Yoga with Melissa

Jealousy

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Jealousy, envy and comparison, like any other emotional experience is not a problem. They are simply an expression of awakened energy.

With jealous, envy and comparison it can be incredibly difficult to turn towards the energy of those emotions because they often leave us feeling insecure, inferior, angry, frightened and ashamed. With envy we may feel unable to accept the accomplishments of our friends or wish we were celebrating similar successes. Maybe we are lusting after another’s possessions, career or relationships or wishing they were deprived of them. We might think of ourselves as losers or victims and the others as the only winners. It could kick us into a kind of competitive aggressiveness.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises.

With gentleness, kindness and without judgment, when you notice jealousy, envy and comparison, turn your focus from outwards to inwards. Notice what physical and energetic sensations are alive in your body. Keep coming back to your body and the felt-sense of the emotional experience. Jealousy is a normal and natural emotional that every human experiences, it has even been observed in non-human species as well.

The effect of jealousy, envy and comparison on your physical body is that it activates your body’s sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight and stress response. Your body begins to releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradenaline, your heart rate and your blood pressure elevates

Envy, jealousy and comparison are a form of attachment in that we are comparing some part of our life with another who has accomplished more than us and we exaggerate its positive aspects. When we come out of the felt-sense of the emotion we begin to create a story where this becomes one of the most important aspects of life and our entire sense of self-worth gets wrapped up in it. It is based on a sense of self who we think will gain something from this preoccupation.

For example more money, a better job, better looks, a better relationship, more peace. It is super easy to go to envy, jealousy and comparison in the age of social media when we are all posting the A-roll of our lives and the b-roll is getting left behind. I know myself I struggle with comparison as somebody who is been a Yoga teacher on YouTube for the past 8 years when there are yoga teachers who have shown up in the last couple of years who have far surpassed me in subscribers, students and followers. The preoccupation is with our own sense of lacking self and a perceived sense of the other person having an advantage.

The result of envy and comparison can be an aggressive competitiveness to push ourselves towards that which we covet. Alternatively we can become so disheartened that we give up completely.

“Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.” ~Unknown.

We each have been given one precious human life. I was not going to give advice in this series, but here is some of the best advice I have been given recently, “Compare yourself to your own potential, not to other people.

Jealousy

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Jealousy, envy and comparison, like any other emotional experience is not a problem. They are simply an expression of awakened energy.

With jealous, envy and comparison it can be incredibly difficult to turn towards the energy of those emotions because they often leave us feeling insecure, inferior, angry, frightened and ashamed. With envy we may feel unable to accept the accomplishments of our friends or wish we were celebrating similar successes. Maybe we are lusting after another’s possessions, career or relationships or wishing they were deprived of them. We might think of ourselves as losers or victims and the others as the only winners. It could kick us into a kind of competitive aggressiveness.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises.

With gentleness, kindness and without judgment, when you notice jealousy, envy and comparison, turn your focus from outwards to inwards. Notice what physical and energetic sensations are alive in your body. Keep coming back to your body and the felt-sense of the emotional experience. Jealousy is a normal and natural emotional that every human experiences, it has even been observed in non-human species as well.

The effect of jealousy, envy and comparison on your physical body is that it activates your body’s sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight and stress response. Your body begins to releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradenaline, your heart rate and your blood pressure elevates

Envy, jealousy and comparison are a form of attachment in that we are comparing some part of our life with another who has accomplished more than us and we exaggerate its positive aspects. When we come out of the felt-sense of the emotion we begin to create a story where this becomes one of the most important aspects of life and our entire sense of self-worth gets wrapped up in it. It is based on a sense of self who we think will gain something from this preoccupation.

For example more money, a better job, better looks, a better relationship, more peace. It is super easy to go to envy, jealousy and comparison in the age of social media when we are all posting the A-roll of our lives and the b-roll is getting left behind. I know myself I struggle with comparison as somebody who is been a Yoga teacher on YouTube for the past 8 years when there are yoga teachers who have shown up in the last couple of years who have far surpassed me in subscribers, students and followers. The preoccupation is with our own sense of lacking self and a perceived sense of the other person having an advantage.

