Finding Quietude in a Noisy World

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac.

Recently I had the honor of taking part in a live online class taught by one of my heroes, Julia Cameron.

Julia is the author of the international bestseller The Artist’s Way, as well as over 40 other publications. Her work has impacted my life more than any other writer and if you know me well, you know how often I recommend her to others. 

I had the pleasure of meeting this humble soul in person a couple years ago during an Artist’s Way workshop she hosted near my hometown. At that time, I was celebrating over a decade of writing Morning Pages and was able to let her know personally how profound an impact this practice had (and continues to have) on my life.

My morning writing practice drops me every day into silence to listen to my inner truths, regardless of how uplifting or painful they may be.

Throughout this new course, Julia talked about the power of deep listening to hear the sounds in your surroundings, your mind, your heart, to guidance, and even the sound of silence.

It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by Ram Dass: “The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”

As I got quiet and listened, I started hearing sounds I’d never heard before in my home, during my yoga practice and on my walks.

I began to have a greater appreciation for simple things, like the scratching of my dogs’ feet as they walked across our hardwood floors and my mother’s voice as she spoke to me on the phone. 

I began to listen more deeply to my inner wisdom for what I wanted or needed. And I started to listen more acutely to the guidance that comes constantly from Source.

To me, deep listening is at the heart of presence.

To be able to hear what others have to say without needing to respond or do anything is freeing. 

How liberating to simply be present with what is rather than feel I have to control everything!

Silence is powerful. More often than not, simply listening to someone share rather than speaking provides the space for clarity to arise for that person. The same goes when you listen to yourself.

At a time in history that’s perhaps noisier than any other — with the blaring sounds of the news, social media, and a landscape filled with fear, anxiety and worry, it’s essential to stop and listen.

While you may not be able to turn off the noise, becoming more aware of the sounds in both your inner and outer worlds can change how you experience them.

Taking time to slow down and truly listen helps lower the volume of distraction and tune you in to the wisdom that lies within.

Then, you can reveal the truth of not just what you truly feel, but also what you truly need and want.


2 Simple Practices to Help You Listen More Deeply:

  1. Listen & Write

    With a pen and paper in hand, sit in a quiet corner of your home. 

    Close your eyes. 

    Take three deep breaths.

    Now, open your eyes and write down every sound you hear in your environment—the fan of your heater, cars driving by outside, birds chirping, the rain or the breeze, the sound of your children walking or dogs barking, etc.

    Write down every single sound you hear for the next 3-5 minutes.

    Then pause and take another three breaths.

    Be still with all that is in the moment.

    Now write down what you feel – physically, emotionally and mentally.

    This may stir up some emotion, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve taken time like this for yourself. Invite in all the feelings. 

    Listening deeply is essential to hearing your personal truth. Writing it down clarifies the path to your authentic self.


  2. 10 Minute Meditation (BEME Meditation): the meditation below will help you listen more closely, more often.

    I like to call it The BEME Meditation; it’s a practice I developed that invites you to listen to your body, emotions, mind and environment, without judgment. 

While judgments and inner narratives can distort reality and cause you to suffer, the process of quiet observation supports you to be authentic by simply being more present.

So feel, hear, be.

And know that everything will be OK, even if you don’t feel OK in this particular moment.

What’s the soundtrack that’s playing in your life right now? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. is Co-Owner and Director of A Center for Natural Healing in Santa Clara, California, a health and wellness clinic that specializes in Classical Chinese Medicine and Traditional Japanese Acupuncture. Dr. Moafi offers a one-of-a-kind form of empowerment coaching, clinical services, and transformational workshops and online courses that blend the ancient practices of Classical Chinese Medicine and Yoga. More information at www.setarehmoafi.com. 

Move Your Body, Transform Your Mood - and Life

by Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac.

As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, I was an anxious young woman. Determined to perform my best in a highly competitive environment, I put constant and endless pressure on myself. 

The pressure sourced in my mind built up in my body. To relieve it, I pushed myself physically, through intense cardiovascular exercise, to release the stress.

But the stress and anxiety only seemed to worsen.

Little did I know that the harder I ran, the more heat I was accumulating, and this heat was obstructing my capacity to process my emotions (more on this later).

I continued to run myself physically and mentally from one accomplishment to the next, collapsing during my menstrual periods and spending the rest of the month trying to recover.

Then one day, my mom suggested: "why don't you try Yoga?"

She said it had helped one of her clients and was becoming really popular throughout the Bay Area. 

"Yoga?" I said as I looked over some information she'd sent me. "I can hardly sit still for a minute. How am I going to stretch for 90 minutes? Besides, I'm the stiffest person in the world."

"I think that's the point," my wise mother replied. "Yoga could probably help you get flexible and calm you down. You can't keep pushing yourself and be so anxious."

