The Stress & Tension I Didn't Know I Was Carrying- Yoga for First Responders

Elliott (00:00)
I feel like we we haven't had a moment to sit down and and connect.

Yeah. But I know that you did a recent adventure, I would say.

you've done yoga, right? Done yoga, I love yoga. think of it in the first responder sense. Like let's put ourselves outside of our own

Circle, What do you think the perception is? amongst police, fire, EMS, you know? I mean if we you know, if we classify our first responders as that type A running and gunning, it's frowned upon. Yeah.

it's that's not for me. Yeah. That's not for me. I'm gonna lift weights, I'm gonna do CrossFit. Right. breathe when I sleep? Yeah. Yeah.

the York County Regional Training Center was offering yoga for first responders. having done yoga in the past, I was like, I I wouldn't mind doing that.

it's always a good stretch, if nothing else. they offered they've offered two so far. And the first one just didn't line up with my schedule. that was easy because I could just easily say, I'm not doing this one. Right.

I saw somebody recently and they're like, hey, where were you? You know, where were you? Wellness guy. Where the hell are you? So I was like, all right, well, when's the next one? turns out last Saturday, was the second installment of yoga for first responders

So I I I knew that I didn't have an excuse,

So Friday evening comes along, I'm just kinda sitting at home and I'm like, I'll register. But I still wasn't convinced that I was gonna go the next morning,

Like it's just just this anxiousness about like who's gonna be there,

How advanced is it gonna be? You know, all these freaking how many noises am I gonna make? Yeah, am I gonna fart? You know what I mean? Like all these things.

one of the guys there, who's been on the show here with us, he was like, dude, you're coming in with some good energy. I like it. It was a small group, man. I wanna say I wanna say there were six or seven of us, immediately.

a good welcome feeling. All good vibes.

the instructor's name was Jessica.

She was freaking great. she went into a little bit about what the goal is with yoga for for first responders and the nervous system

And it was, it was super interesting. stuff we kind of already know, but good to hear it when you're about to start it. It just solidified while you were there. That's the tone. she kind of works walks us through three part breath.

I don't I hope I don't screw this up, but I I think I've got it right. It was belly, ribs, and chest, So fill your belly, then in the next go around we fill our ribs and the next one just and and we put our hand in all the different sections of our of our torso to kind of to feel that. you're just taking these deep breaths. And every single time I realize how shallow.

I'm breathing day to day. Like I I'm I think I'm live my life taking half breaths, Yeah. So so great. what I'm gonna assume might be one of the easiest yoga poses known to people, which is pretty much standing,

but I start like shaking this is not a good sign not a good start you know but I think that was just the moment and and as we started to kind of breathe it out and everything got into some of the movements

It was awesome. even having done yoga in the past. This was better. And and there was a couple of points I think that were super important.

I was able to keep my breath synced up with the moves, So in the past, I always felt like I was fighting for air or like, it was moving too fast and I didn't know, wait, should I be exhaling now, inhaling now?

This worked for me. did I have any moment any or anything like where I was like, my God, this is, life changing or something like that? No. But

One of the moves was that thread the needle. Yeah. Which I'm gonna I you do you know it? Yeah. Where you just you're kinda going under. Now are you on all fours? Are you on your knees and thread the needle? Yeah. So we were we were on all we did a tabletop, our knees were down and then you kind of take, one arm up.

Right. you're kind of putting your opposite arm underneath and through and kind of smell the armpit. A little bit. Yeah. A little bit. And and man, that felt like such a release of tension You don't realize unless you're doing this or you're actively stretching.

But kind of being guided through this and having that moment, I g I just gotta be honest about it. Like that was the one part where I felt a release. I don't wanna call it emotional, I don't wanna act like you know, I did this move and like all the trauma from before I was seven or or like all you know, twenty years of of police work. It it was it wasn't that. Right.

But I was like, I'd had a feeling. That's good enough. Yeah. I don't I can't even I can't even put the word to what the feeling was, but it was good. Okay. And it was like I needed that. It was a like a a weight lifted.

it released something that needed to be released. There was a shift. Huge. one of the other things was

she was basically pointing out drop your shoulders, away from your ears. And the first time she said it, because being a good student, I'm like, okay, let me do that. my shoulders were definitely at my earlobes. They were tr they're traveling forever to get back now. So that was a huge realization for me the first time.

