Hold Yoga Poses for Longer to Build Mental Strength

It’s challenging to post about work with all that is going on in America and the world right now. I look at my website and it reeks of white privilege.

A little about my background… please reach out if you’re seeking support during this time.

I grew up on the outskirts of New Orleans which was about 70% black in the 1970’s. My friends were white. My friends were black. Because we were living in “Cancer Alley” surrounded by chemical plants, my parents moved our family away to a small culturally mixed city. I was lucky. We had the privilege of living in a modest middle-class neighborhood. While there were plenty of times that money was extremely tight, I was lucky. I was never handed cars or homes or fancy educations or $1 as I walked out the door to hang out with friends. I started working when I was 15. I then made my way out into the world on my own as a white female. Again and again, I was lucky. I can’t imagine the strength it would take if this was not my story.

Originally posted on YogaToday.com.

Do you feel like you might lose it when you hold yoga poses for more than a few seconds? 

Do you avoid demanding classes or poses at all costs? 

You certainly aren’t alone! 

When you learn to hold yoga poses for longer, you’ll actually receive all kinds of benefits that will hopefully outweigh your aversions: let’s take a look.

Build Mental Strength By Holding Yoga Poses Longer

Building mental strength is as important as the physical benefits of holding powerful poses. A good deal of yoga classes today are more akin to a fast-flowing workout rather than what the practice was originally designed to accomplish. The physical practice was constructed to develop strong supple bodies as well as minds. The purpose is to prepare both body and mind to sit still in meditation. Given our fast-paced society, quick-moving classes may ultimately work against the purpose of this holistic practice.

The practice of holding postures for a longer period of time stems from Iyengar Yoga. This form of yoga was developed by B.K.S. Iyengar. He masterminded these techniques and made them available to all practitioners of yoga. Iyengar Yoga promotes precision within alignment, the importance of sequencing to properly prepare the body for the next postures, as well as the use of props. The focus is on quality of pose versus quantity of poses. Postures are also held for a relatively long period of time compared to other styles of yoga. This is to encourage awareness within each pose of both the body and the mind. The benefit is creating a strong, supple, receptive body, as well as a steady, understanding, and growth-oriented mindset.

To hold a yoga pose for longer is to cultivate the ability to be still and accept ‘what is’ under any circumstances. The cool part is that everything we need to know about holding powerful poses is essentially the same as what we need to know to build mental strength, all in the same process. Yoga for the win-win!

If we are solely focused on the body, all too swiftly moving through poses, then we may be altogether dismissing “strengthening” the mind. When we gravitate toward attending fast-paced classes, this is an alert. It alerts us that we may be avoiding exactly what need. To cultivate more balance in our lives, we may need to slow down.

Holding poses is challenging for the body. This coincidentally is where the mind comes into play. When we slow down, we are granted the opportunity to notice where the mind goes.

Are we complaining?

Are we berating ourselves for not being strong enough to hold the pose for too long?

Are we cursing?

Are we sending our teacher dirty looks?

If the answer is “Yes.” to any of these questions, know that this is common and not a reason to pass judgment on our personal challenges. It’s our opportunity to genuinely notice our thoughts. Then, we have the responsibility to take ownership of our thoughts so that we can better understand them. Within this style of practice, we are essentially training our brains to transmute and transform our thoughts for the better.

Build Poses from the Ground Up

Begin by holding tadasana or mountain pose for a longer period of time.

When yoga teachers speak about “building the pose from the ground up”, they are instilling two components:

1. A safe practice that creates physical strength, stability, and flexibility while allowing for longevity within one’s practice

2. A more beneficial practice that gradually allows the mind to also become strong, stable, focused and adaptable

By practicing Tadasana, or Mountain Pose, we begin to “work” the pose from the ground up, which begins in our feet. This method ensures greater stability akin to the roots of a tree plugging into the ground.

Next, we grow a stable tree trunk. First, place attention on the feet ensuring correct alignment. Depending on the style of practice, the instructions on foot placement will vary. Let’s begin with the feet hip-width apart. The outer edges of the feet should generally line up with the outer edges of the yoga mat. The body weight is evenly distributed over the mid-arch of the foot. Toes are spread wide as all four corners of the feet press evenly, rooting into the mat. The inner arches are “pulling up” while the outer ankles are “firming in”. This counteraction creates stability.

Without going into the details of each body part as we would in class, we continue to stack and align our body parts. The knees stack over the ankles. The hips stack over the knees. Then we slowly work our way up placing attention on our ribs, chest, sternum, collarbones, shoulders, and shoulder blades. Finally, we elongate through the entire spine, up through the neck, and crown of the head. Now, standing tall, the arms are relaxed alongside the body with palms of the hands open facing the top of the yoga mat.

Phew. At this point, we’ve already held the pose through several minutes when well instructed on each body part to ensure proper alignment. This is the first part of teaching the mind to focus.

Once we “find” the pose, regardless of whether it’s close to perfect or not, we take this use of our left brain, the logical and linear center, and release all instructions. Now, further holding the pose, we tap into our right brain, the intuitive and creative center, by placing our attention on the breath.

