When we turn up to a yoga class we are opening ourselves up to bringing a sense of peace, balance and well-being to our lives. In What happens in Class I wrote about the 8 parts that make up a 90 minute yoga session. In each session we move into ourselves, become energised through the breath, we set our intentions, involve ourselves in action through asana, we explore and experience stillness through relaxation, then knowing that something has changed for us, we note a difference to how we were feeling before we began to practice our yoga. Finally, whatever we have learned on the mat we take with us to our worlds that we live in. If we miss out one of the parts in the sequence we are not truly practicing yoga and although we may feel good we may become unbalanced in our practice.
When we practice yoga we bring into union the mind, body and breath. When we bring these elements together we settle the mind. In the settled state the limitations, criticisms and unhelpful self beliefs start to break away and we can truly see who we are and what we are capable of. The problem is that we need to turn up, we need to show up for ourselves. On my own reflections I have been guilty of not turning up to practice, I make excuses, I am tired, I have so much to do, I have had a bad day at work and I haven’t gone. Sometimes disappointment in myself sets in for not going, sometimes it feels okay to miss a class but what I can tell you is that the times when I have worked through my own objections to yoga practice and turned up regardless I have learnt something valuable, I have learnt how flexible I am, I mastered chaturanga even though I thought I couldn’t do and I have also left class in a state of happiness.
When anyone engages on their own yoga path there will be obstacles and most of the time those obstacles will be a result of our own doing and our own mindset but through continued practice we learn to navigate our way around them. We just need to turn up and sit on the mat.
All my love
Andrea
andrealouiseyoga 