As a practitioner of yoga for over 10 years and now a teacher for almost 2 years I wanted to share how yoga can give you calm, clarity, and peace of mind both on your mat and in real life situations. It doesn't matter what level of flexibility you are at. What matters is your intention and your connection of your body, your mind, and your breath.
Stop for a moment right now where you are seated and bring your awareness to your breath, inhale fully and deeply, let your shoulders move away from your ear and begin to settle. Feel your spine lengthen and your belly expand. Exhale and let everything go. Let go of stress, anxiety, and fear. Now breathe in again. Breathe in love, health, wealth, prosperity, abundance, and joy. Let this feeling and this breath fill you up. Now exhale, breathe out worry, doubt.
Now breath in fill up your lungs, your heart, your soul with the breath of calm, clarity, and peace. Now exhale and send that calm, clarity, and peace to your friends, family, neighbors, local community, and global community. Knowing that flow is the essential aspect of life that keeps everything moving as it should. Visit the home page and scroll down to subscribe to receive a free audio version of this exercise straight to your inbox.
Come back to that exercise as often as you need to. Do it while you are seated and stretch your arms above your head, if you can do it with your eyes closed. Just taking the time to go within. To really connect with your breath. Try moving your body in different ways as you are breathing intentionally letting each movement connect to your breath. Stretch your arms high. Clasp the hands together and bend side to side. Just do what feels good to your body.
Yoga isn't about being flexible or accomplishing a particular pose in a "perfect way", yoga means "to yoke" this is to form a union with your mind, body, and breathe. This union is what we can always tap into even when we are not on our yoga mats. We can always tap into the power of our breath, for clarity, calm, and focus.
As you begin to learn to tap into your mind, breath, and body connection, you will find that stressful situations are easier to deal with. You will begin to be more in tune with your feelings and be able to respond objectively to situations rather then out of fear or worry.
You will live with calm, clarity, and peace of mind no matter the circumstances occurring around you. It all starts with your breath and bringing your attention away from the outer world and towards your inner world getting your inner world aligned and knowing that the outer world is only a reflection of your inner world.