After teaching class, I tend to get contemplative and in the last year I’ve taken to writing down these thoughts, connecting dots and calling them Afterthoughts. In this way teaching online has really suited me as I have had a place to share more of my personal insights than what can usually be shared in a teaching class. Well, this evening, the Afterthoughts which are usually just a few sentences turned into quite a journey so I thought it’d share this with you here…
Afterthoughts taken from teaching online on ANOIS YOGA: My intention of late has been to become familiar with a new norm and I’m starting to recognise what might be a set of steps to establish a state of wellbeing. Like the breath tune in at the start of the practice, the priority must be create a sense of internal safety first. It’s taken me many years for me to get to a point where I can say confidently that I feel that. I use anxiety as my marker, knowing that when I am anxiety free it is because I have connected to that safe place within. I can say that after 7 years of chronic anxiety I now experience most days anxiety free and have been like this for nearly 2 years…except during tax returns, that sh^$ still gets me!!;-) Looking back on the progress I have made I would lay these out as the steps I have taken. Not in step-by-step order exactly but cycling through at different stages as required.
Learning to breath – and learning why breathwork works, its important for me to understand the whys and not just the whats. Conscious breathing calms the nervous system and helps develop healthy vagal tone. Healthy vagal tone is foundation upon which all other states of the nervous system can start to function positively. Fight or flight turns into friendly competition and freeze turns into safe intimacy, theres more on this in the full Yoga for the Nervous System Workshop.
Learning to move mindfully. This is how I’ve always taught vinyasa, and in teaching it this way I have integrated the understanding into my psyche. However, continually coming back to awareness and accountability of thoughts and emotions is not an easy path…and why it is necessary to know how to turn on the internal safety mechanism. And why it is essential to learn how to breath first.
Listening to my Body. This isn’t an elusive concept, it’s as simple as stopping when I’m broken, tired or aching. And also, conversely, knowing when the body wants to move. I’ve recently discovered that what I sometimes thought was tiredness in my body was actually suppressed energy from lack of movement. And sometimes it is just tiredness 😉
Connecting to the Body. The best ahh haa moment I have had is realising that there is nowhere that we need to get to. Remembering that you are already here! This can be a great calmer and I use it if I feel myself getting in a tizzy. Saying to myself. Remember you are already exactly where your meant to be. And using the physical practices to give myself a sense of presence in my own body. Our souls require us to be connected to our physical bodies, soul expression happens through the body not despite of it. The Subtle Body training has really helped to bring that home for me. Self-connection is the closest connection we can have to soul or spirit.
Connecting to Nature. The deeper I get into the sciences the more profound the realisations become. All the systems of nature that are designed to support human life on this planet! Photosynthesis in plants supports respiration, the rain cycle (the earths distillation system) cleanses the waters…the same waters that have ever existed over eons should be unusable by now (we’re trying our best but nature keeps cycling our waters around, we really should be more grateful for this). Our internal circadian clocks synchronize with the rising and setting of the sun and all our systems are affected, the nervous system, the endocrine, cardiovascular and immune systems. Many chronic diseases are known to be caused by ignoring or trying to override our circadian clocks. There are soo many examples, even natures ions generated by pounding water support healthy cell function. When we take a moment to fully acknowledge all these things it’s hard (for me anyway) to not feel in awe. And getting out into nature with all these concepts in mind it gives me perspective and helps me to let go of the perceived stresses of modern life.
Becoming Comfortable with a new state of Ease. This is my most recent learning, and my current favorite. At certain points along the journey there comes a time when you just have to accept that you are doing better and be at this new vibration with confidence. When you can do that the residual past stresses and anchors will fall away. It can be a habit and a pass-time of the intellect to want to pick at the old scabs but there comes a point where you have to choose to accept you’ve moved on. And you may never understand the old stressors or get the satisfaction of analyzing and dissecting all your grievances fully, but when its gone, move on! Sometimes the only way to move on from the old is to focus on the new, until the new way of being becomes more familiar than the old.
Then you know you’ve made the new, the norm!
These thoughts and more shared each week on the Anois Yoga platform after Tuesday evenings Beginners Vinyasa and Breathwork Class, this weeks recording available now.
