Dropping Into Your Yoga Bubble
Five things to try if you have a busy brain!
If you’re anything like me, your brain might sometimes struggle to follow you into the yoga studio/onto your mat and be encouraged to stay there for the majority of your practice! Brains are designed to think - on average we ‘think’ 3,500 thoughts in an hour, 80% of those thoughts are negative(!) and 95% of thoughts are repeated - so don’t be too hard on yourself if you find yourself thinking about tens, hundreds or even thousands of things whilst your are on your mat.
Here, I have put together a selection of options that might help keep your brain in the room…
GROUND YOURSELF
I know yoga teachers talk a lot about grounding, but it’s for a purpose, I promise! The idea of grounding is to encourage us to move out of our head space and into our body space. There are many ways to do this and probably the most common is to take your awareness to where you feel your body touching the ground. Another very useful grounding tool is to work through your 5 senses (touch, sound, smell, taste, sight). Even if you only spend a few seconds focusing on one thing from each of your senses it can really help you get out of your head and into what you are experiencing in that particular moment. If your brain needs a bit more encouragement to disengage from thoughts then you can take the focus on the senses a little further and try out the following exercise:
5 things you can see
4 things you can feel
3 things you can hear
2 things you can smell
1 thing you can taste
JOURNAL
If you are having a particularly busy brain day then perhaps try and arrive at class a few minutes earlier than usual, grab a cuppa and sit and empty your brain/to-do list onto some paper (or make notes on your phone). Since 95% of our thoughts are repeated, getting some of these thoughts out of your head and onto something solid means you can let those thoughts go. Your yoga practice is a space for you - so feel free to do whatever you want to get the most out of your practice (and not worry about what anyone else thinks as you sit there and empty your brain onto a page)!
INTENTION
This is a wonderful way to prompt the brain to focus. Sometimes you will be invited during a yoga class to think of an intention for your practice. I personally love it when a yoga teacher suggests a few or shares their own, just in case I’m struggling to think of any myself! But it quite often means more or ‘sticks’ with you for longer if you can choose your own. It can be anything - something physical, such as ‘stay with my breath’, ‘feel the ground beneath my feet as I move’ or ‘follow my heart beat’. It can also be something you feel you need, for example ‘send love to all corners of my body’, ‘feel gratitude for my body’ or ‘let my energy flow freely’. You can even write it down and pop it at the top of your mat as a little love letter reminder to yourself.
MEDITATION
If your brain is busy then a meditation class is something you might steer well clear of!! The traditional, and perhaps stereotypical, view of meditation is sitting in a crossed legged position in silence trying to empty your brain and think of ‘nothing’. Meditation is simply the act of giving your attention to only one thing - so there are many ways to meditate (breathwork, movement, mantra, visualisation…the list goes on). Using movement as your meditation is one of the sneaky ways a yoga class can help your brain practice focusing on one thing.
YOGA BUBBLE
A yoga bubble can be as small as yourself, a time (as most teachers will encourage) for you to tune in and block out all of the other ‘life noise’ for an hour; it could be during a yoga class, where everyone in the room is being guided through the same set of moves, all seemingly ‘doing’ the same thing but perhaps experiencing entirely different things. Being part of a longer term yoga bubble, perhaps on a retreat, is a great way to practice letting yourself relax, switch off from the outside world and let your busy brain have a chance to rest. Having the opportunity to practice quietening your brain for several days in a row can help you find what works for you best, allowing you to take these tools back into ‘normal life’.
As we move well and truly into Autumn, the colder temperatures and lack of light invite us to hunker down and get into hibernation mode. Give yourself the permission over the next few months to have some time tuning into your body rather than your busy brain taking over. I know all of the teachers in the wonderful Sow & Root community would be happy to talk to any of you if you have a busy brain and are struggling to quieten it - so please do come and chat to any of us!
And if anyone would like to experience a ‘yoga bubble’ in retreat form then I will be running a magical one in Urbino, Northern Tuscany in May 2024 (daily yoga, optional meditation, pool, spa, cookery lesson, vineyard tour & kayaking excursion). See more details: HERE
- Written by Clare Edwards