Your Body Speaks Your Mind

[Kimberly]

Review pages 24-25, 38-39 and 55-56 in Your Body Speaks Your Mind. After reviewing the questions and prompts, share any “ah-ha” moments or realizations about how your body speaks your mind. Then share how this may apply to you as a teacher.

[LAD92761]

I often find my shoulders up, tense when in a very non-tense setting and know this is an example of how I hold my stress. It can be stress from work, stress from multiple projects pulling for my attention or stress in not being well rested. Holding my shoulders In a stressed position only causes pain, more anxiety and trouble resting. My ah-ha moment is “I can control my reactions” and simply taking a few breaths, being aware of my body and allowing my shoulders to slide down and relax also allows my mind to relax and anxiety to ease. We can control how we react. As a teacher, helping students breath and release into their mat all through practice is important. Working to help students find the mind-body connection is key. I many times suggest to students to be aware of how they stand while in line at the grocery asking them to scan the body for where they may hold stress and then breath into those areas and allow the muscles to relax into place.

As far as illness, I have had ah-ha moments from sickness and finding that not having my mind-body relationship typically leads to being sick. Allowing body to get run down, not properly hydrating or fueling or simply stressing on something to the point of sickness. I think it is important to talk to your students about proper self care.

Lastly balancing our energies is key to healthy relationships with your self and others. Paying attention to your right brain/left brain male/female tendencies and working to keep those energy channels open. I have become a true believer in Reiki, opening blockages in order for energy to flow freely in the body and better yet, understanding what is behind those blockages such as finding your voice, facing things courageously, maybe even sleeping on one side consistently forcing blockages, whatever it is, I aim to continue getting Reiki in order to be as open and true to myself that I can be. I believe in Reiki and keeping your life energy flowing. This is the only way to really allow yourself to connect deeply with your students.

[regmarlew63]

Whenever I am anxious/fearful, I hold all my stress and emotions in my shoulders and neck. Which most often leads to a headache. And I’m very tired with a dull headache the next day. When I do get anxious about something, or there is some form of conflict, I notice I start to straightening up, cleaning, organizing things. Maybe this is in tune with me trying to “fix” whatever it is….
When I reflect on the past, I always feel warm and safe and loved. In the past few years, in accepting the circumstances that come along with a loved one living with a degenerative disease, it has felt constricting. Foreign. Goes against my entire life experiences in many ways. From family gatherings, to travel, to activities that no longer exist and yet defined the very essence of our traditions. Faith has been the only way that has made the days doable. Paying extra attention to self care is key also.
I feel as though my feminine and masculine sides are pretty balanced. I love to nurture and give emotional support, yet I’m totally into rolling up my sleeves to do physical work and also to be strong for my loved ones when they need that support and protection. I’m certainly not afraid to speak honestly and remain true to myself.
My right side is my dominant side. Although, the most serious health issue occurred on my right leg. Maybe it is indicative that I carried and stressed my right side while coping with a traumatic event when it happened. I definitely put self care on the back burner at the time and was totally immersed in one train of negative thought mentality. Missing the moving parts all around me. It felt like I was drowning, and now I recognize that, yes, while this particular event was traumatic, I was leaving so many gifts that very well were holding the balance and normalcy I was dying to have, but too consumed by negativity, I missed out on! 20/20 HINDSIGHT!!!
Regina Lewis

[KHuttsell]

I found the body awareness review helpful to better understand my ongoing issue with stiff neck and shoulders. As I’ve observed my body – I’ve realized that ongoing stress about work and personal life balance is when I find my neck and shoulders extremely tight. I’ve been known to grab an “emergency massage” because I can stand how stiff my neck is. As my yoga practice is increasing and I’m learning to deal more positively with my stress – the neck and shoulder issues have begun to decrease. With so many men and women complaining of stiff necks and shoulders – I try to incorporate neck and shoulder stretching into my class. Typically, right in the beginning to help them loosen up before practice. I often allude to working in front of computers or other types of reaoonsibilies that require ya to be hunched over. In addition, I’ve been really working to incorporate heart openers into my classes that can help students begin to release their shoulder blades. I explain what a heart opener is and why including it in ones practice can be beneficial for sore necks, backs and shoulders.

