Emotional upheavals because of the lack of a liked one, a relationship gone dangerous, divorce, job loss, monetary loss, sexual abuse, and spousal violence are a number of the generally recognized problems in life that may trigger emotional trauma that they affect each bodily and emotionally. and an individual’s psychological well being.
A prevalent delusion about feelings is that there’s nothing we will do about it. Most individuals really feel like small boats in an unlimited sea of feelings tossed about by conditions, occasions past their management. Nonetheless, writes Norman E Rosenthal, a psychiatrist and researcher, the extra we find out about feelings, the extra we understand how we will alter troublesome feelings and develop wholesome ones.
One more researcher, James Laird of Clark College, discovered that asking college students to make facial expressions related to delicate smiles or frowns made them happier or angrier. If such a easy and delicate distinction as a facial features can have an effect on the state of 1’s thoughts, then how way more highly effective yogic postures that work on the endocrine and limbic methods can alter an individual’s emotional state. For one’s frame of mind is sort of a easy equation with the best steadiness of physique and thoughts equaling a peaceable frame of mind. Asanas are the physique a part of the equation and pranayama and pratyahara are the thoughts a part of the equation.
Emotional trauma often leads to the mind breaking all the way down to deal with the onslaught of calls for made on the limbic system inside the mind. That is linked to the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system, that are mentioned to handle the physique’s response to emphasize and trauma.
So how does yoga assist cope with emotional trauma in life? It was the sage Kapila who gave us the Samkhya system. The yoga sutras of the Bhagavad Gita and Maharshi Patanjalis, taken from the Sandhya system, outline yoga because the science of thoughts management that impacts numerous dimensions of an individual’s character and conduct patterns.
Asanas: It has been scientifically established that asanas and yogic postures carry concord between physique and thoughts. To grasp this, we have to understand how the thoughts and physique complement one another. In the event you fear an excessive amount of, get offended, suppose an excessive amount of, really feel self-conscious, all of it results in overactivity of your endocrine system. The endocrine system is thought to have an effect on an individual’s bodily and psychological conduct. These glands embrace the thyroid, pituitary, pineal, pancreas, and so on.
The thoughts and the endocrine system are carefully linked. With common follow of asanas and yogic postures, quite a lot of pressure may be managed as they handle the endocrine system in a balanced manner. The straightforward follow of two asanas particularly Paschimottana asana and Dhanurasana can result in muscle and psychological rest.
Paschimottana asana: In Hatha Yoga, Pradipika is just described as: Stretching the legs (entrance) on the bottom, like a stick, bending ahead, holding the toes with each arms and resting the brow on the knees.
This asana stretches your complete backbone and central nervous system, thus permitting nerve and pranic impulses to cross on to the upper facilities of the mind. When there may be quite a lot of pressure within the physique and thoughts, paschimottan asana helps to take away it by regulating the adrenal glands and the blood and panic impulses flowing within the mind.
Dhanurasana: It’s an asana the place you lie on the ground in your abdomen, your ankles are gripped by each arms after which your entire physique is stretched like a bow, therefore its identify. It’s useful in overcoming lethargy and slowness in thoughts and physique. It instantly impacts the photo voltaic plexus on the navel, which is a big sympathetic nerve middle so necessary to the wholesome functioning of the physique’s organs. It’s particularly helpful for relieving pressure as a result of numerous endocrine glands are massaged and toned, particularly the thyroid and adrenal glands. It removes tiredness as a result of cortisone is secreted to offer the required enhance or if you’re hyperactive the cortisone secretion is decreased, in order that the physique reaches equilibrium.
However it is rather necessary to remember that asanas must be discovered from a talented yoga guru and must be carried out with full psychological consciousness and correct respiration sample. Consciousness of each a part of the physique collaborating within the actions is of supreme significance in yoga. These asanas take away the strain that builds up in your muscle groups all through the day.
Pranayama: It’s a system of respiration workout routines that assist expel the utmost quantity of carbon dioxide from the physique and guarantee good oxygen provide to the mind and physique.
However, because the yogis have mentioned, pranayama shouldn’t be confused with merely a respiration train. It improves oxygen within the physique and expels carbon dioxide which has its advantages physiologically. However as Swami Satyananda mentioned, Pranayama really makes use of the respiration course of as a way to control all types of prana inside the human construction, each gross and delicate. This in flip has repercussions on the thoughts and physique. The thoughts is the grasp of the senses and the breath is the grasp of the thoughts. (Hatha-Yoga Pradipika 4:29). Due to this fact, consciousness of the breath stills the thoughts, helps your consciousness flip inward as you watch with closed eyes and an inward gaze, the motion of the breath inside your physique. It helps keep at bay ideas that loosen up the thoughts and thus ease tensions within the thoughts and physique.
For these affected by extreme anxiousness, anger, and so on., the next Pranayama will assist:
1. Anulom Vilom: Alternate nostril respiration with counting of the length of inhalation and exhalation counting to the rhythm of seconds. Attempt to preserve slowly rising your capability. For instance you begin with 5 seconds of inhaling and exhaling, then preserve rising and attempt to carry it as much as 24 seconds over a time frame. Do 5 rounds.
2. Ujjai pranayama: Sitting in any meditation place, contract the neck space barely as you’ll if you need to whisper, then inhale and exhale mindfully into the throat feeling the breath cross by means of the throat space and listening to your breath as a slight snore. Do 5 rounds.
3. Brahmari Pranayama: Whereas sitting in any meditation place, plug your ears with a finger, inhale deeply, then as you exhale, chant Om, with a brief A, U and a final extended syllable, M, producing vibrations inside your head . Do 5 rounds.
Pratyahara: Among the many eight branches of the Patajalis Yoga sutras, Pratyahara is the fifth department. The primary 4, social codes Yama), Niyam (private codes), asana and Pranayama are referred to as Bahiranga (exterior practices). Pratyahara is the transition from Bahiranga to Antaranga (inner follow), as a practitioner progresses to the final three levels, Dharana (focus), Dhyana (meditation) and eventually Samadhi. Pranayama adopted by Pratyahara is a strong mixture to calm all tense nerves, muscle groups and knots of pressure inside oneself. All of this may stay quite a lot of discuss until you really follow and expertise the fantastic advantages of yoga.
(Kamini Bobde is a Kundalini practitioner following the yoga custom of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. She is the writer of Kundalini Yoga for All: Unlock the Energy of Your Physique and Mind. Printed by Penguin)
