|
|
| I posted in beginners about this, whenever I do yoga I get really emotional and even have disturbing dreams based on my insecurities. I know yoga can help with the healing process as I know I have a lot of healing to do. Should I continue to do yoga and just deal with the issue, let myself cry and allow these thoughts to surface? What happens after these thoughts and feelings surface? Do they go away? I am afraid that after these resurface, I am going to get depressed again. I do not want to relive every thing, otherwise, I love yoga, since it makes me feel peaceful and alive but I don't want to keep crying all the time. I do not want to cry every time I see a flower lose it's petals. (that's how sensative I get). What should I do. I am in therapy. She suggest I do healing touch therapy but money does not grow on trees and I am not so keen on the idea of that since I really do not know much about that. Any suggestions or advice would be helpful. |
|
| |
|
| I suggest:
- NO healing touch therapy
- find an experienced teacher near you or whom you can visit sometimes at least. And, do what he tells.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authentiicyoga.org |
|
| |
|
| This happened to a lady in my class. She was going through a divorce and cried everyclass, and as she left. a year latter, and she doesnt anymore, she said the yoga was great, like it detoxified her. |
|
| |
|
| I have many issues with my body and its seeming inability to work properly in the reproductive area, and I have a lot of breakthroughs in class (or should I say breakdowns?). It is embarrassing, but everyone in class is there for their own thing. It's better to work through it and get it out of my system than to keep it stored up, at least for me. |
|
| |
|
| Every situation is unique of course, but I can tell you from my experiences that sticking with it through the rough times really helped me. Most yoga teachers have either seen students cry in class before, or have been there themselves. And you know what? There may also be days where you're smiling blissfully throughout the entire practice from the second your foot touches the mat.
Yoga can be a wonderful, safe place to face some of those ghosts that haunt us. You know how they say that if you have a ghost in your house you have to tell it to leave? It can be sort of similar with emotions. Noone WANTS to relive all the painful memories, but it can be helpful to face some of that and reclaim contol of those emotions - it's a chance to reevaluate the situation and decided whether you want to give in to the pain or look at it more objectively. Sometimes it spills out into other areas of our lives, though, and it gets tough. Maybe cut back on your practice a bit until you feel a little stronger, then add in one more practice a week....Be gentle with yourself, and if a practice gets to be too much it's perfectly ok to back off a bit.
Delving back in to some of these things can be very scary, especially if you're not expecting it! We're sort of conditioned to think that starting a yoga practice will make us sunny shiny happy people who walk around spreading love to everyone and everything. But a lot of the time we have to sort through the crap to get to that shining part of us. Honestly, it took a couple months of practice before I wasn't feeling horrible afterwards, and in the beginning I had to cut way back on the number of practices because it was simply too much - crying and panicky and angry all the time off the mat - but slowly adding a practice when I felt ready helped a LOT.
Like I said, good luck, and trust yourself, and most importantly be gentle with yourself and try to just explore what's going on and walk aaway when you need to. Yoga will always be around.  |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| Annie - I have actually not experienced a lot of tears or emotional issues in class either, for myself or from my students. Maybe it is the style I practice. I don't know. I can comment to the idea tht it is good to "let it out" and get the emotions cleansed, though. I do agree that it is best to go through this and not let go of yoga because it is shaking things up. I know it is painful to relive things but you are already being held back in life because of phobias etc.. They are running your life every minute of every day. It is like looking through a dirty car windshield. I think "oh, that windshield is dirty. I wish I could see better but it is so hard to get out and clean it. But it is too windy/rainy/hot. I'm too short to reach it all. I wish someone else would do it for me." Blah, blah, blah. And it just keeps getting dirtier and I know that one day in spite of rain helping out from time to time, it will be so dirty I won't be able to see out of the corners of it and it could even cause me to have an accident. I have to put myself out of my comfort zone and get the darn thing cleaned so it won't be the only thing I can think about every time I drive somewhere. Will I have to clean it again some day? Certainly. But it won't be as painful and as difficult as the last time because I have had practice, have the right tools and have confidence that I can do it.
That is an imperfect analogy at best and I am not by any means suggesting you are not already doing work for yourself. But you are being controlled by your fears and most people would say the best way to deal with them is to confront them. Yoga can really help with that.
One experience of my own was a couple of years ago when I had a VERY difficult week or so and was flattened by a severe migraine. I dealt with the migraine and was moving on although I had a feeling somehow I was not finished with it. One day I started a slow restorative practice and the tears just poured out. I didn't want it to happen and even resisted to some extent but I knew it was necessary to get rid of that emotional baggage in order to move on. BUT I do have backup to help me with this (you do have a therapist of some sort, right?) and I would not recommend anyone to do this sort of work alone. I have teachers with decades of experience and body workers and friends who understand and can help me through. My advice is to keep going and use your backup for help. |
|
| |
|
| I would say, yes it good to stick to it. Maybe in a few months things will be better. They say it's when you don't feel like doing yoga that you really need it.
Yoga meditation practice could help relax your mind and calm the heart as well.
I wish you luck with the problems you are facing.
|
|
| |
|
| Starkitten,
Emotions coming out in yoga is always good in the long run as everyone else has said. Of course it can be very disturbing for the immidiate timeframe and because of these practical considerations, you shouldn't overpractice.
When the emotions come, you should not supress them, but you should use them for your development. I can think of two nice ways to deal with this. One is to externalize yourself from the emotion by witnessing the emotion flow. This can be very difficult since strong emotions tend to overtake the person, but if you can just watch as you are under the sway of emotion, very good things can come out of this.
Another way to deal with it is, to emmerse yourself in the emotion and feel it fully. Don't think of it as something bad but make yourself thoroughly overwhelmed, this can also lead to very good insights. The externalization is a safer method if the emotions are very strong.
