What does Yoga mean to you?
What yoga means to me & Why I’m training to teach and bring classes to Nest + Nurture…..
Yoga has been in my life since the moment I could walk. Watching my mum practice Iyenga yoga planted a seed that I would tend to later in life when I needed it most.
I feel yoga is one of the most important tools I have been gifted in my life. It has become a part of a way of life for me. It has been my teacher, my healer and my friend.
Regular yoga practice creates mental clarity for me by resetting my mind and giving me a sense of calmness. It has helped toward healing my body and mind and continues to deliver new gifts as I grow and become more aware of my purpose, my body and my state of mind. I am constantly humbled by yoga and my own bodies wisdom as well as the growth I have witnessed, although slow because of my circumstances it has never asked more of me than I can do and I have learnt to be patient.
Yogas meaning ‘Unity’ is like a flower that opens up layer after layer of new growth and meaning.
I feel grounded to the Earth in my body after practice and therefore feel the unity between myself and the Earth, my mind feels relaxed and calm with a connection of oneness to an energy that is greater than myself and that gives me a sense of unity with my spiritual practice too. I feel my mind, body and heart become congruent giving me unity of self and a sense of purpose in other areas of my life which feel woven through the awareness of self in my practice. So I have come to understand Unity as a place of holding, unity of awareness, creativity, strength, humility, kindness and purpose - each description holding more than one word could describe.
It has become a lifestyle choice of being true to who I am and honouring my own unique authenticity, reminding myself yoga does not judge or discriminate and so I am gentler with myself, more patient and forgiving which ripples out in to other areas of my life.
Yoga is a tool and a friend, it brings me clarity when I feel lost, stillness when I seem to be surrounded by chaos, energy when I feel stuck and need uplifting and most of all it gives me a sense of coming home, a place where I belong and is always ready to receive whatever I bring.
Yoga allows me to listen to my own needs and that of others, it gives me a sense of being able to manage when I feel vulnerable. It gives me a powerful connection to my environment, my body, my spirit, my mind and a spiritual source of my own interpretation of a god.
It allows me space to breath and recognise which parts of myself I am still hiding from. It shines a light on the darkness I am unable to hold.
Yoga gives me an opportunity to give back, I feel I want to share its wisdom and nurture others that need it.
It has nurtured and taught me to love my body and all its imperfections, it has taught me to accept my mind and it’s cycles of emotion and these are the things that make me want to pass it’s wisdom on to another. It is a gift that brings a knowing within and sets a person free from the mind and that is something that once you have found you cannot help but want to share with others.