Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Tears on the Yoga Mat
Tears on the Yoga Mat
By Amy Weintraub,
author of Yoga for Depression and Yoga Skills for Therapists
Amy will be teaching at All That Matters Oct 11-13
When I begin a
workshop, I often ask how many people have cried on their yoga mat. Just about everyone raises their hand! Crying is a natural release, and often makes
us feel better. This happens, according
to Michael Trimble, author of Why Humans
Like to Cry, because we stimulate the cranial nerves when we cry, which
soothes the emotional limbic brain, in particular, that poor hyper-aroused
amygdale. The amygdale actually grows,
from the over-exercising it receives from stress and trauma. The limbic brain changes that occur from this
over-activation include the shrinking of the hippocampus, which is responsible
for memory. The good news is that these
brain changes are reversible, and yoga can contribute to a healthier limbic
brain. Believe it or not, crying can
too.
When some people
who have been shallow breathers for most of their lives begin to breathe
deeply, emotion can arise unexpectedly. If
tears come “for no reason” and unexpectedly, there is no reason to be afraid or
feel shame, even if you’re in the middle of a yoga class. “Crying is one of the highest spiritual
practices,” said Swami Kripalu. “One who
knows crying, knows yoga.” When we cry
on the yoga mat, there is rarely a story attached. Think of it as a release. That’s how the biochemistry of your brain
sees it.
I worked with a client who had once maintained
a twice weekly Power Yoga practice at a gym but, because of her husband’s job,
she had recently moved from London to Tucson and had not practiced regularly in
two years. Sally felt alone, since her
six-year-old was in school for the first time all day and her husband often
traveled on business. They had moved to a
neighborhood where she felt she didn’t belong, and she had not yet made
friends. Though she did not have a
clinical diagnosis, she said she had gained weight, felt lethargic and except
for bouts of irritability, she felt numb. Since her previous yoga experience
did not focus on the breath, after setting the safe container during our first
session, I suggested that she begin in a supine position, lying on her
back. I supported her with a bolster
under her back so that her chest was open and breathing was easier. I also
placed a thin folded blanket beneath her head to tuck the chin forward
slightly, which supports the mind to relax.
Within a couple of minutes of deep, diaphragmatic breathing, she was
sobbing. There was an immediate connection to the loneliness and anger she had
felt as a young child, when her father died and her mother, overcome with
grief, had not been emotionally available.
I brought her into
a sitting position, so that she could breathe and then eventually to her feet,
where we could more easily begin to move the emotion that had been triggered
through her body. As she left, her eyes
were shining and her face was serene, and she had a referral to two
psychotherapists in our community.
There are three
important lessons for yoga and mental health professionals here. First, the importance of establishing the
safe container, which not only gives the client or student permission to “put
on the brakes,” as clinical social worker Babette Rothchild says in The Body Remembers (Rothchild, 2003),
but also includes a normalization of the tears that can arise.
The second lesson
is about staying present with your client throughout the practices you lead,
and that means your own eyes are opened and you are monitoring her experience
at all times.
The third lesson
is how complementary yoga and psychotherapy actually are. When Sally began working with her body and
her breath, she opened to a deeper sadness.
She was finally ready to seek out talk therapy along with her return to
the yoga mat, something that before our yoga session together, as miserable as she
felt, she had not been motivated to do.
To read about clinical applications
of yoga practice, see Yoga Skills for
Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management. Amy Weintraub will be leading LifeForce Yoga to Manage Your Mood Oct 11-13 at All That Matters., a
program that offers practices for anxiety and depression that are not often
taught in regular yoga classes. This
program is accessible to those new to yoga as well as yoga and mental health
professionals.
Excerpted and adapted from Yoga
Skills for Therapists: Effective Practices for Mood Management (W.W.
Norton, 2012)
Amy Weintraub E-RYT, MFA directs the
LifeForce Yoga Healing Institute, which trains yoga and health professionals
internationally, and is the author of Yoga
for Depression and Yoga Skills for
Therapists. The LifeForce Yoga protocol is used by health care providers
worldwide. She is involved in ongoing research on
the effects of yoga on mood. www.yogafordepression.com
Monday, August 05, 2013
Meet Usha Billotta our newest Yoga Teacher
Usha Bilotta is impassioned by yoga and the ways it connects to life off of the mat. She began practicing in 1999 in the Ashtanga tradition. She was immediately in love with the practice of yoga as it began to transform life on physical and emotional levels. She has studied many styles over the years, learning from various traditions such as Kripalu, Bikram, and the Mysore method, but found her home in the authenticity of the living, breathing, ever-changing flow of Vinyasa. She completed her 200-hour teacher training through Tom Gilette at Eyes of the World in 2008.
Usha's classes focus on linking breath to body, proper alignment, strengthening, and deepening awareness of the Self. Her classes are heartfelt and the pace flows with intention, slow motion, and intensity. She is committed to helping her students cultivate a practice that is authentic and powerful while challenging them to find the lessons that asana presents. She embraces ancient yogic scriptures and teachings and uses these principles to guide through class, allowing for evolution both on and off of the mat. Usha has been working with holistic nutrition and healthy living since 2000. She is a sprout farmer and a thriving breast cancer survivor, committed to wellness for her family.
This Week
Tuesday,
August 6
Making Peace with Food and Your
Body
with
Barbara Holtzman
Wednesday,
August 7
Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga Class
with
Lauren O’Connell
Meditation for Health
with
Dr. David Dwyer
Friday,
August 9
Monthly Reiki Support Circle
with
Myra Partyka
Saturday,
August 10
Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga Class
with
Lauren O’Connell
COMING UP…
Satsang: Monthly Community
Gatherings
on
Monday, August 12
Kripalu 200hr & 500hr Yoga
Teacher Training: Free Informational Talk
with
Joan Dwyer
on
Wednesday, August 14
Monthly Gong Bath
with
Stephanie Marisca & Cathy Cesario
on
Friday, August 16
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