When I first started practicing yoga, I noticed something peculiar…
At the end of every session, after all the hard work of getting into the asanas, struggling to hold them, and then attempting to come out gracefully, I felt something release.
It was as if my shoulders were naturally melting away from my ears and a sigh of relief was rising up from deep within.
Soon afterwards, I uncovered the secret of yoga.
In this blog post, I’m going to reveal that secret to you.
Table of Contents
What is Stress?
To set the stage for this secret, let’s understand the context.
Apart from the symptoms of stress that we experience on a daily basis, how can we understand stress?
At its core, you can understand stress to be anything that activates the sympathetic nervous system – the fight or flight response.
Any external incident that elicits a stress response from you can be considered to be a stressor.
This can be anything from being rudely awoken by a screaming alarm in the morning, going to work or school in a hostile environment, missing your bus or train, receiving a stressful text message or phone call, overhearing distressing news, being exposed to violence or jarring music, and the list goes on.
What happens if you’re not actively Releasing Stress?
Some stresses are naturally processed and released through the body’s inherent intelligence; sleep, long sighs and immersing ourselves in environments that are perceived to be safe allow us to release stress passively.
However, without adopting practices for managing and releasing stress, it will accumulate in your system.
When stress is not released, it sinks into the deeper layers of your consciousness known as the panchakosha.
There, it wreaks havoc on your entire system.
If left unaddressed, stress can show up as chronic health issues, it can alter your breathing patterns and even create self-limiting beliefs that alter the way you think about yourself and the world around you.
Trauma is nothing more than a stress left unaddressed and stored deep inside your consciousness.
Releasing Stress with Yoga
When it comes to releasing stress, yoga is one of the most powerful practices you can adopt.
And here’s the secret: yoga is not just a physical practice – it’s a science, a philosophy and a way of life.
Commercialization has reduced yoga to just the physical practice but it is so much more and the sole purpose of this entire philosophy and way of life is to empower you to break free of societal expectations, take control of your life, and find purpose, peace of mind and deeper meaning in life.
The good news is that practicing yoga asanas can be the gateway to a deeper exploration of yoga and spirituality while still releasing stress, trauma and stale energy stored in your system.
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