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Mindful Yoga, Meditation Practice, & Wim Hof Method Breathing : Toward embodied presence and elemental resilience.

Dear Folks;  There has been a lot of interest in my recent email to students with a video of my Wim Hof Method breathing practice and it’s emphasis on leaning into the cold.  My way of leaning into cold one recent morning was into the ice and snow near my place and offered a glimpse through the video I shared (below).  Given the keen  interest generated, I thought I would explain further and provide some context for that practice and how it relates to mindful yoga practice, contemplative practices (meditation), and more.

Breath is a fundamental element of our lives and yet happens without much conscious effort.  However, we have the ability to control and work with our breath though seldom do so unless we are victim of illness and forced to change breathing for therapeutic reasons.

There has been overwhelming evidence for eons that we can work with our breath to enhance our state of ease, resilience, embodied presence, spiritual experience, and essential vitality.  Yogis long ago attended to breath work with a variety of practices grouped under the methodologies termed pranayama (working with life’s energy).   While ample scientific evidence mounted over many decades, western scholars and popular media continued to discount such breath work as new age superstitions, until recently.

Knowing this, I became more interested in pranayama and breath work and then I stumbled upon  the superb recent book about breathing, Breath, by investigative journalist James Nestor .  He practiced many well-documented and proven breathing methodologies, both western and eastern in origin, over a decade as he researched his book and interviewed experts and practitioners  all over the world.

One of the techniques he describes and practices now  is the Wim Hof Method   which has been very well received, well documented, and reasonably well researched so far.  A medical doctor I have been studying with and who points his practice and teaching toward wholistic health, Dr. Zach Bush, mentioned the method in one of his trainings.  I was intrigued and followed up.

The Wim Hof Method is very straightforward though very challenging with series of rapid deep breaths, long breath holding, cold immersion (cold showers or ice baths).  Being a scientist by training and further intrigued I began practicing the Wim Hof Method six months ago to learn more, investigate,  and personally experience the Method through a Wim Hof course. I then began a personal practice every day and continue to this day.

My experience has been very positive and extremely interesting: enhanced energy levels, greater mental clarity, more motivation, elevated  sense of physical and mental confidence, a greater sense of ease. All this beyond my experience of the benefits from that have emerged over the decades with my other mode of practicing embodied presence; mindfulness, yoga, mindful movement, and otherwise.

I have found that the Method is a deeply effective mode of awakening more generous layers of the experience of mindful and embodied presence.  The deep-breathing itself evokes a quality of alert and unqualified capacity for attention toward direct experience; sensation, sound, thought, emotion, fragrance, etc.  The subsequent cold emersion, beyond what what I consider ‘normal’ or even tolerable, evokes a physiologic and cognitive edge that I would ‘normally’ react to and flee from. Yet I find a way to settle into the experience of the cold, the fairly extreme discomfort, with a quality of curiosity and interest, offering  it a place at the table of momentary embodied experience.  This is of course not easy and calls for patience and willingness to persist in the face of such challenge.   Not to much willful pushing as much as patience and willingness to learn more.

I think our bodies, minds, and spirits can rise surprisingly to the occasion in the face of such stressors as extreme cold if we work patiently, with good instruction, patiently, and step-wise .  My experience tells me that we  must be designed to meet, and in some ways, require such stress to be fully alive and balanced; physiologic, mental, emotional, and otherwise. Perhaps to enliven what has been deadened in our modern, stress-laden, and habit-filled lifestyles that tend to seek physical comfort and mental distraction to meet life’s stressors rather than calling upon deeper layers of our capacity to do so.  I think we can remember the embodied experience and physiology of our inherent capacities as we tap our deeper layers of our inherent and forgotten abilities with such a practice laden with duress.

Not that I believe the Wim Hot Method is the be-all method for calling forth our vitality.  It’s just one method among a myriad of paths toward unencumbered and embodied presence that helps us, as Wim Hof says often, be healthy, strong, and happy as a way of life.

