When I recently mentioned to an acquaintance of mine that I was stressed out, she responded in surprise, “but I thought that with all your yoga and meditation practices you are never…”
This is a common misconception worth clarifying: yogis are not immune to stress, much like, I suppose, dentists have holes in their teeth and car mechanics’ automobiles do break down. We, those who submit to practices such as Yoga, Meditation, Tai Chi and Qigong, may experience stress less frequent and, though my wife may disagree, to a lesser degree, but worry we do, anxious we are and sleeping like a baby, whatever this term really means, we do not. That being said, I trust that on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very stressful, it is likely that my various practices have a part in reducing my overall stress level by a couple of points if not more. In other words, on a day that someone else, due to circumstances life throws at us, would have been at an 8 (stress level that is,) I may be at a 5 or 6.
I remember guiding a meditation gathering once. At the end of the event, one of the participants, whom I didn’t personally know prior, mentioned that she was having sleep issues. I sympathized and mentioned that my sleep isn’t always that great either. She looked at me in dismay and said, her voice tinged with reproach, “So what am I doing here?” I guess she was hoping that in one meditation event, with someone she somehow believed to be immune to the human condition of stress, her insomnia will be gone. If she wasn’t so serious I would have laughed out loud.
So there you have it. All these practices we partake may help relief various issues, including anxiety, tension and restlessness, but this is by no means a magic bullet. Like with anything else in life, a holistic approach is needed, and Yoga, Tai Chi, Meditation and the likes are only but one component.
Learned from: a comment during a chat with a friend.
Open Heart Energy 