Why Yoga Is A Personal Thing

Why Yoga Is A Personal Thing

Even though people do yoga and yoga teacher trainings with others. The reality is yoga is a personal path despite if we do it with others.

Embark

For me yoga has been a journey, and continues to be. Even as I embark on this training, I am still unsure if I love all elements of yoga.  

I love that this practice allows me to connect to myself.  As an empathy and giver to others, I often give so much to myself to others. This practice allows me to give back to myself and in the future, share and give to others.  

Forces

It forces me to slow down. I work full time and have a number of side hustles. While this fuels me, I need something that relaxes me. 

And yoga allows me to be unified with a strong sense of self. Practicing yoga allows me to be more present in my daily activities and with myself. 

Encouraged

The yoga instructor I was seeing recently was amazing. She focused on an introduction to yoga and encouraged new people to try more challenging poses to help build our confidence. 

For example, we would work on handstands using two chairs. This was quite empowering.  I feel that I have had a love/hate relationship with yoga over the past 15 years. 

The yoga instructor also offered a solstice yoga at the turn of each season. I participated in all four sessions each year, for years. 

Session

Each session was 3 hours of restorative yoga and rest. This practice really spoke to me.  Over the years, I found comfort in this collective practice during the rollercoasters in my life.  

This same yoga teacher hasn’t been able to offer these solstice days due to Covid.   I feel it is missing in my practice. 

When I moved to Waterloo, I had tried hot yoga a few times. It wasn’t until I really needed to ground myself, after my grandfather was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, that I joined a hot yoga studio.  

I sought anything that could allow me to rest and recharge from the caregiving I was providing to both him and my grandmother. 

Connection

The connection to the community at the yoga studio was so powerful. From the connections made with staff and other students, I was able to find some peace in an incredibly difficult time.  

Community of the yoga studio was paramount in me processing my grief.  This allowed me to connect not only to myself but to others as well.  

Earth

Connection to the earth with others in a shared and collective space allowed me to ground myself.  To me yoga is about that connection in this community and to self. It is also incredibly grounding to share in a collective practice.  

Yoga is more of a mental practice to me than physical exercise.  I love that they mentioned this in the video as well.  

While I am physically active in my daily life, yoga has been more of a mental challenge than anything at this point.  I feel I often struggle with my belief in myself to do some of the more challenging poses.  

Perhaps I find the restorative and yin practices less physically demanding, while trying to focus my mental state during this practice.   

Pranayama 

However, I find I am getting more comfortable with the pranayama pieces as I love meditation and I am most happy when I am guiding others in a meditation practice.   

I feel creating positive energy really relates back to the notion of karma.  To me, yoga encompasses this reflective time, meditation and breathwork. 

Ultimately though, yoga, to me, is happiness.  It allows me to rest and restore when I am feeling “off” or not centred.  

It is a way to release stress but also recharge my mind and body.  What really stood out for me was the dichotomy of the notion of yoga being both a destructive element and a unifier as mentioned in the video.