Yoga and your emotions: let them go

Newcomers to yoga are sometimes shocked at the intense emotions which well up during their practice - you may feel angry, sad, joyful or blissful. The positive emotions are wonderful, but the negative emotions can make you feel as if there's something wrong with you.

In "When Emotions Well Up During Yoga" John Friend says:

Thoughts and feelings are completely intertwined in the fabric of the body, so yoga often initiates the release of emotions. With a focus on balanced breathing, even muscular engagement and uniform stretching, mindfulness, and a positive mindset, hatha yoga can be one of the healthiest ways to begin to clear unresolved feelings such as sadness, anger, or fear.

Just keep breathing, and focus on your asana. The emotion will pass - an emotion is like a wave, it builds up to a crest, and then falls away. Feeling an intense negative emotion is a release - the tension in your muscles and spirit is being released; the original injury may be decades old, and now you're releasing it.

Let it go - releasing old emotions is a good thing.

Yoga for your spirit: achieving stillness

Practicing yoga helps you to find your self. Your real self, that self which encompasses your everyday self, and which is always there, but which we're too distracted to notice.

As you do your yoga exercises, you become acquainted with your self, without noticing that it's happening. Then one day you recognize that you're more than you think you are, and you let go more and more. You come to rely on your inner stillness; your presence.

Respected yoga teacher Erich Stillman says:

Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are... It's a matter of listening inwardly for guidance all the time, and then (be) daring enough and trusting enough to do as you are prompted to do.

Achieving stillness happens slowly, without you noticing. Then one day instead of reacting to a situation as you normally would, you relax into stillness. Then you act from that, or you don't act at all.

Yoga is great for your mental health

Frazzled and stressed out? Try yoga.

Yoga is great for your mental as well as your physical health.

You'll find that even five minutes of yoga a day will make you feel more focused and relaxed. You'll have more energy for your life and for your family and friends.

Want to get more done?

If you're a productivity maven, and feel you don't have time for yoga, try yoga anyway.

Because yoga relieves stress, it gives you more energy, and because you can concentrate more effectively, you'll get more done.

A simple yoga session extends your daily 24 hours - you'll feel that there are many more hours in every day.