4 Yoga Postures to Cleanse the Emotional Body
Every spring, within the newly melted and awakening soil, Mother Earth grows fresh plants and herbs that naturally purify and replenish our physical bodies. But it’s important to also replenish your inner space after you’ve cleared out toxins, old stories, and stuck energy. I invite you to consider an a emotional cleansing this Spring using traditional asanas to clear your mind and process stuck emotions. Let’s focus on clearing ourselves from the limiting dynamics of anger, fear, grief, and worry to make space for the higher energies of joy, love, freedom, and peace.
Half Twist Pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana)
Wringing out anger. When our lower bodies act as a foundational support for the upper body to spiral around in a twist, transformative changes bless our inner organs. Specifically the liver and the spleen benefit from the half spinal twist as we inhale fresh, new life, and allow all that is old and stale to be washed away. The liver, according to Chinese medicine, is where the majority of our anger resides in the body. We create toxins in this vital organ when we hold on to hurts, grudges, and resentments. With each inhalation, lengthen the spine and invite the Prana of the breath to bathe the liver. Consider a relationship, either with yourself or another, where you are holding on to the hot fire of anger. On the cooling exhalation, spiral your belly, rib cage, and upper chest around to the back. Go beyond surface level as you deepen into the grace of understanding, beginning to release all the anger you have stored up that no longer serves you. Choose compassion as you transform the bitter taste of anger into the sweet nectar of forgiveness. Breath by breath, relax deeper into the twist, opening up space inside you for greater JOY.
Fish Pose (Matsyasana)
Releasing fear. This particular posture is usually practiced following the shoulder stand as a counter-balance. After turning your world upside down, it’s now time to focus on expanding and opening the heart and lung area. Fear often settles in this area, creating a kind of static that keeps us from being able to clearly hear our loving inner voice. As your body weight rests on your legs, buttocks, forearms and the crown of the head, lift the rib cage and upper chest area as high as it will go upward (that feels comfortable on your body). Create an opening directly from your heart to the vast sky above, as you increase the capacity of the lungs to take in the breath of life. Be aware of that which you fear, that which holds you back from taking the necessary steps to live your very best life. Softly forgive yourself of your fears, and know that it is okay to release them to the sky above to be transformed. You can let down your walls you might have put up to avoid getting hurt, and courageously risk opening our heart bigger and wider than ever before. Let this love fill you, the space around you, and all those in your life ready to receive the beauty of your heart. Emotionally swim in the pure ocean of LOVE like a fish as you breathe in to the fullness of the pose.
Child Pose (Balasana)
Softening grief. With the innocence and un-self-consciousness of a small child, rest your upper body along your upper things as your hips melt down toward your heels. Allow your forehead to find its support on the Earth as you feel nurtured and protected at the same time. In this safe space, with your eyes closed and your gaze internally focused, become aware of the grief pangs which are residing in your heart. Who has passed from your life? Which relationship have you lost? What sadness remains? As you breathe deeply into your child body, let your heart open the door into your emotional field and observe what lies within you. The child is faithful in each moment to whatever emotion is awake and alive. Be the child, feeling fully and not holding anything back; cry if the tears come streaming down. Let memories of that which has passed flood your being. Mother yourself in the nourishing energies that relax your whole being and soften the grief that has hardened over time. As the river of grief is liberated, feel a sense of FREEDOM awakening inside you.
Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)
Surrendering worry. Beginning in staff pose, we raise our arms up to the sky, and then bow our upper body down over our upper legs. Our hands rest softly on our legs or feet, wherever they can reach, and little by little the central channel of the spine gives way to the sweet pull of gravity. In forward bends, we invite a calming of the mind. Close your eyes and listen to the monkey mind in all of its worries and frets, it’s many variations of ‘what ifs’. Just for this moment, be completely present. The future lies far away from the next inhalation and exhalation, and it is not yours to fret over or attempt to control. Trust your strong legs now connected to the ground beneath them to support you in letting go fully with your upper body. Surrender the worries clouding your sky mind, allow yourself to go deeper into the physical fold, and open up to the vast expanse of PEACE that has been waiting patiently to bless you.
Wishing all you yogis and yoginis well as you transform your yoga practice into one that emotionally cleanses you in ways that are a blessing for our entire universe.
About the Author
Yoga and Emotional Intelligence
Recently, in one of my journals, I read an article by a psychologist who had stumbled across an obscure research project involving emotional intelligence. I had first been exposed to the concept of emotional intelligence when I was working on my master’s degree back in the nineties. As a yoga teacher, emotional intelligence as a basis for a balanced life seemed intuitive.
The premise of the research is basically that our emotional intelligence is as important, if not more important, than our intellectual IQ. Without a strong emotional foundation, intelligence alone was not enough to create a successful and balanced life.
There are four components to emotional intelligence. The first is self-awareness or knowing what you are feeling and why. The second is self-management or the ability to use your self-awareness to get better at handling your impulses and disruptive emotions. The third component is empathy or the ability to sense how others are feeling; and the fourth component is being skilled at establishing and maintaining healthy relationships.
Without self-awareness, self-management, empathy and relationship skills, even the most intelligent person would find it difficult to live a healthy and stable life. That is because we are all dependent upon each other and emotions and feelings are a major part of human existence.
In yoga emotional turmoil is often referred to as “monkey mind.” This is an expression used to describe the jumping and scattering of our mind due to emotional instability. In life, it is all too easy for us to lose our emotional balance and end up leaping from one emotion to another.
Who doesn’t get pulled into drama and emotions or caught up in games, competition and fighting? How about sadness and fear? We call this being tossed around in the world. In the ideal, we are in the world, but not of the world. That means we are aware of our presence while being in control of our thoughts, words and actions. We have compassion for all of life and we relate to others with a sense of complete understanding. We appear in the world, but are not perturbed or thrown off balance by the events of life. Once this is achieved an individual is said to be liberated or free of the monkey mind.
Now, it is not that a person must go away and live the life of a hermit in order to achieve liberation. It means to live fully in the world, while maintaining a sense of emotional balance. It’s about control and reaction. If you learn to control your mind, you control everything. This is yoga intelligence. How do we achieve this? Practice; nothing in life is achieved without practice.
Sometimes people try to run away and hide and even renounce life to be free of life’s turmoil. But you can never run away. Without emotional intellectual we can remove ourselves physically, but the mind – its thoughts and emotions – go with us forever.
As the saying goes, “you take it with you wherever you go.”
Intellect in yoga is really mental attitude. “As the mind, so the person.” It is not about changing the outside world. It is about changing your attitude towards things. If you gain control over your emotions you will never be tossed about by the outside world. Emotional intelligence reminds us that there is nothing wrong with the world; the problems begin and end within our own minds.
We can try to measure the quality of life with a high IQ, but without awareness, control, empathy and the ability to relate the mathematical equation that measures our intellect, we miss the mark. The prize does not always go to the smartest, but it does more times than not, go to the one who has the ability to keep a focus; and keeping a focus requires the application of the four components of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-management, empathy and relating.
Therefore, with all things in life, be aware and fully understand their nature. Manage them with empathy and understanding, and then rise above the turmoil and be at peace. With awareness you begin to understand yourself. When you understand yourself you free yourself from the entanglement of worldly emotions. In this you will find a sense of balance and you will achieve the pinnacle of yoga and emotional intelligence: peace.
