How yoga has helped me as a highly sensitive person (HSP)

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Yoga is nothing new

I bet you heard about yoga before.

Yoga has been practiced for centuries, and its benefits have been recognised by the medical community. It is a holistic practice that can help to improve mental and physical health, as well as overall wellbeing.

The benefits of yoga are undeniable. It can improve mobility and flexibility, build strength, increase cardiovascular fitness and help with stress management. Through regular practice of yoga poses and breathing techniques, one can become more aware of their body’s needs while learning how to relax both the mind and body. With its focus on mindful movement, yoga encourages us to be present in the moment while helping us find balance in our lives.

Why I always thought yoga was boring and what made me change my mind

I always thought yoga was boring and not active enough for me. 

Coming from competitive figure skating, I always felt inclined towards competitive and demanding sports that triggered my high-achiever self. Figure skating can feel like flying, hovering over the rink with speed and shaping your body into challenging poses while you spin and/or jump in the air.

Definitely a lot of fun, intensity and challenge for a highly sensitive person (HSP) yet high sensation seeker (HHS) like me.

The single idea of poses on a mat felt physically constraining and passive to me.

It was one day during the covid lock down, that I decided to give it a try and impulsively booked a spot for the next day’s morning yoga class at 7:00. It was an online session and I had very low expectations. Just wanted to have an obligation in the early morning to get me out of bed and do something nice for myself before work.

Unexpectedly, I found myself sweating and being very challenged during most of the session. I couldn’t believe I was having an actual body weight workout while moving through poses, both stretching and strengthening my body.

I discovered a new way of moving my body that it was both challenging and nurturing. Hard work but also self love. A loving and conscious practice that felt like I was taking care of my body and mind at the same time. 

I got irremediably hooked since then.

How yoga has helped me as a highly sensitive person (HSP)?

I believe yoga can benefit anyone. A nice thing about yoga is that it offers many different styles and levels for any age, background or physical condition.

As a highly sensitive person, you may have a higher need to connect with yourself and develop self-awareness, which are really encouraged in yoga. 

I have realised that, because of being highly sensitive, I have a stronger need for balance and coherence between the different aspects of my life. Yoga brought that balance and coherence to my life by integrating the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of health altogether.

Below, I describe the main 9 ways in which yogas has helped me as an HSP:

1.Paying attention to my breathing

Breathing is a fundamental part of yoga. Being conscious of my breathing and deliberately using my inhale-exhale as I move through poses, helped me with self-regulation.

My fight or flight mode can get activated easily, and this reflects on my breathing, which becomes faster and more superficial. Being aware of this process and learning to self regulate myself through breathing exercises helped me with stress management and to stay focused, contributing to calm my overstimulated nervous system. This change of energetic state has immediate consequences on the type of thoughts and emotions I am experiencing, which results in a more loving self-talk and less worry.

2. Introspection 

A yoga session, no matter if in group or individually, creates the space and time to look inward. Being aware of my own thoughts and feelings, and unwinding from external stimuli, so needed for HSPs.

3. Stillness 

The practice of stillness in yoga allowed me to embrace where I am in my life at the present moment and taught me how to mindfully sit with any HSP-related discomfort.

4. Improved circulation 

Yoga gets my blood flowing!

It does so in many ways: Relaxation helps circulation, movement brings more oxygen to our cells (which function better as a result), twisting brings fresh oxygenated blood to organs, and inversions reverse blood flow from the lower body to the brain and heart.

As an HSP, it helped me to unlock my body, getting the energy flowing and getting rid of waste products and toxic energies. 

5. Emotional regulation 

Yoga helped me to be aware of my emotions, feel them in my body and breath through them, then let them move through my body and out.

As HSPs, we feel so intensely. It is one of the reasons why we process things so deeply. But that intensity can be overwhelming, and that’s why we need emotional regulation skills.

As an HSP, I have experienced that emotions can get stuck in my body and make me tight. Poses like back bends, twists and hip openers helped me to release emotions like anger, worry and sadness, contributing to a mood self-regulation.

6. Being self-compassionate 

I found this aspect of yoga especially healing. In contrast with other types of movement, yoga really encourages us to be kind and loving to ourselves. 

As an HSP, it is easy to fall into the trap of perfectionism and self-judgement, resulting in feelings of shame and inadequacy. I’ve found self-compassion to be a very powerful antidote against those feelings. 

Being gentle with myself, understanding with all the processes I’m going through, and congratulate myself for every small step along the way are some nurturing and healing ways of self-compassion.

7. Getting physically stronger 

Powerful yoga is a real bodyweight workout that made be physically stronger and fitter. 

Feeling physically stronger, makes me feel better prepared to handle any daily challenges.

As an HSP, it can be challenging to navigate through life and thus optimising and strengthening my body helped me feel more ready for anything life would throw at me. 

8. Getting mentally stronger 

Being able to handle difficult sensations like pain and uncomfortable mental states during my yoga practice helped me being patient, resilient and mentally stronger. 

As an HSP, being exposed to higher levels of stimuli can be challenging. Yoga helped me to handle my daily stressors with more equanimity, confidence, and mental strength.

9. Improved balance 

Improved physical balance is an undeniable benefit from yoga. 

Being an HSP can feel like being in a trampoline, bombarded by all sorts of stimuli. It is not only the external stimuli we are exposed to, but the internal too. Improving physical balance on the mat, helped me feel more grounded and balanced off the mat.

Now it is your turn

This is my story about yoga and how it has helped me in my daily life as an HSP. 

How about you? Has yoga or any other practice helped you as an HSP? I would love to hear your story 🙂