Yoga Therapy and the OCD Journey
The power of yoga and yoga therapy is in the attention and intention you bring to your own experience. When you step onto your mat, you are stepping into an intentional space and inviting gentle curiosity along with you.
“If you wish to change something, the first thing you have to do is to see it the way it is” - Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
“Mindfulness” in your yoga practice is noticing where your body is in space, feeling the tension and sensation and feelings that exist in this moment. It is exploring the quality of your breath and, most importantly, cultivating your inner compassionate, impartial, curious observer – the Witness – to your experience.
This Witness is a part of you that is a loving, non-judgmental observer of your own experience. The Witness is an essential facet in bringing attention to your body, sensations, choices, inner dialogue; and to your OCD. Watching and observing, with curiosity, creates distance between you and your OCD, or you and your anxious thoughts. This distance creates space; a breath and a pause; an opportunity for taking your next step with intention.
It is normal to avoid discomfort. We all have coping mechanisms we turn to unthinkingly when we feel anxious or sad or afraid. Yoga therapy invites you to bring attention to the ways you soothe yourself. And then, it invites you to transform your energy into feeling the doubt and uncertainty instead of squashing it, so you can move in the direction of your values.
“I once read that free-floating anxiety is the most intolerable sensation a human being can experience, and that OCD might, in fact, be a defense mechanism of sorts designed to confront it. The theory goes that OCs “assign” their biochemical anxiety to a particular fear (obsession) so they can take ritualistic actions (compulsions) to feel as if they’re at least doing something constructive.” - Jeff Bell, Rewind, Replay, Repeat
The practice of mindfulness is in recognizing or noticing what is happening (in body, breath, emotion or mind) in any given moment and allowing whatever is experienced to be as it is, without judgment or resistance. In yoga therapy, you are invited to sit with discomfort, sometimes physical and sometimes mental/emotional, and expand your capacity to simply be.
In this way, yoga therapy can be a brilliant adjunct to OCD therapy.
For a taste of the pure magic that happens when you bridge your attention and intention together in a yoga therapy session, contact Kairos Wellness Collective to book now!
By Jessa Buchalter, Yoga Therapist, Kairos Wellness Collective