A Self Reliant Healing System

Jun 12

Life is always happening, always unfolding, it never stops. So we need tools for existing in that real, raw, messy place.

There are tons of incredible tools for healing out there and I engage in many of them– I have bodyworkers, acupuncturists, astrologers, therapists, functional medicine doctors, coaches, mentors. Invaluable resources that I have and will continue to seek out time and time again. But the one shortcoming of these resources is that they are outside of yourself, making it feel like there is the brief time you are at your session/appointment and then all the other time you are not. And there’s so much that can throw down in all the other time.

Leave it to a serious, anxious girl to look at the world this way– but sometimes I feel like I’m on a precipice when I leave one of my aforementioned healing sessions. Hopefully the blissy feels last a long time (and sometimes they do!) But if I’m being real with you, a lot of the times they don’t. And it’s not even because I do something reckless after a session like climb a mountain or thrust myself into some intense, stressful situation. It’s just because life is inherently intense and stressful and imperfect. And there is no controlling it.

In the past week alone I’ve hurt myself doing household tasks, wearing a backpack, sitting on the sunny porch steps too long (for real, LOL). I’ve spun out over my number of Instagram likes, over contemplating whether my new white sneakers are inevitably destined for destruction, and over the frustration of waiting for the other person to text you back. It’s maddening, it’s hilarious, it’s also just proof that we need such tending to.

And the only thing I’ve found that can meet the rate of life’s constant curveballs and disturbances– is Yoga. Because Yoga is a self reliant healing system.

Yoga is always there. Yes in the longer arcs, like carving out an hour or two in your day for a full practice. But it’s there in an immediate way too, like a way of microdosing healing whenever you need it. If you lift the groceries weird, you can take a few minutes to stretch before your back starts to seize up. If you receive a stressful email or call, you can take a few minutes to breathe. If you’re spinning out on a situation, you can repeat a calming mantra. It may take time to establish all the facets of Yoga in your arsenal (and I can help you to do this!), but once they are there it is my experience that they are always there. Our little list of real world throw downs will never cease, but our resignation to the suffering associated with these things can. Yes seek out healers and friends and experiences that help. But don’t underestimate the incredible power of being there for yourself. I read an endorsement on the back of a novel once– the person called finding that book a profound relief. That’s what finding Yoga, and being able to help myself, has been to me.