Are you an empath entrepreneur who loves yoga?

Curious what the best yoga pose might be for empaths?

Being an empath entrepreneur can come with many challenges.  For this reason, I’m a really big fan of yoga.  It helps me find peace and centering in this crazy world.

Feeling other people’s emotions and being sensitive can be a difficult way to be in a society that doesn’t always value these traits.  Having a yoga pose specifically for empaths to help keep your energy moving is valuable.

I was reading a book last night where the author was talking about her sensitive child. She was sharing how this young kindergartner heard about the melting ice caps and how it was causing issues for the polar bears. It seemed to her that all the other children in the classroom were not affected by it. The sensitive child thought about this situation with the polar bear for weeks.

From my experience this is often what it feels like to be an empath or highly sensitive being.  I hear the harshness of the world and the sad things that go on. Instead of being able to say that’s just the way it is, I feel that pain deep inside myself and I want to fix it. I know I need to be part of the solution to healing.  This is part of what brought me to the work I do.

Our world can be harsh

Since the world we live in can be intense and harsh in many cases, it is no surprise that many of us empaths make a choice somewhere along the line to start closing down our hearts. Most often this choice isn’t a conscious one. There are many different ways that we can close off our heart.   

One of the ways that empaths often try to shield themselves from pain is through food and weight gain. There is a place inside of us that believes the weight creates a barrier from the pain.

Another way to keep ourselves safe is to stay out of intimate relationships or to continually move from one relationship to another.

Since so much of our society is relying on being on our electronics, many of us are protecting our hearts by hunching over. Our shoulders start to round and in general the posture of folding forward creates protection around our heart.

There are lots of ways we protect our heart. I invite you get curious – how are you protecting yours?

What happens when we protect our heart?

By shielding ourselves from the bad we also shield ourselves from the good. We keep ourselves safe from the pain and suffering and we are not allowing the love and kindness in.

What would your life feel like with more love and kindness? What would your business feel like?  

If you are familiar with yoga, you might already have guessed where I am going with this. In yoga we have some postures that are called heart openers. Heart openers are the most important yoga pose for empaths.

There are a whole host of benefits that come from heart opening postures.

Here are a few for you to consider:

1.  Connect in with your heart chakra (the energetic centre in your body that bridges the lower body with the higher spirit realm).  By opening this up you allow a connection to love and compassion for yourself which can then ripple out to others.  It will help you stay in compassionate space with your clients but also with yourself.

2. Release old emotions. For many of us we were never taught how to process a range of emotions and so the ones we were told were bad get stuck. By opening up the heart like this it gives those emotions space to rise up.  Sometimes this can be uncomfortable to start.  Breathe into it. Allow this yoga pose for empaths to be your opening.  

3.  Create flexibility in your rib cage as well as a more conscious breath. When you create a more flexible rib cage you are opening yourself up to deeper breath. Deeper breath allows more healing and reduces cortisol levels. (Cortisol is one of the stress hormones that we carry in our bodies)

4.  Create a healthy spine. When we open our heart we are stretching and lengthening our spine as well. This makes for more flexibility and movement as we age. This also stops us from becoming those stooped over older people you may have seen.

So if you are only willing to do one yoga pose each day, this is the one I suggest. There are various yoga moves that incorporate heart openers such as cow pose, up-dog, cobra, bow pose, or even dancer.

My favorite however is a restorative posture.  I try and get 10 minutes of this in every couple days or so.

Heart openers are important yoga poses for empaths in business

The image above is me doing the most important yoga pose for empaths – a heart opener.

You can see I have my feet touching with blocks underneath my knees for support. There is  a bolster under me tucked right up against the base of my spine.  For me I have a big sway in my spine so I am using a smaller size bolster.  You might have a bigger bolster at home that works really well for you.

If you do not have blocks at home you can always use some large books or even straighten your legs.  If it feels better for you to have your legs straight with blocks/books under your thighs you can do that.  If you don’t own a bolster you can roll a cotton towel or blanket up and use it under your spine.

The goal here is to play with the pose. See what feels best for you and add that to your practice. If you are brand new to this, start with five minutes every few days.

Notice how it feels for you.  When you feel ready, then add more time until you are at about 10 minutes per day.

You might also be interested in releasing some trapped emotions from your body.  Read how to release trapped emotions (so you can free your energy and grow your business) here.