I began practicing yoga in 2016 and since then I have found that there have been so many unexpected benefits on top of the obvious, be more flexible. Below are six things practicing yoga has taught me.
1. That I need to relax!
I cannot tell you how much I resisted the ‘Savasana’ when I first began yoga. The ‘Savasana’ occurs at the end of yoga practice. The savasana enables us to bring yoga from asana into self-awareness through meditation. My mind wondered to a million different topics instead of focusing on resting and recharging. This is completely normal for your mind to resist deep relaxation and it takes practice and patience. Yoga has a way of quickly showing us the short-lived nature of our attention. This is an important lesson, as the more we can identify how our mind works, the less we feel detoured by its skittishness. With practice we can learn to redirect our mind back home.
2. How to breathe.
Yoga without the familiarity of the breath is not yoga. When we practice inhalation and exhalation we are gifted a direct line to positively affect our mood and our energy. The point of yoga requires our full attention, and one way to harness this attention is the breath. Breathing techniques have essentially taught me to reduce my own stress response and I use this ALL the time.
3. That yoga doesn’t just occur on the mat.
Yoga is SO much more than just an hour practice at my gym that I attend three times a week. Yoga truly is a lifestyle, a science, and route to well-being and completion in mind, body, and soul.
3 Examples:
1. When I am present, focusing on today, the here and now, the current task at hand, I am practicing yoga.
2. When I am being open to what the world might bring, I am doing yoga.
3. When I am spreading the message of well being, I am doing yoga. Everything that goes on off of the matt is just as important as what occurs on it.
4. Be present… and okay with it.
Yoga has taught me to be present. Yoga is about the here, the now. It takes away everything else and just brings peace of mind. This brings you away from negative emotions, stress, anxiety, regret, and makes you appreciate how awarding the breathe is. Yoga enables us to escape from confinement and release your limitations in order to allow yourself to expand and grow.
5. You can achieve more than you think.
Throughout my life, I have always had the “I am not good enough” mindset and am still working on it. Yoga has helped me get out of this entrapment. This is a HUGE reason I practice, as it teaches me I am not decided, to be willing to do more than you decided. Your life becomes LIMITLESS.
The most IMPORTANT lesson, is that yoga is the experience of realizing ourselves as love. Yoga practice says come here and be you. As we practice MORE and MORE, we learn to strip away and release toxic stories that keep us from ourselves.
