How to use yoga poses and breathing to set powerful intentions that actually work

If you have ever, as success gurus advise, set resolutions for yourself, you will have noticed how, from time to time, they will take hold and work to change your life, while other times they become part of the tapestry of wishes and daydreams that fail to come to pass.

The importance of focusing your mind upon what you want to experience inside yourself and your life is emphasized in nearly every school of thought regarding self development. There have been studies tracking people over many decades and confirming that those who write their goals down are more likely to take action on them, and consequently reap the rewards. Intention is the basis of the Western Occult tradition – as it was phrased by Aleister Crowley – “…creating change in conformity with ones will (is magick).” In NLP, becoming clear on your outcomes is central to good communication, a simple habit of thought that can bring personal revolution in business, health, and relationships. In India, the practice of formulating, and recalling your ‘sankalpa’ (resolve), a key phrase, is done before and after the practice of yoga nidra. The effect is analogous to self-hypnosis as it is called in the West, a way of shaping perception, and according to many, set up conditions for which the things you want most are ‘attracted’ to you.

Certainly it would be nice to kick back, daydream, and have our deepest wishes materialize out of thin air. What I’ve noticed though is that a dog can’t just walk through a cotton field and come out wearing a suit. Therefore,  I prefer an ‘active’ position with respect to outcomes. That is, an intention should be, in large part, about the direct actions you take to bring your goals to life. An intention has to go deep inside the psyche, inside the body so it shapes your outlook and beliefs. If it’s done right, you won’t have to “try” to change- your behavior takes you towards achievement, automatically. No more self-sabotage.  Serendipitously, there does seem to be some hard-to-explain, and oh-so-beautiful place where, in fact, the universe does deliver. But I can’t really comment on how or why. It may be all about where we place our attention (and intention).

How not to set goals

As you have noticed, people who are ‘doing depression’ sit with a ‘depressed’ physiology. They usually exhale heavily. People who are feeling inspired and optimistic usually sit up and ‘open’ up. Yogis say that if you want to read the contents of someone’s mind, sit in the same position and breathe like them- because certainly you will go into nearly the same state. Neuroscience says our memories and resources our ‘state dependent’- which means that when you’re doing depression, mostly what you have access to are thoughts and memories that confirm this state.

Planning your future while slumped over a desk isn’t the best way to have access to your personal resources. But changing your body and breath in certain ways can make it so when you think of your future, you get more creative. You can use your body so your willpower and commitments become ‘wired in’- again, making change easy.

The key to making an effective intention is to have it stated in the positive (what you want to see, hear, and feel), and to clarify evidence that you will use to let you know that you are in the process of achieving what you want. The following sequence can help you harness your energy of mind, and connect a powerful, uplifted state so your intention goes deep inside your body and does what it needs to.

We’ve known this for years…
To remove the cobwebs,  it is important to ‘brighten’ the thinking before you set your intention. Yogically speaking – you will want to target a particular movement of energy, which is centered inside the middle of the head but also includes the neck and the five senses.  This energy (prana vayu) can be stimulated to intensify through different means such as:

The tilting of neck back and forth such as is done going into flat back position from sun salutations, cat-cow sequence, moving the eyes upwards towards towards the middle of the forehead (broomadhya drishti), and alternate nostril breathing (nadi shodana). Downward dog, cobra, upward dog also can be targeted to concentrate the energy and mind towards the center of the brain. Many people find that ‘visualizing’ a point of white or golden light in the middle of the brain also helps to develop this inner focus.

A sequence you can use to make powerful intentions
At the beginning of your practice, to develop a clear and focused intention that has clarity, detail, and energy, begin by using such postures and breathing to elicit this inwards and upwards flow of energy and mind.

1. Mountain pose
2. Repeated flat-backs and forward bends
3. Repeated chaturanga to upward dog/cobra
4. Downward dog
5. Sit on heels (vajrasana)
6. Alternate nostril breathing

From here you can pause while the state is still active, and complete the following sentence:

“What I most want to create in my life is….”

Wait for an answer. If it seems vague at first, consider seeing, hearing and feeling yourself at your best in different domains, such as health, relationships, and career. Continue doing more postures and breathing – you can even forget about the intention, unconsciously your mind will continue to work on it.

