Expanding Our Sense of Self & Yoga Practice: The Eight-Limb Path of Yoga

The eight-limb path of yoga give us a foundation for a well-rounded approach to yoga and health. We are holistic beings, meaning our body, mind, and spirit are interconnected and all play an important part in how we feel. Time on the yoga mat is intended to be time for personalized medicine; a practice of tuning in to the experience of our own body and mind, and listening or responding compassionately and honestly. And if we’re truly paying attention we need different intentions or practices on different days. 

Each time you arrive on your yoga mat, take an intentional pause to check-in with yourself. Discern what your departure point is for that day and what limb or limbs can offer the best recovery or discovery!

Here’s a high-level look at the eight-limb path of yoga:

Yamas, the first limb, are ethical restraints for getting over ourselves and positively impacting the world around us. The five yamas are:
Ahimsa: nonviolence
Satya: truthfulness
Asteya: nonstealing
Brahmacharya: moderation
Aparigraha: non-attachment

Niyamas, the second limb, are ethical observances for letting a spiritual life take place within our lives. The five niyamas are:
Saucha: cleanliness or purity
Santosa: contentment
Tapas: self-discipline
Svadhyaya: study of spiritual texts and of one’s self
Isvara pranidhana: surrender to the God of your own understanding

Asana, the third limb, is physical postures. In the yogic view, the body is a temple for the spirit. We practice asana to bring greater physical stability and ease to the other moments of our day-to-day life.

 Pranayama, the fourth limb, is translated as extension of vitality or breath control. It consists of techniques designed to awaken the power of our breath to enhance our physical, mental, and energetic state.

Pratyahara, the fifth limb, is withdrawal of our senses or outwardly distractions and stimulations, and turning our awareness inwards.

Dharana, the sixth, limb is concentration and focusing on a single point.

Dhyana, the seventh limb, is meditation or techniques for a contemplative, conscious state of being.

Samadhi, the eight limb, is union; feeling peacefully at home within ourselves and connected equally to the spirit within all beings.

Each time we come to the mat, we have an opportunity to work the entire path, moment by moment. As we move through the postures we are constantly enacting each aspect of the path. Our bodies, our breath, our minds, and our choices are being refined in the laboratory that is our yoga mat. As this symphony becomes established on our mats, it becomes established in our lives as well. Driving to work, mailing a letter, meeting a friend for lunch all become part of the uninterrupted flow of our yoga practice. We are doing our yoga all the time.”  - Meditations from the Mat

Resources:
“Meditations from the Mat” by Rolf Gates
“Heart of Yoga” by TKV Desikachar

Making Rest an Active Part of Your Yoga Practice

How you can regulate your nervous system to feel amazing! 

Energetic.  Busy.  Enthusiastic. Busy.  Joyful. Busy.  Determined.  Busy.  Dedicated.  Busy.  

For a very large part of my life, I have put a lot of value on being busy.  Learning.  Doing.  Moving.  Creating.  Collaborating.  It felt very successful to me to accomplish a lot of THINGS.  And that is totally OK.  I am still all of the above adjectives; however, I am much more aware of the sustainability of my pace.  Meaning, I now value rest.  I value stillness.  I value space.  It is so productive!  When I was running a mile a minute for many years, my nervous system was very upregulated (I felt anxious, had digestive issues, trouble sleeping, etc).  My “normal”  was to be active and busy with my sympathetic nervous system releasing adrenaline and cortisol like it was a waterfall into my system!  I was activating my stress response every time I had a deadline, or felt like I was not doing “enough.”  I even struggled in Savasana because it was physically and mentally difficult to lay still (it didn’t FEEL useful)!  

Our nervous system is designed to keep us safe.  It does a great job doing that; however, it has become a little too simple for this complex world we are now living in.  ;)  Let me explain! 

Simplistically, we have our somatic nervous system which allows us to voluntarily move our body (i.e.- “Inhale reach your right arm high”), and our autonomic nervous system which controls the involuntary functions of the body such as heartbeat, our digestive process, natural breath, and our sex drive.  

Within our autonomic nervous system we have two parts: 

• Sympathetic Nervous System: 

  • Involved in our body’s natural stress responses and activates when we need physical energy such as exercise or to stay up late working. Also activates when a person is under stress and faced with a potential or perceived threat (results in increased heart and breathing rates, blood rushing away from core of the body and organs into muscles and limbs). 

