Class One • Video/Slides/Text
The following is the textbook text presented in the class presentation. It is quite extensive, so there is a button below to download it to read off line, or to print.
Chapter One • The Path to Resilience: Integrating Yoga, Psychology, and Neuroscience
Ch.1, Lesson 1 • The Dynamic Nature of Resilience: An Introduction
Surrender & Resilience
Resilience is a term that, much like surrender, can be difficult to define. From my experience and studies over the years, I've come to understand resilience as a highly dynamic process rather than a one-dimensional concept. This dynamism implies an interplay between internal and external factors, leading us into the realm of non-duality and aligning with the philosophical foundations of Kashmir Shaivism. This back-and-forth dance between opposites is more easily experienced than defined.
When we engage with this dynamic process, it brings to mind the challenges of describing movements in a dance class. Anyone who has taken such a class knows how instructors might use seemingly simple instructions like "right, left, back, right," which can feel confusing until you see the movement demonstrated. Similarly, trying to describe resilience can feel limiting and confusing, yet when we are in the flow of resilience, it becomes a natural, experiential process.
Despite its contemporary usage, resilience has deep roots, with its origins traced back to the 17th century and Latin roots. In modern times, the term entered psychological vocabulary around the 1960s and has become more widely used in the past 20 years. Although resilience is a relatively recent term in everyday use, it describes a fundamental aspect of human experience.
As yogis, you possess an inherent understanding of resilience through your practice of meditation and self-awareness. You already engage with resilience at a profound level, even if you might not realize it. This presentation aims to empower you with a deeper recognition of resilience, helping you to articulate and harness this quality more effectively. Let's delve into some definitions to further clarify and explore this essential concept.
Defining Resilience
As mentioned earlier, resilience is a term that dates back to the 17th century, though its Latin roots extend much further. The word "resilience" combines "re," which suggests a return or repetition, and "salire," which implies leaping or rebounding. Thus, resilience fundamentally means the ability to bounce back from difficulty.
The Oxford Dictionary defines resilience simply as "the ability to bounce back from difficulty," adding the word "toughness." While "toughness" might suggest mere endurance, from a yogic perspective, resilience involves withstanding, changing, and growing through surrender. Therefore, I deviate slightly from Oxford's definition, emphasizing that resilience in yoga involves a transformative process.
From a material science viewpoint, resilience is defined as the ability of a material to absorb energy when deformed elastically and release that energy upon unloading. This definition highlights the concept of maximum energy absorption up to the elastic limit without causing permanent distortion. This scientific perspective mirrors our human experience: just as a new rubber band can stretch and return to its original shape, we too can face challenges and return to our original state if we maintain our elasticity.
However, time can diminish our resilience unless we actively work to recondition it. For instance, an old rubber band that has been neglected may break under strain, but with proper care and warming, it can regain its elasticity. Similarly, resilience can be maintained and enhanced through regular practice and self-awareness.
Every day, we experience a certain degree of stretch or stress. If we can endure this stretch without becoming permanently distorted, we grow and become more resilient. Conversely, if we feel burdened and hold onto this tension, it limits us. Thus, the goal is to stretch without distortion, growing stronger in the process.
This concept of resilience aligns with the winding path of life. We all experience moments of distortion from daily stresses, but we also learn to use these experiences to build resilience. This process of putting one foot in front of the other, despite challenges, is central to the yogic tradition. Rather than constantly evaluating our resilience, we should focus on understanding and cultivating it through consistent practice.
When discussing psychological concepts like resilience, it's essential to recognize the dynamism involved. Resilience theory in psychology suggests that it's not the nature of adversity but how we deal with it that defines our experience. Two individuals can face the same situation and have entirely different experiences based on their internal responses.
In the 1960s, Albert Ellis developed the ABCs of resilience, a framework to understand this process:
A: Activating event - something that happens to us.
B: Belief system - our interpretation and response to the event.
C: Consequences - the outcome of the interaction between the event and our beliefs.
