Personal Practice Notes: This week I have been mostly... letting go to find calm with my yoga practice.
It's a busy time of year and there's a lot going on with work, home, family, yoga... It can be easy to feel overwhelmed at times but I'm incredibly lucky to have techniques to hand which support me, including yoga for letting go.
What is 'letting go'?
We all hold tension, all the time. It's in our bodies, in our minds and in our energy systems. In many ways it's highly effective: for example, tension is how our muscles and connective tissues function to hold our bones together into our amazing moving bodies. As indicated by this example, tension is a balance and when it's out of balance it can cause us problems, particularly strain and stress-related conditions both mental and physical. Letting go is therefore the art of finding the tension that doesn't need to be there and allowing it to be released to bring your system back into balance.
How does letting go with yoga relieve stress?
There are many experiences and situations in life through which we have to hold ourselves up, both literally and metaphorically. If you've ever had a job where you had to stand up all day, you'll know how much tension you can build up in your feet and lower back, amongst other places, simply by running around for hours on end. If you've been dealing with a difficult situation in which you have responsibility for an outcome you may have found yourself holding more neck and shoulder tension than usual. When you're concerned about something you may have noticed that you tend habitually to clench or hold tight a particular part of your body.
These are all quite normal physical and mental reactions to life; but left unchecked we can find ourselves out of balance and experiencing the stress of a situation in an exaggerated manner or find that the stress continues after the situation or experience has passed.
Letting go with yoga allows us to notice where we're holding tension, enquire about whether it's needed right now and consciously release it into the support of our bodies or the earth if it's possible to do so. In this way, we can literally let our stress go.
How does yoga help with letting go?
Yoga practice, for me, is a space where I can slow down enough to begin to notice what's going in my body and mind from the perspective of an observer, rather than simply experiencing it and being swept along by the experience.
The process of focusing mind, body and energy through yoga postures on a regular basis has always been a really important tool for me in getting out of my head and into more of that mindful observer kind of state. I notice that I tend to involuntarily hold my breath at certain points in the practice. I notice that my jaw is clenched more often after a poor night's sleep. I notice that I'm more fearful of falling backwards from headstand (which, by the way, I often actually do 😅) during certain transitions in my life.
Without first being able to notice tensions in ourselves, there is little capacity for letting go.
Yoga also gives me the grounding and connection techniques to feel and understand when it is safe to let go of my tensions. As noted above, some tensions we need, and I'm sure I'm not alone in having experienced times in life where I was quite literally tensing myself up in order to get through them and out the other side.
In a headstand, my body is primarily ungrounded as the only stable bit is the top of my head and forearms touching the ground, and my calm (!) inner observer notes that it would be really silly to let go of all tension in that situation because I'm not really designed to stay upright that way. However, I can also notice the bits of me that feel grounded, connected and stable and allow the bits that aren't needed for that stability to have a little holiday (yes, even in headstand! it's very liberating).
The same may be said of mental and emotional tension. Through yoga practices where we learn to notice where we feel calm and safe and supported on the inside, we can not only identify tensions that we don't need to keep holding but also know when it's safe to release them or when we may need to keep holding on.
N.B. times when I think I've felt more unstable in a headstand are when I've been tensing my body to manage life situations which have felt unsafe for me for whatever reason. The tension was probably helpful for the situation, but not really for the yoga asana.
How do you practice yoga for letting go to relieve stress?
It's definitely not all about fancy yoga postures. My simplest approach in letting go yoga to relieve stress is just sitting down and noticing how I'm holding myself. It's something anyone can do with thirty seconds or so even in the midst of a busy day. Please give it a go right now. Where are you holding tension?
You might notice that your shoulders are 'up near your ears' (as I've heard many yoga teachers describe it) or there's a gripping in your abdomen or lower back, or that you're frowning and you didn't realise it. Or anything else. As you exhale, see how you feel about softening that tension, and if it's ok, start to let it go. Give it a few breaths, noticing the support of what's underneath you, and perhaps softening a little more with each exhale. Then take a moment to notice whether you feel any different to before. That's my most basic practice of yoga for letting to relieve stress. I've been using it a bit this week as I've not had loads of time to roll out my yoga mat.
