💡 Idea
Sometimes life gets dim and difficult. It's a normal feeling that comes and goes.
The problem starts when negative thinking takes over and drags you down into a downward spiral of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Let's explore:
why you shouldn't blame yourself for being negative (hint: it's not you, it's your brain)
how to release negativity from the body
a simple daily practice to take control of your emotions and break free from negative patterns.
🧘🏽 Focus Pose
According to yoga philosophy, the area of the pubic bone, the navel, and the lower back is where our second Sacral chakra is located.
This energy center is all about creativity, sexual energy, and emotions. So whenever you feel emotionally down or imbalanced, try working on your chakra with some hip-opening poses such as Low Lunge.
If you're a bit pragmatic and don't "carry your emotions in the hips," as yogis say, think about this:
Negativity raises stress. Stress not only affects our mental well-being but takes a toll on our body, causing an achy upper back, hunched shoulders, tightened hips, and constricted breathing.
Constant muscle tension eventually drags us into a vicious circle of tightness -> stress & negativity -> more tightness.
This Low Lunge variation gently stretches the areas that are the first to take a beating on a bad day and opens the chest so you could harness the calming power of breath when things don’t go as planned.
Prep & How-To:
Step 1. Downward-Facing Dog
Start in the tabletop position with knees under your hips and hands slightly forward from your shoulders.
Spread your fingers wide with the middle finger pointing forward.
Tuck your toes, fire up your core by drawing the navel in.
On an exhale, lift your knees off the floor and send the tailbone up and back.
Draw your chest towards your thighs, slowly straightening your knees and pushing the heels into the ground.
Firm up and straighten the arms. Keep your shoulders away from the ears by drawing them outward and gaze back.
Keep the knees bent if your hamstrings are tight. A straight spine is a priority.
Hold for about three breaths.
Step 2. Three-Legged Dog
From Downward-Facing Dog, exhale and extend your right leg up and back.
Keep your hips and body level; avoid dumping all the weight on the left side.
Keep your neck and jaw relaxed.
Hold for about three breaths.
Step 3. Low Lunge
From Three-Legged Dog, step your right foot forward between your hands.
Stack your right knee over your front heel and make sure it isn't leaning to the right or left.
Lower your left knee onto the floor. You can keep your left foot tucked or place the top of the foot onto the mat. You should feel a gentle stretch in your left hip and thigh.
Square both hipbones to the front of the mat.
Keep your legs active as if you're trying to scissor your inner thigh together.
Slowly lift your torso and sweep your hands above your head. Firm up your lower belly, tuck your tailbone.
Hold for about three breaths.
Step 4. Low Lunge With Cactus Arms
Hold your Low Lunge.
Exhale as you bend your elbows and lower them until they are leveled with your shoulders.
Press your elbows away from you and squeeze your shoulder blades together, opening through your chest.
Don't let the lower ribs protrude. To prevent that, stay engaged through your abdominal muscles.
Inhale and lift your arms overhead.
Repeat about three times.
🧠 Brain Food
Just snap out of it and focus on the positive! - That's the major mainstream advice to combat negative thinking.
Alex Korb, a neuroscientist and an author of The Upward Spiral, says this sounds well and good in theory but just doesn't work for some people.
And no, it's not because they're not trying enough. It's because of how their brain works.
The brain consists of countless neural circuits. There's a habit circuit, a decision-making circuit, a worrying circuit...
Among those, there's an attention circuit that controls what we focus on.
If you look at a picture of a chair and a picture of a gun pointing at you, guess which of these two will make your brain go frantic? Spoilers: it's the picture of a gun.
The reason is that the attention circuit is tightly interconnected with the emotion circuit, wiring our brain to pay attention and respond to emotional information rather than simple facts.
But that's not the end of the story.
Our brain not only responds more to emotional information, but it also reacts more strongly to negative events. As Alex says, losing five dollars will make you more upset than finding five dollars will make you happy.
This means that staying happy or simply "looking at the bright side" when things in your life go wrong takes a lot more effort than we assume.
How much more?
Studies say that to balance out one negative event, we need about three positive ones.
While we all have the same brain structure, the connections and interactions between brain circuits are unique for each of us.
Some people have naturally more reactive emotional circuits, making it harder for them to process negative life events and move on.
So are you doomed if you're stuck with the "negative brain"?
Not really. Our brains are not set in stone.
"You can't always change where you are, but you can change where you're going." - Alex Korb from the book Upward Spiral
Once you stop taking your negativity personally and move from the point of acceptance, you can willfully change your brain's neurochemistry and rewire its connections.
Just like a simple negative action can drag you into the downward spiral, a simple positive action can help you spiral up.
💪 Action
You can control neither your brain's emotional response nor thoughts that pop into your head. But you can start noticing your reactions and biases.
Neuroscience says that when your amygdala goes into hyperdrive, simply becoming aware of your own reaction activates the "thinking brain" - the prefrontal cortex - and creates a soothing effect.
Next time you're overwhelmed with negativity, try his short and sweet mindfulness practice from Elisha Goldstein. It will help you navigate that space between stimulus and your brain's negative response to pause, observe your emotions, and change direction if needed.
Got any questions, suggestions, or feedback? Send me an email at laura@yogakali.com.
Happy weekend!
Laura