Yoga for Anxiety

by Nurriestearns, Mary

• ISBN13: 9781572246515
• ISBN10: 1572246510
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-02
• Publisher: New Harbinger Pubns Inc

Summary

Many of us face daily demands and overwhelming difficulties that cause seemingly uncontrollable feelings of anxiety and fear. When you feel this way, it's healing to calm yourself and to reclaim your sense of innate goodness and well-being. For centuries, yoga has offered a quiet retreat away from life's pressures and has enabled us to reconnect to our inner wisdom and peace.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
Understanding Anxiety	p. 5
Practice: Breathing Intentionally	p. 25
Practice: Breathing Slowly	p. 27
Practice: Belly Breathing	p. 27
How Thinking Makes You Anxious	p. 29
Practice: What's Your Story of Identity?	p. 36
Practice: Explore Your Story of Identity	p. 37
Practice: Continue Exploring Your Story of Identity	p. 41
Practice: Innocent Misunderstanding	p. 41
How Yoga Heals Anxiety	p. 43
Practice: Simple Witnessing	p. 45
Practice: Explore Your Potentiality	p. 57
Practice: Listening to Inner Guidance	p. 61
Practice: Remembering Unity Experiences	p. 68
Practice: Explore Your Profound Connection Experiences	p. 68
Practice: Wake-Up Calls	p. 71
Practice: Your Precious Self	p. 72
A Deeper Look at Anxiety	p. 75
Practice: Exploring Ignorance	p. 78
Practice: Exploring Limited Self-Concept	p. 79
Practice: Breaking Free	p. 80
Practice: Know Your Attachments	p. 82
Practice: Exploring Attachment to Certainty and Control	p. 87
Practice: Exploring Aversions	p. 93
Practice: Exploring the Fear of Death	p. 95
Practices for Calming Your Mind	p. 101
Practice: Direct Your Awareness	p. 107
Practice: Rigorous Shaking Movement	p. 110
Practice: Identify and Imprint Mild Soothers	p. 111
Practice: Discover Your Mantra	p. 114
Practice: Using a Mantra on the Outbreath	p. 115
Practice: Expressing Gratitude	p. 115
Practice: Pratipaksa	p. 119
Practice: Create a Sankalpa	p. 120
Practice: Practice Your Sankalpa	p. 121
Practice: Notice Stillness	p. 123
Practice: Explore the Effects of Silence	p. 124
Practice: Enjoy Silence	p. 125
Practices for Comforting Your Body	p. 131
Yoga Poses to Reduce Stress	p. 139
Minibreak Pose	p. 140
Minirest Pose	p. 141
Forward-Folding Poses	p. 142
Yoga Poses That Comfort	p. 144
Comfort Pose to Reduce Emotional Upset	p. 144
Restorative Pose for Emotional Fatigue	p. 145
Nurturing, or Happy Baby, Pose	p. 146
Heating-Yoga Flow	p. 148
Bridge-Pose Flow	p. 148
A Daily Yoga Practice for Anxiety: The Five Easy Poses	p. 150
Easy Pose 1: Bridge Pose	p. 150
Easy Pose 2: Upward-Stretched Legs	p. 151
Easy Pose 3: Staff Pose	p. 152
Easy Pose 4: Bound-Angle Pose	p. 154
Easy Pose 5: Child's Pose	p. 156
A Daily Practice: The Easy Poses plus Five Additional Poses	p. 158
Easy Pose 1: Bridge Pose	p. 158
Easy Pose 2: Upward-Stretched Legs	p. 159
Easy Pose 3: Staff Pose	p. 162
Easy Pose 4: Bound-Angle Pose	p. 165
Easy Pose 2 (Repeated and Modified): Legs-Up-Wall Pose (Upward-Stretched Legs)	p. 168
Breathing Practices	p. 170
Breath or Energy (Prana)	p. 170
Breath Retention	p. 171
Alternate-Nostril Breathing	p. 172
Cooling Penetration	p. 174
Meditation and Mindfulness for Anxiety	p. 175
Practice: Basic Meditation Instructions	p. 184
Relieving Anxiety With Ethical Living	p. 193
Practice: Stop the Violence in Your Inner World	p. 196
Practice: Compassionate Conversation	p. 198
Practice: Tell the Truth	p. 201
Practice: Ask a Great Question	p. 201
Practice: Inquire into the Data	p. 202
Practice: Practice Nonstealing	p. 203
Practice: Inquire into Hoarding	p. 204
Practice: Cultivate Gratitude	p. 205
Practice: Practice Contentment	p. 206
Practice: Develop Your Personal Practice	p. 207
Practice: Your Personal Practice of Surrender	p. 208
Conclusion	p. 211
References	p. 215
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

