Yoga master Carter Miles guides you through a soothing breathing routine to reduce stress and anxiety and restore emotional balance

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Ten minutes…that’s all it takes for this gentle breathwork to calm and restore your brain. Of course, you can repeat it as often as you like. If you find yourself off-kilter, unfocused, nervous, anxious or overwhelmed…give it a try. It’s particularly helpful before bedtime.

If you want a more ambitious breathwork routine, try Carter’s Best Self Breathwork: Daily Practice.

If you want a short, restorative yoga practice to realign your spine, relieve back pain and improve your flexibility (and mood!), try Carter’s Yogic Posture Reset.

The post Brain Reset: Gentle Breathwork to Calm Your Nervous System and Mind appeared first on BEST SELF.

This 20-minute, yoga-inspired practice is medicine for back pain and tightness, and a salve for your mental wellbeing

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This practice, while benefiting nearly everyone, will be especially helpful for you if you have sciatica or notice achiness in your joints, hips, spine, back, shoulders or neck. Sitting at a computer all day? Take a break with these postural alignments, which you can do on the floor or carpet — no mat required.

Looking for a gentle morning yoga routine to help you wake up and greet the day with an energized and open mind and body? Try Carter’s Morning Yoga & Meditation.

Want a higher-intensity yoga practice? Try Carter’s Inner Power Warrior Flow.

The post Yogic Posture Reset for Flexibility and Back Pain Relief appeared first on BEST SELF.

Join Carter Miles in this introductory breathwork practice for improved health and emotional wellbeing.

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If you haven’t experienced the power of breathwork yet, you are in for a treat. This 25-minute practice will guide you through a few simple breathing techniques which will help you get a feel for how breathwork works.

The two reasons why I practice & teach breathing… One, for a healthy body and Two, for a healthy mind.

The way that we breathe affects how well oxygen (our primary source of energy) is delivered to the cells. Enhancing or optimizing the circulation and delivery of oxygen is a vitally important part of health maintenance and of healing. It is easily possible to increase the oxygen delivery within our cells 50-100% which means much more available energy for the body to perform it’s life sustaining functions and much more available energy for us to play, learn, explore and live.

The way that we breathe also affects how our nervous system behaves (I’m calling this the mind). Keeping a light, steady and calm breath creates a similar experience in the mind. The nervous systems calm down, we shift out of Sympathetic (fight or flight) and into Parasympathetic (rest, digest & restore), which is also a necessary part of health. No organism can live long or well in Sympathetic activation, but so many of us are living with much sympathetic dominance, which leads to all sorts of stress-related issues, diseases and psychological disorders.

If you’d like to learn more about breathing, check me out (Carter Miles) at cartermilesyoga.com or on my instagram @cartermilesyoga. Feel free to reach out with any questions.

You may also enjoy Best Self Yoga: Inner Power Warrior Flow with Carter Miles

The post Best Self Breathwork: Daily Practice appeared first on BEST SELF.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

discover how simply changing the way we breathe can immediately and dramatically change the way we think and feel.

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Breathing, we do it every moment of every day and yet most of us just take it for granted. We see breathing as a binary process, either I’m breathing (and therefore alive) or I’m not breathing (and therefore in danger or already dead). But a little investigation into our own breathing patterns can perforate that belief.

Do you ever find yourself holding your breath while working?
Do you breathe in sharply when you get scared?
Do you breathe through the mouth or nose while asleep?
Do you ever laugh so hard that you lose your breath?
Do you sigh out when something happens that relieves your worry?

A question like this could be asked of any experience we may have because breathing is happening under all of it. Although we may not realize it, the patterns of our breath match the activity of our brains. 

Every emotional state has a signature breathing pattern associated with it. This statement is pretty much folk knowledge, that is, we know this. What you may not know…

Studies (and experience) show that if you practice a specific breathing pattern, it will generate the corollary emotional state.

Instead of being at the mercy of our highly evolved chimp brains run amok on imagination, rumination and constant worry, we can take back control of our brains and let it work for us. There is a lever into the brain that we can use to shift it and that lever is the breath.

By altering the volume, rate and source of our breath, we alter the functioning of our entire mind body. This changes the way we feel, the way we perceive and the way we can easily operate. It’s very simple.

