Hello all! And a Happy New Year!
I haven’t written a blog since last January… Fell off that one, didn’t I? But I continuously got very envious of other people’s writing during 2014, which was a big cue for me to start up again. So, here tis: my blog of 2015. Long let it continue!
So, I want to ask you – how are you feeling? Take a moment to check in with your mind and body. What do you notice? I always start my classes this way. 5 minutes not to judge or change anything, but just to “check in”. See how you are in the moment. Such awareness can help draw you into the here and now and give you an account of how you’re doing, which is something we can often skip by and not allow space for.
And it’s not always good, what we notice! We notice discomfort as well as peace. Pain as well as joy. And it’s OK – how we feel is OK. It’s just what it is.
When you step on the mat, you bring with you whatever’s going on in your life. All kinds of emotions and feelings. Information about how you are, your starting point.
So why do we come? What makes us step on the mat in the first place? Yoga – what’s your motivation?
Because, if we don’t know this – why would we bother in the first place! Everyone needs motivation to do something, otherwise we’d just stay at home/work and not do any yoga at all.
And to keep us on track this new year, I want to know a bit about you. What is it that makes you roll your mat out? What is it you’re getting from your practice?
For me, it’s quite simple. I just feel better when I do yoga. If I take the Christmas period for example. Eating mince pies & lots of party food was great! Tasty, and I needed a good break. Spending quality time with family and friends. But with all the tele watching and little movement, I felt my mood sink and I lost a connection with my body. My mood was the big one. For a few days to a week, I was low, slightly depressed. This isn’t the first time either. No. Me and my moods, we go way back, to teenage years! I’d quite openly say this is something I suffer from: low moods/depression, and something I’ve written about a bit previously in blogs and online.
My motivation is that I want to improve my mood. I need to physically distract myself from my otherwise-spiraling thoughts, and take a dose of feel-good. And I know just the thing to do it – my ever-functioning tool: yoga.
So, there’s a bit about my motivation. Now, over to you – what makes you step on the mat in the first place? And, what’s going to persist if you don’t?