Yoga as a Tool for Acceptance

Embracing Emotional Shifts in Yoga Practice - By Sarah Green

Reading time: 3 minutes

A yoga practice can often seem daunting to many people. If you practice yoga* regularly, you may have noticed that sometimes you feel really great and other times you may feel slightly sad… but have you ever wondered why?

Yoga provides us with a greater sense of awareness of ourselves and the subtle shifts in our mind, our psychology. This happens as we enter a relaxed state by breathing deeply, working through muscle tension held in our body. Often this can lead our mind to delve slightly deeper. As humans, we have a conscious mind (our active state of thinking, i.e. what would I like to eat?) and a sub-conscious mind (our passive, deeper state of thinking/being, often entered when we sleep).

Often, difficult experiences are held in our sub-conscious and can, unfortunately, make an appearance if they need to be ‘filed’ in our brain. This can often happen when practicing yoga, but is it something we should shy away from?

I would suggest no, as humans some of our most difficult challenges are ones we need to work through and yoga can aid this process – where you, yourself, are in ultimate control of your journey of acceptance. It can be an extremely personal issue that you may never want to tell anyone about, but just simply do not know how to ‘deal’ with it.

It does however take courage and a massive deep breath to turn up to the negative emotion that may appear and may even be overwhelming - you may even cry. However, this is OK. A release of an emotion that we may find difficult to express is actually a really positive thing! And although you may feel sad at the time, you will hopefully feel better over the coming hours or days.

As humans, we can tend to enter our ‘flight’ sense when things are difficult. By this I mean, we will run from something that is difficult for us. But what happens if we don’t run? We may feel more peaceful, less anxious and calmer.

These benefits can certainly therefore support our mental and physical health. Yoga can therefore help us develop a strong sense of self and our emotional resilience. This means that we may become less affected by other things in our life that would have normally stressed us out!

So, if you have had a negative experience, I hope this brief explanation helps you understand the reasons why – especially if a negative experience has put you off from practicing yoga!

As a yoga teacher, I will always explain to my clients should they experience moments of sadness. So, I urge you to always ask questions and gain the knowledge and understanding of the power yoga can have!

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