I attend two yoga classes a week, have my own daily practice and once a month I go along to a full morning’s yoga which includes teachings from Panjali’s Sutras, BKS Iyengar, Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads and the concepts of the Chakras. Sound intense? Well not really. I make my yoga practice my own, take what I need, when I need it. I listen to my intuition. Yoga is a philosophy, a wisdom which grows with practice. It is more than a single life’s learning.
I began practicing yoga in 2009 when, after suffering severe discomfort in my right hip, I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and advised by my consultant to “stop running or I would need a hip replacement within 2-5 years.” I sought a second opinion from a consultant who said, “don’t stop running, just listen to your body.” It was the best advice I ever received. Up until then, I had never listened to my body, nor my mind, nor my emotional intelligence (I wasn’t even aware I had one!) nor my spirit. I didn’t stop running, but what I did do, was take up yoga. My first weekly class, I still attend ten years on. In 2013 I picked up my second weekly class, a year later my monthly class and in 2016, I began my own daily practice.
Have I needed a hip replacement? No.
Yoga for me is a spiritual path. I practice daily because it’s who I am, it’s become part of me. Like my breath, I can’t live without it.
Yoga is not what I do on the mat. Yoga is a philosophy I practice. The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root word “yuj”. The most commonly understood meaning of yoga is union, oneness, bliss, with a simple basic premise that mind, body and spirit are all one and cannot be separated.
Ultimately, yoga is stilling the mind, the asanas (the ‘doing’ yoga on the mat) only a small part.
As the years have passed, I have discovered how to make yoga my own. Yoga is about a personal journey. It’s not about hitting the pose, the shape. It’s about listening to YOU.
Now to the writing:
I am applying the principle of ‘making it my own’ to my writing. I am slowly developing my own authentic voice. I have been writing creatively since 2014 and much like yoga, writing has become for me who I am. I cannot not write.
I discovered creative writing at a time when I needed it, as with when I found yoga.
Making yoga my own and making writing my own help me discover who I am.
LIHazleton.
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LyndyH 