Posts In: recovery

Do you remember your first yoga class ever? We’d love to hear about it!

“My first yoga class was in San Francisco, on the recommendation of an ex-boyfriend. In my mind, “yoga was for hippies” lol, but I went to a local YMCA and enrolled for a month. After my first class, I was in love.

“Before that, I had been working for my state’s Human Rights Commission. I was 21, fresh out of college, and I wasn’t ready to see the reality of my country, Mexico, first hand. I became extremely anxious, depressed and got into toxic behavior with myself. 

“But then a small miracle happened. As part of my job, I went to an orphanage where most of the kids had been taken away from their parents because of addiction or legal custody battles. I thought to myself, I can’t come in here looking like this. The kids need to see healthy people around them.

“I stopped drinking and smoking on the weekdays. It took me two or three months until I decided I needed to quit my job for the sake of my mental health. And I wanted to travel – which brought me to San Francisco. I went back to that YMCA for yoga every day for six months. Then everywhere I went, I enrolled in classes.

“I started to think seriously about taking a yoga teacher training. I realized I wasn’t interested anymore in trying to help the people around me with politics and social work. I wanted them to feel the way I did after every single class. So I looked for a good yoga teacher training in San Diego and the rest is history…

“It’s been almost seven years since I took my teacher training at Yoga One. Every day I go to work with so much happiness and fulfillment that I can’t put it into words. Thanks Yoga One!”

– Yoga One Teacher Training Graduate, Alejandra García Mac Naught

by Monique Minahan

Early on in my yoga practice I would often experience an emotional reaction during corpse pose (savasana). Lying still, I would get a lump in my throat and suddenly find tears quietly rolling down my cheeks. I didn’t know it at the time, but my yoga practice was releasing long-held grief from my body.

When grief and recovery from trauma have been processed by the mind, life may begin to seem approachable again and many people feel they can move forward; but the same processes of recovery and healing are essential to the body as well.

Feeling a strong emotional release in a yoga pose or during final relaxation is far from uncommon. One of yoga’s most powerful side effects is its ability to release and heal the BodyMind. Not just the body. Not just the mind. The combined, interconnected, undivided BodyMind.

BodyMind is a term coined by Dr. Candace Pert, a neuropharmacologist who pioneered scientific research into the field of Mind-Body Medicine, advancing our understanding of what are called neuropeptides, or messenger molecules that carry information from the mind to the body and back again through body fluids. These neuropeptides are found throughout our bodies in the heart, sexual organs, and the limbic system, to name a few.

Dr. Pert breaks this concept down with an example of the gut. The entire lining of our intestines is lined with these particular transmitters. She posits, “It seems entirely possible to me that the richness of the receptors may be why a lot of people feel their emotions in their gut – why they have a ‘gut feeling.’”

She further comments: “I think unexpressed emotions are literally lodged in the body. The real true emotions that need to be expressed are in the body, trying to move up and be expressed and thereby integrated, made whole, and healed.”

When we move our bodies through yoga, our BodyMind is allowed expression. It can begin to release emotion and tension that’s been stuck in our bodies for a long period of time, perhaps even years after we think we’ve mentally processed the event.

Exploring these heavy emotions in our yoga practice, whether intentionally or accidentally, might feel intimidating. Resourcing is a technique that helps us stay present during uncomfortable or overwhelming sensations by finding and connecting to a resource, such as the breath or one of the five senses. This connection works like an anchor for a boat and we can begin to observe sensations safely, without fear of getting lost in the sea of our experience.

Join me this Mother’s Day at Yoga One for a special commemorative practice where we will explore three ways to use resourcing with yoga, as well as learn how to identify where emotions reside in our individual bodies. We will focus specifically on how to apply these tools when dealing with loss and grief.

This practice is for anyone interested in learning how to use yoga as a supportive healing modality, but especially for anyone who has lost their mother and would welcome a supportive, safe, non-judgemental environment to honor their mother on Mother’s Day.

Loss is something we will all experience in our lifetime. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. Our yoga practice will not show us a way out of grief, but it can show us a way through and support us through every stage of healing.

Note: If this is something you’re interested in, but find the cost prohibitive or cannot attend for some other reason, please contact Yoga One to arrange a way for you to receive the information: 619-294-7461 or email info@yogaonesandiego.com

Monique Minahan
Contributing Writer

Mo is a writer and yoga teacher who believes in peace over happiness and love over fear. She likes to set her sights high and then take small steps to get there. You’ll find her walking the dirt path behind her house with her little fluffy dog, practicing walking her talk by keeping her head high and her heart open. 

Read more from Monique on her blog, mindfulmo.com

Not so long ago, I was a half marathon runner, big wave surfer and mountain hiker. At my day job, I supervised large, one-of-a-kind home construction projects. My work placed extraordinary physical demands on my body. But everything changed the day I fell off the second story roof of a construction site.

When I hit the ground, my T-10 vertebrae exploded and my spinal cord got pinched. I was paralyzed and told by some doctors that I would never walk again. The body that was capable of walking and standing all day, lifting heavy materials and going on long runs was gone. But then one day I was able to move one of my toes and I started an eight-month physical therapy program. I had to re-learn how to walk. After 15 months of struggle, I was able to walk using a cane.

Eventually, I was able to go back to work as a construction supervisor. Even though all I could do was walk around the job site, I was happy with my progress. After two years, the doctors told me that I had reached a recovery plateau. I felt as though I could keep improving and that feeling led me to yoga. Four years after my injury, I started to take yoga classes. With enthusiasm I tried the Iyengar, Hatha, Ashtanga and Vinyasa styles of yoga at a studio in Bird Rock. When the studio closed, I continued a home practice for three years, certain that yoga was the key to my continued good health.

In 2009, I heard about Yoga One. By then I was a full time student at City College and their location on 7^th Avenue was perfect. I was impressed by Michael and Amy Caldwell’s knowledge of yoga, teaching style and friendliness. For a year, I attended their classes as well as the Saturday morning Hatha class every week. Eventually, I tried other instructors and took on more classes per week.

I still have nerves that haven’t regenerated. In some poses my body can only go so deep; it might improve, it might not. Either way, I have fun and give it my best effort. I’m still in pain (I call it sensation) of one sort or another every day, but I would rather have the sensation of a long challenging yoga session than the sensation I experience after sitting at a desk or lying around all day. Mindfulness meditation has helped me locate where each sensation comes from, with equanimity I accept them and therefore life is a pleasure not a pain. Gratitude, yoga, mantra, meditation – that’s the morning practice I do before anything else. It’s the way I put my Self first and honor the commitment I’ve made to my health and well being.