Yoga for Kids is becoming increasingly popular in both schools and yoga studios.

Both parents and teachers alike have noticed real improvements from yoga for kids both in terms of overall happiness and general health as well as improved performance in the classroom through better concentration and creative expression.   More and more schools offer kids yoga classes after school hours or during the lunch break and many are already considering bringing kids yoga classes into their school curriculums.

Yoga not only helps kids to become physically more aware and flexible but it can also help to bring them into a state of calm and peace with themselves.  Young minds are naturally very active and our kids are being constantly stimulated by the world around them with there being so much to learn and explore each day.

Kids face a lot of demands ranging from academic studies in the classroom environment through to various sports and physical activities, arts, crafts and musical studies, not to mention social pressures from their peer group in the playground or afterschool. At the end of all this, they have to find time to do their homework, play with friends, spend quality time with their families and last but not least – relax! It takes effort and concentration to slow down a busy mind and that’s where yoga comes in handy .

Yoga has numerous benefits for kids’ bodies and minds.  Ultimately, a primary goal of yoga for kids is to help them to become more centred, balanced and focused.

There are a wide range of benefits of yoga for kids which have been listed here in no particular order of importance:

• Improved academic performance – through several balancing poses (mountain, tree, etc.), kids learn how to focus and improve their concentration and patience. That, in return, can translate into improvements in learning and performance in the classroom.

• Increased strength and flexibility – yoga helps to retain and increase the elasticity of their developing bodies and improve their physical strength as they increase their body awareness, control and coordination with various yoga postures (warrior poses, leg stretches etc.)

• Boost to immune system – increased blood circulation and oxygen flow helps to release the toxins from the body and clear the mucus from lungs and sinuses. Internal organs are being stimulated by postures like twists, forward and backbends.

• Decreased kid-stress – breathing practices, visualisation, meditation and also various forward bends help kids to calm their mind and cope with their emotions. They learn how to make themselves feel better no matter what their outside situations is and through this, build resilience for dealing with life’s challenges.

• Encouragement of healthy choices – kids learn to pause and reflect on the choices they make. They become more aware of their environment, benefits of healthy lifestyle, e.g. importance of nutritious food and being physically active.

• Improved social skills – using games, songs and real life examples in the group environment, kids develop their inner strength and also see how their own actions and words may affect others. Partner poses are good for developing trust and emphasising the importance of teamwork and not letting others down.

• Increased confidence and self-esteem – observing their own progress in a stress free and fun environment, kids learn to become more tolerant and accepting towards themselves and others.

• Improved creativity – using visualisations, games and yoga stories, kids develop and improve their creative thinking and creative performance.

As you can see, all of the above and many more benefits are possible from kids yoga and even better, all these benefits also apply for us adults when we visit a regular yoga class.

When I first started teaching yoga for kids, I didn’t know what reactions to expect from the students and how they would see yoga. I very soon realised how many children already knew of yoga or even had done some poses and/or meditation practice with their parents or siblings at home. They not only enjoy it but also find yoga a ‘cool’ thing to do.

What inspires me most when teaching kids is the receptiveness and genuine openness of children. If they don’t like something, they’ll tell you how it is! And if they enjoy a particular pose or a game, you are rewarded with the biggest smiles or teddy bear hugs you can get.

Kids love the fun of yoga! Most yoga poses have either animal names (turtle, lion, cobra, cat, etc.), or names from life itself (sandwich, tree, wheel, mountain etc.). That makes yoga for them more visual and you can flow from posture to posture being engaged in numerous magical tales and stories. But along with stories, songs and games, there are also plenty of breathing practices, massages and relaxation. The class is structured so that all the important elements of yoga practice are covered and there is good engagement of the whole group.

Yoga has been proved to be beneficial for children with conditions ranging from childhood obesity, ADD and ADHD, various cardiovascular disorders, asthma, muscle tension or weakness just to name a few.

