Yoga
Yoga. My pulse. My anchor. My rock. Since I discovered yoga 14 years ago, it has been both my greatest teacher and my greatest therapy. Without it, I would be lost in this world. When I don’t practice for a few days, my body, mind and soul miss it. Yoga is my ‘religion’; it has become an essential part of both my existence and my sanity.
From my very first class, yoga is something that has made me feel whole. It was a missing piece in my puzzle that I didn’t even realise I was missing until I found it. I wish for everyone in this life to find something they love as much as I love yoga.
I have learned that yoga is not just about the physical part of the practice, the asanas, but also the mental and spiritual components as well, which are every bit as important as the physical. Yoga comes from the word ‘yolk’, which means to hold together or to unite. To unite the body with the mind, and to move with your breath, vinyasa. To unite and bring everything into balance. Yoga is not just about one thing. It’s not just a physical practice, it’s not just about breathing, meditation and mindfulness, it’s not just about spirituality – it’s about all of these things. Yoga is the practice of learning how all of these elements are connected to one another, and then finding the balance between them – on and off of your mat.
Yoga is often a mirror for reality, teaching you how to navigate through and react to life’s lessons. When you’re in a pose that’s making all your muscles scream out in pain and you want to come out of it, do you hold on for a few more breaths, and push through it? Or do you give up? When you’re practising inversions or balancing poses and you wobble or fall out of the pose, do you get back up and try again? Or do you quit because it’s too hard? When things are at their absolute worst and you don’t think you can go on, what are things you can do to push through? Focus on your drishti (fixed focal point) and your breath. Smile, even when you’re in pain. And breathe. Always come back to your breath. Breathe through it. And in time you will come to see how even the most difficult moments always eventually pass.
Of course, in yoga, you will have to come back to the difficult poses. The ones you hate and find the most challenging you will encounter in every single class. You will have to learn how to do it. And you will of course fall many times before you get it right, let alone master the pose – just like in life. But you must learn that when you fall over, it does not mean that you have failed. Or that you should quit and give up. You must keep going. Try again. And again. And again.
For years, crow pose (Bakāsana) was my nemesis. For me this pose was impossible. I could teeter with one foot off the ground and the big toe of my other foot just grazing it, but I could never really get both of my feet off the floor simultaneously. Then one day I somehow just popped up into crow effortlessly. I just kind of let go and surrendered to the pose. Learning to not to rush things and to trust the process is another big lesson in yoga. You will arrive when you are supposed to, when you are truly ready. Now I’m doing side crows and learning how to come into a tripod headstand from crow. Something I would never have even fathomed possible when I first started practising – I didn’t even know such poses existed when I started!
That’s the other thing about yoga – it is infinite. There is literally no way to ever be ‘the best’ or to learn everything in yoga. It’s endless. As soon as you think you have a pose mastered, you then move on to the next variation of the pose to make it even more challenging. Just like in life, it is one big constant evolution. You will never get to your ‘destination’, aside from the obvious final destination that we all arrive at eventually; because life is the destination. The journey is the destination. The entire process of growing and learning and living, is the destination. You are where you are on your own personal journey. Until the end. And that is something you learn in yoga.
Yoga’s not competitive – something I also particularly love about it. I can be competitive in some things, especially when I know I’ll win but generally, and especially when I was in school, I steered clear of playing highly competitive team sports. I hated the pressure they made me feel and growing up with a particularly aggressive older sister and father, I learned quickly that that competitive streak wasn’t in me. I’ve always been a lover, not a fighter. I couldn’t understand how upset some people could get over winning and losing a game. Why can’t we all just have fun and enjoy ourselves? Laugh and hug it out at the end? My favourite team sport in school was Cross Country, mostly just because I love running and I found it to be just about myself and doing my personal best in races. And I got to run after school three days a week which I loved.
In yoga, there is never competition. Everyone is welcome and accepted into every class. No instructor will ever yell at you or belittle you in front of your fellow yogis. Just like in life, how you quickly learn that every person and every body is different and has a different story to tell. No one is better than anyone else. Yoga is just about being present. Doing your best. Bringing yourself and your focus to the mat each and every day for your practice. It’s not a competition. You should never compare yourself to others practicing around you.
And because it’s not competitive, you develop a love and camaraderie with your fellow yogis unlike in any other physical practice or sport. You support your fellow yogis and you respect the 8 pillars of yoga, and the core values and ethics that yoga is founded on, which are every bit as important on the mat as they are off of the mat. Be kind. Support those around you. Be the best version of yourself you can be and give love to those around you.