And obviously she knows what she's doing. So later on again, she's like, watch those shoulders. whoa, how'd they get back up there again? and so I couldn't help but think, it this is my default setting. Like my baseline which is just tension, right? I imagine.

That's the way I see it is yeah, with with your shoulders. I notice that in myself. Yeah. And I do oftentimes feel myself when I'm in that point of not uncontrollable stress, but like I'm not.

Yep. I can tell my shoulders are just fighting. Yeah. So I I get that. And so what did so going through that, what was it that kinda made you think more of the the stress, like where am I where am I at? Because again you're saying this was during vacation. Yeah. So you still had you had some tension there. Yeah. I had I had a a great week off. Yeah.

But yeah, it really was a of a realization of like

accumulation of work stress, regular stress, you know.

And I think a better way to go go about saying it too is instead of stress, because we all deal with stress and how we manage it is the tension. Yeah. What that stress creates is tension in the body, which then affects your nervous system So how do we address that tension? Yeah. And it sounds like, you know, the the one cue for you seems to be the shoulders. Yeah. Okay, I notice the tension. because I'm feeling that in my shoulders. And I can drop it down and so from

this class I know you didn't you want to walk through more of the class but with us but from the class what do you think you could carry forward in for like a weekly check-in

the takeaways for me is is breathing, which I've been focusing on more, but still.

you forget, I focus on my breathing. Usually in the morning I do and then at night, And that's when I can say, okay, I need to unwind and relax, Or or breathe it out to start the day. Right. but if I can add a check-in in the middle of the day, just to see where am I at? I think that would be helpful.

some of the other stuff that we did, and like I said, this wasn't advanced. This was like honestly, anybody can do this.

I loved it. And here's an one another term that I think people will will hate. But it was it felt like I was safe there. Do you know what I'm saying? there's gotta be another a cooler way to say that. But we were all on the same page. to kind of learn and do the same thing.

And it was very cool. the there was a camaraderie there, that was unspoken.

Like for me, when I go to a a yoga studio, I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a yogi. Yeah. Same, you know, same the way you regard it. I have gone, but I often find myself trying to catch up because I'm behind. Yep.

and you know follow your breath and let your breath kind of guide you with that allow you to breathe through the movements instead of going all right we're doing this phase of the movement this phase of the movement this phase of movement now your mind is just stuck on that physical component of I should be here I should be there I gotta look up and see where we're at

But if we're looking at it from the first responder aspect, it's a different we're there for a different intention. Yeah. Yeah, we want to get some strength out of it, you know, core strength and range of motion and whatnot, but if we look at it to incorporate the breathing with it too.

I think that comes to us at a better at a better point, you know, to give you that moment to be in the movement and in the pose instead of just going, All right, I did this part of the sun salutation, I gotta hurry up and come up and get all the way up to the top, or I gotta do the down to you know downward dog and I gotta get into this position quick.

That to me is very appealing.

I gotta give a shout to the you know the organization I I'm looking at the website here, yoga for first responders dot org. Check it out because everything that I'm saying, it's a it's explaining it.

so if no if nobody's ever gone on this site, just take a peek. I mean, there's so much there. so this the session, if you call it that, ended with, rest, which is I think a meditation.

It's always been my favorite part 'cause that's the part where you just kind of lay there and yeah, and you're just, you're breathing and kind of finding your breath to, to end the session and and then get prepared to just start your day. Scanning your body. Yeah, you know. Yeah. And and that was great.

there was a lot more benefit from it than I thought I would get. And not only that, I had a day. I had a great day, and I do credit.

starting my day with that yoga session. I was gonna ask you how did it how did it set you up for the day? Yeah. It was it was incredible. Yeah. at the end of it, Everybody went down to have a cup of coffee and just kind of shoot the shit and, unwind a little bit together.

everybody hung out for as long as they could and we just had a cup of coffee and we were all just talking. It was it seemed really positive. You make connections with people you you haven't been connected to before. So even that part of it was was so huge, Holding that camera on. Yeah. And and you left there saying, Hey, I'll I'll see you next time.

the instructor is Jessica Wally. I hope I'm saying her last name correct. I can't send enough praise to Jessica

You're gonna go there and you wanna learn and grow. And I felt like I did.

I'm I'm I'm glad I did it.

if nothing else, give it a shot. Give it a shot. definitely worth it and definitely I got more out of it than I expected.

Yep. And moving forward, just you know, keep growing. Yeah, exactly. Keep growing. Exactly. All right, man. Well, as we as we always do,

be well. Yeah. Be safe.