The result of envy and comparison can be an aggressive competitiveness to push ourselves towards that which we covet. Alternatively we can become so disheartened that we give up completely.

“Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.” ~Unknown.

We each have been given one precious human life. I was not going to give advice in this series,

Jealousy

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Jealousy, envy and comparison, like any other emotional experience is not a problem. They are simply an expression of awakened energy.

With jealous, envy and comparison it can be incredibly difficult to turn towards the energy of those emotions because they often leave us feeling insecure, inferior, angry, frightened and ashamed. With envy we may feel unable to accept the accomplishments of our friends or wish we were celebrating similar successes. Maybe we are lusting after another’s possessions, career or relationships or wishing they were deprived of them. We might think of ourselves as losers or victims and the others as the only winners. It could kick us into a kind of competitive aggressiveness.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises.

With gentleness, kindness and without judgment, when you notice jealousy, envy and comparison, turn your focus from outwards to inwards. Notice what physical and energetic sensations are alive in your body. Keep coming back to your body and the felt-sense of the emotional experience. Jealousy is a normal and natural emotional that every human experiences, it has even been observed in non-human species as well.

The effect of jealousy, envy and comparison on your physical body is that it activates your body’s sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight and stress response. Your body begins to releases stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradenaline, your heart rate and your blood pressure elevates

Envy, jealousy and comparison are a form of attachment in that we are comparing some part of our life with another who has accomplished more than us and we exaggerate its positive aspects. When we come out of the felt-sense of the emotion we begin to create a story where this becomes one of the most important aspects of life and our entire sense of self-worth gets wrapped up in it. It is based on a sense of self who we think will gain something from this preoccupation.

For example more money, a better job, better looks, a better relationship, more peace. It is super easy to go to envy, jealousy and comparison in the age of social media when we are all posting the A-roll of our lives and the b-roll is getting left behind. I know myself I struggle with comparison as somebody who is been a Yoga teacher on YouTube for the past 8 years when there are yoga teachers who have shown up in the last couple of years who have far surpassed me in subscribers, students and followers. The preoccupation is with our own sense of lacking self and a perceived sense of the other person having an advantage.

The result of envy and comparison can be an aggressive competitiveness to push ourselves towards that which we covet. Alternatively we can become so disheartened that we give up completely.

“Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own.” ~Unknown.

We each have been given one precious human life. I was not going to give advice in this series,

Yoga for Depression

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Depression, like any other emotion is not a problem. Depression is simply an expression of awakened energy.

With depression it is often difficult to turn towards the energy of the emotion because we are so wrapped up in the story and the judgments around the experience. Our entire being may hurt. We feel heavy, empty, stuck, weighted down, unable to move forward, like we are wrapped in darkness and shadow. We may feel a lack of interest and motivation and freeze under stress.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises. Reggie Ray says, “When we let go of thoughts and judgments about depression, we can take the energy of depression as object as an object of mindfulness and it can liberate us from the reference points that cause us to suffer.” Reggie Ray

When we tune into the energy of depression it may appear to be an absence of energy. However, it is an incredibly powerful and potent energy. Depression is very dark, low, and empty. When we take the time to explore its energetic qualities we will find a lot of subtleties in our experience of it.

Usually, as my teacher Reggie Ray says, we cannot handle the intensity of the experience of the emotion of depression and so we check out of the embodied, energetic experience and we start thinking about it. We start judging it and telling ourselves stories about it. We tell ourselves stories of, “Poor me, what am I going to do about this, my life is empty, my life is meaningless, I am worthless, everybody else is happier than me, everybody else has their life more together than mine, everybody else is living a more meaningful life than me, I can’t do this.” All of the thinking and storytelling that goes on with depression is self-referential and feeds back to solidify an egoic sense of self that is empty, negative, dark and hopeless.

What my teacher Reggie Ray instructs us to do is to leave that storyline and thinking behind. Instead we drop into our bodies and the felt sensation of the emotional experience. It takes a great deal of courage to leave that sense of known self and storyline behind. Invite in the feeling of depression (not the storyline) just raw texture of depression, the feeling component of depression, the quality of energy, arising from your body. It takes courage. Feel the depression in your body, feel the weight of it in your body, roam around in your body and feel deeper into your body.

