Let me share with you the moment I realized I had been allowing my ego to control my yoga practice — and the moment I chose to release it. It was in my twenties when I finally realized that I had been forcing the yoga poses I was practicing.
I wasn’t allowing the poses to take shape as my body desired in the moment. I felt twinges in my knees (and surely that wasn’t due to the many years of quad skating and using my knees as breaks, surely no…). Regardless of the reason, I was not taking the time to listen to my body’s subtle signals.
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When I began teaching yoga, and utilizing the knowledge I gained in anatomy while studying massage therapy at a local college, I learned that our bodies talk to us and that we must listen. I began to let go of my need to look like someone else in each yoga pose, and backed off. As I tuned in and listened to what my body was actually telling me, I was able to open up more in my poses and felt free in my body.
Our yoga practice eventually seeps into our lives in ways that we can not even fathom. You see, when I was fifteen and practicing, I did so because of these teenage dreamlike reasons:
I thought it sounded cool to say I did yoga.
I thought I looked cool jumping into random poses at parties.
I thought I would always be the most flexible kid in class.
These were all superficial reasons. They weren’t growth oriented. I did it because it seemed cool, yet without even realizing it, my yoga practice began to seep into my everyday life.
While in tenth grade, I was a HUGE gossip. I needed to know everything about everyone. It was often detrimental to the friendships I began creating in my new town and yet, like a drug I was addicted to it.
I began yoga that year and something began to slowly shift.
By the time I was a senior in high school, I was concentrating on a job I had received working for a mortgage company and purchasing my dream car. The gossip addiction dwindled, and I became more infatuated with my yoga practice and the way my body felt. I was cheer leading at the time, and even through the rigorous movements, I was hardly ever sore. I maintained my flexibility and also created strength.
This is what yoga in the physical practice does for us. It creates flexibility and strength. These are the reasons most of us practice it.
Flash forward to my late twenties and I began to learn the art of listening to my body while practicing yoga.
I learned compassion for my self.
One of my teachers mentioned to us during class to slow down. Why are we always running? Where are we even running to? It resonated with me. I was always running.
I ran away from hard decisions. I ran away from confrontation. I ran away from the me I truly was in order to be someone else in an effort to people please.
When standing in this forward fold for a gastly amount of time, I sobbed. I sobbed and forgave myself for putting my self to the side in an effort to please others.
Yoga seeped into my life that day and abruptly. I woke up at that moment on my mat, bent over holding my hands under my feet for as long as the teacher told us to, in an effort to people please. I was sobbing and held it because the teacher said so.
In that moment, after what felt like an eternity, I released my hands from my feet and forgave myself. “This. This, Brittney is what you have been doing for so long. You have held yourself in a position where your hands are tied in an effort to ‘make’ people like you. You can’t make anyone do anything.”
This revelation is still relevant to me a decade later.
Stuck in the cycle of busy hoping that one day there will be time for your and what you want?
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Yoga has seeped into my life in a way that I am grateful for and the moment you begin your practice, keep in mind it is seeping into yours as well. What will you break free from during your next practice?
I am excited for you and your amazing growth!
In an effort to help you listen a little more to your body while you practice, enjoy this yoga pose breakdown video of Warrior One I created for you.
BRITTNEY HILLER
Brittney is the creator of the Effervescence Yoga brand and the owner of Effervescense Yoga Spa in the beautiful resort town of Beaufort, South Carolina. Brittney is passionate about leading a life full of laughter and joy! That is why she is also a certificated laughter yoga teacher & laughter yoga leadership trainer. She is also a Follow-Your-Passion Coach and the producer and head talent of Flowcountry, the Lowcountry’s only streaming yoga show!
3 Responses
FABULOUS!!! ✨
Thank you Selina for reading! Did you enjoy the yoga pose breakdown?
Very informative. I enjoyed the breakdown tremendously 🙂