I am thrilled you are choosing to make Yoga a part of your happy, healthy, and mindful life. Really. Thrilled! Because finding Yoga has brought me so many positive changes as I grow and muddle my way through this life. Yoga has helped me to manage physical ailments, like back pain and headaches, and it helps me maintain a sense of peace and balance by bringing me better sleep and reducing my stress responses. My hope is that I can share with you what I know, so that you can find your way to becoming your best you. Whatever that is for you in this time and space.
Some of you may have practiced Yoga Asana (poses) in the past, some of you may not have. I am here to tell you that Yoga is more than exercise. And whether you practiced Asana this morning, twenty years ago, or never, you have probably been practicing Yoga all your life. Yoga is about living a good life, a clean life, a life of respect for yourself and everything around you. Yoga is not a workout, Yoga is a lifestyle. Sounds cliché, I know. At times we stray from that lifestyle, sometimes we make poor choices in thoughts, words, or deeds, but Yoga means we can always come back and get in touch with what is a righteous path, honour our missteps, and move forward.
Yoga Asana is the perfect place to do that. Taking time to step onto your mat in your favourite room in your home, or into your favourite group class with your favourite teacher, is the simplest way to withdraw from the business of life and really check in. Ask yourself the tough questions. “What do I REALLY need right now?” “How do I REALLY feel about what is going on outside of me at work (or school, or in my kitchen…)?” “How do I REALLY feel about my mental chatter and the messages I am sending myself daily?” And, most importantly, “How can I take steps to honour myself more? Grow my healthy relationships? Foster positive thinking?”
On the other hand, sometimes all we need is a place to leave the hard questions behind and return to the basics of listening to the breath and moving through a practice, freeing the mind and body, rearranging our atoms so that we can return to the fullness of our lives with a new perspective and a fresh approach. A Yoga Asana practice can be a respite, offering a chance to reenergize and refocus our energy.
The practice of Yoga Asana meets you where you are on any given day, at any given moment. That is one of the best things about it. It truly is all your own. You decide where you want to let it take you. Some days we need a challenge, or way to work out stuck energy in the form of frustration, anger, or sadness. Other days we need to be gentle and more compassionate with ourselves. Yoga Asana gives you the opportunity to honour all of those facets of the self, without judgment or expectation.
I am not here to work you out. I am not here to push you. I am not here to force you to force your body into some form of contortion because I think it is good for you. I am here to help you find a deeper way to connect to yourself, so that you can find more benefits from your commitment to honouring yourself. Will it be challenging? At times. Will it be unfamiliar and a bit confusing? Possibly. Will you find strength, flexibility, and balance, not only in your body but in your mind as well? You better believe it!
And that is why I am here. And why I am thrilled, really, thrilled that you are here too.
