inner power Archives - Spirital Bish

You Can’t Outsmart Your Nervous System: The Power of Feeling, Moving, and Befriending Your Emotions

grudzień 20, 2024

Emotions: Your Body’s Inner Compass

Emotions are energy in motion—e-motion—designed to flow naturally through your body. They’re not problems to fix or weaknesses to overcome; they’re your body’s way of communicating its needs, signaling safety or threat, and helping you process the world.

Even emotions like anger, sadness, grief, or shame—often labeled as “bad” or “unacceptable”—aren’t flaws. They’re evolutionary tools meant to guide and protect you. The challenge arises when we interrupt this natural flow, either by overthinking or suppressing them, leaving emotions stuck in the body.

Why Humans Are Stuck in Their Heads

For most of human history, humans lived in small, tight-knit communities. Like other mammals, we’re wired for connection and belonging—this wasn’t just a luxury; it was key to survival. Being part of a group ensured safety, resources, and emotional support. Feeling seen, understood, and cared for regulated our nervous systems and helped us thrive.

But as we shifted away from communal living during the agricultural revolution, hyper-individualism and isolation replaced connection and cooperation. Productivity, ownership, and competition took center stage, pulling us away from the natural rhythms of life and into a state of constant doing.

This shift disrupted more than our social fabric—it rewired our nervous systems. When connection is absent, our body perceives it as danger. As Dr. Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory explains, social connection activates the ventral vagal system, which supports calm, safety, and compassion. Without it, we default to survival states like fight, flight, freeze, fawn,, or shutdown, cutting ourselves off from others and even from ourselves.

Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Can’t: Implicit Memories and Somatic Healing