This framework illustrates how external events and internal beliefs combine to shape our experiences. Harvard's 10-year study on resilience also supports this view, emphasizing the interplay between internal disposition and external experience. The study concludes that resilience is born from this interaction, reinforcing the idea that we can influence our reality through our internal responses.
In yogic tradition, the concept of creating our own reality aligns with resilience theory. For instance, by consciously deciding to take a break from online shopping, one might begin to appreciate what they already have, changing their experience of reality.
Resilience, therefore, involves changing our internal disposition to alter our experience of reality. While we cannot change external events, we can change how we experience them. This understanding is not just a self-help concept but a foundational element of our meditation and yoga practice, aligning with both scientific and psychological perspectives on change and growth.
By examining the ABCs of resilience within the yogic framework, we can better understand how to cultivate resilience in our daily lives. The key is to maintain a balanced and dynamic approach, continually putting one foot in front of the other, and embracing the journey of growth and transformation.
Resilience Teachings from Swami Rudrananda
Now, let's delve into some teachings from Swami Rudrananda and see how they align with the concept of resilience. For those who may not know, Swami Rudrananda is a lineage teacher of Shambhavananda Yoga and Babaji’s first and primary Guru. His ashram was located in New York during the 60s and 70s. A foundational principle for him was using everyday life as a platform for growth. Instead of retreating to a cave or moving to India, he emphasized growing in the context of one's current life and community.
One of Swami Rudrananda’s most famous quotes comes from the back cover of his book. Let's read it together:
"When we eat fruit, the skin provides roughage essential to our growth. In human relationships, too, roughage is essential. We cannot limit our intake to the qualities that are easy to take. We must welcome those that force us to change the patterns we have been able to deal with in the past. We must come to understand that everything is part of perfection and must be taken in a state of surrender. It must be digested and transcended. Life must be consumed whole, with all its tensions, pain, and joy. Only by surmounting a situation can we achieve the understanding, the nourishment that situation offers. My spirit grew by eating that which encompassed me."
This quote encapsulates the essence of resilience. Rudrananda asserts that roughage, or the challenging aspects of life, is essential for growth. We shouldn't limit our lives to only comfortable situations. Instead, we should welcome those that force us to change our fundamental beliefs or patterns.
Rudrananda emphasizes the importance of surrendering to life's challenges, understanding that everything is part of perfection. This is a profound statement, and it might be difficult to accept that every part of our life is perfect. However, the idea is to digest all experiences, both sweet and bitter, and transcend them.
Only by overcoming and transcending these challenges can we achieve true understanding and nourishment. In yoga, this understanding is akin to the nectar of growth. Rudrananda’s statement, "My spirit grew by eating that which encompassed me," perfectly aligns with the concept of resilience as an inner capacity for growth rather than changing external situations.
Connecting to the ABCs of Resilience
Let's connect Swami Rudrananda's teachings to the ABCs of resilience:
Activating Event: Rudrananda states, "We cannot limit our intake to the qualities that are easy to take." We can't limit our activating events to only those we find comfortable or agreeable.
Belief System: He continues, "We must welcome those that force us to change the patterns we have been able to deal with in the past." This means we must welcome events that challenge and change our belief systems. In the yogic tradition, belief systems can be seen as patterns of behavior or reaction.
Consequences: Rudrananda’s teaching suggests that by surmounting and transcending challenges, we gain new understanding and nourishment. This transformation changes our experience of reality.
By embracing life's challenges and allowing them to change us, we enhance our resilience. This doesn't mean allowing life to walk all over us or accepting harmful situations. Instead, it's about responding differently to everyday tensions and breaking out of reactive loops. When we surmount challenges, we gain new understanding and are nourished in ways we couldn't be before.
This perspective aligns perfectly with the essence of resilience and the yogic path of growth through life's experiences.
Relating Resilience to Yoga Practice
Though that was a lot of information I believe it's essential as it allows you to feel confident that you are familiar with the wide range of possibilities that the term resilience may refer to. I also hope this information is empowering, showing you that your time on the mat and on the cushion has set you on a path of resilience from day one. I’d like to take a moment to show what growing resilience on the mat might initially look like, and allow you to reflect on a similar path that you may have already walked in your practice.
