Doing yoga with social anxiety

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

hey, i joined this forum because i’m interested in practicing yoga, but i have severe social anxiety so i really can’t function well when i’m in a place with people i don’t know… i’m currently trying to get rid of the anxiety through meditation, which has helped a bit, but i’m still dealing with it.

so i needed to ask if there is any way for me to do this with out going to classes. are there any books or videos i can buy that will get me started and give me a good understanding of the basics so that i don’t have to wait until i’m comfortable enough around people to go to classes?

i also have a knee injury and was wondering if it would be safe for me to do yoga, and if it would help improve the muscles around my knee. my physical therapist was giving me exercises to strengthen the muscles in my legs, and i know that yoga gives you a good work out, so i thought it might also double as physical therapy for me? i’m not sure what’s going on anymore but last time i checked there was minor ACL damage, pretty bad MCL damage, and minor meniscus damage. my left knee also sort of got messed up somehow… probably because i have to limp every now and then from my right knee pains…?

i basically just need recommendations for the first question (books/instructional videos) and an answer to my second one. thanks.

p.s. happy new year! :slight_smile:

edit: my knee is “healed” but keeps getting reinjured and still hurts all the time.

#2

Namaste and welcome to the forum.

It sounds to me that you can rather do with the sound advice and help of a yoga therapist. There are a few therapists on this forum, such as Nichole and others who can direct you to a therapist in your region. Yoga therapy is a one on one therapy and this might help you with your social anxiety aspect.

#3

[QUOTE=Pandara;15440]Namaste and welcome to the forum.

It sounds to me that you can rather do with the sound advice and help of a yoga therapist. There are a few therapists on this forum, such as Nichole and others who can direct you to a therapist in your region. Yoga therapy is a one on one therapy and this might help you with your social anxiety aspect.[/QUOTE]

That sounds good to me… I didn’t know such a thing was available. Wouldn’t that be pretty expensive though? In my experience, anything one on one is very pricey. Thanks for the quick reply.

#4

I cannot say what is expensive for you as I am in South Africa. However, I would like to recommend that you try a yoga therpist, I think the money you spent on a physio therapist can be spent on a yoga therapist with much better and perhaps more lasting results, which will save you money in future. :slight_smile:

Good luck.

#5

Thank you and welcome to the forum.

I recall being quite nervous attending my first yoga class. It was at my local Buddhist centre and they were quite a formidable bunch of people.

So you sound as though you want to toughen up and the yoga will help bring you back into balance and will compliment the meditation.

Knowing about [U]ayurveda[/U] is extremely helpful because it is the sister science to yoga, which has been slower to become popular in the West.

Well… if the truth be known, even in India these things are misunderstood and there are probably more yoga practicioners per square mile in LA than in India.

Ayurveda would suggest that your anxiety is a vata disorder. So just generally following ayuvedic recommendations such as dinacharya (healthy daily routine) ritucharya (season variation of routine) and watching for influences which exacerbate vata will help you.

You could also see a vaidya (ayurvedic physician) about your anxiety.

Again, a warm welcome to the forum. You are in the right place. x

#6

Greetings SLOvHippie!

First, let me see if I might plant an “opposite seed” for cultivation. It’s GREAT that you’re experiencing Social Anxiety!

What the f…, mmm, heck am I talking about? I think most of us would agree that physical pain (while it kinda sucks three shades of suck) is a good thing. Those with diseases or genetic abnormalities who can’t feel pain die an early death. Your social anxiety is emotional pain, it’s the universe knocking on your door saying, “Hey dude, PAY ATTENTION TO ME! SOMETHING IS A LITTLE LESS THAN HARMONIOUS HERE!”

The big problems come when we don’t pay attention to that emotional pain, when we medicate it away. A wise man once said, “If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don’t bring forth what is inside you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you.” The vast majority of us medicate in one way or another in an effort to avoid facing that emotional pain because, well, it’s painful. That medicating may be via western medicine and their SSRIs, MAOI’s and other alphabet soup goop, via illicit drugs and alcohol, food, sex, exercise like running, and some of us even use yoga to self medicate. Yes, yoga can be used as a means to not face what is inside of us.

