- Treating my Body with Respect
If there's anything I've learned from yoga, it is to respect your body and really listen to it. Having a history of dance classes ever since I was six years old, I know all about pushing past my boundaries in the wrong way. It's not that the classes I took were ever highly pressuring environments -on the contrary; I picked them that way - but the inner me was always very keen on being the one to hold out a certain position just a little longer than the rest did. If others collapsed to the floor, laughing, during muscle trainings, I would be the one continuing. Despite, too, being in pain or feeling very uncomfortable. Yoga has not taught me to stop trying to achieve the seemingly unachievable. However, it did teach me to go about doing it in a different way. One that, in the end, feels more rewarding as well. During the lessons I was amazed by how much you can achieve by really listening to your body, and thereby especially your breath. The way your nose, heels or fingertips can get just that little bit closer to the ground as your lungs expand and shrink. The great reward comes from knowing that it's all coming from the system that is already inside of you; helping you achieve the things you desire. My favourite pose for this is the Downward Facing Dog.
2. Treating my Body with Love
There is a certain positivity that comes from practicing yoga, that can be inflicted on even your darkest of days. When conflicted with thoughts or worries, that ultimately effects our bodies. Although it's hard to just push those thoughts aside, you can lessen their effect by giving your body some well deserved love. My absolute favourite pose for this is the Child's Pose, especially after some nice stretches. In that moment, in that pose, it strangely does feel like you've become a child again; protected and sheltered from the weight of the world. To go back to the purest version of 'me' is the perfect way for me to give a little love to my body.
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| Source: Nike Women |
3. Using my Body to Empower my Mind
There are several poses in yoga that can really help you in looking at a situation in a different way. Not only do breathing techniques help you in drawing more rational conclusions, but there are poses - like the Tree, Dancer or Balancing Stick pose - that can make you feel a lot more confident about certain challenges. It's because these poses bring you down to earth, and make you feel balanced and strong, that you will adjust your thoughts to this as well.
I hope you enjoyed reading my experience with yoga and that I might've inspired you to try it out as well :) My lessons will start back up again next week, and I'm very happy about that!
Lots of love,
Eva
