Beyond the Mat: What Yoga Can Really Do for You

Beyond the physical aspect, yoga offers a variety of benefits for the mind, body, and soul. A good yoga class will teach you how to surrender the body, increase self-awareness, elevate your consciousness, and be present.

Yoga postures combined with breathing techniques help to create a connection between our mind, and our body to get in touch with our feedback system, and listen to the signs that our body gives us when it’s time to take a step back and slow down. It helps to break through those hard-to-reach areas in the body that are congested with unresolved emotions to heal from the inside out. Let’s have a deeper look at what yoga has to offer.

To begin, child’s pose is an important posture in yoga. Before we are born, we remain in the fetus position for months as we develop in the womb. It is the most familiar, comfortable and soothing pose for us. When we practice a yoga segment outside of our comfort zone, we tap into unknown parts of our inner being, which can bring up fears and it can be overwhelming. Child’s pose is the posture that rescues us from ourselves and brings us back to our element. In child’s pose, we feel safe, protected, and warm, like we’re in a cocoon, and all you hear is the nurturing sound of your breathing.

Another important part of the practice is the resting time between the segments. We get our body moving with flows and postures, which makes our heart rate and breathing go faster. Then we take a moment to rest. We allow our heart rate to come back to a regular rhythm, and our breathing to slow down. During that resting time, our body comes back to feelings of calmness, and it regenerates just like in deep sleep, except you are aware of everything that is happening around you. Our body can only regenerate during sleep or deep relaxation. If we do not take the time to recharge, our body doesn’t repair itself, resulting in a weak immune system, and our health gets compromised. The combination of postures and breathing techniques awakens the relaxation response and allows the body to repair, regenerate, and heal itself.

Pranayama (breathing) is the core of a yoga class. When we begin a yoga journey, we start by learning the postures, and once we’re comfortable with our body, we add the breathing. Focusing on our breathing during yoga allows us to create a relationship between our mind and our body. When we create a relationship with our body, we create a connection with ourselves. This allows us to be more mindful and get in touch with our pent-up emotions. We become sensitive to our feedback system, and we can feel everything that is going on in our body. Our body speaks to us; it sounds the alarm through physical pain when something is wrong, or out of alignment. Being in tune with our body allows us to take the necessary actions to stay balanced and in harmony.  

Unresolved emotions or traumas that are too painful to deal with get lodged in the deeper tissues of our body, mostly our hips. If we do not deal with them, they show up in physical pain, causing discomfort, tension, stiffness, and other ailments. Hip openers like the pigeon pose, and lunges, stretch out the hip flexors to open up the hips, and reach those trapped emotions. Once they are unlocked, they get pushed to the surface. When they finally get released, we might experience more pain because the body is compensating to get back in alignment. This might also release emotions, which can explain why some people cry during yoga class; they are healing tears. Allow them to release so they don’t show up anymore, and you can move on from your growing pains. Working through our fears and discomfort creates possibilities in our practice and in our everyday life.

On a deeper level, holding a yoga pose improves circulation, increases flexibility, and lubricates the joints. Long held yoga poses reach the connective tissue between the muscles and stretch the fascia through the body. We can feel our body expanding on the inside, and the space we’re creating between the joints. Creating space unblocks our energy channels and allows energy to flow fluidly; it’s an overall decongestion of our system. Holding a yoga posture allows us to feel and make any necessary adjustments to get back in alignment.

At the end of the class, everything comes together in savasana where we relax, and we are present. In savasana, we get to enjoy the effects of the practice and absorb its benefits. We can observe the difference in our breathing, which is probably a lot calmer, softer, and deeper. We can also observe the evolution of our postures, our being, and our consciousness; a journey from the mind to the self. We can check in with our feelings, our emotions, and our energy levels, and enjoy that feeling of calmness and stillness. We can feel the shift from chaos to calmness, from all the noise to silence, and all the agitation to relaxation. In savasana, we can completely surrender all our weight to gravity, and enjoy that melting away sensation in our mat. It feels refreshing and rejuvenating. In savasana, we can feel our practice heal us, and bring us back on point; it's like pressing the reset button of stress.

The following is a quote from Dr. Madan Bali about what yoga postures can do for us: ‘’Yoga postures help to decongest our guts, which are our second brain. They open up our blood vessels and our deep tissues to dislodge metabolic waist. They also help to refine energy through the body and tap into our inner pharmacy, and channel that energy into the cerebral spinal centers to nourish us like the roots of a plant. This helps the body flourish and speeds up the processes of renewal and regeneration.’’ ~ Dr. Madan Bali.

In conclusion, yoga offers the possibility of exploring every dimension of our being. It allows us to observe and discover inner and outer capacities. With a regular practice of yoga, we learn to control our emotions and keep our center for a balanced life. We also learn to tap into the relaxation response and connect to inner peace anytime, anywhere, even in the midst of chaos, because that is our true essence.

Yoga is a journey of personal development, and we all have healing that needs to be done. Take your time. There’s no rush. Trust the process. When you’re practicing yoga, don’t worry so much about what your posture looks like. Focus more on how you feel. Stay in a natural alignment of the body to prevent injury, enjoy your practice, and the evolution will come.

with love,

Maria xo