This post was originally written a couple of weeks ago for the students of Pain Care Yoga classes as a part of our off – the – mat learning series.

The learning + empowering opportunity presented when one of the students was caught off guard by her body’s reaction to what we were doing on the mat.

This post, in addition to in-class conversation, was a way to help her sort out what happened, and also transfer on-the-mat experience to off-the-mat life – after all, pain management tools aren’t just limited to a yoga room….

Here we be!

Let’s talk about a balanced response to a stimuli, or, as we called it in Restorative Yoga training, “an appropriate response – action.”

For those of us living with a sensitized nervous system – whether there’s pain or not – a balanced response to a stimuli is the stuff of the fairy tales.

My nervous system activates at the slightest perceived threat – perceived is the key word here, because often the threat exists only in my mind.

My thoughts fly off and disperse faster than a flock of waxwings drunk on late fall chokecherries.

Sleep goes out the door, and often doesn’t return until several weeks later – but by that time my mind, of course, have found something else to react to.

My body tenses in places I am aware of, and not aware of. Pain that ensues reminds me of all of these…

Managing this ball of anxious energy is exhausting. I imagine trying to rein in a flock of wild horses as they pull me in all directions possible, all at once.

Balanced response?

You’ve got to be kidding, right?

Yet, it is becoming more and more possible to do just that.

Some of that work is physical – recognizing where and how I lock in tension. The majority, however, is mental – and here is where mat practice and mindfulness converge to provide a perfect training ground.

Unfamiliar movements and positions {or those we have avoided for the long time} can cause our nervous system to guard – that guarding feels like tension in the muscles, and sometimes as nausea or anxiety.

My personal nemesis is any type of a twisting movement. My nervous system flips the lid any time I try it – I get a hot wave of anxiety, and often nausea wash over me, and then fear sets in.

Pain Care Yoga helps me to find a movement that challenges just the very edge of my discomfort, recognize what is happening, and then use the information to re-frame the experience and generate a positive learning curve:

~ do I feel safe?

~ am I in real danger?

~ what if I breathe mindfully here – do these sensations decrease or increase?

There might be a few bloopers along the way – before we learn more about nervous system’s “yield” and “stop” signs.

Yet, this work is beyond important.

Every time we challenge the setting of the nervous system – even if just a breadcrumb of a challenge – we re-affirm health and wellness to both conscious and subconscious mind.

Healing is impossible without that.

P.S. more info on PAIN CARE YOGA and how it works lives here.