Are you one of the many tend to carry your tension in the shoulders? They hunch up towards the ears a little when we feel rushed, anxious, busy or stressed. They can do the same when we are met with feelings of fear, guilt or shame. Conversely they can droop forward and round down when we feel dull, depressed, sad or lethargic.
These feelings, thoughts, and life situations present themselves to us all the time. As the Buddhists wisely tell us, life is suffering. Our job is not to place further suffering on the difficulties we already face, but instead to accept the moment and soften into it. We practice acceptance of what is and we add on to that an element of compassion, of softness, of consciously relaxing at will, regardless of the external circumstances.
In Mindfulness they tell us the key to being present and minimising this suffering is to feel what we are feeling in the body. How appropriate, then, for us to practice tuning into the sensations in the shoulder area and using that awareness to move from the busy, noisy, thoughts of the mind to the mode of simply being. Being with what is.
The shoulder joint is one of the most interesting and complex in terms of mobility and range of motion. In yoga we explore this; we take the shoulder joint through it’s full range of motion to explore freedom of movement and to notice the sensations when we feel a little stuck. By breathing, moving gently and consciously relaxing the tension naturally melts a little. It feels good. When we are feeling, we are practising mindfulness; mind and body get to relax.
We don’t even have to be on the yoga mat to practice our ability to relax the shoulders and soften at will. Try it now, on an inhale lift your shoulders up towards your ears and on an exhale allow them to soften and fall. Try that three times. Make your exhales big and deep and noisy if you’d like - the out-breath is releasing.
On the yoga mat we have a multitude of ways to get deep into those complex muscles that support this incredible joint. Eagle pose, cow face pose, even a simple sun salutation. “Binding” where we take the hands together to get extra leverage to really stretch out can happen in many creative poses. In a well sequenced yoga class the muscles gradually get looser and looser, warmer and softer, tension naturally melts.
The life changing skill happens when we really pay attention to these feelings and we fine-tune our ability to turn the attention to sensation in the body - we notice. That is our moment of mindfulness. In noticing on the yoga mat we develop the skill of noticing in life. In learning to relax the shoulders on the yoga mat we learn to relax in life, consciously relaxing at will, regardless of the external circumstances.
Come to yoga to change your body, come to yoga to change your mind, come to yoga to change your life!
Next week on the mat we delve deep into the shoulder area. Join us Tuesday and Thursday, 25th and 27th August, 1-2pm. Recordings of both classes are available to you for one week. Maybe this is your time to explore daily practice?
Following this I’m rolling out a focused programme for us for the four weeks of September: Intention.
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