Why We Do Yoga

Yoga is not for everyone but we always practice it at FitFarms holistic weight loss boot camp. I’ve come across quite a few people who are adamant it’s not for them and I usually suggest they have another a go as it’s often not realised that there are many different forms of yoga -hatha, bikram, ashtanga; personally I practice Iyengar and have for about fifteen years, but yes I too have been to yoga classes and found the style is not for me. Anyway one of the things I like about Iyengar is the focus on correcting postures and utilising equipment in order for people to be able to work into poses that they may not otherwise be able to get into, making it inclusive (and beneficial) for absolutely everyone.

Despite this some people can find it quite demotivating and/or frustrating if they can’t get into postures that they would like or pressurise themselves by feeling like they should be able to. For me there’s something I quite like about not being able to do certain ones -I like the challenge, but I find there’s also an element of relaxation in that, in having to accept limitation and just be ok with it before trying to improve; try to force it and your body still won’t do it, it just becomes rigid (and worse case painful); accept and relax and allow your body to do as it will in its own time and it will eventually get there with a bit of patience (sometimes years!) and perseverance.

I also like that when you eventually get there you discover that its not the end of the story, often it’s merely the preface, sometimes you find there’s another aspect that you hadn’t noticed when you started, or some fine tuning that’s necessary, or you realise the only purpose of a pose was to prepare you for another, and the challenges and learning continues. For me it’s a practice I’ve found that I sort of feel worse about as I’ve improved! Not that I’ve physically got worse but that I’m more aware and in a contradictory way I feel better about -perfectly imperfect. Having written all of this I now realise I haven’t exactly covered the topic I intended when I started so will save that for another time, however I feel it’s a good time to point out how yoga is often considered more a lifestyle and have to reflect on how much of my own experience through yoga applies to my everyday life and attitude towards it, and encourage you to question the same -how do you feel about limitations or challenges? are you accepting of situations? do you try to force that what wants to resist?

I apologise if anyones read this far thinking ‘thats five minutes I’m never getting back!’as I appreciate it’s a little esoteric, but I tend to think the outside effects the inside and vice versa so for anyone who’s never really ‘got’the whole yoga thing perhaps some of this may help to demystify it.

Image credit to yogajournal