Yoga and Surrender

Learning to Surrender  

Learning to surrender to what I feel within, while surrendering to something larger than myself has been one of the most challenging lessons so far. How freeing it must feel to no longer need to ask, “ Am I a good person? Am I loveable?

Practice Without Denying Our Humanity

I’ve come to realise it’s not about denying our humanity, but embracing it with our feet placed firmly on the ground, while open to new learnings and discoveries. Lessons learned from the inside out. I believe this is one of the most essential aspects of our inner journey towards compassion and awareness. 

My Inner Perfectionist 

When I first started on my teaching journey, I was overwhelmed by guilt while believing I had to reach perfection. Being extremely sensitive I struggled with addictions in order to suppress what I was feeling, guiding me towards denial and turmoil. This although much more destructive, has some similarities to the Yogic practices that encourage us to suppress many of our human emotions. My inner perfectionist was often not my friend, leaving me feel unworthy of love and incapable of achieving my goals, always claiming “I’m not Ready Yet”. However like most things we learn on the job, so it was essential to take the leap through fear into the unknown in order to grow. 

Letting Feelings Flow As We Flow Through Asana

I have reached a place now where I am able to surrender to feelings in a way that don’t overwhelm and destruct, but guide me towards more openness and understanding. Every human emotion is beautiful and we must not deny ourselves, but be open to learn and discover through experience, learning through ourselves and from others in order to grow. 

When I practice, Yoga Asana, Pranayama and Meditation, I let the feelings flow while I ask my body and my higher self questions, not expecting all of the answers straight away, but practicing with patience and authenticity. 

Overcoming Suppression 

As we become adults we often supress our own intuition, whether we end up in survival mode or conform to societies demands. This can leave us hollow and unfulfilled, never feeling good enough. Self-acceptance is a key ingredient towards growth. 

Emotional and Physical Body Connection 

Our emotional and physical body are connected from our roots to our crown and through Yoga we can become more in touch and aware of our bodies. If we focus on our breath while practicing our Asana, we can start to surrender to the present moment and really listen to our bodies, scanning for sensations and becoming more at ease with our feelings, whether we consider them good or bad, we learn to embrace them as part of us, leading us closer to a state of wholeness, acceptance and fulfilment.

Questions For The Body

 Perhaps we have physical restrictions we may want to worth through first, enabling us to dig deeper.  We can ask ourselves, Where do I feel love? For example. Or where in my body do I hold stress? If you hold stress in your shoulders, most likely they will feel tight or ache. Once we learn to listen to our bodies, we can develop an Asana practice that serves us in the most nurturing way possible.