For my next post I've decide to give a little insight into something that has really helped me over the last year or so.
This being Yoga. I'm sure most of you are familiar with yoga and the basic principles of it, which is that it's a practice of movements and poses, and that it helps with flexibility, strength, balance and so on.
I for one can say I never really understood yoga, I never ever thought of myself being into anything like it...or ever calling myself a "Yogi"; but, after practicing yoga for over a year I'd now happily and confidently call myself a Yogi.
I started yoga to help me regain my strength after being in hospital for several months; in fact it all started with doing a little bit of meditation whilst in hospital, to help with concentration, rehabilitation and to find my inner calm or peace when I felt most unhappy in myself or surroundings. I will be very honest, I didn't find it helped during this difficult time; however, now, I'd delightfully opt myself in for a good practice of meditation any day!
So back to yoga...to start, I got myself some DVD's with sessions ranging from 10 minutes to an hour, these included the basic foundations to yoga, sun salutations (a sequence of poses) and meditation. After I felt I had used these to their potential I looked up on Google something on the lines of "best yoga program" and came across an App called "Yogastudio" which is fantastic and helped me feel more confident and able in my yoga practice.
Now I am in Santa Monica, California, and feel I'd like to continue my journey as a "Yogi" whilst here. I have become a member of Yogaworks, which holds lots of different classes; I'm very into the more relaxing and restorative classes such as Iyengar and Kundalini, as well as Hatha and Yin Yang.
Truthfully, I can't believe I'm writing a post on yoga...I never thought I'd be so into something like this and it makes really happy; which I suppose is why I've chosen to share my new found passion. Its changed the way I think, the way I feel. As well as helping my physical strength and flexibility, the meditative side of yoga has helped build my mental and emotional strength too and yoga over all has helped me really, really appreciate the little things in life.
Basically what I'm trying to say is that so much in life is in the unknown; if you want to give something a try, do it...if it doesn't work out, that doesn't matter because then at least you've learnt something about yourself...but if it does work out, you may find yourself a new passion. This was the case for me with my love for yoga...I gave it a try, kept it going even when I felt I wasn't good enough, or "I just look silly"... I am now so so happy I did because now I have something I can talk about and share with others; I feel I want to learn more and more about it through the means of books, the internet, or speaking to other Yogis.
So, the point of this blog post? To open up about something I'm becoming more and more passionate about, to give a little insight to yoga...and hopefully to help you...if there's something new you'd like to try, go do it! Who knows what could happen, ey? You may, like me, find yourself a new passion!
x