Headstands, letting go, and breathing through the pain

I've been practicing yoga for a couple of years.  Since taking office, I've noticed that my mind is often distracted and practicing mindfulness has become quite a challenge.  At a recent yoga practice my awesome yoga teacher started to prepare me for tripod headstand pose. Prior to this particular session,  I've been noticing the difficulty I've been having on focusing and letting go throughout my practice. Yoga has a way of bringing emotions to the surface.  During my first attempt at tripod headstand pose I really noticed my fear of letting go and going with the flow.  I immediately wanted to retreat and I could literally feel my muscles gripping to the past, hanging on to fears, and going into protective mode.  Obviously I didn't make it into the pose, which is common, for some it takes years to get into headstand.  But I became aware of buried emotions and recognized what my body has been trying to tell me.  I recognized that I hold on to things way too much.  I also recognized that being open and going with the flow is challenging for me.  I'm literally feeling it in my body through overly tight shoulders and hip flexors, jaw clenching, and other muscle tightness. 

Our body gives us physical hints to underlying emotional, mental, and spiritual issues that we may be facing.  Yoga allows us to pay attention to what is going on and so that we can ultimately practice mindfulness and letting go.  Several blog posts ago I wrote of the same issues.  Life truly is like a rollercoaster ride, we have our ups and downs, sometimes our life gets turned upside down, and sometimes it's a really rough ride and we get jerked around.    Being able to recognize what my body is telling me is a great tool towards continuously improving myself and moving forward. 

 



Yoga also teaches us to breathe through the tough spots and sticky poses (or situations) rather than giving up or quitting.  I feel this in deep poses such as pigeon pose.  It's a natural reaction to fight the tightness in my hips but as I breathe and stop fighting the resistance, I learn to breathe through it thus allowing myself to open up.  



 

 

 

I'm learning to embrace life's experiences, good or bad, as well as the good and bad people that cross my path.  I wouldn't trade in any experience or person in my life.  I feel blessed to have gone through so much in life; because, of each experience, challenge, and obstacle, I'm able to have a better understanding and appreciation towards life.  We can either cling to our fears, holding our breath, while continuously bracing ourselves for the bumps in the road or we can face our fears, breath through the pain, and go through the flow. 

 

Practice the latter and always Believe, Love, Understand, and Empower.