My teacher Reggie Ray says that when we get to know the energy and the embodied feeling of depression, there is an innate intelligence to it that leads us towards our unfolding journey. His teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, “Depression is the closest suffering state to enlightenment” What does that mean? Reggie explains that with the innate intelligence of depression we are seeing through the rainbows and unicorns overlay that normally glosses over our life keeping us distracted. We are seeing that there is something more to be discovered on our human journey.

Resrouce: Reggie Ray Depression is a Gateway

Yoga for Depression

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Depression, like any other emotion is not a problem. Depression is simply an expression of awakened energy.

With depression it is often difficult to turn towards the energy of the emotion because we are so wrapped up in the story and the judgments around the experience. Our entire being may hurt. We feel heavy, empty, stuck, weighted down, unable to move forward, like we are wrapped in darkness and shadow. We may feel a lack of interest and motivation and freeze under stress.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises. Reggie Ray says, “When we let go of thoughts and judgments about depression, we can take the energy of depression as object as an object of mindfulness and it can liberate us from the reference points that cause us to suffer.” Reggie Ray

When we tune into the energy of depression it may appear to be an absence of energy. However, it is an incredibly powerful and potent energy. Depression is very dark, low, and empty. When we take the time to explore its energetic qualities we will find a lot of subtleties in our experience of it.

Usually, as my teacher Reggie Ray says, we cannot handle the intensity of the experience of the emotion of depression and so we check out of the embodied, energetic experience and we start thinking about it. We start judging it and telling ourselves stories about it. We tell ourselves stories of, “Poor me, what am I going to do about this, my life is empty, my life is meaningless, I am worthless, everybody else is happier than me, everybody else has their life more together than mine, everybody else is living a more meaningful life than me, I can’t do this.” All of the thinking and storytelling that goes on with depression is self-referential and feeds back to solidify an egoic sense of self that is empty, negative, dark and hopeless.

What my teacher Reggie Ray instructs us to do is to leave that storyline and thinking behind. Instead we drop into our bodies and the felt sensation of the emotional experience. It takes a great deal of courage to leave that sense of known self and storyline behind. Invite in the feeling of depression (not the storyline) just raw texture of depression, the feeling component of depression, the quality of energy, arising from your body. It takes courage. Feel the depression in your body, feel the weight of it in your body, roam around in your body and feel deeper into your body.

My teacher Reggie Ray says that when we get to know the energy and the embodied feeling of depression, there is an innate intelligence to it that leads us towards our unfolding journey. His teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, “Depression is the closest suffering state to enlightenment” What does that mean? Reggie explains that with the innate intelligence of depression we are seeing through the rainbows and unicorns overlay that normally glosses over our life keeping us distracted. We are seeing that there is something more to be discovered on our human journey.

Yoga for Depression

¨Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are.¨ Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen

¨Emotions are intelligent expressions of energy that can lead us to our awakened nature.¨ Reggie Ray

Depression, like any other emotion is not a problem. Depression is simply an expression of awakened energy.

With depression it is often difficult to turn towards the energy of the emotion because we are so wrapped up in the story and the judgments around the experience. Our entire being may hurt. We feel heavy, empty, stuck, weighted down, unable to move forward, like we are wrapped in darkness and shadow. We may feel a lack of interest and motivation and freeze under stress.

As we learned in the emotional awareness class, emotional awareness allows us to experience an emotion and let go into that direct experience. We can be immediately present with whatever emotion is experienced in a direct way. We can experience each emotion in a fresh and new way.

What is emotional awareness? It means being completely present and open with the emotion. With emotional awareness we are free in the experience of whatever emotion arises. Reggie Ray says, “When we let go of thoughts and judgments about depression, we can take the energy of depression as object as an object of mindfulness and it can liberate us from the reference points that cause us to suffer.” Reggie Ray

When we tune into the energy of depression it may appear to be an absence of energy. However, it is an incredibly powerful and potent energy. Depression is very dark, low, and empty. When we take the time to explore its energetic qualities we will find a lot of subtleties in our experience of it.