I always look forward to my next kid’s yoga class! It feels like stepping back into my own childhood playground and engaging with my inner child. Where else can I get away with a few silly faces or sing out loud while missing a beat . Everyone has a laugh, and most importantly, everyone is HAPPY!

Helen Worth

Love and laughter,

Helen

I’m really looking forward to starting the 40 Day Yoga Challenge this weekend and I’ve been putting some thought into what I want the Challenge to do for me. Of course, I quickly realised that the Challenge will do absolutely nothing for me unless I make it work for me! So here are 3 things I’m thinking about in the lead up:

• I’m not always so good at thinking through (or executing) self-discipline, so I’m going to work with COMMITMENT instead and produce the same outcome: completing the 40 Day Yoga Challenge. So here’s my overall commitment (declared publicly on the Ten Toes blog!):
  
  I, Emily Pereira, commit myself to completing the 40 Day Yoga Challenge because I really want to do something that will uplift my soul and increase my health and happiness. 

  So expect to see me at the Living Yoga Workshop, the Deeper Yoga Workshop and 30 classes somewhere in between! If you see me, ask me how I’m going with it! I promise I’ll give you an honest answer – and my appreciation for supporting me by keeping me accountable .

• The only way I’m going to be able to make sure I can fulfil my Challenge commitment to myself is to have a PLAN before the Challenge starts on Sunday. So, Sub-commitment A:
  
  I commit to having prepared a schedule for myself for the period of the 40 Day Challenge to ensure I attend 30 classes. 

  (Thank you Google calendar, you’re very helpful!)

• I know that meditation isn’t an official part of the Challenge, but it’s a really important part of yoga practice for me, so it’ll be my personal addition. Sub-commitment B:I commit to meditating for 20-30 minutes everyday for the period of the 40 Day Yoga Challenge. 

  As someone who has committed to similar ways of embracing yoga more deeply in the past, I know the impact it can have – and there is nothing I would recommend more highly! There is nothing else in the world that has ever made me feel that good!

Emily Pereira

So commit with me! Respond to this blog post with YOUR statement of commitment to your 40 Day Yoga Challenge!

Om Yoga!

Habits can easily stand in the way of a healthy, happy existence, but we are infinitely capable of changing our ways.  You wouldn’t be practising Yoga or reading this blog if you didn’t already believe that!  Yogic science tells us that it takes 40 days to fully develop a new habit or to drop a current destructive habit.  So in less than six weeks you could be free of something you want to no longer be bound to, or you could have introduced something to your life that will support your happiness.

Here are my suggested five steps for creating your own 40 Day Project:

1. Pick a habit – just one
Let’s be realistic, too much change all at once is really stressful and we want to set ourselves up for success.  Choosing achievable goals is the first step.  Change is almost always challenging, so be kind to yourself.  Choose something that will make a real difference in your life – the prospect of a big payout from your efforts will be inspiring.

2. Commit by writing it down
There’s something powerful about the spoken word (that’s a whole article, right there) and writing something down is a version of this.  You want to make the goal tangible and yourself accountable for it, rather than allowing it to be some airy-fairy idea floating around the ethers.  Stick a neatly crafted commitment on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, your blog, by your desk, on your dashboard, in your journal…wherever it feels ‘real’.  It can also be helpful to spend some time thinking about and writing down the ways your new habit (or releasing the old one) will make your life better.  This can be your “touchstone” if you have moments when you need to re-motivate yourself.  You may even want to seek out some inspiring quotes by others to add to your own thoughts.

3. Define how you will achieve it
This is your plan for how you will change your habit.  Set a date to start.  Check your calendar for events that might make achieving your goal more difficult than it needs to be. For example, if the habit you want to form is drinking less alcohol, a major social event where you’ll be surrounded by your traditional drinking-buddy crew might make it hard to stick to your plan.  Of course, it’s not always possible to completely avoid temptation and temptation’s presence can also provide a good training ground for doing things differently – but have a strategy for dealing with those situations.  Using our drinking less alcohol example, craft a clever/fun way to say ‘no’ to all the drinks that take you over your decided limit or set a “pumpkin hour” you will head for home.

