3 Wisdoms I Learnt in Yoga Class That Changed My Life

I thought the task of writing my personal yoga journey would be an easy task. It is true that the subject fills me with a passion and energy that wants to leap from my heart. Yet the act of committing that joy to concrete words has proven challenging.

Any journey is a personal experience for all those that follow it through. Here are three of the most important things that I have learnt on my own journey. They form the foundation of why I want to be a yoga teacher.

1) Be gentle to yourself.

This wisdom sounds so simple and yet is so hard in practice. So many of us are our own worst enemies when the chips are down. We are kinder to those around us than we are to ourselves. I repeat this wisdom to myself many times a day to invite acceptance of my own mistakes.

Being kind to yourself means accepting your natural strengths and weaknesses and working to develop them further rather than fighting them. It means not forcing a deeper stretch if there is any strain because you risk injury. It means letting go and rewarding yourself with the present moment.

Yoga is my gift to myself to energise my mind and body for the day. It is the reward at the end of a day filled with the worries of the external world. I owe it to myself to be kind in this moment, my time for me.

2) Some days you can, some days you can’t. But try first.

Of all the sayings that I love at yoga class, this is the one that permeates the rest of my life. I find myself repeated it throughout the day in places far removed from the yoga mat.

It is a truth that speaks with gentleness to the reality of our world in the moment. Some days we feel strong, capable, confident. I am energised on the mat, capable of more advanced postures, flexible in stretches. These days are wonderful but they are not as prolific as I would hope.

Some days we are simply tired or run down. I can not do with effort things that seemed simple to me yesterday. Once these days were a source of defeat for me. I would beat myself up mentally for my failures. Now I can embrace these moments for what they are and what they are not. Today I can’t. Tomorrow I might.

The try part is important too. Sometimes days hide in disguise. I feel tired and annoyed, but I try and find I am capable of far more in that moment than I thought. When we try despite our doubts we release our mental blocks. If we do not succeed, we thank ourselves for trying and looking forward to tomorrow. It could be one of those stronger days.

 3) Be Honest and patient with the Journey.

On the yoga mat, this saying has strong implications. My first lesson with Carmen was a humbling experience. She called out a pose, I went to that pose, she with a gentle touch showed me all the ways I was doing it wrong.

“Pull your hips back here.” “Stack your hips, don’t open to the side.” “Elbows close to your sides.”

And the worst one. “You are here today.”

Simple adjustments with profound consequences. Suddenly I was not good at yoga anymore. I was not as flexible as I had thought. She pulled me back from poses that I thought I could take deeper because I had lost my alignment. It hurt my poor ego and perplexed my body. I felt my ego deflate but I also felt something else. Curiously, I felt elation too. I felt challenged.

“Your handstand comes from here,” Carmen said. “Work on this.” And there it was. Yoga opened up as a path before me. With Carmen’s guidance, I could see a way forward, a way to improve. She demonstrated how working on my alignment in basic poses would strengthen my body to achieve more than I ever could from allowing my ego to rule me.

This was the moment that started my yoga journey. I had a lot to learn but I hungered for that knowledge. I needed to develop patience and honestly with myself. No point trying to force myself deeper into poses that I was not yet capable of if I would lose the benefit of developing my strength and flexibility.

I have carried this understanding to other parts of my life. I try to be less concerned to where I am on a path and focus on the goal I want to achieve at the end. It is a daily challenge because we all want to see progress, to see the fruits of so much hard work. Yet true success is rarely easily won and requires the hard work learnt on the way to maintain. It is a journey, not unlike that we face on the mat.

That leads me to where I am today- A student who wishes to share the peace and joy that yoga and the wonderful teacher and group of people at Live Life, Love Yoga have brought me. I hope that you will join me on the next step of my journey.

Katie Laurie

Bundaberg, QLD