Separate tension from force. Developing strength does not imply generating tension. If we lift a heavy box without having strength, if we are stressed by a situation, or if we spend the whole day in front of the computer without moving with our head sunk between our shoulders, it is likely that we generate tension and therefore wear at a muscular level, but also at an energetic level. We accumulate fatigue.

When we practice, the idea is to accumulate strength, not fatigue. Collect practice after practice a little more body awareness, breathing capacity, muscle strength, joint flexibility, ability to focus, communication with our body. We could say that the combination of all of these in the right proportions results in strength.

If the joints are stiff, the muscles are tense and we breathe badly, we need a much greater effort to do anything. That's why when I think of strength I like to imagine not only the development of muscles, but a combination of resources that work intelligently, a sum that results in strength.

And what I find even more interesting is that, if we take strength in this integrated way, we can think of it not only as muscular, but also as a capacity for focus, or emotional support, or tenacity. And, depending on what we want to underpin, the rest becomes available. For example, if we are in fact looking to develop more muscular strength, our breathing, capacity of focus, emotional energy, joint flexibility will be fundamental tools to go where we want to go. Bring strength and sensitivity closer together, not further apart.

Have you registered which part of your body has more strength? Would you say that your emotional structure is strong without detracting from your sensitivity? And your thinking? How do all these variables interact in you? Let's practice! To perceive ourselves, to support what is necessary, to think of strength as the development of our potential.

When we talk about energy, we are referring to biological energy: the energy generated by cells through the combustion process. Although it is not the same thing, we can compare this process to lighting a fire: a fuel and a combustion agent, wood and air, are needed. In the case of cells, these would be oxygen and nutrients. In the same way that the fire lights up more when we fan it, if we fan the lungs, the cells will produce more energy. How much more? The difference can be enormous.

Cells produce a type of molecule called ATP. These molecules are responsible for storing and releasing energy as the body needs it. They are like a telephone battery: they charge and store energy, which is consumed as the body needs it. When a cell receives oxygen, it can produce up to thirty-two ATP molecules with one molecule of glucose, i.e. nutrients. Without oxygen, it produces only two. But not only oxygen produces combustion: a good elimination of carbon dioxide is also needed. If we go back to the image of lighting a fire, it means having a good chimney to release the combustion gases. If the carbon dioxide is not eliminated, the fire suffocates and, in a similar way, our cells suffocate as the blood acidifies. This is why training breathing techniques is so efficient in producing cellular energy.

Extending the scientific definition, we can consider as biological energy any energy of nature that manifests itself in the body. For example, heat is a biological manifestation of thermal energy: where there is heat, there is energy. Electromagnetism is also a form of energy that we encounter; our nervous system transmits electrical impulses. In all cases, these are energies that have their physical laws and that our body, like all living beings, generates, stores and uses for all its biological processes.

Adaptation, habit, learning, plasticity allow us to reinvent ourselves for survival, whether biological or intellectual in a broad sense (I am referring to the capacity to make our thoughts, points of view or decisions more flexible when we seek agreement with other people).

We can see adaptation in how we become accustomed to the weight of clothing on the body, in the way we incorporate new cultures or routines. These are changes that can occur unconsciously or consciously; sometimes to keep up with the times, and sometimes to achieve what we want to do or to become who we want to be.

First it is learned, then it is repeated and becomes a habit. By sustaining it over time, that profound change takes place: plasticity, transformation. Once something has been learned, it remains available as a resource, ready to be activated when we need it. Think, for example, of the ability to concentrate.

There are tasks that require very little attention, but others require 100%. If we do not invest that energy, we may not achieve the expected result, or we may take much longer to achieve it and spend more resources than necessary.

Habit and learning also apply to concentration. We can learn to focus the mind when we wish and to abstract ourselves from what is happening around us, to generate a state of full concentration.

You can start training your concentration without the need for it to be useful at that moment. As a game. Choose a moment of the day, it can be at your desk at work, and fix your gaze on a point in front of you -an image, a mark on the wall or an object on the table-. If you see that you get scattered, change the object on which you are focusing. Hold the exercise for a couple of minutes. You will notice how the environment begins to blur. Once you have trained your abstraction capacity, it is time to keep your attention on the chosen point.

In this way we train our mind and thinking. And when the time comes when you need more attention and concentration, the habit will already be in you: your head will know what you are proposing and will follow your game ;)

Fragment from the book Welcome Yôga by Edgardo Caramella

Chapter on Organic Cleansing Techniques (Kriyás)

Nature has distributed remedies everywhere.

PLINY THE ELDER

Talking about organic cleansing implicitly means affirming that we need to eliminate waste and toxins from our organism in some way.