I'll start with a personal example. When I started practicing yoga in 2004, I remember doing reclined twists in class. Back then, and unfortunately still today for many, it was common to let the knees drop all the way to the floor and stay there for a minute. However, this didn’t feel right to me. On one side, it felt uncomfortable, and on the other side, it felt worse. My SI joint would ache, but I kept doing it because that was the instruction.
This repetitive discomfort was my activating event. My internal reaction was not conscious or empowered. I thought, "It doesn't matter how I feel; this is what’s being presented." The consequence was persistent pain and discomfort.
Over the years, as I became more attuned to my body and respected its intelligence, my internal belief system shifted. I started to recognize that this approach wasn’t working for me, even though I didn’t immediately know the solution. I began to work with the internal and external dynamics more thoughtfully. Instead of forcing myself into the pose, I adjusted it to fit my body’s needs, going less deep into the twist but still deriving benefits.
When I teach this posture now, I emphasize aspects of the posture that give my body more relief, such as starting with deep core toe taps to ensure that the mid section stays illuminated, and tick tocking the legs from 10 to 2 or 11 to 1 on a clock instead of all the way to the floor. But what’s more is that I try to combine empowering cues for self guidance throughout the posture, giving students cues that help them feel what’s happening in their body as well as cues that help them make adjustments to make the pose feel good for them. I would say half the cues for any posture that I teach are about the posture, and the other half are about how to feel your experience of the posture. To put this into the ABCs of resilience, half the cues are about the activating event, and the other half of the cues are there to help the individual feel their own internal reactions to the event. This feeling itself keeps the dynamism between inner and outer worlds alive, and grows the practitioner’s resilience. By doing this, we honor the principles of resilience. We face the activating event (the pose), adjust our internal reaction (listening to our body), and achieve better consequences (reduced pain, increased benefit)
Reflect: Can you think of a posture in your yoga practice that was born from resilience? A posture that might have began as a challenge, but when met with surrender and inner focus, became a guiding light of growth?
Ch.1, Lesson 2 • The Yogic Perspective on Resilience: Self-Inquiry, Discipline, and Surrender
Defining Resilience from a Yogic Perspective
In this section, we'll define resilience from a yogic perspective, drawing from Patanjali's texts to provide a more authoritative understanding. We'll then cross-apply some scientific approaches to this concept, focusing on the ability to feel within (interoception), and bring it all together through swaying practices that help initiate our exploration of resilience on our mats and in our lives.
Let's begin with a quote from the Yoga Sutra 2.15, where Patanjali writes: "The enlightened practitioner realizes that the endless cycle of avoiding pain and seeking pleasure is a self-propagating result of our past impressions. Thus, both pain and pleasure must be subjected to the process of introspection and detachment."
The samsaric path of avoiding pain and seeking pleasure essentially means navigating our lives based on our likes and dislikes. Patanjali suggests that if we live solely according to our likes and dislikes, life becomes a self-propagating cycle of our past impressions, creating a loop where we keep doing what we like and avoiding what we don't. Initially, this might seem like a way to maintain a comfortable life, but the yogic tradition, as often referenced by Babaji and Swami Rudrananda, teaches that this approach actually results in our lives becoming smaller and more confined. We build walls that eventually close us in.
To avoid this, Patanjali advises that we should practice working with our everyday likes and dislikes with a bit of surrender and introspection. For example, when we're at work, we might encounter a challenging customer. Despite feeling irritated, we find a way to work through the situation. We do this not to be doormats, but because we recognize that there are bigger goals at play. We naturally tap into this perspective in our professional and personal relationships, where we often manage our likes and dislikes for the sake of a greater purpose. By doing so, we can gradually grow from our daily experiences.
