Nataraja Yoga

What does your yoga practice teach you…?

Over 25 years I’ve learned:

🧘🏻‍♀️ Asana didn’t help my mental health. Obsessing over 3x practice each day solely distracted me from what I should have been dealing with. I was more acrobatic ten years ago than I am now, but addicted to performance, continually pushing to achieve…

⏭️ Stepping back, not forcing, focusing on dedication, discipline, and using asana to improve my physical (gross and subtle) wellbeing has been superb for my mental health. Asana isn’t just about progressing in shape-making, it impacts the important systems of our bodies. Returning to the same asana and movement created knowledge and understanding of myself and how life outside impacted me.

🧘🏻‍♀️ Reading scriptures wasn’t always helpful. Again, sometimes it was. The Sutras, as useful as they are, encourage transcendence of the body and I needed acceptance. After years of racial and physical abuse, understanding my body was what I needed to learn, not repeatedly being told it was something to be cleansed and dismissed.

⏭️ I had to find what resonated, through continuous learning. I’m a Bhagavad Gita kinda girl. And the steps in the Sutras do encourage engagement with the body - but there’s a lot to unravel and it’s not a one-stop wisdom shop…

🧘🏻‍♀️ Meditating led to spiralling thoughts. For people who’ve been through traumatic events, being still sometimes has a negative impact. My first Buddhist meditations were 30 years ago and were magical. Taoist meditations also. But unguided sitting, and my mind wanders off into overthinking, despite returning again and again to my breath.

⏭️ Guided meditation and/or mantra allows me to return to presence. When my mind is occupied with anxiety and trauma, it guides me to FEEL and acknowledge fluctuations. It shifts my brain out of ‘fight-or-flight’, replacing stress with calm. Your brain struggles to differentiate imagined experiences from reality, so this practice physically rewires your neural pathways to boost focus, alleviate pain, and reduce anxiety [NIH neurobiology paper].

🧘🏻‍♀️ The best part of yoga for me

🍂 Only 12 weeks until this year’s retreat….

Also: this is not an audio - genuine nature sounds 🥰

The history of the place.
The wild nature and the moon.
The nearby waterfall and the way the forest hugs you…
And the sauna.
And the fire ceremony.
And the barefoot Qigong.
And the yin in the cottage.
And the food…. The food!

Easy to get to, easy to slide into stillness, for a magical long-weekend.

Easy to just, be.

Find more retreat details on my profile 🕸️👁️