The 5 brain states we currently know about are:

DELTA (0-4hz) – This is a state of deep, dreamless sleep, rest and meditation, it is also often seen in people under anesthesia. This state is very conducive to healing and deep unconscious processing.
THETA (4-8hz) – Often associated with REM (dream) sleep, hypnosis, or passive absorption. Young children are usually this state which makes them extremely receptive to information & learning.
ALPHA (8-13hz) – Often referred to as a flow state, it is marked by a relaxed, almost playful outward engagement. We feel calm, fluid and centered. We function well in this state.
BETA  (13-30hz) – A state of alert focus, tunneled vision and some nervous tension. This state can be very functional (if we are trying to focus on work) or very dysfunctional (if we are anxious and mentally stuck, worrying about things).
GAMMA (>30hz) – Less is known about gamma, it seems to be a cathartic state that facilitates healing, release of trauma and other transpersonal or superconscious states, as well as states of peak performance.

Do you often come home from work and want to attend to your family, but feel like you can’t really be present? Your brain is probably still on high beta from the work day.

Do you ever wake up from a nap and feel groggy and out of it for a while after? Your brain is probably still in delta or theta.

As we come to understand these different brain states and as we learn to recognize them in ourselves, we gain the power to shift them. Via the breath, we can take back control over our minds. Our own psyche is a vast and rich landscape to explore, there is so much more to life than beta productivity.

The general rule for moving one’s self up and down the scale is this:

If we breathe faster, our brains become more active. If we breathe slower, our brains become less active.

Via conscious breathing choices, we can choose and enter the brain state we want or which would best facilitate our activity. If you want to experiment with this yourself, try breathing rhythmically (with inhales and exhales of equal length). Speed up the pace for 5-10 breaths and notice how you feel. Then slow down the pace for 5-10 breaths and notice how you feel.

If you feel overwhelmed, breathe slowly and lightly. If you feel tired, breathe fully and more quickly. Within moments you will feel the difference and within minutes, measurable changes in heart rate, blood pressure, brain and metabolic activity, as well as hormone secretion will occur. 

It’s very quick, very effective, always available and totally natural.

If you’re interested in further exploring the breath and these different brain states here are a few breathing practices to try:

DELTA – 1 Minute Breath (20 seconds inhale, exhale and hold). Breathing this slowly without stress will require practice. Brahmaree Breath (easy inhale, exhale while steadily humming).
THETA – Box Breath (equal count inhale, hold, exhale, hold), slowly and without stress. Also slow Cyclical Breathing (equal inhale and exhale, without pause).
ALPHA – Cyclical Breathing (equal inhale and exhale without pause), the slower you breathe, the more relaxed you’ll feel. 
BETA – Cyclical Breathing at a quicker pace, Bhastrika (sharp inhale, sharp exhale) or Kapalbhati, breath of fire, (small sharp exhales from the nose, followed by a passive inhale of equal size).
GAMMA – Overbreathing practices (big breaths through the mouth for extended periods of time, 30 minutes to hours).

**if you are new to breathing, I advise seeking a group for gamma breathing practices. Holotropic Breathwork or Owaken Breathwork are two styles I like. 

Our breath is constantly affecting us, whether we are using it consciously or unconsciously. We should probably learn how to work with it.

It can contribute to our stress or it can alleviate it. Breath can harmonize our mind body and boost our health or it can degrade us and leave us depleted. 

Breath is a powerful tool, but we have to learn how to use it. The more we give it attention, the more we practice, the more powerful it becomes and the more empowered we become. ENJOY!

You may also enjoy Best Self Yoga: Inner Power Warrior Flow by Carter Miles

The post Breath, Your Brain and the Power to Change appeared first on BEST SELF.

A 60-minute Warrior-centric Yoga flow for unblocking energy, cultivating INNER power and Embodying peace.

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We grow from challenge, it’s how we become stronger. And it’s in the face of challenge, if we can stay calm, that we become more resilient, less reactive, and more empowered. This yoga series is to bring out the peaceful, powerful warrior within us.

After breathing in stillness, we’ll move quickly through the Surya series’ (Sun A’s and B’s), then slow down for our standing series and finally we’ll sit for our cool down.