grudzień 2, 2024

When it comes to stress and trauma, your body is like that friend who remembers every awkward detail about the time you tripped in high school—except it doesn’t just remember the moments; it stores them. Whether it’s a knot in your stomach when someone raises their voice or a sudden freeze when you’re overwhelmed, your body holds onto experiences, even when your brain decides to hit the “forget” button. Your brain is like that overprotective friend who means well but ends up creating chaos. It’s always either reliving the past—“Remember that embarrassing thing you said in 2008? Let’s cringe about it for hours!”—or trying to predict the future—“What if everything goes wrong? Let’s panic just in case!” This isn’t malicious. Your brain is just doing its job: protecting you. It’s scanning for threats, thanks to its trusty negativity bias, which is like having a personal alarm system set to “paranoia.” It remembers all the bad stuff to keep you safe and adapts to the environment around you. But here’s the catch: instead of hanging out in the real world, your brain often keeps you stuck in a virtual reality of worst-case scenarios and past disasters. Meanwhile, your body is over here like, “Hey, I’m in the present moment! Wanna join me?” When the brain and body stop communicating, though, it’s bad news. Research shows that this disconnection can lead to chronic stress, emotional dysregulation, and even physical health issues like inflammation and heart disease (Van der Kolk, 2014; Chrousos, 2009). The brain might be busy replaying past failures or imagining future catastrophes, but without feedback from the body, it can’t accurately gauge what’s happening right now. That’s like trying to navigate with a broken GPS—it’s just guesswork. The thing is, your body is your true bestie(even though in all reality our brain is part of our body too lol). It’s always working to help you survive, adapt, and even thrive. But if your mind is running the show solo, you end up disconnected from your body’s wisdom, stuck in a loop of overthinking, and missing what’s actually happening right now. To sum it up: Your brain’s a bit of a drama queen, but your body? Total grounding MVP. And when they’re on speaking terms, magic happens—you heal, grow, and actually enjoy the ride. Now to the topic of trauma, which thanks to new science isnt viewed as just the experience but what happens inside of us as a result. From the perspective of psychobiology trauma is an interrupted stress response and all the creative ways we adapt to protect ourselves as a result of the wound that happened. So it’s not like they used to think that trauma is just a psychological wound, it doesn’t just live in our memories, sometimes we actually have no memory or words for what happened; it’s imprinted in our posture, movements, physiological responses, and the way we perceive ourselves and navigate the world. Chronic stress or early attachment wounds—like inconsistent care, abuse or chronic emotional misattunemets—shape how we hold ourselves. Leaning forward might signal a drive to please or seek connection, collapsing inward could reflect defeat or helplessness, while moving against others, with a rigid, defensive posture, may guard against harm. These patterns are not flaws—they’re adaptations your body developed to keep you safe in the moment – only what was helpful back then often becomes the root of our issues as adults. So the process of soamtic healing is finding ways to let the body, the nervous system, know that right now we are safe enough. When the body does not feel safe aka survival mode, we cannot fully take in new information, experience, connect socially, or engage in life in adaptive ways , only reacting in protective ways – survival comes first. The Body as a Keeper of Memory This is why early life adversity leaves such a profound mark. Our baby nervous system is constantly scanning the enviroment, learning, and adapting all In the name of survival. The memories might not live in your conscious mind, but they exist in your body as implicit memories (and subconscious)—the unspoken sensations, automatic reactions, imagery, and emotions that pop up seemingly out of nowhere. As Dr. Pat Ogden says: “The body remembers what the mind forgets.” A traumatic event—especially in early childhood—signals your brain’s alarm system (the amygdala) floods your body with stress hormones, while the rational thinking brain (prefrontal cortex) is not yet fully developed to help you process what’s happening. In infancy and early childhood, the hippocampus is still maturing, which means it cannot effectively organize experiences into cohesive narratives. Instead, these experiences are stored as fragmented bits—sensations, images, or physical reactions—without clear context or a sense of time. As the brain develops later in life, traumatic experiences may still overwhelm the hippocampus, especially if the nervous system is already dysregulated from earlier stress or attachment disruptions. This can result in a similar fragmented storage of memories, with emotions and body sensations remaining disconnected from the conscious, logical understanding of events. It’s also crucial to acknowledge how our identity, privilege, and intersections with systemic oppression influence the ways trauma impacts us. Factors like race, gender, class, disability, and sexual orientation shape both the types of traumatic experiences we might face and the resources available to us for healing.As humans we all have the same needs of physical resources like food, water, and shelter, but we also all need to feel safety, belonging, and dignity and unfortunately these resources are not distributed equally. For individuals from marginalized communities, trauma is often not a singular event but an ongoing experience rooted in systemic inequalities, discrimination, and generational oppression. The chronic nature of this trauma can keep the nervous system in a persistent state of survival, further complicating the healing process. Recognizing these dynamics ensures that trauma-informed care is inclusive, equitable, and responsive to the diverse ways trauma shows up in our bodies and lives. These body-based memories linger, influencing how you respond to…
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Zależność czy samodzielność w jodze?

czerwiec 26, 2022

Do you have a self practice, or do you only go to yoga classes? Or maybe you like both? We are after all different and have the right to our own preferences but what I don’t agree with however, is teachers who make their students dependant on them (intentionally or unintentionally) and keep them from developing a self practice. There inherently is a power imbalance in the teacher/student relationship but how do we know when this power dynamic is unhealthy? There are things that should be present which can minimise this imbalance, like the teacher leading students towards self discovery, using invitational language and acting as a guide rather than being a know it all yoga “general”. I’m not a psychiatrist but I suspect one of my teachers of being like this and possessing some narcissistic traits.Looking back I see that this person was abusing their role of “authority” and even though the environment was toxic I kept coming back because I thought that this was just how it is n all yoga schools. All the students were ALWAYS doing something “wrong” that had to be “fixed”. Forget about self discovery, there was only one way of doing things, and if you couldn’t do it you’d be pushed and shoved into it so that it could be done “the right way” in “perfect alignment”. In effect this lead me to push myself really hard and hurt myself constantly, it exacerbated my perfectionism and deeply rooted feelings of inadequacy stemming from childhood trauma. But it was also a great lesson, sometimes we can learn more from a “bad” teacher than from a “good” one! Good intentions aren’t always enough and they can hurt people too. I think that its important to be aware how our actions effect others, especially when we are in a position of power. This is what it means to have a trauma informed approach to teaching yoga, its consciously trying NOT to harm our students and empowering them. It’s not about CONTROLLING people, rather helping them find their inner voice and strength so they can make their own decisions. Remember you are the BEST expert of your own body!

