Yoga & Mental Health
We must start to shed the shame that surrounds not being okay. We must let go of the notion that if we are feeling pain of any kind, we are weak or doing something wrong. If this describes you, you are not alone in your dysfunctional ways of thinking and feeling. It’s how most of us have been raised, conditioned, and told is "normal." Normal is fine, but healthy is a different story.
How can we learn to let go of the narrative that we must run from or distract ourselves from our feelings in order to be okay again? Those feelings aren’t going to go away—not now, not ever. There are definitely actions you can take to release yourself of emotional pain or self-centeredness, but most of those actions have an element of focusing on yourself before you start focusing on others.
Let’s look at yoga as an example. A growing number of studies indicate that yoga may be a beneficial treatment for mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and eating disorders. I have seen and experienced first hand how yoga can be a key to psychological and emotional healing as well as resolving issues with self-confidence, relationships, and more; which is why in 2018, I decided to educate myself more and completed a 200-hr Yoga Teacher Training in Golden Bay, NZ and registered with Yoga Alliance.
The practice of yoga teaches us that pain is impermanent, down to a physical level, and emphasizes the importance of leaning into the discomfort of a pose in order to release the hold that it has on us. Yoga doesn't ask that we wallow and feed our pain in order to walk through it. Instead, it conveys the concept that the only way out is through, not around. Yoga promotes intentions such as non-judgment, self-compassion, loving-kindness, and surrender. It does not perpetuate the maladjusted behavior patterns like control, self-will, or being “stronger” than anyone else in the room.
The focus is on you, and you alone—but by being present with others on the same journey, we wind up with a significantly more profound connection to everyone else in the class. Try bringing some of the principles of yoga off of this page or your mat and into your life. It's not easy, but it's worth it.
““Yoga is a psychology—the whole practice helps us work with the nature of the mind, the nature of being a human, how emotions live in our bodies, how they affect our behavior and our minds”
- Ashley Turner, yoga teacher & licensed psychotherapist