Usually, as my teacher Reggie Ray says, we cannot handle the intensity of the experience of the emotion of depression and so we check out of the embodied, energetic experience and we start thinking about it. We start judging it and telling ourselves stories about it. We tell ourselves stories of, “Poor me, what am I going to do about this, my life is empty, my life is meaningless, I am worthless, everybody else is happier than me, everybody else has their life more together than mine, everybody else is living a more meaningful life than me, I can’t do this.” All of the thinking and storytelling that goes on with depression is self-referential and feeds back to solidify an egoic sense of self that is empty, negative, dark and hopeless.

What my teacher Reggie Ray instructs us to do is to leave that storyline and thinking behind. Instead we drop into our bodies and the felt sensation of the emotional experience. It takes a great deal of courage to leave that sense of known self and storyline behind. Invite in the feeling of depression (not the storyline) just raw texture of depression, the feeling component of depression, the quality of energy, arising from your body. It takes courage. Feel the depression in your body, feel the weight of it in your body, roam around in your body and feel deeper into your body.

My teacher Reggie Ray says that when we get to know the energy and the embodied feeling of depression, there is an innate intelligence to it that leads us towards our unfolding journey. His teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche used to say, “Depression is the closest suffering state to enlightenment” What does that mean? Reggie explains that with the innate intelligence of depression we are seeing through the rainbows and unicorns overlay that normally glosses over our life keeping us distracted. We are seeing that there is something more to be discovered on our human journey.

Resentment

If you haven't done the first two class in this series 391, 392, go back and start there. Those classes are foundational for this series.

Resentment is a natural and healthy emotion. It is defined as a bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly. Just like the other emotions we have opened to experience, we can open to the emotion of resentment. Resentment is not good or bad, it is simply an expression of energy. When we open to the free-flowing quality of resentment we can attend to its energetic nuances in our minds and bodies.

Resentment is a powerful internal reaction to feeling that we have been treated unfairly, judged or wronged in some way. The internal sensation grows more solid and secure the more we try to turn away from it. The emotion is a strong one that we feel intensely and deeply when people do not behave the way that we wish them to or a situation has not unfolded the way we expected it to.

Resentment is an emotion that we hold in isolation, personally and privately. It causes a lot of pain internally. Often we are taught it is unacceptable to express our pain, frustration, hurt, anger and disappointment even towards ourselves and so we hold it within our bodies. And so we deny our emotions and keep them hidden in our bodies. At the end of the class I will tell you how to get my gift of 3 simple mantras for releasing resentment and expressing your emotions.

This series on emotional balance is about opening to our full spectrum of emotions, including resentment and allowing their expression, especially to ourselves. We can allow ourselves a full range of emotional expression. We can let go of control, release all those emotions we have denied expression that have been so deeply held within our bodies.

Yoga Asanas/Postures: Supta Baddha Konasana or Reclined Bound Angle Pose, Windshield Wiper Legs, Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana, Frog Pose or Mandukasana, Half Frog Pose or Ardha Mandukasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold or Prasarita Padottanasana, Sphinx Pose or Salamba Bhujangasana, Baddha Konasana or Bound Angle Pose, Wide Legged Seated Forward Fold or Upavista Konasana, Wide Legged Child’s Pose or Balasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Mudra for Emotional Balance

Thank you so much for your donations Peige from Italy and Carla from Belgium

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive 3 simple mantras for releasing resentment and expressing your emotions.

Props: Bolster, 2 blocks

Resource:

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-to-release-and-prevent-resentment-in-your-relationships/

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199503/the-uses-resentment

If you are looking for a way to move beyond resentment then I highly recommend our forgiveness series in our membership community. This is a 5 class series. We will begin with a lecture to give an overview of what forgiveness is and is not. We will then turn to three yoga classes. First a yoga class to soften your heart, then a yoga class to let go and finally a yoga class to cultivate the courage required to offer forgiveness to yourself and others. The series ends with a meditation to offer forgiveness to yourself and others.

Link for Members: Click Here

Become a Member Today:

https://www.melissawest.com/membership/membership-sign-up/

Weekly Yoga with Melissa 397 Photos of Yoga Poses

Resentment

If you haven’t done the first two class in this series 391, 392, go back and start there. Those classes are foundational for this series.

