Hello and welcome to our yoga blog! Our little corner of the internet where, each week we will share our thoughts, experiences, tips and insights, as we travel along our yoga journey.
For our very first blog post, we thought we’d get back to basics and share what yoga means to us, starting with Orla. Instead of filling our blog with regurgitated information about the origins of yoga, the meaning behind it or even ream off the eight limbs, we thought we’d do it a little differently and share our own experiences with yoga and what it means to us. Yoga can have profound effects on our lives in so many different ways, so instead of suggesting what the impact SHOULD be, we’re going to share how it has impacted us in its own unique way.
What yoga means to Orla…
For me, yoga is a means of living well
Yoga with Orla
I’d love to say I had an enlightened moment whereby I decided to practice yoga for some kind of spiritual fulfillment, but the truth is – I didn’t. I was first drawn to it for aesthetic reasons. I wanted to do some form of weekly exercise that would help me strengthen and tone and if a pound or two dropped off along the way, I wouldn’t complain! I can tell you now when I started, I was the most unfit, inflexible person in the class. I was lucky to touch my knees, never mind my toes! Sun salutations was the most amount of cardio I had done in a long time and the sweat that rolled off me was proof of that (*apologies for the visual!)
Although challenging in every sense, the rush of endorphins that flooded in as we lay in Savasana mirrored a sense of achievement I rarely felt at that particular point in my life. Tension and aches that came with sitting at a desk all day started to ease, as we stretched and I literally started to feel more comfortable in my own skin. The natural resistance training that comes with a lot of the asanas (poses) like downward dog, plank, warrior etc. over time, gave me the arm strength and toned physique that would rival any gym-bunny.
So obsessed was I with the way yoga made me look and feel, I decided I would like nothing more than to be able to share this feeling with others. So with that, Emma and I embarked upon our teacher training journey. There, I realised that there is SO much more to yoga. Not in terms of what there is to learn about the philosophy, or the chakras, or any of that other stuff. That is important, but, the “much more” bit for me came from how my practice started to filter from my physical wellbeing into all the other aspects of me.
Yoga with Orla
What I have realised, so far on my journey, is that yoga draws you into the present, through the simple act of tuning into your body and your breath. Instead of getting wrapped up in your thoughts all-day, every-day, you start to awaken into the here and now. If you think about it, how often do you become consumed by thoughts of the past or worries for the future? I bet, like me, this accounts for a large part of your mental focus.
For me, yoga is the method through which I can determine the nature of the person I want to become, by recognising my patterns of thought and behaviours and becoming flexible and strong enough to change them. First, came the physical flexibility and then slowly that flexibility has started to translate into all the other aspects of my being. This flexibility has given me the freedom to shed perceptions I’ve formed of myself from past experiences. Instead of going round and around, recycling the same old information and thoughts, doing the same things and in a lot of ways going nowhere, yoga has helped me open up those circles into straight lines. Lines that will lead me somewhere. Where? I have no idea, but I can tell you feeling like you’re going somewhere unknown is a lot more satisfying than ending up in the same place over and over. I realise now that there is no end goal. Rather, yoga for me will be a lifelong journey of self-reflection and self-refinement. It is a means through which I hope to live life to the full and experience joy in each moment. I believe that continuing to nurture my wellbeing through yoga will allow me to live well and embrace whatever life throws at me.
