How Yoga Changed My Life

This last weekend I participated in a “Yogathon” for a non-profit called The Wellness Initiative. The objective was to raise money to help fund schools to allow their teachers to teach yoga and wellness in schools. Four hours of yoga and 108 sun salutations later I realized all of the emotions and physical needs that needed my attention, the yoga helped me, a grown adult woman to work through some serious blockages that were happening in my life. I could not help but think…how amazing if I had learned all these techniques when I was a child? Would I know how to deal with stress and the “road bumps” in life with a little more grace, if I always knew that my yoga practice was there to support me?

I have been a practicing yogi for over six years now and it has become my “port in the storm” so to speak whenever there is an uncomfortable change going on in my life…it has also become my creative, spiritual and JOYFUL outlet as well. People always say to me, “Well, I can’t take yoga because I’m just NOT flexible…” or, “I can’t hold a pose for that long.” All I hear is excuses, I am too scared/lazy/uninterested. There is no such thing as “not being flexible enough.”

The beauty of yoga is that it is a PRACTICE. As people we are constantly trying to get ahead in one way or another, when we are planning to get to a destination, or climb to a higher rung in our corporate ladders, or we are waiting to earn some sort of accolade for our efforts…. We rarely just do something, FOREVER as a PRACTICE. There is no “end result” in yoga, there are days when you can barely hold a downward facing dog, then the next day you are doing a headstand and balancing on your eyelashes (well, not quite but close!) On your mat you are forced to set aside your ego, you are practicing…you are a perpetual student on that mat. My yoga practice has taught me to set aside the ego, to BREATHE more consciously and to breathe into the spaces in my life, my mind and my body that are uncomfortable. When you are on your mat there is no destination…only the present.

About the Author Posted by EMVA in health on May 09, 2010 More from this author  |