Why do I do yoga every day?

I am a firm believer in health and wellness. My body is the vessel I’ve been given in this time and space.  I do my best to love and honor it, even when our current society causes us to judge and even hate our bodies.  Ever since I was young I have had an innate knowing that my body was my temple.  By caring for my body, I can be in this physical plane longer and more comfortably.  In fact, it is an act of self-love and a tool for inner growth. 

When did I start working out?

I can remember doing Denise Austin videos back in my tween years, going for walks, riding my bike, and jogging as ways to stay active and healthy.  Not that I didn’t eat junk food, but I favored fruits and vegetables over candy and cookies from a young age.  The older I got, the more I wanted to eat healthy.  Of course, as I learned more about food I began making better and better food choices.

In that process, my empathy led me to a vegetarian diet.   I did not want to be responsible for the suffering of those sweet animals.  For four years, I ate a very healthy vegetarian diet with very low breads and lots of fresh veggies and legumes.  I didn’t know it at the time, but the vegetarian diet was very hard on my body.  Looking back at pictures, I can see I was pale and sickly looking.  I don’t remember ever feeling bad, but clearly I was not getting something I needed.  

How did I get healthier?

It wasn’t until my daughter turned two that I decided to go back on meat in order to help her with her eczema.  I had found some positive feedback about a diet from Bee Wilder.  It ended up being a complete change in my lifestyle. It took months (in some ways years) to implement, but I no longer ate any processed foods,  I began getting better quality meat and veggies, and I added lots of fats to my diet.  Little did I know at the time but this diet was so much better suited to my Vata dosha (check out Ayurveda at Banyan Botanicals to learn your dosha).

How did that go?

It is now almost 15 years later and I still pretty much follow this diet.  I feel my best eating this way.  Do I miss certain foods?  Of course, but I’d rather feel good.  Over the years I have added in some foods that seem to work with my body but I also do my best to limit foods that don’t.  In this time, I’ve become very in tune with my body and what it is telling me.  It is even through this diet that I was introduced to many healing techniques that I still do today (nadi shodhana, thymus thumping, adrenal stimulation, and much more).

Which led me here…

It is a deep connection and love for my body that leads me to eat healthy, workout, and meditate.  I truly want to care for my mind, body, heart, and Soul.  It is a way of saying ‘I love you’ to me.  Every morning I get up early to have time to do a small workout, yoga, and a mediation.  On my rest days, I only do yoga and my meditation.  Yoga isn’t about a workout to me, though many times it is one.  It is about connecting with my body in a moving meditation.  I have done yoga since the early 2000s, but it is now a completely different practice for me.  What used to be stretching and a workout is now about looking inward and acknowledging how my body feels or where my mind is at in a particular day.  Yoga is a spiritual practice for me these days.

What if yoga doesn’t seem like a meditation?

I can remember not all that long ago doing yoga in the morning before work and thinking about this or that during my practice.  It was much more about pushing to make a hard pose and just going through the motions.  Now, my mind is always in the moment (or thinking about teaching yoga when my mind wanders).  I credit meditation outside of yoga practice to slowing my mind down during my practice.  I love listening to what my body is telling me.  So many times, it is how we react in yoga that shines a light on how we react in our day to day lives.  Yoga is a powerful tool in introspection.

I love it so much that…

I almost never skip a day of yoga.  Even on a migraine day, I will do some light neck and shoulder yoga followed by a guided migraine meditation.  It always makes my day better.  I feel lighter, more connected, less pain in the case of a migraine, more awake on a day that I’m sleepy, and ever so much more connected to me and the day that I am starting.

But an hour of yoga practice every day?!

Now, when I say every day, that doesn’t mean an hour long practice.  Most days I workout from 10 to 20 minutes, yoga from 10 to 30 minutes, and a 30 minute meditation.  To me, it isn’t about quantity but consistency and quality.  I can remember doing 45 minute HIIT workouts in the mornings to see little to no results.  Now, I feel the 10 minute workouts yield more.  Why?  In my opinion, I have shed so much stress from my body.

Ditch the stress!!!

Stress puts your body in fight or flight.  Your body is not concerned about putting on muscle when it thinks there’s grave danger all around you.  Fight or flight means your body is running the bare essentials programming to keep you alive!  Chronic stress can really hold you back in healing and working out; it even suppresses your immune system. 

How do you let go of stress?

Yoga and meditation are great for reducing stress.  After teaching a yoga or meditation class, the students almost look high. Yup.  I know that I feel so chill after yoga and meditation.  The practices bring you into the moment, letting go of all that no longer serves you as you surrender to the peace of the inner you.  As I allow my attention to move inwards, I let go of my story and the chitta vriti (fluctuations of the mind, aka-relentless mind chatter).  I find peace in listening for what my body needs, has to tell me, show me, or  even release. 

 In the process of listening to your body, you begin to understand and love it even more.  It is on the mat that I give my body center stage.  Through asana, I have begun to understand my body. With understanding comes forgiveness.  I now better understand my body’s pain and limitations.  I am leaning in to learning more and using the mat to explore that knowledge.  With the understanding and forgiveness, I can approach it all with loving kindness. With more compassion for me, I am capable of offering more compassion to others.

When was the last time you were on your mat?  Were you listening to what your body was telling you?  What did you hear?  Share in the comments, on FaceBook, or Instagram!

Interested in one-on-one yoga classes?  Contact me or visit Yoga Services for more info!