Yoga makes you aware of all your emotions, including those you have repressed deep inside. During your first yoga sessions, you will likely experience emotional issues. Yoga may not always feel great, but it can help you begin your journey of inner healing. There are some tips to help you value, accept, learn from, and integrate negative emotions that may arise during or after your yoga practice.
What is Negative Emotion
Negative emotions can include anger, annoyance, rage, fear, anxiety, and sadness. Depending on who they are around and what is happening, they may also have guilt, apathy, and despair. We can better handle negative emotions by learning to deal with them and developing positive behavior. Unresolved negative emotions may lead to depression.
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How negative emotions arise in yoga
Yoga helps us become more aware of our bodies. Tense energy can be accumulated in your hips, stomach, shoulders, neck, and heart. Yoga’s bending, twisting, and balancing can help release this tense energy and the negative emotions they bring.
You may experience tears or trembling even if you can’t recall the cause of the negative emotions or tense energy.
According to yoga theory, these negative emotions can be caused by two things. Samskaras are karmic knots that can be negative emotions from your past or present lives. Second, a disruption in the flow of Prana or vital energy is thought to be the cause. Yoga helps to balance the flow and change our emotional patterns.
Yoga and Negative Emotions
How we react to negative emotions can help us develop positive behaviors. The first step in developing positive behaviors is to confront these negative emotions. This will allow you to identify and understand the negative emotion.
Take responsibility for the emotion you feel after you have identified it. Observe your negative emotion and reflect on why you are feeling it.
We tend to think that yoga is supposed to make us feel good. You should not blame or shame yourself for feeling negative emotions while performing yoga postures. As you identify, observe, and reflect, remember to breathe. Several specific yoga practices and techniques can help you process and integrate negative emotions.
Acceptance and forgiveness. When dealing with negative feelings positively, acceptance and forgiveness are essential. Accept the emotion for what it is, and forgive yourself or whatever caused you to feel this way.
Consider and journal. What negative thoughts do you have? School? Work? Relationships? A daily journal can be an effective way to track your thoughts and emotions and to better understand them. Committing to writing a journal entry daily will allow you to reflect on your feelings and contemplate their causes and triggers.
Rasa Sadhana. Emotional fasting, or Rasa Sadhana, is a positive way to cope with negative emotions. This can be done by promising you will not engage in negative emotions. Focus on your positive emotions instead. You must first understand how emotions work to use this yogic method. The rasa sadhana is not a complete enlightenment, but it can be powerful training to help you deal with negative emotions.
Be patient and optimistic. You may not feel light and happy when you sob after class on your pillow, but things will improve. It is part of the healing process. All of us have had different experiences and traumas in the past. All of us heal at different rates. You must be kind, compassionate, and patient.
Make friends. Sometimes it is difficult for someone to reflect on negative emotions. Seeking help can be essential and beneficial to overcoming negative feelings, emotions, or experiences. Talking to someone about your deepest feelings can be very helpful. It could be your therapist, trusted family member, or friend. It is not wrong to seek professional counseling if you need it to cope with negative feelings, emotions, and experiences.