Below’s a yoga blog post I wrote for an upcoming edition of Elle/Elle magazine’s social content.
Practice doesn’t make perfect
By: Natalie Greenspan @ngspan
Farting. Smelling other people’s morning breath. Having someone else's butt in your face. So what’s the whole yoga craze?
Here’s the low down-or the downward dog I should say. Yoga is called a practice for a reason. Each class is a self reflection on where you’re at, at that exact moment in time. Everyday your body and the dynamics of your world and the world around you are different so no two practices are ever the same. Which is why it all comes down to you and your breathe. However shallow or deep it is on that day will be your guide. No two practices are ever the same. One day you’ve mastered the tree pose, the next day you're a wobbly mess that can’t hold the posture for the life of you. However the life of you is breath.
Originally Developed eons ago as a simple series for breathing, yoga has turned into an all mighty cult in this day and age. For good reason. It’s addictive. The progress you make if you dedicate yourself to the practice keeps you striving for more-all the while knowing you can never master it because it’s a lifelong learning process and there’s always room to grow and progress. Through breath, shared energy in the room, a teacher that strikes just the right balance between you and your chakras-yoga is an evolutionary thing. So while you lie in other people’s sweat, hear their digestive tracts and smell the odd fart or two-it still keeps you craving more each and every time you complete a class. That’s just the nature of practice. It naturally makes you want to get better and succeed. But the beauty of yoga is that success is just showing up. Being there. Committing yourself to being in the moment; the time, space and place of the class. That you gathered up all your stuff and made it to the class to do something good for yourself, your body and your soul is winning in yoga. Now that’s a practice worth keeping. If you love yoga, it loves you back. It’s as simple as that. So keep practicing. All the while knowing you’ll never be perfect. Perfectionism isn’t the goal of yoga. Setting an intention that’s attainable is. Namaste;)