Motions influence emotions. And vice versa. One area of yoga practice that is often overlooked by both practitioners and instructors alike is. While practicing/teaching postures, if you are focusing only on the right movement and alignment of muscles and skeleton, then you are probably not seeing the person as a whole. You may well be missing the bigger picture. You may be practicing/teaching pranayama and meditations, but that will not suffice. Every movement of the body influences the mind. Or in other words, every movement of the body leaves an impression in the mind which later develops into a pattern or habit.

Therefore, yoga should be learnt and taught in a more organic way than in a scientific way. The ideal way is to integrate the emotional aspects with the physical movements. The movements you make to arrive at a specific yoga posture should facilitate organic learning.

How would you do it? Here are the steps:

Exploratory Repetitions: Every small movement involved in a posture must be explored in depth by repetitions. This means if you are doing a simple posture like Kati Chakrasana (Standing Spinal Twist), split the movements into several distinct ones – turning the hip, turning the shoulder, turning the neck, turning the hands, etc. – and then practice each of those micro movements several times. For instance, you may take turning the neck to right side and repeat it several times mindfully – exploring how your neck muscles are moving, how the base of the spine is moving, how is the breathing getting influenced, etc. This way you also develop newer and stronger neural pathways in your brain.

Subtle Observations: Try to connect with your mind when you make each movement. Move gently and naturally. Explore the internal sensations with each movement. Observe your thoughts while making these movements. What kind of thoughts are coming in? What kind of thoughts are vanishing? You will find that thoughts change with each movement and each posture. Then you will understand the relationship between motions and emotions. You will realize that right body alignment helps you to overcome negative emotions. Thus you will learn how to release your negative emotions through simple yogic movements. This method will also help you to free yourself up from old destructive habits and learn new constructive habits that will help you to lead a happier life.

This is just one among several ways of using motions to stabilize your emotions. Do you want to know more about how to build up positive emotions in your live through yogic movements? Then call us and fix an appointment with one of our expert trainers!