Yoga is not about stretching it’s about consciousness. Yoga techniques, whether they focus on body, breath, or brain, seek to cultivate an expansive, quiet state of mind. When we practice the main thing on our mind is often the intense sensation of the stretch, it can be hard to get beyond that to experience the postures as anything more than physical exercise aimed at wrestling an uncooperative body into unusual positions. But you are awakening your ability to feel what’s happening in your body, heart, and mind.
Awareness becomes more refined; it can guide you in all areas of your life. You begin to observe which foods make you feel best, which work you find most fulfilling, which people bring you joy—and which ones have the opposite effects.
In the high-stress environment the fight or flight response is triggered over and over and becomes chronic. Meditation is mindfulness and will help you process this agitation; part of the processing happens simply by holding what is called a spacious mindfulness. To create this state, you must first recognize the way anxiety feels in you body. As you breathe, tune in to the way it feels in your muscles, the different sensations it creates. Once you recognize it, you can practice releasing stress on the exhalation. As you do this, talk to yourself, coach yourself by saying, “it’s ok” “let go a little” don’t feel that you need to get rid of your anxiety all at once. Release little by little.
When it comes to transforming your own response to stress, it’s tempting to search for that one pose or breathing exercise that will work its magic. But there isn’t one magic pose. The process is a gradual exploration rather than an easy solution.
When fear comes up ask the fear what it wants then listen to what it has to say to you. Tell the fear that you know it is trying to protect you, and that you appreciate this, but that you would like it to back of a bit for now. Then sit in meditation a little longer. When you soften the fear and treat it kindly—not trying to get rid of it—you make space for fear to relax.
If you’re practicing yoga every day, you’re preparing for what life brings. You don’t have to have a strategy for what yoga technique you’ll use in a difficult situation. When challenges arrive, they will begin to flow through but not overwhelm you. You’re not so caught up in the stress of it, but you’re present for it.
This is the real story of how yoga can help you manage stress. It doesn’t just provide ways to burn through stress or escape from it. It doesn’t only offer stress-reduction techniques for anxious moments. It goes deeper, transforming how the mind and body intuitively respond to stress. Just as the body can learn a new standing pose that eventually becomes ingrained, so can the mind learn new thought patterns, and the nervous system can learn new ways of reacting to stress. The result:? When you roll up your mat and walk out the studio, you can more skillfully take on whatever life brings.
Nancy Adams Thai Yoga Therapist
And Ayurveda Consultant
I like this one. I shared it on facebook
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