Starting Your Handstand Journey

luty 19, 2021

Depending on what we’re starting with and our level of experience, our training and approach should look different. A beginner for example we probably shouldn’t study anatomy textbooks thinking he will find the magic recipe to holding a handstand, the only way you can learn to balance is by PRACTICING. Not to mention, we should also take into consideration all our previous movement background, body type, mobility, motivation, neural plasticity, passion, drive, past injuries, fear tolerance, expectations, strength etc. Which is why this process will look completely different for everyone, WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT. For some people it clicks right away and for others it may take even years, THERE IS NO MAGIC COOKIE YOU CAN EAT to learn how to do it overnight sorry to break it to you. This is a skill that takes consistent practice and learning how to take satisfaction from all those small wins because trust me there will be hours upon hours of falls and fails that seem like are going nowhere(but in all actuality this is when we actually learn the most, I’l explain the science later). It takes dedication and a #growthmindset (Carol Dweck- Growth MIndset)period dot. Think of it this way, when we are toddlers learning to walk it doesn’t happen over night. We have to fall many times until we learn to take those first steps, only then our anatomy and physics are more on our side. Our bodies are way more equipped to walk on feet than hands, however this analogy helps quite a lot when learning how to balance (also thinking of the shoulders as the hips). Not to mention during the first 25 or so years of our life our brains act just like a big sponge, soaking up everything we see and experience (good and bad) however this extraordinary neuroplasticity we have at young age makes learning a lot easier. The older we get unfortunately we have to try a lot harder and repeat things WAY more often to create those new neural pathways in order to turn whatever it is we’re learning into something reflexive(like second nature). In a full handstand for example our WHOLE body is working and every body part is doing something different. That is a lot of information for our nervous system to take in all at once, especially if we were to start checking them all off the list: point toes, thighs together, active glutes and so on etc. SO if we are just starting out, it will be probably really hard to be able to concentrate on doing all those things PLUS focus on the most important part of the handstand – balancing with our HANDS. It would probably make sense,if we were at the beginning of our handstand journey, to not bombard our minds with a million and one alignment cues when in all reality we are actually hanging on for dear life, trying to hold that handstand for a split second or two. Plus, as I just learned the other day from one of my favorite scientists Professor Andrew Huberman Huberman Lab learning inversions and other balances increases the neural plasticity of our brains AND it’s not the “perfect” straight handstand that does this, only all the errors and fails we make while learning that send signals to our CNS(central nervous system) the something is wrong and that it needs to fix it, it needs to change something! When everything is all fine and dandy there’s no need to change(just as in life), our CNS works in a similar way, but our mistakes ARE our greatest teachers propelling us to change! The banana back A banana back handstand, or in other words a curved handstand, gets a really bad rep in the hand balancing community as it’s not as aesthetically pleasing as a straight handstand, but it’s actually where a lot of people start because it’s a more natural position for the body. Ask any person who’s never held a handstand to try and kick up and see what shape they make with their body chances are it will be curved! This is actually how my freestanding handstands looked for a LONG time when I started learning, like a little baby taking it’s first steps all over again only this time on my hands! Even though it wasn’t pretty, the curved shape made it easier for me to stay up on longer on my hands and learn those subtle rocking movements like a pendulum, this my friend is the art of BALANCING. And actually, old school hand balancers performed all their handstands with curves in their back! Like the godfather of hand balancing himself, Professor Paulinetti who basically invented the one arm handstand (and the one arm Planche) and he actually did this with a curved back! There is a myth that doing curved handstands can hurt your back, but I think it’s just like anything else in life, if you’re smart about it and don’t go past your load capacity you should be safe. Let’s remember that the spine isn’t straight and naturally has CURVES, so as long as we don’t do too much too soon, push past our limit and remember to keep the deep core (TVA muscle) engaged, with practice we will build up the necessary strength and flexibility(if anatomy allows) to move on to more demanding shapes and alignment. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you won’t learn to handstand in a day either, no one starts off doing handstands with “perfect” alignement, its really subjective takes time and so we really gotta try to take in all those small wins and learn to enjoy that journey because the refinement process can last our whole life! Shoulders & Alignment I won’t lie, holding a straight handstand is HARD. The muscle activation required is significantly more difficult than in a curved handstand, not to mention it demands at least 180 degree overhead shoulder flexion, in other words straightening of the arms all…
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Online VS Real life- which is better for learning Yoga?

