Yoga has an almost magical ability to draw our attention inwards, away from the hum and buzz of outside life. It is this inward focus that stops the oftentimes incessant activity of our minds.
In anticipation of my upcoming yoga retreat in Tulum Mexico this October, I have been stepping up my commitment to making it onto my yoga mat. My primary motivations I’ll admit is to avoid being a jumbled mass of quaking and quivering jello limbs when I am called upon for a 15-day-straight daily yoga practice. However, I am cognizant that the truly far more important big picture motivation, though not necessarily as motivating on a day to day basis, is how good I feel when I start refocusing on including yoga into my life.
It’s hard to fully emphasis the difference that having a committed weekly yoga practice makes to my sense of wellbeing. Having gone through big phases over the past 13 years where yoga has alternately played a really major role and other phases where it has taken a back seat has allowed me to observe profound differences.
There are of course the corporal differences, nothing can hold a candle to the workout one gets from a seriously intense flow yoga practice. It’s fairly easy to cheat in other workouts; runs can be cut short, and weight lifting can be done half-heartedly, if at all! Yoga on the other hand is nearly impossible to bs your way through. Once you’ve shown up on your mat you’re in for the long haul, whether you feel like it or not. And a good teacher, much like a tender loving drill sergeant, will push you way harder than you would ever push yourself. Once you’ve been around the yoga world long enough one starts to be able to recognize a body sculpted by yoga; it is long, toned and moves with a beautiful fluid grace – divine. It’s truly the perfect fully contained workout, no special equipment required other than a mat.
The other giant piece of the equation is the overall sense of wellbeing that accompanies a dedicated yoga practice. Things slow down, the world starts to not feel like a massive wildly out of control place. That seemingly constant companion of mind chatter slowly but surely dissipates. The busy mind full of jangled zipping energy is replaced with a significantly calmer mind, the thoughts possessing a greater cohesiveness and flow.
For the first time I am fully seeing the difference of a world with and without a yoga practice and I commit to not ever letting it depart from my life again. It’s not always easy or fun dragging ourselves to our mat, much like the challenge we feel in getting ourselves to do any committed health practice; be it working out, preparing healthy foods, meditating, structured sleeping practice. But when we are able to hold the big picture perspective in our minds of why these activities are so essential to our quality of life it takes a good bite out of the struggle.
What keeps you coming back to your mat? Haven’t tried yoga yet? Find a yoga for beginners course in your area and get going, it’s a choice you will never regret, and let me know how it goes for you!
Namaste
