Why do some people react emotionally during fasting and Shankaprakshalana?
A. A combination of three things – altered perception, greater self awareness, and repressed feelings which surface. All yoga practices change ones awareness and have this effect to differing degrees. Whether it’s an elementary technique like ‘Shavasana’ (the Corpse Pose) or something more difficult like Sirshasana (the Headstand Pose) or something quite challenging, as Shankaprakshalana can be. For example, a student may think it is ridiculously simple to lay flat on the floor in Corpse Pose. They may think they are a pretty calm and relaxed person until 3 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes of total physical stillness passes and then they start to get itchy, edgy, distracted, bored, angry, drowsy, etc. etc. Only by narrowing their field of self awareness to that simple yoga posture of stillness can that person realise just how nervy and distracted and easily bored they really are, and if they are of an unstable temperament, then their mind and feelings will go off on all kinds of tangent
