Yoga can be a healing 'antidote' for modern life.
Anxiety, depression, PTSD can be debilitating and very painful to go through. Now at my age of 48, I can see that many of the symptoms (apart from bereavement and high stress life experiences) were in fact my body telling me I wasn't living a fully authentic life and needed to make changes.
Kind of like our extremely clever 'sat nav' or warning systems activating to safeguard us... "Hey, STOP! Something is not right here!"...
For me personally, drinking alot or other ways of avoiding sitting with pain, or 'ignoring' that some relationships in my life were not 'safe' or validating for me, also allowed me to stay 'stuck' and block out remembering memories or past dysfunctional unhealthy relationships, so I wasn't able to see the patterns and why or where they had 'come from'.
It's a natural human desire to 'belong' , feel 'fully witnessed and accepted' and connect with others, but modern life based around the accumulation of wealth or competition leads to these natural instincts and needs as social creatures being stifled in a 'society' structured to place people apart. Every human is equal.
If we are feeling stress alot its crucial to feel around us and assess for example if a job or relationship is not right for us maybe.
And take our power back as the creator of our own life.
We deserve joy. We deserve love. We deserve to be ourselves. We deserve to live a life free of influences and forces that are 'conditional' and force us to block out the natural true essence of who we are.
A recent TV documentary in the Congo in a beautiful village showed the women actually dancing and communicating as one like an ocean wave, they were so in tune with eachother. Their natural energy was connected. Nothing in nature can exist alone. Yet as we see more and more the way we are 'encouraged' to live is a life of competing, meritocracy, ownership, individualism, more attuned to an existence surrounded by all packaging and no content. As The Holistic Psychologist Dr. Nicole LePera posted yesterday on Instagram (she is amazing by the way) 'It is difficult to be a person looking for depth in a shallow culture'.
Women and men can suffer with body image insecurity, no wonder when we're bombarded 24/7 by media ideals of 'perfection'.
Everybody is beautiful. Yoga is for everybody. Yoga is not competing, its being free, making space , taking up space, feeling strong in Warrior One or balanced in tree pose, grounded in childs pose, feeling our true essence on our mat free from conditioning.
Its so wonderful to see communities coming together more now against 'existential' issues, and its great to get out and connect and chat (some days are for battening down the hatches and hibernating ofcourse in our safe space).
I truly believe that for every problem we may face the answers are always out there in the world for what we need..it just starts with taking the leap of faith if we are feeling stuck and starting the search for your answers, manifesting and knowing deep inside and keeping faith that (as Jim Carey says) every next moment is pregnant with opportunities in the next....
When we practice yoga or any other mindful activity we can fine tune and tap into our own truth, our own essence, tapping into our true source of who we are. Be more alert and aware to the subtleties surrounding us.. (is this good for me? Is this bad for me? our nervous system is our best friend.
I would never use the tragic experiences and trauma I have been through as a 'badge' but I do know what waking up in the night with a full on panic attack feeling sheer terror on your own feels like. How awful it is when our gut and digestion goes haywire with stress and even eating (my fave pleasure) comes with a price of IBS debilitating symptoms. How it feels to be one parent with spiralling costs of 'living' all on your shoulders.
With my recent ADHD lived experience being validated, (feeling different to others through childhood and beyond) having experienced true 'loneliness' or touch deprivation' (when you aren't touched by a another adult for a while if you live alone for example) I cannot say in words how passionate I am about social equality, community, kindness, being there for each other with healthy relationships.
The most valuable lesson I have learnt is that paradoxically even though we can feel 'shame' when feeling lonely it is the act of 'solitude' (and sitting with my pain without distracting myself with a glass of wine or something ) ...solitude (something I used to actually be scared of?!) that is actually the essential cornerstone of the liberating process starting to go through the 'fine tuning' of healing, and down the healing journey of 'liberation' and your truth, and of realising that your anxiety was actually your friend and guide. We can then finally live our truth and experience more joy, as we are validating ourselves and what we need to be healthy. Able to see the people/wonderful friends in my life who were healthy for me. Find my tribe. X Trust me to leave all this a bit late...(insert laughing and rolled eye emoji)
And..... in yoga when we are all flowing in our sun salutations together with the sun shining on us through the windows, I've often shed a secret tear of joy and happiness to be surrounded by such beautiful people to practice yoga with. It is sheer joy.
Thank you for reading (if you have got this far)
See you on your mat! Becca Xxxx
...yoga for anxiety and healing
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