styczeń 3, 2021

To learn Yoga online, or not to learn? That is the question. The verdict isn’t in yet because the camp is divided. I think the answer isn’t as concrete as you may think, rather something quite subjective based on experiences and beliefs of each person. I actually started my Yoga journey online 5 years ago, with an incredible yogi, the late Leslie Fightmaster (Fightmaster Yoga on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/c/Fightmasteryoga/videos). At the time I wasn’t in the best place mentally and was scared to go to a studio because I didn’t want to be judged by others. Back then I thought that to practice Yoga you had to be really skinny and super flexible (both of which I lacked). I think I can safely say that I may not be alone in this experience and even though now I am conscious of the fact that Yoga is FOR EVERY BODY, maybe not everyone feels comfortable practicing in a room full of people and for people like them online the option to practice online is a blessing. One of the things that really helped me keep a regular practice in the beginning was taking part in “yoga challenges” on Instagram (today I sometimes help organise them). It kept me motivated to get on my mat and try something new everyday. In result, not only did I learn new Yoga poses but I gained new insights, met some incredible yogis from all over the world (some of which I even met IRL “in real life”) and most importantly there was an element of play throughout which made me feel like a kid in the sandbox. Most mammals (humans included) learn through play, during which our brains secrete a hormone called dopamine, which puts us in a better mood and helps us to concentrate. In effect the learning process becomes easier and our brains literally remodel and rewire themselves, in other words neuroplasticity occurs. I good example of this was the famous physicist Dr. Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize in Physics for the marriage of quantum mechanics and the 19th century electromagnetic field theory), who had a passion for discovering and cultivating new creative hobbies throughout his life. He loved to draw and not only besides his famous diagrams, he even had his own art show of his drawings! He sang and played on the bongos in a band and was known to be somewhat of a “joker” by his friends, often playing tricks on them! You may be thinking what does all of this have to do with Yoga? Well, is it important which path you take if they all lead to the same destination? Some of us may have self discipline and have no problem practicing at home by ourselves, while others need to go to a Yoga studio for a led class, and still others prefer online learning. I’m a pretty eclectic person myself and depending on the day and mood, I take advantage of all the methods, as a student and as a teacher. I think it is just as likely that we may run into a “bad yoga teacher” (whatever that may mean) on a social media platform just as at a Yoga studio. And now what exactly is this “bad yoga teacher” anyway? Is it someone who washes Yoga practice down to just asana turning it into fitness, devoid of it’s philosophy and spirituality? Or is it someone who by sticking to rigid alignment cues because they are “tradition”, doesn’t bother to learn the anatomy & biomechanics of our bodies therefore making it less safe? Is if possible to have both? In my opinion, the physical location of our bodies isn’t quite as important as what is actually going on INSIDE of us during practice. Here I’ll add that not only does Yoga philosophy state that our physical body is only ONE of 5 others Koshas, but also the Theory of Quantum Entanglement says that we are we may be WAY much more connected than we actually think! So in the end I think its important to do what brings us peace and happiness while remembering to listen to that voice deep within, because that’s where our best teacher resides, US.