4. Get support
Choosing who to surround yourself with during your habit-changing 40 days can be tricky – and not always something you have control over.  If you have to work, you’re going to have to interact with those you work with, for example.  However, you don’t have to tell them everything you’re doing, so if they are unlikely to be supportive, just work away at your 40 Day Project quietly alone at work and find support from elsewhere.

Support can come from loads of different places.  Here are some suggestions:

• Friend or family members (often willing to be supportive just because they love you, but where your new habit will affect them, your efforts might also affect their willingness to be supportive)
• Mentor (this may be a friend, an employer or someone who just seems to have appeared in your life for the divine purpose of being a role model and support person)
• Yoga Teachers (they are actually trained to be an impartial, compassionate guide and have experienced personal change and inner growth…along with the difficulties that arise)
• Online forums relating to the topic of your habit (this can be a great way to connect with others who have direct interest and experience in your current situation)

5. Repeat, repeat, repeat!
In other words (or one word…er, repeated, really): practise, practise, practise!  A habit is a behaviour that we engage in over and over again.  So not doing something repeatedly – or repeatedly doing something different – is central to breaking the cycle.

After a while, the behaviour becomes almost automatic – we don’t put much thought into the decision to engage in that behaviour, we just do it. Essentially, you are making a 40 day commitment to being mindful of the decision to engage in a certain behaviour, to bring the process of habit into your awareness and make a different choice each time it comes up.  The more practice you get at this, the quicker and deeper the change will be.

Mindfulness brings up another point – even a behaviour that seems ‘positive’ can be unhelpful if it is not performed mindfully.  Eating lots of fruit and vegetables can be unsupportive of health if they were prepared in ways that doesn’t suit your constitution or other parts of a balanced diet are neglected, for example.  So be mindful of mindfulness when you are choosing words to describe how you would like to change your habit in Step 2.

Apply a balance of determination and patience during your 40 Day project.  Harness your enthusiasm without burning yourself out and never beat yourself up if your plans temporarily fall over – just pick them up and keep going.

Using mindfulness philosophy, you could say that any habit is a bad one – we should all apply mindfulness…in each moment…every day.  I’m working on it.  But in the meantime I’ll use habitually healthy behaviours with as much mindfulness as I can muster to help me along life’s path and will try not to beat myself up about it!

Rachel Pereira

Please tell us your experiences of making and breaking habits by commenting below this post.  Your experiences might really help someone else with their own 40 Day Project!

Sending everyone supportive thoughts for your 40 Day Project,

Rachel

Summer has arrived here in Brisbane and with it, more sun, more heat and more fire element. This excess of fire can have an effect on our overall health as it adds heat to our body’s organs, tissues and it can also affect our moods and state of mind.

Fire Element
The fire element in Oriental Medicine is the only element that contains 4 organs (or rather 3 organs and a heat regulator). The fire element houses the heart which potentially the most important of all as it houses the mind, or also translated as housing ‘consciousness’. Interestingly in Oriental medicine the brain is not considered an organ of great importance, rather the importance lays more on the heart and the kidneys. The heart is considered important because it is considered to be the ‘Emperor’ of the whole bodily system.

When the Emperor is happy and content, the mind is calm, clear and spiritually connected. When the heart is unhappy or disturbed, the mind is troubled and one feels spiritually disconnected. Therefore the heart is connected to our life’s path, our soul’s purpose if you like, this is why it is so important to listen to and nourish the heart.

How do we cherish and nourish the heart?
Through balancing strong and ‘soft’ exercises like yoga and/or tai chi with a supportive alkalizing diet and the cultivation of meditation, contemplation and stillness. We will be working on these ideas and skills in the workshop.

