What's your Yoga philosophy?

Before I did my yoga teacher training I had my reservations about ‘Yoga Philosophy’…. I have never been a philosophy person, or so I thought. It was only during the course that I started to realize that, as with the question “What is Yoga?’, the philosophy of yoga is a very personal and individual topic with an unlimited array of possible explanations. So when we were asked to write our own yoga philosophy, with no limits or restrictions…. This is what I came up with….

Yoga is a journey of the self, through the self to the self- The Bhagavad Gita

For me this quote says it all. A personal journey with no time restrictions, physical demands or defined goals….. It brings the focus inwards, develops the awareness and teaches you to listen to your body and loose the ego once you step onto your mat.

My yoga philosophy:

• ·      YOU space
  ·      Own Voice
  ·      Getting to know you
  ·      Accepting you today

YOU space

It is a journey and it will be different for everyone but for me the important thing to remember is that there is no finish line or ultimate goal. For me yoga began as a need to satisfy an inner curiosity. I started with self practice and flash cards falling around my bedroom trying to twist my body into different shapes and angles and getting frustrated when it all didn’t quite come together- this was the battle with my ego. I soon learned that when I stepped onto the mat all I needed to think of was my mat space. Your mat- is your space, whether you are in a class of 100 people or in a room on your own - it’s all about you!

Own Voice

So many people spend so much time running away from that little voice in their heads, we are too busy with life and looking after other people that we neglect or ignore what our own voice is saying. Yoga is about finding that inner voice, having the confidence to be true to it and the commitment to yourself to practice it. There is no gold medal for being the best in your first class; yoga is more of a lifetime achievement award.

 Getting to know you

By creating YOU space and listening to your inner voice you will start to become aware of your body. Learning about your body by working through each area in different poses and pranayama, discovering your strengths and challenges. By bringing the focus into your space and leaving the ego off the mat you will let your body guide you to your limitations and also show you how and when to push them.

Accepting you today

Yoga is a journey and every day is different. Every time you get onto the mat you need to create YOU space, listen to your voice, become aware of how your body feels at that moment, for that practice and then accept you, as you are in that moment.

As a teacher this is the philosophy I want to teach my students by. I understand that for a lot of people who come to Yoga classes it is about the physical movement and challenges and they don’t realize the importance of these four points in order to get the most out of their practice.

Throughout my classes I would like my students to take the time on their mat as ‘Me time’, learn to listen to that inner voice, develop that awareness in their bodies and accept themselves for how they are at that particular moment on that particular day. 

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Don't take you for granted!

Here I am at the end of week 4 and I can’t believe it’s all over. What a month…. When I walked into the studio on that first day I was filled with a mix of nerves, excitement and hope. Hope that I would find the reassurance I was searching for that I had made the right decision leaving my job as a marketing manager and swapping my stilettos for bare feet and my yoga mat! Yesterday I walked out of that same studio filled with nerves, excitement and confidence…. Confident in my decision to leave my job and follow my dream, confident in my ability as a yoga teacher but above all- confident in me!

My biggest learning curve in the last month did not come from the physical poses, Sanskrit terms or even philosophy; it came from me…. Learning to love me! It sounds so simple but as I learned sometimes the most important things get taken for granted and forgotten about. Realising this is, in itself, a challenge but the hard part is changing your actions to make you number one again, that reassurance I was searching for needed to come from me. 

So yeah, looking back, it was a challenging month; physically- because I was doing up to 4 hours of strong practice a day, which my body wasn’t used to but it was a good kind of body aching and tiredness. Knowing I was working my body hard, getting stronger and also developing my practice, gave me the extra energy I needed to get out of bed every day. Mentally – every day I left feeling like my brain was at maximum capacity learning about the history and philosophy of yoga but somehow each day I was able to push it a little bit further and fit more information in. I was ready for the yoga overload, I thought the philosophy elements would be the toughest bits for me but I was so wrong. Now, I’m not the biggest philosophy fan but I like that I have come away from the training with a deeper understanding on the roots of yoga the various paths and history. But by far the most difficult part of the course was the emotional challenges I faced personally- I was not prepared for this.

