Yoga Tip: Slow down, Observe & Go With the Flow...

Find out how slowing down your thoughts and movements in yoga, and in life, stops you from struggling against yourself, and helps you to go with the flow.

# Why Are We Always struggling against our own Bodies?

It is a human tendency to resist the things our minds tell us we can’t do. In yoga it is a natural occurrence in beginners to find that the body struggles against difficult yoga postures because pain, discomfort and insecurity tells us that we can’t stretch that far or balance in that way. This only causes our bodies to work against us though. Muscles will tense up and prevent the body from performing. What if we learn to let go of this performance anxiety though? What if we just don’t think about the fact that we can’t do something, and instead just go with the flow, taking one step at a time?

# Why Learning to Slow Everything Down can help us to Go Further in Yoga

Yoga is not a race to the finish line. Think about how you should drink a nice full-bodied glass of red wine. You don’t gulp it all down in one go, you inhale the aroma first and enjoy that for a moment, then you take a sip and swirl it around in your mouth for a few moments more, experiencing the taste on all areas of your tongue before you swallow and enjoy that delicious and satisfying burn of alcohol going down your throat. This is the way to approach yoga.

Savor every moment in yoga by slowing your movements down and observing how your body feels at every stage. Once you learn how to take your time and develop a proper yogic communication with your own body you will find that you also slow down your thought process, and before your mind starts telling you that your body can’t do something, your muscles will already be relaxing as you breathe, and your body will already be slipping deeper into that posture you thought you couldn’t do. It is not necessarily about self-believe, but just about having patience with your own body and taking control of your mind.

# Yoga Tips on How to Slow Everything Down

Learn how to breathe properly. Breathing is one of the most important skills in yoga. Slowing down and deepening your breath will help you to clear your mind of all external noise so that you can focus on how your body feels. Slowing down your thoughts in this way is like meditation. Yoga breathing helps you to feel calm and relaxed, which helps your body to be more receptive to yoga postures.

Take the time to focus on observing how your body feels in certain positions by slowing down your movement. When you feel more strain on certain parts of your body, consciously distribute your weight to other areas. Yoga shouldn’t be about struggle at all. It should feel good.

When you feel that a part of your body is struggling in a yoga pose, learn how to breathe your way deeper and through the discomfort. Breathing deeply helps your muscles to relax and then become more flexible and stretch. When you inhale you create more space inside of your body, which allows you to lengthen it; and then when you exhale you release tension and your body is able to ease further into the yoga posture without unnecessary resistance.

# What is ‘Organic Energy’ in Yoga?

Organic energy is about establishing strength in your body by making sure that it is well aligned and grounded, and then maintaining this strength whilst ‘letting go’ of all tension and resistance. It is about remaining strong without your body struggling to keep it up. A lot of ‘letting go’ is about how you are breathing, and how you are balancing and focusing on keeping well grounded.

Organic energy is different form muscular energy. Muscular energy is about drawing in your muscles and establishing muscle engagement for strength, whereas organic energy is about using this energy to expand and draw the muscles away from the bones so that they can lengthen and you can become more flexible.

First you establish muscular energy and then you extend this energy in a more organic way that enables your body to do more. It feels good to ‘let go’ of the tension in your body yet still maintain the stability and grounding that you have first established, because you are taking control of your body and at the same time you are freeing it.

It is like learning the steps to a recipe so that you know how to make the dish, and then using this information to expand your experience, enjoyment and potential by then freeing yourself from the limitations of the recipe and using what you have to stretch the recipe and make an even better meal!

# How Can You Apply this Philosophy in Other Areas of Your Life?

The wonderful thing about practicing yoga is that the many of the things you learn will also open up your mind to the way you view your life experiences too. Here are a few examples as to how to can use the ideas discussed in this article in your everyday life…

Breathing to eliminate stress. You can use yogic breathing techniques to clear your mind of polluting thoughts that serve only to feed your stress levels. When you find yourself in a frustrating situation, like waiting in a long queue, being stuck in traffic, or dealing with a demanding customer at work, take a few moments to clear your mind and reconnect with yourself by drawing your energy back inwards through your breathing. The take a fresh perspective on the situation.
Taking things one-step at a time when faced with a challenge. We’ve all been there, when a task just seems too daunting and so we struggle or avoid it altogether. Try slowing everything down and focusing on one small part of the task at a time. As each small part gets accomplished you should feel a mental release that will help you to move further into the task until the whole things has been completed with as little struggle as possible.
Don’t think too much. If you find that you are over-analyzing something, or that your thoughts are becoming overwhelmingly negative and crippling, just stop thinking about it. Sometimes intelligence can hold us back because we spend so much time justifying and rethinking and analyzing, when in fact all we are really doing is procrastinating. See how much more you can achieve in life by simply getting on with it. Take action, forget the plan, and just go with the flow.

# Try it! Apply a yoga lesson to your everyday life and then share your experiences on YouQueen Magazine…

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