“…if you can breathe, you can practice yoga!”
And that’s what Global Yoga Therapy Day is all about. The message? That yoga can have a positive impact on anyone’s life — it excludes nobody.
Yoga has been proven (quite an impressive number of times, in fact!) to be an incredibly power preventative medicine for a huge variety of illnesses, ailments and conditions — physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Studies show that yoga can…
• Help to both prevent and treat depression
• Prevent cardiovascular disease, and aid addiction recovery
• Modulate the stress response for people who suffer from depression and anxiety
This list could go on. It really could — there are now thousands of studies demonstrating that yoga is effective for improving quality of life. The American Psychological Association recommends yoga as a therapeutic practice tool, and the Australian Association of Social Workers also uses yoga and mindfulness as a clinical tool.
So…what about you?
What could yoga do to make you feel better day to day?
Well; start with what you’d like to change.
What are the things that stop you from feeling your most vibrant, steady, and calm self? You might think “but they’re all things I can’t change!” — because there are undoubtedly problems in your life that involve external influences, or other people’s emotions. And it’s true that you don’t have any control over those things.
But you do have control over how those things affect you.
On a mental and emotional level, that’s what yoga can give you: the tools to recognise and manage your emotions and reactions thoughtfully, and with awareness.
Say, for example, you’re struggling with guilt. You feel guilty about the way that your parents or siblings or kids or friends feel about a choice you’ve made in your life; or about how much time you’re able to spend with them, for example.
This guilt is making you suffer; you feel low, and over an extended period of time, you find it difficult to embrace the positive aspects of your life as a result.
You can’t change how other adults feel. And ultimately, it’s not your responsibility to do that.
But you can find ways to understand and let go of the guilt. By training the mind to recognise and accept physical and emotional patterns, yoga can improve your emotional skill so that you can see your guilt for what it is. You can recognise that even though it relates to other people, it comes from within you — and only you can decide whether it makes your life stressful or painful.
This is a learning pattern I see frequently in my yoga and meditation for anxiety course. There is a process of discovery through simplicity. Through practice, people learn to arrive in the present moment and look at what’s happening around them from a less reactionary perspective.
Intensive Immersions Can Catalyse Big Changes
I’m a big believer in yoga being valuable in any dose. If you only have time to practise ten minutes a day, do that! That brief practice each day really will have a genuine and long lasting impact on how you feel; on your physical health; and on your general experience of the muddles and wonders of life.
But when you’re feeling really stuck, a deeper, more sustained immersion into yoga and meditation; when you practice daily (or two or three times each day, even!) and discover some of the principles and philosophical grounding of the practice; can shift you into a new chapter in your life.
I learnt that for myself by going to live in an ashram. And it’s why I love taking people on life changing yoga and meditation journeys to amazing places, like Bali and Nepal!
If you’re curious about how yoga could change things up for you, follow that curiosity. And if you need some time out to reconnect with yourself? Don’t underestimate the fabulous impact of a retreat!
If you’re a Sydney local, why not dip your toes into the retreat experience with some deep relaxation closer to home. Find out about my upcoming local weekend retreat — It’s High Time for YOU Time!
Yoga is your practice. It doesn’t need to be flashy or tough or sweaty. It just needs to be yours. Your time, your mat, your chance to restore, reconnect, and feel renewed.
NEWS FLASH! To celebrate Global Yoga Therapy Day classes will be 15minutes longer on Monday 12 and Wednesday 14 August 2019. New students can try a class for $13 at either of these classes.
Enter the code YOGATHERAPY at the end of checkout to pay only $13!
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