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I found yoga during a time in my life where I felt like I needed to regain control
1 May 2018
| Last updated on 2 May 2018
I felt somewhat dissatisfied with my quality of life and knew I needed a change in perspective. I was intuitively drawn to yoga but back when I did my very first class I didn’t really know that it would teach me all the things I needed to learn to live a more fulfilled life.
Being a yoga student is almost a holy experience. It’s funny because you know how people find truths in outer body experiences, well yoga is the opposite. You realize the truth of oneness and the end to the illusion of separation by going inwards.
It’s an inner body experience and it’s the best one because it allowed me to get to know myself in the most incredible ways.
I’ll tell you what I learned. I learned that I’m impatient and by acknowledging that I learned how to be patient in my practice and that it takes self-compassion to be patient.
When I started, I was obsessed with mastering the poses all those Instagram yoga babes were posting. I pushed myself so hard and would get angry at myself for falling out of a pose or not being able to get into one.
The best thing I learned through yoga was to exercise more self-compassion. I remember my teacher always repeating to me, it’s not about the pose, it’s about the benefits of getting into the pose.
So I started to be more kind to myself and even though I still can’t get all the way into the splits or hold a full hand stand for long, I accept that if not today, then tomorrow. Once you adopt that mentality to life, things really start to shift.
I also learned that I’ve been pretty much breathing wrong my entire life. Shallow breath from the chest can actually cause a lot of health issues and not to mention prohibit one from going into a deep meditative state.
So with my practice I learned how to control my breathing and it never fails to amaze me that breathing the right way even helped me go deeper into my pose. More oxygen going into my brain meant a deeper meditation and a more stress-free existence. Trust me on this you can’t feel stressed if you’re breathing right.
Another thing yoga taught me is how to love myself. There’s a misconception that all yogis were somehow born being able to touch their toes but that’s not true.
It takes practice, practice, practice!
Eventually you see the progress of your practice and when you do touch your toes the sense of pride and happiness and self-love is just a beautiful thing to experience because it’s all you. You’ve made that difference and you’ve proven to yourself that your body is able to achieve anything!
Speaking of body I always had back and neck issues and yoga helped me strengthen the right muscles in the right way so that I physically feel more at home in my own body.
What I hope you notice from all this is that yoga is so much more than the physical postures although those are awesome. It’s about the shift in how you see the world, it’s about being more centered in your being, and it’s about breathing along with the universe and knowing that there is no difference between you and the universe.
Its mind, body and soul!
