Welcome to my blog where real people get to connect to all things living yoga!
I'm excited and maybe a bit nervous about my first blog, but overall overjoyed that I get to share my love of this ancient practice. I often hear people say they can't do Yoga because they lack flexibility. I am here to tell you all that Yoga is not about touching your toes or contorting your body into the shapes you sometime see on social media. If you can breathe, then guess what - you can do Yoga! The breath is such a powerful part of the practice to help us anchor, and guides us when we move. The breath really is the bridge between the mind and body, and in Yoga there is no differentiation.
Everyone and every body is different. Yoga is a state of connection between body, breath and mind. But Yoga is also a practice of turning inwards, of deep listening and of honouring the messages that the body gives us in each moment. Each of us needs to find our own edge in our practice to have both growth and longevity on the mat and in life.
Every body is unique, and the power is meeting yourself on the mat, and finding that place deep within where you realise you are everything and have everything you need. Honouring our own bodies in yoga requires that we become intimate with our body’s sensations. It requires that we build an awareness of where we place our body in space or on the ground, but also an ‘inside out” awareness of feeling how our movements, breath and thoughts affect our bodies from the inside.
Yoga is not just learning the postures but also learning about the wisdom your body holds. Some of us have such active minds that we are constantly in our heads, creating a disconnection from our bodies. When we are disconnected from our bodies it can also mean that we are disconnected from the world and our relationship with the body and the people in our lives.
I know that for me it has been a journey about slowing down, being kind and compassionate and leaning into the subtleties of the practice. Coming from a background in dance, I have always been flexible and able to place my body into shapes with relative ease but I had to learn to listen to the messages my body was sending from the inside. Not to stretch too far just to attain a certain shape, not to allow myself to collapse into my flexibility in certain areas but to also build strength, even if that meant holding back a little in other ways.
Once I was able to feel the subtle sensations, the way my body communicates with me, I was finally able to adjust and stand in my body in a authentic way. This gave me the power to find my own practice and honour my body each time I found myself on my mat. I have come to realise that our bodies send us wise messages when we slow down and listen in to them. These are all important guides to be aware of as a foundational base for our practice which we need to honour if we want to live and breath the real Yoga.
Yoga philosophy offers us a great teaching to guide this practice. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali it states Stirrah Sukham Asanam. This is translated as “firmness of body, steadiness of mind and ease of spirit” (in BKS Iyengar’s translation). In our practice we can use this as an intention or mantra to continually find this balance of steadiness and ease in each moment.
The breath is a wonderful tool to help find the edge. As a general guide if you can keep your breath long, smooth and balanced this automatically bring a sense of ease into the body-mind. Often when we push past or through the edge we might find we are holding our breath, or the breathing becomes erratic. Too much tension enters the body and the balance is lost.
Yoga allows us to learn so much about our bodies and to honour where we are each time we step onto our mat, while creating the space for us to explore and connect deeply with our own inner experience.
When we are disconnected from our bodies, our Yoga practice offers us a way home and reminds us to make ourselves at home inside our bodies and embrace our unique qualities while connecting to ourselves.
If you have found yourself wanting to do Yoga but beliving you cant, I am here to tell you to tap in and tune in to yourself because there is a Yogi inside just bursting to come out! Leave a comment to tell me if you are one of those people, and perhaps we can start to build a community of Yogis who know that they really have everything they need, and that Yoga is for EVERY BODY to enjoy.
I always thought I couldn’t do Yoga because I couldn’t do the splits. Thank you for the reminder that yoga is so much more than that. I have since realised that Yoga is really about surrendering and letting it all go in Order to find a deep sense of harmony in the mind.