Monday, September 5, 2016

Stretching the Emotional Body - Yin Yoga for Releasing Shame and Humiliation

1) SAVASANA


Healing Sounds - hand under left rib cage - touching stomach, pancreas is behind your stomach, spleen is inside the left ribs

Notice any shame - worry - anxiety- self pity - constriction

If there is ask for the message

Turn your fingers perpendicular to the floor and press the gently into you abdomen, just below the ribs. right hand in line with sternum and left hand in line with nipple

Open eyes and look up and back
Inhale and exhale hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

visualize any worry, anxiety, shame or self pity leaving the body as a cloud of gray substance that disappears into the earth

return your hands to below the left rib cage. Close your eyes and smile to your stomavh, spleen and pancreas.  Be grateful for thier toles in digestion and absorption.  Still smiling breath normally as you imagine you are breathing golden yellow light into these organs, for a total of three to six breaths.

REPEAT

Last time

sense that your stomach, spleen, pancreas are larger, moister and softer

Worry, anxiety, shame, self-pity, constriction or imbalance have been released

Openness, fairness, intention, and stability have been increased


2) TOE STRETCH


1st Chakra - Shame

The energy of the first chakra is symbolized as stone. It is the heaviest of energies to be moved
There is a feeling of heaviness or weight associated with first chakra energy.

Feelings of shame, humiliation, repulsion and disgust are all rooted in the first chakra

If you feel really tired after a yoga practice it can be because you are dealing with first chakra energies

When vitalized and balanced through yoga - first chakra energy gives a feeling of safety, security,, trust and openness in life

Right to be here - guilt over his birth - what she sacrificed for him


Work with Mantra LAM


3) 3 PART HAMSTRING STRETCH


Shame is a fear-based internal state being, accompanied by beliefs of being unworthy and basically unlovable. Shame is a primary emotion that conjures up brief, intense painful feelings and a fundamental sense of inadequacy.

Shame experiences bring forth beliefs of "I am a failure" and "I am bad" which are a threat to the integrity of the self. This perceived deficit of being bad is so humiliating and disgraceful that there is a need to protect and hide the flawed self from others. Fears of being vulnerable, found out, exposed and further humiliated are paramount. Feelings of shame shut people down so that they can distance from the internal painful state of hopelessness.

HEALTHY SHAME (GUILT)
– the feeling a person gets when he or she has done something that goes against his or her belief system – Guilt is useful motivation for positive behavior change,

TOXIC SHAME (SHAME)
the belief that one is inherently flawed, bad, and/or defective.
Shame (as opposed to guilt) is self-defeating and depression/anxiety producing.

AFFIRMATIONS

“I forgive myself for not being perfect”
“It is natural to feel ashamed sometimes”
“I am a good person”
“I can learn from and transform my shame”

4) SUPPORTED SUPINE BUTTERFLY

Shame in the 2nd Chakra

The sacral chakra is also the center of the search for experiencial pleasure - sex, senses other experiences

“I enjoy life fully” could be the sacral chakra’s motto.

And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." So ends Chapter 2 of Genesis. Chapter 3 narrates the Fall and its aftermath: "The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Presumably, they made themselves aprons to cover their nakedness, because they were now ashamed.


An open, balanced sacral chakra allows you to experience intimacy and love freely and fully.

Many addicts i.e. alcoholics, drug addicts, and behavioral addicts live with deeply felt feelings of shame. Shame is nearly always part of the underlying matrix of psychological conditions that can typically lead to addiction.

Shame leads to extreme emotional discomfort and the gnawing belief that one is inherently flawed, defective, and unworthy of love. These feelings can in turn lead to depression, severe anxiety, and lifelong challenges with intimacy and relationships. And all of the above can create a powerful desire to escape and dissociate via the use of addictive substances and/or behaviors.

5) WIND REMOVING GENTLE TWIST


SEXUAL SHAME

sexual shame is among the most powerful and devastatingly painful forms of shame. As Patrick Carnes has often said, sexual secrets are often the cause of our greatest emotional shame, yet they are the secrets we are least likely to reveal.

Sexual shame often forms in childhood, most often as the result of early sexual trauma
Work with some affirmations


WORK WITH MANTRA VAM


6) SUPPORTED BRIDGE


Shame is one of the key energies that blocks us from being free.  If you want to be free you have to let go of the energy of shame. Even if you have blocked the shame from your conscious mind

In TCM Shame is housed in our stomach, spleen and pancreas.  Along with shame (anxiety, guilt, self-pity).  But there are also positive emotions there of stability, fairness, honesty and powerful intention.

The taste that alleviates worry, anxiety shame, guilt and self-pity is sweetness - dried fruit, honey, corn, cabbage, cucumber, jicama. peas, eggplant, lettuce, shitake mushrooms, and string beans

Wearing gold, orange or yellow are considered the colors to strengthen you digestive system and lift your spirits.

Garden, walk in nature, take care of a pet, get some house plant, thank mother earth

MANTRA RAM


7) COBRA - 1/2 LOCUST - FULL LOCUST - AIRPLANE

8) 1/2 BOW - BOW




Shame can be a seriously problem when we ignore or repress our feelings we can create a deep overall sense of frustration.  Shame can be a hidden reason for fear of failure.  It can manifest as worry or anxiety.

Humiliation involves an event that demonstrates unequal power in a relationship where you are in the inferior position and unjustly diminished. Often the painful experience is vividly remembered for a long time. Your vindictive passions are aroused and a humiliated fury may result. There are three involved parties: 1) the perpetrator exercising power, 2) the victim who is shown powerless and therefore humiliated, and 3) the witness or observers to the event.
Humiliation and Shame
Shame is private, humiliation is public.



