Bring the Stillness

Imagine attending a yin yoga class that’s intended to help you connect to your insides and notice all the things that are happening internally rather than externally. 

When I first started practicing yoga, I needed the group to help hold me accountable. Whenever I tried to practice stillness on my own I would tune out to distractions like the phone, or washing machine or even hearing the mailman pull up to our mailbox as a reason to stop focusing inward. Attending the class where the mat was laid out for me, I was invited to sit or lay down and find a position where I could be still for a few minutes was incredibly helpful. And because everyone else in the class was doing the same thing it gave me permission to not react to any external sound or stimuli.

And while I knew this next statement to be true I felt it for the first time in a new way when the instructor said,

“when we close our eyes all of our other senses light up.”

This is what enables me to listen more skillfully as well as notice what I’m feeling both sensationally and emotionally.

I started attending yoga seven or eight years ago, and roughly five years ago I went through a yoga teacher training certification. I now have the privilege of leading yoga. As a psychotherapist for more than 20 years I believe that the yoga has enhanced how I work with people as profoundly as my other trainings. I believe this is because I experience yoga from the inside out.

There are so many reasons to avoid the stillness. Our society tells us to keep it moving, never stop, never slow down. This can manifest in anxiety, sleeplessness, a pronounced inner critic, one that talks incessantly. Often the first line of defense for anxiety is medication which simply treats the symptoms rather than the cause.

With yoga and meditation we try to listen to the anxiety and soothe or challenge the symptoms.

When a persons stress and heartbeat increases, one can lower their heart rate simply by taking a few deep breaths and backing away or intentionally trying to slow things down. Try to imagine visualizing with a big, deep breath the ability to ask every cell in your body to work together with your breath as opposed to every cell in your body doing its own thing. It’s like breathing in some intention and encouragement and exhaling any judgment and or confusion.

I’m going to share some of the prompts that I use at the beginning of my own practice and the classes that I teach. Consider recording your own voice as you read through these prompts.  Allow time in between the sentences as you’re reading so you actually have several inhales and exhales in between each prompt.

Take a deep breath in and and hold your breath for just a moment and then exhale all the oxygen out of your lungs. 

Close your eyes and try this again, take a deep breath in and hold your breath at the top and then exhale all the oxygen out of your lungs and feel your shoulders soften. 

This time as you inhale notice the place at the top of your breath, hold it, then exhale all the oxygen out and notice the place at the bottom of your breath and consider which place you prefer. 

Settling into your breath and starting with your forehead and the place between your eyes, allow yourself to feel more and more relaxed.

 Moving down through your jaw down through your neck, your shoulders, your arms and hands, welcoming the heaviness and the sensation of gravity. 

Taking your focus to the trunk of your body, feeling your lungs expand and contract with your breath noticing your belly softening. 

And now taking your focus down your spine, feeling where you are supported by your chair, and taking your focus down through your legs, your thighs, down through your knees, calves, shins, and out through your feet. 

Welcome the stillness and curiosity that comes as your breath informs your nervous system and your nervous system informs your breath.

Meditation is an art. Finding stillness through yoga and other forms of movement is truly a practice. Learning how to try softer rather than harder has brought about more joy and self compassion than I ever imagined. The gentleness also shows up in all my interactions with others.

There are so many ways to learn about meditation and yoga and the very fact that you are reading this blog might mean that it’s a next right step for you. Whether you find a YouTube video, download some of the free apps about meditation and stillness or whether you show up to a yoga class at your gym, take some action and find the stillness. You won’t regret it.

This Sunday July 11, 2021 from 2 to 3:30 PM at Lifetime Matthews there is a free intro to meditation and Yin yoga class lead gently by me, Sheila Maitland.

Let me know if you would like a free pass to attend.

Sheila Maitland, LCMHCS