Here are some great reasons to engage in Yoga practice during natural warm weather. Summertime brings along the heat and wakes our bodies up really quickly to the practice with many benefits to boot. For many of us we occasionally feel stiff not very flexible in the cold.
It is a habit that most of us tend to embrace and celebrate all things which are successful yet we tend to have a rather negative attitude to our failures because we interpret them as personal disasters, something to be ashamed of and to hide.
Whenever we encounter an injury either during our yoga practice or during our everyday activities, the tendency is to interpret the unexpected and unfortunate event as something detrimental; and certainly the first reaction is to label it as: “not good.”
However, many of the greatest lessons in life don’t arrive in the 'friendliest of packages.'
Yoga teaches us to fully recognize and embrace all the elements and components of our existence at all levels. Among those many things to fully acknowledge is the mind.
Occasionally we get up in the morning only to realize that the gorgeous invigorating sunshine just happens not to be out there to shine on us either externally or internally; in spite of the fact that we all know the sun is “always hiding behind the clouds.”
We are all mirrors to each other and life offers us many ways to learn about ourselves. Often we think of going inwards to find ourselves and our essence. That is of course very true; however, the practice of yoga doesn't leave us just trapped inside but the relationship is vertical first with the spirit within and then from there we each must connect horizontally and journey outwards to connect and learn from and with others not just about them but also about our own selves.
Aligning our dreams, aspiration and goals:
Many of us tend to make most of our choices on automatic pilot. Few of us realize that we can choose at any given point in our lives to step in by deciding to give a different spin to our automatic responses by adopting a more positive and well-planned approach to the way we feel, think and act.
Those of you who’ve attended my classes know very well that I always like to mention that if you take home only one main thing from my instruction, that one thing should be 'the deep yogi breathing' due to its many benefits to our overall physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual health.
Yoga reminds us of the very essence of the Thanksgiving spirit, one of opening our hearts to experience and feel the gratefulness for all the seeds which we have planted and which have grown in our fields and in our inner garden. An opportunity to enjoy and to celebrate while feeling thankful for our full harvest!