This is where it might get tricky. Thoughts will go to:

“What’s for lunch?”

“OMG, I have so much to do after this class.”

“Geez, how long is he going to hold this pose, my quads are DYING!”

The teacher may be incessantly talking. The teacher may become silent for what seems like an eternity. The body may begin to visibly tremble. The sweat may begin to cascade. The music may be annoying. The music may be the one thing getting us through every dang second. Or, the silence could be deafening.

Your job as you hold yoga poses for longer is to notice. Notice the thoughts as they drift across the mind.

This is where we train the brain to be okay with where we are right here, right now.

This is where we train the mind to be at ease with whatever is happening in this precise moment.

This is where we train ourselves not to judge our thoughts, oneself, or another.

This is where we train the body and mind to breathe and BE.

This is yoga. 

As we continue to hold the pose, the mind will stray as it always does. We bring our attention back to the breath. Noticing the breath going in through the nostrils and back out through the nostrils, over and over. We place our attention on the temperature of the breath. We consider the texture of the breath. The mind will move to what the next meal will be. And then we pull our attention back to the breath.

Next thing we know, we’ve held the pose, like, forever. We’ve kept our “monkey mind” at bay. And thank goodness, the teacher finally releases us to the next pose.

“Second side,” she says. Now we get to repeat the process!

Try becoming a mental warrior with this FREE video tutorial of Warrior II.

Click to practice a tough class with long holds on YogaToday. Your first two weeks are always free.

Hold Yoga Poses for Longer to Cultivate Patience and Loving Kindness

When we hold a yoga pose for longer, we develop mental strength. Best of all, we cultivate listening skills, patience and unconditional love. 

Ultimately, this is an embodied practice. Once we embody these tools on the mat, they are integrated into the self and become more naturally and effortlessly applied to life.

Everything we need to know about building mental strength by way of holding yoga poses ultimately becomes our process toward holding steady holistically with confidence, ease and grace.

Water is Life I

Water is a reoccurring theme. It keeps reappearing, so I keep paying attention.

Holistic health includes all realms of life. As a holistic health coach and consultant, we cover this long list beginning with consumption: intake of food and water with a keen eye on quality. What it comes down to is that food and water is medicine, lifestyle is medicine, and by re-framing this, much of the physical, mental and emotional rebalance toward optimal, and then extraordinary living takes place.

First, I must address Cancer Alley.

Second, Water is Life II, will address what was shared first-hand from my childhood babysitters and neighbors in May 2018 who are still living in Cancer Alley today. Stories of not only cancer, but mysterious disease and even another case of ALS in addition to my sister’s in our same small neighborhood.

Third, Water is Life III, ties in freedom. We can lead horse to water, but we can’t force him to drink, right? But when there is a will there is a way. We then create opportunity.

CANCER ALLEY

Cancer Alley is a 150-mile stretch along the Mississippi River in South Louisiana from the capital of Baton Rouge down through New Orleans, home to over 100 industrial plants producing one quarter of our nation’s petrochemicals. Cancer Alley is where I grew up.

To quote activists within this realm…

"... taken from the book Petrochemical America by photographer Richard Misrach and landscape architect Kate Orff (2012): For the past 50 or more years, society has been increasingly reliant on the products of the organic chemical industry to supply the clothes we wear, the food we eat, our health, housing, transportation, security, and other commodities. Approximately 92% of organic chemical products are produced from petroleum, that is, fossil, or mineral, oil, and gas. In addition, these same resources are generally used to provide the large quantities of process heat and power needed by the industry. In the modern petrochemical industry, oil and gas inputs for both raw material and process energy compose around 50% of the operating costs. The result is that not only is the chemical industry (including petrochemicals) the industrial sector with the HIGHEST EMISSIONS WORLDWIDE, it is also very vulnerable to variations in fossil fuel prices and carbon prices.”

To state what I hope is rather obvious… if all of these chemicals are in the air we breathe, the earth, the food and water we consume, then what is becoming of human beings? 

Essentially, we are Cancer Alley.

Now the greater theme of this Water is Life series stems from my early days of breaking societal norms, leaving the expectations of others behind, thinking outside of the box, dropping fears and stepping into the great unknown, walking less accepted paths.

The story rolls from Cancer Alley to living in the lands of the free and the brave with room to roam and room to breathe, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I grew up in the Deep South of New Orleanian culture, firmly rooted in its European past alongside its revelry, layered with extremely conservative traditions and overarching patriarchal tendencies. Tendencies being a loose term. A culture of mixed messages laden with massive doses of guilt to keep its people in line. It was suffocating and challenging to navigate beneath the masks of manners and southern hospitality. It never felt free to me in any way. Oppressive would be more appropriate.

Being raised to “figure it out” on my own was another severe contradiction while saluting the culture's strict guidelines at the same time. None of it made sense. By the time I graduated from college I was beyond ready to run for the hills. And that is quite literally how it played out.

Folks from the South often say to me, “You are so lucky.” I never understood that luck had anything to do with it. I apparently channeled free will, climbed into my little beater car, stuffed a couple hundred dollars saved from my full-time “acceptable” minimum-wage job into my pocket, and rolled out.