** If you are new to yoga or if your body isn’t feeling so great today, try one of our more restorative practices:

Best Self Yoga Flow for Flexibility and Relaxation

Morning Yoga & Meditation for Energy, Awareness and Intention

Sleep Better… A Few Stretches for Bedtime

The post Best Self Yoga: Inner Power Warrior Flow appeared first on BEST SELF.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Whatever you find, Whatever you’ve been through, love it as much as you possibly can; A new revelation calls for a proper revision…

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I was talking with a new friend yesterday, we talked about all the things I love talking about. Yoga, health, philosophy, wellbeing, love, sex, god, relationships, trauma, drama, psychology and recreating one’s self. I said something to him that I had been contemplating and writing about that day and it hit me that the words I used perfectly contradicted an article I had previously written, Can’t Take My Old Self With Me by Carter Miles. I told my friend…

“I can’t leave my old self behind.”

It’s funny how as we unlock and evolve, we ascend to greater heights and then we see things from such a radically different perspective… we wonder how we didn’t realize this before? C’est la vie. 

Many years of my life I have been trying to fix myself, perfect myself, or just become something other than what I am.

I tried on different roles, I covered myself with tattoos, all of this because I didn’t like myself. I definitely didn’t love my self.

I’d grow a little, maybe a lot, start gaining steam and think ‘yes this is me now’ only to eventually fall back into old feelings and old patterns. Then I’d get down on myself, I’d spiral into shame or apathy and think “welp, I guess this is the real me after all.” A pendulum, I’d swing back and forth and back and forth, but every time I fell back I got stuck there.

This has been a crazy two years… as a yoga teacher, my business was turned upside down ‘due to covid’. I haven’t felt financial security for these two years. There were great highs and great lows, the lows particularly low after the highs. I got stuck in lows.

I hiked 700 miles, I moved across the country with a best friend / lover, it didn’t work out, I drained all my savings living with my heart locked up. I moved back across the country, back to my old life, I didn’t know if I would keep living much longer. I seriously thought about ending it. 

I found some temporary stability in my old life, my old city, my old work. I met a woman. She’s fucking great and she loves me. It’s taken us a while to let ourselves be really seen by one another. So much facade, so much fear, but we learned how to trust and we kept leaning into it.

When I’m down she loves me back up and when she’s down I do the same. I had to learn how to love and I had to let myself receive it.

I moved again, Los Angeles turned kinda crazy and again it was time for me to leave. She still loved me, even though it hurt to do so. We realized, if this is good, we’ll make it work. We are. With her I’ve learned to love another and I’ve learned to love my self.

I’m in a new city, I’m creating a new life, I’m discovering a new me and I fucking love him. But still I live like a pendulum going back and forth. But, I’m wiser now (at least a little) and I’m starting to see more clearly…

I can never be just the new me. I’ve been through too much, my experiences, my pain, my patterns have been baked into my neurology. But I’ll also never just be the old me, I’ve experienced too much beauty, too much love… I can’t forget it.

I woke up the other morning, feeling tired and distressed and I noticed that feeling ‘welp, this is what I am’. I got caught up in apathy, then I realized…

I am not the new me or the old me, I am the pendulum that swings back and forth between the past and the present. I cannot forget the life behind me, I have to bring it with me.

So as I swing back into Carter past, I grab whatever I find and I fucking love it as much as I possibly can and as I love it, we swing together back into the present…and the pain is gone.

We’re all caught between the person we were raised and programmed to be and the person that we truly are and want to be. Neither one is real, we are only what we are now. The path from what we were to what we could be, that path is love. So whatever pain you feel, love it. It’ll make sense soon enough.

You may also enjoy reading Giving and Receiving Love: Releasing Negative Thoughts and Beliefs by Bridgitte Jackson-Buckley

The post No Man Left Behind: Growing from vs. Separating from Our Past appeared first on BEST SELF.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

A plant cannot help but reach towards the sunlight, and something deep within humans cannot help but seek love.

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I never let myself receive love. Throughout all my life, with my own parents, my siblings, my friends and my lovers… there have been so many people who have loved me and yet I barely felt any of it. I never let myself receive love because I didn’t trust love, I didn’t trust people who said they loved me. Bad things tended to follow that statement. And because I didn’t love myself, I didn’t consider myself worthy of it.

My own fears and my own judgements blocked me from receiving love. Still, I still sought it out… I guess we all do, even if we are so resistant to it.

A plant cannot help but reach towards the sunlight, I think something deep within humans cannot help but seek love.

