Many new beginners to yoga or those interested in getting into yoga may have similar thoughts to what I was thinking when I first started out. That was that yoga would be boring, it was only for hippies, or I’m not flexible enough to do yoga. And countless other stereotypes I would say about this activity to prolong from doing it. I said every excuse in the book as to why yoga was not for me. But the truth is I wish I had started long before I did. The thing with yoga was that it allowed me to create a space that I could relax, get out of my own head and for the next 20, 45, 90 or so minutes it was just me and my mat. I could let go of any anger, limiting beliefs that I had, stress and anxiety.

So for any beginners out there, just start by getting on the mat go to a class at your local gym or studio or if you are like me and like to exercise out of the comfort of my home turn on your phone, lap top tablet and type in YouTube to the search engine and find a yoga video. Yoga means different things for different people. For stay at home moms, its there 20 minutes of mommy time while the baby is sleeping. For the university student it’s a study break to get refocused and destress from their daily school work load. For the gentlemen that had surgery on his shoulder its therapy to regain strength in his shoulder. For the couple who only have a few moments before bed its their time to connect and come together after a long busy day.

There is yoga for everyone, the beauty of this activity is that it is whatever you want it to be. It could be a beautiful flow with vinyasa yoga. It could be mediation, or restorative yoga, there is also bikram, hatha, yin, aerial, suspension, chair, couples/partner, and acro yoga. There is truly a yoga out there for everyone. Your practice is your practice and whatever it looks like it is up to you. For instance, my daily practice can look like suspension yoga before breakfast and few savoured minutes of mediation following and some more vinyasa flow at night and meditation before I close my eyes. I try to do this everyday, but the yoga practice is usually 4-5 times a week and I do meditate each day.

I always make my practice a priority everyday because honestly it helps my anxiety a lot, and I believe my body truly does need it. Yoga to me is my outlet to get present, to look inward and focus on my breath. My breath is what grounds me in my practice, I learned how to breath again only after I found yoga. (I will touch on that experience in upcoming posts). When I practice in the morning, I can set an intention for the day and dial in to focus on all I want to accomplish in that moment. In yoga I have also found gratitude, not that I wasn’t grateful before but being present has opened my eyes to what I have is enough.  To be grateful to wake up everyday and being able to move my body in these ways and be able to take in a breath. Yoga has me slowing down when the external world seems to be going at full speed, it lets me reflect on everything I have experienced and what is in my life in the now. It has allowed me to shift my perspective from my life is a broken roller coaster ride heading off the tracks to my life is beautiful and every experience is guiding me to where I am and where I am meant to be.

Yoga is a great complimentary exercise to other workouts, stretching out the muscles after an intense workout sess. Honestly yoga is whatever you make it, whether that be to cool down, warm up, stretch out, tune in, to reach a meditative state or anything the practice is all yours.

Let me give you some advice, forget about every stereotype you heard about yoga, forget the put down statements that people have told you about the activity. Just go to a class, follow along to an instructor and make the call for yourself, how did you feel before the practice, during and after did anything shift for you, did you like it? Was the style fun for you, was the pace too fast, too slow? Did you need to slow down or more of a faster flow or a combination of both? Listen to your body, tune in see what the practice could mean for you.