How does the brain and physical body speak during our asana practice so we can process emotional energy?
Well first of all, let me answer a few other related questions!
1. What are emotions?
We are all aware of happiness, anger, sadness, elation and so on, but besides the word that we place to how each emotion feels, what are they really? Emotions each carry their own energetic frequency, if you’ve studied or read about Quantum Physics you know that everything is energy; me, you, the chair you are sitting in and everything in life. Each thing has its own frequency and we interact with all of these frequencies every single day. Throughout life we experience situations, some bad, some good, and that is where we associate a thought to an emotion; these are called Samskaras, or scars in the brain matter. These Samskaras are created from inception and often times when presented with a new situation we may not know why we feel anxious or sad however, our subconscious mind knows. We operate in our conscious mind everyday and try to find reasons as to why this makes us feel one way and that another but because we cannot recall the exact reason to link to this emotion it creates chaos and the frequency of that emotion expands.
2. How does the brain transmit emotions to the physical body?
When we are constantly operating from the seat of the conscious mind we are acting and living based upon emotion, we are connecting one dot to the next to determine what works and what doesn’t and we try to avoid what will cause that inner disruption. This is where it has to change. We have to feel that un-ease because when we run a scenario over and over again in our mind it creates stress which induces inflammation and the brain gets to a point where it “says”, “I cannot handle anymore, I need to get rid of this emotion and deposit somewhere else”. Our brain is so powerful and knows what to do to heal itself, so these emotions are placed in major joints, the organs, etc and remain stuck there causing pain, discomfort or disease until we release them.
3. What happens when emotional energy stays stagnant in the body?
When emotional energy stays stagnant (not processed), discomfort turns to pain which turns to helplessness which turns to disease. We literally become our pain, we no longer associate ourselves with who we are at the core of our being, we dwell in the physical symptoms and live our lives around this now.
4. How does asana help us clear our emotions?
With the practice of asana (postures), we are integrating breath with movement. With focus on breath we are calming the active mind and retuning it to rest and digest mode, as opposed to fight or flight which should really be reserved for when we’re being hunted. Deep inhales through the nose allow the body to expand, create space in tight areas and a lengthened exhale further calms the anxious thoughts. When we are focused intently on the breath we cannot be thinking about anything else, it’s not possible. So now that we can understand the purpose of breathing, once incorporated with asana we move the body in ways that help it to heal, break down the hardened barriers of off-balanced emotional energy stuck in the joints and organs.
5. Awareness
The most important piece and first step to changing anything in your life is to become aware. It is a daily practice to be aware of what is happening inside and it is normal and human to falter. Eventually over time you learn when an emotion is being triggered inside of you and it is at that exact moment that you have two choices:
REACT in the same manner you always have and get the same response you always have
OR
FEEL the emotion surfacing, sit in the pain for a few moments then LET.IT.GO.
It is not an easy task but we have the strength and capacity to change for a higher purpose. Give yourself the gift of releasing anything that is no longer serving you <3
