Yoga is not a “quick fix”, this is not where you find a here-and-now solution to the pain in your back. Having said that, I will immediately contradict myself, because even as little as 10-15 minutes of focused yoga will be able to relieve pain, discomfort, and stiffness and provide a greater sense of calm and balance.
What I mean by “not a quick fix” is that the 15 minutes alone cannot do it. Once the pain, discomfort, or anxiety has subsided, the actual yoga training begins.
If you are clicking around on the internet, you will quickly see that yoga is often described as a way of life. The associations associated with “yoga as a lifestyle” can quickly become something associated with; tie-die clothes, a large herb garden, hour-long meditations in front of Indian deities, and yoga sessions where the body is twisted into more and more complicated poses. Maybe it’s not exactly an image or a lifestyle that you can imagine for yourself.
But yeah, yoga is a lifestyle, back to that “quick fix” thing. You need to be willing to commit, your benefit and understanding of yoga grows with every training session. Once you have incorporated a regular weekly yoga routine and it can be anything from; yoga training at your local gym, an at-home practice, or private lessons, one or more times a week, only then will yoga’s many possibilities unfold.
You experience; how your body goes through a transformation from being heavy and restless to becoming alive, light, and spacious, the amazing feeling of lightness and life that yoga leaves in the body, your mood improves and you experience more balance with yourself and others. So when yoga becomes a part of your lifestyle, then yoga has become a lifestyle.
And then back to the word lifestyle, the diversity of yoga means that you can incorporate it in exactly the way it fits into your life. You can choose how, how much, and how often you practice yoga. Deep down, do you have a longing for tie-die clothes (which admittedly I have a soft spot for) and a self-sufficient herb garden then “go for it”, but to practice yoga it is not required that you change either yourself or your lifestyle.
And then I will immediately contradict myself again, yoga does not require any radical changes from you. But you will still experience that you, completely by yourself, change. You become calmer, and able to handle stress and other life situations in a more balanced way. Your mood improves to the extent that your body is happy to be heard, your body sensation grows, and as the spaciousness of your physical body becomes larger, you as a person will also experience becoming more spacious.
So you will change, the small or big changes will happen quite naturally and they will affect your life and your lifestyle.
I really like the quote “the only constant in life is change”. So don’t be intimidated by a yoga lifestyle, yoga is a lifestyle, but the framework and content are not predefined and you can change, add, and subtract exactly as you see fit. But once you get started, you will find that yoga will become part of your lifestyle and a lifestyle.
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