Yoga When Life Feels Too Much

All through October, my morning practices have been looking at yoga through the lens of mental wellbeing.

Not just “do some yoga and you’ll feel better.”

I wanted to get much more specific than that.

What helps when your mind won’t stop?

What helps when you’re stressed and full of restless energy?

What helps when you’re anxious?

What helps when everything feels overwhelming?

And what helps when you’re absolutely knackered and the last thing you need is somebody enthusiastically telling you to move your body?

Because these are not the same states. And they don’t necessarily need the same response.

Why now?

October includes World Mental Health Day, so it seemed a good time to explore this properly.

Mental health has also been part of the conversation around yoga for years now. We hear that yoga reduces stress, helps anxiety, improves mood and supports our nervous system.

All of which can be useful.

But the important question is How?

What are we actually doing when we practise yoga that might help?

And which bit of yoga do we need?

Is this even what yoga is for?

There’s an interesting tension here.

Yoga is an ancient spiritual practice. Its traditional aims are considerably bigger than helping us get through a difficult Wednesday.

Depending on which texts and traditions you look at, we’re talking about liberation, freedom from suffering, understanding the nature of the self and, ultimately, samādhi.

And then here I am at 7am saying, “Right, today we’re going to shake off some stress.”

Have we completely missed the point?

I don’t think we have.

The language and context have changed enormously, but yoga has always been interested in the mind and in our relationship with our experience.

Modern therapeutic approaches to yoga bring some of those tools into the world we actually live in.

Movement.

Breathing.

Attention.

Awareness of physical sensation.

Rest.

Stillness.

Learning to notice what is happening rather than immediately being swept along by it.

None of this means yoga is going to “fix” you.

I don’t particularly like that idea anyway. Feeling anxious, overwhelmed, stressed or exhausted doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you that needs repairing.

The more useful question is:

What do I need in this state?

That is what we've been exploring in the October morning practices.

Different days need different tools

One of the things I really wanted to get away from this month was the idea that yoga for mental wellbeing must mean lying on the floor, breathing slowly and trying to calm down.

Sometimes that is exactly what you need.

Sometimes it isn’t.

If I’m carrying a huge amount of restless, agitated energy, I might need to move first. Shake. Flow. Pulse. Use my muscles. Give some of that energy somewhere to go.

If I’m anxious, I might need grounding — feeling my feet, noticing my surroundings, slowing my breathing, bringing my attention back to what is actually happening here and now.

If I’m overwhelmed, I might need to make everything smaller. One movement. One breath. One thing at a time.

And if I’m running on empty, a vigorous practice designed to burn off stress would be a terrible choice. I need to stop asking my body for more.

That’s really the heart of this whole month.

There isn’t one type of yoga for mental wellbeing. There are different tools for different days. The trick is learning which one you need.

Having something up your sleeve

Obviously, I’d be delighted if you got up and joined me at 7am.

But that’s not really the point.

What matters more is having a few things you know you can reach for.

You might remember a breathing practice when you’re lying awake with your mind going at 100 miles an hour.

You might use a grounding exercise before a difficult conversation.

You might realise that you’re too agitated to sit and meditate and need to move first.

Or you might recognise that you’re exhausted and choose ten minutes lying on the floor rather than pushing yourself through another workout.

Yoga doesn’t have to remove every difficult feeling from our lives. It couldn’t, even if we wanted it to.

But it can help us become better at noticing where we are.

And give us more choices about what we do next.

Yoga When Life Feels Too Much

I’ve taken the five morning practices we’ve been doing this month and put them together as a collection called Yoga When Life Feels Too Much.

If you’re a morning member or a Video Library member, you already have access to all of them.

I’ve also made the collection available separately for anyone else who would like these practices to have up their sleeve when they need them.

Find out more about Yoga When Life Feels Too Much

Because sometimes yoga is a lifelong spiritual path towards liberation.

And sometimes it’s Wednesday morning and you just need something that helps.

What helps you?
I’d love to know what you reach for when life feels too much. Is there something that reliably helps you feel calmer, more grounded, less overwhelmed or just a little more like yourself? It doesn’t have to be yoga. Tell me — I’m always interested in what actually works for people.