You now you want to, you know you should, you wish you did already but bloody hell where are you supposed to fit it all in??
I know you have made the new years resolutions, you have set all set the awesome goals, and made commitments that even the commitments are struggling to believe you wrote.
Zennnn veee get berry berry annoyance wiv ourselves when we wish we had stuck to those resolutions, achieved the goals and made the time to keep it all up. time after time we wonder why, why we couldn't have just bloody well stuck it out?
Shouda Wouda Couda. We can run a million excuses through our mind mills as to why we didn't get it (anything that was on a list really) done. However when it comes to starting a new wellness routine this most essential element of self care is quite often the first thing to fall by the wayside. Actually never mind the wayside we just push it off a cliff. And women are the champions at this, if it was an olympic sport many of us would have a spectacular collection of gold medals. That we would have had remodelled into something more practical so that no one ever knew.
Wellness or maintaining your spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing is essential, not necessarily the luxury item it is marketed to be, even though we have probably been programmed to accept that it is, then gone and spent the same amount on our monthly membership to wherever as we have spent on the latest pair of super sexy my butt looks awesome in these yoga pants.
A life in yoga requires none of this, its just you and your breath. Breathing is one of my favourite things, and it should be one of yours. Quite simply it is the most undervalued thing that we do every day and improper breathing is a common cause of dis ease (not a spelling error) When you learn how to breathe correctly this one thing and its multitude of applications will be some of the most simple daily practices that will change how you looking feel about everything and improve your life incredibly.
The biggest crimes we commit against our own wellness is creating resolutions that restrict us, grandiose goals that gate keep us form getting shit done and comprehensive commitments that straight jacket us and disable us from integrating new rituals & habits into our busy lives.
Enter the construct of Yoga. If you have been hanging out with me for a while you know that the foundations of my teaching are based in the fact that we live a life in yoga, we don't "go to yoga" or "do yoga" we actually seek to find more joy and happiness by balancing our physical and emotional states of being. Breathe bend Sit are the three pillars of practice that I share and these are the reasons that integrating these practices into you life are ESSENTIAL.
Before we go into the why you would want to do this, i.e. start to integrate practices that will help you create a life in yoga/ balance/ union/ joy/ happiness or ananda/bliss. I want you to know that there is no one way to yoga, no one way to asana aka making the shapes, two legged down ward dog on your hands aint getting you to samadhi or enlightenment any faster and besides there are 7 stages on the journey to samadhi anyways. I digress, there is no one way to meditate, there is no one way to breathe, there is no my way or the high way this is a journey that is entirely yours to take and make. What is helpful is if you have someone or some ones to support and inspire your adventures.
Here are 16 really good and serious reasons why you should breathe bend and sit on the daily
1 Making some shapes is going to get you better flexibility and mobility. Even the stiffest newbie muscles can stretch and lengthen you just have to keep showing up and making some shapes. Yoga helps develop functional flexibility making it easier to complete everyday movement like getting out of your candle lite rose petal & wine bath.
2 Full-body strength, it can be a full-body workout. Going to class, you’ll touch on just about every muscle group in your body with both long, static holds (Hatha Yoga) or fluid, dynamic movement(Vinyasa) Your body has been built perfectly just as it is as you make shapes you’re building functional strength where you need it.
3 Stress Relief. Stress less yeah you can because meditation is the medicine for stress . Asana eventually draws you into mindful awareness of the way you react to challenges on the rubber rectangle rolls of the mat and into real life. In the face of future stress you will be cool as a cucumber, Better breathing is absolutely the master key to rebalancing our everything.
4. Lets twist again like we did last summer yoga asana detoxifies your body, your can even do some ascending descending colon shapes. When you do some of the pretzels shapes, you squeeze your organs, pumping fresh blood throughout your body moving and shifting what no longer serves you.
5 In out, in out inhale exhale Yoga (or your yoga teachers) remind you to breathe. In class we continually nag you to slow the breath to inhale slowly and exhale slowly, this brings your focus to the breath and get you to notice when & where your breath is suffering... it could be physical or maybe even emotional from physical exertion or emotional life stuff. I cannot tell you how integrating new breathing patterns has change how I react or rather don't react to stuff that would have spun me round like a record only a few years ago.