7. Downward dog
8. Warrior one with repeated lifting of the head as you inhale, chin tucks downwards as you exhale.
9. Downward dog
10. Repeat other leg forwards
11. Downward dog
12. More flat back – forward bends
13. Mountain pose

Stand with feet hip width – alternate nostril breathing

Again, sit down, close your eyes, focus your mind inwards and complete this sentence once again:

“What I most want to create in my life is…”

You’ll notice that your internal representations of your answer will have become intensified. Perhaps the images will be more saturated in color, maybe closer to your face. Sounds may be louder, in more stereo or 3D. Feelings in your body will intensify.

Once again do another round of downward dog, upward dog, flat backs, warrior poses and alternate nostril breathing. Focus on your chest, neck and inhaling ‘into’ the middle of your brain. Once again ask yourself to deeply and honestly complete this sentence:

“What I most want to create in my life is…”

Bring it into a point and then begin the rest of your practice. It is nice to know that you don’t have to consciously even think about your intention through the rest of your practice.  As you continue this process several times, a very strong intention begins being generated. The interesting thing is, our minds continue to develop answers to questions for several minutes after we seemingly ‘get an answer’

At the end of your practice, connect again with your intention and you will notice your internal representations have extended and expanded even more. Your unconscious and conscious mind will continue to be aligning around a central positive idea in a variety of ways.  This is certainly a very powerful way of setting goals, particularly when you do this each time you practice yoga. It flows through your life in positive and unexpected ways!

The importance of repetition
As you will experience, each visit to this question will cause  your answers to intensify internally. Part of this effect has been explained by the phenomenon of how unconscious minds continue searching for answers long after the initial answer has been made aware of consciously. Another interesting phenomena is called fractionation.

This technique was first canonized by Dave Elman – a legendary pioneer of clinical hypnosis. He discovered that his clients would typically go ‘deeper’ into hypnosis each week they met. What he experimented was compressing the time in between sessions by inducing hypnosis, bringing them out, and then a minute later, inducing hypnosis again. Each time the process was repeated, clients could go deeper and deeper – in one session. Fractionation and the memory search phenomenon may be related phenomenon.

This is why I suggest you loop through postures, breathing, and questions again and again. Each time you will bring up more of your inner qualities, strengths and skills to empower your intention. Forget about it after you do it, and trust. You can allow your ideas take root and spread through your whole being and life. The results are magic!

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Bending Your Mind With Your Body (or, how to hack into your mind using yoga poses)

Your body is more than something you drag around, submitting to the orders of your mind. While it may seem that your mind has one will and your body another, they are, in fact, a connected system. The mind and the body are so closely tied together that changes in the body affect perception in some rather remarkable ways.

Recent research at Journal of Consumer Research demonstrates a connection between willpower and the use of one’s muscles. Test subjects were able to withstand icy cold water for longer periods, avoid the temptation of chocolate cake, and even, (in separate studies) willingly drink copious amounts of vinegar all because they flexed muscles or squeezed their hands into fists. The control groups did not demonstrate such resolve. So as it turns out, flexing muscles serves as a non-conscious way to recruit inner strength, which metaphorically connects to striving for goals, and the endurance and willpower required.

Using this research, I began to ask, “how can this be useful?“

In each year I conduct yoga teacher training programs, I get my students to up their personal discipline level, not only in terms of yoga practice, but also to commit to freeing their lives of “bad” habits for a period of time. Some choose to stop habits of speech, others might stop alcohol. Whatever vice someone chooses, for the ones that actually do succeed in keeping their commitments, they really begin to glow after a period of time. Its almost the single most transformative aspect of the course.

The mystery of how people motivate themselves, why some can stick to personal discipline, and why others slack, is fascinating to me. This has motivated me to look deeply into psychology and communication to discover more ways to enable people with a sense of personal power, so that they can do what it takes to make lasting changes.

Language has been huge of course, specifically, eliciting one’s own reasons to make any particular changes. Now what I am doing though is adding in the breath and the physiology- specifically, postures that require strength. In yoga these poses elicit a movement of energy called “samana” – which hugs muscles to bones, and concentrates at the core muscles. Interestingly, this energy is said to correlate to learning, and of course, learning is change.

Postures that work well for this include poses like chaturanga dandasana, salabasana, uddiyana bandha, and according to yoga teachings, surya bedha pranayama – a type of breathing practice where all inhalations are only done on the right side.

In my teaching, while students hold these poses, or breathing in particular ways, I direct them to consider such questions as “what can I commit to?, ‘what can I do differently to achieve new results?‘, and ‘in what ways can I strengthen my disciplines to support my life?“. The mind-body connection powerfully elicits the personal resources to make these commitments easier than they would be if someone is kicking back on a couch and daydreaming how they’d like to change things.

