Anger can be an intense emotional experience that often feels inexplicable. It can arise out of nowhere for something seemingly irrational and can feel hard to get a hold of. Experiencing anger persistently is usually a sign of stuck and unexpressed emotion. These emotions may have nothing to do with anger, but when experiences like sadness, shame, and frustration are held in the body, they can manifest as anger in our day-to-day lives.
As we move from the cold blue winter into the warm and sunny summer, it is the time to transform with nature. The spring equinox marks the start of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere while it is the start of the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere.
Transitioning from our busy days into the evening can feel challenging for many. Even though the day is finished, the chatter of the mind and stress we carry often continues. This can make it hard to relax and especially hard to fall asleep. It is essential that we take measures to intentionally wind down the day and prepare the body for rest.
The conversation around the vagus nerve and its importance has become increasingly popular in recent years. The vagus nerve is the largest nerve in the body and is a key part of your parasympathetic “rest and digest” nervous system. It influences your breathing, digestive function, and heart rate, all of which can significantly impact your mental health.
Yoga is the practice of merging all the disparate aspects of our being into one, unified essence. In fact, the word yoga in Sanskrit means union. When we experience yoga we experience our true nature, which is unbounded and unchanging. We can understand the true nature of our being through the Seven Spiritual Laws, as disseminated by Deepak Chopra.
It is the nature of the human mind to wander. We naturally create narratives, fantasies and accumulate mental chatter as we move throughout our days. Certain factors can exacerbate mental chatter; stress, caffeine, long work days, and anxiety can all make it seem near impossible for the mind to slow down. We can become lost in the landscape of the mind and forget to return to the present moment. The present moment is our seat of power and allows us to access our innate wisdom and intuition.
One of the ways to support a healthy mind is to give it a break, and one of the best ways to give the mind a break is to practice breathwork. Breathwork brings your attention toward the breath as a focal point, taking your focus away from stressful thoughts.
Breathwork and pranayama are having their moment in the sun right now. The practices of pranayama, which date back at least 5,000 years to the time of the Hindu Vedas and Upanishads, are being used to treat anxiety, depression, cardiac disease, and now COVID brain fog as well. Modern breathwork teachers such as Wim Hof, Dr. Konstantin Buteyko, and others, have popularized simple breath protocols that have proven to have very positive results, free from complicated jargon and without the need for fancy equipment.
Growing up in the “City That Never Sleeps”, I had always equated strength with energy. I always assumed the more “life” you brought to a relationship, project, idea or work, was always directly connected to how much drive you possessed. And, in order to get that “drive” or even maintain it one had to work hard; real hard.