Acceptance
“We cannot change anything unless we accept it”
-Carl Jung-
A powerful way to connect and make peace with our physical, emotional and/or mental pain or discomfort, is by practicing (yin) yoga. For a long time I thought yoga was just about keeping our body fit and agile. And still, many people think that they are not flexible enough to practice yoga. But yoga is not about the flexibility of the body. It’s about the flexibility of the mind. It’s about finding our own (physical, emotional and mental) limits and our own truth regardless what other people think. When we become aware of thought patterns that show up on the yoga mat we become also aware of them in daily life. For me the true benefits of integrating yoga and meditation into my daily life became tangible in 2018 as I explain in my inner journey.
In the beginning of 2020, just before the corona lockdown, I participated in the Hatha yoga course. During this course I learned about the benefits of yoga in relation to our chakra system. And with this new knowledge a period of silence and integrating yoga into my daily life started. Locked down on a remote place and not allowed to visit anyone, I integrated a fairly steady daily rhythm. In the morning I started with a few minutes of breathing techniques, some yoga poses for each particular chakra and a short meditation. I slowly opened my chakras from mostly underactive to much more balanced, feeling more at ease with myself. But fully locked down is definitely not a must: a few minutes of conscious breathing and some yoga poses can be of great value.
When, in 2021, I experienced sincere shoulder pain with radiation towards my arm and fingers, many yoga poses were too painful. I knew that the shoulder pain had something to tell me and that I should listen to my body. I started to focus on yin yoga to relax and surrender.
Instead of holding a pose for a couple of breaths, in yin yoga we stay in a pose for 2-5 minutes with the aim of connecting with the pain or discomfort in our body and to fully surrender to this. After practicing yin yoga for a couple of months I could “coincidentally” participate in a 60-hour yin yoga teacher training. Since I already experienced the benefits of yin yoga myself, I was very happy to learn the theory behind this form of yoga to be able to help others too.
Picture: yin yoga pose for frozen shoulder
