If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, you’ve undoubtedly encountered a situation where the strain becomes too much for you to handle while you’re holding a position. The instructor tells you to breathe into the experience even when your muscles are approaching their breaking point. When you do, you’ll find that you can bear the strain and maintain the stance for a little while longer. Occasionally, you can actually deepen the stretch as the tension actually releases.
This is what took place: You rode the wave of sensation and saw it alter and ultimately dissipate after experiencing a stressor, instead of resisting it or becoming distorted by it.
As a human, you’ve undoubtedly also gone through this: after leaving the sacred space of a yoga session, pressures from life begin to arise. Perhaps you get a call from your teenager who has crashed your car, or perhaps you’re late for a crucial meeting because of a severe traffic jam. Suddenly, the techniques for stress relief you picked up in yoga class seem like a long-forgotten memory.
We have the option to “ride the waves” in response to stressors, and the recommended course of action is as follows:
- Breathe:
Breathe through uncomfortable feelings (fear, anger, sadness, etc.) just as you would in a yoga session. “In the same way that breathing calms down and transforms sensations on the yoga mat, breathing removes us from the sympathetic nervous system, which is in charge of our fight, flight, or freeze response.”
- Relax:
We are reminded that there will always be tension in life and that we can learn to relax and soften our muscles in response to it. The tension changes as a result, instead of our whole being tightening around the restriction.
- Feel:
Experience our emotions and pay attention to the physical sensations that emerge. “The issue is not with how you feel,” “What excavates a hole is what we do in an attempt to control them.” Thus, when a stressor presents itself, attempt to allow yourself to experience all of the associated emotions. She advises, “Let the experience move through you.”
- Observe:
It’s possible that during a difficult yoga pose, your instructor encouraged you to observe yourself and take a small step to the side. That has its uses in real life as well. “The ability to witness with great compassion, the capacity to perceive what’s happening without passing judgment
- Allow:
For those of us who prefer to be in control, this might be challenging, but in life, we can learn to let uncomfortable feelings come and go just as we try to do in yoga class. “We can cultivate passionate nonattachment, even though we have no control over other people, circumstances, or possessions.” Instead of attempting to push the experience, we can simply relax into it. It will eventually pass.
By practicing this off-the-mat technique, we can savor more and struggle less. “We acquire the ability to relate to reality in a manner that propels us ahead in life.” I help people to develop a holistic lifestyle that caters to both off and on the mat. Contact us for more details.