Why meeting your sensory needs should be your number 1 priority

Without you even realising, sensory sensitivities might be stopping you from getting the full benefits of a yoga class. Here's why they should be your top priority:

When I practice yoga, the majority of my time is spent adjusting and experimenting to find a position that meets my sensory needs in the moment. Yes, this changes every two seconds, but making sure you're comfortable and honouring your body's needs is, in my opinion, the most important thing.

Why is prioritising your sensory needs so important?

As neurodivergent people, our nervous systems are often more sensitive to external stimuli. This isn't a bad thing, it just means we can need a very specific amount of sensory input. A little too much or not enough stimulation can cause us to be uncomfortable.

Our nervous systems need to feel safe in order to be able to relax. If you are going to a yoga class and heavily masking the whole way through, that yoga class is not going to be relaxing. For a lot of us, our nervous systems are in such a chronic state of fight or flight (just from existing as a neurodivergent in a neurotypical world) and they need a little help coming out of it. The good thing is that it is in our power to help our nervous systems regain that feeling of safety. A really good place to start with this is to prioritise meeting your sensory needs.

How do you know what your needs are in the first place?

This may seem simple, but for many of us (especially late- diagnosed), it can be harder than it first seems. It's not uncommon for us to be taught from a very young age that our needs are 'too much' or that we're just being 'difficult'. We were taught to suppress our needs for the sake of others, often leading to us disconnecting from our bodies entirely in order to survive a neurotypical world. This then makes it very difficult to know what our needs are in the first place, as ignoring them is the norm. A lot of us don't realise until way later that there's an option to not ignore them.

Yoga has taught me not only to recognise what my needs are, but has taught me what to do to make sure they are met (check out my reel). This wasn't something that happened fast- relearning what is often such an in built belief takes time.

What if I don't know what

my body is telling me?

It took me time to learn how to tune in to my body. It was a new experience for me after shutting out my needs for so long. I began to become aware of signals in my body that were there before, but I previously would have dismissed without a second thought. But even when I was receiving these signals, I struggled to decipher what each thing actually meant. I found myself knowing I was uncomfortable, but not necessarily knowing what to do to make my experience better.

The easiest way to know if your needs are not being met or your environment needs adjusting is to pay attention to when something feels 'off'. Maybe you're uncomfortable, irritated or you feel unable to relax. Don't ignore that feeling- it's there for a reason. It's your body saying 'hey, this doesn't feel right. Can you make this situation a bit more comfortable for me please?'

To start with it can be difficult to know what specific thing is making you feel uncomfortable or dysregulated. This does become easier over time, but to start with it's often a case of trial and error. Try changing one thing about your environment or the position of your body at a time. When you first start experimenting with this, it can take a while to find something that feels right. I encourage you to persevere and keep trying different options until you find something that works. Over time, it becomes an easier and faster process as you learn what your body needs in different situations. You know you've got it right when you check in with your body and you feel better. You feel more able to relax or more comfortable in the position you are in.

I feel it's important to add here that sometimes nothing will feel right and it can feel like there is no comfortable position. You've tried everything you can think of and it's just not working. That's okay. Feeling like this doesn't mean that you can't find what's right for you at a different time.

My main point to stress is don't feel like you have to sit through discomfort just because you can. There have been several times when I have been in a yoga class and I've noticed that I was uncomfortable but I didn't respond to that feeling. I used to think 'well, I only have to be there for two minutes anyway, I'll just stick it out'. I had the ability to mask, so I did. The times I chose not to respond to my discomfort, I would leave a yoga class feeling completely dysregulated, defeating the point of why I went to yoga in the first place.

Here's an exercise for if something feels off but you can't work out what:

Go through your senses one by one. I start with the 5 senses (think eyes, ears and mouth and nose) and then I check in with my sense of touch, temperature and movement. This is a quick and easy way to identify if one or more of your senses is heightened and contributing to you being dysregulated. If you identify anything while doing this, think if there's anything in your environment you can change (use the below infographic to help you).

I like this exercise because it really gets to the root of why you feel 'off'. It allows you to acknowledge whatever your needs are in the moment, without supressing them or brushing over them. Unlike common neurotypical advice, I'm not going to tell you to 'just breathe through it'.

How yoga helps with meeting your sensory needs

Yoga naturally encourages us to tune in to our bodies. To pay attention to what is going on inside and how we are feeling in the present moment. This in itself puts you in a great position to listen and get to know what your body is telling you.

As previously mentioned, this can be difficult for neurodivergent people if they haven't explored practicing this before. Often we have spent a lot of our lives masking and have been ignoring our needs for so long that our bodies have learnt that the signals it's sending are not being listened to. In fact, before people become aware of their neurodivergence, it is common for these signals to not even register in your brain as things that need changing. You still might have felt uncomfortable, but if your needs haven't been responded to in the past, the brain and body learns that expressing this discomfort is not safe in its current environment.

The more you send your body the message that you are going to respond to what it needs, and you are going to listen to what it's telling you, the more obviously it will let you know what it needs. Over time, your body begins to trust you again and tuning in to your needs becomes easier and easier.

How do I transfer this into a yoga class?

It is of course easier to make changes to your environment with a home yoga practice. However, it is still very much possible in any in- person yoga class with the right support. If you choose to go to an in- person class, I encourage you to talk with the teacher beforehand and let them know what you are sensitive to or might need extra support with. While you are in the class, if you are experiencing that 'off' feeling, don't ignore it! If the lights are too bright or the thermostat is too high, speak up and let someone know! There might be something they can do to make your experience more comfortable.

Chloe's top tips

1. Fidget until it feels right

After 6 years of practicing yoga, I spend more time than ever fidgeting and making tiny adjustments to make myself even 1% more comfortable. I allow as much time as I need to experiment with different options in each new yoga pose.

2. Use props

Props are my absolute favourite for nervous system regulation. If you are neurodivergent and especially if you're hypermobile, props are your best friend. They don't have to be fancy- I'm talking a blanket, a pillow, fidget toys etc. Making sure your body is supported in as many areas as possible, helps to tell the body that it is safe.

3. Feel free to completely ignore what your yoga teacher says

Yoga teachers teach to the majority. Not everything they teach will resonate with you. If an idea pops into your head (even for a second) that another movement/ position might feel better, DO IT! It doesn't have to be a suggestion given by your yoga teacher, your intuition is usually right. A good teacher will encourage you to explore and find what's right for your body in the moment.

4. Trust the process

Yoga will not cure your neurodivergence, but it can help you to better manage the difficulties that come alongside it. The difficulties are still there, but yoga empowers us to be much better able to manage them and create a space where these difficulties have a much lesser impact on our lives.