Look Up!
by Nola
As I move forward with my pregnancy, and the monitoring of Sun gets more in depth, my battle with anxiety has been ongoing. I know I suffer with anxiety and have to rally to rise above it. And ultimately I always do, but sometimes it gets the better of me first.
One thing that has always helped with my anxiety is yoga. A good yoga session can free my mind of all worries and anxieties–like plunging into cold water that makes you gasp for breath. You simply are brought to another mental space that is free of all that was previously on your mind.
These days, the physical aspects of my yoga practice are limited. But the lessons of yoga go well beyond standing up straight and being flexible.
It was Becky at the Audubon Yoga Studio who put me solidly on my yogic path. Becky once told our class of an incident that happened while she was in Pune, India studying under B.K.S. Iyengar. One day, some of the students got bummed out over something or other. Without realizing it, they began moping around–walking with their shoulders sunk in and their heads down. Mr. Iyengar saw this and bellowed, “Look up! Look up!”
It is Mr. Iyengar’s opinion that the mere act of looking up toward the sky can in and of itself improve your mood. Something so simple seemed so silly. But by looking up, one automatically throws one’s shoulders back and “opens one’s chest.” This creates space, and, according to Mr. Iyengar, this space leads to positive energy.
And damned if this simple rule hasn’t worked for me time and again. Positive energy? An open chest? Creating space? I don’t know what is going on physically, mentally or physiologically, but I do know that the simple act of looking up helps, even if just a little bit, with my depression and anxiety.
As I lay on the exam table getting the ultrasound Thursday and was told that Sun’s neck is hyper-extended, that she is perpetually looking up, I couldn’t help but hear Mr. Iyengar in the back of my mind admonishing his students to do the same. As worrisome as Sun’s neck situation is to me, I hold on to a deep hope I have for Sun–that she not suffer with anxiety the way her mother does and that she knows the positive results that come from looking up. And maybe all this time she is spending looking up is putting her on a path she will instinctively follow for her life–one of seeing that glass as half full.
What great insight and post? I am glad you have found something positive in all this.
Keep looking up.
I really need to find some time and take some yoga classes. I think they would help with this knot in my neck from all my stress.
My mom has been doing yoga for years. She keeps trying to get me to go to a lesson with her, but each time I say no. I might need to reconsider it.
Stay positive!
What a wonderful place your mind is in to relate Sun’s looking up in the womb to “looking up” in life. That was great!
Sounds like you docs are not worried about it.
Great reference to the Audubon Yoga Studio. I still have not found anyone up here that runs a yoga class I’ve wanted to stay in. Becky set the bar pretty high.