Hi. If you have thought about reading this article, then either because you are hoping to hear about all the reasons yoga isn’t so great after all, or because you are hoping to read about the good reasons to prefer yoga to other… what, other ways of exercising? Exercising … the body? The mind? Yoga had something to do with the mind, too, hadn’t it? They say it lowers blood pressure, and calms down the nervous system. So let’s wrap it up by yoga is good exercise for health?
While most ways of exercising the body in our western world do not address the mind really, it is fundamental in Yoga. The word YOGA has its origins in the Sanskrit word “Yuj”, which means “to unite”. The original aim of yoga is to unite the body with the mind, and the person with nature. It is a way of living in peace with oneself and the world that surrounds us; not by rejecting the negative, but by learning to accept and integrate it. The physical practice of Yoga is really only a part of it.
However, in the western world we have come to reduce yoga to the practice of “asanas”, also known as body postures. Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Kundalini, Hatha, Yin, Bikram, Flow Yoga are only some of the names we can read on the timetable of different yoga studios. In these classes, we are invited to focus on exercises that engage different parts of our body that is being strengthened and stretched. But that’s not all to yoga… in fact, it’s only a tiny fraction.
Physical postures carried out in a concentrated way while staying connected with the breath and the senses accepting anything that may be felt, will eventually lead you to a place of meditative absorption and bliss. From there, you realize that you are more than just the sum of your pieces, that the story your mind is telling you every day about yourself and the world around you might actually not be true, and you get to look at yourself in a way that is free of your biography and other limiting factors. This is where the magic lies, some may call it spirituality, and it is what makes Fascia Flow® Yoga so special compared to other ways of exercising.
In Fascia Flow® Yoga we work with the connective tissue. For a long time, body and trauma therapists have acknowledged the myofascial tissue as the physical storage of our emotional biography. Anything that has made an impact on us emotionally has left its footmark on our fascia. Trauma and unresolved conflict are encapsulated in that layer of our body and can create a major blockage over time. (Interesting enough, one of the main functions of fascia is force transmission!) When we practice Fascia Flow® Yoga, we release some of the stored information and we may come to remember the situation that caused us pain in the past or simply reactivate the feeling. This is a good thing. It is a chance to let go of it, just by letting it pass through your system from a place of “Hey, I survived this. I know that life went on in spite of it. I can let it go now.”
So even if it is a gentle practice, it is definitely not for cowards. It does ask you to engage, with your body and with your heart. We cannot work deeper layers of our body and expect these layers to stay separate from who we are and what we feel. To practice Fascia Flow® Yoga and only seek for the body to benefit really is like going on an amazing road trip with the handbrake on.
Am I pulling the handbrake?
A way to find out if you are pulling the handbrake is to ask yourself in what ways you are being challenged during the yoga practice. For example, you could be …
- Preferring your comfort zone (I only want to feel happy all the time, I am not willing to feel discomfort.)
- Comparing yourself to others (Why is my yoga buddy able to do this and I can’t?)
- Constantly distracting yourself (My thoughts are more interesting than my breath.)
- Doubting you are worth the effort (The other things I do in a day are more important than to focus on me now.)
- Sticking to false assumptions (I’m too old. / My body is not made for this.)
- Allowing frustration to take up space (Yeah right, teacher, you’ve practiced that for years and now you ask ME to do it!)
- Becoming impatient (I will NEVER be able to do this.)
- Avoiding vulnerability (I don’t want my weaknesses to show.)
If you can identify with any of this, don’t worry. It won’t be able to stop you as long as you keep going. As you stay focused in spite of all the reasons to pull the handbrake, you will notice how you become both, stronger and more vulnerable at the same time. You will naturally start appreciating your journey on a deeper level and stop feeling doubts towards being incapable or inappropriate. Just don’t expect the reasons to disappear by looking at them. Keep going and you’ll leave them behind.
All that you are is ultimately connected, and by practicing Fascia Flow® Yoga you will eventually get access to all that emotional information that may have been locked up in the past. By allowing it to show up, you make sure it does not block your system any longer. You find true freedom from your past.
Yoga rocks!
© Maria Kafritsas 2024