The neuroscience behind why some people get on their mats daily, while others quit.

grudzień 28, 2020

I don’t know if you know but I’m a real geek when it comes to the nature of how our bodies work and why. Some of the new research in fields like neuroscience and quantum physics are just now starting to explain how some of the ancient practices from different cultures have an effect on us. Wether it’s on a molecular level or quantum level some weird things are constantly happening in our inner worlds. The more we learn about these processes the easier it can become to live a happier and healthier life, instead of having a “oh woe is me” victim mentality. I just listened to this podcast with Dr. Andrew Huberman ( Neuroscientist & Professor at Stanford University, Instagram Hubermanlabs https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab/?hl=en )where he was explaining the neuroscience behind why some people achieve their goals and others end up quitting. Dopamine (often called “the feel good hormone”) is released when we finally get that something we were craving/wanting ( like that first meal of the dat or that new pair of leggings we’ve been wanting )making us feel good or even euphoria at times. This then helps to mobilize us for action, if we can just learn to use this reward system in a constructive way, rewarding ourselves internally when reaching little milestones it’ll give us more drive and motivation to keep going forward. So having a goal like learning how to handstand or competing in the Arctic Ultra race is great and all but can also be quite scary, overwhelming and frustrating to even start thinking about. In these stressful situations our bodies release epinephrin (adrenaline) which dilates our pupils turning our vision into something like“portrait mode”,racing pulse, sweaty palms, shallow breathing toward hyperventilation, sweaty underarms, weak in the knees, random thoughts, and inability to concentrate, as well as all the other “fun” involuntary effects of the “flight, fight or freeze” response. This fear factor at the beginning of new skills/situations is where many people decide to quit, at the first sign of difficulty or if they don’t start seeing immediate progress. The way the adrenaline makes them feel internally doesn’t help to motivate us in this process UNLESS we learn to overcome the fear and anxiety. This however is not something that can be learned overnight but ask any professional athlete or performer and they will tell you, that the more we put ourselves out there and grab that fear by it’s horns, the less scary it becomes. The same thing happens when we get on our mats each day and face those hard poses we’d rather skip, we teach our bodies not to react to stressful situations(on and off the mat). When our breath is calm we quiet the body and when the body is quiet our minds are calm. For me learning how to enjoy the whole the process, filled with all the ups and downs keeps me going daily. Each time I learn how to be in a yoga pose more comfortably or hod that handstand a second longer, each new shape or press I learn is a small victory in and of itself. This is dopamine in full effect, when released it helps to suppress the feeling of agitation and anxiety letting us actually ENJOY the effort process. Not to mention this process of duration, path and outcome eventually leads to neural plasticity. Meaning that with time things become reflexive and our brain learns these movements/thought patterns or whatever “by heart” . Then we no longer need to think while doing them(like driving a car or walking).!! WIth time, during all those crappy(trust me there were and are still MANY) practices and training sessions I started to learn how to NOT be down on myself, unlike before constantly criticising. We can stop the negative thoughts fro coming in, but what we CAN DO is introduce new positive ones. Ok, so maybe I didn’t reach my “goal” but hey I showed up. I gave it my all. I got stronger in the process. I didn’t quit. I’m on the right path. I didn’t decide to eat a pint of ice cream instead. Each time new neural pathways were formed and I taught myself that I CAN still feel good about myself even if I don’t “WIN” every time . Which wasn’t an easy process with my history of of childhood trauma, depression, low self esteem and addiction. Luckily the chemicals in our body don’t discriminate. These systems are generic and once you learn how to release dopamine into your system, during lets say yoga or handstands, this important skill can also be transferred into all other areas of our lives. So I guess it really is true what they say, what doesn’t kill us literally makes us stronger and with this mindful approach to life we can make all those fails count as wins propelling ourselves forward, living a happier more fulfilled life.