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| Cindy, William, James, and Kyu Cho |
I don't know about you, but I feel as though I've been thrown off a cliff. I cannot take anymore. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.
But we cannot seem to make it stop. We can speak out. We can refuse to accept business as usual. We can call legislators until we're hoarse. And yet.... sure as the sun comes up, we hear of another mass shooting on the news, then another, then another.
We are knit together by a collective nervous system. It operates like a mycorrhizal network we cannot see. We sense and feel each other and the life around us. We shape and influence each other through our finely tuned limbic systems. If we slow down enough to really pay attention, we can sense imminent danger, and we can also sense safety. We all have the capacity to read the energy in a room, or a city, or a gathering of any sort, and respond accordingly. We recognize the collective nervous system when we tap into interpersonal, cultural, ancestral, and intergenerational joys and traumas. It might be a sports event, or an artistic performance, or a national tragedy. Social media is one way that the collective nervous system shows up.
Because we belong to collectives, when I pull a string, others will feel the tug. If someone else creates a wave, it will ripple outward. That is, we all have the capacity to affect the collective nervous system, whether it's to agitate and activate, or whether it's to quiet and pacify.
As such, there is nothing more important in this moment, in the wake of tragedy, than to slow down, and tune into our own somatic state. I'm a student of Resmaa Menakem, who offers the framework of "VIMBASI":
V: What is the vibe you are experiencing?
I: What images come to mind?
M: What meaning arises?
B: What behavior and urges are elicited?
A: How does this affect you?
S: What sensations do you feel in your body?
I: What do you imagine is possible?
Sit down, observe, and process. This is how we metabolize our experiences, and especially our traumas. The more I override my traumas, big and small, the more I get caught in loops that prolong the trauma.
In fact, suppressing my response does nothing but make me ill. My stomach churns, I lose my appetite, or I seek sugary, fatty, or salty foods in response to elevated cortisol. My breath shortens, my airways inflame, weakening my immune response. If I seek to break the cycle, I have to slow down and process what is happening.
As Iyengar Yoga practitioners, let's metabolize the events of the day. Let's settle our nervous systems, not by spiritual bypassing, overriding, numbing out, or ignoring, but by becoming more aware, by feeling more, by sensitizing ourselves without judgment or conclusion. It's not about resolving or repairing, not just yet. First we have to calm the f*k down. Feel what we feel. Give others a chance to settle their nerves and to self-observe. In this way, the collective nervous system gets a chance to re-set.
In the wake of tragedy, this response may be mistaken for "doing nothing." Similarly, it's easy to ignore the mycorrhizal network underground. How do we even know it's there? Scientists call it the circulatory system of the planet. So I have to trust that when I am able to settle myself, it will impact the collective nervous system, the above-ground rhizomatic network of humans. Your family will appreciate it and respond in kind, as well as your neighbors, and everyone else you come into contact with.
From here, we can create shifts, from a red alert trauma state to a calmer state where we are not acting impulsively nor defensively, but with clarity of mind. Consciousness evolves, and what was not possible a year ago, can become feasible now. Strong, decisive, effective action can emerge. This is what we can offer our communities in this moment as Iyengar Yoga practitioners.
Here is a simple sequence that may facilitate this process:
Salamba Śavasāna on bolster, Ujjayi II
Supta Baddha Koṇāsana on bolster
Supta Vīrāsana on bolster
Adho Mukha Vīrāsana on bolster
Rope Śirṣāsana
Chair Dwipāda Viparita Daṇḍāsana
Chair Sarvangāsana
Śavāsana