Fortunately, I’ve been relatively healthy most of my life. However, I’ve had a few issues close together over the last few years. As I reflect on my illness/injuries – I realize everything occurred on one side of my body – the right. This now makes more sense as the greatest struggle I have had is how to be in a male dominated industry and maintain my feminist and my role as a mother. Yoga teacher training has taught me to look at pain and unltinately injury in a different one. Understanding where my imbalances are and what may be the root cause has helped me be less injury prone and I feel healthier. To incorporate the idea of masculine anf feminine and left/right brain into classes I teach – I would like to really focus on each side of the body when doing asanas. I would discuss how the energy works on each side and how we need to understand how an imbalance could impact how we feel on one side or the other. And frankly, discuss how this can differ just day to day – it doesn’t have to be a major change for a long period of time to notice an imbalance.

[dooley]

I have always notice when I become irritated or frustrated the tension goes right into my neck and shoulders. My shoulders get very tight then I feel pressure in my neck and at the base of my skull. Reviewing the body awareness in the Your Body Speak Your Mind book has help me pay more attention to what issues cause create more tension in this area. I have been writing down when something happens and how it make me feel. I have been trying to come up with strategies or breathing techniques I can use to help combat this issue. One thing I have done in the past, which was very helpful was alternating breathing. If I am feeling anxious or worried I will stop what I am doing and doing this breathing exercise 8-10 times or until I start to more relaxed.

Answering the questions on page 38-39 has also helped to see why I may be holding on to tension. It has made me look deeper into myself and how I can let go of some of that old baggage. With having my pain stem from my left foot, I have noticed that more of my tension is in my left side of my body. I believe when the pain would be intense it would go up the the left side into my shoulder. When I get a massage they do tell me that I am have more tension on this side.

When you are able to begin to bring balance in your body, you will be able to pass this along to your students. You can bring awareness through meditation and breath work. and have them direct that breath into any area of their body that they may be feeling tension or stress and demonstrate how this can help relieve some of the stress.

[melross1]

I hold my tension in my shoulders and jaw. So I often have headaches. My entire body feels stress, yoga has helped with this. Page 24-25 I’ve been aware of because I’ve been searching for ways to feel better that didn’t involve medication. But it took years to discover that it was mind related, not just physical.

I am hard on myself, I have recently realized that I am also holding a lot of tension in my upper back between my shoulder blades. In the last few months I have started taking better care of myself getting massages and seeing a chiropractor. Taking time for me, my focus has always been on everyone else in my family, this journey has made me open my eyes to see how important I am and if I don’t take care of myself, I can’t take good care of my family.

As a teacher I can add positive saying or quotes to my class during centering to remind everyone how important we all are. And when I see students holding tension, I can change the focus of the class to maybe the hips or shoulders.

[Beth]

I think I have learned a lot about my body as it relates to my mind since beginning YTT. I have had many aha moments, including after reading this book. I know that my migraines are directly related to the emotions I experience. I realize I also have horomones working against me during my moon cycle, but I can trigger migraines and make existing ones worse or last longer when I’m feeling: sad, angry, scared, or insecure.

I have a tendency to push down my insecurities, anger and sadness until I can’t hold it in anymore and then I burst at others. Sometimes, I fall apart by myself, but either way, I will cry and within four or six hours have a migraine. I am insecure in relationships because I have a tendency to seek out emotionally unavailble men like my father. This leaves me always anxious and feeling unloved. I also try to do everything on my own, the masculine side of me trying to make it look as though I never need anything from anyone. My feminine side is over developed in my sense of empathy for others without leaving enough for myself. I feel as though I have to make up for the fact that I do not have any children, by taking care of everyone else’s. I feel less of a woman around women who are married with children, and yet I like the choices I have made.

