Many of Clifton Hill Yoga Studio’s yoga students are taking the art of yoga into their daily lives.
You may be one of them.
Yoga teaches us skills of observation, compassion, self-care, non-judgement and clarity. These are skills that come into play in each moment of our lives.
Some people still regard yoga as a sport or activity that involves various postures or contortions of the body. Asana, or posture, is only a small part of the yoga path. Within asana, we learn the underlying principles of yoga. We become connected to our reality, in our body, breath and mind.
Do you consciously take these yoga practices into your daily life?
At home, down the street or in the office-you may notice being rushed, tense, time poor or mentally drawn into future or past events. These are the pressures of daily living. Where are we? Are we in our bodies or are we absent from our bodies?
With practice, we can release the shoulder tension, take a smooth steady breath and quieten the brow. We can get back to the task at hand, moment to moment, with clarity and calm. It doesn’t take an hour or even ten-minutes. It is an immediate boost of self-soothing. We tap into life, as it is, without judgement. In doing this, we recharge our sense of being and we break the habitual patterns of endless ‘doing’.
Yoga students are armed with hours of ‘on-the-mat’ practice. This practice adds up and accumulates in our neural pathways. It reminds the body of musculo-skeletal alignment and strategies for tension release. We can close our eyes, return to the nourishment of breath and recharge our minds in moments. We can create space to care about the world around us and within us.
I practice yoga in my day. Every moment holds an opportunity for observation and self-retreat. As I observe internal dialogues, as I wait in lines to buy groceries, as I talk on the phone, as I listen to others, as I make decisions… I do it with clarity of the options and clarity of my motivations. I take action rather than reaction. It is yoga in action.
Yoga teaches us to be in each moment without fear of the next or the last.
Life is as it is right now. You are reading this article. I am sitting on the train, writing it.
As yoga students, it is our challenge to translate the skills learnt in asana into daily acts of care and self-awareness.
We can live busy, thriving lives with calm, clear intentions that nourish world beyond ourselves.
By Joanna Remenyi
Joanna Remenyi is a vestibular audiologist at The University of Melbourne Audiology and Balance Disorders Clinic and she manages Seeking Balance a vestibular management and mindfulness clinic in Geelong. Joanna is also a certified Iyengar Yoga teacher with 15-years practice in mindfulness. She teaches mindfulness skills to all ages across schools and workplaces in Victoria.
You can sign-up to Jo’s email list for Coastal yoga and mindfulness retreats at:
http://www.seekingbalance.com.