"Has yoga saved my life? It certainly has saved me from wallowing in a miserable one & from cultivating a poor relationship with myself" • As far back as I can remember I've tried to please someone. By any standards, I had a normal childhood. Yet I was constantly trying to make someone else happy or proud, tying to impress. I sought external validation, both because I craved it & because our system is designed to make us want it. As a result, for as far back as I can remember, I've always felt "not enough" : ashamed of who I was, as if I did things in a way or WAS someone that did not meet full approval. Maybe there was something others had that I didn't? Maybe I lacked a fundamental element of a functional, happy human? • I began yoga around 30 years old. My first teacher preached a vegetarian diet & I disconnected. Then, as with so many stories shared on this page, chance took me to a yoga class whose teacher drew interesting connections, & that got me listening.
• I've been through heartbreak, divorce and life challenges, like many other yogis here. The biggest tragedy for me has been realising that when the dust settles, the only person really caring about my projected image...is me. And if I succeed in changing that attitude, my choices become clearer and my life easier. • I've been fortunate to find more real yoga teachers. One of them was a grave digger before becoming a teacher - someone with a knack for relaying invitations to introspection without judgement, which in turn affected my relationship to myself. The initial "click" took time to happen. I am learning - it's a process with ups & downs - that the limitations I feel in life are only "real" figments of my imagination. • I became a yoga teacher in 2016. Today, I find myself buying less, arguing less, giving less of a preference. I am more content & draw fewer comparisons. I am more myself, reminding myself of the fallacy of the need to please. • The path of yoga sheds light on our own path & makes it walkable, with a bit more grace and equanimity. In that, it can save us from our dark side. Namaste all🙏🏼
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