Empowering Practice for Managing Your Mood

In Yoga, we call an image or vision that inspires us a “bhavana.” This guided bhavana exercise for calm strength, also uses pranayama yoga breathing and a mantra. You may wish to use it as a way to foster a sense of empowerment or to maintain steadiness through a difficult time.

We’ll be using a 4: 4: 6 breath, exhaling with a mantra. This means that you’ll be breathing in for four counts, pausing the breath for four counts if that’s comfortable for you, and then breathing out for six counts. You don’t need to count the beats of the exhalation, because we’ll be releasing the breath with the mantra “so hum,” which means “I am that.” In using the mantra “so hum,” you’re saying that on the deepest level, beneath all the obstructions—the chronic tension in your physical body, or feelings like fear and sadness in your emotional body, or the negative self-talk that might be going on in your mental body, there is no separation between you and that image for calm strength that you are holding in your heart. Beneath the blocks and obstructions, you already are that. The seeds for your wellbeing are already planted. We just need to choose to water those seeds, seeds like calm strength and peace and love, rather than the seeds of self-hatred and judgment.

Come into a comfortable seated position with your spine erect. Allow your eyes to close and begin noticing the breath as it moves in and out through the tip of your nostrils. No need to alter or change your breathing pattern. Just notice.

Now bring into your mind’s heart an image for calm strength. It may be an image from nature… or a face… or a symbol. If an image doesn’t readily appear, then just think the words “calm strength.”

Now see that image for calm strength or think the words. As you breathe in for four counts, you will be extending your arms out in front of your solar plexus, the manipura chakra, which is your seat of identity and self-esteem. Then sustain the breath for 4 counts, visualizing your image for calm strength or thinking the words. Next you will draw your hands to your solar plexus, one palm folded on top of the other, with the mantra “so hum.” We’ll repeat this three times, and then we’ll do the gesture and mantra one more time, drawing calm strength to the heart.

Find your comfortable and steady seat and allow your eyes to close. Inhale your arms out in front of your solar plexus. Hold the breath 2 – 3- 4, visualizing your image for calm strength.

  • Exhale with Soooo Hummm
  • Inhale 2-3-4
  • Pause the breath, embracing your image
  • Exhale Soooo Hummm
  • Inhale 2-3-4
  • Sustain the breath with your image for calm strength in your heart’s mind
  • Exhale with Soooo Hummm
  • Now, on this last round, draw your image for calm strength into your heart
  • Inhale 2-3-4
  • Pause the breath. I am that
  • Sooo Hummm

When you complete, sit with your eyes closed with your image for calm strength, feeling the shift in your posture, your breath and your general wellbeing. Can you imagine when you might use this practice?

 

cd-bhavana-coverI excerpted and revised this practice from my book Yoga Skills for Therapists, which is a manual of many mood-managing practices that don’t require a yoga mat. You can also find this practice guided on my CD LifeForce Yoga Bhavana – Say Yes to Yourself, a Guided Relaxation. Learn this practice and more from a LifeForce Yoga Practitioner.

About the Author

Amy Weintraub

Amy Weintraub E-RYT 500, MFA, YACEP, C-IAYT, founded the LifeForce Yoga® Healing Institute, which trains yoga and health professionals internationally, and is the author of Yoga for Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists. The LifeForce Yoga protocol is used by health care providers worldwide. She is involved in ongoing research on the effects of yoga on mood.

Leave a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign up for our Research Newsletter