6 Concentration concentration now begins We have the attention span of a gold fish less in fact... its not good. Our attention is constantly being pulled here there and every where we live permanently distracted. Breathing `bending and sitting makes you be more present, you learn to observe your body, breath, and emotions. You lear to be more focused by letting go of all the distractions around you, when you let go of these distractions you create space for creativity.
7 Oh yeah baby self confidence be coming soon. We all struggle with stuff whether you are a beginner or a 10 year veterans we struggle, sweat, fail and fall over. The best bit is no one gives a rats betuttie, no one is here to judge you, so you can just do your thing. Eventually you learn to laugh at yourself and farts become funny. Just keep showing up on your mat and being dedicated to your practice this will bring improvement even if it’s not where or what you you expected.
8 Right here right now breathing bending and sitting help you live in the present moment. No point worrying about the past or being anxious about the future will change what has been or what will happen, Easier said than done until you integrate breath yoga and meditation practices. Don't take your phone to class, take a break form all your devices. Eventually it will be second nature that you take your breathing bending and sitting off the mat and you will be more present in your off mat life.
9 Playfulness, how long since you have been playful like one stuff just for fun? How often as adults do we get to practice new things, like balancinging on your hands or head upside down or just curling up in a ball? Yoga brings you back to that child-like state of joy, fearlessness, fun and adventure. Far more appealing than anger or ego.
10 Community yo be getting some new friends that are on a similar journey! Whats not to love!! apart form the multitude of tools for making more betterer your life, getting your arse to class finds you with new friendships, teachers and real belonging. I am continually inspired by the teachers and students who roll out a rubber rectangle to breathe bend & sit
11 It gets you in the Z Zone for awesome sleep! And what pleasant life changing benefit that is!! Breathing bending and sitting will help you get better sleep by enabling you to shift your perspective, move energy around and out of the body, breathing optimally and finding some quiet time, turning off your devices 30 60 minutes before you go to bed, keep them in a separate room if you can this all leads to better shut eye.
12 Develop some premium, proper posture on your rubber rectangle. Nearly every yoga shape as well as you breath and and meditation will help you develop better posture. As you move through practice you will notice your core strength, spine health, mobility joint ligament and muscle strength and flexibility improve. Good posture is definitely going to develop during yoga practice.
13 Toughen up princess observe the changes in your physical and mental strength. This side effect of yoga is a super power breathing bending and sitting will help you develop some truly incredible mental and physical strength. The whole point of yoga is to work on releasing physical binds so that you can sit longer in meditation, the physical investment in the shapes guarantees changes off the mat and in real life.
14 Sweet relief yoga can help relieve chronic pain Studies suggest that practicing yoga reduces pain for people with dis ease such as hypertension as well as arthritis, back and neck pain and many other illnesses. breathing better means oxygenating the body and allowing yourself the best opportunity for being well. Learn to breath better, I cannot highlight the importance enough. It should be taught in school instead of trigonometry.
15 Full detox making weird pretzel shapes helps the body detoxify and aids in organ function Physical activity increases the motility and mobility of the organs and muscles meaning he can perform their natural detoxification process. Did I mention the importance of breath??? Better breathing enhances the function of the lungs which is really enhancing the whole body, oxygen doesn't just go into the lungs and hang out. It goes into every cell in your body. Also sweating is awesome for getting rid of unwanted stuff from your body too, let it be sweaty its good for you!
16 Zen Om Calm Peace. Yoga quiets the monkey mind. At the very beginning of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is Sutra 1.2: Yoga chitta vrtti nirodha, or “Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.” He never says do the splits, he says try to sit quietly and calm you mind. we all start our yoga practice some where and it doesn't matter how you get there what matters is that you keep working towards creating space for quiet contemplation.
Breath yoga and meditation practices do not "have to be" anything, they just have to serve you
10 minutes
1 hours
22 minutes of Breathwork
7 minutes sitting in stillness
It doesn't matter, what matters is that you can sustainable weave these practices into your busy life
If you would like to learn more about creating sustainable practices, check out my book which is available in all Amazon territories Breath Bend Sit Sustain and the FREE 30 hours of online training on YouTube
Just roll out your rubber rectangle, you got this and I am here to help if you need me
xxxkit