WHAT YOGA MEANS TO ME

The first question we got asked during our yoga teachers training was “what does yoga mean to you”? 

Now don’t get me wrong, I had plenty of reasons to why I practice yoga, but I couldn’t find the proper words to answer to this question. It wasn’t until recently that I found the answer to this question.

Earlier I would have told you that yoga helps you to find peace of mind, balancing, and besides being great for the mind, yoga also does wonders to the body. Apart from this I would have struggled to explain the deeper meaning of yoga. 

Keep in mind that yoga could have a completely different meaning to you, which is fine. Yoga isn’t a fixed thing, neither are we, our perceptions are different, which makes us unique, yet the same in many ways.

But now, my answer would be quite different. The thing that transforms a simple gymnastics class into a yoga class is the connection to the breath, making it mindful. Working with the body to find resistance, while maintaining your breath, finding silence in the midst of a storm.

The mind and body will react to the postures creating resistance, some postures ask us to challenge ourselves and find our limits. Connecting to our breath help us observe the body in these postures.

In the end I can talk about this topic for hours, but you really have to experience it for yourself. You have to be ready to transform and grow. Because yoga isn’t just an exercise you do, a real yoga practice challenges us. You might even feel sensations or emotions you were unaware of, stored deep inside yourself.

So what does yoga mean to me? Yoga to me is a lifestyle that isn’t limited to the yoga mat, my teacher would say that “the real yoga practice starts the moment you leave the yoga mat”, to which I have to agree. Yoga has transformed my life, helping me to be present and aware in my everyday life. It challenges me, shakes me to my core, and there’s a lot of resistance, which I observe, and ultimately helps me grow.

Yoga helps me to find balance at times where I had non. It helps me breathing and flowing through life and being present to experience life as it is. But most importantly it has given me moments of bliss which I experience during and after my practice.

Yoga to me is meditation in action, and because of that I can’t keep this beautiful practice to myself, which is why I’m teaching it.

Expect more yoga related blogpost from now on, where I’ll be sharing my journey on and beyond the yoga mat, going in depth on certain topics and simply sharing the practice I love. 

One Love & Namasté