Opening the Door to Mindfulness
Yoga was the first step on my journey towards mindful living. I approach yoga as a moving meditation, a doorway into mindfulness. I have come to believe that yoga is the ultimate teacher. In fact, yoga never stops teaching. You never stop learning from yoga. Every time you step onto a yoga mat, something new is discovered, a revelation is made. And that novel discovery, whether a minuscule detail of pose technique or a grand epiphany about your purpose in life, will undeniably change you and bring you closer to a mindful life…if you allow it to. I guarantee it.
When yoga first came into my life, I must admit that I did not recognize its power. I did not yet have an understanding of the tremendous potential that a consistent yoga practice can have to nurture connection, compassion, clarity and calm within. How it could seep into every fiber of my being, even those places my conscious mind was blind to — especially those hidden places — and shine a light upon all of it, illuminating the truth about me to myself. That has been, in my experience, the ultimate power of yoga; creating that inner awareness, that deeper knowing about ourselves, that space for mindfulness, and it is something I am grateful for every day.
Yoga is the union of the human spirit with the divine spirit.
Yoga means to yoke. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, yoga is defined as the union of the human spirit with the divine spirit. Yes, yoga is in fact, originally, a spiritual practice at its core. It wasn’t until yoga was brought to the West in the early 20th century that the physical practice, the postures and poses known as Asanas, gained prominence. Up until that point, and remaining to this day in many yogic traditions in India, its mother country, yoga is very much still more of a spiritual philosophy and way of life. But that is not how I initially came to yoga — though the spiritual aspects of the practice have undeniably taught me more at this point than the physical side of it.
“Yoga has taught me to become more aware of my breath and my body. It has taught me to be present; empowering me to show up as my true, authentic self and encouraging me to cultivate self-compassion, acceptance and a deeper connection.”
If memory serves, I took my first few yoga classes as a high schooler and all I really recall from those experiences is feeling supremely inadequate in the face of the challenging poses that others in the class could, by the looks of it, easily perform. I decided yoga just wasn’t for me and I left it at that. Until a few years later in college when, driven by some unknown need, I once again attended a few yoga classes through my university. This time the focus leaned more towards the spiritual side, as the instructor had us spend plenty of time learning Pranayama, breath work, that we then paired with gentle movement, mantras and some meditation. At that point in time I had no clue what meditation was or how to approach it, so that part of class felt completely foreign and useless to me, but Pranayama was interesting. It awakened something within me that I couldn’t quite grasp or define, but it was there…one of those novel discoveries. For the first time, I felt a stillness within.
Once I became more open and receptive, I found myself on the path towards mindful living
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I attended yoga classes off and on for the next fifteen or so years, but I never stuck with it. I never truly developed a consistent practice or allowed it to lead me deeper. I would just show up at random yoga classes in different studios with varied traditions and teaching methods, and I would approach it as an addition to whatever my current exercise regimen was. The harder and more challenging the class, the better, so that I could feel like I had fulfilled my workout goals for the week. Power Yoga was good, but Hot Flow Yoga was better. Hot Yoga with weights, well, that was the best…even though it made me feel nauseous and brought back those feelings of inadequacy. But, no pain no gain, right? At least, that was my mentality at the time. Today, I fortunately benefit from a very different relationship with my yoga practice; a relationship based on compassion, acceptance and presence.
I got certified as a yoga instructor earlier this year…one of the most profound and impactful experiences of my life. I wouldn’t dream of doing a class with weights these days. That’s not what yoga is about for me anymore. I no longer regard it as another workout. Instead, I value it more for the inner peace and awareness, the insight, that it brings into my life. I tend to gravitate towards slower Hatha flow classes, though when I venture to do a more challenging Vinyasa or Power Yoga class, I certainly appreciate the strength I feel building and the control it fosters over my body. And it’s always fun to build up to a more difficult expression of a pose you’ve been working on for a while. But more than that, I adore the feelings of lightness and connection, of length and spaciousness, the sense of embodiment that stays with me even after I step off my mat. I try to take those feelings with me into the rest of my day, and into my daily life, really.
It took over a decade of random yoga classes and some deep inner work acknowledging how unfulfilled and disconnected I felt, before I began to approach yoga with this changed mindset. Three years ago, I signed up for a semi-private eight-week Yoga and Mindfulness program that a friend was guiding. It was probably one of the best decisions of my life. We gathered together in a small group twice a week at a home studio to learn about and practice yoga, with an emphasis on both Pranayama and Asanas. We learned about yogic traditions, we learned about meditation and we embarked upon a fairly extensive exploration of mindfulness. That was my first true introduction to mindfulness, what it was about and the impact it could have on one’s life. I am so grateful for that experience and the path it set me upon. Since then, yoga has taught me to become more aware of my breath and my body. It has taught me to be present; empowering me to show up as my true, authentic self and encouraging me to cultivate self-compassion, acceptance and deeper connection. For me, yoga opened the door to a life lived mindfully.
Written By Camila
Seeker, Storyteller and Mindful Traveler
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