I become tight in neck, shoulders and upper back. Althought my right side is dominant, my scoliosis causes both sides to hurt. Typically my left shoulder blade area will hurt during a migraine but no amount of massage or heat or ice will help. I am scared to think that there is something I can do during a migraine to calm it down. My stomach is rarely affected unless I am far past my normal stress reaction, and this is typically because I will eat less and less, until my stomach is upset. The final sign that my body is past a point, that my stress has reached a peak, my legs ache. It is a telltale sign I’ve learned to read. This can also happen if I’m almost in a car accident, or someone has threatened me with violence. Within an hour, my thighs will ache and I know I have to calm down or stop moving.

On a normal day, at work, or around my family, I can feel it start in my neck. If my parents are arguing and I start to remember parts of childhood when they argued, I start to feel tightness and I breath shallow. I breath all in my chest, because I am sucking in my stomach and I don’t know why. I have trouble remembering embarrassing moments in my past with men without having a physical reaction. I can remember sad things and happy things without having a noticeable physical reaction. Mediation has helped tremendously. I am able to allow feelings to come and go without spending days, weeks, months, suppressing them. At the same time, I know I still do this, but it is happening less.

I find myself uncomfortable when I’m relaxed, once I’m aware that I am. I can relax on vacation, where it seems like I’m “supposed” to be relaxed. So let’s see, I think it is equally important for me to describe the way my body feels when I am relaxed because this is the opposite quality. When I’m relaxed, it is usually when I am on vacation in Michigan, at my famliy’s home laying on the beach in the sun. My body is warm (I like to be warm), my muscles are not tight, I am breathing deeply with my belly. I think about things I hope for and things I still want to do with my life, I think about how grateful I am for my family and the experiences I’ve had, good and bad. My mind thinks entirely different thoughts than it does during the rest of the year. I have fond memories or when I have a difficult memory, I do not react.

I try to find ways to feel this way when I’m not on the beach but at least I can observe when I’m feeling this way. I try to meditate to bring myself to this place.

[lisaclick48]

You become what you think….I have ah-ha points often.
I noticed years ago that I would hold tension in my lower back which would lead to headaches. My back tension worked its way up my back over the years to my shoulders to my neck and then out of my body. I don’t usually ever hold tension in my body or at least not muscle related anymore. I think work stress created this for me usually. I learned how to kill it and it’s awesome as I remember how bad it felt and how it added to my stress.
Recently, my stress is different and deeper rooted and my recently health challenges have been a huge wake up call and a huge blessing. I know I have a lot of work to do to get the stress and illness out of my body for good. I’m trying to reduce commitments and spend more time meditating and practicing my breathing exercises. I need to eat the right things, exercise more, get massages, do more yoga, do more meditation, and get reiki monthly. Self-care is not easy, and I have been challenged with this concept this year. I’m so grateful as the habits I create soon will set me up for a healthy person year from now. I believe the lost of several loved ones has created this situation for me so I’m doing extra things such as going to a median, hypnosis, chakra readings to see what else I can do to manage how I deal with loss and how to handle it with grace and peace in the future. Journaling is helping me set my mind free and allow my self to get go of the loss and it’s helping get rid of the sadness too.
As a child, my thoughts and stress, I know my mind was making me sick. My inner critic, my mind would never shut down and it was a big problem for me trying to achieve unrealistic goals. As a young adult and mother, I started to have better self-awareness. I realized I was in a status of chronic stress from career obligations, being a single parent, and regular everyday stresses. As I started to understand my diet, my allergies, I did research and starting learning. I still wasn’t doing all the right things all those years and even in 2017 but I was learning, and I was aware. I attended week long workshops to improve my inner self and I worked hard every day to see the world differently. Yamas and Niyamas was life changing and arrived at the perfect time in my life. Living the Ayurveda lifestyle, understanding my dosha, removing toxins from my home, eating organic isn’t nearly enough for me. I need to learn more and do more. I’m on my own mission to learn more and more. I seek knowledge always. I’m almost addicted to learning at this point in my life. Constant improvement of self, kindness of self, self-acceptance, self-care…I’m focused and much more aware. I’m a work in process, my thoughts are much more loving towards myself and I feel positive most of the time…gratitude and feeling blessed. I love the book by the way. Thank you KK

[msinghal]

From pages 24-25, I realize I hold anxiety in my stomach while I hold tensions in my shoulder and neck. I am anxious by temperament (vata), and I have always had a weak gut, but this connection has only recently become apparent to me. Also, since the last one year, I started developing shoulder and neck stiffness. While undergoing physical therapy and reading this book, I am realizing that I often stiff or scrunch my shoulders up. Awareness is the first step towards prevention or cure. Not only am I trying to release the tension from my shoulders when I realize it, I am also trying to mitigate the state of stress via meditation and breathing.

