It’s normal to go into perfectionist mode and to want everything to come out perfectly and beautifully. Weddings are also emotionally heightened times that tend to bring up old stuck energies, memories, and tendencies. This is especially true if we’ve lost parents or loved ones who will be missed on the day. Whatever your individual wedding circumstances are, yoga can help you navigate the often chaotic and turbulent wedding waves with poise, grace, and presence. You might think of yoga as purely physical activity, but the true yogic path is multi-faceted and holistic. It impacts every area of your life. According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, one of the oldest most authoritative texts on yoga, there are 8 limbs or aspects of yoga and 7 of them have nothing to do with poses. Keep reading to learn more about other ways to deepen your practice whilst wedding planning. Here are 7 ways that the Yogic Path can help you cope with it all:
1 – Asana practice and yang-style poses can help you get in amazing shape for that gorgeous wedding dress.
There’s much more to yoga than the poses and certain styles can help you achieve a rocking wedding dress body. Repetitive movements and muscle-activation focused yang styles like vinyasa flow, ashtanga, power yoga, and hot yoga can all help you work up a sweat, burn fat, and strengthen your core, arms, legs, and glutes.
2- Tapas teaches you to burn away nervous energy through physical challenges and building heat in the body.
Tapas is the yogic practice of cultivating self-discipline through creating heat in the body and embracing physical, mental, and emotional pain and discomfort. Self-discipline definitely comes in handy when you’re planning your wedding. From trying to stick to healthy eating, abstaining from things we know will slow down our goals, to planning the finer details of the big day – Tapas can help you sharpen your aim.
3 – Yoga breathing (Pranayama) can help you soothe and calm down your nervous system.
One of the bigger aspects of yoga is breathing with intention and attention in order to gain mastery over our body, emotional states, and mind. Your breath can be your biggest ally or your foe depending on how you use it. Pranayama, yoga breathing, can help you transform stress, anxiety, irritation, worry, and overwhelm. It can also help to energize you and help you focus and concentrate so you get more done, more efficiently, whenever you need it. Taking up a pranayama practice doesn’t have to be hard – just a few minutes a day (3-5) can help you get a great start.
4 – Santosha can help you stay positive, grateful, and appreciative of what is as it is.
It’s not a secret that wedding planning is hard work, especially if you’re not working with a planner. Some things are bound to go wrong and your patience will most certainly be tested at one point or another. By practicing Santosha (contentment, appreciation, and gratitude) you can shift your perception to see things as on the way, not in the way. Santosha teaches us that things happen for us, not to us. Even the annoying things like vendors sending the wrong item or color. Combat irritation, anger, and frustration with Santosha. Whenever you find yourself bothered or something’s not going as planned do the following:
Stop and pause Breathe deeply and slowly Come back into your body Come back into the moment Put your hands over your heart center Think of 2-3 things that are working out right or 2-3 things or people that you’re truly grateful for
5 – Svadhyaya can help you approach wedding planning and associated mishaps and tensions mindfully.
Like Santosha, the yogic practice of Svadhyaya can help you keep your cool even when things aren’t going according to plan. When we practice Svadhyaya we hone in on self-study, self-observation, mindfulness, and self-awareness. This helps us become more self-mastered, which is exactly what a bride needs during this exciting, busy, and often overwhelming time.
6 – By practicing Ishvara Pranidhana you can ease into surrender, dedication, and devotion.
The yogi bride practices Tapas, Svadhyaya, and Ishvara Pranidhana incessantly in order to approach this time with presence, balance, and inner calm. We practice Ishvara Pranidhana specifically by learning to surrender to a power higher than us. We dedicate and devote ourselves to our highest visions and heartfelt intentions (Sankalpa) for this wedding and for our future family as we get ready to dedicate and devote ourselves to the one we love – our future spouse.
7 – Keep your inner Bridezilla at bay and increase your zen vibes with Dhyana (deep meditation).
We achieve dhyana when we enter a deeply meditative state that transcends our senses, ego, attachment, and mind. This requires a lot of dedication, devotion, and constant practice. The yogi bride makes it a point to meditate daily because she knows that only by cultivating the inner self can she transcend the lower self. Meditation helps to rewire the brain, it calms the stress response, enhances the mindfulness response, and overall makes you a happier more loving person!
