Hello there everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful day!

As I was teaching my yoga classes today, I noticed a shift in myself. As I was asking my students to be aware of their bodies, I began to be even more aware of my own.

During Sun Salutations I noticed how my heart rate went up and my breathing shallowed as I demonstrated each movement. I noticed my body reacting not only to the postures, but also to my nerves! I had convinced myself I wasn’t nervous before class, but I was unable to pretend or avoid my feelings during the class. And this is the beauty of yoga!

No matter how much I wanted to push away the nervousness, it was still there, within each of my cells, waiting to be released. And as soon as I surrendered to it, allowed it to be exactly what it was with awareness, it began to dissipate. Yoga brings our awareness to our physical sensory, which holds a lot of stress, emotion, and trauma. In Mindful Yoga we can’t run from our feelings. We move with awareness of our physical bodies and we begin to allow the stress, emotion, and trauma to release through presence and focused awareness. We release stress, we release anger, we release sadness, and we release anxiety.

Throughout the rest of the class I was very aware of my sensory. I was aware of a new pain in my neck, the relaxation in my shoulders, and the gripping in my calves. And each bit of stress began to release as my awareness deepened. By the end of class, I was no longer nervous, no longer anxious.

This is the gift of yoga, the gift of presence.

Liz

Creating Mindful Balance