How do you handle “overwhelm”?

Overwhelm is the sensation of your nervous system reaching its allostatic load. Meaning: you’ve taken in as much stimuli as you can possibly handle and your system is about to combust. Or shut down.

A core skill of Mindfulness is the ability to feel an emotion without being overwhelmed by it, so learning to approach Overwhelm mindfully can be really helpful.

Next time you’re 3 seconds away from spontaneous combustion…

✨ Try these Three Yoga Therapeutics Tips for Overwhelm✨

Santosha reflects a state of being in which your inner contentment is independent of situations and circumstances happening around you. Santosha is internal steadiness.

The changing of the seasons is a perfect time to notice this.

When I think about Inner Contentment, I think about Polly Pocket.

(For those of you who didn’t grow up in the ‘90’s: Polly Pocket is a teeny, tiny playset with a miniature Polly and itty bitty animal friends, completely encased in a plastic purse that fits in your pocket.)

Polly Pocket has her own little world of cuteness, with everything she needs, in a travel-sized container.

Polly Pocket is the perfect example of Inner Contentment: even when her external environment changes, even when everything around her is in flux, even when she has no idea where she is going or what the future holds, she’s content and safe in her own little world because she has the inner resources she needs to navigate the changes.

When we are cultivating Inner Contentment (Santosha), teacher Sharon Salzberg says to,

“create around you a little bit of space that is all your own, a place where the rules of interaction you've chosen make sense and your actions have integrity."

Are you a “should” person?

❔Or ❔

Are you a “could” person?

I consistently hear clients belittle themselves with sentences like:

“I should do yoga more.”

“I should cut out sugar.”

“I should meditate.”

“I should be a nicer wife.”

“I should feel better in my body.”

Each one followed with “but… I can’t… there’s no ______ <time, money, energy, way.>” 😞

Each time we use the word “should” it shuts the door of possibility.

Listen. I want to help you:

➡️ lower stress

➡️ relieve low back pain

➡️ alleviate shoulder tension

➡️ enhance mental focus

➡️ support bone density

➡️ stabilize your metabolism

through my Online At-Home Yoga Therapeutics Subscription.✨

Here’s what Subscribers are saying:

The goal of Yoga Therapeutics isn’t to “do yoga better.”

The goal of Yoga Therapeutics is to “Feel Better” along your Path to Optimal Health.

You may be asking: “What is Yoga Therapeutics, anyway, Lisa… and why is it for me?”

This neck traction technique is one of my all time favorites.

Yoga Therapeutics is so much deeper than just learning poses. It's learning to appreciate the subtleties of the breath and how the breath is a mirror of your inner landscape.

For me, if it doesn’t get done by 9 am, it’s probably not going to get done. Everything important happens in the morning.

I have to purposefully carve out time to set my mood, my intention, my focus and my health as a priority EVERY SINGLE MORNING.

➡️ What morning routines do you use to prioritize your health?

➡️ How can you set your intention each morning?

➡️ When can you make time to become mindful of your body and breath?

➡️ Can these Yoga Therapeutics practices help you do that?

Jenn was SUPER intimidated to start Yoga Therapeutics sessions with me.

She was convinced she wasn’t strong enough or flexible enough or young enough.

But guess what:

She was alive and she was breathing, so I was convinced she could do it.

We started with breathing.

It was like a lightbulb switched on, high voltage.

When I feel overwhelmed, I put away my phone, shut my laptop and practice Yoga Pranayama.

Pranayama is the third of the eight essential aspects of classical yoga teaching.

Often defined as “controlling the breath,” I prefer to think of it as organizing the physical act of my breathing so I can re-organize my thinking.

In yoga, breathing techniques are called pranayama.

With pranayama practices, you can:

learn mindfulness

de-stress

increase mental focus and decrease brain fog

alleviate anxious symptoms

overcome insomnia

regulate blood pressure

optimize the health of your central nervous system

develop a therapeutic relationship with your body

all without ever standing up.