Yoga is Not Just For the Young and Healthy : "Not Just for" Trilogy Ep.1

When you google YOGA, under images, you get a bunch of photos of beautiful, young and limber people performing yoga poses perfectly, usually in a beautiful place in nature or in a top shaped yoga studio.

How beautiful is that? How perfect!

But is it the right invitation for the common man or woman to go and try out yoga? I don’t think so. Not for the man who is slightly or heavily overweight, not for the woman who is not very flexible, not for the people who are not in their twenties or thirties anymore, those who have joint problems or back pains, those who allegedly woke up “too late” and want to start exercise.

Is it too late? Hell no!!!

Yoga class should be a space and invitation for anyone, including you, no matter how old you are, how your body looks like or what it is capable of.

Yoga is a space for you to find your joyful inner peace, to expand your breath, to get to know your body, to be guided into figuring out what’s beneficial for your body, and find the adjustments that will enable you to participate and get a lot out of the practice. It is a space to find the support your body, mind and spirit need in order to generate presence and movement – in and outside the class.

So if you find those photos discouraging, remember that’s not what yoga is about.

And maybe you’ll find this blog’s photo inspiring. On the right, you can see Maya, 85 years old, attending my yoga classes for four years now, along with people in their twenties and up to people in their seventies. She is an inspiration to us all, and a reminder that everything is possible when we let go of the need be so called perfect.

Come as you are.