Keep in mind that I’m doing little more than coming from personal experience here (I used to epitomize multiple forms of anxiety). There are many paths that you can take, what I speak of may very well not be right for you. What others speak of may not be right of you. You must take personal responsibility and choose the direction you take. Because, in the end, nobody can “change” or “fix” you, peace comes from within.

I’d bet my favorite house plant (I REALLY like this plant) that your social anxiety is due, in large part, to something from your past that wounded you emotionally and you have not dealt with. You have a negative emotional charge that’s now manifesting as this anxiety. Bring this forth and it will save you.

You asked for books. Two that helped (and continue to help) me substantially were, The Presence Process and The Trauma Release Process.

Others in this thread mentioned seeing experienced yoga teachers. I’d agree that if this is within your means, that it would be beneficial. I believe Gordon (InnerAthlete) here on the forums is in Seattle. Others mention nutrition which also plays a significant part of the whole. Just keep in mind that you don’t HAVE to give up all your “bad habits” right away. Don’t give them up because others tell you to. Listen to their advice, but only give them up when YOU are ready to. If you drink a 6 pack of Mountain Dew a day and feel you’re not ready to quit, that’s ok. Continue on your path and I bet you’ll slowly start to ween yourself off of them as you become more balanced and at peace. Stopping how we self medicate before we’re ready will often push us back a step or towards another means of self medicating.

It’s AWESOME that you’re here as that shows you’re listening to what the universe is trying to tell you. Good for you! Now cultivate the opposite and ENJOY the journey!

#7

There are many books and videos on the market. And of those many, some are even worthwhile. I cannot suggest one AND tell you it will provide the foundation you seek. I do often recommend Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health by BKS Iyengar. You may find it at Third Place Books, or perhaps the East/West Bookstore though you’re more likely to find it at the larger chains.

Obviously an anxiety issue is something quite a bit different than feeling shy or initially intimidated in a social setting. The former addresses the nervous system and the support is not a hardening or toughening but rather a softening and tenderizing.

Most texts and video will not address one’s particular needs. Especially when those needs revolve around a therapeutic issue like an unhappy triad injury in the knee joint (Anterior Cruciate, Medial Collateral, and Meniscal). You may get the acclimatization you seek but you’re not likely to be properly mentored for the injury.

Additionally, the more intense asana practices (hot, fast, aggressive, jarring) will be exponentially less nurturing for a pre-existing injury. A very slow practice may likely be very safe but perhaps less effective. So YogiLocks, find the one that is just right.

There are some well trained yoga therapists. Private sessions are priced exactly as they should be when a teacher is sharing years of knowledge and their professional time with a client. It may be pricey but it’s about $15,000 less than knee surgery.

There are plenty of places here in Seattle to find a yoga (asana) Intro series’ as well a sound yoga therapist. If you need localized direction, just ask.

#8

Hey, thanks for the replies guys. I’ve been busy with downloading music and getting it on my external hard drive for a friends dad, so I haven’t really checked in here yet. I’m bad about replying to multiple messages, and it’s pretty late here, so I’m gonna keep this short.

I live less than a mile away from Third Place Books, so I’ll walk down and look around for that book or others some time this weekend.

I just downloaded Yoga for Dummies and I’m reading that haha…

Do you think Yoga Therapy would be covered by health insurance? If not, how much do you think it would cost, on average?

#9

If you locate a yoga therapist who is also a P/T (or vice versa) then you might have some coverage, assuming your GP wrote you a prescription for P/T. Otherwise no, yoga therapy is not covered by US health insurance plans. We’re a long way from such a thing, I fear.

Private sessions vary based on the teacher, the teacher’s training, and the length of sessions. In the meantime consider classes with Kelly Pretlow at Maple Leaf Community Yoga. She is a Purna Yoga teacher certified at the 2,000-hour level, has her own quaint studio space, and has the essential props to support students who need them, including a wall rope system. Classes there are in series. Six at a time I believe. If you’re uncertain, call her, speak to her, and meet her at the studio for a look-see.