Yeah, anxious and depressed, I thought. Depends on the day.

Weeks passed and one night my roommate brought up a list of DeCal (student-organized) classes that would be available for the next semester. One of the classes jumped out at me immediately. 'Yoga for Relaxation,' it read. And then a short description of how it can help reduce your overall stress and anxiety. 

I turned to my roommate and told her that ironically, my mom had suggested I do Yoga.

"Wanna try it together?" she replied. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to say yes. Despite my initial resistance, my roommate's interest somehow sparked mine.

For the first two weeks of the twice weekly Yoga class, I spent the majority of the class asleep.

The beautiful Native American Yoga instructor (I remember this because she had a shamanic, angelic presence about her) started each class in Savasana and for at least the first couple of classes, I never got out of that posture. I laid there sleeping and the teacher didn't even bother to wake me up. Clearly, she knew something I didn't.

As weeks passed, I started to be more active in the class and I began to feel a shift in my life. I started to practice what I learned at home and soon I no longer felt my heart pounding in my chest throughout the day. Having had severe test anxiety my whole life, I found myself so calm during midterms that I hardly recognized myself. And the results were extraordinary.

Not only did I feel more calm and clear, but I also started performing better than I ever had, setting the curve in some of my most challenging classes.

The biggest shift occurred when I stepped out of Yoga class one evening. I could hear the birds singing, the wind blowing, the cool evening air on my face. Were there birds here before? Was the wind always so gentle? I'd never been aware like this before. And I noticed something remarkable within me...my mind was utterly quiet.

This was my first experience with stillness.

As my body became more flexible, I found an unprecedented sense of ease, presence and calm in my mind. Everything in my life started to change for the better, and Yoga became a regular daily practice. You might even say it became an obsession.

I practiced any time I could during the day and started taking all the on-campus Yoga classes I could fit into my schedule at Cal (at that time, Yoga studios were few and far between).

When I went to register for my last semester of classes, I was completely caught off guard - and I honestly credit my daily Yoga practice for this. My advisor reviewed my coursework, closed the book and took off her glasses. She looked up at me and said, "You're done." I couldn't believe it. Somehow I'd already completed all the classes I needed to graduate. She explained that I could either stay on another semester and work on a thesis or graduate early.

The most incredible part of this experience was that I had come this far in the absence of the anxiety and depression that had distracted me in my life for so long. I felt a sense of inner peace that grew stronger each and every day I breathed through a practice. 

I decided to graduate early and commit to Yoga fully. I registered for a one month Yoga teacher training in San Francisco and subsequently started teaching at local studios throughout the Peninsula. Within two years, I co-founded Yoga of Los Altos, the first Yoga studio in Los Altos, California. Soon thereafter I sold the business and began my studies in Chinese Medicine, which in time led me to meet my husband, Salvador, and to co-create the beautiful community at A Center for Natural Healing. To this day, the heart and soul of my work is in understanding the mind-body connection that I was introduced to through Yoga.

Now, I'm not saying that life becomes easy when you practice Yoga.

Challenges will arise whether or not you practice. But having a consistent practice provides you with tools to better deal with the natural ebbs and flows of life. And that makes life a lot more enjoyable.

I'm sharing this story to exhibit the power of a regular Yoga practice, and to empower you to make positive changes in your life.

Moving your body in the right way can transform your life.

What is the right way to move your body? In coordination with your breath. So whether it's Yoga, Qi Gong, Taiji, or any type of moving Meditation practice, activate the breath of life and your life will unfold in ways you never imagined possible. And these changes can be as simple as a more steady mental-emotional state.

The Mind-Body-Breath Connection According to Chinese Medicine

According to Chinese Medicine, the Lungs are in charge of respiration and are the organs responsible for processing grief. When the Lungs are weak, they hold grief and thus increase our experience of depression. 

The Liver governs the smooth flow of Qi and regulates the emotions, especially anger. The Liver channel runs through the diaphragm, which separates the thoracic cavity that contains the heart and lungs, from the abdominal cavity.

The diaphragm is crucial for respiration. As it contracts, the thoracic cavity expands and air is drawn into the lungs. If the diaphragm is tight or constricted, its proper contraction becomes inhibited and thus less air flows into the lungs. 

A tight diaphragm indicates Liver Qi (energy) stagnation and can cause Lung Qi (energy) deficiency. As a result, we may feel angry, anxious and depressed.

Conventional aerobic exercise pumps oxygen into the lungs temporarily but does not demand the mind-body connection of practices like Yoga, which focus on deep breathing to improve the overall health of the lungs.

