Letting Go

Last Saturday's pre-natal yoga class, I emphasized to my mommas the conscious ability to relax and let go. Do you ever feel in your body (and mind) this build-up of energy? It can come in the form of tingling, buzzing, irritation, anger, or pain. A churning in the heart? You might need to practice listening to your body more in order to sense what I'm talking about, so just give it a chance.

There is a basic human need to want to possess. We collect stuff. Like things, people, places, ideas, thoughts, hurts, emotions, traumas, etc. What we're not taught in school is how to actively let go in a safe way. This can be for positive things AND negative things. For example, with my yoga practice, I build up a lot of energy that needs some place to go...even by doing something positive, if I don't let go of this energy consciously, it can convert into something harmful (or bad feeling) in my body because it's trapped, caught in my body.

Giving birth is the ultimate letting go, which is why I chose to speak directly to my students. A soul, a child -- its energy -- is building up inside of you, and it is up to you, woman, to learn how to embrace your body's tides, and train yourself to be strong but also to know when to let yourself go...melt your body into its primal flow. Breathing into contractions and labor is a must. I think if more women got in touch with this ability to let go, we'd see a reduction in c-section rates and shorter labors (my hope!).

How did I teach my class? After every posture in the kriya, students came to rest. Inhale: gather the energy about you, locate it. Consciously imagine, on exhale, that the energy diffuses and rises away from you. I had my students do this after every posture: feeling the build-up, then mentally, actively letting that energy go.

Sometimes I see it as a cloud lifting off of my body, rising up like steam. I mentally say, "Oh Universe, I release this energy (anger/irritation/pain/etc.) back to you. I don't need it right now. It doesn't serve me. Thank you...I let it go." Because energy surrounds us, is us, we must never fear of letting go...we can always get that energy back if we really want it (but who wants pain from the past??). So just breathe and mentally, consciously let go. This is the first lesson in relaxation you can do for yourself.