Yoga teachers are often thought to be (or expected to be) zen creatures.
We look so blissful when we practice and surely, yoga has taught us to never feel any of these horrible negative emotions?
Nope.
I actually feel like I’ve never been as angry about various things as I am now. And I think I have yoga to thank for it.
Because what yoga taught me is to experience the emotions, whatever they are, fully. To allow them to be expressed so that they can be processed.
I used to bottle up a lot of my anger, and it resurfaced in unwanted ways.
Everything that happens to you, all the thoughts, emotions, feelings you experience don’t vanish in thin air just because you decided you didn’t want to feel them. They leave an imprint within you, and will find their way out, whether you like it or not.
With yoga, we can learn to:
- identify the emotion (for example: anger)
- go a level deeper and identify the emotion that lies underneath it (maybe fear)
- allow it to be experienced fully (during meditation, still or moving)
- let it go
And maybe find a way to turn it into something actionable. Something we can have control over.
I actually think anger is a very healthy emotion, and even if I sometimes cause a bit of chaos around me when I express it, I wouldn’t want it any other way.
