Walking Away from the Edge

by Nina

Cliff at Grainval by Claude Monet

A couple of weeks ago, I helped talk a friend through a panic attack. Because I knew this friend had had a very stressful year, I could see that the most recent stressful event had pushed them from a state of chronic stress over the edge into full-blown panic. As we talked, I learned this was not their first panic attack of the year. (By the way, talking someone through a panic attack just meant for me letting them know it typically only lasts 15 to 20 minutes and that I would be there with them on the phone the entire time until they felt well enough to end the conversation.)

Yes, many of us have an edge that we can reach due to chronic stress, and then when we’re living with an overactive sympathetic nervous system (see Life Changer: Understanding Your Autonomic Nervous System), one more stressful event can be the thing that sends us over that edge, either into depression or anxiety (or a combination of the two).

Unfortunately, many of us think we should be capable of anything, so we only find our edge after going over it. I know this from personal experience. In my early thirties, having a baby in a foreign country sent me into a spiral of stress-related symptoms, including insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Fortunately I received very good medical care, and was able to recover pretty quickly, especially after I returned home to the U.S. Although I went into therapy in an attempt to understand what had happen, I didn’t really gain the knowledge I was seeking, so ultimately, I dismissed the whole thing as a “fluke.”

Later, in my early forties, the same thing happened again, this time as a result of a very stressful lifestyle, which included working at a software startup company (if we didn’t succeed at releasing our first product, the whole company would fail!) while also raising young children. It took me much longer to heal completely from that breakdown, but that time I found a psychologist who really helped me understand what happens when your sympathetic nervous system is overactive and how you can take steps to keep yourself from going over the edge.

Yoga didn’t help me at the time (I was practicing some at the time) mainly because I didn’t yet understand how to use my practice. It was only when I started studying with Rodney Yee and learned from him how to use yoga for emotional wellbeing that I realized how beneficial yoga could be for anxiety and depression. I learned to use my practice to manage my overall stress levels, and during stressful events to withdraw and calm myself down. I also learned to recognize the symptoms—chronic insomnia, nausea and reduced appetite, and a burning feeling in my chest—that indicated I was getting stressed out, and to use my practice to start walking slowly away from the edge instead of moving toward it. (Walking away for me means reducing my level of outside activities and spending more quiet time at home, and focusing my yoga practice on stress management practices—I find the supported inverted poses particularly helpful—as opposed to physically challenging and energizing practices.)

All this is why I became a yoga teacher. It wasn’t because I liked the idea of standing in front of group of people leading them through a practice (that’s actually hard for me); it was because I felt I had some precious, hard-won knowledge that I wanted to share with others. Although I’ve actually written a lot about anxiety on the blog (and I’ll provide links to my posts below), the subject is on my mind again today because two people I care about—one young and the other older—are grappling now with this problem. So I thought today it was worthwhile to remind you all that many of us have an edge we can reach when we’re over-stressed but we also have the tools to help us walk slowly away from it instead of going over it.

And even if you have never had this problem, practicing now can prepare you for possible challenges in the future. Regular practice may even mean you’ll never have to find your edge. I love what Jill Satterfield said in my interview with her Recovering from Heart Surgery about how her practices prepared her for the challenges she faced before and after her surgery.

“Sometimes we don’t fully appreciate the progress or importance of our practices, but there will be a time when our practices show up and show their strength and depth. So practicing both in the times that are easeful and in the times that are not creates this beautiful inner support system that is there for us when things get really rough.”

10 Ways to Soothe Anxiety with Yoga

Yoga Solutions for Anxiety

Balancing Your Emotions with Your Breath

Stress Management for When You’re Stressed

Anxiety, Yoga, and Your Front Body

Reducing Cortisol Improves Anxiety

Soothing Yourself with Supported Forward Bends

Balancing Your Emotional Body with Your Breath