Now more then ever, we are being challenged to find a place within ourselves where we can feel safe and grounded even while everything around us is changing so rapidly. We are afloat in uncharted waters, and the turbulence is calling for us to turn our focus inward to find an anchor.
Finding your way onto your yoga mat, even when it’s the last thing you want to do, may be the best way to let go of the fear and anxiety that bubbles to the surface during these stressful times. Emotions are energy in motion. Failure to move that energy allows it to get stuck – lodged in our muscles, organs and tissues and causing us to contract around it. Movement combined with deep, conscious breathing, frees that energy to flow through you, rather than getting stored.
Mentally, as we relieve tension in the body, so, too, do we experience more ease of mind. There have been dozens of studies that prove the mind and body are linked. It is not possible to truly relax the body and not have the mind follow. The opposite is also true. A simple way to test this theory for yourself is to sit tall, close your eyes, rest your hands in your lap, and breathe – deeply. Do this for a full five minutes, letting the breath begin and end deep in the belly. This simple practice will instantly relieve stress.
Yoga helps prepare the body and mind for meditation, another powerful way to find a place of stillness within. In that space we can choose to drop down below the emotions, and the story that created them, and dwell in a place of peace. That is a choice.
