I’d have to say my journey of self-discovery began 15 years ago when I signed up for my first yoga class. It was offered at the local rec centre and, if I remember correctly, ran in 12 week increments. Being as I had never done yoga before, I naturally signed up for the beginners’ class.
I showed up in my T-shirt and baggy capris with my newly purchased yoga mat. I didn’t own any “yoga attire” at the time and certainly didn’t know any poses. I did however, arrive with an open mind.
I ended up taking the beginner level program three times. I was extremely conscientious and wanted to be sure I was doing the poses correctly. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who knew it was my third session because one evening the instructor came up to me and said,” Don’t you think it’s time you came over to play with the big kids?” She was referring to the intermediate class which she taught in the time slot immediately afterward. I took her suggestion and signed up for the next round. I was definitely ready and felt confident in my abilities. I ended up taking many more intermediate classes at the rec centre with this instructor and then followed her as she opened up her own home studio. This tremendously talented woman has become an incredible leader in the local yoga community and is definitely the reason that yoga has become such an important part of my life.
For me, yoga is something I do not only for my body, but for my mind and spirit, as well. Even though for years, I had only attended one class each week, I was able to see an improvement in one or two of my poses each time. I was able to hold strength poses longer and I became more flexible. I also learned about how interconnected our body, mind and spirit are. Attending class became my spiritual medicine. While I started going to yoga for its physical benefits, what truly inspired me to return each week were the words my instructor would say. I once told my husband that yoga feeds my soul.
There are so many life lessons to be learned on the mat. One in particular that comes up quite often is, “Where attention goes, energy flows.” When you stop and think about it, it makes so much sense. What you look for in life, regularly appears. For me, it’s the whole idea of maintaining a positive mindset, or understanding the law of attraction – if you’re an Abraham Hicks fan. If you think positively, positive things will happen. If you ruminate on negative thoughts, guess what you’re going to get? I make it a regular practice to look for the positive, even in unpleasant situations. I stop and think about what it is that I am supposed to be learning from a particular experience, rather than dwelling on what went wrong. Is it easy to do? Not always. Am I saying that I do it in every situation? No, but I have certainly noticed a huge improvement since bringing my attention to it.
Another really valuable lesson that I have learned through yoga ties in well with what Brené Brown says about getting messy in the arena (as mentioned in Be Vulnerable – my previous post). For years, my yoga instructor has said that growth comes from getting messy; it comes from struggling. On the mat, it’s okay to tremble and fall over in poses, it means you’re gaining strength. How can you grow stronger if you never challenge yourself? Life is the same way. If all you ever do are the things that are easy, if you never push yourself out of your comfort zone, you’re pretty much guaranteed to remain stagnant. In saying this, I recognize that this too, is an area I am working on. I can certainly be one of those people who will avoid certain activities because I’m not sure of the outcome, or because I want to avoid the potential discomfort. In the same breath, I would like to give myself some credit because of being married to the wonderful man who is my husband. Due to the fact that he is a quadriplegic, I have had to do numerous things over the years that I wouldn’t necessarily choose to do, but I do them because I love him and they need to be done. To name a few, while I cannot yet back up a travel trailer, I have had to learn how to winterize one and empty its septic tank; I know a whole lot about cichlids and maintaining an aquarium (Ours is 180 gallons!) and I have learned an incredible amount about the needs of people in wheelchairs.
There are so many more lessons I could tell you about that are learned on the yoga mat, but I think I’ll leave the rest for you to discover on your own. If you are already a yogi, you know what I’m talking about, if you are not, give it a whirl! Just make sure that you give yourself time to grow, and don’t say, “I could never do yoga because I’m not flexible.” That’s why you signed up for the class! Who knows, maybe in a few years you too will be saying, that’s How It All Began.
Comments