5 Things My Yoga Practices Have Taught Me
I’m starting off 2020 feeling like a whole new person, and I credit a large chunk of that positive transformation to yoga. Early last year, I turned to restorative yoga as a means to alleviate stress. My worries stemmed from my finances, being moved out of my parents, working three underpaid jobs simultaneously, and weight gain. Restorative yoga taught me how to breathe, keep my mind clear, and develop personal mantras and affirmations. When my life reached its boiling point and imploded with the sudden demise of my longterm relationship, I had no choice but to take a new approach to self-care. My mind was now operating in a different way; in a more anxious way. Irrational thoughts consumed me, and left me in search of a way to feel strong, beautiful, and worthy — feelings I hadn't felt in a long time. I ditched my restorative and meditative yoga practices for 3-4 high intensity vinyasa flows and heated strengthening classes a week. Slowly but surely, I started gaining a new perspective on myself and on life. (And lost that extra 20 pounds).
Here are 5 things my yoga practices have taught me:
Breathe through the discomfort
“Find the breath” is the line I hear most in yoga class. Discomfort is inevitable — in life and in yoga — but instead of hiding from it, or burying it, we are taught to breathe through it. When we intentionally focus on our breath, the control of the breath shifts from the brain stem to the cerebral cortex, allowing for a more controlled thought process, blocking out emotional disturbances. The cerebral cortex activates our sense of awareness, and allows us to focus on the present. Having been in therapy for most of my life, breathing techniques have always been familiar to me, but I never understood the significance behind the breath until I was able to see it put to use in yoga. Yoga is probably the only time of the day that I’m not worrying about something; I have no fear of the future, and no ill will towards the past. In yoga, it’s said that our breath sets the foundation for our lives. Substituting our everyday quick, mindless breathing for conscious, deep, meaningful breathing allows for a more conscious, deep, meaningful life.
Strength = Beauty
High intensity yoga classes are comprised of circuits and reps in their own ways. I plank, I chaturanga, I balance, I bend, I do headstands, I can even hold crow (for about two whole seconds on a good day) and I feel so proud of how far I’ve come in terms of the strength my body has built up. I’m also very proud of my mental strength, my self-awareness, and ability to perform positive self-talk to juxtapose the times when I feel heavy sadness. But I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve learned to feel beautiful again by simply watching my body and mind work together in new ways. I now feel my beauty from seeing my strength, and I’ve learned through this season of life that I’m a hell of a lot stronger than I ever thought.
Everyone works up to their accomplishments at their own pace
There are lots of yoga poses, like fire log pose and cow face pose, that have us stacking our knees on top of one another in different ways, requiring open hips, and a soft lower back. Some days, my teacher’s muscles are too tight to sink into the poses, but for me, they come so easily. I sink right into some poses on my first try, while some people work up to them for months, even years. It’s all based on our individual proportions, and overall body composition, which are things we can’t even control. The way each of our bodies uniquely work through different movements reminds me to stop comparing myself to others, and to instead focus on ways of improving myself in the exact place I’m in right now. Some people feel stiff in a certain element of life, and some people are nice and settled. I don’t have to live my life at the same pace as others, and more importantly, others don’t have to live their lives at the same pace as me.
Embrace the now
Being present and at peace is very difficult for me. The way my brain works is exhausting, and yet, when it’s quiet, I find the need to fill its silence. One of my teachers starts her class off with an excessively long grounding exercise of total silence and stillness. It’s uncomfortable, but that's the point of the exercise; not only surrendering to the stillness, but embracing it, too. I often tend to think I’d be happier if I had certain things in my life, but by thinking of my potential life, I’m not allowing myself to be happy in this season. This is the only time in my life I’ll have a season quite like this, and instead of rushing through it, hoping for something that can possibly fulfill me in ways I had been fulfilled in the past, I'm working really hard to be here, and find joy in the now.
Yoga is a way of life
Yoga has become therapy for me. It’s provided me with a space where I can reflect on my actions, my thoughts, and my wants. It’s been a space where I’ve learned to release self-judgement, and I’ve been able to differentiate between expectations and intentions. Because I’ve found it to be such a strong healing tool, I take my yoga practices seriously, and I try to implement the teachings into my everyday life. True yoga, and true meditation, is approaching situations with self-awareness, acceptance, compassion, and trust in the unknown.
Wearing the Free To Be Wild Bra paired with the Align Pant. My go-to yoga fit.
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