NYAPRS Note: Through the power of surrender, blogger and NYAPRS supporter writes of transformation away from numbness and toward vulnerability and joy.
Vulnerability and Self-Empowerment Through Yoga
Healing Informed Community; Duncan Bethel, 2/7/2015
We often want to numb the bad stuff. Being honest about feelings such as shame, fear and uncertainty lead to vulnerability; and we’re conditioned to associate vulnerability with weakness.
Researcher Brene Brown has noted that one of the key findings from her work in the study of vulnerability, joy and happiness; is that we cannot selectively numb the feelings we rather not deal without also numbing our ability to experience gratitude, joy and happiness. This happens by default.
I don’t need to check her data to know it’s truth. I’ve lived it first hand and got stuck in the space that limits our ability to fully experience the wonderful things that the universe has to offer.
During the winter of 2012/2013 , the consequences of living life with the approach of “numbing” the bad stuff, came crashing down. I had to dig down deep and make a choice. Did I want to keep living ? And if so, what am I willing to do in order to help myself. That crisis was a blessing as it forced me to get real about the very dangerous game I had been playing on myself for so long. I had no idea of how to get myself out of this crisis. I was desperate and full of a host of emotions that I didn’t want to face. I was lost and scared, with nowhere left to hide.
The first major step in moving my life in a healthier direction was walking through the door of Bikram Yoga Williamsville. At first it was just about showing up. If nothing else, I knew it was 90 minutes of healthy activity. 90 minutes not sitting on a bar stool or living on the couch in my darkened apartment. Yoga definitely put me in a position to face my truth. Once I was able to stop judging myself during class , I started to slowly experience internal change. One of the first changes I noticed was I didn’t feel the constant, round the clock physical and mental tension.
“When we are tense, we are shut down. When we are shut down, we can’t feel. When we can’t feel we can’t surrender; and surrender is the way to something greater. Through yoga ( & meditation), you expand and begin to open. You open, you begin to feel. Feelings lead to vulnerability . You surrender…and there it is. You open your heart.” (Seane Corn, International Yoga Teacher and Activist- paraphrased).
The process Seane Corn describes above is exactly what I experienced over time. There are different schools of thought regarding what “yoga is” in my view, it’s not a competition. It’s an exploration of the connection between our mind, body and spirit. A search for our true center as we build a healthy relationship with our authentic self. A journey that begins in our heart and extends far beyond the yoga mat as it carries us out into the universe.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the past 24 months is that being open to our vulnerability, does not make us weak. Quite the opposite is true. When we surrender and truly open our heart we find a space guided by gratitude and love.
It’s in that space where our true power resides.
Be well.
Note: If you’d like to hear more from Seane Corn and other acclaimed yoga teachers- practitioners about the potential benefits from yoga, you might enjoy watching the documentary: Yoga Is: A Transformational Journey, directed by Suzanne Bryant and available on Netflix.
Below you will find Brene Brown: The Power of Vulnerability. Courtesy of TED Talks and Vimeo
To read more from ‘Healing Informed Community’, visit: http://www.healinginformed.com/2015/02/vulnerability-and-self-empowerment-through-yoga.html