Funny thing. We know that yoga helps us manage stress. We know it sometimes inclines us toward feeling pretty good. But when we are stressed and feel like crap, getting to the mat is harder than at any other time.
Why?
Don’t beat yourself up about it and don’t think you’re crazy. What’s actually happening is that our nervous systems are dealing with more allostatic load. We’re hyped up and exhausted and scared. A nervous system that is overwhelmed, under resourced, and scared does not want to practice yoga. It wants to run around and be busy. It’s looking for activity and double checking the phone. We want to look at the news. And sometimes we’re avoiding the news but compelled to vacuum, go for a run, or scroll through happy puppy videos. We might be craving a bit of physical, but it’s unlikely to be yoga. We’re craving distraction so deeply the crave is instinctive. Things that numb will take the edge off and our body mind knows this, privileging things like the phone, Netflix, alcohol, bingey food. But taking the edge off is not a good strategy in the long run.
“Stress isn’t necessarily bad, and our bodies respond to stress positively. However, if the body’s stress responses are turned on too frequently, for too long a period of time, a kind of wear and tear begins to happen. The response systems become disregualted. ”
So what do we do?
Know you’re not crazy. This is what a nervous system does when the pressure is high. Know, too, that you (and your students) will come back. Trust me. I’ve seen this happen to me personally and in the yoga world over decades. During extremity (like Covid, and now this) people can’t do yoga. In a month or so, they will come flooding back as their system realizes it needs yoga. In a while, you yourself will come back.
Set the bar as low as you can. One pose*. Promise yourself to do one pose, every single day. If you can do it at the same time every day, even better.*
One Pose wonder
When I say ‘one pose’, I mean moving in and out of one shape, on the breath, for 8-10 breath.
I have three that I use for myself and have used for students with incredible success.
Cakravakrasana (all fours with an upper back backbend on inhale, child’s pose on exhale). Truly follow the breath and slow the breath down a little bit each time. Move forward slowly on the inhale, and slowly move backward with every exhale. This tends to be langhana, bringing us closer to the parasympathetic state.
Bhujangasana (cobra to forehead to the floor). Lie face down on the floor. With every (slow!) inhale, lift and reach your heart area forward and upward away from the floor. With every exhale, rest your forehead or one cheek back on the floor. Don’t use your arms to push up; look for movement in your spine. This is slightly more brahmana (uplifting, toward engagement in our system), but will still work like magic.
Balance one one leg choose a ‘pose’ if you like, but this is kinda fun in that it doesn’t even have to be a ‘pose’. You can play tilt a whirl if you want, challenge your balance, or look for the big beautiful poses so famous in yoga magazines and social media. Try to stick with the principle of engaging with the breath in a long, slow way for 8-10 breath then repeat on the other side. Maybe you find tree pose on exhales, and something weird on the inbreath. Or just move your arms to a wide stretch and back to a prayer. The big muscles engaged will harness your nervous system’s and chemical metabolism’s attention, the balance aspect will steady your mind, the stabilization will get to core/belly/spinal movements that encourage nervous system regulation, and the realization that one thing makes a difference will leave you in a better place.
Why does this work?
Inevitably, people tend to feel a craving in the body mind for more, or at least a flush of competency. We immediately feel better. You can do more if you want, but hold to your simple commitment of one is enough. It’s more important that you repeat this tomorrow, and if you overdo today you are less likely to come back tomorrow. If you have a memorized sequence, it’s easy to roll into it. Consistency is better than intensity. Intensity has to be built up over time.
With one pose, you have hooked behavioral attention to the breath.
You’ve deepened that mind-breath connection to include some movement.
And you have meet your own needs, honored your commitment to yourself, shifted gears completely.
If, just if, you can hook this one pose to the same time each day you’ll be harmonizing with all sorts of neuroscience about time, stress, and agency.
Dork stuff: what is allostatic load?
It helps to recognize that there are diffrent kinds of stress. Some is personal (work, family trouble, disease, job loss, moving, grief) and some is impersonal (social strain, uncertainty, pervasive fear).
Beyond even that, there is something known as allostatic load. Allostatic load is a concept articulated by neuroendocrinologist Bruce McEwen and psychologist Eliot Steller in 1993. It's the price the body pays for adapting to stress, the biological consequences of prolonged stress responses. Stress isn’t necessarily bad, and our bodies respond to stress positively. However, if the body’s stress responses are turned on too frequently, for too long a period of time, a kind of wear and tear begins to happen. The response systems become disregualted. Depending on who we are and what we’re starting from, allostatic load may effect blood pressure and cardiovascular mechanisms in the body, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, cortisol levels, and a whole litany of inflammatory markers. Mood, concentration, sleep, and appetite bear the consequences.
Rebuilding our resilience - aka our capacity to do hard things - is vital for long term outcomes, but it’s also a way to immediately feel better.
Try it. As always, if you want support and guidance, I’m here.