The Mind Strengthening Practice of OG Hot Yoga
When I stepped on my mat for the first time, I thought I was “just taking a physically hot, like really hot yoga class.” It would take years for me to fully understanding that as I was healing and strengthening my physical body, I was also simultaneously healing and strengthening my mind, heart, and balancing body and mind.
With May being Mental Health Awareness month, I wanted to personally shine the light on the mental aspects of the mind we develop every time we take a 26 and 2 hot yoga class. Every time you step on your mat, along with the dripping sweat, improved range of motion, and all the other goodies, you practice and develop faith, concentration, self-control, determination, and patience, which brings equanimity to the mind.
When we place ourselves in a position to do something we don’t want to do, doesn’t come easy, or is opposite of what we want to do, we can either make up stories and look for proof of our deep held beliefs, and cling to them, or, we can be able to grow and be like a child, ready and willing to learn something new. A beautiful side effect of this is how good we feel when we are growing and learning!
Faith
I love this one! How hard is it to create new experiences and beliefs when we are held back by viscous cycles and stories in our head that are like a broken record on repeat? Case in point…have you ever heard yourself telling yourself in class, “my body just can’t do standing head to knee,” or “I don’t think I can make it through this class.” And perhaps off your mat, “no one will ever love me as I deserve to be loved,” or “I can’t depend on anyone else.” See the picture?
The roots of Vedanta philosophy ask us to believe in ourselves and believe in God or a Higher Power. Why? Because there is a God or Higher Power that wants you to succeed in life and feel joy and amazing in your body. Often, we move in pain or are otherwise unhappy, so we don’t have a foundation to place our hope in. I love the Christian reference which describes faith as being as teeny tiny as a mustard seed. Decide on what you want to create on your mat, in your body, your mind, your heart, and in life. You can have hope as teeny tiny as a mustard seed and start there.
Deep concentration
Concentration
During our recent yoga retreat, we held morning meditation before many classes. Many of our participants loved this and shared how they were able to really “drop in” and be super concentrated during class and felt the difference. How did meditating help concentration? The act of stillness brings the body and mind into balance and provides for stronger concentration during class. Good news is that you can also achieve this level of concentration straight up through your practice. The Bikram yoga sequence is a hatha yoga practice and a 90-minute meditation. The word “Ha Tha” illustrates the balance of opposites: Body and mind, sun and moon, right and left, male and female, up and down.
Through breathing, focusing one point on yourself in the mirror, resisting the urge to wipe, drinking water incessantly, or any other behavior that would take you away from stillness, you are able to anchor into the powerful act of concentration.
Self-Control
Have you ever heard of the vacuum example? When we are lacking in self-control, no amount of money, shopping, food, sex, drugs, or things will ever make us happy and will continue to divert us from our path. Every time you take class you practice the action of balancing body and mind. In this balanced state, our mind is more open to positive, hope filled thinking (thanks faith), and we are better able to tune into gratitude and service to others. Every day, every moment, every hour, we are receiving messages from our environment. These messages travel through the nervous system via biochemical reactions to all our cells. When we are lacking self-control, we will be at the mercy of our biochemistry–good news stimulates “be happy” and bad news stimulates “be sad” reactions. Through your hot yoga practice, you develop self-control, and regardless of if the news is good or bad, a kind of stability is established in our biochemistry that enables us to not overreact to external events. We become able to “stay calm,” keep things in perspective, and better able to develop more effective, appropriate responses.
Determination
Do you know people in your life with a strong “work ethic?” Did you know you can create a “work ethic” for your practice? I’m going to be honest here. In my former profession I managed teams as large as 32 people. In my current life and career, I am still adjusting to managing two studio locations (businesses), staff, and the lives of my two young children! I work on this all-the-time! Today, to move through the ocean waves of my life I must be flexible. I must also set non-negotiable time for me and the work ethic of my practice. Whatever life season you are in; the determination formula can be simple to follow. Start where you are, see where you want to go or what you want to create, use what you have, do what you can, and be open to receiving what you need to keep going! Create a work ethic for your practice that will help you make your commitments stronger than your moods. When you do this, next time you set your alarm to wake up at 4:45am for the 5:30am class, before you hit the snooze button you will tell yourself something like “a person committed to health and moving pain free gets up now to go work on this.”
Patience
My favorite one! Is your practice always going to be perfect? No. Will you have classes where you are tired, like I mean really tired? Yes. Will you have classes where the best you can do is just bring your body to your mat? Yes. Will you look at yourself in the mirror and want results faster? Yes. Can anyone else do this work for you? No. Who’s the most important person in your life? You. You can do this and you can keep starting where you are. It’s never too late and your best is always good enough and you my friend are on the pathway to serious physical and body and mind transformation. Keep going my friend! See you on your mat!