Umm a blog… well after a number of drafts & attempts to sound peacefully yogic I have decided instead it will be a lot easier to just be me. I teach self acceptance & often when people ask what yoga can do for them, I explain it is powerful enough to quiet my mind & dampen my self doubt as well as the many & varied physical benefits. Why then did I feel it necessary to try & just portray the post meditative calm & collected me as opposed to the bubbling over bouncy me that often exists before hand!
I am going to introduce my self as Tabitha the main yoga teacher at Yoga in Cheshire. I am grateful daily for this opportunity to live the dream! My aim is to share my love of yoga with others & hopefully to bring my enthusiasm about the potential for yoga in today’s world.
Hence I decided to start a blog & allow my enthusiasm to bubble over into the online community. Maybe hoping to infect others with the realization that yoga can change our worlds. I’m also hoping my blog will allow existing students to give me feedback about classes & workshops & potential students to learn about my teaching style before they meet me.
I started yoga in the early 1990s and through my 20s it provided me with a constant to which I continued to return. I realized that regular yoga seemed to give me an external viewpoint from which to make important decisions & an internal strength to face life’s ups and downs. Only when I decided to study further did I realize it’s so much more than just a way of keeping fit & flexible & that the internal strength I had was a common occurrence in yoga practitioners! Whatever different reasons originally bring us to the practice, we discover more about ourselves within our practice & then increasingly integrate yoga into our lives!!
I often try to explain the joy of Ujjayi breath in class, and how it teaches us the skills & ability to relax into difficult situations. I teach how yoga is not the physical representation of the postures (asana) but instead the ability to be both strong & soft in both breath & physical being. The focus on the smooth strong Ujjayi breath allows the mind to relax & unites the body & mind into a supportive relationship rather than a struggle. It also encourages us to relax into what may have originally been a difficult posture or situation. Instead focus is on maintaining steady relaxed mind, breath & attitude.
This is represented in the yoga sutra 11.46 ‘stira sukam asanam’ which describes the yoga pose as stability with ease….or solidity with comfort. Our practice is an individual journey & provides attitude for living more tranquilly off the mat. Allowing us to relax into stressful situations & stay focused when our worlds are in turmoil.
