HSP Yogini

I am a highly sensitive person (HSP) learning to live with my hyper sensitivity by practicing raja yoga. I am also an HSS (high sensation seeker) which means that I live in constant conflict trying to balance the desire to seek out exotic and intense sensations with my need for calm, quiet, low key self-reflection time.

[saraleelee]

#Neurolove

[hspyogini]

This!

[psych-quotes]

Taming The Monkey Mind

[gentlehsp]

“You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That’s the only thing you should be trying to control.”

— ― Elizabeth Gilbert (via psych-quotes)

[hspyogini]

[hspyogini]

I've always been so averse to taking yoga pictures. I thought they always seemed like a desperate cry for attention. I thought the people who took them were all sellouts and dimwits who didn't get real yoga. Then one day recently I realized that my aversion to this fad was just as bad as an obsessive attachment. I also started to see that my harsh criticism was full of judgement and it gave me a lofty moral ledge from which I could look down upon these poor poor plebs. Then I just walked outside one day with my husband and my yoga mat and said: "hey babe grab the Nikon camera, let's go do a yoga photo shoot". Now I feel (to paraphrase Dharma Mittra) I am them, they are me. One friend commented on my FB share, she's a yoga teacher, and I liked the analogy she used in her rant about this topic... She said gardeners take photos of what they grow and they share it because that's their hobby. I found that statement food for thought.

[hspyogini]

My inspiration for this post struck me while I was playing the piano and letting my mind wander since I had the piece memorized.  It was Beethoven's Für Elise.  I always enjoyed listening to the subtle parts of classical music and I have always payed special attention to the rhythms and the time signature and the rate of beats per minute.  It was instinctual for me to realize that these factors played a large part in the way that the listener feels the music.  Music has the power to affect us deeply.  It can stir emotions and take us on a nostalgic ride down memory lane.  But even a piece of music that we have never heard before will touch our central nervous system as we pick up on the vibrations.  I believe that yoga can have the exact same effect on us.  I'll let Dr. Alan Watkins explain this phenomena.  He is an international expert on human performance.  He studied medicine and qualified as a physician in London, he holds a degree in psychology and he has a PhD in immunology.  So don't just take it from me, there are people out there with actual paperwork to back this up.

After putting all these pieces together it leaves me with no wonder why practicing Mysore style ashtanga makes you feel so good, so smooth, so at ease with the universe.  The magic happens with the well regulated and slow cadence.

I've been dabbling with some pranayama techniques.  The picture I've included is from the book is "Light on Pranayama" by B.K.S. Iyengar.  I have experienced some very interesting sensations that are very hard to describe.  With the Vritti Pranayama I've pushed myself to try the following exercise which is my current capacity.  

Inhale = 5 Retain at the top = 20 Exhale = 10 Retain at the bottom = 2

I time myself with a stopwatch so I can count the seconds with a precise measuring instrument.  I think that having a metronome or a stopwatch is imperative when you get into this stuff.  I can already tell that my yoga practice has changed.  I feel stronger, like I have a bottomless well of energy to tap into.  I also feel like I have greater control over this well of energy.  So if the energy was before like air in a balloon - I was just opening up the balloon and letting all the air out in a huge quick WHOOSH.  But now I feel like I have a nozzle which can slow the escape of that air and it allows me to keep going longer with more vitality.  

[hspyogini]

EMDR Institute, Inc.

EMDR:  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.  Did you know you can actually treat trauma with eye movements in a psychotherapy setting?  I have been treated with this method back in 2002 or 2003.  I was amazed at how effective it was, I was able to let go of animosity I felt towards a close family member that had been festering my whole life after a few sessions.  There is a great deal of overlap between treating trauma and treating a sensitive central nervous system.  When you practice yoga as an HSP do not underestimate the importance of drishti or the prescribed gazing system.  Each body movement should ultimately be associated with a particular eye placement.  The therapeutic effects of this type of pratyahara or controlling of the senses is profound for an HSP when it is done correctly.  If your yoga instructor studies raja yoga, they will emphasize the proper drishti during class so that you know where to move your eyes.  With practice and from my own personal experience I can say that this feels like a form of self-hypnosis.  It can lead to a very transcendental mental state and you can gain self awareness and insight into the emotional and life struggles that are bothering you.  This stuff seems like magic when you feel the benefits.  It's a really great tool for an HSP struggling to achieve a calm clear state of mind.

[hspyogini]

HSPs will know the feeling... We need yoga to relax, but sometimes it just doesn't work out that way.