Luckily, I have had a nurturing and safe upbringing with no major upheavals that I can attribute my gut or shoulder issues. There have been some relationship issues in my adulthood, but all those since have been mostly resolved. I do not necessarily have a dominant side either. While I am mostly left brained, my feminine and masculine sides are roughly equally balanced, maybe tilting a bit in favor of the feminine side. I get injured on both sides of my body (and I get injured often!!). Interestingly, I noticed that when I am anxious or tensed, I am more prone to a physical injury, further proving the mind body connection.

As a teacher, I feel it is extremely important to bring our own lives in balance, not only for our own selves, but also because the energy that we own will be passed on to the students. Having this knowledge will help me noticing if a student is holding tension in certain parts of his or her body, and possibly will be able to offer modifications in poses or breathing techniques to ease those.

[sally200]

Part 1 -pages 24-25
From diary – irritated or frustrated – I was driving to a yoga class and missed the exit, immediately I cursed, and my hands were tense on the wheel, stomach fell, and immediately I felt pissed, mad at the car that would not let me in to take the exit feeling anger. Hands tense, stomach afraid not sure what to do next, and mind in anger. Luckily, my GPS picked it up and I was able to make it on time to the class.
My body spoke my anger and fear of not making the class. As a teacher, be at class very early and not to worry about being late. But I would teach my students to breath through issues like this.

Anxiety Reactions – When I started to teach my karma classes, I convinced myself that these folks are my friends and I do not have to be anxious, but about an hour before the first couple class I felt light headed, a little shaken, and sure I would forget all that I practiced. For my students, pranayama is the key, practice creates confidence. So, if you are unsure, practice.

Watch your reactions – for this questions I had to reach into my past, not too many people shout at me anymore – I remember another drive yelling at me to get off my phone, he followed me, until I put it down. My stomach dropped and I started to shake. I was fearful of what he might do, and pissed that he was right I needed to get off my phone. I should have pulled over as I was shaking, – my whole body inside and out reacted. As at teacher, my actions effect my students. Be professional at all times.

Observe the effect of memories- usually I have tears these days, and feel melancholy if I look at old pictures, or I hear a story that brings back memories. They could be tears of joy or sadness, and my body starts to feel tired and wore out. I would suggest to myself and my students when emotions take over, it would be a good time to do yoga, shift my enger, as they can shift theirs.

Analyze illness and injuries – In my past I had right hip issues, it was from a new puppy, sleeping on the couch because he was so noisy at night. It ended up being chronic for years, PT, shots, PT shots, and then I started regular massage a few a week, so I feel I (me) finally relaxed and let go.
It was my right side, and I usually have my pain on my right side.
As a teacher, always bring awareness to my students of their bodies, my thoughts are to pose these questions to my students.

Part 2 – Listening to your body – quiz

Question 1, 3, 4 – have played a part in my condition of TMJ. My illness has had me look over all my behaviors, tenseness, and how to deal with it. My body was telling me that I was not not letting go and dealing with issues, just storing them. My illness has been a private matter, my spouse is supportive. Question 13 – my spouse is going thru a health issue, too, that most likely adds to my TMJ.
We have been very open about our health, and how we move forward, and the help we need. My self care is number one, and one of the reason I took the YYT, using all the tools to relax, meditate, and focus on a better life style. My students are going to have issues and connection to loved-one’s issues. Being compassionate is so important, you become close to your students, so be able to acknowledge their struggles and be empathic is important, but I will have to have my boundaries to project my energy and what I might hold on to myself. As a teacher, a balance of sharing of how much I can help my students, and not take it personally, keep their highest good in my heart and mind.

