I’m sure a lot of you are wondering what mental masturbation
is! Let me explain. Mental Masturbation is something that we all do, and you’re
probably doing it several times a day without realizing you are doing it.
Mental masturbation is when you get stuck in a mental loop. You keep going
through the same thought process, the same set of actions, and creating more of
what you don’t want because you are running through the same mental loop, thinking
it is helping you to create what you want, but its really based in a false
belief. There’s a famous Einstein quote
that says insanity is doing the same things over and over again but expecting
different results. That is mental masturbation.
It is a kind of insanity you don’t realize you are doing because it
sounds sane.
You are stuck in these loops caused by a repetitive thought process, but
instead of seeing the insanity you start to tell yourself that there must be
something wrong with you or this must not be meant for you because nothing
works. You are convinced that you always
do things wrong and wonder what is wrong with you? Those are perfect examples
of mental masturbation, because basically what you’re doing is living that same
loop over and over and over and over and over again. You just haven’t seen it
yet. I promise you will, and at the end of the post, I’ll share with you a
quick technique on how to stop so instead of you feeling like there’s something
wrong with you, you can take a step back and realize that you are looping with
a mental process that is not serving you anymore.
In yoga, mental masturbation is a result of your samskaras. Your set of
expectations and fears that you want to protect yourself from to keep yourself
safe and comfortable but are really causing you pain. These thought patterns
will continue to play out in your life until you can detach from them and see
the truth. When you say trapped in pain, you are allowing the thoughts of fear or
confusion keep you trapped in the same cycle. The problem that this creates is
that you end up modifying who you are to fit this pattern, and mold yourself to
accommodate your false belief. This can show up as people pleasing, withholding
your true thoughts and feelings, and doubting that you are enough and begin to
relay more on other people instead of your own intuition. These patterns are so
entrenched that it is hard to see your way out of them. They key is to build awareness. Not only of the thoughts your mind is telling
you, but how your body is reacting as well.
When you are trapped by mental masturbation, your body reacts by closing down. Your chest collapses, your shoulders hunch forward and you close off the wisdom from your heart. To get out of this cycle, you just need to reconnect to your heart. When you are disconnected from your heart you block your energy from flowing freely through you. This can show up in your life as judgment, blame, shame, sadness and anger. Unconsciously you begin to close because you want to protect yourself from the pain, but the simplest thing you can do to reconnect to your heart to gather more awareness and increase your consciousness and get out of the loop is to open your heart.
I know this sounds simple, but don’t confuse that with being easy. It takes a lot of courage to remain open when you want to close down and protect yourself. Once you allow your heart to open you are telling your body that you are safe, and you can allow your wisdom to come forward. Why this works is because as you hold that position, your body chemistry changes. You come back to a neutral point where you can hear your inner wisdom. You can decide from a powerful place what actions you want to take, what’s truly going on, what needs to be seen in that situation. If you try to react when you are closed down you’re looking at the situation from your defense mechanism, which is just going to create more defenses instead of the way out. This is how you change patterns.
HOW TO OPEN YOUR HEART
The quickest way to access the wisdom of your heart is to open your body by doing some heart openers. The most accessible pose to do in any situation is to come into hands clasped behind your back pose (Tadasana paschima baddhanguliyasana).
Hands Clasped Behind Your Back Pose
- Stand up straight and ground your feet to the floor beneath you.
- Lift up though your collar bones and roll your shoulders back keeping neutral spine and pelvis.
- Clasp your hands behind your back or hold on to your forearms or elbows if you find your shoulders are extra tight.
- Hold this position and begin to breath into any tight areas allowing your inhale to expand your body and your exhales to release any tension you find.
Feel free to move side to side, forward and back to work thought any tension that may be trapped in the body and needs to flow again. Stay in this pose and breath until you feel something shift. The more you practice the quicker things will shift.
Need a practice?
Need a yoga practice to unlock your bodies intuition? Download my 15 minute Morning Jump Start yoga flow, so you can open your body and release stuck energy quick!
