If Yoga Means Union, How Does the Disassembly of Loss Recover Through Yoga?

If Yoga Means Union, How Does the Disassembly of Loss Recover Through Yoga? I forget this often, but my yoga began because of death. A man I'd been seeing introduced me to yoga, and he and his family had begun to do yoga to deal with their grief after the death of a brother and a sister. For more on how my path started, click here. And so my path has circled back and again I was curious what yoga resources I could find to help me and what yoga says about grief.

I could not find much. I found one article from the December 2005 Yoga Journal, The Longest Goodbye. This essay deals with thoughts and perspective. I was more interested in doing than thinking and so more curious about my physical practice and how to adapt the poses and sequence them. I even called the International Association of Yoga Therapist. And they sent me a bibliography that also seemed sparse in this respect.

One of my own teachers gave me guidance. When you experience a loss or multiple losses, your heart is tender. So intense back bending, which exposes the chest and the heart, is not recommended. Child's pose, supported forward bends, face down corpse pose - all support the broken heart. It felt right.

The effect of back bending on emotions is well documented in yoga. See Emotions in Motion. If any one has any information to share regarding yoga postures and grief, please pass along. Meanwhile, I will continue my research.

The French essayist Montaigne wrote, "We must learn to endure what we cannot avoid..."