When I was about 6 years old, I accidentally stepped on a tiny sewing needle and the tip of it broke into my foot. My mom tried to take it out with a tweezer, she tried to squeeze it out, shake it out, but nothing worked. So both of my parents took me to a doctor and the doctor told them to soak my foot in salt and water for a few days and eventually the needle will come out by itself. That our bodies have a natural ability to push out what does not belong. And I remember how fascinated my mom was when she saw that tip of the needle shine on the surface of my skin, and ever so effortlessly slip out of my foot.
And so this COVID era that we live in, reminded me of that incident. These days that are filled with loneliness, and that loneliness just magnifies all the undealt stored issues deep in the heart space that never completely came out. Whether it’s the collective heart, or our individual heart wounds. You know those issues that we thought were gone, that we thought we grew out of. Those deep wounds that we have become oh so very skilled at pushing away. But now, there's no where to hide.
Befriending the pain and creating space for it, is a concept that might seem counterintuitive. In most Zen traditions it is important to honor the wound, and some even create a ceremony for letting go. They sit in a circle around a fire, write on a piece of paper whatever it is that they want to let go of, and throw it in the fire to finally put it to rest. Then they maybe even dance around the fire as a celebration of this new freedom.
The heart will ache when it's trying to release pain, it is the way the heart communicates to you that there is something that needs to be released. But we usually react by numbing that pain or running away from it. Sometimes even using vigorous exercise as an escape method. We hear the saying about runners, that they are either running away from something or running toward something. Even a vigorous vinyasa yoga flow can be used as an escape mechanism as well.
The matters of the heart need to be seen, heard and honored. By sitting still and holding space for the pain in our chests, we allow the heart to push out the pain organically just like the body pushes out anything that is toxic. The least we resist this release the easier the process becomes. Just like a dentist puts anesthesia on a patient before she takes out a rotten tooth, it allows the body to be in a relaxed state, so she can perform the procedure smoothly. When we drop into stillness and shift into a parasympathetic state, the mind slips into a theta wave frequency, as the frontal lobe - the thinking part of the brain - reduces in its activity. Only then that we are less reactive, and we are calm enough to hold a nurturing space for our wounds to finally heal, once and for all.
Throughout my yoga journey both as a student and a teacher, I learned that it is more about revealing myself instead of hiding myself. That to me, what good is having a fabulous body and doing all the complicated yoga poses, if we live with an emotionally broken heart, a restless mind and lonely soul. Yoga in a traditional sense means “to yoke” to unite, to bring together, mind, body and soul. So I purposefully sequence my classes to allow space for healing, transformation and manifestation to occur.
If you haven’t taken the challenge yet, I invite you to join the global collective in this step-by-step guide of holding space and creating healing ceremonies to befriend the pain, and shedd the layers. 5 Days to RISE, is a yoga challenge that will shape your body, shape your mind and evidently shape your life. You can preview Day 1- Letting Go for FREE.