#10

You might also try-

‘Iyengar Yoga for Beginners’ by BKS Iyengar

-a reprint of the first three chapters of ‘BKS Iyengar Yoga:The Path to Holistic Health’ in smaller convenient format. Somewhat cheaper ,too.

Most asana/posture guides i’ve seen in my local stores are rather poor in comparison to the material presented here
( the instructonal asana guidance in the reprint is , trust me,the same as other text, good pics,detail and preciser iinstructions than most,covers all the classic poses )

Also ,ideally, a well-trained teacher offering a gentle style of yoga would seem appropriate, given your knees .Or a yoga therapist, if you can find such a person.

That studio IA suggests looks quite sound and is a place i would naturally gravitate towards.

It’s important in yoga not to force anything ; keep it soft. I think Iyengar maybe says keep the brain passive and calm or relaxed. Be aware what muscles you are engaging and/or relaxing. How a pose feels is just as important as how it looks,say structurally .You cannot force yourself into a posture your body is not able to feel or move into, without brewing trouble. .Form follows function
I sometimes ruminate that i tend to side towards the function school of yoga, if that’s possible, though i think correct and/or proper action and alignment going into,during & coming out of a pose is equally important.Proper alignment of hips and shoulders,placement of hands and feet, stillness of the belly/abdomen,nature of breathing ,positionof the trunk, limbs and head etc in in any given asana one can learn through clear guidance that one can apply. .I think one can maybe run into trouble when one compromises one for the sake of the other; i.e when one compromises function over form.It might look outwardly ike the perfect trikonasana but you maybe doing no yoga whatsoever., i.e doing harm.Perhps one needs a balance and to understand that the emphasis on form in iyengar yoga does’nt betray the significance of function but probably presupposes it.

By function i guess i mean the feeling and the effect.( awareness, perhaps )Or mind. Integration of form anf function or mind and body, being the desired state of union.

That’s to say if you religiously stick to the form of a pose through forcing i guess, you are likely to injure yourself,as the mind cannot feell themovments or put awareness into where it is needed; no iintegration. Forcing is perhaps a symptom of a deficit in one’s ability to place awareness where it’s needed.I say this as i sometimes question teachers ( quietly) who stick religiously to form.

For a absolute beginner i would say learning correct form( posture) is more than enough for the moment.I think the form/function distinction i have drawn maybe just another way of talking about the body/mind interface.

To HippieOV-
Regarding the questions in OP- get one of these books above and book a well-trained yoga teacher who can handle your issues. You have to be very careful with your knees, i think.

Sorry if i was skirting off topic. I’m not a teacher but a beginner and i have certain issues myself and classrom setings of vinyasa yoga may not be approrpriate or suitable.Social anxiety with strangers in a classroom setting certainly can’t help and i can relate to that and empathise. You may benefit from more individualused attention and tuition.
A therpist that is good at what they do obviously is worth it.It may require a number of sessions but you leave with a prescription to re-employ on your own without hopefully continual dependence as you can make the changes yourself, tools to heal yourself and possibly other people too.

I believe Yoga therapy is usually premised on the body’s own innate healing wisdom and intelligence , the potential to heal oneself. Unlike western medecine outside intervention or manipulation is not a part of it.`In principle it sounds like the better approach and i believe it can work.

(Sorry if this is longish but i really wanted to mention function over form relating to asana as well as suggesst that boook above as the cheaper alternative.)

#11

[QUOTE=SlOvHippie;15439]hey, i joined this forum because i’m interested in practicing yoga, but i have severe social anxiety so i really can’t function well when i’m in a place with people i don’t know… i’m currently trying to get rid of the anxiety through meditation, which has helped a bit, but i’m still dealing with it.

President Kennedy had a rather original method to deal with persons which intimidated him: he imagined them NAKED !