Cart

What People Say

“Giving my clients a strategy and permission to quiet their minds and rebalance the sympathetic nervous system has been very beneficial to them and in our work together.” — Sue Dilsworth, PhD, RYT 200, LFYP, Allendale, MI
“My patients can now have the same effects as many medications without having to actually take medication!” — Deborah Lubetkin, PSY.D, LFYP, West Caldwell, NJ
“This workshop has changed so much — my self-image and my life. My own heart’s desire is 100% clear. I gained tools to help myself and others to live life fully.” — Marcia Siegel, Yoga teacher, therapist, Carlsbad, CA.
“I have been reminded that I am not on this path alone, that others are sharing the journey that sometimes seems so difficult. I have also been reminded of the importance of daily practice and I will do that. The whole program has been an incredible experience for me. Thank you!” — Lorraine Plauth, retired teacher, Voorheesville, NY
“I gained perspective of who I am in the world and this will change my life significantly.” — Mary Ford, artist, Southport, CT
“This workshop helped me rededicate my energies and begin to work through some of the blocks I’ve felt creatively.” — Steve Mark, college professor, New Haven, CT
“I began a fantasy during the meditation exercise... almost as if I’d been there. It’s now an on-going work of fiction.” — Serian Strauss, Tanzania
“I came hoping to learn to move past some of the obstacles blocking my creativity. Over the course of this weekend, I feel I’ve gained a certain measure of faith in myself and in my ability to change. I also had some realizations that I believe will be very helpful to me. I feel encouraged. Both the content and presentation of this program were so well-thought out that I can’t think of any way to improve it.” — Andrea Gollin, writer & editor, Miami, FL
“I utilize the LFY techniques in both a class room setting and one-on-one environment. The skills have infused my teachings with compassion, mindfulness, and awareness.” — Kat Larsen, CYT, LFYP
“My personal practice will change, as well as my yoga classes. I have a better understanding of yoga!” — Andrea Gattuso, RYT, Yoga Teacher, Hackettstown, N.J.
“Words do not do justice to all that I learned. This workshop changed my life!” — Jen Nolan, Teacher, Cortland, NY
“I have gained a softer heart, more receptive mind, and tools to enrich both personal and professional aspects of my life.” – Regina Trailweaver, LICSW, clinical social worker, Hancock, VT.
“I integrate strategies like mantra tones and pranayama, but above all I invite myself and those I teach to cultivate svadhyaya, to practice self-observation without judgment.” — Barbara Sherman, RYT 200, LFYP, Tucson, AZ
“I have found the LFYP training to be incredibly useful in giving people specific tools to use in maintaining physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual balance, and further opening their intuitive abilities.” — Nancy Windheart, RYT-200, LFYP, Reiki Master, Animal communication teacher, Prescott, AZ
I absolutely love this stuff! I have been using it with my clients and I am just finding it to be so incredibly helpful. There seriously something for everything. Although I am not as skilled as I hope to be someday, even at my level of training I’m finding that I am beginning to figure out what to do. It just blows my mind! - Christine Brudnicki, MS, LPC
“I have gained an incredible opening and clearing of old obstructions. I hope to return to my life and fill this opening with things I love to do and that give me joy!” — Lisa Shine, administrative assistant, Ballston Lake, NY
“I gained tools for working with my own depression and with my clients’ depressions.” — Robert Sgona, LCSW, RYT, psychotherapist, Yoga teacher, Camden, ME.
“I feel profoundly transformed, both physically and emotionally. The connection between mind, body and spirit was clearly evident to me, but revealed to me through this workshop as an integrally vital link to overall health.” — Nadine Richardson, program manager at rehab agency, Monroe, CT
“My life is already changed! I will use the tools I learned in my own practice and in my work. I feel safe and seen.” — Susan Andrea Weiner, MA, teacher/expressive arts facilitator, El Cerrito, CA.
“This program changed my life in a significant way. It helped me connect with the spirit which is something you can’t get from psychotherapy and medication.” – G. W., artist, Pittsburgh, PA
“I learned lots of ways to reduce the anxiety and depression of my patients and myself.” – Aviva Sinvany-Nubel, PhD, APN, CNSC, RN, psychotherapist, Bridgewater, N.J.
“I have found the pranayama (breathing practices) especially easy to introduce in a clinical setting. Some people have benefited quickly in unexpected and transformative ways.” — Liz Brenner, LICSW, LFYP, Watertown, MA
“A client who returned said, "When I came before, you helped me understand and get where I wanted to go. Now you show me yoga practices I use to help myself understand and get where I want to go.” — Sherry Rubin, LCSW, BCD, LFYP, Downingtown, PA
“Yoga Skills for Therapists is the ideal resource for those who want to bring yoga practices into psychotherapy or healthcare. Weintraub, a leader in the field of yoga therapy, offers evidence-based, easy-to-introduce strategies for managing anxiety, improving mood, and relieving suffering. Helpful clinical insights and case examples emphasize safety, trust, and skillful adaptation to the individual, making it easy to apply the wisdom of yoga effectively in the therapeutic context.” — Kelly McGonigal, PhD, author, Yoga for Pain Relief, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Yoga Therapy
Scroll to Top