OQ6: Living well with a chronic illness, Part 2 (EN)

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Episode descrip­tion:

In this sec­ond part of the two-part con­ver­sa­tion, Andy McLel­lan and Erica Hamil­ton share some of the tech­niques they found use­ful in cop­ing with the phys­i­cal and emo­tional pain on their path towards healing.

Use­ful resources:

Vajra breath­ing technique

Guided audio med­i­ta­tions with the Bud­dhist teacher Tara Brach (includ­ing the loving-kindness/metta meditation)

The Prac­tice of Tonglen

Writ­ten instruc­tions for the prac­tice of Ton­glen (by Pema Chödron)

Video instruc­tions on Ton­glen  (by Pema Chödron)

A blog post on Ton­glen by Andy McLellan

Turn­ing Suf­fer­ing Inside Out: A Zen Approach to Liv­ing with Phys­i­cal and Emo­tional Pain by Dar­lene Cohen

 

OQ5: Living well with a chronic illness, Part 1 (EN)

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Episode Descrip­tion:

This week Irina is joined with cher­ished friends Andy McLel­lan, PhD (via Skype from Lon­don, UK) and Erica Hamil­ton, PhD, cur­rently liv­ing in Upp­sala, Swe­den. Andy and Erica also share how faced with a seri­ous ill­ness they had to learn to let go iden­ti­fy­ing with career and rela­tion­ships and find a new way of being.

Andy’s career as a research biol­o­gist was cut short by Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome at the age of 25. His phys­i­cal heal­ing is far from com­plete but he is able to take an active role in rais­ing his three chil­dren and often writes about Bud­dhism and healing.

Erica was 24 when she was diag­nosed first with ulcer­a­tive col­i­tis and later with Crohn’s col­i­tis. There are no signs of inflam­ma­tion in her body since 2006. She now works as a well­ness con­sul­tant and teaches classes in med­i­ta­tion and qigong.

Both Erica and Andy has been long time Bud­dhist prac­ti­tion­ers and med­i­tate daily.

This first part of the con­ver­sa­tion touches upon how our fast-paced life can lead to our dis­em­bod­i­ment and push­ing our­selves too far, the exist­ing in the world of West­ern med­i­cine dichotomy between the organic and the func­tional and how the absence of mea­sur­able cause of a med­ical con­di­tion influ­ences the atti­tude of the med­ical estab­lish­ment towards the patients. Andy and Erica also share how faced with a seri­ous ill­ness they they had to learn to let go iden­ti­fy­ing with career and rela­tion­ships and find a new way of being.

Episode Resources:

Andy’s blog on recov­er­ing from chronic illness

Erica’s site

Erica’s heal­ing blog Deter­mined to Heal

Other related resources:

Full Cat­a­stro­phe Liv­ing by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Rad­i­cal Accep­tance by Tara Brach
Liv­ing Well with Pain and Ill­ness by Vidya­mala Burch
Beat Fatigue With Yoga by Fiona Agombar

Tara Brach - a renouned west­ern teacher of Bud­dhist med­i­ta­tion, emo­tional heal­ing and spir­i­tual awakening.

Dar­lene Cohen’s site

OQ4: Andas! Du lever. (SW)

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Episode descrip­tion:

This episode is recorded in Swedish.

Denna vecka besöker Irina tvåbarns­mam­man, dramaped­a­gogen och and­ningsped­a­gogen Christina (Kicki) Boström i hennes mot­tagn­ing i Hågaby, Upp­sala. Kicki hjälper sina klien­ter att lösa upp spän­ningar och frigöra and­nin­gen genom att använda sig av olika and­ning­stekniker, indi­vidu­ellt och i grupp.

Var­för är det så vik­tigt att andas djupt och avs­lapp­nat? Vad hän­der när vi andas för högt upp, med bröstko­r­gen? Hur påverkar and­nin­gen bal­ans och styrkan? Hur kan vi få till­baka vår naturliga and­ning, den vi hade som barn?

Kicki pratar om de van­li­gaste anled­ningar till att vi som barn lär oss att andas med bröstko­r­gen och för­lorar kon­tak­ten med diafrag­man. Hon tar Irina genom en enkel övn­ing som kan hjälpa henne att ta reda på hennes and­ningsmön­ster och berät­tar hur vi kan genom att lägga märke till det, börja frigöra and­nin­gen och för­bät­tra livskval­itén och våra relationer.

Låter för enkelt? Det är för att det är! Pröva själv!

Om du har frå­gor om Kickis utbild­ningar och föreläs­ningar, maila henne på kicki@livselixiret.se.

Resurser:

Övn­ing i andningsmedvetande

Lägg en hand på magen, en hand på bröstet. Iak­t­tag din and­ning. Vilken hand rör sig mest.

Ta ned “brösthanden”, fort­sätt att iak­tta din and­ning. Om du fort­farande andas med bröstko­r­gen, ska du aktivt försöka andas med diafrag­man. Det är ditt naturliga sätt att andas på.

Om du då och då gör dig med­veten om att andas med diafrag­man, kom­mer din kropp att anamma den naturliga andningen.

Böcker näm­nda i avsnittet:

Livets källa – om and­nin­gens kraft och för­måga att läka av Gun­nel Minett.

The Breath­ing Book av Donna Farhi

Andra resurser:

Breathe! You are alive: Sutra on the full aware­ness of breath­ing av Thich Nhat Hahn

OQ03: I love you! And you! And you! (EN)

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Episode descrip­tion:

In this episode Irina is joined over Skype by Franklin Veaux. Franklin is a polyamory activist and main­tains a large online site about polyamory with a lot of resources for peo­ple who are new to the idea of poly, who have ques­tions about it and who want to develop the tools to make it work.

Polyamory (from Greek πολύ [poly, mean­ing many or sev­eral] and Latin amor [love]) is the prac­tice, desire, or accep­tance of hav­ing more than one inti­mate rela­tion­ship at a time with the knowl­edge and con­sent of every­one involved.

Franklin explores the myths about polyamory and the under­ly­ing them believes, deeply rooted in our West­ern cul­ture. Where does the idea that we can only love (roman­ti­cally) one per­son at a time come from? Why do many of us believe that we can only com­mit to one partner/relationship at a time? How can being com­pared to oth­ers be a good thing for a rela­tion­ship rather than seen as a threat to it?

Franklin also offers prac­ti­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools that can be used to make any rela­tion­ship better.

Do you have a ques­tion for Franklin? E-mail it to us or leave it in the com­ment to the post.

Find out more about polyamory on Franklin’s site.

Visit Franklin’s blog.