Lessons From Yoga

1- a little support makes all the difference

I’ve been doing yoga on a fairly routine basis for about a decade now. I was introduced to routine practice by my former partner Dr. Lori Atkins @fenomlaw. She is not only an amazing OBGYN, but also a Yoga teacher and now studio owner. Her Sunday morning classes were my “church” throughout my years in Fort Worth. Sunday morning practice was always my favorite. As someone who is not religious, yoga gives me the vibes I would yearn for in a church setting: presence, meditation, music, movement and community

Lori took the headstand photo during one of her classes. She’s the ultiamte cheerleader!

.

When I moved to Toronto, I was so pleased to find another Sunday morning yoga that had the same intention. Marla Bond brings the same energy to her classes that I loved from Lori. They both have given me so many words to live by, mantras to repeat, and thoughts to ponder throughout the years. So I’m doing a small series of lessons that I’ve learned in Yoga class.

Today’s lesson came from my FAVORITE pose in yoga -pigeon. For those of you who aren’t Yogis, this is a pose on the ground (yay) often at the end of class (another yay) that stretches the hips (juicy yay). It’s a pose where I like spending time (as opposed to let’s say chair pose). I carry so much tension (and emotion) in my hips. It changes every fiber of my body when I spend time in pigeon.

I don’t know if I have recommended the book “The Body Keeps the Score” on here yet or not, but it’s an incredibly interesting read. I read it on my therapist’s recommendation after I finished my EMDR trauma processing. It provides so much insight into how our body stores emotions, trauma, and grief. Our hips specifically hold a lot of our trauma and sadness. It’s really no wonder that still, to this day, in a yoga class I will cry during class, specifically when I get to pigeon pose.

I’ve had this experience for a long time. A few months back however, it was deepened and made so much more impactful by Marla’s words during class. She cued pigeon, and then reminded us that we could set a block underneath our hip if it wasn’t on the ground. My hip has NEVER been on the ground, but I always feel like I’ve had a great stretch there- to the point of tears! She then said a sentence that is now engrained into my soul.

“You have to be supported to let go.”

Me, hyper-independent, over-functioning ever-vigilant party of one, had to sit with that for a minute. And I bristled at that for more than a minute. I didn’t put the block under my hip that class. I clearly didn’t need support to stretch. I felt the stretch just fine, thank you very much.

But that sentence kept bouncing around in my head. I sat with it; I reflected. Dammit- it’s true. I have really only been able to let go of my grief, my stress, and my anxiety with support. Unloading things that heavy is not something I could have ever done on my own. That support comes from a lot of places. It comes from my friends, my family, my therapist, my meditation, my dogs, and now my writing. I can’t really do any “letting go” without it.

So the next class I tried it - the block that is- and you’re probably not shocked to know that a little support changed everything. It allowed the stretch to go to places I hadn’t felt before. Allowing things to surface that had been locked up. It was a release unlike what I had experienced before. Being supported allowed me to let go in a more freeing way than I previously had been able to do.

So, I challenge you to think about your life. What do you need to let go? How can I support you in that endeavor? Let me know… send me an email or comment below.

From the Ashes,

Andrea