Feelings, Food, Fresh Air & Yoga
| The last newsletter was a bit wordy, it happens sometimes.. this one is a little lighter- in places... Feelings, emotions.. where are they?We feel, and we do it intensely. Even the coolest of us have deep stirrings. We'd be bonkers to neglect how this might affect our bodies.Not long ago I stumbled across an amazing teacher of Somatics, (Soma; being in a body) he knows his stuff. A long term yoga teacher, Somatics changed the way he saw movement and feelings, how they interact and how your movements can influence your feelings.It was not so much that the feelings were contained in certain places, but that feelings can move with our physical movements. Mind-blowing! Darren Gibbs  Ahmad Odeh- unsplash Ok here's a little thing to try out; -Sit comfortably in your chair, notice how upright your spine is without changing anything. -Now roll your shoulders forward, move into a slouch, let your spine curl forward, and draw a long exhale. -Repeat the movement a few times moving with the path of the breath. See if the changes have any effect on your mood or emotional state. I just did this as I'm writing, I was, to be honest, feeling a little gloomy, it's raining, I'm recovering from Covid, blah blah etc. Doing this little change in posture and breath took the gloom back to the clouds, and I'm feeling a little better, if not also a bit hungry now... Moving swiftly into the next mood changer. Surely we would only put delicious things in our bodies? Well, reality and circumstance may lead us astray from this earnest intention. Teenagers I've found have a radar for junk food, so as half-term intensifies so do the "chips" requests.
Of course, it's not just teenagers, it's the waft of the barbeque from next door, the street cafes, it's your fridge, and if no one is looking did you eat that bit of cheese? Fresh air However, to breathe with a sense of lightness is very different. But that's not what it's about... Yoga As I'm sure you know Yoga was designed to allow the body to be supple and relaxed to create a place (the body) for mediation to be easier. So if the time you have created for your practice is peppered with thoughts of ridding yourself of anger, jealousy, fear, etc.(go dark with this if you like) your peaceful intentions might feel far from you once you begin and all you can think about or feel are these things you're trying to avoid. But... All feelings are valid. Facing your fears will not make them manifest into some monster... Then yoga and meditation become much lighter. |
