Lessons I Learned From Yoga

On Thursday mornings you will most often find me leading a yoga class before the sun rises with some pretty amazing women.  Yoga has always been something I was interested in and would do occasionally.  It was a gentle way to stretch and strengthen my body.  Over the last year, it has become a deeper thing and a more regular part of my life.

I went from loving yoga to leading a class in about five seconds after a sweet friend basically told me to do it and that I could. So, I believed her, and I did. Let me tell you, those first few classes were scary! I didn't know these women very well yet, and I was afraid of judgment and doing it wrong.  As time went on, I felt more confident- partially because of the sweet support of my friends.  Now I am writing new sequences all the time, reading books, doing research, finding new poses and different ways to combine them, and sharing my love of yoga with anyone who will listen.

Yoga has been such an integral and positive thing in my life and I am so grateful for the push I received to make it a priority.  This point in my life is a time of learning and absorbing for me. I know that without my yoga practice I would not be as open to learning as I am now.  Yoga has helped me learn to process my thoughts, learn deep breathing and meditation, learn to control my breath and my heart rate- which helps me so much to not panic in every day life.  It has made me stronger and more confident in my body and abilities.  Yoga, practiced often, has increased my strength and flexibility mentally, emotionally and physically.  Most importantly, though, it has taught me that I can do hard things, that I can remove the chaos from my mind, and that I can control my focus.  These tools have been so helpful to me, completely outside of exercise. 

Today, after yoga, I took some time to be still, to read my scriptures, to say a prayer and really allow the Spirit in for the day.  Yoga opens my mind and body up to so much that I felt a huge difference, a calm peace fell over me and I received it because I was open to doing so.  When I got up this morning I was tired and sore and I didn't feel I would get much out of yoga today.  I need to, in those early moments of the day, remember what yoga brings to my life. It is one of my tools to support myself in being open to receive good things and release bad things, to allow me to be closer to my Heavenly Father, to find and tune into whatever my focus is for the day.  Today, I realized the full value of something I have come to truly love and the lesson that I learned from it, and want to share with you, is to find what opens you up. Find what allows you to bring goodness into yourself and helps you to focus. Find whatever that is and practice it often. You will be amazed at the difference it makes in your life when you are open to receive and allowing your true self to come forward.  Have a beautiful day! Namaste.

1 comment:

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