In a lovely coincidence I found this video of Wim Hof talking about his early days of Yoga practice and how diligent he was.  And then later in life to find out all the study in the world doesn’t replace the willingness to engage directly and personally with a practice to find the fullness it offers and to invite creativity and interest to guide that practice.  Though my personal style is different than his, I share much of what Wim Hof describes about yoga, mindfulness, a life’s path of practices.  Here is that video!

I hope you consider the possibility that we have so many untapped capacities to open life’s energy.  Stepping into such practices in our own unique manner, we may find more of our inherent life energy to support us in the work that is most important to us and those we love while we are still here!   Let’s continue to be curious and interested as we open to new possibilities in this life.

I even was inspired by Wim Hof’s video to combine the breathing method with my yoga practice on a cold snowy day on one of my recent hikes in the Hoyt Arboretum here is this video!  Congruent with my description of how a vivid, rich, and embodied experience emerges with this Method (and many other practices of course) I find that my experience of being in a natural setting evokes an incredibly rich experience of the natural world; profoundly rich soundscape, vibrant and shimmering colors, subtle shifts in lighting more notices, more presence to my own deeper emotions and flow of thought, presence to the kaleidoscope of physical sensations, and much more.  Perhaps this is direct experiential evidence that we are woven deeply into the natural world.

Warmly! — Brant

Sharing Our Final Day in the Yoga Hillsboro Classrooms; Honoring you with comments, photos, and practice.

Dear Folks;  You may have been following over the past couple of months as we moved toward letting go of the lease here and opening doors to new ways of sharing the art and science of mindfulness practices and yoga practice; online, local venues for in-person classes (eventually!), mindfulness-based life coaching, tailored trainings for organizations, and much more.

As I reflected in this video and during a long meditation and yoga practice during that last day on the 31st of January hundreds of memories of thousands of connections with students here flooded my heart and mind.  All with such a rich sense of gratitude for the privilege to sharing in so many diverse ways over these years.


Lots of change here in these classrooms yet so much remained constant; willingness to risk learning or better said – remembering – our incredible inherent capabilities for health and well-being, cultivating  interest and curiosity, softening the sharper edges of life’s stressors, being willing to care for ourselves as a way of caring for others, and so many other dimensions of the power of an embodied and compassionate presence.


People have arrived here from every continent, many countries, many states, towns around Oregon and Washington and of course from our lovely town Hillsboro.   Many professions and passions; law enforcement officers, cheerleading, folks wanting to learn to teach, firefighters, attorneys, folks with chronic illness, and so much more!

Many folks talked about their experiences on video!

 

Heck, HIllsboro thought we did a good job in 2018!

 

There is so much more.  Let’s ponder, remember and share over the years ahead.

Much Love. —  Brant

 

 

 

Closing Doors Here While Opening Many New Ones: Passing the blessings on to my students & our community



A WORTHY & RELEVANT TRANSITION

What a lovely nearly sixteen years in these two classrooms!  From therapeutic courses for those recovering; undergoing chemotherapy, traumatic brain injury, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, PTSD, loss of a loved one, depression, and more.   Then there were the  lively and athletic and not for the faint-of-heart; upside down, inside out, Cirque de Sole-esquè.  From meditation to nutrition to police and firefighter trainings,  then a cheerleading squad, to national a magazine and television crew, then yoga for folks in residential recovery programs,  and many community outreach programs.  Folks witnessing their lives transformed in meaningful ways.  From deep laughter to abiding tears then resistance and acceptance of the path of these practices.

All the while we shared the comforting space of these rooms.  They now resonate in many ways with so many and have been a part of many hundreds of folks lives over these many years.  While some of us feel the loss with some heartbreak, that heartbreak is evidence of how much we loved and were nourished by our experiences here.  Like all experiences of love they change and evolve and with that change heartbreak comes hand-in-hand.