No bragging or boasting here… I was only 22. I was financially on my own so did not feel indebted to anyone, trusted my gut and did what I suppose I needed to do so that I could breathe. So what does this have to do with water?

Well, my parents regularly reminded us that that my father had moved his family away from Cancer Alley to a healthier place. As a competitive child athlete, I became naturally inclined to focus on health, luckily escaping the eating disorders of other kid gymnasts and dancers. So while I understood what my father had deeply ingrained, I didn’t see much healthy living happening around us within the land of "laissez les bons temps rouler". Outside of the fact that my mother was a nurse who made sure we always had well-balanced meals with a salad on the table every single night, the general population is not health-conscious.

“Laissez les bons temps rouler” means Let the Good Times Roll, with a healthy dose of Catholic church services every Sunday, plus weekly Catechism classes to balance out the partying. Sin today, confess tomorrow. Then we’re allowed through the Pearly Gates at the end of life. No worries about how that much hedonism accompanied by massive guilt might affect the mind, body spirit. Insert eye roll.

College days, the most freeing time of my life, were also far from healthy. Partying at a massive SEC school at all hours most days of the week was the norm. Classes were not challenging and professors didn’t bother with roll call, so skipping class and passing was a breeze. Cheating and gaining copies of tests that never changed year after year was not only fine, but totally encouraged. Those days were a trip. 

Running for the hills, driving first to Colorado then Wyoming, my gut and likely my liver were yelling, “Hello. Can we please detox?!” My body spoke and I listened. While detox didn’t happen all at once, the shift happened. My nutritional consumption and lifestyle transitioned to far opposite of my homelands. Sticking to what was cutting-edge including vegetarianism and veganism throughout the 90’s, I transformed back into the athlete who excelled. As the years went by, additions of daily yoga and other progressive practices combined with continuing education proved effective. I even healed severe environmental allergy issues, sinus infections and exercise-induced asthma. Afflictions that had previously made life miserable. 

When you can't breathe on multiple levels, how can you feel free?

What does this have to do with water?

Our bodies are comprised of up to 70% water. Everything we consume that is best for us needs water to exist.

As a holistic health coach, I became amazed at the number of clients who did not realize basic water consumption was a massive component to cleaning and clearing their biological systems. Hydration was often key, but ignored in reaching their most basic goals such as losing those last 5 pounds. Quality and quantity of water consumption is one essential key to feeling less drained, run-down, hungry, and more clear-headed on a daily basis.

In 2007, I started having dreams about the ocean constantly. I was craving diving into salty ocean waters to the point that I could taste it. I had been land locked for over a decade. Blue waters beckoned. 

I co-founded a fashion line in 2006, so a move to the West Coast made sense not only for business, but in personally trusting my gut in support of my mind, body, and soul. As “woo woo” as that might sound, I packed up and it proved to be the best change I had made in years

While a lot of tumultuous events occurred given the 2008 Recession, to this day, Southern California is by far my favorite climate. The diversity and culture of Venice before it shifted to the more typical L.A. that is is today was almost as amazing as where I grew up. It will always be one of my favorite homes.

But it’s also crowded, polluted Los Angeles. The tap water quality is questionable at best. My friends in the wellness community I rubbed shoulders with in packed yoga classes daily were constantly geeking out on water quality, the pineal gland’s relationship with water quality, and all sorts of newer-to-me info hailing from Louisiana and the Rocky Mountain West. They were always just ahead of the curve and I soaked it up like a sponge. 

While on break from city life, grounding down back in the Wyoming mountains where I had spent my 20’s, life handed me yet another change of course. A freak accident resulting in a severely broken leg turned my break in the mountains into a full halt. I said, "OK, well if this is what’s happening, it is what it is.” I trusted the process. Thankfully, I was able to navigate what ensued including a second surgery a year later.

During this time, “Water is Life” was revived in my being with the Dakota Access Pipeline situation at Standing Rock in 2016. 

That movement moved me to tears daily.

Cancer Alley was refreshed in my being. The land where oil business is king and chemical plants are queens sitting within some of the most poverty-stricken areas of the United States. We don’t need to leave the country to see the Third World, folks. Livelihoods depend on the oil industry and the chemical plants. But many of the people are in denial or uninformed to this day of the cost. That cost being human lives. The health, wellbeing, and literally the lives of local residents are simultaneously being supported and stripped away.

I became obsessed with the unacceptable.

Living in affluent hyper-bubbles in Wyoming, Colorado and California, I felt far away, small, and even in trying to make change happen within my local community, somewhat disempowered. My community was alpha, highly competitive, and seemingly unable to identify from a small town where “co-opetition” wasn’t a concept I could communicate nor effectively embed even within the wellness industry.

But water quality is far from a new fight, right? Remember Erin Brockavich?

As for the manly men currently taking up space in the White House - the last couple years have certainly confirmed that they do not have our backs nor our best interests at heart. Entitlement is all around us.

Making shift happen is up to us. The time is now.