What I love most about yoga is how it forces us to face various issues in our lives. It is not just about sitting down and relaxing.
Yoga is not always easy.
Discovering that you cannot touch your toes like someone else your age or older, is a pretty sobering experience. Discovering that your wrists, knees or your hips are too tight to hold certain poses with any degree of confidence or comfort, can be quite discouraging. Past injuries can make certain poses completely unattainable.
Confronting these issues is part of learning acceptance, for who we are, at that very moment.
We cannot change the things that happen to us but we can change our reaction.
Instead of beating ourselves up for not being able to do perfect poses, yoga affords us the time and space in which we can learn to relax into who we are today. If we wish to improve our physical or mental state, yoga can help us to do so at our own pace, whether this means becoming more flexible or simply accepting our limitations.
Lets face it, having limited flexibility is stressful on our joints. Not being able move with ease can cause us to avoid living. Perhaps we do not participate in family activities because of various physical limitations.
This stress can erode our health in more ways than one.
I remind my students that even though we may experience challenges during certain poses, learning to simply breathe and accept, ultimately teaches us how to deal with with stress better in our daily lives.
"All that matters is our ability to breathe in and breathe out.
Yoga practice is a great place to start accepting and loving ourselves.
Have a great day.
Beth
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