And now it is time to let go of these rooms at the end of January.  However,  the more intimate and always closer to us in class were the many props (mats, blocks, bolsters, blankets, straps and more) that supported our bodies encouraging alignment, balance, strength, flexibility, an a quality of embodied presence.  Likewise they supported us in letting go of the unnecessary tensions that distracted us in out busy lives.

While we leave the rooms, these props have found
homes across the region as dear students were
offered and then accepted Yoga Prop Blessing Bundles to keep the resonance of their memories of class here alive while encouraging further exploration of the practices of mindful yoga, meditation, and other contemplative and physical practices in students’ own homes.

My dear Niece Hannah who was born about the time the doors opened here and was woven into classes and life here for most of her life helped me as we
assembled these Blessing Bundles for students to accept them (in person mind you and with masks on of course) here on recent Sunday afternoons!

What an incredible joy it has been to pass along in-person these Bundles to my students!  And to receive heart-felt acknowledgements from them.  Many attended classes for well over a decade and some have been just getting to know our community online over the past year.

AND NOW TOWARD LEARNING MORE BROADLY & EFFECTIVELY IN 2021

So many folks have noted their experience of loss with the closing of the doors of these rooms.  Do please know that I will be here teaching and sharing. Teaching now will be less about ‘Yoga HIllsboro’ as it was and more ‘HIllsboro’s Yoga’ evolving in new ways.

Courses, series, workshops, retreats, and gatherings will be more accessible and relevant to the transformed ways we will be living in 2021 and beyond as our society and community evolve to meet all the many changes that are occurring; politics, pandemic, social change, economics, and more.  You know that my teaching has always intended to meet each of us where we are.  So . . . ‘where we are’ will be changing and let’s meet there however it evolves.

I am already in conversation with folks who have many public venues to host classes once we can meet in-person; Tuality Hospital Health Education, local Parks and Recreation, Blooming Junction Nursery classrooms, Pacific University Health Education Campus, other public venues like the Walters Center in downtown Hillsboro, perhaps even opening another physical classrooms space if it seems helpful.  I will of course continue these very vibrant online classes each term as well!

Much love to you all for being here and be assured you and we will continue to learn together in ways that encourage and support our life within and life for those around us.

Warmly. —  Brant

Election Evening Shared Meditation Vigil – Tuesday Evening, November 3rd at 7pm as my Guest


Welcome to an evening of kind mutual presence shared. Attentive presence, relaxation, attending to life during this present moment in the face of a tumultuous era of politics on election night.
Please prepared for the evening by settling down a bit.  Perhaps turn off electronics, some light, radios, and other devices.  Perhaps light a candle and just be still for a while.  We will begin at 7pm.
We will share and practice various meditations, some poetry, conversation.  All pointed toward offering a generous open presence to the evening no matter our concerns and expectations.
Book your seat.  You will be forwarded the link for our evening once you do.
Come as my guest. No tuition.  —  Brant

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction this Fall Begins on Thursday, October 1st

Dear Folks;  The fall MBSR course begins in early October, Thursday the 1st.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an extremely effective way of learning to care for ourselves by moderating the those sharp edges of stress. It has a large library of research proving its effectiveness.  This online version MBSR-SH  preserves that effectiveness using todays tools appropriately.

Come to the free online MBSR Orientation on Thursday, September 24 at 6pm.  Book Now.

If you have been thinking about the MBSR course there is still room this spring as folks begin registering online. Set aside concerns about tuition if you have been laid off, impacted by illness, or having trouble with funding. Just reach out to me and we’ll make this work for you; scholarships, payments over time, discounts.

With your registration you’ll be included in one online yoga class of your choice: See Schedule as well as the Shared Meditation Evenings at 9pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  Also, once we are able to have in-person classes you wil be my guest at a subsequent, in-person All Day MBSR Retreat.Here is a link to the MBSR-SH online course details..

