Why it's harder to practice when the world is on fire

Funny thing. We know that yoga helps us manage stress. We know it sometimes inclines us toward feeling pretty good. But when we are stressed and feel like crap, getting to the mat is harder than at any other time.

Why?

Don’t beat yourself up about it and don’t think you’re crazy. What’s actually happening is that our nervous systems are dealing with more allostatic load. We’re hyped up and exhausted and scared. A nervous system that is overwhelmed, under resourced, and scared does not want to practice yoga. It wants to run around and be busy. It’s looking for activity and double checking the phone. We want to look at the news. And sometimes we’re avoiding the news but compelled to vacuum, go for a run, or scroll through happy puppy videos. We might be craving a bit of physical, but it’s unlikely to be yoga. We’re craving distraction so deeply the crave is instinctive. Things that numb will take the edge off and our body mind knows this, privileging things like the phone, Netflix, alcohol, bingey food. But taking the edge off is not a good strategy in the long run.

“Stress isn’t necessarily bad, and our bodies respond to stress positively. However, if the body’s stress responses are turned on too frequently, for too long a period of time, a kind of wear and tear begins to happen. The response systems become disregualted. ”

So what do we do?

1. Know you’re not crazy. This is what a nervous system does when the pressure is high. Know, too, that you (and your students) will come back. Trust me. I’ve seen this happen to me personally and in the yoga world over decades. During extremity (like Covid, and now this) people can’t do yoga. In a month or so, they will come flooding back as their system realizes it needs yoga. In a while, you yourself will come back.

2. Set the bar as low as you can. One pose*. Promise yourself to do one pose, every single day. If you can do it at the same time every day, even better.*

One Pose wonder

When I say ‘one pose’, I mean moving in and out of one shape, on the breath, for 8-10 breath.

I have three that I use for myself and have used for students with incredible success.

Cakravakrasana (all fours with an upper back backbend on inhale, child’s pose on exhale). Truly follow the breath and slow the breath down a little bit each time. Move forward slowly on the inhale, and slowly move backward with every exhale. This tends to be langhana, bringing us closer to the parasympathetic state.

Bhujangasana (cobra to forehead to the floor). Lie face down on the floor. With every (slow!) inhale, lift and reach your heart area forward and upward away from the floor. With every exhale, rest your forehead or one cheek back on the floor. Don’t use your arms to push up; look for movement in your spine. This is slightly more brahmana (uplifting, toward engagement in our system), but will still work like magic.

Balance one one leg choose a ‘pose’ if you like, but this is kinda fun in that it doesn’t even have to be a ‘pose’. You can play tilt a whirl if you want, challenge your balance, or look for the big beautiful poses so famous in yoga magazines and social media. Try to stick with the principle of engaging with the breath in a long, slow way for 8-10 breath then repeat on the other side. Maybe you find tree pose on exhales, and something weird on the inbreath. Or just move your arms to a wide stretch and back to a prayer. The big muscles engaged will harness your nervous system’s and chemical metabolism’s attention, the balance aspect will steady your mind, the stabilization will get to core/belly/spinal movements that encourage nervous system regulation, and the realization that one thing makes a difference will leave you in a better place.

Why does this work?

Inevitably, people tend to feel a craving in the body mind for more, or at least a flush of competency. We immediately feel better. You can do more if you want, but hold to your simple commitment of one is enough. It’s more important that you repeat this tomorrow, and if you overdo today you are less likely to come back tomorrow. If you have a memorized sequence, it’s easy to roll into it. Consistency is better than intensity. Intensity has to be built up over time.

With one pose, you have hooked behavioral attention to the breath.

You’ve deepened that mind-breath connection to include some movement.

And you have meet your own needs, honored your commitment to yourself, shifted gears completely.

If, just if, you can hook this one pose to the same time each day you’ll be harmonizing with all sorts of neuroscience about time, stress, and agency.

Dork stuff: what is allostatic load?

It helps to recognize that there are diffrent kinds of stress. Some is personal (work, family trouble, disease, job loss, moving, grief) and some is impersonal (social strain, uncertainty, pervasive fear).