Deep breathing also regulates the autonomic nervous system so it's not stuck in a hyper-sympathetic stress state. This allows for the Liver to relax so it can smooth the movement of Qi throughout the body. The result is a more calm and relaxed mental and emotional state as well as improved organ function for healthy digestion, elimination, and sleep.

Coordinating body movements with the breath cools the heat that may otherwise build up in the Liver due to excess strain during exercise. As a result, exercises such as Yoga, Taiji and Qi Gong that coordinate breath with movement can transform your mood and improve mental clarity. And since heat drives inflammation and stress, which are both major causes of disease, this transformation improves your health on all levels.

Deeper breaths. Calmer mind. Stable emotions. Better health.

That's the power of Yoga and movement practices done mindfully to coordinate the body with the breath.

Setareh Moafi, Ph.D., L.Ac. is co-owner and Director of A Center for Natural Healing in Santa Clara, California. The Silicon Valley-based health and wellness clinic specializes in Classical Chinese Medicine and Traditional Japanese Acupuncture with a clinic and studio where Setareh offers clinical services and transformational workshops that blend the ancient practices of Classical Chinese Medicine and Yoga. More information at www.setarehmoafi.com and www.acenterfornaturalhealing.com. 

 

Understanding Yin & Yang in Your Body

by Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac.

At the core of Chinese Philosophy and Chinese Medicine is the fundamental principle of Yin and Yang. 

The concept of Yin and Yang is often attributed to the philosophical traditions of Daosim. This holds true for the theory of Five Elements as well. These major theoretical concepts were, however, all established by the School of Naturalism that predated Daoism. This school was also called the School of Yin and Yang. The first mention of Yin and Yang are found in the I Ching, a book of cosmology established by this school, dating back to 700 B.C.

The ideas of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements were established as theoretical principles in order to understand the cosmos and man’s relation to the cosmological forces found in nature. Yin and Yang are symbolized by the black and white divisions within a circle, indicating the circle of life and the movement of energy from one basic form into another.

As described in Chapter 1 of the Dao de Ching: "From nothing, came the one, the Ether that was the first Essence of life.  From the one, formed the two and from the two creates the myriad of all things."

This is how Yin and Yang are considered the fundamental principles of life and creation. 

Yin represents the substantial resources of life while Yang is the motivating force that works with these resources. Yang is about action, Yin is about substance. From the Chinese philosophical creation idea, first comes the force, the Qi, the Yang aspect creating a constrictive energetic field. As this constrictive field gathers, the condensation of gas creates the dust that densifies into matter. In this way, Yang initiates the formation of Yin. In other words, function creates form.

Prior to planetary matter were clouds of gas. Yang is the gaseous state, the Heaven. Yin is the state of particles creating matter, our Earth.

As the Earth forms, matter collects together into a sphere with its gaseous state contained within its center. The magmatic core found within the Earth equates to the core energetic center that is called the “Dan Tian” or “Elixir Field” in the body of humans. The Dan Tian, located below the navel, is the most powerful energetic force within the body that maintains optimal function and preserves the integrity of form.

When using the terms Yin and Yang to describe personality types, these definitions do seem contrary. For example, a Yin personality type is more constricted or constrained and in its extreme state an introvert whereas a Yang personality type is very expressive and in its extreme negative state rather manic or belligerent.

The more Yang, the more expressive and the more Yin, the more reserved. 

There are four basic principles of Yin and Yang. 

  1. Yin and Yang are oppositional forces.

  2. Yin and Yang are interdependent and cannot exist without the support of each other.

  3. Yin and Yang are mutually creative as one energetic movement can transform into the other.

  4. Yin and Yang are mutually consumptive forces as each will consume the other as it becomes over predominant.

These are the fundamental aspects of YIn and Yang that form the basis for understanding the forces influencing and shaping our selves and our lives. These principles of Yin and Yang are the basic building blocks that guide us to create balance in body and mind.

Yin relates to contraction and introversion, darkness, coldness, feminity and alkalinity.

Yang relates to expansion and expression, brightness, warmth, masculinity and acidity. 

If a person is too Yang, overactive and overstimulated with work, exercise, sex and drugs such as caffeine, cocaine, or energy drinks, this can lead to excessive heat in the body. Excessive heat or acidity in the body will burn the body out.

Over time, too much Yang will lead excess Yin as overactivity will create fatigue and lethargy. Hypo-metabolism will potentially result with lowered thyroid and adrenal function.

In this way, balancing activity (Yang) with rest (Yin) is essential to creating a balanced, healthy life.

Salvador Cefalu, M.S., L.Ac. is Founder & Co-Director of A Center for Natural Healing in Santa Clara, CA, a wellness clinic that specializes in Classical Chinese Medicine & Japanese Meridian Therapy, a rare non-insertion form of Acupuncture. More information at www.acenterfornaturalhealing.com.