Blog 2: The Softer Side of Laura—Soulfully Overcoming Anxiety with Yoga Nidra
We carry our worry and agitation into our beds at night.
When you read the sentence above, does your body react in a certain way? Maybe you notice your jaw shifting and slightly tightening or possibly a sensation deep within your heart space beginning to bubble up. Are you feeling anxious thinking about feeling anxious?
I know I do. I notice sensation taking over in a way that also manifests into worry + anxiety. One thing I do know is that I’ve suffered from anxiety my whole life- I believe right from birth. My twin sibling and I were born almost 4 months early, wrapped up in umbilical cords + not physically ready to be earth-side. I was thought to be blind, deaf, and mute. In fact, we were considered ‘miracle babies’.
Anxiety has been my sidekick since childhood. I was labelled the shy ‘worry wart’ of the family and I was conditioned to think it was always a part of me and that I wouldn’t be Laura without it.
It has taken decades of therapy, a few years of medication, and the act of gentle parenting, breaking cyclycal generations of conditioning + shame, to be able to redefine how anxiety belongs in my life. Years of this internal work has brought me to yoga and most importantly, back to myself once again.
As a yoga instructor, the two things people request most from me is yoga to help them to sleep and yoga for anxiety. These two requests suggest that we are not in our bodies and that we are not connected to our embodied experiment. We are scattered, in our heads, and ungrounded.
Being ungrounded means that we remain outside of our embodied experience, being disassociated from our bodies and the daily sensations that arise. Being grounded means to fully inhabit your body. So how are we able to become grounded? How are we able to soulfully overcome the stressors and anxieties that we face every single day that feel engrained within us?
When we take the time to relax our bodies + quiet our minds, we can withdraw our attention from the external world and deeply inhabit our bodies to trace new neural pathways within. This is how we are able to create long lasting connection with our inner being.
My absolute favourite way to do this is through Yoga Nidra. This practice allows your body + mind to rest in a state where you notice thoughts, feelings, and sensations without adding to them. It is about removing cortisol from the body, enhancing serotonin (to improve your mood), and increasing melatonin (to help your sleep).
Yoga Nidra is a practice where your thoughts are further and further apart, allowing your body to progressively relax. You are surrounded by blankets, props, pillows, and are able to steep in the appreciation of your whole body. Yoga Nidra is the act of doing nothing and gaining absolutely everything.
If you would like to experience Yoga Nidra from the comfort of your home, my upcoming series Yoga Nidra for Deep Sleep begins Thursday, September 9th. This is an 8 week virtual series where together, we cultivate the parts of you that are already whole and at peace. These are the parts of you that don’t need to do more to already feel good about yourself.
If you would like to learn more about Yoga Nidra and my Yoga Nidra for Deep Sleep series, you can register here.
Yoga Nidra is about self support. It is about physical and mental support and envisioning yourself as an enriched and supported person. For me, self support is intuitive, nourishing, and revealing. Yoga Nidra is how I tell a story of self support revealing parts of your intuitive body that are here to nourish you.
Yoga Nidra is about finding a place to call home again- because everyone wants a place to be found.
Little do we know that place is within and has been all along.
love + alchemy,
Laura