I went to my first yoga class when I was 21. I had just transferred to university in California from the UK and one of the American degree requirements I needed to fulfil was to take several terms of physical education. When I saw yoga as an option for one of the classes I could take, I thought I’d give it a try. I knew nothing about yoga but I had wanted to try it for a long time. Growing up, I was a ballerina for the better part of ten years and there were a lot of elements to yoga that seemed very ballet-like to me. Fortunately for me, ballet gave me a natural aptitude to do a lot of things that come with yoga. Thanks to a decade of ballet, I was very fortunate to embark on my yoga journey with a super bendy back, strong legs and a lot of flexibility. And while I love running and the mental clarity it gives me, it doesn’t do much to tone my upper body and I know it’s not something I should be doing when I’m older if I want to preserve my knees, hips and joints.
When I went to register for my university classes in California, the only yoga class with any openings left was the 6:30am Hatha Yoga class – because no university student wants to get up that early. But I’ve always been a morning person and an early riser so I didn’t mind waking up at 5:45am twice a week for the 3 months I had that class. And I will be forever grateful I made that choice. I cannot remember my instructor’s name, but he was a firm, strict man in his 50’s who reminded me of someone who might have been in the military. He was a lot like Red (the dad) from That 70’s Show. He went on and on about his yoga teacher training and how he had trained under “Iyengar”. At the time I had no clue who that was, but now I know he is a yoga God and I wish I could go back in time and ask him a thousand questions about Iyengar! To have been trained by Iyengar would be one of the greatest yoga honours I could possibly imagine. I remember my instructor particularly liked me because I was so genuinely interested in everything we did (and I think because I was a lot more flexible than most of the other students in the class). He often used me to demo poses and with his assistance I went upside down for the first time and felt completely elated when I did, and then so much determination to develop a strong yoga practice.
After 3 months of Hatha yoga, I wanted to try every type of yoga I possibly could. We weren’t allowed to repeat the same class so the next term I did Vinyasa yoga, which I loved even more. It was a faster and freer flowing version of Hatha yoga and it was to music which I absolutely loved. I started talking about my passion for yoga with friends and professors in my other classes and soon I had a network of people I was going to classes with whenever I could and trying every different studio and type of yoga I could fit into my schedule.
When one of my friend’s insisted I go with her to a power yoga class a few months later (Kelly O., I will always love you for this), I have to say, I became officially addicted. To this day, that power yoga class my friend took me to in Santa Monica is one of my favourite classes I’ve ever been to. It was taught by this shirtless guy who, at least physically, was the stereotype definition of a hippy – complete with 12-pack abs, insane dread locks, bongo drums and a distinct scent of marijuana. There were candles and incense all around the rented warehouse space. Classes were suggested donation only but they were worth so much more than the suggested $12. And it was packed. Literally about 2 inches of space between each mat and at least 100 people rammed into the space.
When the class began, all the lights were switched off and before I knew it we were all just flowing to this magical music in the candle light, dripping in sweat. The entire warehouse was packed. And the energy was like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was like I could feel the next movement without having to be instructed and the whole room was moving in unison. It was incredible. I have chased that yoga high and energy all around the world since the day I took that class.
From country to country, I have done yoga all around the world. I’ve trained under some incredible instructors and practiced in some truly amazing spaces. To name a few: Yoga Works in the US is still probably my favourite American yoga company. Yoga Barn in Bali is one of the best places I’ve practiced yoga on the planet and I would go back to Bali just to practice there again. Lumi Power Yoga in London, where I have had the pleasure of both practicing and working. House of Yoga, also in London, is pretty fabulous.
I founded #PubYoga with one of my best friends and taught some pretty fun classes in a beautiful pub with her help. And I trained in the beautiful Suryalila in Spain, which will forever hold a piece of my heart. My beloved Suryalila where I became a certified yoga instructor, and where I was taught by one of the most talented, experienced and incredible yogis I’ve ever met in person – Vidya Heisel, forever my teacher. (I have too much love for Suryalila to express here but I took the time to write about it after I was certified in 2015 in my post, Suryalila.)
Yoga is a practice I intend to do for the rest of my life. There is a balance in both myself and in my life for which I must give yoga credit for. There is no age too young or too old that would not benefit from doing yoga. I fully intend to be a 100 year-old grandmother teaching her grandchildren how to do handstands on the beach. Yoga is my forever practice <3.