The modern research to support the other groups of yoga postures isn’t in yet, but I’m blazing ahead and experimenting with the same notion- that by involving the physiology and the breathing, you can hack into your mind and make positive change much easier than before.

…and get fit at the same time!

Comments and questions are most welcome!

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How I teach yoga now – an integration of body, breathing, and language

“Compose a declaration that crisply describes what satisfying, growth-inducing experience you want most in life– and are willing to work hard for and even change yourself to attract, if necessary” – Rob Brezsny

The way I now teach yoga does exactly as described above, from the inside out. It is an integrated fitness and mind tuning session that works at physical, energetic, and mental levels. It is a completely new and unique approach to total wellbeing. You will be guided to move your body, alter your breathing, and even language to open up the proper mindset, and vitality to change yourself in deep, positive ways…

‎“Thank you so much for such a great class last night! I felt like I was partially in a yoga class but the rest of me was discovering something much, much more. This is different! You moved us from points to points so we went from activities to activities, it was fun!!! It made me use my other senses more. Adding different things into the practice and feeding new ideas by questioning really gave me the feeling of being “Present”, then stepping forwards to the next 6 months and looking back was cool! For me, your new techniques of teaching were really “Tune-In” !!” -Nook Kroekphorn Chenvidhya, Owner Diva Yoga Studio 

Your body and mind are a unified system. You ‘think’ with your whole body. It can be hard to change habits of thinking and feeling unless a change also happens at a physical and energetic level. In these sessions, you will be guided to induce one of five different states using yoga postures, breathing, and language. In these states you will have access to your deepest personal resources to make change. When the states are peaked, they are repeatedly linked to areas of your life such as- health, relationships, skills, and creating ‘growth inducing experiences’. It sets powerful processes in motion at unconscious levels- you may find solutions arising spontaneously even days later!

This process can be taught at any physical ability level, as the student progresses, the challenge of the postures increases so you also develop core strength, open flexibility, and vibrant energy.

This is totally unique and unlike anything you have done before!

Mondays at 10AM, Thursdays at 6:30PM and Saturdays at 1:30PM only at Yoga Elements Studio Bangkok! I also do private coaching using this process, specially adapted for you, please call +662 655 5671 to schedule 

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Dear reader, I wonder what it’s like when you are having a insight or a moment of Aha! You know, like the warm coincidences when someone rings just as you think about them, or hearing that a person you want to meet is connected to you through a friend. Or maybe, you’ve seen a sign while walking around a city that answers a question you’ve had for a long time.

I had been having a question in my mind for several years now, how to create something new. It had to be a blend of my passion for yoga, NLP, embodied cognition and creating deep personal change in an ecological way. Yet I didn’t know what it was going to be exactly, I felt stuck and didn’t know when the muse would strike.

Then one night it came to me in a dream…

I was startled when I awoke at 2AM, but I couldn’t let myself go back to sleep yet. I knew I just had a an important insight and got up immediately to write it down.

I was teaching a new style of class- one that synergizes yoga, breathing, and NLP, perfectly.  This new, and unique process that uses yoga postures and breathing to elicit, one at a time, five patterns of your personal energy system. As that movement rises to a peak, I guide you to go inside and ask yourself relevant open-ended questions that directs your mind, and energy to set a very powerful, positive force of change inside your life.

It’s powerful

and it’s totally open, and adaptable because it is a process-oriented style of class, not content. This means it can be taught in any language and the right challenge for people of all fitness levels. I practice this sequence each morning for two hours and make it match the strength and flexibility of my body after 20 years of doing yoga, and I’ve been making several more personal breakthroughs as a result. The only other person I’ve taught this to is hooked. We agree, not only does it raise your health and fitness, it genuinely puts you in a wonderful state of being, a space where magic occurs. I don’t want to say you will you feel the same way for sure, but I am wondering just how good you’ll feel after trying this new style.

I need your help

What is needed now is a name for it, a word we’ll use to brand it. After you have been experiencing these classes as my student, I want you to enter your idea for it’s name into a contest… to win a free one-year pass to Yoga Elements Studio (value 31,900 baht) AND a Manduka Eko Mat of any color (value 3,380baht)!