About half way through the course I hit a wall- I felt totally lost and wondered what I was doing, I taught a session one morning and it just didn’t feel right… I was starting to panic. Then a very good friend of mine literally pressed the pause button on the whirlwind of thoughts in my head and put some sense back in. He helped me to take a step back and see that I was just getting wrapped up in everyone’s emotions around me, I was loosing focus on me, my goals and my true feelings. I was worrying too much about what I ‘should’ be saying or what I ‘shouldn’t’ be doing and I was loosing the ME part in teaching. I quickly snapped out of it and started to enjoy every day and focus on each day. I stopped worrying about the exam at the end of it, what I needed to know and didn’t and instead I looked at what I could learn each day from the wonderful teachers and other students around me.

Above all, I started listening to me and doing what I needed to do to make me happy. I realized what was holding me back and what was frustrating me, myself! I needed to start loving me…. Now some people might see that as a crazy statement and I’m sure a few eyebrows will be raised. But if you think about it, it is very simple…. If you do not love yourself how can you love something else or give it your all? If you are constantly trying to make yourself look better, not just physically but even in the eyes of other people you loose focus on what is important, you loose focus on you. I needed to put me first… It is not about being selfish, it is about being true to myself. So this is what I am doing, it is difficult. By nature I am a yes person but slowly I am learning sometime no is the right answer. This also comes onto the mat…. As the weeks went on and we had our morning practice and the teacher suggested going deeper if we felt like it… I gave myself the option, sometimes I took the deeper posture and sometimes I didn’t. But whatever pose I did, I committed to it and that gave me a better sense of achievement than being in a pose and feeling pain or counting the breaths until I could release. However, by not being so hard on my body I strangely found my practice really improved!

So I left the studio yesterday for the last time filled with mixed emotions,

Sad that this part of the journey is over, Relief to have finished and passed my exams, Excitement looking to the next stage in this journey but above all Happy- really really happy and proud of me; knowing that I have achieved the first part of my dream, it is a reality and now I can start living it! 

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Hello Mat.... Goodbye Ego!

As I am coming to the end of my 1-month intensive yoga training course I am looking back over the last 4 weeks with mixed emotions. It has definitely been intense but also challenging physically, emotionally and mentally. I was ready for the yoga overload but I don’t think I was prepared for the personal journey and challenges I have faced. Being so immersed in something can cause you to loose clarity on other things, I definitely got a little lost along the way and got too wrapped up in the final goal but luckily I was given a reality check and found my focus again.

Writing my final week summary, reflecting over what I have learnt on this personal journey really got me thinking about how my whole attitude towards yoga has developed and changed along with my practice since I first stepped on the mat in my bedroom about 7 years ago. It also made me realize the impact my ‘of the mat’ life has on my ‘on the mat’ practice.

Actually that first time I tried yoga I don’t even think I had a mat…. I just did it in my bedroom with the TV on in the background and looking at picture cards of poses with written and visual cues. There was about 70 cards in the pack and I was done in about 40minutes- looking back I don’t think I can even call it yoga, more of a ‘lets see how quick I can get my body in and out of these poses and definitely leaving out the last ones lying on the ground (Savasna)! So I did this once or twice a week for a month or two and couldn’t really understand what the fuss was about at all. I remember thinking I am just not the yoga type but a friend of mine dragged me along to a yoga class and I decided I’d give it one last shot- that inner competitive streak!

My first class on a yoga mat in a studio was not a life changing experience but it was the start of a new interest in yoga and a realization of my true ability rather than my own home yoga style! I actually got a bit frustrated with the teacher in that first class, she kept taking me out of poses and making me bend my knees, shorten my stance etc. For the first half of the class I felt a bit like a puppet and didn’t really know what was going on, but then I started to notice that this yoga stuff was actually tough and my muscles were really working and shaking….. so what had I been doing??!!

That first class definitely got my curiosity going and I started going to classes regularly, although I still was not getting the part at the end of class where you had to lie flat on the mat and relax. Savasna and I had a little bit of a battle for the first year, I could try to make up lots reasons for it but honestly, it is quite simple, I couldn’t give myself me time. I didn’t value relaxation time; in my head I did that when I slept. Looking back my practice was very intense, I went 6 days a week and did hot power yoga and I loved challenging my body- my yoga practice absolutely matched my life. I was working at a ridiculous pace, constantly rushing and never seemed to have enough time to do the simple things. Everything I did had to be at a really fast or intense pace and where I was trying to prove myself in my work life I was doing the same on my mat, ego played a huge part.

