My dirty secret

I am a yogi.  There, I have said it.  My dirty secret is out.

Having just returned from my sixth yoga retreat, it got me thinking about why I keep coming back to it. It feels such a cliché to be a white, middle aged woman who does yoga, which makes me reluctant to describe myself in this way.  

I began Yoga 8 years ago, when I was making a big transition from a “proper” job to starting my own consultancy and coaching practice.  Having spent 10 years running at speed, busy in my head, pushing down feelings and barely conscious I had a body, I knew yoga was something I needed to practice.  I was lucky enough to find an amazing teacher who helped me learn. 

I practice yoga in some forms most days. I am not planning to be a Bendy Wendy or a yoga teacher, so why do I do it?

Be in the now

Firstly, It helps me get me out of my head (which can be so busy on my to-do list) and feel connected to my body. By being connected to my body, I am in the present moment, not thinking about what is to come later in the day or what I just did.  By practicing “being in the now” on the yoga mat, I have found that I am able to be fully present more often with my family, friends and clients.  After all, my body only knows how to be in the now.  

By getting out of my head like this, coupled with good breathing techniques, I am able to calm my busy mind and I am often surprised by the wisdom then can bubble up.  I have written before about our heart (cardiac) and a gut (enteric) brain and yoga enables me access these. By not thinking and creating space, insights occur to me, ideas arrive, I get clarity about what is needed.  The flow of yoga helps me access a deeper wisdom.

Sit in the discomfort

I was drawn to Yin yoga.  I wanted to explore it further and as such I am now qualified to teach it (that’s the best way to really understand yoga!).   At its simplest Yin yoga is slow, holding poses for extended periods (3-10 minutes) and adopting a pose that is a stretch, and hence mildly uncomfortable.  It is designed to stretch and relax the body’s connective tissues, such as ligaments, tendons, and fascia.  As someone who moves quickly and likes to get a lot done in a day, I can easily find that my nervous system is constantly in sympathetic mode (see diagram below).  Yin yoga is a ‘still’ practice and so it accesses my parasympathetic nervous system and gives my body the balance it needs to rest and digest and I feel calmer.

Given my typical busyness, after a few minutes in a pose my head often starts to shout at me that the pose is “too much” and I have an urge to pull out of it.   By resisting this urge, I am able to rest, breath and feel at this edge of discomfort.  I am building my capacity to sit and stay in the discomfort, which is something I need to do often in my work (with conflict coaching, or angry co-founders).  It is helping me to build my capacity to do this.  

Finally, by connecting to my body and breathing in yoga, I am able to build my capacity to detach from my thoughts and feelings and see them from the outside.  In yoga there is term called “witness consciousness” which is the act of becoming an inner witness, a neutral observer of the mind.  I don’t find this easy, but I have noticed that I am occasionally able to notice (and laugh) at myself when I get angry about something unnecessarily.  

I appreciate either might all sound a bit “woo woo”. I remain a “work in progress” and this blog is my effort to make sense of my yogi-ness and a desire to share.  As my peloton yoga teacher said this morning “what we do on the mat is practice for life”.

So what?

Despite how this might read, I am not trying to convert you to the cult of yoga, so as you read this blog, ask yourself:

• How can you practice being in the now?
• How can you expand your capacity to stay in discomfort and not pull away?
• How can you build the capacity to detach from your thoughts and feelings, to become an observer?