As kulkarnn says, its very useful to find an experienced teacher. Whatever you do, use your judgement wisely and don't overdo things but don't be too afraid either,
Regards.
Edited by belovedofthegod 2005-05-16 3:30 PM
|
|
| |
|
| i agree with what others have said, and would like to add another element.
i'm currently working my way through the text Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola-Estes. She's a jungian psychologist and the book is a study of feminine archetypes. in this work, she speaks about how when we have these dreams or emotional arisings, the psyche is demanding that we *finally* deal with them--confront them, work through them, and embrace the truth of ourselves (which, btw, is a *very* positive thing!).
because you are in a particularly compromised state (you refer to prior depression), i recommend that you continue or consider good councelling. I do recommend the book as well, but i definately recommend the councelling. This will help you manage the emotions and dreams that are coming up in your practice and in your sleep in the most effective way, using it to your advantage to become your true self, rather than sinking into depression and fear.
I wish you all the best! Good luck! |
|
| |
|
| Now Im so worried ..
Why haven’t I felt emotional at all in my Yoga practice.. Never ever.. L I have never cried in Savasana., or never felt anger in Pigeon.. or anything else.. I love to experience this situation  |
|
| |
|
| I get a lot of emotions when I practise. Some days none at all, others nothing but frustration or irritation. The one pose that does really weird things evcery time though is Camel. I've experienced fright, euphoria, arousal, and near hysteria in this one. Apparently this is not unusual as it's a particularly vulnerable position to be in and thus tends to release emotion. I've not heard much from others on this though and wonder if the extremes / intensity of emotion is common?
Fee |
|
| |
|
| it's also ok if you don't have these experiences. i haven't had any except when my friend had died, and quite frankly, that was because it was fresh and not because of any pose.
there is a theory that many of our memories and emotions get 'somaticized' which means that they get 'put into the body'--into the muscles. For some, this creates the muscle tensions and imbalances that may lead to being too tight or too loose. using the chakra system or the idea of the energy body, this somaticization goes a step farther, into blocking the energy movement or causing an energetic overflow.
hellerwork and rolfing technique are forms of massage that reach into these somaticized areas and work the memory or emotion out of the muscle. it is not unusual for people to have all sorts of emotional uprisings during these types of techniques.
similarly, yoga asanas work the physical and energetic bodies in dynamic ways. during a practice, an individual may open a black or close an overflow without even realizing it. the stretching of the muscles may release a memory or emotion without the practitioner knowing. Then, when they get to a more reflective posture, those elements come bubbling out.
now, the question is--do i have these somaticized things too, even if i'm not having this result in yoga class? the most broad answer is 'yes.' but you may find other ways to 'move through them.' For example, due to my past, i do not cry in public. it's hard to cry even in front of my most intimate companion--my husband. The vulnerability of it is nearly intolerable for me. So, even if i do have an arising in yoga class, i'm not going to let it out there. I"ll leave the room, go to the bathroom, and have it out thre.
but more often, it's worked out in rock climbing or in running or in swimming or in my own yoga practice at home moreso than in yoga classes. these things are deeply private activities--not public ones. The rolfer who did the rolfing on me was surprised that i didn't cry the whole massage, but when he left the room, that's when i did. He found that problematic, but i wasn't about to cry in front of a stranger.
so, don't worry about it. |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| I had a ton of pain with Hellerwork but no emotional upheaval. I did have some really interesting dreams sometimes, though. I don't see a lot of emotional outpouring in Iyengar classes. It does happen, but not often. I have had some moments of my own in practice but again, not frequent. Like zoebird, I would not usually cry in public although I seem to make an exception when I talk about my kids. I get pretty overwhelmed when I tell people how great they are 
I am not sure, but I think the Iyengar system works more on bolstering the nervous system and strengthening rather than channeling emotions outward. I saw a woman at a recent gathering have a little minor fall out of a pose and she was looking a bit shakey and possibly teary. A senior teacher put her into dandasana with lots of support and it seemed to stabilize her and allow her to get centered and strong again, which is what she really wanted to do. It is something I would like to know more about. |
|
| |
|
| i think this may be off topic, but i'm going to throw it out there to see if it applies.
i've been teaching chaturanga dandhasana in my level 1 classes at the Y. it usually only takes two classes before the majority of the class has it 'spot on' and a few people are doing 'spot on' modified versions. This session it took 5 classes! 5 consecutive classes! Finally, in the last class, i decided that we would do an ovservation and demonstration.
I had all of the students line up along the wall. I had a student come out to me in the middle of the floor where they would do the pose. I would hold them/adjust and guide them through the posture. some people already had it, others were terrible and they had to do it over and over with me until they got it right.
One of the students started to turn bright red by the third one that she had to do, and started to get shakey and teary. i knew that this was mostly out of embarassment. when she was resting in child's pose, i told her that this was not about her. this was about learning. she's getting private instruction, and everyone is learning by watching her. they're watching her change, they'll be able to learn from that. when she's done, she'll be able to watch other people go through the same change. She'll learn from that. It seemed to calm her down. She did the fourth pose 'spot on' and got to sit down along the other wall and watch.
after this 'drill' we did three sun salutation As. everyone did chaturanga beautifully. The tearful student (above) was all smiles. after class, she said 'that ws the best class yet!" Today (three classes later) her chaturanga is really great, she's strong in the postures, and she is learning very quickly (before, she had much more self doubt).
i dunno what happened. it's a miracle or something. |
|
| |
|
Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| Great story zoebird! What a wonderful way to explain why we use students to demonstrate. But also - trying to keep this in the topic - how continuing and working through emotional issues, especially in such a strong pose, can build up a person and their practice. |
|
| |
Should You do Yoga anyways?
