self, both predominantly represented in the right hemisphere of the brain. Conversely, the narrative strand of sounds in which we give them meaning is done predominantly through the left hemisphere. What is fascinating about mantras is that from a physics standpoint, the sounds themselves, before they are assigned meaning, will resonate in different parts of the body and mind, creating actual interactions or events. Mantras are information, in the literal sense of in-forming: the creation of form, or interactions. The Sanskrit language is an information sequencing system that mimics the process of nature's repeating patterns. As the Sanskrit scholar Dr. Douglas Brooks has said, "Sanskrit tells us what Nature shows us. A limited number of rules gives an arbitrarily large number of outcomes. The way Nature goes about its business, Sanskrit goes about its language." Much like the emotive quality of immersing oneself in music, mantra uses sound to evoke movement of physical and emotional energy through stimulation of the nervous system, from which emerges meaning and narrative.

In order to have insight into and validate a mantra for ourselves, it must be experienced and felt through introspection. Let's take the mantra Om, or Aum, one of the most common in Sanskrit and Tibetan. If Aum is indeed onomatopoeic, then performing it can create an event inside the nervous system, which can then become an object of concentration and meditation, and thereby a focal point for expanding physical and emotional awareness. In terms of phonemes, we notice that it does not have any plosives or fricatives, only sonorants. From the types of solid-object physical events that the brain evolved to perceive, this respectively corresponds to an absence of hits and slides, and the presence of only rings. A, U and M are sonorants or rings, so this particular mantra qualifies an object that inherently has no interactions (hits or slides). In terms of physics, this means our object is formless. Try resonating the mantra aloud, allowing air to flow through the nasal passage, smoothly transitioning between the three sounds. If you do not wish to disturb anyone that may be around you, you can whisper the sounds subvocally. The A (pronounced ä, as in "car") can feel like a wide opening and has a broader vibratory effect on the physical body, approximating the gross consciousness of the waking state. The U (pronounced o͞o, as in "soup"), has a funneling effect, narrowing the consciousness into subtler sensations such as thoughts and impressions, approximating the dream state. The more nasal M sound is like the drone of a bee; it makes the cranium vibrate in a kind of undifferentiated and ubiquitous earthquake over the convolutions or valleys in the cerebral cortex, approximating the deep dreamless sleep state of consciousness. Traditionally, Aum represents and has the capacity to progressively open up the practitioner to the ever-present formless and timeless reality, the background radiation of the cosmos that echoes the Big Bang. Aum is found in the form of Amen in Christianity, Judaism and ancient Egyptian, where it also codes for the immutable eternal aspect of consciousness.

The feelings and symbolic representations of the sounds will differ from person to person because, like any tool, the effects of the sounds depend on the user operating them and the object of use, namely the condition of the body and mind. The practitioner should first develop a state of relaxation through proper breathing. It is also important to take interest in or to have a healthy curiosity for the practice so that the effect of actually enjoying the learning process may help the mantra get a foothold in the system. Mantras can be done vocally, sub-vocally (whispering) or silently in the mind. It is recommended to start aloud, and then proceed with the more silent variations. Silent repetition does have an effect; when the frequency of any sound is high enough, it extends beyond the human range of hearing and eventually achieves stillness, which is beyond sound itself. It has been demonstrated in a double-blind study that ultrasound probes applied to the skull can improve subjective mood, and it has been evidenced that even imagining performing musical exercises rewires and strengthens nerve connections. Both of these studies speak to the capacity of mental recitation of mantra to activate and affect the physical nervous system. Moreover, group chanting or recitation of mantra can synchronize the brainwaves between the participants, achieving yet another level of collective effect, as has been shown between musicians, which can help to understand the functional basis for group chanting in many of the world's wisdom traditions.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once said: "Architecture is frozen music." The Sanskrit language is code for the patterns of nature, sonic representations of the way nature works. Mantras hold within them the latent forms of the universe. From supreme stillness and subtle ultrasonic vibrations, these latent forms cascade into being as audible sound, which then has the capacity to in-form, or shape reality, as has been demonstrated by cymatics. By practicing mantra, we can tap into the source of that power to manifest – we can drive our awareness deeper into the bones, muscles and tissues of the body to gain a greater sensitivity and understanding of our makeup and amplify the emotional energies latent within, much like the potential energy present in mountains that then becomes kinetic in the form of an avalanche when the earth quakes. By aiming with intention the practice of mantra into progressively deeper layers of ourself, we can bring more of ourself online, as it were, and therefore more on board the journey of health and fitness towards union and wholeness. Through mantra, we have the opportunity to practice yoga.

