avatarIrina Damascan

Summary

The article discusses how yoga can be an effective method for developing self-compassion and healing hidden trauma by providing the practitioner with choices and fostering present-moment awareness.

Abstract

The author explores the transformative power of yoga in cultivating self-compassion and addressing unresolved trauma. Through personal experience at the Yagoy studio in Amsterdam, the author highlights the importance of having the autonomy to choose poses that resonate with one's body and mind, as emphasized in the work of David Emerson on Trauma-Sensitive Yoga. This choice is not just about the physical postures but also about the psychological empowerment that comes from controlling one's bodily experience. The article also delves into the concept of interoception, the practice of noticing and responding to internal body signals, as a crucial element in the healing process. Additionally, the author emphasizes the spiritual aspect of yoga, drawing from Eckhart Tolle's teachings on the power of being present, which allows for a deeper connection with oneself and can lead to a more compassionate approach to life's challenges.

Opinions

  • Yoga is presented as a therapeutic practice that can help individuals connect with and heal from early trauma without the need for traditional therapy.
  • The guidance of a skilled instructor, like Gabriella at Yagoy, is seen as instrumental in facilitating a healing yoga practice.
  • The article suggests that the language used by yoga instructors, framing movements as invitations rather than commands, can significantly impact the healing process.
  • The author believes that the ability to choose which poses to take during yoga practice can help individuals with somatized trauma regain a sense of control over their bodies.
  • Interoception, or the awareness of internal body sensations, is considered essential for healing trauma and fostering self-compassion.
  • The practice of yoga is linked to the development of resilience and a more intentional approach to life decisions.
  • The spiritual aspect of yoga, particularly the emphasis on present-moment awareness, is seen as a pathway to a higher sense of self and improved emotional well-being.
  • The author posits that the compassion cultivated through yoga can positively influence all relationships, starting with the one individuals have with themselves.

How to develop self-compassion through your yoga practice

If you’re struggling to figure out the source of your unhappiness, it might be hidden trauma and yoga can help you discover it and heal it.

During my own research on healing methods and processes, I’ve explored many options to get more in touch with my feelings and to give space to my early trauma to show where it has stored the negative energy in my body and mind. One of the most satisfactory methods that don’t involve therapy was yoga. I found my special place at Yagoy studio in Amsterdam. A small business of an Indian businesswoman who lives in Amsterdam for over 20 years. Her personal story made me understand that there are many people not being able to pinpoint where this trauma comes from and they just deal with the symptoms like me through yoga. After 3 years since I was introduced to yoga and 1 year of frequent practice 2–3 times/ week, I finally realized what are the elements that help in healing and why.

At Yagoy I was lucky enough to meet Gabriella. Her guidance as a teacher brought enormous relief in my healing process. If you want to meet her and either join her retreats or join a class, follow her Instagram to get in contact.

Building self compassion through yoga is all about softening the edges of rules and expectations we have for ourselves while practicing the connection between our body and our mind.

The 2 elements that make the most difference are:

1. The choice

In the book of David Emerson on Trauma-Sensitive yoga in therapy, we notice an element in the discourse of the trainer that helps the yogins to develop a self-awareness about how they get to execute the movements indicate. He writes that the ability to choose if they take one pose or another allows people to see that if it doesn’t feel comfortable they don’t have to do it. Enabling in this way to choose what fits best for each person will become a new way to refer to the world. The more you hear that with every new class and every new pose you get used to the power you gain from this.

Let’s see some examples:

„Lift your right arm” vs

„If you like, lift your right arm”

The key here is to notice how the first one is a command while the second one is an invitation. The way in which facilitators do a more compassionate work in their practices is by doing the following:

  • They make everything an invitation instead of a command
  • They connect explicitly to what can be done with the body right now
  • They connect choice to interoception

By doing the last part, most of the new yogins are learning how to notice bodily sensations that are less common for them.

From a psychological perspective, having a choice can help in the following types of trauma:

  • People who have experienced abuse in their early childhood have somatized trauma directly in their bodies and most of the time because this became a subconscious pattern, they are not even able to trace back what happened but they just feel conditioned by their bodies in some way. Discovering the limits of our own bodies and being able to push those helps in reframing those mental blockages we have about ourselves but most importantly, having the choice to that in our own rhythm will help to remove the barrier of subjugation.
  • Connected to the subjugation schema, some people might experience that they are finally in control of their own body because they learned the mechanics of it by having a choice over how much they push themselves.
  • Being able to be in control also gives the power to express needs better and use the same externalization of experience with other choices you make outside of the practice. It fosters a precedent over justifying your limits for today and the shape you have now.
  • It speeds up the response to your body sensations and you take action much faster. Some people hate their bodies so much that they did not pay attention to their needs for years before they started doing yoga and were finally allowed to experience and choose how to react about a sensation.
  • The interoception allows getting more information about how your body might feel if you do a different movement and allows you to anticipate and think of what outcome you wish to have in your body by making an informed choice. This, in my opinion, is one crucial element for healing trauma.

Looking back at how in my own recovery this has helped me, having this insight into how I might feel and where I might feel more pain or a deeper connection to my body if I change a pose by a slight movement has made a huge difference in forming my resilience and allowing to ease my anxiety about the future. Knowing that there is a choice in how I feel and that I am empowered with the understanding of the consequences of my actions made me be more intentional about my entire life actions.

2. Being present

The spiritual movement of the new age awareness over our bodies has brought up many aspects that we have discredited from the yoga, meditation and mindfulness practice for many hundreds of years: the ability to notice at all times what are the mechanics of our bodies.

Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now speaks about the evidence of God in the manifestation of everyday life that we can notice and feel if we are anchored in a state of awareness from both within and without the body.

We raise our awareness through yoga by listening to the indications of the instructor telling us where to focus our attention ( just like in any guided meditation) and where to start noticing changes in our body. And as we scan each body part and feel how we create space, or stretch or move our bodies, we become connected to a higher sense of self which allows us to be fully engaged in the present moment.

This type of non-cognitive experience allows us to connect to our more primal part of the brain, the limbic one which has stored emotional trauma and the subconscious patterns of our behavior which will reenact during the practice as ways in which our movement will change something from our beliefs. We learn to connect to what our mind says we can do to what we actually feel in the body and finally to make a more compassionate choice for our body to transition from one pose to another.

The work on building compassion is usually a relationship-based work, but all our relationships with others are influenced by the relationship we have with ourselves. So the more we learn that we have a choice and that by staying present we can control the outcome and feel good in our own bodies, the more we will allow others to take their right to do the same for themselves. The more we give up on wanting to oppose and fight against the way things go, the more we will struggle.

Learning compassion can be done in many ways by humbling ourselves or by creating a discipline, but sensitive yoga comes and offers a hand in doing this with ease and empowerment which I find more delicate and easier to embrace.

Namaste🙏

Yoga
Therapy
Psychology
Compassion
Healing
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