To win, you will get extra consideration if your idea is or includes:

• A word that combines two or three words
• Something memorable and evocative!
• Easy to say
• A metaphor

 The lucky wordsmith who coins the best name, will be picked on January 31st, 2012 which means you’ll have approximately 4 chances to take this class, each Monday  morning in January, at 10AM at Y.E.S.  Make sure you call Nuk at +662 655 5671 to confirm before you come, we’ll be starting right after the new year on Monday the 2nd!

 Warmly, Adrian Cox

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 PS: Have very happy holidays everyone!

Of course what you DO in life shapes what you GET in life right? Exercise regularly and you stay in shape. Manage your finances and you’re more likely to have more money. Do the right things each day with your lover and you’ll have a better relationship. Truly our life destiny is shaped by the little things we do each and everyday, even you reading these words.

Yet what you DO is really shaped by what you think and believe, particularly the hidden beliefs which help us make sense of the world and ourselves. Typically these are hidden from ourselves but we express them in language and can be obvious to a person, who knows how to listen. Yet to ourselves, beliefs usually appear disguised as facts. It could be as simple as being ‘sure’ of the type of personality we have and our attendant strengths and limitations. It could be in the mantras we express about opportunity or the lack of them. About how quick we can heal or what sicknesses we think we are in line to get, and of course in how long we are going to live and what kinds of things we ‘should’ do as we get older.

The thinker thinks… the prover proves Read More →

Do you want to lose weight but have found it a challenge staying consistent with good eating and exercise habits? You probably know mostly WHAT to do (i.e; move more, eat less), but how to motivate yourself? Information about what foods to choose, and how often to exercise are pretty easy to find. What can harder to find are the ways to change your inner game, your beliefs about who you “are”. Identity is an idea I put in quotes here because it’s something that you can change.

If you believe you are “a” fat person, no diet or exercise plan in the world will work for very long. You may endeavor for a while, yet eventually the bad habits will return.  If you believe you “are” a fit person you will act that way, doing whatever is necessary to stay healthy.

This is because we all have a strong inner compulsion to behave in a manner consistent with what we believe. This of course also applies to our identities around money, health, and relationships as well. From our beliefs we get our behaviors, and from our behaviors we shape our life so you can change your beliefs and change many things as a result.

If the time has come to make a real change inside and out, read on! Read More →

As you may know already, some of my operating philosophies on teaching are:

1. Through our language we direct states, affect our listeners health and direct consciousness. The impact of our language can extend for years, even throughout a person’s lifetime, so be aware of the words you use.

2.  Use your language positively- in a sense we are either cursing or blessing our listeners. There is power in language so use it to open up possibilities in thinking, helping people to feel good, to heal, and to continue their practice through time. Everyone wins!

3. You cannot NOT influence and be influenced- teaching and being taught are feedback loops such that both the teacher and the student are affecting each other.

 To teach is to affect eternity

For these three reasons and more, studying language and communication can make a profound impact in your teaching skill and the impact you have on your community. As you help others heal and feel good, it helps you. As each of your students goes into their work, home, emotional, and social lives, they carry their states of being with them and in turn influences each person around them.  In turn those people influence a wider circle and so on. We can never really know how far the effects of our communication extends. Yet there are ways for you to extend your influence further and more powerfully than you now realize. Read More →

Dear teacher,

Perhaps you have noticed that the majority of people you know have a more difficult time with discipline than you do?  Many people find it difficult to muster up the personal willpower to make significant personal changes, so students may come and go. I consider that part of our responsibility as teachers is to make a deep impression upon our students to make yoga a regular part of their lives. Everyone benefits. As you learn to use both the non-verbal tools and language models of NLP, you will increase the chances of this happening and even expand your practice as a result.

In article one (Teacher Tip: How to Begin a Yoga Class -Part one) and in article two (How to begin a yoga class – Part II: Deepening Rapport with Students Using Back Track Pacing) you have been learning how to create a feeling of rapport between you and your students using pacing and mirroring techniques. Now let’s learn to apply it, to utilize feelings of rapport to inspire your students in positive ways. Read More →

Dear Teacher,

As you will recall, in a previous post you have been learning about non-verbal and verbal means for you to get rapport with your students through pacing the current reality. In addition to physically mirroring the head tilt of your students as you look around the room,  you can also begin the class with a few, undeniably true facts,  such as where you are, who you are, what time it is, what level of a class it is, as well as stating things like -

•  ”…you are sitting here”
• “…breathing and breathing out”
• “…listening to the sounds in the room”

Which the listener will acknowledge as true, opening up a space where it’s likely that what you say that follows these statements will be interpreted to be true as well! This process is called ‘pacing and leading’, or as my teacher Christina Hall says, ‘pacing and inviting’ which may be a more respectful way of considering this.

