I’ll be ok when…………. ‘I finish this work’, ‘when I go on holiday’, ‘when I sell the house!’ The excuses are endless and we all use them but the one thing you’ll notice about all of the reasons, is they are all based in the future.
Stress loses its power when we return our mind and body to the present. It just becomes an emotion with no story attached. So consider the words ‘I’m irritated’ but with nothing attached to it, the stress will last minutes, not months and years. ‘I’m irritated but with a story attached, will last as long as you choose it to and that can be years! And that story is often one you can’t control. Yoga and meditation helps to keep returning your mind to the present and by doing so, takes us out of that future focus, where we have no control.
When Andy and I were selling our house so that we could start our retreat in the Highlands, I remember both of us getting very irritated that no-one loved the house like we did, so we started to turn on the house and dislike it. We recognised our frustration and changed our mindset to the present and the importance of enjoying our last months there. It made a huge difference and all the stress of selling and moving reduced and our last months of living in our Yorkshire home, were a joy and we have some lovely memories of it.
Try it this week…………. after a yoga session in which you breathe into the areas you are holding the stress, start your final meditation with the thought quietly in your mind ‘’I’m irritated’ (or the emotion you feel) and breathe into it, but leave the story behind that is attached to it. So inhale ‘I’m (name the emotion) ‘ and breathe out quietly and deeply. Often you’ll find the statement starts to change into a different statement and then a different one again and you can go with the new statement, until the original one loses it meaning. For example, repeating ‘I’m irritated, might become I’m sad, followed by I’m ok, and maybe followed by I’m calm, which is a good place to settle, in your meditation.
We love to help our Yogi’s embrace their negative emotions and not run away from them; to detach the stories and bring the mind and body back to a place of peace.
This week, when you’re having those conversations with friends or family, consider how many of your emotions have future stories attached to them and start to practice the above technique on how to separate the story from the emotion and see what happens.
Have a great week :)