​About a month ago I wrote about Yoga for Digestion as part of my current series “Your Body on Yoga” where we discuss how yoga helps all the systems of the body to operate at their best. The suggestions for yoga postures and breathing for digestion have been pretty helpful in digesting all of the rich food of the past few weeks. Today’s post is part two—digesting experiences, thoughts and emotions. Have you needed some help with those too lately?

We are not just bodies; we also have thoughts and emotions. Yoga has always taught—and western medicine has more recently confirmed—that body, mind and emotions are integrally related. We don’t need to read a study to know this to be true! We’ve all had butterflies in the stomach and inability to eat when anticipating a test or a hard conversation. Or if we’ve ever had a serious injury or illness, we remember how it messes with our mind and emotions. The rollercoaster of physical symptoms and mental/emotional stress can be challenging.

Here are a few ways to practice mental digestion as supported by yoga:

• Movement is essential. Sometimes when the mind gets stuck in a loop of negativity, it really helps to move the body. Notice that the word “emotion” has the word “motion” in it. Thoughts and emotions that don’t get digested properly do indeed get stuck in the body, just as food that doesn’t digest well can block up the system and make you feel yucky. Get outside for a walk or go to a yoga class. If time is short, get onto the floor on all fours. Begin with cat/cow and downward facing dog. From down dog walk the hands back to the feet for a forward bend, stand up to mountain pose, then fold forward to return to hands and knees. Repeat the series 3-5 times.

• Breathing brings clarity. When the mind is unable to digest experiences, thoughts and emotions, it can feel foggy and heavy. Breath carries prana—our life force—and by definition prana is light, able to move and change quite easily. Find some place where you won’t be disturbed for 5-10 minutes. Sit on the floor or in a chair with hips slightly elevated so that the spine is lifted and long. Take 10-20 slow, deep breaths all the way down into the low belly, letting it fully expand. Let the breath release easily and without effort on the exhalation. At the end, notice how much more centered and clear you feel. 

• Meditation helps you let go of what you don’t need anymore. Yoga teaches the practice of replacing a negative thought or emotion with a positive one. Take a few moments to consider what negative is intruding in your life and what its opposite would be. For example, if you’re feeling anxiety the opposite might be calm. For fear, courage. For overwhelm, peace. Find some place where you won’t be disturbed for 5-10 minutes. You can even set a timer for 10 minutes if you like. Take five slow, deep breaths to settle your body and mind. For the meditation, exhale the negative thought or emotion you want to be free from, then inhale its opposite. Visualize the negativity completely leaving your body and mind, and welcome the positive thought or emotion to completely fill your body and mind. As you go about your day you can return to this mantra anytime: “I completely release _____ and I fully receive _____.”

In the heaviness and dreaminess of the full moon lunar eclipse, I have been considering this quote:

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.”

These words come from Swami Vivekananda, the Hindu wandering monk who introduced Yoga to the West. Can you imagine how these words landed at the very end of the 19th century?

In the Vedic tradition (Buddhism too), there is a progression that is often discussed—thoughts, words, actions. They are all related, of course, because we can see how what we and others do is always rooted in the things they have been thinking and saying. Makes sense, right?

This is why these ancient traditions are so interested in guiding and training the mind. What we think matters big time; thought is the place where we devise our hopes and dreams, discern the best course of action, and plan our next steps. There can be no action without thought. Ha ha – when you say you “acted without thinking” you are deluding yourself. Action is always a result of thought, conscious or unconscious.

Therefore, Swami V says, “take care about what you think.” What are you thinking about? What are you going over in your mind? Those thoughts—whether joyful or sad, hopeful or fearful—are setting the course for your life. Shift your thoughts and you shift the whole world.