How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

Have you noticed that how you behave and think tends to be repeated over and over again?

Humans are creatures of habit! We love familiarity and feel comforted by our routines. Especially in times of stress or change we'll retreat back to these old patterns for safety.

As young children our brains are like sponges, soaking up our interactions with the environment around us and our early life experiences. 

By the age of 7 years most our subconscious thought patterns are set, even though other parts of our brains will keep developing until we're 30 years. 

These early subconscious thought patterns will continue to run our minds on autopilot. If we're not aware of this the choices we make and whether we react or respond to our circumstances will come from these hidden algorithms in our brain.

Often times this results in behaviour we regret later, like arguing with a loved one or self sabotaging ourselves. We don't know why we acted in that way and we end up feeling guilty or ashamed of ourselves. 

A much overlooked benefit of mindful movement practices like Yoga is that our mats become a safe space to observe our habits and thoughts, and a laboratory to experiment with new, different ways of moving and thinking without fear of being judged or failing.

Imagine someone flying into the studio late, throwing their mat on the floor whilst red-faced and apologising breathlessly. Or someone fidgeting on their mat during the closing savasana, trying to sneakily check notifications on their watch and rushing out muttering about late for something.

Is that the energy you want to bring into your practice or take into the rest of your day?

Modern lifestyles mean that many people spend much of their time in a sympathetic state, ie. their sympathetic nervous system is always active to some degree. 

The sympathetic nervous system is the branch of the autonomic nervous system that manages the "fight or flight" response to a perceived threat.

The "fight or flight" response is meant to be a fast acting, short-lived response to danger.- witness a gazelle running away from a pouncing lion. Once the immediate threat has passed the prey animal returns to grazing as if nothing has happened, allowing the body to recover quickly in case there's another attack.

This calming effect is the parasympathetic nervous system activating and down-regulating the sympathetic "fight or flight" response. No surprise that the parasympathetic nervous system is known as the "relax and digest" part of the nervous system.

In the case of modern humans replace the pouncing lion with traffic jams, train strikes, financial worries, workplace stress, managing a full diary or the fear of a global pandemic.

Your body is exposed to a constant low level of stress which is insidious. At first, the effects are barely noticeable so you tell yourself that you're coping.

Then you start to wake up feeling groggy and heavy so you drink a cup of coffee. That gets you up and functioning, but soon 1x cup of coffee isn't quite enough so you have another, and another through the morning. 

Your sleep becomes lighter and more disturbed. You get that "wired but tired" feeling. Maybe you can't drop off to sleep at all. 

You find it hard to relax unless you zone out watching box sets on Netflix, scroll aimlessly through social media or blast out a high energy fitness class to loud music. This gives your brain a powerful and addictive hit of dopamine which makes you feel better about yourself. 

Other things start happening. Your gut starts playing up - stomach cramps, bloating, acid reflux, diarrhoea, constipation and a reduced tolerance to certain foods like dairy, bread, starchy carbs, veggies etc. You might get diagnosed with IBS initially or, further down the line, an IBD.

Your immune system begins to turn against you. Maybe you start getting frequent colds. Your muscles feel tense, sore and take longer to recover after a workout. Your joints ache more. Allergies like hay fever and eczema flare up. Further down the line you may get diagnosed with an autoimmune condition.

These are all signs that your body is stressed, becoming depleted and low level systemic inflammation is damaging your cells, tissues and organs.

The nervous system is designed by nature to be highly adaptable. That adaptability gives it resilience to the normal stresses of life.

We can measure the adaptability and resilience of the nervous system with a metric called HRV (Heart Rate Variability). Some smart watches and fitness / health trackers will measure your HRV.

When one branch of the nervous system becomes overly dominant HRV gets lower. A high HRV indicates high variability ie. both sympathetic and parasympathetic branches are both active. The resulting tug of war creates that adaptable, responsive nervous system which can react rapidly to threat or stress, then settle back down soon after.

Therefore stress is instantly discharged and not held or stored in the body in the form of tension, muscle tightness or inflammation.

We can use Yoga or mindful movement practices to train our nervous systems to be highly responsive.

Strong, challenging poses or a flow practice will stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. Then taking breaks in a more restful pose allows the parasympathetic branch to kick in, calming the body and allowing time for introspection and reflection.

Encourage self awareness by observing how your body and mind respond to both the challenging sections and to the rests. 

Some thoughts to ponder whilst you're practicing might include:

• Do you move quickly or slowly during flows?
• Do you tend to rush from 1 pose to the next?
• Do you like the challenge of strong poses or do you avoid them?
• How do you respond to resistance from your body? Do you tend to push through regardless or do you back off at the first sigh of tension?
• Do you fidget or become impatient during quiet, rest periods in the practice?
• Does your mind race during restful poses, or if you hold the poses for longer?
• Do you become easily frustrated? Can you be more patient with yourself (and by extension others)?

Remember, how you move on your mat tends to be reflected in your behaviour off the mat. Humans are creatures of habit!

Very often the same thought patterns will be driving your choices on the mat AND the off-the-mat decisions in your life.

By using our Yoga practice to become more aware of these patterns of thoughts and behaviour we can decide if these serve us or hinder us.

Now you're beginning to take your Yoga practice beyond just doing the physical poses (asanas) - how awesome is that!

By developing a deeper level of self understanding you can use your Yoga practice to do these amazing things:

• Train your nervous system to become more adaptable and resilient to stress
• Boost your ability to cope with stress
• Reduce inflammation in your body
• Protect yourself from health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue (ME / CFS), chronic pain, IBS, IBD (Crohn's / Colitis), gastric reflux (heartburn) etc.
• Reduce the odds of getting an autoimmune condition like MS (Multiple Sclerosis), RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis)< Hashimoto's, Lupus etc.
• Put your allergies into remission
• Stabilise your mental health and anxiety

Pretty cool, right?

Our habits determine how we live our lives. But most people are too busy to pause and examine their patterns of thought and behaviour.

Our modern lifestyles are taking us away from ourselves. Many people no longer know themselves. Technology is divorcing our minds from our bodies.

So we're doomed to repeating the same old thoughts, the same old choices and the same old habits, whilst wishing we we could relax more, have more energy, sleep better and feel better somehow.

What to do next?

I invite you to go beyond the physical poses.

Turn your attention inwards. Look deeper, observe and reflect on how you're moving, what you're thinking and the choices you're making while you practice on your mat.

Maybe use some of the ponder points suggested above, if they feel authentic for you. If not, create your own - something that feels relevant and tangible to you.

Do this each time you practice or attend a Yoga class, and see if you notice any patterns or recurring trends.

If it's happening often on your mat you can bet it's being repeated in your daily life, decisions and actions!

Awareness is the first step to creating more helpful thoughts and habits that enhance your health, relationships and life off the mat.

With time, patience, repetition and practice it's possible to become aware of your old childhood algorithms and override them with new, more beneficial thought patterns that create behaviours to support your aspirations.

How you do anything is how you do everything!