Part 3- Balancing Review – My right side is more developed, it seems stronger. I mentioned before my right hip was injured and the pain reoccurred over a 5 year period. My masculine side is stronger. To balance, I have learned about left nostril breathing, being connected to the Moon and its cycles, trying more “to be,” and allowing myself not be in control. Being more creative, writing, warm baths, its okay if I do not have a to do list, and checking in on my compassion and empathy. Once again, being aware and checking in on my feelings and why. Having this knowledge, and working on myself can only enhance my practice, and how I approach my to my sequencing, my themes, and working with my students. They can ask themselves about the balance of their feminine and masculine.

[CindyHurst]

When I’m anxious, I usually feel it immediately in my gut; also tightening in my jaw and the muscles in my neck. My skin may also react. In college, I had a boyfriend who tried very hard to control me. I really liked this guy, which I think clouded my ability to see how much this bothered me. I suddenly developed a severe rash on my inner arm. Nothing I did helped to alleviate the itching or make the rash better. Finally, something happened between us that made me speak up. Actually, I remember doing a lot of yelling that day. I definitely let it all out – I told him that I wasn’t going to tolerate his controlling behavior any longer. Next day, the rash was completely gone. This was a huge, obvious lesson in how my body does speak what’s on my mind.

The wisdom I’ve gained over the years – I’m now able to either not react to stressful events or utilize my tools to prevent a further, more intense reaction. By starting my journey into teaching Yoga at this stage of my life, I believe that I’m well positioned to help my students to deal with their stress (especially job-related stress) through Yoga and Meditation. I want to be an example to my students of the long-term benefits of a Yogic lifestyle.

[EmilyD]

I feel like this book was full of “ah-ha” moments for me. There were some things, like the fact that I clench my jaw a lot, that I have been becoming more aware of as I practice yoga. When I am stressed or anxious, I carry it in my jaw. I know I need to take a step back if I wake up with sore teeth from too much grinding and clenching through the night. Through yoga, I have started to notice when it creeps in. I force myself to take a deep breath or stretch my jaw to combat it.

Other things, like a possible connection between my lipedema and fear of the future OR the connection between my current feelings/actions being so connected to the way I was raised were earth-shattering. I know I’m going to have to re-read this book to start really digesting it, but I am looking forward to the kids going back to school so I have a little more time to start digging into the past to see what I can uncover about myself.

The other thing that really stood out for me was the idea of how I react to past memories. I have some issues I am carrying around with me. I feel angry and upset when they come up, even though they happened 10, 20 or 30 years ago. The way I treat the people from the memeories is impacted on a daily basis. I need to find a way to let the memories and hurt go. I need to reframe what happened, accept that I am who I am, and be okay with it.

If I incorporate this into my teaching, it will be a very, very basic inclusion. Most likely, I will use personal examples (like my jaw) and connect it to how yoga has helped me. Yoga has taught me breathing techniques, body scanning, among other things. They are all tools in my toolbox to pull out when I am nervous, worried, and anxious. Yoga is an opportunity for individuals to get to know their bodies and reactions better. A class with the focus would be perfect during common stressful times – back to school, Thanksgiving, and the holiays.

[heatherfly]

I’ve been working with this for a long time. I have a somatic orientation to the way I work with clients. Always asking, where do you feel that thought/feeling in the body. So this stuff wasn’t so much ah ha as it was: cool! I know sugar gives me headaches and more than 1 glass of wine does too. So does too much coffee, too little water or sleep and not enough time to be quiet. I know if I relax my shoulders my mind will relax. I suppose the ah ha came from putting my stubbornly problematic left hip and knee together with being an over taxed mom, a painter with no time to paint and a woman whose own mom seems to be retreating ever so slightly.

When I work and when I teach yoga I’m constantly directing attention inward, notice and find what feels good. Notice how your body feels while this is going on. Notice what it feels like when anger, anxiety, sadness, resentment, etc, shows up. I think being centered and aware of my own stuff is of the utmost importance. I create space for others to open up, whether in yoga or in counseling. In my grad program there was an ever-ringing mantra repeated constantly: Self as instrument. The clearer I am in my own self, the more useful I can be for others.

[Author]

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