After leading many beginner programs I feel very privileged for the opportunity to share the yogic path to people that are willing to show up for who they are and where they are. We create a safe and comfortable space at Divine Flow Yoga so the authenticity that yoga brings can shine throughout the duration of your inward and outer experience. I have heard many times “oh, I can do yoga… it is for me.” As a community we can let go of the pressures to be a certain way. Letting go is the new surrender.
If you think you are not bendy enough or you have no balance or your thighs are just too large, please think again. Everybody has a yoga body – and this valuable practice can help you make peace with your yoga body.
Have you avoided yoga before because you think you need to have a lean body to actually do yoga? Does being flexible mean you are “good” at doing yoga? What is the yoga body? How has the image become so important in the Western yoga world? Let’s try to untangle this entwining of concepts.
The yoga body
We are all affected by cultural expectations, the achievement orientated, competitive, perfection-driven, status-seeking, external-focused nature of society. The path of yoga is to awaken and transform. Let’s clear out the social pressures of how you are meant to look and behave, and replace with a deep knowing and acceptance of who you are. After leading many beginner programs I often hear “oh, I can do yoga, I should have started years ago.”
I too felt the physical demand of not having the yoga body. I naturally felt stiff from years of working behind a computer and wearing heels! The glamorous corporate attire was not as inwardly rewarding! I trust to share with many of my beginner students that my greatest philosophy as a yoga teacher is to create space first, and movement will follow. Our bodies are designed to move and we have created Divine Flow Yoga with aim to invite the ability for mobility.
I have shared this to remind you to make peace with your bodies through the practice itself and how yoga can bring you home to yourself or feel whole again.
Yoga is about diversity and unity, a collective community that comes to realise that separation is an illusion, and that ultimately we all share purpose and dreams.
5 things to do post reading this article OR when you are in the studio next:
- Write yourself a love letter of acceptance
- Practice like nobody’s watching
- Move the way your body craves to move
- Jump in the ocean and let go of expectation on yourself
- Ground yourself by taking a walk in nature or enjoying a warm tea!