Disconnect from the grid and relax.
Has this ever happened to you?
Your phone goes off and suddenly you are in a panic. Where is that phone. You need to see who was trying to reach you. Is there an important news update that you need to know about. Where is that phone. You put it down just a moment ago.
Your stress is mounting. You search everywhere until you finally find your phone. It had slipped under the couch cushion. And what was the important event that your phone just notified you about. It was your friend sharing the latest joke that they had just heard.
You put yourself through all of that stress to read a joke! Perhaps it is time to unplug from the grid and relax for a little bit. A yoga class gives you the opportunity to get off the grid and relax for while.
Unplug from the grid
One of the very first things you do when you get to the yoga studio is to turn off your phone and leave it outside of the practice space. This may be the first time and the only time today that you will be off of the grid.
For 90 minutes there will be no phone calls, no voice mail to check, no email alerts, no text messages to respond to, no breaking news updates to check out. For 90 minutes you will not be able to keep up with your friends or the world.
You will have the freedom to relax and enjoy your yoga class knowing that you are disconnected from the grid. Let your friends know that during yoga class you will not be available to respond to them and that you will get back to them after the class is over.
Disconnecting from the grid starts the relaxation process and completing your yoga practice deepens your relaxation.
Focus on the moment
Once you start your yoga practice your mind must focus on what is going on in class.
- Put your leg here
- Move your arm there
- Twist your torso this way
- Hold your hands like this
- Stretch these muscle
- Relax those muscle
- Look in this direction
There is a lot involved in doing a yoga pose. Working on getting your body into the pose as best you can will take all of your attention. Once you manage to get your body into the yoga pose whether it is perfect or not there is one more thing that you need to do. You need to breathe.
Breathe this way
There is a particular kind of breathe that you do during a yoga practice and you focus on the quality of that breathe when you are in a yoga pose.
The yoga breathe is a deliberate breathe. You breath at a moderate pace, in through the nose and out through the nose. The lips are shut and you are breathing deeply and with sound. You make a sound with your breath in the back of your throat.
Because this is a deliberate breath you need to pay attention to it. You need to check it out as you are doing your yoga pose.
The quality of your breathe, the depth and the pace will tell you how well you are doing your yoga pose. If your breath is shallow an quick then you have gone too far into the pose and you need to back off a little bit until your yoga breathe returns to normal.
With all of this going on there is no chance for the mind to wonder.
The mind relaxes
You focus on your breathe to make sure you are doing the yoga pose to the best intensity.
You focus on your muscles and your body as you attempt the yoga pose to the best of your ability.
You focus your gaze towards a particular point.
All of these actions focus your mind on the present moment. There is a lot going on with a yoga pose. There is no opportunity for your mind to think about anything else.
Once you get completely focused on the yoga pose, your breathe and your gaze your mind and body will start to relax.
Add to this the fact that you know there will be no interruptions. You are off the grid perhaps for the first time today. This in itself can bring a lot of relaxation to the mind and body. There is no expectation that you will be keeping in contact with everybody and everything. You can relax and enjoy this freedom.
Next Steps
You need to enjoy this relaxed feeling more often. Now is the time to increase the number of yoga classes that you are taking in a week. If you are taking one class a week, it is time to move up to two times a week. If you have been doing three classes a week think about how much more relaxed you would be if you unplugged from the grid for five classes of 90 minutes each.
It will be glorious. Your mind and body will thank you.
