Is Yoga really for everyone?
Many people may have preconceptions of what exactly “Yoga” entails. Many people may think it is too boring, too spiritual, too difficult, not challenging, only for extremely flexible people or fit people, only for a certain age group etc…Whatever it may be, I have probably heard it all and also just listened without judgement to everyone´s opinion.
This is actually often how life goes, we form opinions and judgments depending on our own experiences we have had throughout this journey called life.
Even as a little girl, I have always been someone who wanted to make her own experiences, shape my own opinion. I can’t even start to count the number of times as a child, teenager or even adult I have thought or expressed the sentence “Don´t tell me what to do”, which probably did not make the teenage years for my mother quite easy.
So, my yoga career started with just a couple of people wanting to come to my yoga class, they expressed to me that they believed I would be a great yoga teacher. So almost immediately after my first teacher training was complete, I taught my first yoga class. I did not have a website, I did not make any flyers, I barely even told anyone, as a people pleaser, I wanted to make those few people happy.
Everything happened with ease and I found a beautiful bright room owned by a wonderful laid-back down to earth woman, with big windows, a peaceful area, heated wooden floors and so my journey started. To my astonishment, within the last almost 2,5 years, I have built a yoga community purely from word of mouth. It feels like my second family. All these wonderful people, gifting me the chance to teach them what truly nurtures my soul.
Now back to my original question, is yoga for everyone?
Yes, and this is part of its beauty. Every person can practice yoga and benefit from it. The respective exercises can be adapted to individual needs and are as diverse as the people who practice them. Anyone who wants to improve their life in a positive way and is willing to do something for themselves will benefit from a regular practice.
The motivations for people to start can be very different. Some practice to become fitter and more flexible. Others value their yoga class because it gives them more energy.
Others are looking for relaxation and want to switch off from everyday life and find rest. There are also people who want to connect back to themselves away from all of life´s distractions and demands. Many artists find new access to their creativity and new ideas when they practice yoga. Some yoga practitioners want to learn more about themselves and find healthier habits and more wholesome ways of dealing with themselves and others. For some, it also becomes a spiritual path - a way to find oneself, connect with a higher reality, and experience the divine. If you are on a spiritual path, yoga can enrich that path and even become your spiritual path itself.
Whether you come to yoga to ease your physical pain, improve your body’s strength and flexibility, reduce your stress and find relaxation or for a more spiritual connection, yoga offers you what you are looking for.
In my yoga classes, everyone is welcome, and once we enter the yoga room, we all connect on a level that is beyond our job descriptions, our social statuses, our family situations, our outside appearances, the clothes we wear, the size of our houses, we connect on a deeper level, we share an experience beyond our outside shell.
What Benefits does a regular Yoga practice offer?
Yoga can contribute to more well-being and joy of life.
Scientific studies prove that yoga is good for body, mind and psyche. Yoga has positive effects on the brain, the nervous system and the cardiovascular system. Yoga influences the hormone balance and promotes the immune system. All muscles of the body are stretched and strengthened and the digestive system is supported. Yoga helps detoxify the body and improves breathing. Breathing exercises cleanse the lungs and harmonize the nervous system and energy flow in the body. Deep relaxation at the end of a yoga class leads to a very deep experience of relaxation for body, mind and soul.
Yoga helps to achieve good health. Yoga can prevent diseases by supporting physical and emotional balance. Countless studies prove: Yoga is helpful against back problems, headaches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, asthma and joint problems. Yoga can be helpful in the rehabilitation of cancer and heart patients. Yoga is probably the best researched and most effective natural health care.
Yoga is also very effective against permanent stress. Especially in the fast-moving modern times with many challenges, a yoga class is like an oasis of relaxation and peace. Tension and stress are nothing but blocked energies in the body, yoga releases these blockages and help the energy flow freely through your body, this helps you to regenerate and recover quickly.
If you are already someone who practices yoga than you can acknowledge yourself for your contribution to your long-term health through your practice, if you have not experienced a yoga class then I invite you to make your own experience and check it out for yourself!
Yoga teachers, yoga classes are like restaurants, if you have tried one restaurant and you didn’t like the food, you don’t stop going out to eat for the rest of your life, do you? So, if you have tried yoga only once, with only one teacher, and you didn’t like it, please don´t make the statement “I do not like yoga or yoga is not for me” that would be like saying, I do not like restaurants. You would just try another restaurant.
I invite you to do something for yourself, and try another yoga class, another teacher, there are so many yoga teachers, yoga styles, yoga levels…There is definitely the right match out there for you, this I am sure of!
Namaste ♥
Kim