Showing love to your yoga teachers

Love

Love is something I guess we don’t do enough of, even myself; I don’t love people enough. I find it easier to talk about it in this blog post but as I have grown I have found it harder to show those around me. As a child, I was very loving, and my mother and grandmother taught me how to be that way. But we are all born to love, even Donald himself and I’m not talking about the duck by the way.

Back to the point, love is something we need more of and today's topic is based on how much I love yoga teachers, my yoga teachers and to be frank the real yoga teachers and not those in it because of the fashion element that now comes with yoga.

Love makes all the different

Real yoga teachers are healers, leaders, creators, believers, changers and most importantly lovers. With love nothing real can exist, we wouldn’t exist.

When I started practising seriously in 2012, I started when I required to love and help, I was extremely fragile and sensitive and the teachers that I came up with (the likes of Naomi Clark, Matt Devine, Elizabeth White, Beth Crivelli, Sibel Olcer and many more) taught with love for yoga. The love was clear because they would go the extra mile to help somebody in class, go the extra mile to talk about yoga once class was finished and make sure if people had questions and/or concerns they would give their honest and experienced point of view.

Students

We can make that difference by just respecting and loving ourselves, our fellow yogis & yoginis and of course our teachers.

I practice yoga in a fair number of different studios, and everyone and then I come across a student that is extremely rude to a teach other for no reason, and that does affect me and upset me. This shouldn’t be the case, usually, those students aren’t actual yogis and are just in the room because yoga is the “in” thing and they want a tighter butt! But if you do see this occur, we all have the right to explain to those that understand less how teachers should be treated.

Why did I write this?

This topic came about when I was being nostalgic post Yoga class and thinking about how far I have come in my practise, and not only myself but those around me; both teachers and students. And I want to raise the awareness that real yoga teachers are wonderful people, they are there to be loved and treated well, the same way you want to be loved and treated well. And in a day and age where people are so stuck to what is on their screen rather than the human in front of them, we need to come together, and we need to appreciate those around us that help us day in day out get through the difficulties of life. And by having this attitude in your practise you can take it into other aspects of your life.

Thank you for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.

Feeling at home on your yoga mat

Your yoga mat is a very personal place. Whether you practise by yourself, or in a group in a park or at a studio your mat is your space.

And that space goes through as much as you do wherever you are in the world, and in your life at that time. Some days you are on top of the world, and when you practise your yoga you feel unstoppable; sometimes you are in a lower place and you just don't have as much energy. Regardless of the emotion, you have, you feel that feeling whilst practising in on your mat, in that space and at that time.

And to be clear I am speaking both literally but also metaphorically. I personally love the yoga mat I use; the colour, the feeling and the comfort I find in the Yogamatters mat is something I enjoy practising with. And from a non-materialistic perspective, such as the different forms of emotions, thoughts, stages in my life, places I've practised and all other personal feelings that you go through in that space.

Like anything in life, when you have a ritual, at that moment you generally feel at home as space is familiar to you both mentally and physically, and I have found comfort knowing that no matter what I am going through. Good or bad my yoga practise, my yoga mat, and my yoga space provides me with the home to celebrate or be sad through that expression and feeling of how I feel at that moment.

Thank you for reading, and if you ever feel homesick; remember just practise your yoga and everything feel a whole lot homely.

Written by Suraj Ghumra

Positive Intention

The lesson

When I started practising yoga and meditation Tuwith dedication and seriousness, I did start with the intention to fix my knee, my badly broken, previously septic, intensely painful knee joint that was far more stubborn than a mule. I wanted to heal quickly but the knees take longer to heal than any other joints in the body.

During this time I was very confused, upset, emotional, filled with rage and anger at my situation and in many ways lost. I was lost because not only was I injured and helpless to walk, not expecting the outcome that I encountered post ACL reconstruction, but I learnt something about life at an age the 24, that nothing in this world is promised except death.

I went into an ACL reconstruction of my left knee; thinking that I would come out the same way I did when my right knee was reconstructed, but how that hope went right down the crapper. But the lesson I learnt was priceless, it was in fact, something that I decided to make into a positive lesson, and I didn't know until later I was doing that straight away. I knew that I was going to prove the doctors wrong about them saying I would always have difficulty walking, and never be able to use the full range of my knee, but I really had no idea to the extent of what I was going to gain as a yogi but learn as a human being.

