Mental health, practical advice

There is too much pressure on the psyche from the outside. A threat is felt from every direction, and the psyche responds with reflexes tuned for survival. In this mode a person is tense all the time, so fatigue appears and there is a feeling that there is no energy.

Yoga has practical methods for managing reflexes and directing consciousness. But it has too many Sanskrit terms, too many alien concepts. So yoga gets adapted and called psychology, neurobiology, psychotherapy, or biohacking. To make coffee, you do not have to know every stage the beans pass through, or the structure of the coffee machine. It is enough to understand which buttons to press to get the drink. We will do the same. I will mark only the necessary knowledge and skills that will help with a 100% guarantee. Because no matter what I or anyone else calls yoga, the essence of yoga will remain.

In two words, a human being consists of two large and complex groups of objects: the cells and organs of the physical body, and non-material consciousness, woven from subtle bodies and flows of energy. Everything is obvious with the physical body; for now I have nothing to add there. Consciousness should be perceived as an informational layer, as a description of personality.

By the way, modern scientists are also inclined toward a similar conclusion: besides the material universe, there is an informational layer that contains the laws and rules by which this universe exists. We rarely think about the obvious: why does water, under ideal conditions, boil at 100 degrees Celsius, not at 150 and not at 20? The water itself does not contain the description of the boiling process and its limits. It is logical to assume that these rules are stored somewhere. In the informational layer.

So consciousness is the subject of this informational layer. It may be clearer if I call such a layer quantum. Now, understanding consciousness as a quantum description of personality, and the body as a physical shell, we can go further.

If we describe the body's reaction to external factors, we will come to the conclusion that the body does not need tastes; the body does not possess categories of like or dislike. The body receives elements from food and the environment together with information about them. The body needs only information that either threatens it or helps it adapt. The rest the body ignores, but for consciousness it is important.

Consciousness forms an attitude toward what is happening, and according to this attitude the body forms sensations. But it also works in the opposite direction: what the body experiences directly affects consciousness. And consciousness begins to perceive what the body transmits to it.

And let us speak directly. our state constantly keeps us in tension and does not let us relax. It does not matter where you are now: in Ukraine or outside it. It still tries to hook you through news, fear, guilt, waiting for the next decision, the next threat, the next blow to life. We have not been able to rest for the fourth year already.

And it would seem to be a simple phrase: stop thinking about threats and danger, rest. But it is like the ban on thinking about a white monkey. The ban itself contains the thought that is forbidden to think. And the white monkey does not go anywhere.

There is one clear phrase in yoga: “You are what you think about.” The phrase is correct, but how do you use it? How do you stop thinking about dangers and threats when they sound from every side? The simple answer is: you do not. As long as you are inside the context of what is happening, and we cannot throw this context away because there is no safety, we come to a dead end.

Therefore any advice about rest and switching context does not work. How do you switch context when you hear a siren, or when zelia broadcasts from every iron, trying to pull you out of a “well-fed and satisfied” life outside Ukraine. Not that life outside Ukraine is well-fed and satisfied, but it is very hard to convince anyone that this is not so, because there is nothing more frightening than war.

Information detox works for a limited time: shocking news will reach us anyway. Relaxing music works only when there is an opportunity to relax. If a bandit with a weapon is standing in front of you and you feel threatened, you will not be able to relax. The most relaxing music in the world will not work, because the threat is right in front of you.

So for the advice of psychologists and biohacking coaches to start working, the ground must first be prepared. Consciousness must already have a primary setting for rest and relaxation.

There is such a phrase in yoga: “Life is a manifestation of kundalini.” This phrase is many-sided; I will take from it only the limited meaning needed here. If something feels, perceives, forms a subjective opinion, it does not happen automatically. There is some substance responsible for this. From pain to ecstasy, everything is formed thanks to this substance.

Consciousness is only perception, and only when kundalini and consciousness interact do sensations arise in the body. And the other way around: when the kundalini substance interacts with the body, consciousness is able to perceive.

Imagine yourself with the body of a robot. The entire body of this robot is controlled by electricity. All processes in it happen only because the robot has electricity. No electricity - the robot does not act. It becomes dead. It is the same with us: no interaction with kundalini - no life.

Since kundalini is still an abstract substance for us, like electricity in a robot, it must also have rules of interaction. Electricity has frequency, which shows how many times per second the current changes direction. In the human body, heart rhythm is responsible for frequency; by analogy with electricity, it changes the character of blood-flow movement. Breathing has a similar mechanism, because there is inhalation and exhalation. These two mechanisms are what govern how kundalini will interact.

In simplified terms, the heart is a timer that determines how many frames a sensation will have. If the heart is pounding wildly, it gives kundalini a larger number of frames to act through, and the perceived emotion feels stronger. If the heart rhythm is weak, perception is slowed down; kundalini has fewer frames for interaction, and the emotion is perceived more weakly.

So much space is given to breath control in yoga because consciousness cannot directly control the internal organs. Consciousness has only limited control over breathing. Consciousness can also control the eyelids, close and open the eyes, control the voice and movement. The effect should be directed not only at breathing, but at the whole spectrum that consciousness can control. The goal is to slow perception and, as a consequence, reduce the heart rhythm.

In the natural state, perception forms like this: bad, pause, bad, pause, and so on. In a state of tension it becomes: bad, bad, bad, with no pauses. Our task is to achieve the cycle: bad, pause, pause, bad, pause, pause. The more pauses there are, the weaker the perception, the less often kundalini interacts with both the body and consciousness.

During sleep, heart rhythm can drop to 40 beats per minute, almost 2 times lower than when awake. Advanced yogis can stop the heart completely or slow its rhythm strongly, down to 1-2 beats per minute. That is, of course, impressive, but for us it will be enough to slow the heartbeat by at least 10-15%.

To achieve this, you should stop moving: do not scratch, do not yawn, do not look for a comfortable position. Stop the movement of the body as much as possible. Ideally, completely stop any movements and forbid even fine motor activity. After that, you need to close your eyes. Ideally, there should be no light at all, because the body will react even to small changes in light, which are perceived even with closed eyes.

Sound should also preferably be excluded, but with sufficient concentration it may naturally stop being perceived automatically.

Only after preparing the body can you move on to breathing. Breathing should be deep and slow: the slower, the better. There should be a hold on the inhale and on the exhale until the first discomfort. At some point the breath will become barely noticeable; it may even seem that you are almost not breathing. It is not worth fighting thoughts, but it is worth trying to slow the breath.

As soon as you enter the slowing mode, all perception will begin to turn from bright to gray. When you reach this effect, you will enter an altered state of consciousness. And already in it you can begin working with thoughts.

Your task is not to fight them, otherwise you will get the effect of “not thinking about the white monkey,” but to direct them into another channel. Only at this stage will the phrase begin to work: “You are what you think about.”

Safety rules. You must not think about the past or the future. You must not think about real objects. Thoughts should be as detached from reality as possible. Visit fantasy worlds, imagine yourself as a mythical being. The main idea is to move as far away from reality as possible.

And then you will enter a state similar to dreaming, with active but slowed consciousness. If you do this lying down, you will surely fall asleep. So this is also a recipe for insomnia.

This is exactly the practical meaning of yoga. Not high-flown words, not complex terms, and not an attempt to convince yourself that everything is fine. But giving consciousness, through the body, a chance to leave the threat mode for at least a few minutes.

These few minutes will not solve the war, will not cancel the decisions of our state, and will not remove the outer chaos. But they can return to you the feeling that there is still a place inside where you can come. There is an action that depends on you. There is a way to help yourself without waiting for someone to finally create the conditions for rest.

Sometimes that is already enough not to break.