The surface of this earth consists of peaks and valleys… do we wish it were smooth and featureless? No! In fact, these very peaks and valleys carry water from sky to ocean, creating life in abundance wherever it flows.
The water of the ocean consists of peaks and crests… do we wish for no waves, no movement and then run out to a calm sea with a surfboard? No that would be silly.
The flow of every relationship you have with others as well as the one with yourself consists of highs and lows… what if we were to find a relationship that does not trigger us in any way. No highs, no lows… just a constant plateau. Hmm… That would be boring and the way people trigger us in life allows us to unlock the memory of past events stored in our body and mind.
Yoga is so often thought of as reaching a place of detachment and calm forever and ever amen.
This is so black and white.
In actual fact, Yoga has allowed me to notice emotions as they arise… from a place of non-judgement…
Once they arise, Yoga gives me the space to say “where did that come from and why?”
I am still careful to feel the emotion however… to NOT feel your emotion on purpose would be to make oneself numb in the name of spirituality. And that’s not cool.
Yoga is great for giving you the awareness of when the record is stuck… are you experiencing the same reaction or thoughts or situation over and over without delving deep into why?
Other times Yoga has allowed me to know that my emotions are valid… not to surpress them for fear of the outcome… to speak my mind in a calm way and let my needs be heard.
But most of all Yoga has allowed me to connect with the emotion itself and not the trigger… to really feel anger or hurt or sadness for the emotion it is, without getting too attached to who or what triggered it in the first place.
To feel it, allow it, process it and let it go in a way that is healthy and avoids both suppression and explosion.
It’s not the case that Emotions = Yogi failure. Far from it.
To deny these emotional triggers as they appear in our life would be to ignore the very heart of life. Your aliveness. I have never felt more alive than when a loved one has triggered me… prompting me to feel happy, angry, excited or hurt and then held space for me to explore the emotion... without me needing to supress or cut short the emotion.
I pledge to feel each and every emotion in this life that I am capable of and not to judge any of them as “bad”.
The peaks and crests are part of the intrinsic beauty of life… of this life, the human experience.
To delve deep into the experience of being the wonderful YOU and ‘practice’ flowing with life instead of resisting it… come along to my Vinyasa Flow classes in London. Details and full schedule is here.
Come feel your 'aliveness' with me through the practice of Yoga.
Natasha xx