Yoga With Adriene's Breath Reflection
Sunday, 17 January 2021 14:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
derwent_fI’m doing Yoga with Adriene’s Breath – A 30 Day Yoga Journey this month, albeit a day late. For today’s practice, Day 14 – Space, she gave some writing prompts, and I decided to write some.
So far my experience is best described as relearning how to move and connect with my body.
When I was a kid, I was actually a pretty physically-active kid, forever running, jumping, and climbing around. But then, after I started elementary school, I just … stopped and turned sedentary instead. Partly because I became an even more avid reader, and partly because gendered socialisation (‘girls don’t run around like boys, girls are demure are quite, etc. etc.’). I still loved being active, but it seemed like I had less and less time and opportunity to be so. So I spent many years where I only exercised during PE classes. At university, I walked everywhere, which was a slight improvement, but still not enough.
Fast forward to the pandemic, and for the first two weeks of WFH I started an exercise routine … and quitted because, well, pandemic stress. I spent half the day sitting down working and the other half lying down on the bed. Which is super unhealthy, I know.
And then, for 2021, although I didn’t exactly make NYE resolution, I did tell myself firmly that things gotta change, that I couldn’t go on living this way. So on the second day of this year I forced myself to get up earlier and did the first Breath video. And I’ve been showing up every day since.
With Breath, I’m relearning to see that my body is an entity of its own, that it’s not just a vehicle or a means for my mind to achieve what it wants. I spend the majority of time in my mind, and so I value it more than I value my body. But my yoga practice reminds me that both are of equal value, that each complements the other, and so they need to be in harmony. I’m relearning how to move my body and to enjoy the pain and ache the practice brings, because I know that it means my body is doing what it’s supposed to do.
I am learning to honour my body. For so long, I’d been giving my body only the bare minimum of care, but it deserves far better than that. And doing this yoga practice is a good start.
So far my experience is best described as relearning how to move and connect with my body.
When I was a kid, I was actually a pretty physically-active kid, forever running, jumping, and climbing around. But then, after I started elementary school, I just … stopped and turned sedentary instead. Partly because I became an even more avid reader, and partly because gendered socialisation (‘girls don’t run around like boys, girls are demure are quite, etc. etc.’). I still loved being active, but it seemed like I had less and less time and opportunity to be so. So I spent many years where I only exercised during PE classes. At university, I walked everywhere, which was a slight improvement, but still not enough.
Fast forward to the pandemic, and for the first two weeks of WFH I started an exercise routine … and quitted because, well, pandemic stress. I spent half the day sitting down working and the other half lying down on the bed. Which is super unhealthy, I know.
And then, for 2021, although I didn’t exactly make NYE resolution, I did tell myself firmly that things gotta change, that I couldn’t go on living this way. So on the second day of this year I forced myself to get up earlier and did the first Breath video. And I’ve been showing up every day since.
With Breath, I’m relearning to see that my body is an entity of its own, that it’s not just a vehicle or a means for my mind to achieve what it wants. I spend the majority of time in my mind, and so I value it more than I value my body. But my yoga practice reminds me that both are of equal value, that each complements the other, and so they need to be in harmony. I’m relearning how to move my body and to enjoy the pain and ache the practice brings, because I know that it means my body is doing what it’s supposed to do.
I am learning to honour my body. For so long, I’d been giving my body only the bare minimum of care, but it deserves far better than that. And doing this yoga practice is a good start.
