My Yoga Journey

My yoga journey It was in 2007 that I finally started to try yoga, even though I had been curious about it for long time. At the beginning I did my own practice by following Bryan Kest’s DVDs – Power yoga I, II and III, I fell in love with it right away. The more I practiced, the more I wanted to learn. At the end of 2008, I made a big decision to indulge myself completely into yoga. I signed up one year intensive teacher training program with Ashtanga yoga master Mark Darby, since then, I never stop my yoga practice and teaching. It was not an easy journey for me. I went through injuries because I pushed myself too hard, I got jealous and unhappy when I saw others improved faster than me, I wanted to quit because it was difficult to get out the warm bed when it was -25c outside, I was also frustrated and disappointed with myself not to be able to move on to next asana for long time because my teacher said that I was not ready. Finally and slowly, I learned to accept who I am, don’t compare with others, even don’t compare with myself. Be present, do whatever I can at the moment. I learned a lot from my yoga practice, and the most important thing that I learned is to be patient. The founder of Ashtanga yoga, K pattabi Jois, said, ‘Do you practice and all is coming.’ When I started to practice Supta Kurmasana, my teacher always made jokes that my arms and legs are too short so that it was practically impossible to get into this pose. However today, after many years of practice, not just this asana becomes easy for me, but also gradually I moved on to Eka pada sirsasana, Dwi pada sirsasana, Yoginidrasana. I heared many people say, yoga is very boring, you just sit there and breathe. In fact, many doctors consider yoga, special power yoga or Ashtanga yoga, similar to weight lift training. There are many different styles of yoga, Ashtanga, Hatha, Vinysa, Iyengar, hot yoga, Yin yoga, restorative yoga, etc. , the most important thing is to find the style suits your need, get a teacher that you trust, add the practice to your schedule, then keep doing it. There also lots of people say, I am not flexible enough, or I am not strong enough or I am too old to do yoga, In fact, just because you are stiff or weak, you should start your yoga practice as soon as possible. It’s never too late, the earlier, the better. Even now, I still struggle with injury or tiredness sometimes, but I don’t stop my practice completely. I listen to my body, respect my limits, I make modification whenever needed, I do shorter practice when I am in a rush, I don’t get into deep backbend if my back is sore. 2 years ago I did not do urdhva dhanurasana for almost 3 months during my daily practice, and waited patiently to recover from my back injury. When I recovered, I learned a big lesson how to protect my back. There is No short cut or magic with yoga practice. I was asked by many people, how soon I can lose certain pounds, how soon I can do the same asana like someone beside me, how quickly I can touch my toes with my legs straight, etc. There is no one answer for everyone, if you practice once instead of three times a week, obviously you will improve slower. If you are flexible or strong already, you will move on to advance asana quicker than beginners. But, every practice counts, the more you do, the more benefits you will receive. Namaste .

Load more