There are so many health benefits in creating your own personal yoga practice. The practices of yoga postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayama), mindfulness and meditation can support your well-being through all the different stages of your life. AND, your practice should change and adapt with your needs: with the seasons, with your age, with the stresses of your workload . . . you get the idea! Creating a work-family-life balance is certainly a worthy skill!
With a daily practice, even if it is just a few minutes a day, you can tune into your body and become more aware of your wellness needs. You will know when to slow down, to move more, to decrease stress, and to improve your sleep habits. With the skills learned in a private session and developed in your own personal yoga practice, you can remain resilient and focused in times of conflict and adversity. We all know these skills are especially important now.
I notice more and more workplace emails about managing stress and some even offer "emotional wellness toolkits". A recent "toolkit" suggested these strategies: 1) brighten your outlook, 2) reduce stress, 3) get quality sleep, 4) be mindful, 5) cope with loss, and 6) strengthen social connections. Easy right?!
It made me laugh as the bullet points under each strategy were really useless to someone who has already reached a point of being stressed and anxious. This one, however, made me stop and think about how unaware the author must really be: "The concept of mindfulness is simple."
Anyone who has practiced mindfulness and/or meditation knows that it is not quite that easy. The process might be simple, or simply stated, but getting the mind-body to reach the state of mindfulness or deep meditation is not at all simple and in fact takes a lot of practice.
During these incredibly stressful times, we must indeed take good care of ourselves. Especially those of us who are caring for young children, elderly parents, patients, students and others who are counting on us being our best selves every day.
If you would like to develop your self-care skills and build your resilience through the practices of asana, pranayama and meditation, please reach out. I offer free 30 minute "discovery" sessions for new students to see if you might be interested in working with me. If you are, you can also add a guest for half-price for private classes
Wishing you all the best,
Julie Sawyer, Ed.D.
E-RYT200, RYT500, YACEP
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