Until the beginning of the industrial era, man only had to face the natural aggressions of the external environment. Toxic fruits, poisonous mushrooms, plants that produced allergies, microbes, bacteria, poisonous animals, etc., were its main enemies. But today, as a consequence of progress and great industrialization, the human being is increasingly disturbed in his biological balance, by his life habits and also by the chemical invasion of the environment that surrounds him, which does not stop increasing.

Since we cannot change the world, the most intelligent, feasible and effective thing is to change ourselves.

In ancient times, the yôgis developed a series of very effective techniques, called kriyás, to stimulate organic detoxification.

In our body there is an accumulation of undesirable substances, either due to the entry of foreign substances or due to the excessive accumulation of toxins. Toxins are waste products from cellular metabolism. A part of them comes from the wear and tear of the organism in its biological life; others are generated as a consequence of the degradation and transformation of food substances. In small quantities, their presence is perfectly normal since the organism is prepared to get rid of them.

This clearly shows us that we must adapt our diet to our needs, since, if we eat more than we can burn, the body is faced with an excess of substances that it does not know what to do with.

Scientists affirm that each person consumes an average of three kilos per year of additives, such as colorants, emulsifiers, stabilizers, preservatives, etc., which are currently present in almost all foods. But we not only assimilate toxins through the digestive tract; harmful substances also reach us through the skin, which is extremely permeable. When we breathe, we incorporate tobacco smoke, hydrocarbon gases and many other substances that are present in the air even if we ignore it.

It seems a polar wave is coming. Yesterday winter began. Today it rained, the sun came out, it got cloudy, it was cold, it was nice. A lot of diversity throughout the same day. If my decisions / plans had depended on the weather, I would have been a kite at the total mercy of stimuli. And if I had ignored my surroundings, I would definitely have had a bad time.

July, which is approaching, brings multiple themes, such as the weather today. It is my turn to write about freedom and discipline; Meanwhile, the furious wind of the beginning of winter blows, gets between the trees and to that clear climate of unease, which is sometimes experienced on Sundays, is added that of the restlessness of the wind, of what can apparently be, in the same way, kind and hostile.

I feel before this subject as one who sits before a small fire that shelters. In part it was because of this sometimes unthinkable duo —freedom and discipline— that years ago, one day, I decided that I wanted to teach the DeRose Method. It was the combination of those two things that I didn't know it was possible to put together. I call discipline, in my case, the ability to build anything: paint a picture, run a school, write a book of poems, sustain a bond, train something consistently (beyond the weather). I call discipline the sum of little bricks that give existence to what we want to carry out. And freedom, the way we build it. Without that reaching the point of subduing us. Being able to build, create, carry out projects, relationships, life itself without it being at our expense. It seems obvious, but it is not. That is why it often happens to us that, even doing what we like, something is not being as we wanted. And not because everything has to be as we want, far from it. But sometimes we have that clear feeling of being aware of more, that what we want to do so much is occupying places that belong to other things, even that it has lost its course and overflows everywhere.

I thought that freedom and discipline permeate the way we train in schools, but also our way of teaching, working and building. Not because we always do well, but because it is a variable that we take into account when making decisions, I would almost say when doing anything.

Discipline brings us the possibility of building. Freedom, to establish a bond with what we are creating, whether individually or collectively; a loving, considerate, powerful, channeled and therefore lasting bond. I don't know if you've ever wondered how freedom and discipline coexist in you, but know that they are a great duo and, when they go hand in hand in a project, they unleash unexpected potential.

Learn breathing techniques to better deal with emotions:

There are several breathing techniques we can use to regulate our emotions and improve our emotional well-being. Here are some of them:

Diaphragmatic breathing:

This technique consists of breathing deeply through the nose, filling the lungs with air and expanding the abdomen. Then, slowly release the air through the nostrils, while the abdomen goes in. When air enters, the abdomen projects outwards, when air exits, the abdomen goes in. This technique can help manage anxiety and stress.

Rhythmic breathing:

This technique initially consists of applying a time to inhale and exhale. You can add retention time with and/or without air. However, these are more advanced variations, and it is advisable to learn with a properly trained teacher. Rhythmic breathing brings mental stability and contributes to improving sleep.

Start using the 1-1-1 rhythm. This means that you will inhale, hold the air in your lungs, and exhale in the same time, which can be 3, 4, 5 seconds, depending on your breathing capacity.

If this rhythm is very comfortable for you, switch to 1-2-1. That is, doubling the retention time with air.

No technique should cause discomfort or accelerate the heart.

Alternate breathing:

This technique, as the name suggests, consists of alternating the nostril through which you breathe. Excellent for stabilizing emotions and improving concentration. You should alternate the nostril in activity whenever the lungs are full of air.

Accelerated breathing:

Do this technique ALWAYS SITTING. IF YOU FEEL DIZZY, STOP. It can be useful for increasing energy and motivation. Breathe quickly and deeply through your nose at an accelerated rate, keeping your mouth closed and your expression relaxed.

