Pilgrimage Studio

Tag: Meditative

  • Tacos Anyone?

    Tacos Anyone?

    by Beth Haley

    Tacos have been a long-time summer favorite. They’re easy to make and there are so many different ways to make them from veggies to fish.

    Another way of coping with the summer heat is with Sitali Pranayama (cooling flow) or taco breath. Sitali offers quick cooling during hot days and can also help with hot flashes and pitta imbalance. In addition, it can be helpful with fevers, bad breath, fatigue and high blood pressure.

    To prepare for this pranayama, sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight. Inhale and exhale deeply through your nose a few times.

    Making an O shape with your lips, roll your tongue upward like a tube or taco. Sticking your tongue out between your lips, inhale slowly like you are sipping air through a straw. Let your breath fill your chest and belly. Hold for five seconds.

    Withdrawing your tongue, close your mouth and exhale through your nose. Slowly empty out your lungs, drawing your bellybutton toward your spine.

    If your tongue does not curl, try Sitkari Pranayama instead.

    For sitkari pranayama, you can rest the tongue against the inside of your bottom teeth and closing your teeth gently, inhale through the gaps between your teeth. This makes a hissing sound. Closing your mouth, exhale through your nose.

    You can also extend a flat tongue and rest it on your bottom lip. Practice the same inhale and exhale exercise you would do with sitali.

    Make sure and moisten your tongue!

    Try practicing this technique for 3-5 minutes or gradually work up to 10!

    Sitali and sitkari pranayama both reduce body temperature so they are best done in hot weather or after exercising.

    Sitali Picture

    Cover photo from: Pixabay

    Stay cool my friends, love Pilgrimage Studio

  • Zen Intrigue

    Zen Intrigue

    I wondered how these worked!

    So, there’s a hole 🕳 in the bottom of the incense cone which you put on top of the hole 🕳 on the waterfall.

    The incense it came with though, doesn’t smell zen at all. More like…wear a face mask 😷 type of thing…

    It was fun to watch though!

    Pixabay

  • The Three Metal-Smiths

    The Three Metal-Smiths

    by Beth Haley

    Once upon a time, a terrible drought plunged an ancient kingdom into hard times. The people were not able to work their lands as they normally would and food was becoming scarce. So the good king employed workers from the surrounding villages to help with the new temple that was being built.

    At that time, a traveler came riding through the city and came upon three people who were working near the temple site. They tended the hot fires of a forge, working and shaping, heating and cooling pieces of misshapen metal.

    Curious, the traveler asked the first worker, “What are you doing?”

    The first worker replied instantly, “I’m out here in this stinking heat, sweating my brains out over these fires and hammering on ugly chunks of metal all day like a slave to make dishes for the temple. Curse this!”

    A bit taken back, the traveler approached the second worker and asked the same question, “What are you doing?”

    The second worker replied, “I am refining and shaping this metal into service dishes for the temple, many hours a day, so that I can provide food for my family.”

    Intrigued by the spirit of these two different answers, the traveler asked the same question of the third worker.

    Carefully placing a beautifully molded cup into the fire once more, her eyes never leaving her work, she replied, “I am crafting the Golden Chalice!”

    Three workers. Three very different attitudes and perspectives about what they were doing.

    The first two workers were opposite sides of the same coin: one side was negative and the other side was positive.

    The third worker seemed to have a different view. She was not fighting the steam, the heat of the day, the scorch of the fires, or worry about her life in general. She was not deliberating over a paycheck, or the fate of the future, but instead was focused on the task set before her. She accepted the good along with the bad, without resistance.

    According to the Bhagavad Gita the third worker’s view of life would be considered as “Pure.” The “pure” way of looking at life is more meditative and reflects a peace of mind and of being less attached to life’s ups and downs.

    Adapted from: “The Story of the Stone Cutters”

    Pixabay