Kind Regards  —  Brant

Full Catastrophe Living in the Face of the Immense Changes Coming Our Way: Breathe, Move, Nourish, & Pay Attention

Dear Folks;  I know we are all feeling the winds of incredible and unpredictable change personally, with our families, friends, in our local communities, across the nation, and the world.  Every corner of life seems impacted by these winds; health, social systems, confidence in the future, and so much more.

Entering my eight decade of life and peering more honestly and willingly toward mortality I have been pondering how to offer my best to my loved ones during this unprecedented and challenging time; you of course included.  I intend to help in more thorough and effective ways to prepare us for the immense challenges ahead.  

There are many who will advise us about such things as material prosperity, physical  and mental health, politics, and personal security.  Things we can ‘do’ to survive well.

Beyond that we can prepare and enter the challenges ahead with firm and effective orientation toward our inner lives.  Attend to how we will ‘be’ in the face of difficulties. What I  know is the foundation for ‘doing’ what we need to do during difficulties.

We have a tremendous and often untapped ability to evoke our inherent resilience, vitality, and resolve.   We can act to remember our rich capacity for attentive presence allowing our unique and individual vitality to flourish in the face of the difficulties that will come our way.  We can flow more fully with our life’s untapped energy when we learn to travel more hand-in-hand with a more complete sense of our purpose in this life.

My teacher, Jon Kabat-Zinn, offered his approach to to this for us modern people more than thirty years ago with his book, Full Catastrophe Living.  I have taught the program he describes in that book, MBSR, for most of the last fifteen years for many hundreds of folks in corporations, government agencies, police agencies,  organizations, fire districts, in my classrooms and now online.  It has proven incredibly helpful in decades of research and often individually transformative for the folks who participate.  Likewise my other courses and workshops here have proven very beneficial.

Recently I have begun studying with new teachers to learn more about how to offer more generously and more appropriately something helpful for us as we enter the new era of challenge and uncertainty.  I have been learning much more about how we can cultivate these inner capacities we have to meet change.  Rather than a prescribing something to ‘do’ what i am learning is how we might ‘be’ more present, powerful, and capable of meeting the challenges ahead.  I want to share with you what I have learned.

So, this fall I am offering my courses, workshops and some new series that weave together our way forward with the intention of inviting a practice of acknowledging and and acting to awaken our internal resources for clarity, strength, vitality, and perseverance as we face the coming changes.  This is not some formula for success, better health, or side-stepping difficulty.  It’s an invitation to lean generously into the inward journey of gathering a sense of your life’s direction and purpose.  In doing so there will be a greater access to the vitality, clarity, creativity and endurance that come hand-in-hand with that knowing.

My courses will of course all be available to you one-at-a-time or in groups as we have done in the past.  If you are so moved to journey in a fully engaged way this fall I am offering a comprehensive and inclusive program that offers access to all of my courses including MBSR, all mindful yoga classes, workshops, series, meditation evenings and two hours of personal coaching as a complete package, Free Orientation for the Full Catastrophe Living Open Door Program Breathe, Move, Nourish, & Pay Attention, Monday September 14th at 6pm.

Do review and consider this if you wish.  I will be glad to discuss it with you.  Otherwise I am sure you will continue to participate in as you wish and supported by my courses always offered to you with sincerity, gratitude, humility, and reverence.

Kind Regards  —  Brant

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Online Starting July 9th with a Free Orientation on June 25th

Dear Folks;  Adapting to the times I have refashioned MBSR to make it very accessible and effective this summer with the online tools we have today.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an extremely effective way of learning to care for ourselves by moderating the those sharp edges of stress. It has a large library of research proving its effectiveness.  This online version MBSR-SH  preserves that effectiveness using todays tools appropriately.

Come to the free MBSR Orientation on Thursday, June 25th at 6pm.  Book Now.

