Yoga is a wonderful psychotherapy tool, especially for people with eating disorders-- or, for that matter, any other disorder that results in your living entirely in your head with little regard for your physical being. Yoga forces you to pay attention to your body, to get out of your head. And for people who have not paid attention to their bodies for a long time, who have been using their bodies to express their self-hatred, this is invaluable.
I was really excited for session 7. I've been thinking about it since session one. Since before that. I was really excited to see how people reacted. And, for the most part, they reacted well. That is, all 6 people who showed up.
That's right. My original n (sample size) of 13 has dwindled to 10. Of those 10, only 6 showed. I was really sad and disappointed-- kind of like when the fireworks on 4th of July are duds.
That's not entirely fair. The people who attended responded really positively. I evoked tears, which is what I was going for (masochistic as that sounds). I think I need to figure out a way to weave yesterday's topic back in next week, both as a revisit for those who were there and to make sure that message is given to the ones who weren't.
Yet another yogic lesson: don't plan too hard. Just try and see what comes. Or something like that.
1 comment:
Forgive me, but this sort of stuff is dangerous. When you talk about evoking tears you refer to masochism. Do you mean sadism, or are you actually rather confused about what is really going on in these classes?
"I went for it, really tackling issues of binge eating and the shame that results from increased mindfulness, hence increased awareness of how you have been abusing your body, using it as a way to make public your self-hatred. With increased mindfulness, that abuse becomes more apparent, resulting in feelings of shame."
What are you trying to do with these eating disordered people? Make them ashamed? Maybe someone else should be ashamed of themself.
Post a Comment