Good Belly Yoga

I would like to be as healthy as I can. I have had done a lot of exploration of the many yoga systems to help my health.

I want to learn how to be healthy so I try to do my basics: good food, exercise, and breathing. I have to at least try to run, walk, swim while I educate myself about taking care of my human body.

If I remember to stretch before exercise, I have less pain from exercise. I try to attempt to eat only healthy foods, and fail when I am stressed. I try not to judge myself.

I can guarantee that just exercising, eating right, doing yoga, taking deep breaths is not enough to be healthy. I have had 3 cancers removed from my body, but it was not because I didn’t follow all the steps I needed to be healthy, it was much deeper than that.

There is another step after mastery of the asanas and it is due to the simple fact we cannot predict what is going to happen to us. In yoga we do awkward and stressful positions. This is the cure and the reason for yoga. It is not necessarily a great relaxation, but a way to deal with all the crazy things that will happen to you.

I have no wise words to share. My path has had a lot of ups and downs, but luckily I lived long enough for me to find balance in the life I am in. I call this place ground and center. When I am upset I remember this place and try to get back there because I liked being serene.

If I was talking to the most scared person inside myself I would tell that little soft and vulnerable being inside of me to use yoga & meditation & trusted confidantes to get me back to my reality.

All of these factors matter, and it is never a complete circle because change is not only inevitable, sometimes it is a relief.

You can’t stop change, but you can learn how to be loving inside the changes.

Your yoga practice and times of meditation are a rest periods for your mind and body. It helps you feel the subtle little adjustments in your nervous system, circulation, and muscles. After breathing and stretching there is more to do to live the life you have been given. You haven’t solved your problems, because there will always be problems in the future. The real work of yoga is living your life with a better understanding of how to manage your health and mental well-being better.

Stuff happens, but if you learn how focus and think better, you will not have to try to control your emotions or your relationships. You actually need to control less to have more insights to solve your problems. Modern life gets mixed up with yoga in an unfortunate pattern: we think if we do a lot of excellent poses and get hot and sweaty, we will get stronger and better at life. There is nothing wrong with exercise or stress, we are doing this to achieve a goal of having a better life.

Sometimes you will succeed to have a better life, and sometimes it just makes you more aware of everything. Flexibility, muscular strength, and a mind that works with your body well that is the path and the reason of yoga.

Developing sensitivity and awareness is one reason I keep doing yoga because these skills help me focus.

When I am focused I manage life better.

Mind, body, and environment, is a place we want to pay attention to every moment of every day. If these three parts of ourselves synchronize it will give us better ways to solve our problems.

The mind obsesses and wanders, gets lost, and then comes back. This is OK, this is the nature of mind. Yoga helps you get back to where you will be more effective in your life.

Yoga is a way to get focused because you are not just exercising, you are letting go of trying to stay in one place, one pose, one situation. Life is constantly changing around you, and so are you.

After you have done all the work of doing yoga, doing the asanas to the best of your ability and then letting go at the end of the session to do savasana is a way to take a little time to rest and feel the changes.

Never do yoga without some moment of rest. Remember, you have nothing to prove, and the only person you have to impress is your body/mind/emotional being.

When you get to the end of your session let go of the practice, to move into your day, and deal with your current problems better.

The thing I love about yoga, after an hour or so, I am a little more free of my worries and fears and for one lovely moment in time, I forget to listen to my insistent thoughts because I no longer feel driven by that mind.

If I am lucky and well in my mind and body they will act as one.

There is no goal to perfect yoga: only a journey, a practice, and a way forward.