I love yoga. I love how yoga has opened me up, how the meditation through movement has given me perspective and calm when I’ve needed it most.
Yoga is a life lesson, a tool, a antidote, a haven, a challenge, a happy place, not merely just a physical practice.
Yoga calls you back to your mat, it creeps into your muscle memory and it insists that you repeat the the postures, that you follow the sequences (or sometimes not) and that you do the breath….don’t get me started on breath…will leave that for another post.
During the hour of practice, only when once in savasana you become aware of your thoughts again, and you see, that is the key to the physical practice of yoga for me. It’s that ‘quiet mind’ during the practice, and the slow return of the thoughts…the awareness of your thought patterns and the step back to see the bigger picture.
Yoga calls you back to your mat for the sweat and the opening of your body. It is empowering and freeing to rediscover your strength and flexibility and discover a balance between the two.
Somehow it’s just always a such pleasure and privilidge to be in a room full of yogi’s, to know that there will be a savasana to look forward to, and like minded souls to practice with.
There are too many benefits to yoga to list here, but just to name few that stand out for me;
Yoga reduces stress, detoxes, keeps you flexible and strong, releases endorphin’s, yoga gives you perspective, gets you out of your head and into your body and slap-bang in the present moment, increases circulation, tones and strengthens your body…..and the list goes on.
Here is link to a more complete overview of the benefits of yoga.
But simply, Yoga provides somewhere to rest your bones, somewhere that everyone has to be quiet for an hour (which is a really good thing) and somewhere it is okay to do the noisy breath. Do you love yoga too? I would love to hear from you.
Happy practice and namaste yoga kitchen friends
