Each year hundreds of yoga teachers and schools offer free or nearly free yoga workshops to Americans across the country. These professional Yoga Alliance Registered Teachers (RYT) and Schools (RYS) are committed to meeting the unique needs of their local communities and often use their events as a fundraiser for a local charity. Thousands of Americans — the young and old, the flexible and not-so-flexible, athletes and couch potatoes and those of every heritage will discover, rediscover or continue with their current practice through a workshop perfect for them. In the practice of karma yoga or service to others, these amazing yoga teachers and schools use their talents to help build community and change lives through yoga. In honor of this day, we at The AFA turned to Yogi Brenda Strong, The AFA's National Spokesperson, to share her thoughts on yoga, joy, and fertility.
by Brenda Strong
Yoga
means “yoke” or “union” in Sanskrit
The
practice of yoga is designed to remind us of our essential nature, which is
joy. When we are out of “alignment”
physically, we suffer discomfort and dis-ease.
The health of the spine is crucial to our sense of vitality and
longevity and the practice of hatha yoga is a wonderful way to maintain the
flexibility and strength of the spine, while engaging the nervous system housed
there in. The practice of yoga helps us
to keep the body supple, the heart open and the mind quiet. Quiet enough to tune inward to the real union
in the word yoga, the union of self with the Source of life itself.
But
what happens for those couples that are experiencing infertility?
Those
who feel “life’s source” has run dry for them and millions of others who are
experiencing reproductive difficulty?
Those who are under stress, whose bodies are out of balance and whose
pocket books are dwindling because of numerous attempts to conceive? What does
yoga offer them?
The
strain of trying to conceive can cause stress equivalent to those suffering
from a terminal illness like cancer or AIDS.
In their case, yoga can become a tool to learn to cope, to buffer the
stress response and manipulate the nervous system back to a place of relaxation
and receptivity.
When
we experience stress triggered by infertility, the “fight or flight” response
in the sympathetic nervous system kicks in and releases
the stress hormone, cortisol, into the bloodstream, which in turn, over
time, can impede reproductive function.
It becomes a vicious cycle of stress and disappointment, and chronic
stress over time can lead to depression and illness.
So,
how can yoga be a life raft in the sea of stress for those undergoing
infertility?
In
yoga, the breathing and stretching exercises help to elicit the parasympathetic
nervous system’s “relaxation response” which arrests the stress response and
stops the vicious cycle.
Yoga
focuses on using the breath to be mindful of this moment, through intentional
focus and attention, yoga becomes a moving meditation with the mind and body
operating in unison through awareness.
Through this systematic and scientific methodology, the body’s natural
healing capacity is supported, and finds its way back to health and vitality. The physical postures bring an increase in
blood circulation, help to detoxify the body and elevate the endorphins that
enhance our sense of wellbeing.
What
about the mind and emotional health?
A
great deal of our attention while going through reproductive difficulties is
focused on an uncertain future or a disappointing past, and these thoughts
cultivate anxious feelings and emotional upset which in turn increase our
stress and impact our hormonal balance.
While
we are practicing yoga, our attention is on this present moment in time and
space. This awareness of the present
moment helps to prevent the patterns of thought that trigger the stress
response as demonstrated in the Clinical Implications of Neuroscience Research
in PTSD of Boston University School of Medicine.
The
practice of meditation and yoga are reaching clinical results that are positive
and profound in their implications.
Patients learn to distance themselves from their reactions, something
that we have called “equanimity” in yoga.
The simple idea is that stress is not what happens to you, but your
reaction to what happens to you.
Thoughts that cause the remembrance of an event that is not current have
the same impact on the nervous system as when they originally occurred. Hence
we can repeat the stress response by just thinking of the memory. In cases of failed cycles, miscarriage or
trauma, you can see how this cycle could be repeated at a detriment.
How
can we stop this cycle of stress?
Learning
to respond, rather than react is a natural result of yoga as you learn to
breathe space into the uncomfortable places in the body and sit with that
discomfort and watch without judgment. It is the same in infertility, learning
to sit with the uncomfortable places in ourselves, breathing and being present
allows us a glimpse into the body that has been out of sorts, emotionally
wracked and robbed of its joy. We have
an opportunity to accept what is present through awareness and non- judgment. Accepting “what is” is one of the hardest things
to do when it seems to be counter to your deepest longings of becoming a
parent.
How
could I possibly accept “what is” when “what is” isn’t what I want?
Accepting
something is not the same as being in agreement. Acceptance is merely a lack of
resistance. It seems that resistance to
“what is” causes the most suffering.
However, it has been my experience as I’ve watched my students over the
years, that accepting “what is” helps them to open themselves to the many gifts
infertility offers. After all, in yoga it’s not about getting there, the pose
is not the goal - it’s the journey that matters. And in yoga the only way to get “there” is to
be “here.” I have found the same to be
true in the world of fertility. The only
way to be on the journey is, step by step, breath by breath, moment to moment
and observing without judgment. In yoga
we learn to become the participant and the observer, if we can practice this
during infertility, we can free ourselves of the suffering.
Yoga
is intentional awareness of the mind, the body, the emotions and the energetic
source that supports all life.
The
key is to remember your intention. If
your intention is to become a parent, then you will be. The only mystery is how you will become a
parent and the willingness to receive the journey. For some, the journey may lead us in a
direction we didn’t expect. For each of us the path is different, but once we
hold our child in our arms, it doesn’t matter how they got there. The key is in accepting life’s offerings, and
each experience offers us a lesson that deepens our connection to ourselves,
one breath at a time.
Teaching
yoga for fertility allows me to witness the miracle of yoga, or union, when
parents and children are yoked together through the miracle of receiving life’s
source. The unfolding mystery of the journey is one that so many of us are
mesmerized by - it’s like watching a movie no one could possibly have written:
its too compelling, heart wrenching, uplifting, courageous and unbelievable. Hang in there, because your story is worth
watching, if you can just learn to breathe, bear witness and watch and wait.
www.yoga4fertility.com
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