If you have been thinking about the MBSR course there is still room this spring as folks begin registering online. Set aside concerns about tuition if you have been laid off, impacted by illness, or having trouble with funding. Just reach out to me and we’ll make this work for you; scholarships, payments over time, discounts.

With your registration you’ll be included in one online yoga class of your choice: See Schedule as well as the Shared Meditation Evenings at 9pm each night and certain workshops as a way of doing and sharing home practice.  Also, once we are able to have in-person classes you wil be my guest at a subsequent, in-person All Day MBSR Retreat.Here is a link to this spring’s MBSR-SH online course details..

Kind Regards  —  Brant

Mindfulness-Based Yoga Classes: Summer online movement classes, series and themed-workshops start June 22nd

Dear Folks;   You’ll find my mindfulness-based yoga classes most days of the week starting next week.  Here is a link to the full list:  Summer Schedule.  Also, you can book and pay for any class online directly:  Booking Calendar

You’ll find a variety of courses for folks of every level of physical activity; gentle, beginning and intermediate.  Also, there will be workshops that are designed to be helpful for the difficulties of modern life;  Neck & Shoulder Stability, Low Back and Core Stability, and others.

I will post soon about the many creative and contemplative workshops and mindfulness courses this summer.  There are all listed on the Summer Schedule..

There is also a series of free Mindfulness-Based Yoga Classes in Nature offered a number of days this summer in green spaces around Hillsboro.  Check the calendar for all of the days and times and then book in the  Booking Calendar.

I hope to see you here soon.  Reach out of I can support you.

Kindest Regards  —  Brant

Online Classes After 3 Weeks: Surprising comments and experiences of students.

Dear Folks;  As you know there has always been a generous willingness to meet you where you are in my courses, workshops and coaching.  This term has been no exception though the changes in modes of teaching and booking classes is revolutionary and, as you know, is now all online.  Many dozens of you continue booking and attending classes.  I feel blessed with your presence and commitment.  

You may also know that I listen deeply to you.  I just sent out a week-3 survey to students who have been attending class this term to learn how to improve and acknowledge what works. Here is what I learned from dozens of folks who responded:

  • 95% were satisfied to very satisfied with their experience
  • All suggestions for improvement are being implemented as best I can; sound quality, breakout group improvements, video enhancements, etc.)

 

You have my commitment to continue to support you all in the best ways possible.  Especially now as our lives and society are transforming.  Reach out when I can support you further.    Brant

Below are some of the dozens of surprising comments and experiences folks offered:

