Practice posing

If you can breathe and move at the same time, you can benefit from posing – yoga posing, that is!

Our mind is a gateway, and the limitations created by the mind act as security, selecting and guarding what enters and leave. Recognition of limiting thoughts is a starting point to minimize negative infiltration to the mind. Once fear is identified as the source of limiting thoughts, a plan of action is required to break through. This plan typically requires practice, and lots of it.

It’s easy to admire people who accomplish exceptionally great achievements, but when a person experiences tremendous adversity, then goes on to attain nearly impossible feats, we pause and wonder about our human potential and capabilities. No one is anatomically designed with two brains or has access to more hours in the day.

To overcome limitations, we must practice falling and rising. When painful thoughts arise, practice thinking about love. If questions about the future surface, practice channeling your thoughts to the present moment. If your feelings seem uncontrollable, pause and breathe. Focus on your inhale and exhale, while allowing your feelings to go through its cycle. Feelings are visitors, they come and go freely, but sometimes we hold on to certain emotions too long. There’s a sense of freedom that comes from having no attachments.

This kind of freedom occurs when the desire to feel good and defy imagined barriers exceeds fear and doubt. A barrier often highlighted when people shy away from yoga is age. There’s no fact-based evidence that declares the cut off age to do anything, ever. “I’m too old to do x, y or z” is an example of a limiting belief. Where did this notion about age defining what we can and can not integrate into our culture come from?

To dispel this myth about age restrictions, check out the oldest yoga teacher on the planet – Miss Tao Porchon-Lynch. She has been practicing yoga for nine decades. She is currently 98 years young and more active than she’s ever been in her life. For Porchon-Lyon, “it all starts with the breath, the energy within us and the power behind all things. Using the breath makes it yoga versus gymnastics.” Porchon-Lynch exudes the type of vitality and strength that exceed most people in their 60s, 40s, 30s…..you get my drift. While watching Porchon-Lynch gracefully flow through life, on and off the mat, is encouraging and a testament to the strength of limitless boundaries, there’s much more to discover when you practice posing.

When I starting practicing yoga in 2005, I focused on the physical benefits – flexibility, strength, flat stomach, stress reduction, weight management, to name a few. Eleven years later, I am still amazed with what the body can achieve, yet more in tune with the mental, heartfelt, and spiritual connectivity that manifest from continuous practice.

Unshakable inner peace and heightened self-esteem are among the delicious benefits that practicing yoga yields. Other highlights are listed below.

For more details about practicing poses for yourself, check out one of my yoga classes at Bodyline Fitness and Gym in Ikoyi or ProFlex Gym in Victoria Island. My class schedule is listed on my Instagram page – @Chocolako

I look forward to flowing with you.

Namaste