In 5 Easy Steps…
Girls has your get up and go, got up and gone? Are you sleeping yet still hitting snooze. Eating less but carrying excess. Popping pills but catching ills? Can you remember when you last felt your best self? Yoga has your back…
…No Yoga Pants Required
Chickadees however you feel about your health today this does not have to be your normal. You do not have to be resigned to it or get used to it. My mission is to show you how yoga can get you back – to you.
So, ladies, let’s start with what this guide isn’t about. It’s not about poses. It’s not about props. It’s not about yoga pants. It’s not even about eight limbs, meditation or mantra. This girls is a guide to yoga as the adventure into your best self. It’s a guide for rescuing your mind, mood, hormones, immunity – your entire life. I’ll make it quick in the spirit of the title. You can explore the terrain more in your own time – with me, in class, or on your own. You are always in charge… let’s go.
Step 1: Start Where You Are
When you step on the yoga mat, check yourself out. Where are you at? No bad self-talk, just accept. Now you have a place to work from and the only way is up baby. What you’ve got in front of you is pure potential. Your physiology is not fixed or stuck. Your body and all its systems are a divine work in progress. Every cell is working for you in every moment to keep you in balance and alive. Consider today that it’s us, our actions, that get in the way of that miracle of existence. So, cleanse, get clear, make space, get organised and be inspired to think about yourself a little differently. It’s time to get creative in what you think is possible for you. Think limitless.
Step 2: Relax, Reflect, Restore
Do you look to everyone else to make you happy and make you feel good? Can you give any of those things to yourself? Step on the mat and celebrate the gift of your physical body and learn to be kind, patient and nurturing with yourself. Only then will you have a love tank at ‘full’ and be able to show up as your unique, amazing self to others. We’re told it’s better to give than receive, I hear you. But giving and receiving are just different expressions of the same flow of energy. Keep both circulating in your life or stagnate – it’s up to you.
Step 3. Break the Habit
Are you in a fear/stress cycle? Ask yourself, what’s wiping you of your energy and sense of self? Free yourself from anything that’s not serving you. Yoga helps you understand that you get to choose. When you choose actions that are aligned with what you want, (really, really want), the fruit of those choices is success and happiness. First though we have got to find the space and stillness, the calm in the chaos, the comfort within the discomfort and then, in time, challenge what patterns of behaviour, beliefs or conditioned ways of being are working for us and which are not.
Step 4. Set Intentions
Let’s get clear. What is it that you you really, really, really want? Strong core, better balance, more sleep, bigger pay packet, more rewarding relationships? Show up on your yoga mat, enliven your attention and you get to empower all your intentions and desires. Yoga will show you how to start to manifest your desires with effortless ease – yes really! Where your attention goes, energy flows. It’s called the law of attraction. When we focus on what we want, rather than what we don’t, it can change everything.
Step 5: Find Flexibility
You know you really don’t have to tie yourself in knots or ‘nail’ every yoga pose to be practicing yoga. The same is true in life, you don’t have to force or struggle to get what you want, or be completely sure of where your next step is taking you to be living your life with purpose. All you do have to do is take action, however small, and see what happens. Allow opportunities to emerge. Yoga invites you to embrace the idea that you don’t know where your practice (or life) is heading. Each day you just get to be curious and find new stuff to experience. That’s where the real adventure lies. So chicks, it’s spring, almost Easter and the perfect time to rise-up to be your fullest, bestest, baddest self. Eating chocolate is not a reward (you are programmed from childhood to think it is – that’s our culture and society’s accepted standard). But ask yourself, is it serving you now?
Do you want to choose higher standards for yourself? Give yourself the gift of yoga and rediscover all that you were meant to be, feel and experience. Get up and go girls. I’ll see you on your mat.
Hugs and Namaste
Josie X
Want more?
Yoga Adventure is a yoga programme designed to help you rescue your mind, mood, health and happiness. To rediscover your best self and get a place on the next class – go here.