I decided to train to be a pregnancy yoga teacher and then a mum & baby yoga teacher about 3 years ago and this was a big turning point in my own yoga practice. Initially I was a bit skeptical about how these classes would work and if the clients would get enough from the classes. But I absolutely loved it and this really calmed me down in my own yoga classes and slowly but surely in my day to day life. Now, I was still working at a crazy pace but I was slowly learning about me time and how yoga was the perfect opportunity to take advantage of me time.

How much of your life affects your practice? When you are having a bad day or land on your mat after a stressful day at work does that impact on your practice or can you take off your shoes, leave your ego and any stress or worry at the door and stand on your mat as you, the real you and choose you as your intention for your class? Bringing just me to the mat was a big challenge for me and sometimes I still find it hard to be in the present. I used to catch myself thinking about the day ahead or the previous events of the week and have that guilty look on my face as if the teacher knows I am not ‘in the moment’! Now, my mind still wanders and I regularly have to bring myself back to my mat space, but that’s ok, for me it’s more important that I have left my ego at the door and my practice is all about me!

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Feel free to just be you!

Are you strong enough to practice or just loud enough to preach?

When it comes to making decisions in life most of us seek approval. Very few of us are strong enough or confident enough to make the decision on our own and put it into practice. Now, there are definitely extremes- some people need help choosing what to have for dinner but that’s not what I mean. I’m not talking about being indecisive, what I mean is decisions which evoke change. This can be as simple as changing the colour of your hair to then the more complex like changing jobs or moving countries. I have faced many situations over the years which were ‘life changing’ and I always sought approval or reassurance from friends and family. It was strange though, because even when I got their approval or opinions I sought more confirmation that what I was doing was the right thing- Why? Because I wasn’t sure myself. I was avoiding taking the responsibility of making my own decision, caring too much about what other people thought. I had to speak about it to make it real, to convince myself.

Be honest with yourself, if you want to change a situation, any situation, how do you do it? Do you preach it to a group of people, friends, family, colleagues etc. until you have enough people with you, encouraging you and supporting you and then put it into action? Or do you go with how you really feel, make the decision and let people have the freedom of choice to comment, judge or follow? Looking back I absolutely sought reassurance, in many things, but it is only recently that I have realized the freedom you get from making your own decisions.

Earlier this year when I decided I wanted to leave my job as a marketing manager and follow my dream of becoming a full time yoga teacher I didn’t seek approval. This was a new thing for me. I made the decision; I knew it was what I wanted to do so I did it. It felt strange, I got mixed reactions from people and there were some friends who thought I was loosing the plot. It made me smile, and to be honest it still does, my little yoga buzz has caused quite a stir for some people. Many of these people are very opinionated and continuously speak about being different from everyone else, about not conforming.  But it surprises me how these are often the very people who like to preach about things then shy away from putting their expressed thoughts into actions for fear of adverse reaction. What if we all just made choices or decisions and put them into practice and gave other people the freedom to make up their own minds. What if we were strong enough to be honest with ourselves and enjoy that freedom without needing approval from others. At the end of the day once you are true to you does it really matter what other people think?

Think of a lamb in a field, now they know freedom. How often have you seen a little lamb lying down and suddenly jump up and start running? It’s like the thought just came into their head that they wanted to run, so they bounce up and run without a care in the world. Children are quite similar- if they want to do something, they do it- until their parents tell them to stop. How common is it to hear a parent say to a child, stop, you can’t do that… From a child’s point of view they are like the lamb, they feel like running so they run, they don’t stop to think where they are or who is watching. When they have an opinion or something to say they come straight out with out without a second thought, and then you see the parent cringing behind them- this is freedom. When was the last time you ran across the office just because you felt like running, or broke into song or dance on a bus just because you felt like it- we don’t, because we worry about what other people think about how we act and what we do.

Being confident to practice what you believe is the true testament to staying true to who you are, you don’t need to preach it. Listening to that inner voice in your head, you can’t lie to you. You can try to run from it or try to keep yourself so busy that you pretend you don’t hear it but you can’t lie to you. This is something I face regularly in yoga, both in trainings and classes. There seems to be this perception in some yoga circles that you have to stand out from the crowd, be at one with the earth and go against the rat race…. But a lot of the time it is just noise. If someone truly believes it they will just do it, they will follow their heart and won’t need to preach about it or seek approval. What other people say doesn’t matter because inside they are happy, they are being true to themselves.

The next time you face a big decision in life, choose what you want to do, choose what makes you happy.  Be you, not who you think people want you to be and enjoy that new sense of freedom.