When I've got a bit longer to practice, I've been taking a mindfulness meditation where I just focus on my breath. The amazing and incredibly difficult thing about this type of meditation (known in Buddhist practice as anapanasati) is that you are constantly distracted by anything but your breath. So I really get to know what is on my mind, because it keeps distracting me! However, it's also a beautiful practice of yoga for letting go, because eventually I can leave the distracting thoughts be and have better focus on my breath. Of course, sometimes things are just too distracting, in which case I often take it as a sign that it's not OK for me to let them go yet. Maybe I need to do something with or about them instead.
Finally, a wonderful way that I've found to practice yoga for letting go that is especially good at relieving stress is to create more grounding and support in my yoga asana practice. Using props such as blocks, a yoga bolster, cushions, a rolled up blanket and anything else that might come in handy to help my body and mind know that it's a safe space to be held up without all the tension I might be using when off the yoga mat. Yin yoga is an amazing approach for this as it encourages us to use both gravity and props to soften down into yoga postures without holding muscular tension.
My Yoga Sequence for Letting Go to Relieve Stress
Props required:
Yoga mat
Yoga bolster or 2x cushions/pillows
A blanket
1) Tadasana (mountain pose)
Stand, preferably barefoot, with your feet hip width apart. Stand up tall and see if you can home in on the way that your body weight presses on the ground through your feet. You might like to imagine the footprints you'd be making if you were standing on damp sand.
2) Mindful Check-in
Notice how you feel. Take a trip around your body with your awareness. How does each part feel? Is anything tense? Does anything feel spacious or open? How do you react to finding this information?
3) Inhale and exhale
Inhale fully but lightly through your nose and then exhale completely through your mouth. Do this three times in total.
4) Tall Mountain
Inhale as you raise your arms up along the front of your body until they're above your head, look up at your thumbs if it's OK for your neck.
5) Dangle/ Forward fold (Uttanasana)
Exhale as you sweep your hands down again, hinging from your hips and bending your knees to come to a forward fold. Hold here for several breaths, bringing a couple of cushions or a yoga bolster in underneath your dangling arms to provide a connection without having to stretch the back of your legs too much.
See if there's anything you don't need to hold onto here. It could be the weight of your head, or tension in your belly, or anything else. Let it go as you exhale, if it feels OK to do so.
6) Front Lying Savasana (corpse pose)
Roll the props away in front of you and come to all fours, then down onto your belly. You can support under your hips with a rolled or folded blanket if it feels better for your lower back. Support your head on your hands, forearms or on a cushion. You could turn your head to one side if that feels OK. Stay here for several breaths- maybe up to 10.
Notice what it's like to lie down. Could you be softer as you lie here? (It's OK too if the answer is no).
7) Sphinx pose (variation of Bhujangasana/ cobra pose)
Adjusting what's under your hips first if you need to, come up onto your elbows and rest on your forearms. Your palms could be parallel and face down or your hands interlinked.
If this is too tense for you in the lower back, you're noticeably clenching your buttocks or core, then you can try moving your elbows further in front of you. Stay for at least 5 breaths.
Some strength and tension is needed in this pose but where is it not needed?
8) Front Lying Savasana (corpse pose)
Resting down again from your elbows fully onto the mat, supporting your hips with a blanket if you'd like to and resting your head down onto your forearms or a cushion. You could turn your head to the other side. Stay here for several breaths- maybe up to 10.
Anything else you notice or could further allow to drop away now?
9) Balansana (child's pose)
Pressing back with your hands, bring your hips towards your heels, your knees as wide as is comfortable (N.B. this could be as wide as the mat or just keeping them together- if that's what your body calls for) and your head down towards the mat, maybe supported by a cushion or a lengthways yoga bolster. You can also use a rolled up blanket between your hips & heels (especially if they don't easily meet). Stay here for 10 or more breaths.
Adjust yourself during that time if you need to, both externally and internally. What could be softer?
10) Supported Savasana
Come up slowly to all fours, moving any props away and then sitting down on the mat. Bring your bolster or cushions behind you, so that as you lower yourself down with your legs outstretched, they support from your lower back right up to behind your head.
You can also use a folded blanket for extra head support or drape the blanket over your legs.
11) Inhale & Exhale
Inhale fully but lightly through your nose and then exhale completely through your mouth. Do this three times in total.
12) Mindful Check-in
Notice how you feel. Take a trip around your body with your awareness. How does each part feel? Is anything still tense? Does anything feel spacious or open? Has anything noticeably changed? (It's OK if it hasn't)
How do you react to finding this information? Has anything shifted in the quality of your mind or thoughts?
Stay in Savasana with your eyes open or closed for as long as you feel comfortable.
Comments