"Modesty died when clothes were born."
Mark Tain

#12

social anxiety is an illusion

if it serves you then it is power,

if it does not then you will shed it one day soon

to do so as a yogi notice that any time you ACT

to strengthen this illusion

it is as if someone is secretly, and i know you really don’t like seeing this, people might be mad at me, but use your mind and listen and see

when the thoughts and emotions come in

its like a director that is tryign to convince you to take part in a script and story, but you can see that that is not who you are, you in fact are equal in integrity and power to this director

so gradually you can let the samskar, or the
lines
the thoughts
the emotions, that cause actions

fade away,

and so, then, you can learn that you can come up with other reactions to situations other than "anxiety = turtle shell = run away"
but you might enjoy being in your condition, which in that case, your isolation is good

so do you want to change or not ? if you do then you will notice that your personality is an illusion that each time you do something, you can get it a little bit closer to how you feel it should be, then the miracle and magic happens, and you will have changed your reality.

Peace, Shanti, Om,
Krishna Hare Hari!

try to understand that it is a dream,
if you put out a different role, then the dream characters around you (the other “people” ) will have to play along

if you play the role that you are confident then they admire that, and they forget about the old “you” who doesn’t even exist

try to think of averything as a dream, every person you meet, every face you greet
and that when you can let your perspective shift, by toying on the edge of your fears, not going too far into them, but facing them,t hat they will convert the fear into a reward, into an exhilliration, and an excitement, and a joy about being your authentic and true self

try to see that

beyond the mind and its habits, you exist as someone who is writing an active script of your entire life with your imagination and the “choices” that you perceive,

try to get into the state of being free and at ease,
now is your choice if you want a class or not, but

is also your choice if you want to feel “anxiety” or not, its just seems like it takes a real long time to heal
it does, but only through relativity, its actually healed the moment you make a resolution to ch ange the way you see the world.

#13

Hey, SLOvHippie!
The Yoga for Dummies book is actually really (surprisingly!) excellent. Most of the advice you are receiving on this site seems to encourage you to seek (expensive) outside assistance. I say: just read the book and start doing some of the exercises. Other great books can be reccomended as well. Yoga doesnt need to be social, and the fact that it has become such a group activity is not neccesarily a good thing.
There are other books that can guide you as well, but you have in your hands a great on for beginning.

#14

SloVhippie (oops got all the wrong caps i think, sorry!)

Social anxiety is very difficult to deal with isn’t it? How much can you stand? Would a small class (10?) or a semi private class (2-5) be OK for you?

With your knee injuries you may be doing yourself more harm than good by not working with a qualified instructor. I realize that money is always a factor, but I speak from experience about knee injuries here. Please consider that you only get one set of knees and meniscus(es?) and then really think about working with an instructor. Even if only for a few sessions. You need to make sure you are not doing more damage with every pose. Many poses put stress on the meniscus and I’m not even going to comment on the MCL ACL thing. OUCH! Be careful my friend and please feel free to contact me via PM if I can help with anything.

#15

anxiety can be out with devotional at first…
can be learnt yoga by CDs (actually, should be taken a 1week course personally if its Pranayama) this kind of YOGA give u much paciency, SO NO ANXIETY but first with devotional(spiritual works, proven).

!!!OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI HI!!!

#16

I understand that it can be difficult to do yoga when you feel insecure around others…

I think once you become confident in your body and know that you are a fabulous yogi you can begin to enjoy doing yoga in a group setting but it is fine that you want it to be private at first.

I suggest going to the website yogatoday.com and doing their classes. It is free and they post a new class everyday…they offer classes for all levels, are wonderful teachers. As long as you respect your body and don’t do anything that is uncomfortable you should be fine with your knee injury.

#17

Just to let you know, yoga [I]can [/I]be done in the privacy of your home! I have shelves full of DVDs and books. I am self taught and practice daily at home and have been at it for almost 10 years now. Perhaps, your library has dvds you can borrow to find a beginner style/instructor that appeals to you. There are online websites where you can view video clips of DVDs to find something that you might like too. Try collagevideo.com or totalfitnessdvds.com Look for beginner level. Good luck, enjoy your yoga experience!