Grief, Inspiration, and Yoga

Words by Tracy Nall

Yoga asana goes far beyond the benefits of just aerobic and strength training. It is a practice of movement that aligns your body, mind, and spirit. Through the postures and breath-work you are able to connect with yourself internally through consciousness. Yoga has this medicinal way of helping you to accept things that are beyond your control. Yoga has an encouraging way of helping you to meet yourself exactly where you are at, honor who you are, and let go of the expectations that you should be/ think/ feel anything other than just right now and just you.

I, like many people, experienced a good amount of adversity very young. I lost both of my parents to terminal illness and experienced some other tragedies within my family structure. I think of my life as a backpack that I’ve been carrying around since then. Every moment of adversity, trauma, or grief that happened in my life, that I didn’t have the space or time or knowledge to process, was thrown into this backpack. Every negative emotion and all of my pain was being stored on my back for so long that I kept finding other ways to avoid feeling the weight of all of it.

Yoga helps a grieving person connect with the full spectrum of symptoms they are feeling psychologically, physically, and spiritually. By using yoga to bring a compassionate awareness to your experience, you can move through anything. Grief is something we will all experience in our lives. Some of us are able to recover from the effects of grief with more ease than others. I was not one of those people.

Grief is something we will all experience in our lives. Some of us are able to recover from the effects of grief with more ease than others. I was not one of those people. Feeling feelings is not always easy, but the truth is that the only way out is through. Yoga helps you get through. At least it did for me.

Tracy Nall (@tacopancakes). #womenstories #yogagrief #womeninphotography #yogainspiration.