(ThySistas.com) I’ve had a few people inform me that yoga is a spiritual practice, its no different from religion they say. You have to chat to a god that you don’t know, its a form of worships I’ve been told and many beckon others to stay far away from the practice of yoga. Interest how quick we are as human beings to dismiss anything that has the potential to relax us, return us back to our original selves or bring clarity to our mind. I’ve heard yoga defined as many things and with a short google search you will find the same so today I’d love to share my experiences of allowing myself to become one with my yoga practice.
For myself yoga has been an inner awakening experience. I’ve been upon my spiritual journey for as long as I can remember, a lifetime perhaps. In the past I’ve done my share of studies like many by spending countless hours online searching various paths, reading numerous books from a variety of authors and watching youtube videos only to end up back at the starting line: facing myself. Don’t get me wrong, research has added to my
experience. I’ve learned and confirmed so much yet nothing has equipped me to my authentic, powerful self quite like my yoga practices.
Being a doer, like most women in the wild, wild West its been nothing less than a struggle learning to still myself and come into the present moment. We spend the majority of our time thinking back on past experiences or looking forward to what might one day become reality. Rarely do we allow ourselves to rest in the moment. It’s as if we’re constantly running away from our present day reality, perhaps that’s why we love reality t.v. so much. It gives us an escape from our own lives, our own personal responsibilities, the areas we need to strengthen and the lessons we need to learn most from.
Yoga is all about being in the present moment. It’s a bit difficult to focus on what needs to happen when you get home (future), or what you forgot to do earlier (past), when in the present moment you are holding your body in a pose that requires you to focus on your breathing to maintain your balance or even hold the pose for a certain time frame. If you get a prenatal yoga certification you’ll understand which poses are the best during pregnancy and can help others out as well.
My favorite poses/exercises are those that cause a mental breakthrough. We spend entirely too much time thinking. If we replaced only 10% of our thoughts with action, we’d all be moving mountains. For many of us thinking is merely a form of procrastination. We come up with these outstanding, life altering, society shifting ideas and then we sit there, in that same spot and come up with a hundred reasons or more of why we can’t pull that dream, that vision into our reality. A mental breakthrough isn’t to be mistaken for a mental breakdown, during a breakthrough we are able to shift our thoughts so they align with what we desire to see happen rather than focusing on what we don’t want to see. These breakthrough poses require you to immediately focus on allowing the exercise to be easy, to be enjoyable otherwise it’s extremely difficult if at all possible to get through.
These type of exercises help put the mind back in control of the body and the heart back in control of the mind. Being in a mind, body, spirit awareness we are able to better control the thoughts that come to us. We find the power to breakthrough the negative self talk that we engage our minds and bodies in on a daily basis. This makes it easier to say to your body, I know you aren’t hungry because I nourished just awhile ago. Or say to your mind, I know these thoughts do not belong to us because we are powerful, we are whole, we are healed.
Regaining control over your body is such an amazing experience! No longer will you fall victim to your sexual desires, unhealthy food cravings, addictions or fears. Learning to be in the moment with self, accepting yourself as you are at this moment, today and loving all of you is your birthright. The beautiful practice of yoga merely reconnects us to self, with that being said you don’t do yoga…. You are yoga.
Namaste (the divinity within me recognizes the divinity within you)