I recently taught a Pain Care Collective Build class where for each one of the poses, we practiced an affirmation. The one pose that reaffirmed that I too need balance was Tree Pose. As I guided the students through this pose, my wobbly legs felt like they had just spent a month on a sail boat. Steadiness was what I sought, but didn’t quite have.
Nowhere does it seem more important to foster balance, than in this month of the changeover of seasons from winter to spring (for those in the northern hemisphere). We have compiled 5 yoga tools to help you bring balance into your life and maybe even change or reduce your pain. Each one of these tools can help reduce the stress response, leading to the brain perceiving more cues of safety from the body. Try one or try them all and discover which ones will go in your toolbox.
1.Balanced Breathing*
Often, when we think of using breath therapeutically, it's not uncommon to think that our goal is to soften the breath in order to reap its benefits. But, that isn't always the case. In yoga, we often look to support returning to sattva (balance) in order to cultivate deeper states of practice (and healing!). But, that means, depending on where we start, we might need to take different paths to get there. We can use breath to calm our energy, but we can also use breath to lift it!
This is why I truly love the practice of balanced breathing*. Balanced breathing, inspired by Christine Caldwell, asks us to tune into the subtle shifts that occur throughout the cycle of the breath and then gent