Your Brain on Yoga: A Blueprint for Transformation

[Originally published on US News Health, 4 September 2013]

I began my journey as an aspiring neuroscientist determined to understand the basis of what makes us human. What was our most fundamental essence that allowed us to be, express and function in all the wondrous ways that we do? I knew the answer had to lie in the brain, the most complex and mysterious organ in the body and the one that held the most promise for unearthing the origin of our unique species. I toured universities in the U.S. and Europe, studying and conducting research looking for answers. I devoured every piece of knowledge I studied, mesmerized by the wonders of the brain.

I was looking for consciousness itself. I realized after some time, however, that consciousness itself was not to be limited to being found in the brain. All human endeavors that have ever reached greatness – from elite athleticism and creative genius to humble expressions of grace through service – have touched a deep strand of humanness, lodged within the metaphorical heart. As amazing as the brain was, I knew that consciousness – this essence for which I was searching– had to be lived and directly experienced.

I wanted some activity I could incorporate regularly that would help me develop physically, mentally and emotionally, and also touch this ineffable essence itself. My busy schedule of study and research at the time did not allow for simultaneously doing various workouts and activities to these ends, so I set the intention of finding a single activity that would address these needs together. This was the pivotal moment when I found yoga. Yoga struck a deep chord in me. There were marked increases, both immediate and long-term, in physical strength and flexibility, mental calm and overall peace both inside and outside the actual practice. I was hooked.

Neuroscience has repeatedly demonstrated the capacity of the brain to rewire itself through experience, known as neuroplasticity. In a practical sense this means that every moment of experience creates grooves in the landscape of the brain, which then affects the way we relate to the minds and bodies of ourselves and others, as well as to the environment around us. The good news is that a changeable brain is a hackable brain – in other words, by understanding some of the rules of brain function, it is possible to learn how to use its capacities more effectively in order to deliberately bring about positive change.

I discovered along the path that this deliberate act is part and parcel of yoga. Yoga is a scientific technology that harnesses the innate capability of the body as a vehicle for transformation. It is a technology, a human art, purposefully crafted to serve as a tool for maximizing the health and potential of the human being. Yoga has been popularized by its physical aspects, which are an integral component of the larger science of yoga. The system as a whole, which includes techniques that address many aspects of the human being, works the brain and nervous system in a synchronized and harmonious manner. The techniques are manifold, but they are based on core principles. These can be unpacked in a digestible manner using exercises that improve fitness and well-being if appropriately applied.

Yoga starts as the process of harnessing the brain's capacities and naturally evolves into the art of living well. As negative habits, patterns and influences within ourselves and from the outside are progressively dropped in favor of more sustainable ones, yoga can become a way of life – it becomes not about what we do, but how we do things. The principles of yogic science and brain science mesh together to create a blueprint for transformation. There is tremendous power in combining a technology that has stood the test of thousands of years of human evolution with a rigorous science of the most complex and fascinating organ in the human body.

These fascinating discoveries have moved me to the degree that I have felt compelled to share them. In this post we have focused on why we can and ought to be interested in this subject. In upcoming posts, you can look forward to exploring together principles that dovetail the insights of brain and yogic sciences into sets of techniques tailored for growth and that can be applied to your daily life and fitness routine. Together, we will practice with the brain in mind.

Technovidya: Zombie Apocalypse or Symbiosis? (Part 1)

We hear it frequently: technology is invading our lives and isolating us from each other. The increasingly ubiquitous sight of human masses staring down into their pocket-sized screens, ironically absorbed in social media platforms. Answering the phone at dinner was once considered rude. Now it is commonplace. Not to mention texting and driving.  We dread a zombie apocalypse. But is it upon us?

A myopic analysis of the status quo would suggest so. And yet, a bird's eye view may reveal much more. The Kosmos (the Greek denotation for all of existence, including but not limited to the observable physical cosmos) is made up of perspectives, and it is important to acknowledge the point blank situation as well as the broader strokes. Technology is part of a larger evolution of consciousness on Earth, co-evolving with its human users. Technology is inert without human minds behind it. How and to what end technology is used is dependent on the human sentience behind it. The degree of consciousness of the individual and collective minds behind both individual and wide-scale tools will determine their output. The first step is that we must realize we are in control of ourselves and how we use our technology. Then we must ask, which part of us is in control? The lower aspects of mind or the higher and more virtuous reaches of mind?

