Yoga Is About Taking Care of Ourselves

I recently had a conversation with a friend about her attending one of my Yoga classes.   She had a number of reasons not to come.  Most of her reasons centered on the fact that she had too much going on with her children and thus she could not take the time away from their activities to come to class.   I did not argue with her,  but I felt that she would be doing herself a great favor is she took a few hours a week for herself to practice Yoga.  

When you take an hour or so to practice Yoga,  you are taking that time away from everyone and everything else to do something good for yourself.     That hour on the mat is all yours.  The benefits are yours,  the sweat you give is yours,  the pleasure you receive,  and the calmness you get is all yours.     Taking that time for yourself may appear to be selfish but we often worry too much about others at the expense of ourselves.   For our own physical and mental well being,  taking time to exercise is a key element of future good health. 

To quote the Declaration of Independence "We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness".    We are also endowed with just this single life and if we do not take time for us to take care of ourselves, then as we age,  we will age less gracefully than we could be able.    Yoga, if practiced regularly,  gives us the strength, flexibility, and balance that will be beneficial as we advance through our lives.    Yoga  also has the added benefit of being adaptable to the needs of the person practicing.  With a myriad of poses available and so many different styles of Yoga,  it is easy to build a practice that works for anyone.  

In my short time teaching,  I have taught students from age 8 to age 65.   Even those starting at 65 years of age are helping themselves.  It is never too late to begin taking care of oneself and to practice Yoga,  but the earlier you start,  the better the benefits.

Namaste