Samsara is often described as a loop in the yogic tradition, the endless cycle of birth and re-birth, which is to say, living out the same challenges over and over again. We quit a job because our boss is annoying, but inevitably our new job has a very similar boss. We all know the feeling of trying to solve an external problem without inner work, as Albert Einstein once said, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” According to the yogic tradition, you could possibly say we’re all mentally ill until we’re enlightened, as the tensions that we cling to everyday are not our true nature. It’s like the zen story of the student, who happened to be leaning against a tree, asks his teacher about letting go of his busy mind. The teacher told him that when that tree lets go of him, so will his thoughts. The student responded that the tree isn’t holding him, he’s leaning on the tree— and at that moment the student had a breakthrough. The patterns that we hold on to, or the belief system as the psychology of resilience would put it, are ideas that we hold on to that affect our experience of reality. The work of yoga is letting go of those attachments so we can begin to work in a more surrendered way with our present circumstances. We often repeat the same actions and interactions, wondering why things don't change. Through our yogic training, we choose to take responsibility for these consequences by working with our internal patterns.
Three Focal Points from Patanjali
Patanjali provides us with three focal points that we'll be focusing on throughout this training. These focal points create a container for our work, allowing us to funnel our efforts effectively.
““The active practices of yoga can be simplified under 3 headings: self-enquiry, discipline, and surrender. These practices diminish the mental turmoil that causes pain, and make it easier to focus on the goal of enlightenment.” (Sutra 2.7-11) While everything in yoga intersects, I have found these three distinct focal points particularly helpful when understanding the yogic process of growth and resilience. Patanjali says that the active practices of yoga can be simplified under three headings: self-inquiry, discipline, and surrender. These practices diminish the mental turmoil that causes pain and make it easier to focus on the goal of enlightenment.
Self-Inquiry (Svadyaya)
The first focal point is self-inquiry, which involves the ability to turn your focus inward. This practice emphasizes internal reflection and focusing on the inner aspects of any situation.
Discipline (Tapasya)
The second focal point is discipline, which is about maintaining a consistent practice of self-inquiry. It’s not just a one-time effort but a repeated action, fostering a habitual internal focus.
Surrender (Ishwara-Pranidhana)
The third focal point is surrender. This refers to the quality with which we bring our attention inward and open ourselves up. It's about approaching our practice with a sense of letting go and allowing.
These three focal points—self-inquiry, discipline, and surrender—will be recurring themes throughout the training. We aim to integrate them not just in our yoga practice but also in our lives. The exercises and philosophical teachings are designed to help you understand how these concepts look on the mat and how they can be applied to your daily life.
Mental Turmoil and Pain
Patanjali’s quote also highlights a crucial principle at the heart of resilience: these practices diminish the mental turmoil that causes pain. Fast forward 2,000 years, and we see this principle echoed in modern studies from Harvard and the psychology of resilience— ie. “Resilience is born from the interplay between internal disposition and external experience”. The definitions of resilience often emphasize the internal aspect of a situation as a significant part of our experience.
Patanjali explains that the mental turmoil we experience in various situations is the real cause of our pain. While we might feel that external circumstances or individuals need to change, the reality is that we cannot always control these external factors. What we can change is our internal response to them. This change in perspective and internal management can significantly alter our experience of a situation.
Think about situations in your life where you feel that another person’s behavior needs to change. While you may be correct, it’s important to acknowledge that you cannot change them. However, you can change how you interact with the situation. Maybe you avoid the situation more frequently, or perhaps you use certain practices to better understand and manage your response.
The Quality of Swadyaya
To delve into the concept of Swadyaya, Patanjali's Sutra 2.44 states, "Self-inquiry brings about understanding of one's true nature and bestows the blessings of the Divine." These are two incredibly significant outcomes. Understanding your true nature and receiving divine blessings are profound achievements, highlighting the importance of internal reflection.
While journaling is one way to practice self-inquiry, this internal gaze is much more expansive. It forms the very foundation of spiritual practice. A quote from the text Introduction to Kashmir Shaivism, written by Swami Muktananda's ashram, illustrates how this internal gaze connects to our spiritual practice and the universe as a whole:
"Paramashiva has two aspects, Prakasha and Vimarsha. They are two inseparable sides of one single Reality like the two sides of a coin, and they always remain in a state of perfect co-existence with each other. Prakasha is the aspect of self-revelation which illuminates everything. As the Kathopanishad puts it, 'By its shining, everything shines. By its light alone does all this shine.' Vimarsha is the aspect which uses this light to survey itself. This self-observation of the Ultimate Reality is called Vimarsha. It is the non-relational, immediate awareness of 'I.' It is this pure 'I' - consciousness or Vimarsha that is responsible for the manifestation, maintenance, and reabsorption of the universe. Therefore, Vimarsha is called Parashakti (supreme power). Thus, the Ultimate Reality is not only Universal Consciousness, but also universal psychic energy or power."