Resentment is a natural and healthy emotion. It is defined as a bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly. Just like the other emotions we have opened to experience, we can open to the emotion of resentment. Resentment is not good or bad, it is simply an expression of energy. When we open to the free-flowing quality of resentment we can attend to its energetic nuances in our minds and bodies.

Resentment is a powerful internal reaction to feeling that we have been treated unfairly, judged or wronged in some way. The internal sensation grows more solid and secure the more we try to turn away from it. The emotion is a strong one that we feel intensely and deeply when people do not behave the way that we wish them to or a situation has not unfolded the way we expected it to.

Resentment is an emotion that we hold in isolation, personally and privately. It causes a lot of pain internally. Often we are taught it is unacceptable to express our pain, frustration, hurt, anger and disappointment even towards ourselves and so we hold it within our bodies. And so we deny our emotions and keep them hidden in our bodies. At the end of the class I will tell you how to get my gift of 3 simple mantras for releasing resentment and expressing your emotions.

This series on emotional balance is about opening to our full spectrum of emotions, including resentment and allowing their expression, especially to ourselves. We can allow ourselves a full range of emotional expression. We can let go of control, release all those emotions we have denied expression that have been so deeply held within our bodies.

Yoga Asanas/Postures: Supta Baddha Konasana or Reclined Bound Angle Pose, Windshield Wiper Legs, Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana, Frog Pose or Mandukasana, Half Frog Pose or Ardha Mandukasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold or Prasarita Padottanasana, Sphinx Pose or Salamba Bhujangasana, Baddha Konasana or Bound Angle Pose, Wide Legged Seated Forward Fold or Upavista Konasana, Wide Legged Child’s Pose or Balasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Mudra for Emotional Balance

Thank you so much for your donations Peige from Italy and Carla from Belgium

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive 3 simple mantras for releasing resentment and expressing your emotions.

Props: Bolster, 2 blocks

Resource:

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-to-release-and-prevent-resentment-in-your-relationships/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199503/the-uses-resentment

If you are looking for a way to move beyond resentment then I highly recommend our forgiveness series in our membership community. This is a 5 class series. We will begin with a lecture to give an overview of what forgiveness is and is not. We will then turn to three yoga classes. First a yoga class to soften your heart, then a yoga class to let go and finally a yoga class to cultivate the courage required to offer forgiveness to yourself and others. The series ends with a meditation to offer forgiveness to yourself and others.

Link for Members: Click Here

Become a Member Today:

Membership Sign-Up

Weekly Yoga with Melissa 397 Photos of Yoga Poses

Resentment

If you haven’t done the first two class in this series 391, 392, go back and start there. Those classes are foundational for this series.

Resentment is a natural and healthy emotion. It is defined as a bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly. Just like the other emotions we have opened to experience, we can open to the emotion of resentment. Resentment is not good or bad, it is simply an expression of energy. When we open to the free-flowing quality of resentment we can attend to its energetic nuances in our minds and bodies.

Resentment is a powerful internal reaction to feeling that we have been treated unfairly, judged or wronged in some way. The internal sensation grows more solid and secure the more we try to turn away from it. The emotion is a strong one that we feel intensely and deeply when people do not behave the way that we wish them to or a situation has not unfolded the way we expected it to.

Resentment is an emotion that we hold in isolation, personally and privately. It causes a lot of pain internally. Often we are taught it is unacceptable to express our pain, frustration, hurt, anger and disappointment even towards ourselves and so we hold it within our bodies. And so we deny our emotions and keep them hidden in our bodies. At the end of the class I will tell you how to get my gift of 3 simple mantras for releasing resentment and expressing your emotions.

This series on emotional balance is about opening to our full spectrum of emotions, including resentment and allowing their expression, especially to ourselves. We can allow ourselves a full range of emotional expression. We can let go of control, release all those emotions we have denied expression that have been so deeply held within our bodies.

