I took an amazing yoga workshop this weekend! What I like about yoga is that it teaches me so much about myself and my body. I can do this pose, the Warrior Interlock, now!

I’ve always been a weight lifter. I love being strong. If you’d told me a few years ago I could touch my flat palms to the floor at any moment of the day or night without strain, I’d have laughed in your face. And the Warrior Interlock? I would have put that in the “freak show” category.

But it’s amazingly freeing to be in a pose like this. The body opens up in ways it never has before – especially through the ribcage and hips. As you lock hands beneath your thigh, you begin to twist the ribs and, incrementally, “old stuff” from the Dungeon begins to escape!

As our instructor told us, “in order to be free, you have to face what’s in your dungeon.”

The idea is to let the negative energy of those old events leave your life. That means giving them permission to vacate and letting go of the old stories around the event.

For me, it means letting go of unwanted (and threatening) sexual attention when I was young. These events can shake us to our core when we’re young and, no matter how we try to rationalize them away as adults, they still persist until they can be released with understanding and love.

I’ve always wanted to say I was smarter than the pain of unwanted advances by a family member (these occurred when I was about 12)… but the hips know better.

One way I can acknowledge the pain of these events is to accept them instead of holding them at arm’s length or “pretending” them into a minimal place in my history. I can see the beauty in all the pain in my life. I know it helps me work with clients who’ve experienced similar situations.

So, what’s in your Dungeon?

Are you ready to let go of the past?