Feeling Pulled in Several Directions? How to Find Balance.

How do we find balance when we are being pulled in all sorts of different directions?

To find balance, yoga suggests we can act in seemingly opposing ways simultaneously.

Yoga could be defined as the practice of going in two directions at once: the word yoga is from the root to yoke, connecting front and back, up and down, and pretty much any other opposites you can think of.

In a twist, for instance, while our outer gaze may be over our left shoulder, our inner gaze (or dristhi), is on the right back ribs, broadening the muscles away from center.

When we reach our arms upward, we consciously root our legs downward. And while our fingers are pressing down on the earth in Downward Dog, we also lift the forearms and upper arms away from the floor to create balance in the heart center.

What does this have to do with being a crazy busy mama?

Ma Yoga is about using yoga principles to help us become the Divine Mom we want to be.It helps us find balance by holding the “both” in our awareness, no matter what the situation.

For instance, when we play and connect with our little one, yoga helps us remember also to hold back on complimenting, directing, or teaching, and let him or her experience the world without our input.

This is a great gift for both mama and baby – it gives baby a chance to experience the world as safe and exciting even without mommy, and it gives mama a chance to breathe and do a relaxation technique.

When we breastfeed, instead of just focusing on giving milk to baby, yoga reminds us to create support for ourselves so we can lean back (use a cushion against your low back and something that lifts baby up to you, rather than leaning down). This helps us by keeping our shoulders and neck feeling good, and also by creating ease and openness in our body which supports milk flow.

When we make the choice to use meds or call the doctor about symptoms our child is experiencing, yoga helps us stay calm and remember also the body’s intelligent immune system, and how it gets even smarter when it is allowed to fight something on its own (this is not to say don’t call a doctor! just consciously find the balance that’s appropriate for you).

When we feel lonely, we can reach out to a friend, but yoga reminds us also to go even further in to the depths through breathing and meditation to find a place of deep connectedness to the universal energy that beats our heart and breathes our breath.

How can we naturally set our outer gaze and our inner gaze to balance each other out throughout our day?

I like this Balancing Breath Exercise. It puts us in a balanced place and it can keep doing so for quite a while without our even noticing.

At first, we work with the inhale and exhale as separate actions to create lots of space upward and downward. Then, we start to see how the inhale and exhale actions can be part of each other, and help us stay in balance throughout the breath cycle. Try this, breathing through the nose as always:

Balancing Breath Exercise

As you inhale, lift your heart and rest your shoulders back. Feel how the inhale is a natural little invigorating backbend.

As you exhale, expand your back ribs back and settle your hips down. Feel how the exhale is a natural little calming forward bend.

Do this a few times.

Now, begin to meld the actions together.

As you inhale and lift your heart, keep your hips rooting down to the earth.

As you exhale and relax your hips down, keep your heart spacious and shoulders relaxed back.

Keep breathing this way. Close your eyes.

Can you feel the balance of invigoration and calm from combining the actions of the inhale and exhale?

Notice how the balance you feel in your body affects your thoughts and emotions.

I find that when I do this Balancing Breath Exercise, I can experience one of the most empowering, energizing, rewarding gifts of Ma yoga: staying connected to both the masculine and feminine parts of myself.

I can set my sights on a goal, while still listening to the universe for navigational clues that might even take me on a different track.

I can give 100% even as I allow myself to not to try too hard.

I can trust in my ability to have everything I need within to create a love and abundance filled life, and also trust the way life sometimes unfolds the most perfectly when we let things be.

I hope this helps you this week! Please let me know how it goes. I always love hearing from you!

Jessica Jennings, MS, ERYT, RPYT, founded www.MaYogaLiving.com to provide yoga, education, and support for moms and moms-to-be in their own homes. She loves helping people use their experience in the years around birth to create lives that reflect their own authentic feminine power and wisdom. If you are a mom, pregnant woman, yoga teacher or birth or mom expert - or you want to be - join our online community.