Anger Yoga

Is there room for anger in yoga? A running joke between my brother and I is that I am an Angry Yogi. Although I hardly feel anger these days, the answer is yes. (more of a moody yogi), I come from a background that was fueled by dissatisfaction and yes, raw anger. One of the reasons I came to start yoga is injury, anger and stress. Surfing was my yoga prior to injury, but yoga eventually replaced surfing as an emotional outlet. At first I did not realize the physiological effect yoga had on my body. Yoga profoundly relaxed my nerves through meditation, breathing (Pranayama), sound (Mantra) and movement (Asana).

For myself and many others the response of feeling good is what connects one to the yoga path. So stress, anger, injury, all played an active role in driving my yoga practice forward. "Calming the fluctuations of the mind", a definition of yoga and mindfullness that occurs naturally with practice. If you were perfectly balanced in life mentally and spiritually, you would most likely have moved from this plane (Samadhi).

Yoga actively releases emotions and toxins from the tissue of the body. Anger, an emotion, is released through practice, allowing the nervous system to calm down. Anger is released in forms seen and unseen. Like a ball of energy that is imploding on itself, the residue may surface in tears, breath, verbally, or even through the organs or skin. This is the process of letting go. Once practice begins, anger(emotion) is leaving wether you like it or not, it is impossible to hold onto it, although you may choose to. As practice continues, the mind and body have no choice but to let go. When it is gone the mind is free to be happy. Unfortunately life does not rest, so if by choice or by circumstance, relationships, work, diet, and commitments continue to add stress and distress, guess what, negative emotions are allowed back in and will continue to create imbalance.

So let anger/emotions be your guide, let it show you where you are on your journey. Listen to how you feel emotionally and mentally, maybe you can change the external factors in your life as well and allow yourself to grow further from the lower self to a higher vibrational self.

"Yoga is movement toward unity, all suffering is a lack of unity."

Patanjali