Because we bury shame so deeply its energies are found very deep inside the body, close to the core or root of our being.  It's energy is wrapped tightly around the lowest part of the spine between L5 and s5.  When it released you will feel a sudden freedom in the movement in the lower vertebrae of your spine.


Yoga poses that focus on the sacral vertebrae can trigger a release of emotional energy of shame in the body (2nd chakra)


9) CHILD'S POSE TWIST


The essential distinction between humiliation and shame is:

you agree with shame and you disagree with humiliation.

Humiliation is suffering an insult. If you judge the insult to be credible, then you feel shame. Others can insult and humiliate you, but you will only feel shame if your self-image is reduced; and that requires your own assessment and decision.

A person who is insecure about their genuine stature is more prone to feeling shame as a result of an insult. This is because they give more credibility to what others think of them than to what they think of themselves. This can result in fragile self-esteem.

People believe they deserve their shame, they do not believe they deserve their humiliation. Humiliation is seen as unjust.


Shame and humiliation have the greatest potential for emotional damage.  they cause the greatest aversion in us.  When we feel deep shame it can force out to block out or consciously denylarge parts oa our life in attemt to bury and hide that shame.  WE can rewite our entire personal history based on our reluctanve to deal with the emotion of shame.  We can rewrite our histories and be told untruths


10) CRAB (time permitting)

Shame is a controlling device.  Shaming someone is an attempt to prevent the person from behaving in a way that embarrasses us.


In Yoga of Nine emotions shame is cateorgorized as a sub rasa of disgust.

Shame is a form of disgust, in which one recognizes one's own faults, feels disatified of oneself because of it, and fearful of other's people's judgment.  Disgust has a visible sign of unconsciously lifting the left side of the mouth,

11) HALF WARRIOR/DRAGON/BREATH OF FIRE/DRAGON TWIST



The feeling of shame in the pit of our stomach arises from the false belief that what we’ve done has diminished us, that it has defined us either in our own eyes or in the eyes of others as something “less” than what we had been. Perhaps you’ve felt the following before:
Flip flops in your stomach when you think on the issue
A sense of contraction or of involuntary sucking in of your stomach when you think about the issue
Nausea when you think about your issues
A sense of your stomach dropping out when you think on the issue
These physical feelings are your body’s way of showing you that your beliefs are off and that the sensations of guilt, shame, and remorse are due to your thoughts around what you’ve done, rather than what you’ve actually done. But if you listen to your body’s signals, you can turn around your beliefs about you’ve done and what you’re experiencing and rid yourself of your suffering.

12) 1/2 LORD OF THE FISHES (time permitting)


SHAME RESILIENCE

coined by Brene Brown who encourages everyone to become more resilient to shame,

We feel shame in the third chakrabecause we have given our power away to someone or something else.

We have decided that whatever we have done has diminished us to the point that if others found out, we would be considered bad.

We have elevated the thoughts and opinions of others over our own sense of self.
And yes, it’s that we’ve internalized these external beliefs so that it’s our own shame. But if you explore your feelings more fully, you’ll see that your shame is based on having thoughts of being exposed, that someone you love and/or respect will find out what you’ve done and you’ll be rejected or criticized or made to feel bad.

Remember, what you’ve done has NOT defined. It’s what you think about what you’ve done that defines you.


To start to heal your shame, I would recommend, in addition to reading Brene Brown’s book on shame, I Thought It Was Just Me, you can also understand that it is only your thoughts that create the belief around your sense of shame and it is you who creates the meaning out of what you’ve done.
So you’ve bounced a check, does that mean you’re a bad person or you made a mistake?
So you said something boundlessly inappropriate, does that mean you’re stupid or you made a mistake?

Whatever you have  done - no matter who bad you think it is - does it define you or can it be considered a mistake

Can you heal your shame and use it for a tool for transformation, do the right thing in this moment, and in the next moment, and in the next, and be the person you’re supposed to be, without the shame


The color of shame is a dirty, pale, salmon pink.  See if you can locate that color in your body and you can find the shame

1/2 HAPPY BABY INTO GENTLE TWIST



When you know you’re going to be in a tough situation, such as the first time you say no and stick to your guns, knowing you’ll disappoint that certain someone, or when you need to have a tough discussion with your colleagues, or it’s time to ask for a raise, don’t go “belly to belly”. In these situations, turn slightly so that you are positioned so that your solar plexus isn’t facing him/her/them directly.  This prevents their energy from entering your chakra’s aura and allows you to better maintain your power and will.
When a conversations starts to go wrong and you can feel yourself losing your power, put your hand up and block your solar plexus’ aura so that you aren’t being bombarded with their chakra energy.
Another way to increase your power in the middle of a situation is to, in addition to physically blocking your solar plexus, is to visualize your solar plexus as a disk or a ball of light and that it is getting bigger, warmer, and brighter. Quickly imagine it growing in intensity and you will feel your power flow back to you.


FULL HAPPY BABY


Laugh
Laughing at life can greatly increase your sense of power by not taking everything so seriously.
Rent a comedy and really laugh for as long as you can.

The antidote for shame is self-love and self-praise.  Can make a list of past compliments and good reviews.


SAVASANA TO YOGA NIDRA WITH HEALING SOUND



No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment. It is much appreciated.

Namaste,

Nya