How Yoga Changed My Life

This practice never ceases to amaze me.

I’m trying to recall my first encounter with yoga. It seems like a blur, I cannot exactly remember when was the first time I stepped into a yoga class. My first yoga experience was not something I would have envisioned myself doing for the coming days.

While yoga wasn’t something I was drawn to immediately after my first class, there was just something that kept me going back sporadically.

I was still a student then, and yoga classes were mostly out of my budget. I remember going onto Groupon to purchase as many yoga trial classes at almost every different studios that I could find on this marketplace. It was a win-win situation- I could attend yoga classes and at the same time, experience what the different studios had to offer at a trial price.

Eventually, after exhausting all the trial classes I could find on Groupon, I found myself going back to a particular studio. This studio is special – It has given me the space to experience a complete sense of well-being and I leave the studio feeling a strong sense of empowerment every single time I finished a class. It felt like Hom.

Hom Yoga was the place where my commitment to this yoga journey started officially.

Credit: Hom Yoga                                                            I was going through a down period in my life and there was so much self-doubt. I was searching for light and my purpose.

I began dedicating myself to my yoga practice when I realised it has been creating real transformation within me. It is this practice of yoga that lead me to discover my own inner strength, a quiet voice that has always been there despite not knowing how to awaken it. 

All of a sudden, in the middle of my practice, something completely clicked. Like not just clicked on an intellectual level, but something click viscerally for me. All of a sudden, I realised the only way for me to grow and become the empowered woman that I en visage myself to be, was to completely change the relationship with myself. It was then I realised how powerful it was to build a connection with our own mind, body and soul. And boy, yoga has allowed me to know how incredibly good our bodies are designed to feel. Every practice leaves me feeling so intriguingly renewed.

Through my practice, I have experienced the emotional breakthrough that comes with sitting with discomfort in the physical asana, the vulnerability in surrendering that comes from breathing into tension instead of fighting against it. On top of that, the community of practitioners who practice alongside me in the room create magic – we hold the space for each other for such profound changes. When we inhale and exhale so deeply and consciously together as a community, it inspires and humbles me boundlessly. We are one. 

Yoga became part of my lifestyle. I practice religiously on average every 5-6 times a week. I started noticing how my body manifest the poses that I once think were inhumane to do. My teacher often says “ work the actions, and the pose will manifest”. It is amazing how our human body can make so many shapes and expressions with the most subtle shifts. I am in love with movement and the connection of body and mind.

Beyond the physical progress, the practice continues to astound me- it often evoke strong emotions when I begin to practice it more regularly and go deeper.  I have learnt that one of the greatest lessons in the yoga practice is about thrusting the energy up the spine and cleansing the nervous system- twisting, rinsing, cleansing our bodies. Many of the asanas trigger our internal organs and burn through blockages along the way. When one of these blockages gets triggered, the emotional state that gets triggered is really where the magic happens.  It wakes up our body, it heightens our awareness in our body and it makes us feel alive. Breathing.

So good.

It has been a year and a half since I dedicated myself to this practice whole-heartedly. I have gone through periods of discomfort, injury and pain but also experienced  the myriad benefits that yoga has gifted me with. It became clear to me that this is a lifelong practice. I’m excited and hopeful for so much more to come. Knowing that we all have the potential to experience yoga to heal and transform our lives, that, for me, is so empowering.

See you on the mat.

be good to yourself,
Jac