So, I always sought it out in the safest form I knew, praise. I worked hard to perfect myself, fixing myself and trying to better myself, even to the point of harming and denying myself to become something praiseworthy. Then I would show off what I had done, because the thing itself (the growth, the accomplishments) didn’t matter, all that mattered was that I got the praise (replacement for love) that I was looking for. I was starving for love and that was the closest thing that I could digest. But I never felt good doing this, the payoff was always meager and short-lived, like a dopamine hit. It always left me empty and needing more.

I didn’t feel good, but I also couldn’t be honest about that, I couldn’t share my pain with anyone because I also believed that no one could love that part of me.

So I lived practically my entire life surrounded by people and yet alone and self-isolated by my own projections. Separated from all those who loved me and wanted so desperately to love me, but who I kept at a distance. I protected myself with my ‘good boy’ mask and only accepted love through that. How much love have I denied in my life and then acted like no one loved me properly? How many theories about love and aloneness had I conjured up just to justify and perpetuate my isolation?

How rarely had I let the world experience me in my beautiful, messy, authentic and passionate glory?

All my life I had denied my greatest gifts to the world, my self, my energy, my truth and my love, because I had been so terrified that it would be rejected, ridiculed or attacked. Living with fear is no way to live; it’s more of a slow march around the beating, bleeding, center of one’s life, never really diving in. Alone in the world and cut off from my real self and the source of real power. But, like this, I cannot keep going. It hurts too much, the cost is too great, and frankly the fear is inflated. 

May I erase this belief:

What I am is not good enough, broken, incorrect and not worthy of love. That I need to suffer and struggle (alone) to perfect myself before I can enter the world and be of any good. That I need to be perfect to receive love.

May I replace it with this belief:

I am beautiful. I was born pure and worthy of love, but got fucked up by life events. The impressions they created and the patterns they set in motion are not me. I am life and love embodied as Carter and I want desperately to shine and share and partake in the world

May I live with this vow:

I will not suppress my life, I will not hide my truth, I will not block my love from pouring forth. I will feel my shit and honor my emotions, I will let my truth be seen, I will love my self through all of it and I will hold this same loving energy for others.

You may also enjoy Interview: Nancy Levin | #Worthy with Kristen Noel.

The post We Feel Only as Much Love as We Allow Ourselves to appeared first on BEST SELF.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

We work and learn and grow and change and then fall back into our old and outworn patterns of being… Can we ever break this cycle?

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Afraid of one’s self, one’s mind, one’s past and one’s patterns… aren’t we all a bit afraid of lapsing back into the persons we used to be? We work and learn and grow and change and then fall back into our old and outworn patterns of being… What is this? One can never really lapse back into who they used to be, so what is happening here?

Often we align ourselves with who we have been and what we have done in the past. We probably identify ourselves as our past. But everything is constantly changing and we humans in particular have such a great capacity (maybe infinite) capacity to change and be changed in a moment. Does it make sense then to align one’s self with one’s past? Compared to the infinite, yet still undefined, potential of the future, and our natural inclination towards learning, growing, achieving and becoming… no.

It doesn’t make practical sense to identify with our past (good or bad) when we really meditate on what we are and what we could become.

These past patterns, our attachments to them and our identification with them as defining ‘what we are’… as we release the rigidity of our beliefs about ourselves, the possibility of change becomes reality. Our capacity to forget the past (who we have been, what we have done, what has been done unto us and how we have reacted) is an essential part of our capacity to create a new future.

Remember that the potential for change is great, potentially infinite. The extent to which we relax our identification with the past and replace that identification with something greater, that is the extent to which we can continue the process of growing and becoming ever greater. Most of us get caught up on an early formed idea of ourselves (bad or good) and spend most of our lives punishing ourselves for this idea and fearing the punishment of others or praising ourselves for this idea and searching for the praise of others.

It’s probably better to release the idea and to trust the process that evolved us thus far.

This is essentially the maxim ‘keep your eyes on the prize’ writ out in a psycho-philosophical context. Keep your mind’s eye on the goal, on the good (on GOD), on the highest vision available to you. Keep releasing and detaching from all that has passed, knowing that it does not determine what will come to be tomorrow. The past is no more true than the future; this is not a metaphysical weighing of the truth of one vs. the other.

Change is the deeper truth… and identification (the ideas one holds in one’s mind and gives credence to) guides the process in a specific direction.

The process is already and always underway, it cannot be arrested. Aim high and hold your mind steady. Trust the process to take you higher still. 

