Too often people don’t commence a yoga practice because they are under the misguided idea that you need to be a fit, skinny, white girl & have the ability to twist yourself into a pretzel and will have to completely change your diet and lifestyle, losing all our friends in the process! Well who would show up for that? Not me.
Lucky then that yoga doesn’t ask this of you. Yoga just asks us to show up with some regularity – as much as is feasible for you. Because it is a scientific system, obviously the more you show up the greater the benefits you will receive. It gives us the tools to cultivate our own self transformation if that is what we desire.
Here’s four reasons why just showing up on your mat on a regular basis is enough.
1. It gives you the opportunity to slow down, to turn the volume down on some of that racket in the mind just by taking a few slower, deeper breaths. Simple and effective.
2. It provides you with a space where you can start to move your limbs in a targeted way to shift energy in and around the body, invariably leaving us with a sense of lightness and better connection with our sensory perception.
3. If you’re reluctant initially, know that it’s highly likely that within 10 minutes of the class commencing that you will be a completely different frame of mind.
4. Unhealthy traits/habits tend to drop away the more we practice yoga. It might take a few years, but inevitably the diet will change, and better choices will be made around habitual behaviours. This is because we generally move beyond our initial entry point, which is usually the physical asana practice, and dive deeper into the vast expansiveness of the scientific system that forms overall yogic health.
Remember your yoga does not have to be based on forming postures alone – it can also include sitting quietly in reflection, practicing meditation techniques such as sensing the body’s feedback, getting in touch with the breath to help soothe the nervous system and release contraction throughout the body.