Yoga and Self-Love
For me, yoga means investing in loving myself. Taking time out of each day to solely love and experience my body and mind, to be present in uncomfortable situations and states of being.
Accepting the struggle, leaning into the resistance, and knowing that it’s going to be ok - and more than ok - it’s a beautiful opportunity to love yourself.
My yoga practice centers me, and pulls the pieces of my mind and body together back to the connection with the present moment where the past and future disappear into the steady breathing in and out.
Yoga also pulls other areas of my life together, when I’m doing yoga consistently, it teaches me self-discipline and shows me that I can put my mind to something, make time for it, and persevere for something that matters to me.
Getting into Yoga
I’ve done yoga off and on for about three years. At times that might have been just a few times a week, sometimes daily, and then a couple of months break, then a stretch of once a week.
Basically all over the place and without much consistency. But even without a consistent practice I could feel the mental and physical benefits.
I first got more into yoga when I was boulder back in Denton, TX at this amazing climbing gym Summit. I joined some yoga classes to improve my climbing (it did) but more than that, it just made me feel amazing.
Just like climbing had been the first time I felt “in” my body, yoga was the next level of that - being fully, and intentionally, present in my body connected to my breath.
Loving Yourself
My body changes each day, and through my yoga practice I’m able to have the opportunity to directly experience those changes and choose how I respond.
Yoga gives you the chance to accept and appreciate those changes and the struggles and effort you put into each pose and staying present with your breath.
I’ve found that I love parts of myself I had never even thought about before. Like my feet - that so lovingly carry me through me through the world, or my wrists that support me through poses and allow me to interact and engage with things around me.
And if you have an injury or are are sore one day or unable to do a pose fully or as deep as you would like - the experience of sitting with that, accepting it and choosing to love and care for yourself.
The care you give to your body is the care you give to yourself.
I fully believe loving your body with all of its stories is a core element of living fully.
Daily Yoga Practice with Breath and Flow
In 2020 on a Borderless Retreat one of the founders and now friends, Marta, shared that her daily practice was through this Yoga teaching couple Breathe and Flow. They’ve became what I use now for my guided yoga practice.
They even have daily calendars of yoga classes to help make yoga into a daily practice.
I want to put an aside here that they have their calendars labeled as beginner / intermediate / or advanced. These names aren’t so much leveling or an ability hierarchy but more about how much time you can put into yoga and how familiar you are with yoga when you begin the classes.
I would say if you have done little to no yoga before - start with the beginner. If you’re familiar with poses and techniques and can dedicate yourself to 45 to 60 minutes daily - then go for the intermediate.
After the intermediate, they have the advanced which ranges from around 60 to 120 minutes of yoga per day.
Also, good to know that both the beginner and intermediate calendars / videos are completely free. However, if you want the advanced calendar and classes you’ll need to be a Patreon subscriber (a very reasonable $5 a month).
What I’ve also enjoyed with Breath and Flow is that they focus on more than just the yoga practice and frequently have videos for mobility classes (sooo useful) as well as yoga lifestyle such as sleep, nutrition, morning routines, and a full mediation section if you enjoy guided meditations.
If you’re not into a daily yoga practice yet and want to check out some of their videos. They have hundreds of free videos on youtube that you can watch.
These also include mini courses curated into playlists such as:
- 30 days of Mindfulness Yoga
- Advanced Yoga
- Strength Training
- Intermediate Yoga
- Beginner Yoga
- HIIT Training for Yoga
Why You Should Care
All this to say - yoga has been incredible for my journey of self-love.
I highly recommend it for self-love, self-discipline, and to just help your body feel better.
I hope this will encourage you to try out yoga if you haven’t before, or if you have and currently aren’t practicing, to give it another chance.
Namaste