You may also enjoy Sleep Better… A Few Stretches for Bedtime by Carter Miles

The post Moving Past Old Patterns Allows Us to Boldly Step into the Future appeared first on BEST SELF.

Slow down, take some deep breaths and release the tension from your body with these stretches to sleep better tonight!

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Finally, the day is done and we make our way towards the bed, we crawl in… but no sleep comes. Sometimes the mind-body has trouble fully relaxing, the excitement (or stressors!) and memories of the day are still alive in our minds and active through our muscles.

This yoga series provides a simple and calm way to release the stored up energy of the day, slow down and prepare us for sleep (total time 20-25 minutes).

Baddha Konasana

Start in a seated position, bring the soles of your feet together with the knees falling outwards. Inhale: open your arms; exhale: give yourself a hug and fold forward. Let your skull hang heavy and breathe into your back body. Stay for 2-3 minutes.

Paravrtta Janu Sirsasana

Extend the left leg out and bring the sole of the right foot to the left inner thigh. Sit up tall, inhale: right arm up; exhale: reach your right arm outside your left thigh, calf, ankle or foot. Hold on with your hand, but relax everything else. Let your skull hang and breath into your low back. Stay for 2 minutes and then switch sides.

Upavistha Konasana

Extend your legs outwards with the toes straight up. Sit upright and inhale: lengthen your spine. Exhale: fold forward as much as you can and then relax totally. Breathe easy. Stay for 2-3 minutes.

Kapotanasana

Bring the right leg forward with the knee at 90 degrees (or a little less), the left leg is extended back. Even your weight so your hips are pointed forwards and your weight is not falling to one side. Stay upright for 1 minute, this is to open the left hip flexor. Inhale slowly then exhale: fold forward laying over your right leg; this is for the right outer hip and glute muscles. Stay here for 2 minutes and then switch sides.

Jathara Parivartanasana

Start lying on your back, bring the right knee in and inhale. Exhale: take your knee across your body and open your right arm out. Bring your left hand onto your right thigh and gaze over your right shoulder. Breathe slowly, down into your belly and allow your breath to unlock the twist. Stay for 2 minutes and then switch sides.

Halasana

Press your hands down by your hips and then swing your legs up and over head (they may touch the ground, but maybe not). Hands can be on the spine for support, lazy by the sides, or reaching back towards the feet (as the photo shows). Keep your neck long and soft, breathe into your back body. Stay here for 2-5 minutes and then roll out.

** If this is too much on your neck, bring your knees into your chest and hug around your shins instead.

Svasana

Lay flat on your mat for a few minutes or crawl right into bed and rest!

You may also enjoy Best Self Yoga Flow for Flexibility and Relaxation with Carter Miles

The post Sleep Better… A Few Stretches for Bedtime appeared first on BEST SELF.

A gentle, relaxing and energizing yoga flow followed by body-focused meditation for a morning (or anytime) self-care ritual

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Our yoga flow today starts with simple motions to integrate our awareness, breath and bodies all together. We’ll loosen up the major joints of the body, start to activate the muscles and then work into some vinyasa (breath to movement) work.

We’ll then work into Sun Salutations, which are one of the oldest yoga sequences we know, designed to release tension through the body, energize the spine, increase circulation and coordinate the different nervous systems of the body and the opposite hemispheres of the brain. We’ll play with a little balancing work to focus the mind and open it into a more receptive, experiential state.

We’ll finish off with a short meditation. We’ll rotate our attention to different parts of the body as a means of solidifying the mind-body connection and quieting down the thoughts.

All together this flow is perfect to ground down, to energize, to awaken the mind-body connection and start the day or to reset!

You may also enjoy Best Self Yoga Flow for Flexibility and Relaxation, by Carter Miles.

The post Morning Yoga & Meditation for Energy, Awareness and Intention appeared first on BEST SELF.

Freedom and aliveness — creating the life and the you, you always dreamed of realizing through deliberate, intentional living.

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If you’ve been to a yoga class you’ve heard a teacher offer you a few moments at the beginning of class to set an intention, usually its follow with some examples like strength, courage, patience, stuff like that. Its sounds new age AF and my initial (and longstanding) response was always “how is saying this in my head going to give me these qualities?” Truth is it won’t. Intention setting by itself is more or less worthless. Wishing rarely gets you what you want, if it does, it’s only coincidental.