The other organs in the fire element are the pericardium and the small intestine. The pericardium is a strong connective tissue that surrounds the heart and provides lubrication, support and protection to the heart. The small intestine is more about digestion and having good ‘fire’ in the belly to help break down foods for assimilation or elimination.

The fourth organ (not an actual organ in western terms) is called the San Jiao, or triple warmer or triple burner. It is strongly connected to overall metabolism and heat regulation of the body’s internal energies. When the metabolism is healthy and has a warm fire burning, the body’s ability to digest and transport foods and nutrients is greatly increased. This then helps to regulate body weight and reduce any excess weight one may be carrying.

During summer it’s easy to ‘overload’ our system with too much fire. Getting overloaded with heat and fire can lead to conditions like heatstroke, sunburn, headaches, anger, irrationality, psychosis, feelings of being overwhelmed and anxiety attacks, to name a few. If we can learn to work with the fire element and keep it balanced and nourished, it can lead to more joy, fun, laughter, motivation, energy, internal visions, spiritual uplift, good digestion and deeper feelings of compassion for all around us.

Summer is the time of year to dream big, to harness the energy around us to carve our life’s path for the better. Learn to listen to the heart and reduce the focus on the mind. Take time out to connect with your inner space, the space in your chest, to breathe deeply, to feel the warmth that is available to us this season. Be brave, silly, laugh and enjoy.

Mike Hetherington

Namaste,

Mike

Mike Hetherington and Angela Hammond will be presenting a Summer Oriental Yoga Workshop on Sunday 4 Dec 2011 at the Ascot studio in which they will be exploring the fire element in more depth, utilising asana (poses), acupressure techniques and discussing the 5-element theory and how it can help us to live in balance with the flow of the seasons. [Book Now]

Satsang at Ten Toes Yoga Ascot

After a blissful weekend spent in the company of renowned teacher Clive Sheridan and a group of inspiring yogis and yoginis, I came away with renewed enthusiasm for my practice, deep appreciation for the yoga community, a sense of physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation, but most importantly I felt I had reconnected with the teachings of yoga and even had a few glimpses of new possibilities in my practice! I spent the week after veritably floating around, as we sometimes say, ‘feeling the bhav’ (spiritual feeling of yoga) and I got to thinking about the importance of satsang.

Over the course of the weekend workshop Clive brought us together for three sessions devoted to exploring and sharing spiritual ideas, techniques and experiential truths – sessions commonly referred to as satsang. Satsang is a Sanskrit word comprised of two parts, sat = true and sang(a) = company, or the coming together of a group of people to discuss deep truth. For me, satsang can take many forms, from a formal gathering of people listening to a teacher, to sipping a chai with like minded friends sharing our ideas and experiences. The benefits of taking part in satsang can be just as varied, here are some that came to mind this week.

Going Deeper

We generally live in a world preoccupied with the material, the functional, the surface level of things, the things we can see and measure. There are not many work places, schools or families where you can comfortably ask questions like ‘but what does it mean?’, ‘what is the principle behind it?’, ‘what does your intuition say?’, and ‘what can I learn from this?’ For those of us that sense there is a little more to the story, it can be challenging to maintain a balance between the normal worldly perspective and the more philosophical or spiritual view point. Satsang can become an important source of reconnection with forgotten ideas or discovery of new truths that we might struggle to otherwise find. It is the perfect time to explore and discover the vast concepts and practices of yoga that go well beyond stretching and strengthening the physical body.

Community Support and Connection

Aside from the actual ideas shared during satsang, simply spending time with like minded friends can be deeply nurturing, inspiring and supportive. Coming together in satsang gives us a sense of community, a sense that we are not alone as we explore our chosen practice, philosophy or spiritual area and simply by being there we are reinforcing these same feelings for everyone present. By making time for satsang we build richness and vibrancy into the yoga community and establish a space that can recognize the mysteries of life.