I use technology as a way to contemplate the nature of mind and how we interact with the world around us. One of the most fascinating things I have observed in my studies of the brain and consciousness is the fractal nature of the Kosmos. That is, the patterns of a close-up view are similar in nature to those of a zoomed out view. A close up of a broccoli floret is similar to the larger bundle of broccoli. Zooming in on a brain reveals an intricate structure of nerve connections. A bird's eye view of a metropolitan city shows how the intersections of highways and the vehicles in them look much like the electrical signals in the nerves of the brain (and in fact have been demonstrated to bear mathematical resemblance). Similarly, views of the universe and the internet show such patterns. These are all signs of the intelligent organization of consciousness as form, whether they occur with or without human hands. This organic self-assembling movement of technology has been termed by Kevin Kelly as the technium. Technology is much like an organism that co-evolves with humans. The fact that we can learn to recognize new tools and adapt to them so quickly speaks to the depth of symbiosis we share with them. 

Assuming a larger view of organic intelligence in the Kosmos allows me to blur the boundaries between myself and the tools I use. I allow myself to be a conscious willful participant in the movement and evolution of the technium. The evolution of the internet is looking much like the organization of the brain, with dedicated centers for specific tasks and functions. Our brains and bodies are extensions of nature, and technology is an extension of our brains. All of these material manifestations are nature, and nature is in us—that is, the unlimited core of I/us: unified consciousness. Our brains have helped our consciousness organize itself in the world around us through technology. In a deeper sense, technology is an extension of us. This is a very empowering stance, rather than adopting the view of us vs. them. That view will perpetuate the struggle, the sense of otherness and alienation. I have chosen to adopt the view that our techie tools are extensions of our nervous system, lengthening and broadening the reach of our senses. As a yogi, it is a powerful practice to see these extensions as part of the "I", the Self. In fact, it doesn't even start or end with me in this body. It starts non-locally, everywhere and nowhere, weaving a tapestry of interconnection. It is as if consciousness has spilled itself over the world of form and objects, lighting everything up in the fire of transformation. There is a Sanksrit word for this: skanda, which means "to spill". Is there a limit to which I can allow my awareness to spill through the tools I use, or is the beauty to be found in the ever increasing complexity of our interconnection? Recognizing that we are in a deep evolutionary symbiosis with the technium is the first step to waking up from the separateness we experience from our tools and gadgets. Changing one's own perspective is the most transformative action that can be taken, and it must be the first step, as it is the only one what promises life-changing benefits as we loosen the grip of our limiting beliefs. 

Nonetheless, there are other dimensions to the evolution of technology around us that together form an integral picture: there is the subjective consciousness domain (discussed above), the physical material domain, infrastructural domain, and the domain of intersubjective technology in culture. As we work with the various dimensions of the development of the technium, it is important to remember that we are in a birthing process in terms of the way we manage our relationship with it and we will experience growing pains on many levels due to unsustainable patterns and behaviors (such as unhinged security and privacy violations)—all part of the process and also signs that change is necessary. If technology appears to separate rather than unite, it is a matter of mismanagement, whether of one's own use or perspective, or of a combination of inefficiencies that are to be ironed out in due course. 

The consciousness of the user determines how a tool is used. A hammer can be used to harm or to fix a loose nail. And it is therefore key to develop our own awareness through right living and healthy relationships. Technology can connect us harmoniously, fostering cooperation and community presence on local, global, and eventually galactic levels, or we can use it to perpetuate separatism, fulfilling the prophecy of the zombie apocalypse. The choice is (y)ours.

I have termed this piece "Technovidya" as a compound of the Greek  tekhne 'art, craft' and the Sanskrit vidya 'knowledge, learning'—the study of technology or knowledge through the technosphere. this includes technology as we know it (gadgetry and how we develop and use it in healthy ways individually and collectively), and the subtle aspects of how humans are bio-energetically driven agents of Nature's creative acts of art and craft. It is a subject, relevant to myriad applications and an integral analysis. In the future, I will cover:

 1) Tips, exercises, mediations, and contemplations that help to view and use technology as an extension of the Self.

2) Meta-perspectives on how to improve the shaping of our technology to better foster a natural and comfortable state of being with our tools.

3) Creative applications of various forms of technology that further blur the boundaries between us humans and our tools, from interactive multimedia to music and design.

4) More to come…

Stay tuned! 

 - Gabriel

New WORKSHOP TOUR begins: Your Brain on Yoga

I am excited to announce a workshop tour for "YOUR BRAIN ON YOGA", beginning at Kula Yoga Shala in Jupiter, FL on JUNE 30th. This will be a practical exploration of how neurological (brain) principles are applied in different forms of yoga. Practitioners will be given a set of take-home tools to continue their development. It is an honor to be hosted at wonderful spaces and serve the community! Updates on more tour dates will be posted here :-)

Om Namo Purnaya ,

Gabriel

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