Yoga

FINDING YOUR TRUE NATURE THROUGH YOUR YOGA PRACTICE

As I head off for my usual yoga practice today I feel slightly unsure and agitated.  The beginning of the day is always the time for me when my demons can catch me.  When my mind can slip away from me and all the whirling can begin.  I feel as though I am helpless to stop it and the thoughts begin to build, slowly at first and then they whip themselves into a frenzy.  Cascading, falling, looping, out of my reach, down towards the darkness.

It is my yoga practice that helps me to stop this nonsense and stop it quickly.  These thoughts are not real, they are learned conditioning that I am allowing to take hold and terrorise me.  Fear is just that, a thought that gets out of control and builds in strength before you stop it.  Something that could take place can be far more worrying than something that actually has.  What will be can torture you long into the night and way into the morning if you are not careful.

My yoga practice takes me back to my breath each and every day and that is the true blessing for me from my yoga.  After some time of practicing daily I can now see what a change within has occurred through my yoga practice.  These whirling thoughts I can get a hold of now before they turn into monsters.  How very relieving.

Many people feel that yoga is all about putting your foot behind your head and sitting in lotus posture and definitely it is about that also, but letting go of a busy mind is by far the most positive aspect of yoga, for me.

I begin my practice today with a busy mind, thinking, worrying, did I, could I?  Busy, busy, busy.  I breathe my way through the suryanamaskara A’s, I do 5 of them.  By the time I am at number 3 I am thinking so loudly I wonder if the lady next to me can hear.  Turn it down I remind myself and begin to listen to the sound of my breath.  Aaaahhh, here it comes, sweet silence.  The whirling starts to slow and my forehead feels less full.

Yoga can still the whirling of the mind, Patanjali, the age old sage has been telling us this for centuries.  I now believe this to be true.  Slowing down the whirling of our minds can bring astounding amounts of relief and actual clarity. 

It is once this clarity begins to dawn that our true natures can start to shine through.  We start our life as empty canvases and then life and all its good and bad experiences fill this canvas with designs and clutter.  Yoga can help to clean the canvas and take us back to the beginning.  This is where we want to be, our true selves.  Tricky stuff.

After nearly 2 years of regular daily practice I feel I am living my life far closer to my true nature than 2 years previously.  This is a wonderful thing and my life has changed greatly since then.  Most of my interactions with people are cleaner and sweeter.  I don’t jump down their throats as I used to, ready to defend myself.  I listen deeply and let the people have their say, they are happy and so am I.

Life as me is actually very sweet and fulfilling.  My partner has seen these changes and he is happy.  Yoga is bringing me closer to my true self and in turn that is bringing me closer to him.  Yoga is helping our marriage and family grow together in a healthy and conscious manner.  It never ceases to amaze me the benefits of yoga, they are far reaching and abundant.

It is great to be me, my name is …………………..

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