Connection #1: Mind and Body

If the big picture of yoga is about how we care for ourselves and treat other people ( the light in me, the light in you), the microcosm is the connection between our bodies and our nervous systems.

We so often forget that we are animals, hardwired for survival. And for most of us, our body is responding in survival mode all of the time. Every ping, every list of tasks, every hurry up and wait situation becomes dire, an emergency.

So many times people say to me, what is wrong with me? I forget everything lately. My response is always that we just have too much to keep track of. There is too much on our minds, all the time.

And we aren’t in our bodies enough to manage our survival responses.

I’ve been reading the amazing book Anchored by Diane Dana with my Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainees this year and it has had a huge impact on all of us. By being in our bodies, we are able to signal to our nervous system that we are safe.

If your breath is slow and your hand is on your heart, or on your body and you relax one thing, your nervous system can not respond with fight, flight, or freeze. We are hardwired to know that if our body is calm, we can’t be in danger.

Mind Blowing! Or maybe mind connecting.