Feeling the Bhav

Perhaps the most important aspect of satsang is getting an instant injection of happy yoga vibes (bhav)! For me there is nothing quite so uplifting as hearing a teaching that resonates deeply, and seeing that recognition in friends, new and old, around me. Niggling questions are often answered, enthusiasm renewed, areas that need work come to my attention and techniques for mindfulness are gained. In this busy, stressful modern life we lead, I personally feel we need to use all the tools we can to find some quiet peace, that calm inner joy that’s just waiting to be discovered below the surface of our troubles. For me, satsang is one of those tools.

Where to Find Your Satsang

If you like the sound of deep truth, calm joy and bhav, you’re probably wandering ‘so how do I find it? Finding your own approach to satsang is probably easier than you think, in fact you’re probably already doing it! Here are some of my suggestions:

• Attend a weekend workshop (ask any of your TT teachers for suggestions)
• Attend a short or long retreat
• Attend philosophy discussions
• Sit for group meditations
• Catch up with like minded friends to share ideas (best done with chai)
• Begin your own discussion group
• Take a walk in nature and discover what life has to teach you without words
• Attend a Kirtan (devotional chanting – we have one at Ten Toes this Sunday!)

One final point I would like to share is that no effort is ever wasted. Even if you manage to get to one of these suggestions every now and then, you will still gain many benefits that are often subtle and long lasting.

Jess White

Yours in peace, truth and happy yoga vibes,

Jess White

Jess is a long-time Ten Toes Yoga Teacher and also owns and operates ScissorsRockPaper – Fair Trade Products to support your Yoga Practice and Inner Adventure!

Can you remember why you first started practicing yoga? Trying to touch your toes perhaps? Wanted a cute butt to put in those stretchy lululemon pants? Maybe your mind was racing a million miles an hour and you just needed to slow down. All in all though, you started your yoga practice for you, right? I sure did, depressed, anxious, unmotivated and tired, I needed something for me, to nurture and nourish my spirit. I got that and a whole
lot more, and along the way I learned about
karma yoga.

Karma yoga is the yoga of action, without attachment to the outcome. Ultimately what that means is that we act for the good of all beings, without defining our worth based on how perceivably successful or unsuccessful our action is. One way to bring this concept to our yoga practice is to dedicate our efforts to someone who needs a yoga practice, but is unable to come to the mat for one reason or another.

This year I will be leading a section of the Yoga Aid Challenge, here in Brisbane’s Roma Street Parklands on Saturday, 12 November. The challenge raises funds to support a number of charities, mine is the Nelune Foundation supporting public health system cancer patients, bringing them emotional, psychological and physical support. At this event hundreds of yogis come together to dedicate their practice to something bigger than themselves, to offer the beauty of their practice to inspire and support others.

Register for the Yoga Aid Challenge here: www.yogaaid.com.  Remember to join the Ten Toes Yoga & Natural Health team!

If you are unable to join us please support the Ten Toes Yoga & Natural Health team, our goal is to raise $1000. You can sponsor us by clicking here:http://yogaaid.com/alisonsykes

Alison Sykes

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Alison

One of the things I love most about teaching yoga is watching people evolve. I’ve seen first time yogis nervously enter the studio, eyeing the room up and down and looking at the props with confusion.  Once practice begins their eyes are on me, watching for my next move even when they are in downward facing dog. Being the ‘new guy or gal’ in any situation can be intimidating.

After a few weeks of practice it’s a bit more calming to come to class – you know the drill by now. A few weeks of practice rolls into a few months, then a few years, and before I know it the once nervous beginners stroll in the door with yoga mat under arm and Ten Toes key tag swipe, ready to begin practice. They have found their spot on the studio floor and begin controlling their breath in preparation for what’s to come.  I must say it warms my heart. I love yoga, and I love when I see others genuinely love it too. After class they have a quick chat with the ‘regulars’ and are on their way – same time next week.