Before we get into HOW to structure your invitations, I want to talk about pacing realities that happened before the listener got to the room at that moment, what is called Back Track Pacing.

Read More →

If you are a curious person, you will love learning NLP!

NLP is the way you can figure out how people think, including yourself. By learning the language of the mind using this technology, you will be able to profoundly affect your career, relationships, and health in very positive ways.

Now announcing an upcoming NLP training in Bangkok!

Neuro Linguistic Programming is

Neuro- the body-mind processing

Linguistic – the language we use, internally, in writing, and speaking

Programming – the ability to run our own minds the way we want, freeing ourselves up from limiting beliefs and negative thinking

Read More →

 Dear teacher of yoga,

How would you like a way to make it so your classes get that “vibe” we feel when a class really rocks? I thought it was just me who wondered what the elements in a great class are, until I discovered NLP. In NLP, I found a technology that studies out how excellence is structured, so it can be repeated. This way I have been creating models of how great yoga teachers get that vibe going and keep students coming back.

Many teachers open their classes with a story, or a personal anecdote, which can be a great way of starting a theme and getting people to laugh or open up. But there are some key steps to take right from the first moment a class begins- do you know what these are?

Step One: Establish rapport!

Read More →

I recommend my students to consider adding herbs to their diet as part of the practice of yoga as it can improve mental clarity, strengthen the body and reduce recovery time. Herbs also have a discreet way of assisting us in subtle ways. According to Ayurveda, these herbs I have listed below help build up our stores of a subtle energy called ‘Ojas’.  This is the subtle essence in the body that builds up after a long refinement of the intake of our nutrition and is related to our capacity for immunity as well as a feeling of well-being and love.

There must be a reason for the use of these plants for thousands of years right?  The ancient Indian Vedas advise that food can be divided into three levels- the gross level becoming waste, the middle level becoming the body, and the subtle level of what we consume becoming the mind. What you consume profoundly shapes your experience of being alive and living, and going beyond repair, herbs can add an interesting dimension to vitality for you.  Here are three of my favourite herbs that I take on a regular basis:

Read More →

“We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” -Einstein

 If you have had the good fortune to travel and leave your country of birth for a length of time you may  likely relate to how peculiar one’s own culture can seem when returning home. I always personally felt more culture shock returning home than I did when going somewhere new. Idiosyncrasies about my own culture became apparent when viewed as a “foreigner” but are invisible when you have nothing to compare it to.

In the same way,  blind spots in the view we hold of ourselves remain undetectable simply because we lack the language to describe it. They remain unconscious until someone, or by some change in perspective we can be made aware of it.

The quote, “I don’t know who discovered water but it probably wasn’t a fish” describes the same sentiment- that to talk about anything intelligently means we have to develop a language that is meta to the system we are attempting to describe. Similarly, to speak about changing means we have to talk about change from the perspective of how change occurs.
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Dear Reader,

Look through these and see what you can observe about these example statements:

“Susan is a Catholic”

“Henry is a homosexual”

“The movie was terrible”

“Hello, my name is Frank and I am an alcoholic”

“You are so difficult”

“I am worried about the elections”

Each of these phrases has a hidden ‘equals’ sign -  on one side of the equation is a noun, and on the other, we give an assignment of identity.This is called the verb “to be”, which in case you forgot your grammar lessons from high school (I certainly did) include the words, ‘is, was, are, am”. It IS a convenient and ingrained way of thinking and speaking that can also gives us a fair amount of problems- even, according to some, being one of the root causes of war and conflict on our planet! Yet, as you keep reading carefully every word in this article, you will also be learning an interesting twist to let you consciously use this verb to your life’s profit!
Read More →

If you are convinced of being limited, or think that the world lacks possibility, a simple turn of language can often make a big difference in perception. When I do coaching, training, and teaching, my main tool to help people make changes in perception is by using language in an artful and conscious way.

One particularly simple and effective language form I like to use are called “pivots phrases” which help the listener shift their focus to a new frame of reference. They act as a kind of interruption of a pattern of thinking.

When someone (or yourself) expresses limiting ideas such as… Read More →