Safety and Yoga Therapy
Yoga is often portrayed in social media or on tv as something that doesn’t particularly looks safe to most people. Have you ever considered the safety of yoga therapy? When we think about safety we often think of it as physical safety. Will I get hurt doing this movement or that one? Is that yoga studio in a safe neighborhood? We may even think about our emotional safety. Am I going to feel pressured to make that shape or do that practice that makes me feel dizzy because everyone else is doing it? We may have our own personal aversions to a particular teacher, location, style of yoga, temperature, and so on that leave us feeling unsafe.
Central Nervous System
When we feel unsafe, our nervous system has a very direct response. Our bodies move into fight, flight freeze we response or into sympathetic nervous system (SNS). We become defensive or numb or we leave the room abruptly. Anxiety increases which creates chemical response in the body. Over time, if we don’t learn to regulate the SNS we can get chronic anxiety, chronic illness, and or chronic pain. Our brain learns how to be in hyper mode all the time, even when their isn’t something threatening our actual safety. Yoga therapy teaches safety and ways for individuals to self-regulate nervous system response to move from SNS to parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the rest and digest response. With self-regulation techniques such as breathing practices, gentle movement, positive affirmations, and more we aid the client in changing the neural pathways toward relaxation response and away from anxiety response.
A yoga therapist guides individual clients through practices suited for the client’s unique situation and helps them discover what helps them to relax and thus retrain the brain. Unlike a group yoga class where the teacher is working to accommodate a room full of very different people, a yoga therapist can work with your specific safety concerns by meeting you where you are at on your journey. A yoga therapist will ask you to fill out a thorough intake form of health history, assess your physical abilities, create an environment you are comfortable in, and take the time to listen to your concerns. This develops a sense of trust and rapport between client and yoga therapist.
Principles of Kindness
A yoga therapist will instill an important yoga principle called ahimsa, the sanskrit term for non-violence, gentleness, and patience. Kindness to ourselves and each other allows for an opportunity to feel safety in Yoga Therapy. And when we feel safe we shift the body into rest and digest, PNS. This is when and where the body has the opportunity to heal. A good yoga therapist will make you feel safe, nurtured, heard, cared for, and comfortable to the best of their ability. This training in shifting from SNS to PNS in your daily life is key to your health. When you leave your yoga therapy office you will be carrying the skills you need to move from unsafe to safe in body, mind, and spirit.
A sense of safety is key to this parasympathetic shift that is largely about working beneath the layers of the physical and instead diving into your mental and emotional well being. You might try these videos to get you started.
5 Minute Grounding Meditation listen here.
Mantra practice; Peace Begins With Me listen here.
Breathing Practice for calming listen here.
Contact me to help you with private tele-health yoga therapy or in person in Huntsville AL area here. Listen here to find out more about yoga therapy.
