My Journey to Mindfulness - A Life-changing Practice
My journey towards becoming a Mindfulness practitioner and now Mindfulness and Yoga teacher has been such a beautiful, enriching experience. After reflecting on this life-changing period in my life, I thought I’d take a moment to share with you how Mindfulness came into my life, and how practising mindfulness and yoga has helped me.
In childhood, I wasn’t an active child - running and other popular sports were never something I enjoyed. My first introduction to yoga was around 15 years ago. When I was in my late teens, a friend invited me to join her for a yoga class. My impression of yoga at the time was that it was a gentle exercise that seems manageable for me, so I decided to give a go. After that very first yoga class, I was hooked. It felt like coming alive - my muscles and body was awakening in a way I hadn’t experienced before, and I couldn’t wait for the next class. Though my discovery of yoga was quite accidental, I was strongly drawn to it immediately. I started practising yoga nearly every day, even though my friend who introduced me to it stopped doing it. It was the only real sports activity that I took part in, and it was by far my favourite.
After a year practice, I had to stop because I moved to Australia for study. Yoga wasn’t that popular in Australia but I always missed it. Until a few years later, my beloved grandma who I was very close with, passed away. Her passing hit me hard. I started suffering from terrible insomnia and anxiety. Not knowing how to handle this, I considered taking sleeping pills to help me through this difficult time. Luckily, my uncle encouraged me to take up yoga again to see if that would help. I went to a class, and afterwards slept well for the first time in a long while. Practising yoga allowed me to connect with my body, slow down and really listen to what my body needed. My anxiety lessened, and practicing yoga helped calm me down. Yoga felt safe and comfortable, and it was a relief to have a space where I could take care of myself, physically and mentally. Since then, yoga has been a constant in my life, and has in fact become one of my biggest focuses.
The inner peace I felt when I first re-discovered yoga didn’t last forever. While on the mat, I felt a great sense of calm and peace, but off the mat I realised I was holding anger and depression inside. It took a personal journey of self-discovery to release these feelings and let go. I was helped greatly by undertaking my first Training to become a certified Yoga Teacher, which gave me a lot of answers for the things that were keeping my mind muddled and helped me come into contact with my emotions - both negative and positive. The practice allowed me to deepen my understanding of myself and of life in general, and I’m forever grateful to have found mindfulness in my time of need. My practice has changed my life for the better: I value myself so much more, I learned how to be honest to myself and establish healthy boundaries, I developed a great understanding of myself and also to the others.
Thank you for walking this journey with me.