WHAT IS YOGA TO YOU?

I am feeling so inspired by a trailer I recently came across for a documentary called Yogawoman (released in 2011). Although the film is about female yoga teachers and how they are transforming the world of yoga to women, I believe the way yoga is presented in the film easily speaks to both women and men.

Below are a couple of quotes regarding what yoga can offer, taken from the trailer. Having in mind the pressure and stress most of us live with today, I would say yes please to these immediately!

– “a way to free ourselves from tensions of challenging times”
– “the state when you are needing nothing, where you feel whole and complete”

During my teacher training at the Yoga Academy, one of the homework assignments at the start of the course was to write 100 words about “what yoga is to me”. It might sound easy, however I think most of us spent a long time writing it! And, once we had written down our 100 words, within the next day, week or month, some of us could have written something else that would also feel true to how we define yoga for ourselves. So the list is actually endless 🙂

One of my co-students wrote that practicing yoga allowed her to reset herself. I thought that was a beautiful word describing what yoga can do. When I started practicing regularly, yoga felt like coming home, coming back to myself. At that time I viewed it as bringing myself “back to base camp” – I was resetting body, mind and breath to the environment around me, in order to be grounded, calm, ready and well in the world.

In case you want to have a look at the trailer for Yogawoman for some yoga inspiration, here it is:

 

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Annette Wiik

My name is Annette. I am a Yoga Academy Certified Teacher (BWY-Accredited School) and started practising Hatha Yoga over 20 years ago. Holding a certificate from Bangor University to teach mindfulness-based courses, I incorporate my knowledge of mindfulness meditation in all my yoga classes. I have two grown-up children.