Yoga For Beginners - Explore Emotional Healing With Yoga Poses

Looking for tips on Yoga for Beginners? Yoga poses can be used to explore feelings. Think of  your time with yoga poses as an experiment; as if you were in a laboratory. Kripalu yoga developed a framework for working with emotions: Breathe, Relax, Feel, Witness, Allow.

Decide that you want to experiment with an emotion. You can choose to go deep and explore, or you may prefer to simply witness the process. There are 3 principles to consider when witnessing. Let's use 1 principle and work with a Standing Pose.

Standing poses are great to work with when dealing with emotions. They bring a quality of strength and confidence as you make effort to sustain the pose. At the same time  you remain calm and relaxed as you pay attention to your breath. The two qualities of effort and surrender or relaxation create a healthy balance in yoga poses and in life. In yoga for beginners this is an important point to grasp through experience.

With stability in the pose as well as sustained effort and relaxation, tensions held a little deeper in the body can surface. This is your opportunity to explore, eventually integrate and release.

Working with Emotions through Sensations

Choose a standing pose from the yoga poses you like.  Enter the pose and find a way to hold the pose comfortably to allow sensations to emerge and expand. Avoid suppressing or sidestepping sensations. Feel your feet on the ground and press all 4 corners of the feet evenly into the earth. Lift the toes for even more support for the feet and legs. With support and stability established in the pose, gently lengthen the spine.

Witness

After you have established a firm foundation, totally focus on the physical sensations you feel. Remember to breathe consciously, and create space for the breath with micro movements when necessary. Encourage the breath to fill the whole body and definitely touch the sensations you want to work with. Use the breath to draw your attention inwards.

Notice the size, shape, quality of the sensation. Perhaps you are able to see colors and images.  To witness is to observe without judging or analyzing.  If creating a sound helps with a release of emotions, by all means free yourself.

Healing Emotions

This process releases stuck energy of feelings and emotions. What do you notice when the energy is released?

Do share your experience of healing emotions through any of the yoga poses you choose to explore in your laboratory.

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From Heather Greaves - Yoga Therapy Teacher Trainer and Body Therapies Yoga Training

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Yoga Therapy - 4 Steps to Turn a Frown Into a Healing Prayer With Yoga Therapy

Yoga therapy is a lot more than a prescription for yoga exercises. It takes the whole person into consideration at 3 levels: body mind and spirit. So if a frown has shown up once more on your face, here's a healing path you can choose to take. A "frown" is any negative feeling you experience. This self healing path turns a frown into a meaningful prayer from the heart, and calms the heart. Here are 4 ABLE steps that could be used in a yoga therapy session.

Acknowledge and Accept

What exactly are you feeling? Name it. Is it anger or hurt? Are you feeling scared or nervous? Are you worried or anxious? You may be feeling a milder form of emotion. You may have a combination of emotions. Take a moment and acknowledge all feelings and emotions.

Can you find a way to accept the situation, person or feeling? If you find this a difficult step, check to see if you are blaming or if you have guilt.

Yoga Therapy includes yoga psychology and asks us to question and change old belief systems that no longer serve us.

Breathe Consciously

Become aware of your natural breath moving in and out. You can even say to yourself, "Breathing in, I know I'm breathing in" when you breathe in. And then "Breathing out, I know I'm breathing out" when you breathe out. This allows you to be in the present moment, and to be with your body and breath, rather than dwell totally in your head.

Let Go

Let go of tension in the face, shoulders and any where you are holding tension. Relax the mouth, watch the frown dissolve as soften the face. When the mind is tense, it reflects somewhere in the body. Find that place and encourage relaxation. You could visualize being in your favorite nature spot, or see the tension leaving your body like smoke when you exhale.

Visualization is an important aspect of Tantra Yoga and it is included in Yoga Therapy.

End with Heart Connect

Place your hand on your spiritual heart. Thumb and index finger up by the collar bone. In the palm of your hand is a pool of energy. Can you feel it? To increase the energy there, and your level of sensitivity to the energy, rub the palms together a few times then place one hand on your heart. Gently close your eyes and let your attention rest right at that heart connect. Allow a prayer to arise from your heart, and feel this healing prayer in your body.

This is an example of working with the level of the mind in Yoga Therapy.

Take this healing path from a frown to your healing prayer as often as you need to. It is a self healing strategy that connects you with our heart.