Let's walk through this together.
Prakasha and Vimarsha
In the context of Kashmir Shaivism, Paramashiva is the original singularity, similar to the singular particle in physics that split to form the universe. This singularity splits into Shiva and Shakti, two eternal, complementary attributes. Shiva, referred to as Prakasha, is the light that illuminates everything—a stable, all-pervasive light. Shakti, referred to as Vimarsha, is the reflection of that light back to its source. Vimarsha represents the active, dynamic aspect, reflecting and dancing with the light.
Imagine a headlamp shining out of your heart, illuminating everything in front of you—that's Prakasha. For seeing to occur, the light must reflect back to your eyes—this reflection is Vimarsha. This interplay of light and reflection is the essence of bringing your practice into the world. The yogi uses their illuminated reality, with all its challenges, to find themselves. They engage in a dance with Shakti, using their life's experiences to deepen their self-understanding.
The yogic tradition emphasizes that our reality is not defined by our environment but by how we use our environment to illuminate our inner landscape. As stated in the Vijnana Bhairava, "the path is Shakti, the path is not Shiva, where there is no path." This means that we find ourselves not by isolating on a mountaintop but through our daily interactions and experiences with our karma. The path to self-discovery is through Shakti, through Vimarsha, through reflection.
Internal Gaze of Swadyaya
This internal gaze, or Swadyaya, begins to transform us from the inside out. It’s not about logically thinking of a new way to react but about using our life situations to work on ourselves. We must keep feeling within and let the new universe manifest itself from this internal framework.
On a practical level, this doesn’t mean being a doormat to others' tensions. True, if your boss spoke to you more sensitively, you might feel less tense. But rather than waiting for external changes, we must be the change ourselves by turning within. The focus of our work on the mat is to give you the tools to achieve this internal transformation.
As Sri Shambhavananda teaches, "Meditation is the ultimate remedy because it works at the source of the problem instead of at the symptom. You are looking for solutions to the lack of fulfillment and nourishment in your life in a direction where they do not exist. We intuitively know that because we try to solve our internal problems over and over again, but they do not get solved. I am not giving you anything you do not already have. I am just making you aware of what is already there."
Babaji emphasizes that we often seek solutions to a lack of nourishment in the wrong direction. Rudi also taught that true nourishment comes when we transcend and grow from our situations. This concept is not just philosophical or psychological; it is embedded in the very makeup of our nervous system, which we will explore further in the next section.
Ch.1, Lesson 3 • Cultivating Resilience: Measuring Interoception and Understanding the Nervous System with Swaying Exercises
The structure of our Nervous System
Let's take a moment to explore the anatomy of our nervous system and how it reflects the yogic principles we’ve been discussing. When examining the nervous system, we see a fascinating reflection of our reality. In a typical muscle nerve, which innervates muscles to enable movement, there are three times as many sensory neurons as motor neurons. Sensory neurons send information about what the muscle is feeling, while motor neurons dictate the muscle's actions. This ratio indicates that the body prioritizes sensory awareness and refinement over motor control. Your body is wired to gather three times as much information as it can act upon, emphasizing the importance of internal reflection for understanding the environment.
Recent research suggests there could be as many as 20 times more sensory neurons than motor neurons. This means your body is biologically inclined to internal reflection three to twenty times more than external action.
Here’s a visual to help understand this: sensory neurons (afferent neurons) bring information to the brain, arriving from various parts of the body, while motor neurons (efferent neurons) send commands from the brain to the muscles, exiting to enact movement. Think of afferent as 'arriving' and efferent as 'exiting.'
