10th October is dedicated to Mental Health Awareness. On this day there are Tweets, Instagrams, Facebook postings and news reports. This bringing our attention to what has become a silent pandemic.
It is silent because we have only just begun to speak of mental health. It is silent because it creeps up slowly with stealth. It is silent because you do not realise you are suffering. Then suffering becomes normal, until the body finally gives up and you become incapacitated in someway.
The Depth and Breadth of Mental Health
The depth and breadth of Mental Health, is as huge and complex as the brain itself. The language used around mental health is as complicated.
Some people use the word stress as a badge of honour. ‘I am so stressed’, to indicate that they are busy, have an important job.
Others use the word stress to express their feelings, there is a cultural acceptance of stress, a judgement around the word ‘anxiety’.
Yoga and Anxiety
Through the practice of yoga we can l earn to identify our body’s signal to tell us we are experiencing stress. When our environment is not serving us. We learn to identify that the thoughts in our minds are ‘recycling the same chatter’, when our thoughts chew at our mind.
We learn to do this by:
- Notice the sensation
- Feeling where that sensation is
- Taking a pause
- Congratulate ourselves for noticing
- Breath into that sensation
- Change the sensation
- Notice the change
This does take practice, and in yoga we have a whole host of tools, strategies to work with this basic formula.
Each tool will resonate with some, and not with others.
With yoga we will work with you, until you find your own way to manage yourself when you find yourself struggling.
Book an structural yoga therapy session with Susie.