When I introduce myself as a yoga teacher, the first thing people usually say is, “I’m too inflexible to do yoga”, I then respond with my favourite quote, “Saying you’re too inflexible to do yoga is like saying you’re too dirty to have a shower”. In the West there is a big misconception on what yoga is. It has been portrayed as the achievement of bendy poses, but this is far from the truth.
Yoga means union, of body, mind and soul. We experience yoga when we feel in alignment with who we are and our purpose. For some people yoga is gardening, walking in nature, painting, anything where we feel fully present.
Our fast paced, stressful lives and prejudice’s take us away from yoga. Yoga offers us practices to calm the body and mind, bring back balance and cultivate awareness within. When we still our minds we can listen to our inner guidance system and promote vitality.
Yoga’s physical postures cultivate strength, flexibility and healing within the body and mind. We learn a lot about ourselves by being fully present with ourselves on the mat. We may overcome limiting beliefs on what we think is possible or develop more compassion towards our bodies. What we learn on the mat we can take into our lives.
Yoga offers a vast ancient philosophy of life, exploring this magical universe. The practice offers tools to find your own way and cultivate exploration of self. Yoga focuses on the breath. When we focus on the breath we bring ourselves into the present moment, worries of the past and the future can not exist. Which allows us to see with more clarity.
When we deepen our breath, we tell our nervous system that we are safe, and that we can switch from the stress response to rest and digest mode. This allows our bodily functions to work more optimally which promotes health and wellbeing and reduces stress and anxiety. Next time you feel stressed, just take some long deep breaths.
Yoga also encourages self-reflection, so that you can reflect on what is working in your life and what is not. What behaviours do you want to let go of and what healthy ways of being do you want to develop?
Yoga teaches us that there is nowhere you have to be, and nothing you have to do. You are always home in your body. How would your life look if you were in yoga, in your alignment?
My biggest passion is offering my Yoga Teacher Training courses where I can take other’s deeper along their journey of being in their truth. Of understanding present moment awareness and being.