Welcome to the Emotional Endurance Program!
Building Emotional Endurance
After practicing and teaching yoga for years, finding a specific yoga practice that addressed specific emotions was revolutionary.
I practice not only to allow my body to move with ease and remain pain-free (after having debilitating chronic pain for 10+ years) but to soothe my turbulent emotions!
Emotions are energy, energy in motion. Depending on the flow of energy will determine how we feel emotionally.
According to Chinese medicine, each organ runs at an energetic frequency that resonates with specific emotions.
When the energy is maladapted, either weak, excessive or stagnant, we suffer from:
Anger and frustration held in the liver
Anxiety and mania from the heart
Worry and doubt from the spleen
Sadness and grief from the lungs
Fear and insecurity from the kidneys
When the energy is smooth and efficient with a balanced flow:
The liver resonates with inspiration and kindness
The heart expresses peace and joy
The spleen vibrates with grounded trust and generosity
The lung energy, when harmonious, feels courageous, solid integrity, well disciplined, and emotionally resilient
The kidneys provide us with willpower, wisdom, and a tranquil mind
The energy, or Qi, runs through the meridians, the energy pathways that feed the organs.
Think of the meridians as electric currents that power the organs. Like the electricity running a lightbulb, if it’s weak, it will flicker; if excessive, it will burn out.
When it’s an even balanced flow, the lightbulb will shine. This is the same with our organs and, therefore, our emotions.
When we strengthen and stretch the muscles and connective tissue in yoga and qigong, we give ourselves an acupressure treatment, stimulating qi flow.
When there is a balanced flow of qi, we naturally feel the positive attributes and want to create a discipline to maintain it, as it feels better to feel inspired rather than angry!
One of the unique qigong practices is a meditative breathing technique called Yi Qi Li, guiding our qi (energy) with our mind and breath. Both yoga and Chinese medicine agree that where the mind goes, the energy flows.
We can focus our minds to create a smooth and efficient flow of qi by breathing up and down the meridians. This has many benefits as it balances our energy flow and gives the mind an anchor to focus on, which brings us to a meditative state. The meditative state allows the body to come into homeostasis, where proper health resides.
We all feel a wide range of emotions but are prone to some more than others. And each season’s energetic frequency resonates with specific difficult and pleasurable emotions.
To know how to balance our emotions is how we become masters of our minds and energy.
If we struggle with frustration and anger, we know to work with the liver and gallbladder meridians. Specific yoga and qigong poses stimulate the liver and gallbladder meridians, bringing their energetic flow back into balance.
Combining the pose stimulation and breathing through the meridians gives both a mental and physical boost to repair and maladaptations to the qi flow.
These meditations, breathwork techniques, yoga, and qigong practices are specific to the seasons and the emotions that arise when in balance and maladapted. This way, we can address our energy imbalances and return to homeostasis.
Disease is a dis-ease of energy that, if not tended to, will result in difficult emotions (as emotions are energy) and, over time, physical. If we know how to bring ourselves back into balance, we know how to heal ourselves. And we are ultimately responsible for our own healing.
