My journey to self-love through yoga
How yoga helped me start to appreciate and love my own body, a personal story.
Self love is the ultimate goal right? And we know in order to love others we need to love ourselves first. But sometimes it feels so unobtainable, so vain or just plain silly. The truth is, self love is one of the most powerful tools you can use to change your experience of life. The hardest part of self love - is understanding where and how to begin this beautiful and complex journey.
Key word here is JOURNEY, I for one cannot say I 100% love myself all day everyday, there’s still some negative beliefs and limiting feelings that I have got to work on. But, I have come a long way in the way I look at the relationship with myself and at the root of it - is yoga.
How does yoga help with your self love?
I once thought this too, but yoga is so much more than the physical practice you see in studios. The biggest challenges of yoga are, being able to sit still and alone with your thoughts, to always question the deeper meaning and to change your vibrations to be of a higher frequency. This is a life long practice, that nurtures the mind body and soul. The path of yoga brings so much understanding and acceptance of one’s self it is impossible not to start loving yourself a long the way.
My Story…
I became interested in fitness when I was 14 and I focused on weight lifting to hopefully change my physique. Looking back at that young girl I realise that she never took time to question whether or not she actually LIKED weight lifting, but used it as a coping mechanism for her negative self image. It is so sad how many people turn to weight lifting purely for the aesthetics, to build bigger glutes, to make some muscles bigger and shrink other, less desired parts of the body. And to think I was literally still developing into my young body at the time, but I still wanted it to look different is crazy.
This is not me saying that weight lifting is a bad form of exercise, it can be a great overall workout and not to mention the countless health benefits of strength training. BUT in my experience, I only used it as a way to change the way I looked and completely neglected the way it made me FEEL.
So in turn what happened? I didn’t see the results I so desperately wanted because I wasn’t practicing from a place of content, but rather a place of low self esteem and confidence. I knew this had to change, and so I started learning more about nutrition, anatomy and most importantly - the mind…
That’s where I found yoga, I remember the first lesson I ever took was with my mum and we done it out of curiosity to “see what the fuss is about”. Now, almost 4 years later from that class, I am a trained yoga teacher and Mum finally got what the fuss was about.
My realisations
Yoga helped me understand how powerful my body truly is, and it made me start to be grateful for it, not to hate it. I started to want to nurture it more, not punish it by sticking to strict diets. I realised how much my body looks after me, it is my friend and not my enemy. These are all realisations I made from dedicating myself to yoga.
Here’s 3 ways yoga helped me on my self love journey:
1) Yoga requires body acceptance, you get humbled during practice when trying to do certain poses. Yoga builds this relationship with the body where you can explore and try to push your limits. Making it easier for you to understand and accept your body for what it is.
2) Yoga encourages mindfulness. I have spoken about this a lot, but practicing being present and slowing down the overstimulated brain during yoga practice helps to reduce negative thoughts and change the neurological pathways in your brain to help shift you to a more positive mindset.
3) Yoga teaches non-judgement of others and of the self, so when learning about the roots of yoga it helps to change the way you perceive the world and yourself.
The point I’m trying to make is, if you are looking to better your relationship with yourself and others - yoga can help you take a new path of love and acceptance❤️.
