Emotions and yoga

Emotions and Yoga????

A comment from a student got me thinking, they said "I come to yoga to shut down from my life so much is happening I just need to close off." I started to wonder how many other people came to yoga to "switch off" rather than "switch on" or open up to living from the heart. And then thought was I  judging? I know I am very lucky to be in a position to have the luxury of thinking about these ideas so with gratitude I offer an unraveling of my thoughts... 

I have been thinking about this student's comment as I have just returned from the most marvelous Yin Yoga Teacher Training for 15 days with the amazingly knowledgeable teacher Mysan Sidbo - such an inspiring and very cool teacher's teacher - and was blessed with the company of beautiful, strong, and courageous women. If you practice yoga, you probably have already discovered that dealing with emotions arising in our yoga practice can help us process them in daily life and then we can see this reflected in the way others manage their emotional expression and how best to respond (or not). The guidance of a good teacher can help us through the initial surprise or awareness of just how many thoughts, feeling and emotions are arising.

 Admittedly, on our training we had the luxury of spending time gazing at our navels and sorting through and releasing with LOVE our emotions, long held memories and pain. Everyday our teacher guided us in meditation with a theme that we could apply to or practice on ourselves, and for me more importantly our teacher encouraged us to to think about applying it to others, to our actions in the day, the way we walked, talked, thought, and breathed!

Themes we explored love, kindness, gratitude, humility, compassion, tolerance...

Yoga practice is a great place to open up and be with what is happening in your inner world.  I believe that we all benefit from taking time out to process our “stuff."  It is important.

Words often really do not suffice to express our true feelings either towards ourselves or others. though I do truly believe that meeting a cutting experience with a neutral or positive mind state can support us as we accept rather than push away what is happening no matter how raw and gut wrenching it may be for whatever arises will also pass. I had the blessing of witnessing this letting go, this accepting not resisting, this allowing emotion to wash through over and over again in our yin yoga practices throughout training and afterwards. Really looking forward to teaching this practice!

 Let it go!

Kite shop in Ubud Bali. Photo by Margot Porter.

So it may be it is okay to "to shut off" as my student put it in yoga class and give us space to allow emotions/feelings to surface and be witnessed, be accepted and make it easier to look outside ourselves and to see others as ourselves. After all haven't we all been to that dark place where staying in bed and pulling the covers over your head seem like a good idea. Of course, we all have experienced times in our lives when turning inwards (not off) is the most healing option to take. And when all is going well in our world it is easy to tell someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer to think "positive thoughts" but really it is pretty lame, and to take it one step further imagine saying the same thing to someone who had just lost all their family in a earthquake - well it would be heartless. 

My question in my meditation practice this morning was in today's me orientated world are we dwelling too much on our individual needs?  I can't help but ask: Are we choosing to become less aware and more closed off from others around us?

There comes a time when we must wake up and become aware that putting others before ourselves  brings happiness.

So I ask myself is there something I can do? 

Actions speak louder than words.

 It doesn't have to be big - the intention is to share love, kindness, understanding - to let another  know there are not alone. Instead of stuffing emotions away or expressing them in ways that hurt others or ourselves take some time to understand, reflect and digest your emotions. Own your emotions. See others emotions as a reflection of your own. This is a magnificent practice as it helps us see others as ourselves, to see their suffering as our own, and to wish them happiness and peace in their lives. 

We are all light. 

We are all love. 

We are all energy swirling as one.

Love an happiness to you, Margot XXX

 to put this in to play, because as the good old saying goes, if not now, when?