Hey there, Reader!
So many people I come across tend to lump yoga in with traditional exercise. They see it as a way to “tone their body without getting too bulky” or as a way to be able to one-day hopefully touch their toes.
If you’ve been one of the many who think of yoga in the physical way, you certainly aren’t wrong. While these things can be accurate and wonderful by-products of the practice of yoga, they are touching the surface of what makes yoga, yoga. 🧘
My guess is, though, if you’re reading this and have been around here for a minute, you likely know that yoga is more than just the physical. I don’t exactly keep that a secret.😉
But you might not know exactly why it actually is so different from traditional exercise and why you need to stop putting it in the same category. And why does it even matter how you classify it?
Let me tell you…
When you classify yoga as exercise, you sell yourself short on real benefits you could be deriving from the practice. In the beginning when you just start practicing yoga, sure, the physical is where it’s at…you’re awakening your body and muscles to something new and even with a little soreness, you begin to feel a new “aliveness” that you’ve never felt before.
But eventually, if your focus stays on the physical, you’re likely to give up and walk away
1. Because your mind is closed off to all the “behind-the-scenes” work that’s happening just by you beginning to lengthen and move the fascia in your body (that’s the connective tissue that holds all your muscles together between your skin and your muscles).
Or
2. Because dang, it gets hard trying to keep your body on a 26″ x 71″ yoga mat and do a whole bunch of different movements!
Or
3. Because you are trying so hard to make your physical body do something that you end up injuring yourself and forever labeling yoga as something that injured you and you just can or shouldn’t do it (even if that’s an unconscious labeling).
Yoga is so much more than just exercise. And it’s what I’m telling you about in this week’s episode of the podcast.
Click here to check out the full episode=>
Our Western culture so often sees yoga as a way to burn calories and shed toxins in a super hot room. But the goal of yoga is not anywhere near that goal.
In this episode, you’ll learn
- What yoga is
- Three themes as to why yoga is more than just exercise
- How to use the practice to begin to flow with life even when life doesn’t go as you expect it to
If you’ve ever gotten bored with your workouts or if you struggle to make yourself workout, perhaps it’s that something needs to shift in what you’re doing or how you’re approaching movement.
Yoga can indeed be movement that benefits your body, AND it can also be movment that connects you with a deeper understanding of yourself…so that you can begin to use your body’s rhythms and messages to begin to flow with life instead of feeling like it’s going against you. It worked for me, and I have no doubt it can work for you as well. 😘
Helping you find the rhythms in all you do!
Cheers,
Cathy
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