Yoga for Grief: Anger
"For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Recap From Yoga For Grief: Anger
The most common emotion people openly admit they’re feeling during the grieving stage is anger. They may not open the conversation with the rage they’re feeling, but anger is easy to feel and a very dominating presence when it’s there. You may be mad at God for letting it happen. You may be mad at the person for dying, even if they didn’t do it on purpose. Or you may be mad at your ex for leaving you, your boss for letting you go, or any other number of reasons that make you feel like punching a hole through the wall or kicking something that will shatter after your foot makes contact with it.
Today, we tapped into that rage on the mat and worked to “punch out” the feelings that we’re going through. We moved through some punches and kicks incorporated with our yoga poses to tap into the rage we’re feeling but then to settle back into the experience as we returned to the poses and postures.
Throughout the practice, our main focus of breathwork was on “Breath of Fire.” This breath had a lot of attention throughout the day, as it is a type of breathing associated with stress relief, as well as helping the overall health of our breathing. It is done by forced and quick exhales followed by natural and short inhales that come out of your nose in a short staccato rhythm as directed by your diaphragm.
Today, You Were Meant to Feel Your Anger.
Look, I get it, this can be the hardest thing to do. Actually, when it comes to feeling angry, when that anger mixes in and is influenced by grief, it is a rage unlike anything else you’ve ever experienced. It’s scary. It’s raw. It’s visceral, it’s real, and it feels like you swallowed a knife that’s been sitting in a fire that winds up coming alive in your stomach and eating you from the inside out. Honestly, it’s probably the last emotion you actually want to feel.
It, however, will also likely be the loudest emotion you’ll have. If you’ve never felt like an actual emotion was screaming at you, you’ve never felt the rage associated with grief. You want to claw your skin off your body and destroy everything in sight. It removes any semblance of “sense” and replaces it with confusion and adds to the loss.
As scary as it is to feel, though, the more you suppress it, the worse it will end up being in the end.
For Further Breathwork off the Mat, Consider Keeping The Breath Of Fire Going
The Breath of Fire causes heat within your body and helps keep your blood purified while keeping your energy levels high. Contracting your belly also massages your internal organs, which can help improve digestion and increase your immune system.
A slightly different practice is Kapalabhati. With Breath of Fire, the quick pace and rhythm of your exhales an inhales are the same. With Kapalabhati, there are short, vigorous exhalations are longer than your inhales, which become passive.
Practicing this outside of your mat or before or after a meditation will also help bring your awareness more inward.
IF YOU’RE SEEKING A JOURNAL ENTRY FOR THE FIRST TIME, WRITE ABOUT Where in Your Body You Feel Your Anger.
We don’t always think about where in our body we feel emotions. Whenever I ask people where they’re feeling certain emotions, it’s always interesting to me the different answers people give. Some feel sadness in their shoulders, joy in their stomach, anger in their chest. We actually carry a lot more emotions and trauma in our hips than we give ourselves credit for, which is why doing hip-opening postures can bring up so many emotions.
For a journaling activity today, write about where you feel your anger. You can also write about any other feelings you have, of course, but since we’ve been focusing on our anger today, at least start there and let the examination take its own course.
Be sure to check out other Yoga for Grief videos, and if you’re interested in booking the 2024 Yoga for Grief retreat, do so before tickets sell out!