Accelerated breathing activates the sympathetic nervous system and is excellent for times when we need an extra boost of energy and more lucidity.

Consult your doctor before performing any of these techniques. They do not serve as therapy, although they greatly improve the quality of life.

In addition to the techniques mentioned, it is important to remember that simple conscious and focused breathing helps to regulate emotions and promote greater emotional balance in times of stress or anxiety.

Therefore, start observing yourself in your daily life: notice how your breathing is, especially in moments of greater challenge or difficulty.

It's not the same to read, study, or practice philosophy.

We can read philosophy like reading a story. In search of inspiration, perhaps learning something, incorporating some thought model to solve an issue that afflicts us.

We can go to university to study philosophy. Read many authors. Compare them. Listen to profound explanations of the context in which the texts were written, the stories and lives of their authors. Become expert connoisseurs of the proposals of each philosophical line.

But practicing philosophy is another thing.

Practicing philosophy is living it. It is having a compass and using it so as not to walk aimlessly. It is permanently applying the proposed thought models to the small and big moments of life. Especially to the small ones, because with a little luck that prepares us for the big ones.

Training meditation is, to a large extent, training concentration. A simple meditation exercise is to imagine a geometric figure and try to keep that image present without getting distracted.

In very brief moments we will inevitably get distracted. The distractions that arise will be of one of these three types: physical, emotional, or mental.

A physical distraction can be, for example, that the knees start to hurt, the back gets tired, or the neck bothers us. Physical sensations that take the focus of attention that we were trying to maintain on a certain thought and bring it towards the body.

An emotional distraction is a little more subtle. For example, we may feel anxiety or boredom. Perhaps a feeling of sadness surfaces. Or if we had a bad day and we are in a bad mood, it becomes difficult to direct attention towards the object of concentration.

Mental distractions are thoughts. We remember something, we start thinking about something else. We make associations. We direct attention to memories of the past or projections of the future.

To reduce these distractions and advance in meditation training, all these aspects (physical, emotional and mental) have to be worked on. Performing a comprehensive work of the individual is crucial if we want to obtain true results with this technique.

Book - Thoughts Unveiled - DeRose
Biological yeast for life to grow and become fluffy

I think, therefore I am. This is how Descartes referred to the human prerogative to think, in his Discourse on the Method, in 1637. With this, we conclude that the Method has been discussed since at least that date!

There are many ways to transmit the DeRose Method: technical, philosophical, ethical, behavioral discourse, stories, messages or through sutras, which are the maxims of this book. Sometimes, a simple sentence contains the synthesis of a complex premise or the impact of a perception capable of changing your life forever.

The thoughts in this book are little seeds upon which you can meditate and, with that, germinate conclusions, discoveries, paths through which, who knows, you will be able to lead your life with more security, success and harmony. These maxims can be the path of stones, through which you will lead your destiny, erring less and getting it right more; suffering less and enjoying more. These sutras provide maturity, consideration, understanding, comfort and even a certain mastery over the facts of life.

Available on our website!

We have multiple intelligences: bodily, emotional, intellectual... and they are like gears in the same machine.

There are two main approaches throughout history to develop the capacities considered higher. One is perfectly in line with the Judeo-Christian cultural heritage: abolish the body, deny it, withdraw attention and importance from it, so that other intelligences can emerge. The other proposes to develop the body (that gear) as a way to achieve overall harmony.

Among the supramental capacities that have been pursued at different times is meditation. Today there are many systems that propose to develop this aptitude. In many cases they go straight to the point, proposing the permanence in immobility with the legs crossed for hours. Have you already tried it? Have you tried to remain motionless for several minutes? From a fly to sleeping legs, at the beginning everything disperses you.

If you are not strong, with a resistant biological structure, meditating is very difficult. In fact, one of the obstacles to meditation cited by a well-known sage who lived in the third century B.C.E., Patanjali, is illness, the incidence of which is minimized if there is care for the body.

If instead of trying the farthest thing, meditation, and crashing against the closest thing, the body, we start by paying attention to the closest thing and try to feel what is happening inside, for example listening to the heartbeat, this changes the equation and the corporal universe becomes an ally to improve concentration, an indispensable previous step for meditation, which consists in stopping to think.

You have traveled the path that leads from worm to man, and many things in you continue to be worm. Once you were monkeys, and now also man is more monkey than any monkey. And the wisest of you is only a split being, a hybrid of plant and ghost. But do I command you to become ghosts or plants? wrote Nietzsche in his Thus Spake Zarathustra. This hybrid of plant and ghost, a split being, is the human being disconnected from his bodily, sensory heritage, the spiritualist in search of elevation? However, prior to this vision is that other one that sees no opposition between body and soul, does not seek to dissect what would not survive separately. If I fall to the ground I get up with the help of the ground, is the phrase of shakta tradition that sums up this view.