Hi friends, I cannot come to Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshires, and not FEEL a lot of emotions. I have spent this week assisting my teacher Amy Weintraub as she leads a workshop in LifeForce™ Yoga, yogic tools to help manage Anxiety/Depression. This work brings up a lot of emotions in participants, of which we had 39 this week (men & women). Tears were shed, as they often are when we do the self-inquiry work to acknowledge our personal struggles & traumas.
I see the following when I work with clients back home, but when I am immersed in such a large environment, it convinces me even more that every human being is carrying some sort of baggage; baggage which is weighing them down, holding them back from living life with an open and full heart.
I’ve often said that our issues live in our tissues. So the traumas you don’t deal with, live *somewhere* in your body, or in your mind. They drag down your spirit.
Whether you’re a child of immigrants who watched your parents struggle, and grew up in a scarcity mindset; whether your family had means, but one of your parents withheld their love and/or attention; whether one of your family members was ill and this affected the entire family; whether your parents divorced or separated and you had to take on the “partner” role to support your parent OR take on the “parent” role to your siblings; whether someone physically abused you as a child; whether someone tore you apart emotionally; whether a family member criticized you all the time, so that nothing you did was ever good enough; whether you were told that you were gold all the time and would succeed at anything; whether you were told to “be good” and not rock the boat; whether you were told that girls have to be seen and not heard, whether you’re a man and were told that real men don’t cry; whether your relationships have ended miserably, or whether you are still living in a miserable relationship; whether you’re a people pleaser or a perfectionist; whether you’re rough with people so that you avoid being the one who’s hurt…
You get the drift. Everyone is carrying something.
If you’re going to deal with your moods, understand why you are the way you are, you need to dig deep, sometimes to a painful place. The work is difficult, but once you expose what is raw, and see it for what it is, you’ll see that it’s just a *part* of who you are. It does not define you. We do not get rid of stories or any *part* of you. You are not something that needs to be “fixed”. Most often, what people need is a space in which they feel SEEN and HEARD.
LifeForce™ Therapeutic Yoga (and other modalities) can help us to acknowledge our past traumas, recognize our triggers and where they come from, live side-by-side with our stories (and with the roommates that live in our heads!), release some of the *masks* we wear, and the baggage that was handed down to us by past generations, baggage that isn’t really ours to hold.
You will learn that you are strong. You will create space around your heart to love yourself, and all your parts. You will feel lighter when you release what no longer serves you. If you create an intention, you will heal. Slowly, but surely.
LifeForce™ Yoga. Practices to help you live with greater ease.