Tag Archives: yoga

mental health

Why Yoga is Essential for My Self Care

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Here are some reasons for why I have been incorporating aspects of Yoga into my daily life:

  1. It reduces my anxiety: Concentrating on connecting my breath with movement dramatically reduces my anxiety every time. Even doing a light 20 minute practice improves my mind set.
  2. It helps me focus: Taking in deeper breaths and therefore increasing the oxygen and blood flow to my brain does increase my focus. If I am feeling restless while working from home, I do about 5 minutes of flow (downward facing dog, plank, upwards facing dog, on all fours, child’s pose) to help increase my focus.
  3. It helps me sleep: As it helps reduce my overall stress level, doing some balancing poses and supine poses are good for getting me ready for bed.
  4. It improves my strength and flexibility: This was one of the main reasons why I started to practice in the first place. I wanted to increase my body’s overall strength. Because a strong body harbors a strong mind.
  5. Improves back pain: As I increase my strength and flexibility, I noticed my lower back pain from sitting all day at work and school was significantly improved.

What has been essential for your self care practice?

mental health

What does spending time alone actually do?

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Last year, I went on 2 solo travel trips to Iceland and France in an effort to be “alone with my thoughts.” At the time I didn’t know why I wanted to go on a solo trip even though at the time I had crippling anxiety but I wanted to give it a shot. I knew the physical benefits but I wanted to know what the benefits were from a mental and philosophical perspective.

I’ve always heard that people who spend more time alone are happier. I pondered it and thought well maybe they have clearer intentions and a better idea of who they are at their core because they listen to themselves.

Then, when I finished my yoga teacher training a few weeks ago I realized most of these thoughts I pondered long ago were true. While reading the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali in training, I learned about the quieting of the “mind-stuff,” aka your thoughts, allows for you to be more in touch with your true self. Like an ocean that has calmed after a storm and you can finally see the ocean floor (yourself). What comes up in my daily life is what I can see on the surface of this ocean. This is also the reasoning behind meditation. Patanjali says:

“Then the Seer (Self) abides in Its own nature”

“At other times [the Self appears to] assume the forms of the mental modifications”

I took all of this as meaning my true self lies within myself. I don’t need to look towards the outside for anything because the Seer or my true self is inside my own mind. The Seer also acts as a mirror and therefore can take the forms of my Ego or mental modifications. Therefore, if they are negative then my true self will be muted under the reflection of all of those negative thoughts.

I am interested in seeing the reflection in the mirror. Knowing myself and understanding myself. Spending time alone, journaling, and meditation has helped me be more intentional with my thoughts, quieting the ocean within my mind.

I am no where near any level of enlightenment as Patanjali, but this understanding makes me a better person in my daily life so I work towards being my best self every day.

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mental health

Back in the office after burnout

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I mentioned briefly before that I took a break from work due to mental exhaustion. Pushing myself and not setting the proper boundaries pushed me into depression for a short period of time. You would think having a two week break to just focus on you would allow you to be completely recharged and to be better suited for the emotional roller coasters you face throughout the work day upon your return… well you thought wrong.

During the break, I did put in a significant amount of time focusing on myself and learned a lot about what my body needed to function properly. I thought this would be all I needed to take on my stressful work environment. I also did ease my way back in with my first day just attending a training and doing no desk or lab work. Then someone tell me why was it that I wanted to just cry during my first meeting. I also felt even more nervous than before being around some of the people that triggered my anxiety in the first place.

After spending time in therapy, I uncovered that my response has been completely normal considering the amount of stress I have been through. However, that does not change the fact that some things that I was put through at work had been completely unacceptable. Learning to trust my instincts and acknowledge my anxiety instead of thinking every emotion I feel is wrong because of my mental health problem has been helping a lot.

I am slowly but surely feeling better in and outside of work and gaining more confidence. That does not mean I am not fearful that something will said to me might shatter it completely. However, I am working on facing those fears head on now instead of ignoring them. Why do I feel like I want to cry if someone insults my past? What are the objective facts of the situation? How do I view the situation? How might someone from the ‘outside’ view this situation? How can I confront the issue in a healthy way? I used these questions as well as some things I have learned during my break while I have been back to cope with all of my feelings:

Learning to separate work from your identity is a must. You do not need to be your work. You do not need to work 24/7 to feel accomplished. Life is so hard and messy and every aspect of it deserves attention. Listen to your body and learn what you want out of life. Work towards building that up. 100 years from now, you having a certain dollar amount in your bank account will mean absolutely nothing. Think instead about how you can incorporate what truly matters to you in your life and how much money you would need to do that.

I’ve also learned to stop holding onto material things. Have you ever had or seen a roommate who meticulously labels all of there things and is constantly accusing you of touching or even breathing near their stuff. Well, I actually haven’t but I’ve had friends who had and it seems so illogical. Ask yourself why a situation is making you upset and if it truly is the situation at hand or your own ego.

And last but not least, everything is temporary. These feelings are temporary, that boss is temporary, this moment is temporary…. the list can go on and on. So do what matters to you because the only thing that will be consistent in this lifetime is you…

This post might be all over the place but this is what has been on my mind. Getting back into work after time off is tough no matter what but it was probably the best decision of this year. Take care of yourself peeps.