Odaka Yoga: What emotion are you? How to make your Yoga practice Experiential
Life inevitably presents us a wide range of emotions, both positive and negative. Emotions are part
of us, at times we can feel them powerful, energizing, revitalizing and this happens when we feel in
love, happy and grateful; other times some emotions can turn off our energy, suffocate us and leave
a sense of bitterness and frustration in our thoughts by creating blocks, making us accumulate toxins
and hindering our quiet life.
Have you ever wondered what emotion you are?
What makes us happy, attractive and useful is our very ability to perceive, generate and express
pure emotions that wash the dirt from our soul.
Recognizing and managing emotions, both positive and negative, becomes fundamental for a yogi and for anyone who wants to take the reins of own life. For a Yoga teacher it is vitally
important to know how to move in this ocean of emotions and help those who feel drowned
without being emotionally involved.
I know, it’s not easy but with a little compassionate practice everything will become easier and more
natural over time. The good news is that Odaka Yoga offers us both a philosophy and a set of
practical tools to alleviate challenges and shine in our essence.
Before starting your practice or your normal daily activities, stop for a moment, find your
center and listen to yourself. How do you see yourself? What do you hear? Observe the parts of the body where these emotions materialize and name your feelings. Here, now that you recognize them you are ready to transform them! So take a few more moments and ask
yourself: How do you want to see yourself? What do you want to hear? Your experiential yoga practice has just begun, it’s wonderful!
If anxiety and suffering are about to take over it is possible that you are beginning to think of
yourself as lonely and alienated. You may feel listless, disappointed, tired and unmotivated. Do not
drown in these emotions, but by identifying the area in your body where this feeling manifests itself
you will also know by where it can flowing, to emptying you and welcoming the best and
everything you need to be happy. There are many specific asanas that stimulate our nervous
system and make us capable of developing different and better reactions to life events. At the end of each of our experiential practices we moved, squeezed and transformed the emotions we
didn’t want from our body, making room for well-being and a deep sense of fulfillment. We
naturally feel freer and lighter because we have realized that although negative emotions
cause not being pleasant, they are ultimately not who we are. Scientific studies also agree in
showing that yoga and meditation techniques actually activate a specific part of the brain, the left
prefrontal cortex, known as the “happy” side of the brain where positive emotions reside.
Remember that you are like a gold coin buried in a pile of dust, your light sometimes hides
under your physical and emotional reactions to life, but it is always there at your disposal and ready to shine.
Odaka Yoga offers endless sequences of asanas and practices designed to respond to the changing
needs of each of us. It trains teachers capable of creating regenerating and always original yoga
sequences and classes. As an artist draws from his palette the colors to make his picture harmonious
and varied, so every Odaka Yoga Teacher draws his colors from the deep knowledge of asanas to
create an ever new mandala, a unique structure every time that allows us to rediscover the calm,
happiness and strength to shine.
So from today, to make your yoga practice experiential and your life wonderful, be the one to decide who to be and what emotion to live as you flow with the flow of life!
Vivian Mil.
– Odaka Yoga RYT 500 teacher
Instagram: @ararisko_harmony_yoga_