A compelling quote that highlights this concept states:
"There are far more afferent fibers than efferent fibers. Afferent fibers must survey the entire world and often in multiple dimensions. For example, in vision, you have 126 million rods and cones sampling three colors and autonomic functions from each of about 16,000 square degrees of visual angle. This involves a huge computational load done in the retina and several brain areas, enabling you to realize there’s a fly on your face, and you then move about a dozen muscles to swat it away. The movement itself doesn’t take many neurons. There are more afferent fibers in just the human optic nerve than all the efferent fibers in the brain combined. Your eye alone has more incoming nerves than your entire body has outgoing nerves."
This indicates that your body is designed to feel before it acts. The yogic tradition mirrors this idea, suggesting that internal awareness is fundamental to effective external action. Imagine a four-lane highway where three lanes are dedicated to incoming information and only one lane is for outgoing actions.
Swami Rand’s Golden Ratio echoes this by teaching that more internal awareness in any situation leads to greater external productivity. The more we internalize our awareness, the more skillful we become externally. This principle aligns with the concept of interoception, a relatively new field in neuroscience that studies the body's ability to sense its internal environment, such as hunger, thirst, and emotional states.
Interoceptive awareness involves sensing the body’s internal state, including physical sensations and emotional states. This awareness is processed in the insular cortex, a region deep within the brain. Interoception is crucial for regulating the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which manage stress responses and relaxation.
Lack of internal sensation can hinder our ability to regulate our nervous system and interact socially. Much of the research on interoception has been focused on autism, revealing a correlation between difficulties in interacting with the external environment and low interoceptive abilities. For example, people on the spectrum often respond well to weighted blankets or being in water because these provide additional sensory input, helping them feel their bodies better.
On a simpler level, internal awareness is a significant part of external functionality. It’s not just about multitasking or handling external stimuli efficiently; it's about having a deep internal focus that enhances our external abilities. In the yogic tradition, deities are depicted with multiple arms, symbolizing that the more internalized one’s focus, the more capable they become externally. Babaji often teaches that a deeper spiritual practice enables a person to sustain a larger, more complex life.
In summary, internal reflection and sensory awareness are crucial for navigating the external world effectively. This concept is not just philosophical but is supported by the biology of our nervous system, highlighting the profound connection between internal awareness and external skillfulness.
Interoception Test and Its Relevance
Let's dive into a practical exercise designed to measure interoception, which refers to your ability to sense internal bodily states. This test, developed around 15 years ago, helps assess how well you can perceive your heartbeat without physical cues. While it may not be perfect, it offers a tangible way to engage with the concept of interoception outside of a meditative context.
Instructions for the Interoception Test:
Set a Timer: Set your timer for one minute.
Heartbeat Counting: Start the timer and count the number of heartbeats you feel from within your body, without touching your wrist or neck.
Pulse Measurement: After one minute, measure your pulse and count the number of beats you feel in the next minute.
Calculate the Difference: Subtract the number of heartbeats you felt from the internal sense (A) from the number of beats you counted from the pulse (B).
Formula: Difference=B−A
Difference=B−A
Compute the Ratio: Divide the difference by the number of beats counted from the pulse.
Formula: Ratio=Difference / B
Final Calculation: Subtract this ratio from 1 to get your interoception score.
Formula: Score=1−Ratio
Interpretation:0.80 and above: High interoception
0.60 - 0.79: Medium interoception
0.59 and lower: Low interoception
Example:
Heartbeat Count: You felt 45 beats internally in one minute (A).
Pulse Count: After two minutes, you counted 70 beats via your pulse (B).
Difference Calculation: B−A=70−45=25
Ratio Calculation: 25/70≈0.357
7025 ≈0.357Final Score: 1−0.357=0.643
Result: Medium interoception.
Practical Insights:
Internal vs. External Context: Your interoception score might vary depending on various factors such as your current activity level or state of relaxation. For instance, you might find it easier to feel your heartbeat after a yoga session or meditation.
Application: Regularly taking this test can help you gauge your internal awareness in different settings. It provides a practical way to track how well you're tuning into your bodily sensations.
