It's not about the pose, it's about how you treat yourself

Yoga isn’t just a physical practice, it’s a mental and spiritual practice that gives us the opportunity to reflect on how we treat ourselves, others and the world around us. Part of this practice includes being aware of your thought patterns as you move through the poses, noticing how you're talking to yourself. Are you berating yourself when there’s something you find challenging? Are you thinking you’re rubbish at something just because your version doesn’t look the same as someone else’s? Are you pushing past pain to get to the ‘deepest’ version of a pose?

These are all such common experiences, and it’s almost easier to fall into these ingrained patterns of thinking than to stop and think ‘am I being kind to myself?’ But that’s part of the practice! It sounds so simple, but awareness is the first step. If you can start to catch yourself when you fall into self criticism, observing these thoughts without attaching further judgement, you can then start to see if there’s a kinder way to approach yourself in the moment.

You don’t have to jump straight from self criticism to self-love, I’m not talking about going from ‘I’m rubbish at this pose’ to ‘I’m absolutely amazing at this pose’, but even just changing your thought pattern from ‘I’m rubbish at this pose’ to ‘this is MY version of this pose’, goes a long, long way.

Don’t get me started on how finding what works for you will always be better and more sustainable than trying to ‘perfect’ a pose. The best version of a pose is always the version that works best for you!

It all comes back to ahimsa, or non-violence, the first of the ethical guidelines (yamas) in yoga philosophy that outline how we should try to treat ourselves, others, and the world around us. Showing non-violence towards yourself means not treating yourself in a way that causes harm, so actively trying to relate to yourself with kindness and compassion.

Just see if you can notice how you talk to yourself the next time you practice yoga, noticing if any unhelpful or self critical thoughts come up. Just observing them to start with, and then maybe seeing if there’s a kinder, more compassionate way you can talk to yourself. Praise yourself when you decide to take a variation of a pose that works better for you, or when you decide to rest instead of constantly pushing yourself - that's real advanced yoga!!

It’s allll a practice, some days will be way easier than others but all we can do is keep trying! And if you can start to be a bit nicer to yourself on the yoga mat, then maybe you can do it in your everyday life too!! And who doesn’t need a bit more of that?💘

I'll leave you with another silly frog meme to really get my point across. 😋

Thank you for reading.💌