• Parasympathetic Nervous System:

  • When an individual no longer needs a lot of energy to mobilize for physical action this activates and returns the body to the natural resting state. 

When a person is balanced (or regulated), the two symptoms work harmoniously and the body is able to maintain an equilibrium between “stress” and “rest” impulses.  An example would be, let’s say a bear walked into the room right now.  Your body cues (tightening in chest, bracing your shoulders, clenching your jaw) would alert your brain (via your vagus nerve) that there was danger.   Your brain would activate your sympathetic nervous system by releasing hormones and energy to allow you to basically run or fight.  After you ran away, or fought the bear (hell yeah!), you would use up those hormones your body released and you would return to a balance state.  

A super long time we had stress (a bear), and then rest (no bear).  Now we can activate that same stress response in regards to an email (or the THOUGHT of a stressful email) rather than a REAL dangerous life threat.  Our body reacts to our perceived stress as actual live or die danger.  So if I read an email that I perceive as stressful, my body would send a signal to my brain that I am not safe.  My brain would activate my sympathetic nervous system which would release hormones and prepare my body for the threat.  I might experience an increased heart rate, racing thoughts, inability to concentrate, low sex-drive, digestive issues, dry mouth, etc.  I am not actually fighting anything or physically running away so those hormones (cortisol and adrenaline to name the most commonly known) are now swimming through my body without a release.

Stress that doesn't let up leaves your sympathetic nervous system on alert and hormones in your body that are not always supposed to be there!  And over time, that can lead to you losing your mental sharpness and you may take longer to react to things and make more errors.  You might have trouble sleeping, have a very busy mind, be more irritable, and the list honestly goes on.  High levels of stress also affect your physical health, including weakening your immune system and raising your chance of heart disease.  

Luckily, research has shown that yoga, meditation, and breath work are wonderful methods to guide the body back to homeostasis, or a balanced state.  We can release tension in our physical body with movement on our mats.  We can literally activate our parasympathetic nervous system (our restorative and restful state) with breathwork.  And meditation has been shown to be particularly amazing at creating grey matter in our brain that allows us to regulate our emotions and reactions in a more skillful way!  

I excel at activating my stress response particularly at night before bed thinking about all sorts of things that can possibly happen (all crazily bad, of course!)  Somewhere in the past 6-7 years, I became more aware of this heightened, anxious, irritable, and exhausting state.  Running so fast, doing so much, and working too hard was slowing me down.  Now, I slow down to feel more grounded and centered so I can actually accomplish more.  

Here are a few things you can begin exploring and experimenting with RIGHT NOW to support you in inviting more rest and ease into your body (and mind!) 

• Extend your exhales.  You can do this right now or anytime throughout the day.  Bring your attention to your breath.  Breathe in through your nose slowly counting to 4,  hold for 2 seconds, and then slowly breathe out of your mouth for a count of 6.  Do this a few times.  Lengthening your exhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system.  If there was a real threat (a bear!!) you would NOT be extending your exhales you would be taking deep inhales to help you run or fight.  Think about it….. you are sending a signal to your body that you are safe!  

• Laugh!  Laughter triggers a parasympathetic response and can also release mental, emotional, and physical tension!! 

• Another way to strengthen your vagal tone, which helps maintain balance in your nervous system, is listening to your biorhythms:

  • I.e. going to sleep when you are tired, eating when you are hungry, stopping when you are full.  This helps the body naturally restore its nervous system and function at its optimal level 

• Mono tasking

  • Do one task at time and complete it slowly. This will help calm the brain and body.  Anything you do in your day can be a form of meditation.  The dishes.  Laundry.  Slow down and be present with the task at hand!  (Slow down to accomplish more!)

• Social connection can also support a balanced state 

  • Hugging, connecting with a friend, writing a letter---we are social creatures and much of our vagal and nervous system responses were built on social activity and attachment styles.  

• Movement and stretching can release tension and stress and invite ease to our body, mind, and spirit! 

• Breathwork

  • This supports us in unhooking the mind and getting into our body!  When we live in our heads we are living in fear, stress, “worst case scenario.”  We are either in the past or future and hardly present.  When we follow the breath we are experiencing and awake to what this moment has to offer. 

  • If you are particularly anxious or are not sure where to start, simply place one hand on your belly and one on your chest and notice where you feel your breath.    

