Thoughts on the word ‘calm’

Calm is the absence of tension

If you have ever done a yoga class, breath class, or the like, there is this beautiful moment at the end. The practice is over and you are still.  Time has elongated. You’ve left your agitated thinking and doing-body and are resting in your presence and being-body. You’ve calmed your mind by relaxing and releasing tension in your body. If you’ve ever done a Yoga Nidra session, you would also have released mental and emotion tension as well. The longer you practice and stay in this exquisite space, the longer it will last throughout your days and transform your approach and responses to life.

Calm body, calm mind

It’s fairly hard to have a calm mind if you are always distracted by tension in your body. Trying to meditate with a painful neck, heart palpitations, or any other kind of physical tension is extremely difficult:  But that’s not to say that we have to wait until we have a perfectly relaxed body to feel mentally calm. In this world, that’s just silly unless you are dedicated to a life of spiritual practice. We often think that if we can’t get to a perfect state (and give up habits and fun stuff on the way) then there’s no point. We are messy, complex, irrational, confusing and reactive beings who live in a world which we largely cannot control. But there is always something we can do to calm our physical body, so we can calm our mind - little, simple things - by a regular practice of what works for you and makes you feel good. After all, we are what we think.

Calm as self-soothing

As kids, some of us fell into the arms of a loving parent when we were upset; or grabbed a cuddly blanket; or hid under a bed; or developed physical coping mechanisms to get away from a traumatic environment. Whatever the experience, we all know that doing something is required to create experience. This experience is held in the body as well as our subconscious. Our bodies are energy charged memory museums that need calm to constantly rewire, recalibrate and relearn to feel good. Self-soothing doesn’t need to be complicated: A warm bath with lavender oils; massaging your own hands and feet; buzzy breath (put your fingers in your ears, take a deep breath in, and on the out breath buz like a bee on the outbreath - for three minutes); walk in nature, feeling your feet on the ground and saying ‘thinking’ when your unhelpful thoughts take over. These bring about the relaxation response by activating the vagus nerve – a stunning nerve that runs from your brain to your gut, sending messages to your nervous system that you are okay - or not.

Calm as a route to changing your life

Sounds dramatic I know. Every thing we think and feel has a consequence in our mind, body and life. But our bodies are very forgiving: they put up with a lot from us and are designed to do just that. I recently returned from six months in Asia. My body worked overtime for the first week I was back: I was hot and cold, couldn’t sleep, when to the loo at odd hours, wasn’t very hungry, and I felt these extraordinary internal processes going on. My body mirrored: what the hell am I doing here? Can I really be a good teacher? I hate my clothes. Things evened out. My body knew how to come back to homeostasis (by balancing, adjusting). But it needs love and care to do so. I’ve needed to take things easy and trust in my clever body.

Once back to balance (or a version of it) something else begins to kick in. There’s something beyond a calm body and a calm mind – a way to change your life. Once we are calm, then what? How can we use being calm in body and mind to live differently? Once we are calm, we can create affirmations, rewire our brain, attract positive encounters, allow our wisdom and intuition to arise, and ultimately curate a calmer and happier life. Living above survival and balance is where life changes. It starts with coming home, one breath at a time; one intentional release of one muscle. The only place and time to start is right now with every experience you’ve ever had. There’s no eraser of past things.

Your life is not going to unwind on its own.

Find out more about the beautiful practice of Yoga Nidra

Find out more how your body responds to stress and relaxation

Find out more about BeCalmed Studio classes and recordings including yoga nidra, restorative yoga, meditation and yin yoga.

Find out more about BeCalmed Studio’s unqiue BeCalmed Yourself five-week programme.