La Yoga Ayurveda & Health — October 2017

MEDITATION

by Lorin Roche

Upgrade your Flight for Free

9 Practices to Awaken the Joy of Flying

Y

ogis have been dreaming of flying for
thousands of years, and now here
we are. Flying has become so com-
monplace that more than three billion people
fly somewhere every year. If you have ever
looked up in the sky and wondered, “How
many people are up there right now?” –– the
answer is that at any given moment there are
over a million people in about 9,000 com-
mercial passenger planes. You can track them
with an app on your phone.
Amazingly, flying by commercial airlines is
the safest form of transportation that has ever
existed on earth, by far. Flying is much safer
than walking along the street, or bicycling,
and is twenty times safer than driving. Flying
has become so commonplace that it’s sort of
boring and tiring.
Let’s look at some ways yoga can enhance
our ability to enjoy flying and arrive at our
destination more rested and relaxed.

Prepare yourself before flying.
For several days before your trip, practice
simple breath awareness in an informal way
as you move about in your world doing your
chores. Again and again throughout the day,
savor the free flow of air and the immediate
sense of relaxation that comes from enjoying
a breath. This is anaha, breathing freely.
Breathing is a multisensory experience:
there is a subtle sound, a whoosh of air, and

there are sensations throughout the body,

from the nose down through the mucous

membranes of the throat, into the expanding

and contracting lungs. Breathing in this way

is not so much concentrating on breath as

delighting in it.

Develop a 15-second practice.

From time to time, breathe out slowly, twice,

through the mouth. This takes about 15

seconds. All you are doing is extending the

exhalation slightly and making a soft whoo

sound as you breathe out. Make up your own

name for this, I call it the ‘whoosh breath.’

This tends to invoke the ‘soothing response,’

the body’s built-in antidote to anxiety or the

stress response.

Learn to identify the sensations that go

with bodily relaxation, including stress-release

sensations. As you are relaxing, your body

may ask you, “Are you sure you don’t need

this tension?” As you continue to breathe,

relaxation will gently permeate the tension

and dissolve it. A 5-minute practice is a series

of 15-second cycles.

Develop a standing practice.

Whenever you are standing in your living

room or in line somewhere, develop a quick

tense and release practice. Pick an area of

the body and introduce a bit of tension into

it –– you could start with your feet –– and

tense, then let go. Then your calves, buttocks,

shoulders, and face. Experiment with tensing

and releasing for longer and shorter periods

of time. You will be able to do this invisibly

while standing, waiting, or sitting, anywhere.

With the body, everything goes in oppo-

sites. To breathe in, first breathe out. To be

awake tomorrow, get a good night’s sleep

tonight. To be relaxed, you can introduce

tension to your muscles then let go.

Practices for the day of the trip.

Before walking out the door, sit for five

minutes and enjoy the flow of your breath.

Practice welcoming the sensations you feel,

which often are complex: relaxation, excite-

ment, anxiety, joy, sorrow, impatience,

fatigue, jumpiness. Welcome them all, for

whatever you feel, you heal.

Whenever stressful or anxious thoughts and

sensations arise and you breathe with them,

you soothe them and wash away a bit of the

excess tension. Then stand and practice simple

breath awareness –– it is so simple. Much of

the airport experience is standing and waiting

in lines.

Find Ease in your seat.

As soon as you get settled on the plane, ex-

periment with some 15-second practices such

as the whoosh breath and the tense-to-release

exercise.