Everything we do in each and every class at PALM+PINE allows us the opportunity to build on these tools we already have.  We are practicing becoming aware of where we are at (anxious, fatigued, overwhelmed, heavy, balanced), and making choices in our practice that will support us in regulating our body (and mind)!  We can then use those tools in our yoga “off of the mat” so we can approach our day to day challenges with more skillful responses.  If you are reading this and still feel too busy to take a class or to slow down-- that only means you need it that much more!  Trust me!  I have beeeeeeen there!!! <3  

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The information shared above comes from a collection of experience and trainings as a social worker, as well as a blend of some of the amazing resources below!  Let me know if anything resonated with you and if you would like any recommendations on where to learn more! 

• Yoga International Web Course: “Yoga Therapy for Anxiety” 

• Jessica Maguire’s Master Class: “Vagus Nerve Master Class” www.jessicamaguire.com/vagus-nerve-program

• Firefly Training- Trauma-Informed Yoga Participant Manual 

• “The Body Keeps the Score” Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk 

• Life Coach Kelsey Flanagan’s various podcasts + work 

• Miscellaneous trauma trainings in the social work realm all bundled together in my brain! 

• “UnF+CK Your Brain Podcast” Kara Loewentheil 

• “Therapy Chat Podcast” --I cannot think of one thing I specifically addressed from this source, but I am sure some content was shared that I learned + relearned from their offerings! 

Hope

Written by: Meg Jelen, MA, LMFT

Many of us categorize hope as an emotion.  The American Psychological Association (APA) explains hope may also be a character strength, a critical component of motivation, a mechanism by which we cope with difficult experiences, or any combination of these.  The APA defines hope as, “the expectation that one will have positive experiences or that a potentially threatening or negative situation will not materialize or will ultimately result in a favorable state of affairs.” If you can relate to any part of this definition, then you know first-hand what it feels like to be propped-up by hope.

Many people desire to live rich and fulfilling lives.  That is not the same as an expectation to experience happiness at all times; in life, some pain is inevitable.  In those moments, consider these strategies to get propped-up by hope.

Pause and acknowledge all parts of your experience.  Sometimes we focus only on the things we wish were different, and our mood suffers.  Other times we force our attention toward anything positive, and we end up feeling inauthentic or invalidated.  Having a more balanced observation of all that we face helps us recognize that there can be joy even in difficult times, peace during chaos or hope alongside disappointment.

Identify your skills, talents and resources, and use those to overcome adversity.  When we are focused on our strengths, we have greater confidence in our ability to achieve our goals.  We maximize our internal resources and more effectively work toward our desired outcome.

• “What has helped me through difficult times in the past?”  

• “What am I good at and how can that help here?”

Practice affirmations.  An affirmation is a supportive statement that validates or encourages.  To get the most from your affirmation, make your statement out loud several times in a row.  Practice your affirmation several times throughout the day.  Repeat this process several days in a row.  

• “There is good in my life now and there will be good in my life into the future.”

• “I have persevered in the past, I will make it through this too.”

• “I am a strong and resilient person.”

• “Even though…, I will/I am…”

Focus on the things you can control.  Such as yourself in the present moment.  Other people, other times in our life, that is all out of our control.  Focusing on things we cannot control increases our sense of hopelessness and puts us in a position of disempowerment.  Hopelessness resulting from unhelpful thoughts about things that we cannot control is a common experience that accompanies depression and anxiety.  One possible antidote is to practice acceptance for the things you cannot control and take action on your thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the present moment.  When we do this, we are more empowered to influence our circumstances.

Envision your future.  When we can connect to something good, bright, or exciting in our future, that sparks hope.  

• “What are my goals?”

• “What are my dreams?”

• “What are my sources of inspiration?”

Identify current sources of hope.  Sometimes there is a specific source of hopelessness and it can feel consuming.  Take a moment to pan-away from that and identify sources of hope.  If nothing comes to mind, ask others what they feel hopeful about.  Sometimes we are blinded by our difficult emotion or experience and a fresh perspective can open our eyes to new possibilities.

Please know that certain strategies might not be a good fit for all circumstances, and authenticity matters!  If you try one of these strategies and it does not resonate, move on to something else.  Any of these strategies practiced at the right time could further develop your resilience for the future and promote greater hope for today.

www.wonderwellwi.com

@wonderwellwi

Hope. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2021, from https://dictionary.apa.org/hope