many years ago, we hiked a beautiful trail in Utah’s Zion National Park, called Angels Landing. The trail started off with a strenuous hike up a number of switchbacks on a paved path. After topping the paved switchbacks, we entered a canyon with a gradually inclining, shaded path. Just as we thought we were nearing the end of the trail, the trail turned and revealed that we had even steeper switchbacks ahead of us. We were determined to reach the top of the trail, because descending hikers seemed thrilled to have experienced its breathtaking view and we wanted to see what everyone was talking about.

The path became increasingly intimidating and scary. Heavy chains were bolted into the rock walls to hang on to. On the edge of a cliff, the trail was only a foot wide with a sheer 1,200 foot drop to the river below. Hikers on their way back down encouraged us to go on, declaring that the view from the top was marvelous. Sustained by their support, we continued. We haltingly climbed the same way everybody does, putting one foot down in front of the other and going breath by breath by breath. Once we reached the summit, we smiled and breathed sighs of relief, yet we both knew that we had to go back down the same way we had come up. We worried our way through our lunch and then began the return trip. During our descent, there were moments when we focused more on what might go wrong and less on where the ground was solid beneath our feet. We had to stop from time to time, remind each other to breathe, remember that we were okay, and then begin again.

Sometime after our Zion trip, Rick resolved to walk through the forest near our home as a daily meditation. Having long relied on his steadfast and steely mind to get him through life, he sometimes found that it cut him off from his aliveness. Putting one foot in front of the other helped Rick slow down and connect to himself, which propelled him into a powerful healing journey because he was then better able to feel and be touched by the meditative practices he had done for many years.

Taking one step at a time has helped enable Mary to live inside of herself. Her thoughts used to race ahead of her body, worrying about what would happen next and what she needed to take care of. It was as if her mind lived in a different time zone than her body. After the Angels Landing hike, she silently recited the words, “Step here,”during her morning walks, because it focused her attention on walking as she walked. Gradually her body and mind started moving together as one, making it possible for her to integrate what her yoga practices revealed to her.

Putting one foot in front of the other is so simple that it can become mechanical, allowing our minds to go elsewhere and be out of sync with our experience. As a consequence, we forget what we’re doing, who we are, and where we are. All this forgetting causes painful anxiety. Healing ourselves from this anxiety depends on our remembering again.

We’ve been on a yoga journey together since we met, twenty years ago, and this book is our way of sharing what we’ve learned. We’ve both suffered from anxiety and found that yoga practices help us to remember who we are, to connect to ourselves, and to engage more fully in life. We don’t claim scholarly knowledge about yoga, but we’ve experienced its real and lasting benefits. Yoga has brought profound healing to us and to the people we work with in retreats, seminars, and counseling.

While yoga practices are empowering and safe, they are not substitutes for medical care. Sometimes yoga practices are most effective as supplemental self-care to counseling and medical advice. Professional treatment, including medications, can be helpful, especially if you have a history of trauma or intense anxiety. If you’re receiving treatment for anxiety, please consult with your therapist or doctor before doing the practices in this book.

We teach only what we personally practice, so know that we’re with you as you try the practices covered in this book. And along the way, remember to go step by step—breath by breath by breath.