Beyond even that, there is something known as allostatic load. Allostatic load is a concept articulated by neuroendocrinologist Bruce McEwen and psychologist Eliot Steller in 1993. It's the price the body pays for adapting to stress, the biological consequences of prolonged stress responses.  Stress isn’t necessarily bad, and our bodies respond to stress positively. However, if the body’s stress responses are turned on too frequently, for too long a period of time, a kind of wear and tear begins to happen. The response systems become disregualted. Depending on who we are and what we’re starting from, allostatic load may effect blood pressure and cardiovascular mechanisms in the body, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, cortisol levels, and a whole litany of inflammatory markers. Mood, concentration, sleep, and appetite bear the consequences.

Rebuilding our resilience - aka our capacity to do hard things - is vital for long term outcomes, but it’s also a way to immediately feel better.

Try it. As always, if you want support and guidance, I’m here.

The Strong Body, Quiet Mind Project

The Strong Body, Quiet Mind Project provides high quality yoga classes to veterans, first responders, at risk youth, and survivors of trauma.  All veterans and first responders are invited to participate - service and health providers are invited to collaborate with Return Yoga.  Participants are asked to pay $30 per month for unlimited yoga classes.  A veteran's i.d. card or first responder i.d. is all you need to sign up. Sign up must happen in-studio for Strong Body, Quiet Mind.  Every class on Return's schedule is open to project participants.

Participants are invited to all yoga classes rather than 'special' classes: there is no need for labels, anonymity is respected here, and all to often 'help' comes with stigma.  The truth is, we all need healing. Further, 'special' programs or classes are all to limited in time and scope, leaving participants after a few weeks rather than encouraging an on-going, life process of growth.

The Need:

Our society is rife with anxiety, stress, and trauma.

Studies have shown that PTSD and 'shock' in this generation of military will overshadow anything known to previous generations, costing billions. Veterans returning from service are finding a depressed economy, a dirth of future and career opportunities, and a shortage of services that answer their physical and psychological needs.

Research is showing that domestic violence and sexual assault survivors are just as likely to suffer trauma symptoms, with an even fewer sources of support and intervention.

Similarly, first responders are on the front lines of crisis situations day in and day out.  On going exposure to traumatic situations takes its toll on responders, who are under appreciated, under respected, and under protected.  Trauma, stress, and shock are status quo.  The private costs are often invisible, but no less deep.

These populations suffer in their own lives, and the effects of trauma are passed onto the next generation. These demographics are over-represented in the unemployed, the homeless, the incarcerated, those seeking emergency services, addiction services, and medical assistance. Their children struggle in education, health, and social connections. These kids are more likely to be involved in crime, high risk behaviors, and have inadequate medical and educational support.

HOPE

Trauma has proven to be one of the most difficult issues to 'treat'. However, current research has shown that the skills of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga promote autonomy, well being, and genuine healing in away medicine and traditional 'talk therapy' can't. 8 weeks of a yoga practice has proven to calm the sympathetic nervous system and increase activity in the areas of the brain associated with the parasympathetic nervous system, sense of safety and autonomy, and cognitive functioning. Further, yoga can be taught at very little cost, with no negative side effects, and is accessible to any level of ability/mobility.

The effects of trauma (or stress, for those who have been labeled too much already) are pernicious, at times devastating, at other times manifesting as a numbing sense of being 'damaged' or 'broken'. Many who have lived through trauma (from a car accident to the death of a loved one, a sexual assault to active duty)often describe it as a chronic state of hopelessness.

Yoga is a rediscovery of hope, and the lived experience of grace.

It was so for me.

There is a profound difference between trying to 'get over it', and feeling oneself okay from the soles of the feet to the deepest parts of the brain.

Yoga allows us to experience ourselves not as 'wounded' or getting over it, but as powerfully alive and worthy human beings.

How the Program Works:

Return subsidizes costs directly, in such a way that every class dollar spent by students goes to funding the Strong Body, Quiet Mind Project.  Return is incorporated as a non-profit.

Additional funding may come from community or private donations or grants.

If your program is interested in accessing yoga classes for your demographic, please contact Karin Burke at karinlburke@gmail.com.  All support, whether by participating in class or donating directly, is greatly appreciated and provides a demonstrable good.