  • Thanks for all you do. Your class always brightens my days.
  • Even in silence, it’s just so good to connect with others in the mindful container class provides.
  • The classes help to break up the day with self care, both mental and physical during these difficult times.
  • There is a feeling of community in the live classes, and scheduled sessions help to keep a focus on caring for ourselves that can be lost in worry and busyness.
  • Thank you for all your work to make the courses so accessible and in keeping us connected.
  • The noon-time class really helps me reset my day and my week! Not having the 30-40-minute driving time means this mindful yoga time is much more within my day, and that has been interesting.
  • It’s been a wonderful way to connect with others and keep my yoga practice going. A huge encouragement during this time of separation.
  • I appreciate that these classes are available to us during this time, even though we have to adapt to a different way of doing our classes.
  • Having something to show up for, a place to be at a certain time has given order to my days, structure to otherwise endless activity of a busy house. I am gaining fitness and strength as well.
  • I’m surprised, although I needn’t be, how therapeutic the virtual class is. Good connection and practice makes for a great day.
  • Now more than ever it is important to be mindful and gentle with ourselves. These classes are a brief respite from the grim news that bombards us daily.
  • Community is essential for us now— belonging to any group is essential for our wellbeing and sense of humanity. This is a delightful and healing way to do that!
  • Great to have the consistent accountability of the evening daily meditation class
  • I really enjoy the opportunity to sign on wherever I am where I can get a good internet connection. I have family around the NW and I know that when I make travel plans 
  • It’s just a good way to stay connected with Brant and fellow students and to be reminded that we’re all in the same boat and doing our best.
  • I’m currently in the evening meditation class. I find I am able to clear the chatter, which allows me to be more mindful as I determine my next steps. The poems that are shared are timely and profoundly impactful.
  • It’s a way to turn away from the din of the news cycle, and the feeling of physical confinement, by attending to the interior landscape.
  • I’ve found that the classes help me focus on being in the moment.
  • In the presence of your own home, you can experience a lovely hour of movement and meditative practice that nourishes both your body and spirit. This is the best thing to do for those you love, including yourself!
  • Love online classes with Brant. Excellent to be in your home & join others as a group. Easy to use technology.
  • It’s a wonderful lifeline to my friends in the yoga class. It’s great to see someone, talk to them at the beginning and end of class, and a joyous constant to see Brant each week.
  • The evening meditation sessions are a good way to bring perspective and peace into the close of the day.
  • Helps to provide a focus in these strange times. Meditation evenings are a perfect way to let go of the day’s thoughts, worries and challenges, and center myself before sleep.
  • Brant’s directed Mindful Yoga at home provides the same clear step-by-step instructions that we get in his studio. We get to work in the comfort of our own home and also have the opportunity to briefly interact with our fellow students both before and after class.
  • I did not expect this, but it turns out I focus in a little better when doing the yoga class at home. I finish class feeling relaxed and energized.
  • It’s good to stay connected with my class mates, do yoga with Brant and be able to keep some semblance of normalcy in this chaotic world.
  • Thank you thank you thank you 🙂
  • I’m very grateful we’ve been able to adapt to the challenges of our current situation and offer classes online. I took my first class last week and I felt great after.
  • I miss seeing all the other students in my class but there is something very calming about doing the class in my own family room.
  • You have done a wonderful job helping us all translation to this new technology and on-line community!
  • The extra intimacy of seeing our peers at home is a plus–and we get to see the yoga assistance animals occasionally make an appearance!
  • I prefer the zoom classes to in studio classes! Much better than I had hoped for! I do wish you would find some better resting music.
  •  It’s the difference between sanity and anxiety for me right now.
  • Definitely a great way to learn and grow in stressful and uncertain times.
  • During these extraordinary times, the online classes are a lifeline through which we know that we are all in this together. The opportunity to see and interact with others is a blessing. 
  • At the start of the first week my energy was scattered. By the end of the week despite many uncertainties and turbulence I felt peaceful acceptance and moments of stillness. I attribute much of this sense of calm to Shared Meditation Evenings each night at 9pm. Heartfelt gratitude ❤️
  • It gives me a deliberate time to pause and focus on something other than the COVID situation, to breathe, to know it’s possible to find the center again.
  • The weekly yoga class  is a great way to release anxiety and tension, especially in the present circumstances. 
  • A scheduled quiet time to focus on something other than world troubles.
  • This way of bringing 75 minutes of community to my week is an important lifeline.
  • It’s a refuge into a place of gentle motion and self-care.

 

Benediction by Laura Sawyer

Students share their interests and passions in many ways.  Laura Sawyer, a long time student, shared this rich and beautiful poem, a meditation on her connection with herself and nature’s elements in the forest at the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland.

Recited

 

BENEDICTION

Sunday mornings find me hiking
through a million shades of green,
in a soaring cathedral of sequoia and redwood, ferns gentle on the ground.

Praying
my way through the forest, every step
a meditation,
coolness and the scent of mingled vegetation, a sheltering surround.

Breathing in the sacred silence,
broken only by the sound of my dog huffing quietly beside me
and the wind singing through the trees, restoring what was missing deep inside.

Sharing peace
on the faces of strangers on the trail, fellow travelers
through the echoes of the holy
in this church of the arboretum, unfailing mender of my soul.