"Yoga has taught me mental resilience like nothing else"

Meet Shanel @youyogalondon sharing her #Yogasavedmylife story with us🙏 . "If someone had said to the girl on the left in that 2nd photo above, that the girl on the right would be her future self I’d have laughed my head off; then tucked into another bun! 7 years ago I decided I didn’t feel that great in this body so I decided to try & shift some baby weight through running! I’d run a lamp post walk a lamppost until eventually I could run for two lampposts & so on . The weight started to shift the distance started to creep up & I actually started to enjoy this running malarkey! 6 years after that I ran a marathon! . Running led me to yoga. I loved it from the very first class BUT I did not find it easy! My shoulders would shake holding down dog for anything longer than 5 breaths, my breathing itself was short & shallow & the thought of holding anything like an inversion or arm balance seemed impossible & something that only other people could do . Teaching yoga was not even a possibility in my mind. I kept showing up to practice week after week. I developed a home practice & my love for yoga grew “ grew, I still fall in love with the practice every bloody day! . Now those asanas I’d only ever dreamed of doing are slowly becoming my reality. Mentally yoga has taught me strength like no other & my mind is in a completely completely different place from the first photo . I’m still a work in progress, always will be. And guess what so are you!! If u scroll through insta & think oh I’d love to be able to do this that - but I can’t! - I want to tell you that you bloody well can! Work hard, get up when you fall & keep trying you can achieve whatever you set your mind to! . So to those comments I’ve had in the past.. “oh what do u do eat a grape a day” being one that for some odd reason sticks in my head the answer is a big fat NO! I work on myself mentally and physically every single day. And this is not the work of a grape a day but 7 years of consistency, hard work, sweat, blood & tears! So the next time you believe your mind when it tells you you can’t do something don’t believe it! YOU CAN!! .