Why This Matters:
Understanding your interoceptive abilities is crucial for enhancing self-awareness and emotional regulation. It can influence how effectively you navigate external situations and manage stress. By regularly engaging with this test, you can gain insights into your internal state and better integrate this awareness into your daily life and practice.
The Power of Interoception: Cultivating Inner Awareness for Improved Well-Being
Interoception, or the awareness of internal bodily sensations, is increasingly recognized as a key factor in various aspects of mental and physical health. This concept was vividly illustrated by a student who, as a school counselor, taught children a simple heartbeat test. One girl, after practicing this test for a month, expressed, “My heartbeat is my superpower,” indicating that she had discovered a powerful way to direct her attention inward. Scientifically, her insight holds true, as numerous studies have demonstrated the profound benefits of interoception.
Interoception plays a critical role in executive functions, including:
Self-awareness
Problem-solving
Perspective-taking
Social understanding
Flexible thinking
Intuition
The correlation between high interoceptive awareness and everyday benefits is compelling. For instance, a study involving 215 college-aged female freshmen revealed that those who practiced the heartbeat test exhibited better eating habits compared to their peers who did not. Higher self-esteem is another benefit, as illustrated by the seventh grader’s newfound confidence in her heartbeat superpower.
Moreover, interoception has been linked to physical health outcomes. Studies show that individuals who engage in interoceptive practices during physical therapy recover faster and experience less pain. For example, one study found that participants who verbalized their sensations during hand therapy sessions healed more quickly and had reduced pain compared to those who did not engage in such introspection. Similarly, research on low back pain demonstrated that individuals with greater interoceptive awareness of their lower backs experienced less pain, as they were more responsive to bodily cues and better supported their movements.
Interoception also has significant implications for mental health. A study comparing two groups of individuals with depression and anxiety found that those who incorporated mindfulness meditation into their workout routines achieved better results than those who only exercised. The mindfulness group reported greater internal sensations and subsequently experienced more substantial improvements in their mental health.
This connection between inner awareness and well-being is echoed in spiritual teachings. Baba G emphasized the importance of staying present and focusing on the current moment during physical activities. He advised against getting too caught up in external goals, such as maintaining a specific heart rate or covering a certain distance, as this external focus detracts from the effectiveness of the workout. Instead, he advocated for mindfulness— “When I am working out and I am trying to attain a goal, if I get too caught up in the goal, I know that I am not working out correctly. Therefore I focus on the present. I focus on what I am doing right now, and I try to do it correctly. When my mind begins drifting toward the thought, “Oh, you are not going to make it. This is not going to work,” I bring it back to what I am doing. Keeping your attention on what you are doing strengthens you in a way that will give you relief from the debilitating feelings that overcome you now and again. If you focus on your true nature things will get better.” This focus on the present moment not only enhances the benefits of the workout but also fosters overall resilience and well-being.
Swami Muktananda’s often-quoted advice, “Honor yourself, worship yourself, meditate on yourself. God dwells within you as you,” can be misinterpreted as promoting selfishness. However, it underscores the value of internal awareness. By continuously bringing our attention inward and honoring our internal space, we create favorable conditions for improved external skillfulness. This inward focus not only enhances depression and anxiety recovery but also improves eating habits, social interactions, and injury recovery and prevention.
Cultivating interoceptive awareness offers profound benefits across various domains of life. By learning to listen to and honor our internal sensations, we can enhance our mental and physical health, leading to a more fulfilling and balanced life. The simple practice of directing attention inward, as illustrated by the heartbeat test, can indeed be a superpower that transforms our overall well-being.
Cultivating Interoception: Embracing Inner Awareness through Swaying
Interoception, the awareness of internal bodily sensations, involves different kinds of neurons that inform our body of its internal state at various speeds. Understanding this concept can enhance our movement practice by allowing us to slow down and tune into our internal sensations.
To cultivate interoception effectively, we must embrace a slow and deliberate approach. The specific nerve endings responsible for interoceptive awareness are unmyelinated, meaning they lack insulation, which results in slower signal transmission through our nervous system. This slower speed is beneficial, as it allows our body to prioritize proprioceptive information—necessary for quick movements such as running or avoiding danger—while still receiving vital internal feedback at a more measured pace.
