Alexia
From Marseille in France
It is true that nowadays yoga is very fashionable and everybody is practicing yoga.
The first time I practiced yoga was in India in 1999. I was traveling through India as a tourist and I stopped for a longer period in Varanasi. There, I decided to try yoga for the first time.
This time in my life was a big mess. I was all the time overwhelmed by my emotions, I was smoking a lot, eating compulsively, and during this trip, I was always arguing with my boyfriend.
After 2 days of yoga, the teacher asked me to come twice a day. After less than a week of practicing twice a day, I started to feel more balanced… the feeling was strong enough for me to notice the changes: I almost stopped smoking without really wanting to, I started eating in a normal way, and I was not in the mood for arguing.
Steadiness, calm… so strong… so good.
Back in France, I did not practice yoga.
A few years later, the path of yoga came back to me… and I started to practice Ashtanga, a dynamic yoga. Ashtanga yoga, with the repetition of the same series every day, gives you focus, grounds you, and makes your nervous system stronger.
It helps you face life with its bundle of problems and things to solve. It helps find steadiness… you learn to listen, to breathe, to feel… you are more aware, more sensitive.
You learn a lot about yourself… you open your heart and you connect to the heart.
Photo by Scott Johnson
Shared with People of Yoga
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