I haven’t known how to start this piece of writing about yoga. I’ve known I’ve wanted to say something but what..?!
I think yoga is so misunderstood. I have wanted to share what yoga is for me. Instagram and the like have pictures of people and bodies doing things that feel so out of reach for the majority of folks.
It makes it hard to believe yoga is for everybody. And yet it is.
Yoga is my anchor. I am in a relationship with it and it weaves into everything I do. But that doesn’t mean I practice the physical side of it everyday. Or the mental side, or the breath! It’s a practice which I have learnt is always there and I come back to it time and time again. Like any relationships sometimes I feel like I’m nailing it and at other times I feel lost with it and yet it’s always there to come back to.
I have worked in the area of mental health for 21 years in some way and yoga is the thing that I come back to again and again as something that helps with my mental health.
Yoga is not about how flexible I am and getting myself into back breaking postures.. yoga is about strength and stability in the body and mind.
Yoga is about connection to self. About working out where I am at and what helps me feel strong and steady. Not what the person next to me on the mat can do... but me.
My relationship with my body, my mind, my journey.
Yoga offers me an opportunity to connect to my breath in a way that helps me to use it to my own advantage. To steady myself, to relax or to motivate me.. yoga doesn’t need or care for a swanky mat, or funky pair of leggings or to be sat on a rock wistfully overlooking the sea... it’s the relationship I have with myself.
This is not always photograph worthy!
Yoga is a practice of stilling the mind and in this world we live in it feels like the ultimate gift to myself... and sometimes a huge challenge. It’s not about doing it well.. it’s just about turning up for myself consistently.
I practice yoga, and I by no means move around the world in a zen like state. I have kids to sort, work to do and a house to keep going. But I also have a relationship with yoga (myself) that is about trust and an awareness of myself that helps with it all.
And it is forever a work in progress, a practice.
- Amy