When we get to this complacent level in our practice, however, it’s important to remember that our yoga practice is still evolving. Most yogis can agree that, no matter how many years of experience we have in our practice, we are still all beginners and a long road lies ahead of us.

Sometimes the most experienced yogi in the room can benefit from a beginner yoga class, becoming  reacquainted with a few tips they already know that might have been lost amongst the millions of things that go flood our minds every day.

Sometimes it’s a matter of remembering just one little thing that can help us continue to learn and move forward in our practice. Maybe it’s a breathing technique, or a particular alignment in a posture, or remembering why we use a block even though our hand can make it to the floor. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the obvious, so we may continue to practice yoga with integrity. It’s the difference between saying “Yes, that is a good tip to remember” as opposed to “Yes, I know that.”

What I hope for everyone who reads this article is that you take a moment, sit down, and think about your practice. Have a pen and paper ready and write down things that can help take your practice to the next level. Are there postures you haven’t tried but want to? Are there postures you feel unsure in? Is there a breathing technique you’ve heard of and want to know more about? Is your alignment correct in your practice? How can you tell??

After you come up with a list of things you’d like to know, post them here! We love a good yoga discussion. If you want to take the initiative, look them up on your own and share your findings with the rest of us! Tell us what you were looking to improve or find out, and tell us what you found. I guarantee you are not the first person in the history of practicing yoga to have that particular thought.

Patty Perlman

Love,

Patty

Do you do the things for your self that give to yourself?

Do you want to love yourself? Then take time for yourself.

The sense of nurturance and coming “home” in a yoga class can be hard to beat. Those who dedicate themselves to the yoga practice, know the true benefits of it. – It’s heart warming effects, sense of peace, physical strength, mobility, flexibility, sense of centering and improved well-being are just the beginning of the yoga experience-

But what about massage? Did you know that you can gain all these benefits and more, with out lifting a finger?…

Heart warming-

Is there anything more reassuring than touch? A friends hand on your shoulder in times of trouble, or a lovers gentle caress. In maternity wards, there are signs every where, emphasising the necessity of “skin on skin” with the new born babe. It’s primordial and innate to ourselves. In the Ka Huna and Raynor styles of massage, great emphasis is placed on the intuitive and loving presence of a persons touch. The innate knowingness of how to be present with a person, in a way that is both heart warming and remedially effective.

Peace -

Surrender is perhaps the biggest area of neglect in anybodies life. All the time we spend running around, just trying to get things done… Paying bills, working, washing, cleaning, banking, driving, waiting… All this time giving, but with all this giving, when do we have time to receive? Just like in a savasana, the sleep like meditation at the end of a yoga class, massage is a time when one can just lay down, and receive.

Physical strength-

Aches and pains, or muscular tension holding you back? Massage work can loosen and open up your body in a way that will make any yoga asana easier, and more graceful. Massage is re-vitalising for the body, giving you a renewed sense of vigour and strength. Particularly in areas that your body has been over exerted or strained in the past.

Mobility/flexibility -

As with physical strength, flexibility and mobility can be improved with massage. When muscles are over worked they become stressed and tired, at times developing adhesions. Massage breaks down adhesions in the muscle tissue and relaxes areas of tension. This also brings new focus and circulation to the tissues re-vitalising the muscles for new work and re- growth.

Centring -

At the end of this, one feels more centered and connected with them selves. Through surrender, and an opening in their bodies, where they feel their needs have been truly met. In this way, one feels more at ease with them selves, feeling the presence of grace and inner fulfillment.

Yoga and massage compliment each other so gracefully, in the ways they both open the body and nurture the soul. Their comparable to a yin and yang relationship. Where the yoga is more developmental and exertive, and the massage more yin, recuperative and internal.