Positive intention pays off

My mentality at the point of being in serious physical pain and being falling in and out of depression was very complex, and the first year was the hardest, I had to adapt physically, mentally, in friendships, relationships, not being able to see people as much, having to fight and try and make people understand close to me why I was extremely difficult to be around but I still kept a smile on my face (most the time). Not only that, I had certain people that did nothing to help me, and I was naive to think others would stop their lives to fit mine; something that took me a while to understand and accept that not all people think the same way you do.

During my yoga practise, I kept pushing through the pain, kept going back to yoga and I kept working at a craft that I knew would help me, because the way I felt after class was much better than I did before, and the logic and science behind yoga just felt right to me, and my body did start to change for the better, and even though it has taken 6 years for me to be where I am today, I wonder where I would be without the yoga.

And all the above came from pure positive intention, something I believe can help anyone going through a difficult time, whether it is yoga you use, or it's tai chi, or meditation, or reading or mathematics; regardless of what you want to achieve in your life if you start it with positive intention you can achieve even more.

And with that mentality, in the crazy world we live in, it can take you much further and to a place where you can understand yourself and others around you better.

I would like to leave you with a quote that I strongly believe in and even though I just wrote it down now, this has been with me internally for years.

"Intention is a powerful thing, and when used with positive affirmation we can achieve more than brilliance, we can achieve anything."

- Suraj Ghumra

I wish you the best of health and happiness with everything you do, and with positive intention, anything can be accomplished.

Thank you for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.

Accepting downtime with your yoga

Accepting downtime; what is that right? Does that even exist in 2018? Do we just ignore all those signals telling us we need to rest and recuperate?

Accepting downtime with your yoga practise is something that for many of us is completely against the way we are wired, and sometimes seen as impossible due to lifestyle and life commitments but it is something that is essential that we must accept and act upon when required.

Downtime with your yoga can result or come from different situations or feelings, and the key is to just accept it once it does arise.

One example could be if you injure yourself, but you still want to go to class even though it's not just something you can shake off, it is that acceptance that is fine to be hurt and having that time off will allow you to heal properly and then use the yoga to heal further once you are ready.

Another example could be that you have been full on in your work life, personal life and even yoga life and you haven't given yourself time to relax, and suddenly you find yourself not wanting to do anything but force yourself. But this is not healthy nor is it going to benefit your mind and soul.

When I started taking my practise seriously I was not in the best place physically, which also led to mental health issues. During that time I really pushed myself and believed I had to just go to yoga all the time regardless of how I felt, but I started to realise being on all the time was not letting me progress how I thought I would, but it was only when I found the balance and reacting to each situation in the right way I found much more progression in my practise but I also found that in my life.

That teaching has taken me years to really put into practise and still there are times where I lose my balance and have to lock that knee again in order to get it back.

As you progress in yoga, fall in and out of love with your yoga and even yourself, there will be times when you need that downtime, and the most important thing you can do for yourself is to be at peace when that time is.

And as the great Dali Lama says; "We can never make peace with the outside world until we make peace with ourselves"

Thank you for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.

Being kind to yourself when practicing your yoga

Being kind

Living in a day and age where we are expected to be superhuman, robotic and always available is a very difficult requirement for anyone. And this can and has led to a lot of mental health issues for today's world.

And that expectation is taken with you to your mat, the expectation that every class must be the best, and you must always be on form, but that isn't always the case nor should you expect it to be. Like life, your yoga comes with its ups and downs, and it is a relationship with yourself, and like all relationships, there are changes and waves, which is something we must all expect as yogis and yoginis but something we do not always know how to.

Throughout 6 years of practicing, observing teachers & students, talking to fellow practitioners and researching the art of yoga, one thing I have learnt is that your practise will always fluctuate and the most important thing you can do is be kind to yourself, and when your class isn't as strong as you may have wanted to be that day, The key is to let it happen, accept it and use every second of your time on the mat as a lesson, good or bad the most important thing to do is turn up and do what you can at that moment.

You are always changing, growing and testing yourself and during those changes, your body will have something to say about it, and sometimes that is the best standing bow pulling pose you have ever done, and something that is just the worst rabbit, but being kind to yourself when practicing your yoga is not only important for your soul, it is essential to your growth.

This Easter; be good to yourself whilst you find some time for yoga. But also remember to be good to those around you and as you get deeper into your practise, acceptance of yourself and those around you will come hand in hand.

Thanks for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.