As a yoga teacher I resisted intention setting for a long time. For me, my physical (asana) practice always had an intention behind it whether it was explicit or not. Something along the lines of making a stronger, more flexible, more capable body. Maybe I’d focus the class around stimulating or calming shapes and breathing.

Of course I have an intention, as do my yogis, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. I still believe this is relatively true, every action has a subconscious intention behind it.

Without deliberately set intentions We either a) Don’t follow through or b) act in ways that are unrelated to or inimical to our real desires. 

Humans, now more than ever, need explicitly set intentions to guide our actions. The world is too chaotic, too distracting and honestly too painful. In yoga we seek out our discomfort, that’s what we do. We go to the edge of our range of motion, that spot where our bodies start talking back. We go to the limits of our strength and our endurance, where our muscles start to ache. We go to the line where comfort becomes discomfort and we breathe, each breathe we take in that position takes us a little farther. That is expansion, that is growth, and it is always fucking uncomfortable.

The biggest inhibitor to our growth is that we listen to the voice in our head telling us to take a break, to take an easier route or to abandon our goals all together when shit gets difficult. Even if we make it on the mat, we fall back as soon as we get uncomfortable, as soon as it gets intense.

It is in that intensity, those really challenging moments that growth happens.

The poet Khalil Gibrahn wrote “your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding” (or your potential) “even as the stone of fruit must break that it’s heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.”

The world is uncomfortable, it just is, that’s an integral aspect of living which the original buddha discovered. As long as we are alive in these physical bodies, we will experience discomfort, but the key to freedom lies in a willingness to face and to embrace that discomfort. To grow one must seek it their areas of discomfort and challenge them. When we do, something amazing happens, we cultivate that strength, that courage, that patience that we desired when we originally set our intentions.

The importance of intention setting is getting clear about what you want, that clarity won’t give you what you want, but when shit gets real if you can come back to that intention and you can bare the discomfort just a little longer, you grow, you expand, you get what you need.

It is not the intention itself, but the corresponding actions that lead to growth.

The intention is just a reminder of who we are, who we want to be, where we want to go, and that that which we seek is to be cultivated in those challenging moments. The moments that make or break us.

Having intentions, for your day, for your life, for your relationships, for your career, for yourself takes you where you want to go. Without intention we are like ships navigating without compasses, whatever powerful wind comes along will alter our course and 1 year, 10 years, 30 years down the road we will end up wherever we were blown.

With intention comes incredible responsibility, but also freedom.

Freedom to be who you want to be, create what you want to create, to live the life of your dreams. It’s not easy, truly it is a journey only for the brave, it is hard and uncomfortable every step of the way, but each step makes your stronger, healthier, happier and more alive.

Step 1

You’ve got to become clear about what you value in life, who you want to be, what you want to do, what you really care about. The meaningful activities in life and those that work towards your values. Contrast your life and your daily activities with your values and see what is meaningful and what is not. Trim the meaningless fat from your life that does not give your life and use that extra energy towards your goals.

Step 2:

Write a clear intention for your day, your week, your month, your year (any and all of the above) and re read it over and over again until its imprinted into your brain. Some intentions will be very tangible, things that you truly accomplish (think of a meaningful to-do list). Others will be relative, maybe qualities that you strive to embody. Then at the end of your day (week, month, year), reflect on how true you stayed to your intentions. If your reflection reveals some discrepancies, it’s okay, learn from them and get at it again tomorrow. The self-knowledge of what breaks your integrity is vitally important in the process of living intentionally. You’ll know what to look out for.

Step 3:

In those moments, the ones that normally break you, that deter you from your path to who you want to be, remember this: you are in control. You get to choose how you react, always. In your choosing to react one way versus another you are creating tomorrow’s version of you. You are responsible, that means you and only you are accountable because you and only you are ABLE to RESPOND to the situation. Each resistance to determent, each step towards your goal, will make you stronger.

Step 4:

Breathe, soak it all in, the joy and the pain. Your pain will never break you if you’re willing to greet it, unwrap it and see what gift it has for you.

The only way to go is up.

You may also enjoy trying my Best Self Yoga Flow for Flexibility and Relaxation by Carter Miles

The post The Importance of Intention to Create Freedom and Aliveness appeared first on BEST SELF.

