Here to Feel

What to do when it feels like the world is falling apart?

That’s the question that has been on my, and maybe your, mind this week.

The following is from Louise Erdrich’s novel The Painted Drum:

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and being alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You have to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes too near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could.”

Allow yourself to sit with what is. Don’t push away the heaviness and hurt. Give space and time to process it, recognize it as an essential part of life and being human.

How can we do this, when it‘s so damn uncomfortable?

Let‘s get scientific for a moment. These quoted sections come from James Nestor’s incredible book Breath. We have two sections of our autonomic nervous system. The first, called the sympathetic nervous system, sends stimulating signals to our organs to get ready for action - fight or flight. Lots of “the nerves to this system are spread out at the top of the lungs. When we take short, hasty breaths, the molecules of air switch on the sympathetic nerves.”

The second, the parasympathetic nervous system, stimulates relaxation and restoration, telling our organs to rest and digest. A profusion of “the nerves connecting to the parasympathetic system are located in the lower lobes, which is one reason long and slow breaths are so relaxing.”

Which means that how we breathe, short and shallow or slow and deep, can literally change how you‘re feeling at the level of your autonomic nervous system.

So, how do we learn to sit with our feelings when they feel too big or complicated or painful? Breathe slow, breathe deep.

JOIN ME FOR LIVE OUTDOOR CLASS!

I’m hosting a yoga class in one of the most beautiful places in Los Angeles County. Join me for a rejuvenating hour at the Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverly Hills Saturday, March 12th at 9am.

Built in 1911, the property was the first luxury estate built in Beverly Hills and was once the residence of retail giants Virginia and Harry Robinson. Today, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains a breathtaking display garden, mansion and pool pavilion.

For more details and to sign up for class, click here.