Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Why am I feeling so emotional in this yoga pose?


Why am I feeling so emotional in this yoga pose?

 The first time I tried a simple back bend, I felt panicky and suffocated.  I ignored that feeling because I didn't understand at that time what it meant.  Then, the first time I was in Camel Pose (click here for a photo of what Camel Pose looks like) I couldn't hold the position for very long because I felt as though I was going to have a panic attack, so I gently came out of the position, and went into child's pose.  It baffled me, why was I feeling this way?

 I then got to thinking about trauma and how the body tries to protect the mind.  Keep in mind (no pun intended there!), that the body and the mind and the spirit are all one.  The body will try to protect your spirit and mind by taking some of the blow of a traumatic or emotional situation.  So, lets say for example, that something happened to you that made you shut down your heart, when you do back bends, you're opening up your chest very wide, you're also opening up your heart along with your heart chakra.  

Chakra's, simply put, are energy centers in your body that spin according to how open or closed that chakra is.  If your heart has been broken, or if anything happened that affected your heart chakra, chances are that the heart chakra is closed down, or clogged, or dirty and needs to be "repaired".  Click here for a chart of our seven chakras.  We have seven chakras, each of them related to a glandular section of the body, each chakra has a spiritual, and physical purpose.  If one or more chakras are "broken down", then our entire aura, and thus spiritual body is affected, this in turns affects our minds, and body!

This is the beauty of yoga.  Yoga is for the mind, body and spirit.  So how do you get into poses that are difficult and make you feel like you're going to have a panic attack, or cry, or feel depressed, or feel any "negative emotion"?  In my example of Camel Pose, I would get into the pose, and breath very deeply.  I would allow myself to feel the panic, and if it became too much, I would go back into child's pose.  Also,  while in Camel, I would imagine my chest and my heart chakra opening up.  I imagined green light (green is the color of the heart chakra), entering and cleaning out my heart chakra.  Be gentle with yourself, be patient, and don't force any pose if it starts to feel overwhelming to you in any way.

Yoga gives us a mind/body/spirit communication.  The key with this communication is to stay present, and to be open to receive the messages your body is trying to tell you.  Expect nothing, your body will not speak if it's being watched like a hawk, or forced to produce a result.  If you need to seek support please do so.  You are worth to being listened to at every level of your being.    

3 comments:

  1. This truly spoke to me, thank you. I was new to yoga, still tentative not at all flexible. The first time I did a legs up the wall pose (I was way too afraid of doing a backbend) I began to sob. Something was certainly clearing. I stayed with that intense emotion (in truth I didn't know what else to do)and slowly and gently worked through it. It was a learning experience that I will always remember.

    I'm now 6 years into my yoga practice and cannot imagine a life without yoga.

    Donna Allgaier-Lamberti, SW Michigan

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  2. Thankyou so much for your feedback. I'm glad this blog helped you I too would not know what to do without yoga in my life :)

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