Pain, for example, is a slow-moving impulse. To avoid pain and recognize early warning signs during practice, we must slow down our movements. This principle was illustrated in my own experience with a reclined twist that aggravated my sacroiliac joint. By moving too quickly, I missed the subtle sensations indicating discomfort. Slowing down allows us to detect these sensations and adjust our actions accordingly. Pain signals travel through smaller, unmyelinated fibers at speeds of 0.5-2.0 m/s (1.1-4.5 mph), compared to the much faster signals from larger, myelinated axons that transmit touch or proprioception at 80-120 m/s (179-268 mph). As Khan Academy explains, "Pain is actually one of the slowest sensations our bodies can send."
In practical terms, slowing down our movements from 250 mph to a walking pace helps us start feeling our inner sensations. This is why our yoga classes begin with down-regulating practices that promote deep core engagement and inner sensation. Simple, subtle movements, such as swaying or rocking, are designed to slow us down and reconnect us with our internal environment, unlocking the numerous benefits of interoception.
A compelling example of this practice's power comes from a former student and sangha member who worked as an ER nurse during the pandemic. Faced with the intense and emotionally taxing environment of the ER, he found solace and strength in a simple rocking practice. By gently shifting his weight from foot to foot, he maintained a connection to his internal sensations, grounding himself in the present moment. This practice exemplifies resilience, as he couldn't change the external events but could continually return to his internal experience, allowing him to navigate the challenges and grow from them.
Michele DeMarco, PhD, highlights the scientific backing for rocking in her article, "How Rocking Can Help You Heal." DeMarco writes, "“Rocking is a universal behavior. We cradle babies, doze in a hammock, shift in a chair, glide on a porch swing, undulate in a boat. There is almost something a priori about rocking; we do it without knowing we should. Well, now science has caught up to human instinct, because the list of health benefits, both mental and physical, is staggering. Whether you need to heal or just destress, rocking is definitely worth the time and investment. Rocking increases circulation by sending more oxygen to our joints, which reduces inflammation and reduces pain. Rocking also engages core abdominal and thigh muscles, which is key for suffers with lower back pain. The rhythmic motion further engages the parasympathetic nervous system, the “calming” branch of our autonomic nervous system...the gentle movement from rocking releases a cascade of endorphins that shifts us into a calming, more relaxing state and lessens the hurtful effect."
Rocking, therefore, has both mental and physical benefits, making it a valuable practice for stress relief and healing. Several studies, including those published in Current Biology (https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(11)00539-2, https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(18)31608-7, https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdfExtended/S0960-9822(18)31662-2), support these findings, illustrating the wide-ranging positive effects of this simple practice.
Incorporating rocking into our daily lives, whether during yoga practice or in challenging situations, helps us maintain our internal experience and foster resilience. For instance, when faced with a stressful moment and a racing heartbeat, a gentle rocking motion can help us reconnect with our internal sensations and find calm amidst the chaos.
One of my favorite practices, inspired by a 4,000-year-old text from the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra, involves swaying while in a moving or still vehicle. Dara 58 states, "In a moving vehicle, by rhythmically swaying, experience. Or in a still vehicle, by letting yourself swing in slowing invisible circles.” We see in this practice that act of rocking is the act of centering amidst the ebb and flow of our life’s challenges. When we can learn to sway in our life, we are actively growign. This practice encourages us to embrace the natural pulsation of life, fostering a deeper connection to our true nature.
To practice this swaying meditation, find a comfortable seat and feel your connection to the floor. Grow buoyancy up through your spine to the crown of your head, perhaps with a slight smile to relax your face. Begin swaying in slow, invisible circles, feeling your weight shift from sit bone to sit bone. As you continue, gradually slow down and make the circles smaller, allowing your movement to guide you naturally to a centered state.
Taking your time to arrive at center enhances your ability to remain there, fostering a deeper sense of internal awareness and presence. This practice, along with the understanding of interoception, can transform your movement practice and overall well-being, unlocking the profound rewards of inner sensation.