The practice of yoga has become a main topic in the wellness community over the last couple of years. Not only is yoga an amazing release for your mind but it also helps you to connect with your body on a more spiritual level.
Mind-Body Practices
Both yoga and meditation are mind-body practices; they help to relieve stress, support your health, encourage mindfulness around food, and help decrease inflammation.
When you are more in-tune with your body you can listen to what it’s asking for, whether that be more food, more rest or more movement.
Yoga leads to the development of an inner awareness; it helps you to focus on your body in the present moment. If you have noticed, many yoga studios don’t have mirrors, this is so that you can focus inward rather than how you look performing that specific pose or compare yourself to others in the room.
“Mindfulness” refers to focusing your attention on what you are experiencing in the present moment without judging yourself.
Practicing yoga has been proven to not only increase mindfulness in the moment but also once you leave the yoga studio.
Mindful eating is described as the non-judgmental awareness of the physical + emotional sensation associated with eating. Since yoga helps you to become more aware of how your body feels, it can also carry into meal time; how a food smells, how that bite makes you feel, how hungry you might be. Being more in-tune with what your body wants + needs is so important.
We need to honor our body and mind. If you are feeling a bit hungrier, fulfill that craving, if you aren’t hungry in the present moment, wait until you are. Our bodies are so strong + powerful they will always tell us what they need before our mind does.
Personal Experiences with Yoga
Since moving to Cape Town, I have become a full-on yogi. I love the way it makes me feel present, I can leave whatever happened during the day behind for that hour and focus on how my body and muscles are feeling.
Having to focus on my breath or my balance has created a space for my mind to release any negativity from the day.
I have recently been struggling with eating enough for my body + I have been trying to implement what I am learning about myself during my meditations into my eating habits.
Yoga is slowly allowing me to find an inner peace with how I view my body and I am looking forward to this journey of self love and inner peace. If I can honor my body during movement then I want to also honor it’s cravings.
Yoga's Benefits
There are so many benefits of yoga, but some that hold the most power are:
Improved flexibility—as we age, we experience a reduction in flexibility, daily yoga practice allows us to maintain our flexibility
Stress relief—the physical practice of yoga is only one pillar. The meditation, breath work, and chanting has also been proven to lessen tension + stress
Improved mental health—in 2017 a study looked at the effects of yoga on depressive symptoms, and concluded that yoga can now be considered an effective alternative treatment for MDD.
Improved self-esteem—Yoga philosophy teaches that we have everything we need inside of us to tend to all of life’s moments.
We all have inner struggles, but if we can find something, such as yoga to help us love ourselves and our body a bit more, than it is worth putting our energy towards it. Inner growth can come in many different forms, find what you will remain consistent with.
With love,
xx Michaela
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