Yoga
Life Before Yoga & Body Awareness
Prior to yoga, I had poor body awareness, I didn’t get signals from my body until it was dire, when I needed to eat, I was famished and I stuffed myself with food, when I needed to use the bathroom it was an emergency. I also didn’t feel emotions until they were very strong, so I would feel numb most of the time, until I was angry, frustrated or overwhelmed. I thought all I needed was my brain, my thoughts, I was mistaken in believing that was all the information that I needed. Then found yoga and finally connected with my body and boy there is so much wisdom there once I was able to attune to it. Our body and our emotions hold the truth, the mind with its thoughts can spin things a hundred ways, but the body and emotions always hold the truth.
Yoga Practice & Learning the Poses
Yoga is multifaceted. It includes the most commonly know asanas (physical postures) but actually there are 8 limbs of yoga which include breath work and mantras. These different practices within Yoga has truly been transformative for me. When I first started out with yoga, I was absolutely clueless, I didn’t understand what the words meant (chaturanga, downward dog, shavasana, etc) or the proper way to move my body into those poses. I found my yoga teacher at a group class, I was drawn to her gentle nature and how she attended to each student. I met with her once a week, for about 10 months and she helped me connect with my body, and fine tune the yoga postures so that I wasn’t straining my lower back or neck.
Breathwork & Mantras
I also expressed to her my feels of anxiety and she then introduced me to breath work. There are so many different variations of breath work, but the ones that I like the most are: 1. Left nostril breathing (which is exactly what it sounds like, you close down your right nostril with your right thumb and breath slowly in and out of the left nostril. 2. Alternate nostril breathing (with your right thumb over your right nostril and right ring finger over your left nostril, you alternate by breathing in through the left nostril (close the right), then breath out the right nostril (close the left), then in through the right (close the left), then out through the left (close the right), and repeat. 3. Breath of Fire - this one needs more instruction but essentially you are exhaling through your nose with some force so there is a gentle “pump of the belly”, this is quite an invigorating breath but can do some magical things (one thing to note is that you should not do the breath of fire during your period as it can cause increased discomfort.
I also want to talk a little about the mantras, the most common one that you may know is “om” which means the divine and infinite. Another one is “Om Mani Padme Hum” which brings together compassion and wisdom.
The mantras are powerful, and if you are not spiritually inclined or perhaps you have a different spiritual belief, you can still benefit from them. The reason behind this is the vibration of the sound. Our bodies are filled with water and so sound can resonate and help release stuck energies. Chanting a mantra 3, 11, 22, 33..etc up to 108 is a great way to benefit from them. You can find these mantras on Spotify and other music platforms.
Getting Started & Resources
If you feel called to start practicing yoga, but feel intimidated, you can always start out with a Yin Yoga, or Yoga Nidra class these are gentle, restorative yoga classes that can be a great entry point into Yoga.
If you have trouble finding a yoga class nearby and/or prefer an online platform, I would recommend my Yoga teacher’s website, she has numerous pre-recorded classes that include all of the above limbs of Yoga that I discussed above. Her monthly membership is under $50/ month. https://www.alliegeerflow.com