A gentle 25-minute practice to enhance flexibility, breathing and relaxation

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First we start in child’s pose. Resting the forehead onto the mat will activate the 3^rd eye center, helping to focus our attention, as well as release serotonin and melatonin into the body. We close our eyes to bring our senses within and take deep breathes to oxygenate and connect mind and body together. Then we use some easy movement to warm the body, side stretches, cat cows, simple backbends.

The flow that we repeated is known as Surya Namaskara A (or Sun Salutation A) and is the opening sequence for the Ashtanga primary series. Flowing through these asanas (postures), starting slow and then moving into vinyasa (breathe to movement) can be used to loosen up the major joints/muscles of the body, oxygenate the blood, wake up the mind-body and can even be used as a form of meditation. Sun Salutation A is a great way to wake up, energize the body when feeling tired, or use some extra energy if you have it.

We close off our sequence with a seated forward extension to lengthen the spine, a backbend to open the heart and a twist to reset the spine and reactivate our organs. Finishing, as always, with Svasana (corpse pose) which puts the body back into its parasympathetic nervous system, allowing the muscles to reform to a more natural structure and reactivating our body’s natural healing system. All in 25 minutes!

Namaste.

You may also enjoy Morning Yoga & Meditation for Energy, Awareness and Intention with Carter Miles

The post Best Self Yoga Flow for Flexibility and Relaxation appeared first on BEST SELF.

We can’t take our old selves with our limited-thinking baggage into our new evolutionary selves. And why would we want to?

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Life is a learning and growing process. It’s uncomfortable and rarely ever straightforward. It seems like every time I take a step forward, I take that same step back. We’ve all got things that are halting our progression, keeping us stuck and not embodying the next evolution of our character. But the funny thing is that it is us personally who are holding onto these things. Life’s energy wants to keep moving us forward, but we hold onto that which is behind us, that which may no longer serve us.

I’m really good at that, at fighting life’s current. It wants to take me higher, but I cannot take my old self with me.

The old Carter with his old behavioral and thought patterns, has to be left behind. That is a scary thing for most of us, because we are leaving behind the sense of self which we once had, the very thing that had made me, me. We have to leave that behind — not momentarily, but for good — and we’re leaving it behind for a potential, future self that we can’t yet see, can’t yet imagine. We don’t know who we are going to be next.

Why would we choose to leave our comforts behind then? Because at a certain point, fighting the current, holding onto these things that no longer serve us, becomes so painful, so tiring, that we have to let go. It’s the only way to feel life again, to reconnect with the self inside us that is fighting for room to blossom. We have to give it room to do so, which means we have to remove stuff from our minds and our lives; we have to let go of the shit we don’t need anymore. It’s almost always painful at first, but like a light bulb to the sun, that pain becomes overtaken by the newfound joy and life that now have space to enter us.

Now that I have this new great feeling of life, this new higher sense of self, this joy and drive and inspiration — wouldn’t it be great to include those things that used to make me happy with my new life? But, it doesn’t work that way, it never does. I would not be merely bringing these old things into my ‘new life’, I’d be choosing my old life over the new one and then I’d start to feel like I used to again, repeating the cycle. I’d start to feel the pain again that forced me to change in the first place. It’s like starting to see the light and then being thrown back into the shadows. It hurts. The only way to change is to change for good: take a step down a new path and then keep walking it; there is no going back.

Could you imagine a butterfly coming out of its cocoon and still thinking it was a caterpillar? Crawling around because it doesn’t realize that it can fly? Eating leaves because it doesn’t know it can access the flower’s sweet nectars? It’s kind of like that. It’s really tragicomic. Our next evolution is always right inside us waiting to become, but we have to let go of what we were before.

The butterfly is wise; it doesn’t think back to its caterpillar life, that’s over and done with.

We humans however, with our amazing abilities to think and romanticize the past, we keep going back to our caterpillar behavior because it is what we know, it is what we’ve always done, it is comfortable. To really become butterflies, we don’t get to go back to being caterpillars. Why would we even want to?

Editor’s Note:

Sometimes a picture conveys a 1000 words — and this one of Carter, leaping forward off a cliff into the unknown waters below — depicts the next leg of his life’s journey. By the time this piece is live, he will have left the comforts of his old self behind as he traverses the Camino de Santiago; a pilgrimage he has embarked upon to further his personal evolution body, mind and soul, reaching for his best self.

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