This probably varies by person, but for me, the best place to practice the skills I learn in a yoga class is at my dentist office. Nothing triggers the anxiety more than being tilted back in that seat, bright light shining down on my face. The whining of the drill. Smoke ruining a deep breath as they drill down decay. It's not my favorite place.
To stay calm, or at least as calm as I am capable of in this situation, I focus on the breath. I breathe in for four counts, hold, exhale for four, and hold. Despite the urge to flee my body, I try to reconnect with it, releasing tension from my fingers, which are often death gripping the chair arms. I relax my shoulders and my neck. I close my eyes and notice the support of the chair beneath me. Sometimes I do all these steps a few times and sometimes, once is enough.
All this to say, I hope you too are able to take what we do on our mats into the stressful moments of everyday life.
With that, should you choose to practice with me this month, I'm teaching at 6:30 PM (MST) on Monday evenings, and 8 AM on Saturday mornings. Register here.
We also have our Writer Yoga + Word Sprint with NaNoWriMo on March 13 at 11 AM (PT)/12 PM (MST). Register here.
I also wanted to offer you the opportunity to checkout a workshop a friend of mine, Erzhena Soktoeva, is teaching. It's a donation-based Slow Tech Workshop on March 22 at 5 PM (MST).
"Slow Tech" - modeled after the "slow food" movement in Italy - is about bringing mindfulness into our relationship with technology so that it can help focus our time and attention on things that matter to us, or at the very least, not get in the way of it.
This workshop is going to challenge your current understanding of "digital wellness" by examining the way we measure our technology use and how our emotions and feelings play a big part in the journey to a healthier digital lifestyle.
You will learn and apply a radically different way of measuring your technology use, and then deep dive into various strategies to help kickstart your Slow Tech Journey.
The workshop is going to be a combination of a seminar/talk, workshop activities, and breakout groups.
You can learn more here.
With that, have an amazing March!
Coach Breanna