I blogged a few months ago about what it was like to practise yoga every day for 31 days. So today I wanted to touch back on the subject.
I’ve had a few fitness things come and go in my life but the one steadfast practice seems to be yoga.
I did dance when I was very, very little. There exist several embarrassing VHS tapes of recitals out there in the world. And then throughout my youth (ages 12-18) I swam competitively. I even swam on the Varsity team (granted, I was slowest on the team), lettered twice and was made Academic All-American because of it. I love being in the water. It’s something that’s never changed about me. From being a baby to the present day, I love splashing around. But I was never passionate about competitive swimming, in part, because of the whole “competitive” part. I liked being in the water every day, but I didn’t actually like races or meets so I never pushed myself to fill any swimming potential. It was just a fun hobby for me, not a sport. (Apologies to anyone who was on my relay race when I swam anchor).
I danced again a bit in high school and danced more at university. I was even in a dance company at one point in time but that’s a whole other story. It’s during university, over 10 years ago now, that I started practicing yoga alongside some dance classes. At the time, I was doing it for flexibility training.
And then I moved to London for my MA in theatre, and that’s when yoga became a much bigger part of my life. At drama school, everyday before classes actually began, the whole school would have to get together in the great hall and do a quick 10-15 minute warmup and yoga session together. It would usually just consist of a few sun salutations but it got your blood moving and your thoughts centred for the day of classes ahead. If you didn’t attend warmup in the morning, you weren’t allowed to attend classes that day. And if you had more than 3 absences per term, you’d be kicked out of the programme. (Attendance is a big deal at drama school.)
Studying movement and the body became a large part of my MA course. And besides morning warmups, we usually had at least 1 movement class a day, be it yoga, movement, historical dance, Alexander Technique, pilates, etc. It really solidified the place that yoga had in my life as something that could help me feel grounded and level-headed.
To this day, I still do a quick yoga warmup before I go on stage.
All of this schooling experience is quite a few years ago now. And since then I’ve taken up running, pilates and even Pure Barre. But nothing holds my focus and keeps drawing me back the same way that yoga does.
Yoga makes my body feel warm and relaxed whilst it makes my mind quieter, calmer and because of that more focused. It’s highlighted to me how I struggle to be quiet and focused with my daily thoughts, but the positive benefit in my life of doing just that.
When I finish a nourishing yoga session, I usually feel like the best possible version of me. And what could be better than that?
Do you enjoy yoga? If not, what’s your yoga?
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Discoveries About Myself I’ve Made Whilst Doing Yoga
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