By Jackie
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) can get overwhelmed absorbing the emotions of everyone around them. Without an outlet, you will quickly burn out. This is where yoga comes into play. It teaches you a number of lessons that help you make the most of your gift.
You Learn to Transcend Your Body
Intense feelings are part and parcel of being an HSP. As you fight to distinguish the energies that belong to others from those that are your own, your nervous system quickly becomes exhausted and overwhelmed. This makes it important for you to tune into your spirit, higher self, and heart. The more you practice yoga poses, you learn to meditate on your mind’s state and leave your physical body.
Get Grounded
You take a seat at the start of class, set an intention for your practice, and commit to the ujjayi breathing technique. Intentions take several forms, including creating space for something that you want to let into your life, offering of strength to those who need it, or releasing something you have been holding onto. You focus your exhalations on releasing anything that does not serve your intention’s manifestations and then inhale your intention. This helps ground sensitive souls.
Develop Patience
Patience is important in the unending process of personal growth. Yoga practice shifts constantly with our energy flow. There are poses that you may feel you have mastered, but it may feel new again on a certain day. Or, you may have a pose that continues to elude you. As you practice more, you will learn that yoga is not about the destination: the journey is where you grow.
Nurture Connections with Similar Others
HSPs are passionate. When you like people, you love them. You want to have deeper connections with individuals. Acquaintances are out of the questions. Everyone is a friend or soon-to-be friend. In yoga, there is a communion with other, freedom to reveal your shadows, and souls who respect the depths of expanding awareness. It is magic when these souls come together. This is an adventure in itself.
Observing Your Breath
Practitioners of yoga might abandon their breath as they take on more challenging poses. Yet, you tend to suffer when you hold your life force back. We almost instantly withhold our breath when we need it and its calming effects most. As you learn to harness your breath in yoga, it will serve you well in your daily life as an empath.
Photo by Edit Sztazics on Unsplash
