Learning through physical tension & our emotions

Hi everyone and welcome back to the blog. It has been a while, so I'm pleased to have sometime in front of my laptop to chat to you.

I hope you're all having a lovely summer so far. I say this every year, but the summer always whizzes by doesn't it.

On to this blog post...so I wanted to touch on the subject of how we can learn through yoga specifically through emotional shifts and tension release. Let me take you back a few years to when I was relatively new to yoga. I remember doing a guided relaxation where we started to notice tension experienced in the body. We would focus on each part of the body in turn, seeing if we could relax or release muscle tension. Well, when I initially started the practice, my first insight was, "I already feel relaxed. There is no tension" (pahaa, what did I know...), but when the teacher guided us deeper into this state of awareness, I began to notice very small pockets of tension would appear.

My jaw was tight, the space between my eye brows, my outer right hip, right shoulder blade was ...the list goes on.

From that practice, I felt as though a little beam of light  was shining deep into my body.  Through awareness and consciousness the tension would soften just by bringing the mind there, which was pretty mind blowing. What I then started to do, was try to bring the tension practice away from the mat into my everyday life. I felt guided to use this awareness alongside my emotional body. I knew that the tightness I had experienced wasn't just for a physical reason.

The findings weren't surprising, when I became stressed or anxious my jaw tightens and my upper back feels stuck. When I feel exhausted and energy is low my lower back and hips ache.   

I know this isn't rocket science and for some people they can intuitively feel this, but for myself this was an eye opener. I felt as though my physical tension was my own inner guide for my emotional body.

Even to this day, if I feel tension creep in, I sit and I ask what is this tension trying to tell me.

Is it physical? Is it emotional?  If it is emotional tension, what am I worrying about, do I need a holiday (always!!), am I doing enough to look after myself, is there something I'm ignoring or avoiding?

Of course it works the other way too. When you feel happy and content in your life. Notice how your body feels.  There is a lightness to your heart, your body feels more open and there is nothing that can shake your sense of inner peace.  

I hope you have found this useful and it has given you some food for thought.   In conclusion, try to keep close to your emotional being, it is there to guide us. With love, namaste xx

#emotions #Yogarelease #Tension #Stressrelief