People sometimes say things to me like this:
“I can’t touch my toes so I can’t do yoga.”
"I am not fit enough to do yoga."
“I am not good enough as the others in class so I can’t do yoga.”
“Yoga has a lot of weird terms and is hindu based so I don’t agree with that.”
“I know I should do yoga and it would be good for me but it will be hard.”
“I think it is just a bunch of mumbo jumbo.”
I even had someone recently, who has never taken a yoga class, say to me that they “hated” yoga.
Wow, wow, wow, it never ceases to amaze me. Would it be worth a look at these words and see if they really resonate. Could there be something else that makes one hesitate to give yoga a try? Was it a previous experience made your body sore so therefore yoga is bad? Or maybe you moved your body in ways you don’t normally and it didn’t feel right. Or maybe you felt something that freaked you out a little.
I get that yoga is not for everyone. But I do know how it helps me on a regular basis and that is why I continue to share it with as many people as I can so that they can feel what I do and find a bit of serenity and peace. Not much to do with being in shape, more about a holistic way of being in which we can be kind to ourselves and then to others.
I consider my job as a yoga teacher to open your eyes to what yoga is, show you how to do it so that you feel better when you are done than when you started, and then to get out of your way and let you enjoy the experience.
Namaste!