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Heather Greaves - the Self Care Mentor and Body Therapies Yoga Training

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Yoga Therapy - Practice, Patience, and Persistence - 3 P's For Body Mind Healing

Are you losing patience and ignoring your practice of important routines for body mind balance? Perhaps you are about to completely give up because it's getting rough. Here are some tips for using 3 Ps, Practice, Patience and Persistence, to help body mind healing. See how Practice, Patience and Persistence connect hand, heart and head.

Practice is the doing word. It is whatever you currently do, or have decided to do, to create and maintain health for body mind and spirit. Which of the following action items deepen your body mind spirit connection: muscle tension release through stretching and movement, yoga meditation, singing, laughter, running, swimming, or something else? Repeat, repeat and repeat the practice. Come to think of it, would it really be repetition?

Action Tip: Practice daily. Ten minutes of daily practice is better than 60 minutes of practice once per week. A key to Yoga Therapy is the uniqueness of each individual. Stick with the practice that works for you.

Patience is the being word; the way you approach your practice. If your goal is worth achieving, it will take time. Do enjoy the journey. Can you allow the steps on the journey to be as exciting as the destination? Practice breathing consciously and deeply along the way, especially at tough times. This will allow you to be more aware of what is happening around you, as well as within you. And help you achieve more and more, while at the same time you slow down with Patience by your side.

Action Tip: Choose a day to slow down all your actions. Do everything twice as slow and calm your heart and increase patience. A key principle of Yoga Therapy

Persistence is the thinking word; the mindset that allows you to return to the practice day after day over a long period of time. To create a new habit it takes 90 days, and if you want to master it, a few years. If you have just begun a new habit for body mind and spirit, plan to stick with it even when you feel like quitting. If you have already stopped a practice, consider starting again. Call on your courageous spirit.

Action Tip: Commit to keeping up your practice, and make the commitment in a quiet moment when the mind is still and receptive. Another key principle of Yoga Therapy is Yoga Philosophy and Psychology which recognizes the impact the subconscious and unconscious has on our thoughts, words and actions.

Stay youthful with the 3 Ps. Practice for the hands, Patience for the heart, and Perseverance for the head.

And now, I'd like to invite you to claim your free instant access to 30 minutes of guided relaxation and other wellness tips, when you visit http://www.yogatogo.com/blog/relax

From Heather Greaves - the Self Care Coach and Body Therapies Yoga Training

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Kids Yoga for Healing Injuries

Kids Yoga can be utilized for healing injuries. Of course, this depends on what kind of injury we are talking about! A pulled hamstring is very different from a severe head concussion. Many minor injuries, strains, sprains, aches, and pains can be alleviated by a regular practice of Yoga. Yoga classes that are geared for kids incorporate the same traditional standing and sitting poses as adult Yoga classes. Many minor injuries can be addressed and healed by a consistent Yoga practice. In the case of serious injuries such as a concussion, broken bones and so on, please consult with your family physician before enrolling your child in a Yoga class.

Yoga is an incredibly therapeutic system of physical postures and exercises for strengthening, stabilizing and balancing both the body and mind. Many injuries arise because of the misalignment of the spine, overuse of a particular group of muscles and weakness in one or more parts of the body. Yoga postures help to strengthen, stretch and balance the entire body in such a way as to ameliorate current injuries, speed up the healing process of these injuries and prevent future injuries.

For example, if a child has injured his shoulder during wrestling practice or her hamstring during ballet practice, practicing Yoga postures will help to gently stretch and strengthen the compromised muscles and ligaments. Gentle exercises will help to bring fresh blood and nutrients to the areas that are injured speeding up the recovery process. Yoga asanas will also help to balance and strengthen the entire body so that a particular set of muscles is not overused and more vulnerable to future strains and sprains. Overuse of a specific muscle or group of muscles on a repetitive basis is one of the primary causes of minor muscles injuries.

Yoga can help children to improve the level of their overall health by strengthening all of the core muscle groups and increasing their level of flexibility so that minor injuries may be avoided in the future. If a child is contending with a more serious level of injury, it is best to get the approval of your family doctor before engaging in any new exercise regime, including Yoga. If your doctor gives you the "green light," you may still want to consider a few private Yoga lessons with a certified Yoga instructor in order to safely initiate a therapeutic Yoga practice for your child. A certified Yoga instructor will be able to help your child learn how to practice a series of Yoga postures safely in order to enhance and support the healing process.

© Copyright 2011 - Aura Wellness Center - Publications Division

Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA. To receive Free Yoga videos, Podcasts, e-Books, reports, and articles about Yoga, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/

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