This article was provided by the team at BENTmassage who operate a Natural Therapies practice from the Ten Toes Yoga Ascot studio:

68 Racecourse Road, Ascot

For more information about BENTmassage and their services, please click here

If you’re an avid massage and Yoga user, let us know of any other benefits you experience by commenting below…

What does it mean to practice yoga on the edge?  Anyone who’s been to my classes will have heard me talk about “the edge”.  What exactly is your edge?

The edge is the perfect balance of effort and surrender.  It’s that point in a pose where you experience the intensity of the pose but there’s no strain and you are still able to soften.   This is a principle that when applied can deepen your practice tremendously.

How do you find your edge? The two greatest tools are the breath and the mind.  Firstly, the breath should remain steady throughout your entire yoga practice.  If your breath has become erratic in a pose, or worse, you’re holding your breath, you’ve gone beyond your edge and you’re missing out on all the benefits of the pose and putting yourself at risk of injury.  If this happens, back off and find a pose where you can maintain your deep yogic breath. When we’re at our perfect edge and breathing easefully, our muscles receive a message that they can relax and soften.  When transitioning into a pose, stop at your first place of resistance before deepening, rather than moving beyond what your body is ready for in that moment.  You will often find that through applying this simple technique the intensity of the pose will diminish and you will actually need to go deeper to find your edge again.  To deepen a pose, try using the inhalation to refine the pose or back off slightly, and the exhalation to soften into a pose.  This technique is called “playing your edge”.   It is through this practice that we actually move beyond our self-imposed limitations.

The second tool for finding your edge is the mind.  Rather than allowing the mind to wander, keep your awareness sharp by focussing on the breath and the inner sensations of the pose.  Find the place in a pose where there is enough of a challenge that the mind stays focussed.  It’s so easy to be “inactive” in a pose and allow our mind to take us on a little holiday.   If you notice this happening simply bring yourself back to the moment and the feeling of stretch in the pose, deepening if you need to.  Every pose deserves our full attention.  The power of simply being aware can have a transformative effect on your practice.

Your edge is a place of self-discovery.  Each person’s edge is different and it requires body wisdom and self-acceptance to find where this point is.  Both of these qualities are developed through our yoga practice.  Only you know where your edge is.  Your teacher can guide you but he or she can’t find your edge for you.  Don’t compare yourself with other students or the teacher.   Don’t even compare yourself with yourself!  Your edge will differ from pose to pose, day to day. It often differs between the different sides of your body and different times of day!  If you experience any injuries then your edge will change altogether – so don’t expect your pose to be as deep as it was pre-injury, and don’t give yourself a hard time about it either.  If you’re returning to yoga after a break, your edge may not be the same as when you were practicing more regularly – though with consistent and dedicated practice you will get there and perhaps even further.

How the pose feels and not how the pose looks is important. Let go of any preconceived idea of how the pose is supposed to look.  Close your eyes if you can – shutting of the visual senses can help with this inner exploration, and reduce the temptation to gaze at your pose in the mirror or compare with someone else.  This is your journey.   Ultimately this is an act of self-love – honouring your body where it is on any given day in any given pose, without judgement.

Some of us have a tendency to shy away from our edge, others have a tendency to push through. Observe your tendencies but don’t judge yourself for it.  One of the (many) things I love about yoga is the way the lessons we learn on the mat can apply directly to our lives.  Consider this: does the way you approach your edge reflect the way you approach challenges in life?  Be open to learning about yourself through your yoga practice and you will gain much more than just the physical benefits!

See each pose as an opportunity for exploration.  Be curious and open. Ultimately you won’t get as much out of your practice if your mind is taking you outside of the pose or outside of the room. Stay in the moment.  Clichéd but true – it’s about the journey and not the destination. And there is no destination in yoga practice – it’s a constant evolution and learning process to be embraced.

I encourage you to go deep within and really get to know your edge in your yoga practice this week. Enjoy!

Jasmine O'Brien

Namaste,

Jasmine