Unentangling Knots - Physically and Mentally
We all know that a surefire way of failing to untie a knot is by pulling it even tighter, or doing nothing, hoping it’ll untie itself. We know this about physical knots that we encounter in our day to day lives, but have we ever pondered that our bodies and our minds have knots (metaphorically and physically)? And that a new way of being with them might be required to release them?
Image yourself in a pose during one of your yoga classes and you sense a physical knot in a part of your body. What do you choose to do in this instance? Many of us will push harder, trying our best to “release it.” This perfectly mirrors how our mind shows up for us when things get tough. Others may completely back off, afraid of the discomfort (again, potentially showing us how we show up when things get tough).
You see, how we practice the physical asanas of yoga may be showing us how our mind operates…it gives us a glimpse at how we handle our own mental ‘knots’.
What do I mean by a mental knot? Imagine the brain as a majorly complex bundle of neurons and synapses firing electrical messages nonstop at unfathomable speeds. Now picture growing up and limiting the information flow to a few key “highways” within your own brain pathways. Inherently what has happened is we have closed ourselves off to other “highways” as the brain wants to predictively take the path of least resistance. And by doing so, we essentially create ‘knots’ in our own psyche that cause us to be limited in how information and decisions may flow within and through us.
As an example, picture a couple who cannot agree on a particular issue. One partner has one set of neural highways and the other has a second set, causing for no direct route for needed communication to flow. How do they resolve this? One (or both) needs to loosen their metaphorical knots in order to allow new information to be received (i.e., see things in a different way).
If we bring this back to yoga, we might start looking at how we practice and then apply this in life. When I first started, I brought my driven energy to the mat, doing my best to push through everything in order to “get better.” But rather than opening the subtle channels in my body that the poses were asking for, I simply strengthened the already strong parts of my practice. Nowadays I have a much more patient approach to a yoga class and pose. I have started to recognize that my body and breath know how best to untie these knots, so I listen and feel into those signs…not what my mind wants.
This is all part of letting go. We show up exactly as we are, and do our best to unwind, knowing that consistently showing up in this manner will bring real change…physically, and maybe more importantly, mentally.
What does your life reveal about your knots and the way in which you work with them?
With you on the path,
Joe