Yoga Asanas/Postures: Supta Baddha Konasana or Reclined Bound Angle Pose, Windshield Wiper Legs, Bridge Pose or Setu Bandhasana, Frog Pose or Mandukasana, Half Frog Pose or Ardha Mandukasana, Downward Facing Dog or Adho Mukha Svanasana, Goddess Victory Squat or Utkata Konasana, Wide Legged Standing Forward Fold or Prasarita Padottanasana, Sphinx Pose or Salamba Bhujangasana, Baddha Konasana or Bound Angle Pose, Wide Legged Seated Forward Fold or Upavista Konasana, Wide Legged Child’s Pose or Balasana, Savasana or Corpse Pose, Mudra for Emotional Balance

Thank you so much for your donations Peige from Italy and Carla from Belgium

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive 3 simple mantras for releasing resentment and expressing your emotions.

Props: Bolster, 2 blocks

Resource:

https://tinybuddha.com/blog/how-to-release-and-prevent-resentment-in-your-relationships/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199503/the-uses-resentment

If you are looking for a way to move beyond resentment then I highly recommend our forgiveness series in our membership community. This is a 5 class series. We will begin with a lecture to give an overview of what forgiveness is and is not. We will then turn to three yoga classes. First a yoga class to soften your heart, then a yoga class to let go and finally a yoga class to cultivate the courage required to offer forgiveness to yourself and others. The series ends with a meditation to offer forgiveness to yourself and others.

Link for Members: Click Here

Become a Member Today:

Membership Sign-Up

Weekly Yoga with Melissa 397 Photos of Yoga Poses

Yoga for Anxiety

Today we are going to open to and become aware of anxiety. Just like the other emotions we have opened to experience, we can open to the emotion of anxiety. Anxiety is not good or bad, it is simply an expression of energy. When we open to the free-flowing quality of anxiety we can attend to its energetic nuances in our minds and bodies.

Anxiety affects 18 % of adults in the US, approximately 40 million adults between the ages of 18-54. Those numbers are pretty consistent worldwide. Women are twice as likely to be affected by anxiety than men.

When we experience anxiety we feel an overwhelming lack of trust in our world with no sense of inner security or safety. There is a feeling of being out of control and completely groundless. When we experience anxiety, we wear ourselves out with relentless thinking which heightens our nervousness in our bodies and minds. There is a sense of there being a danger or threat or not being able to cope with what may happen. When we experience anxiety we experience irrational fear, we are hypervigilant to the negative and we worry excessively about the future.

With anxiety we are caught in an endless feedback loop. Our minds spiral into continual mental scanning which use up our physical and mental resources, leaving us feeling exhausted.

The experience of anxiety results in hormonal imbalances in our bodies as our adrenal glands increase the secretion of adrenaline and cortisol in our bodies. Adrenaline and cortisol are hormones release in response to fear and stress by the medulla of the adrenal glands and in some neurons of the central nervous system.

Research has shown that yoga is superior to other forms of exercise in terms of lowering cortisol than other types of physical movement. A research study on African dance and yoga for example actually showed higher levels of cortisol after the dance than before compared to yoga where the levels were reduced. In another research study with specific yoga poses, researchers measured the cortisol levels before and after yoga classes and discovered significant decreases after yoga class.

With anxiety we need to ask ourselves, where is my attention? Usually our mind is all over the place and our body is fidgeting. When we practice yoga, we can place our attention with the sensations in our body. Instead of wearing ourselves out with relentless thinking which heightens anxiety, we can connect with our bodies and be still. Yoga offers us a way to connect with the earth, to ground, release all that nervous tension into the earth and connect with a sense of safety. Restoring your body through yoga will help to recover a sense of equilibrium.

Yoga Postures/Asanas: Crocodile Pose, knees to chest pose or apanasana, sleeping pigeon or figure four pose, child's pose or balasana, cat pose or marjaryasana, tree pose or vrksasana, standing forward fold or uttanasana, shoulderstand or sarvangasana, locust pose or salabhasana, janu sirsasana or head beyond knee pose, corpse pose or savasana, Hridaya Mudra for anxiety

Props: yoga block or wall, meditation cushion, folded blanket or chair

Resources:

Research on Cortisol Drops After Yoga Class: Link

Research shows Yoga works better at reducing Cortisol Levels than other forms of exercise: Link

Statistics on Anxiety: Link

Thank you so much for your donations Sean from New York and Anne Marie from Victoria Australia.

At the beginning I told you I would let you know how to receive a 7 day yoga series to release anxie...