Problem: Fight-Flight Response Won't Turn Off
Solution: Use the Breath

 

Taking the peace, strength, flexibility and balance you can experience on your yoga mat out into the world… easy, right? Just takes practice. Yes and no, I’ve found. Let’s focus on the peace aspect for now. One of the great attractions of a yoga practice for the average person is tasting and then consistently feeling at peace, as needed. It is a centered calm that does not attach or overreact to noise or chaos, whether from external sources or the depredations of Monkey Mind.

Focusing on asanas (poses) and on breathing itself helps calm the fight-flight impulses sent out by the brain’s amygdala when threat is perceived. Initially this was a fantastic neural power that allowed mankind to deal with saber-toothed tigers and rock-wielding enemies. In modern times, we often suffer from an excess of fight-flight impulses that are inappropriate to the situation or won’t turn off even when it’s clear to the rational mind that the person is safe. The city isn’t under siege. A job is not lost. A car is not about to hit-and-run. The annoying neighbor has no real plans to make life a living hell. That cloud is not a tornado. A bathing suit that feels like a python trying and failing to swallow your hips doesn’t cancel one’s worthiness to exist. A tiger is nowhere in sight.

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