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.

My first

This is what dreams are made of

Since a young age I was always fighting with some form of health issue, if it wasn’t eczema it was severe asthma or my allergies. I was in and out of the hospital in my early life with treatment to help me fight my autoimmune disorders, and the older I got the more fed up I got with it all.

As I went through adolescence my body calmed down but then in my second year of university everything came back; my eczema flared up again, my asthma and allergies became bad and my studies were affected. I never really found anything to rid my symptoms, I tried almost everything from homoeopathic remedies to allopath steroids, it just never stopped. In 2012 just after I had serious knee surgery, I started practising hot yoga; I had dabbled with other forms of yoga which really helped reduce my symptoms, but it was the hot yoga that really gave me that edge, both physically and mentally.

Once I started this new journey, I knew it was something I would continue with for the rest of my life. And if I knew all I needed was some heat, a yoga mat, my body and some fantastic teachers I would have started years back. 

6 years on and living yoga as a way of life and I have finally released the website I have been conceptualising from the day I started. 

The aim of this space is to provide as many people as possible with insights and knowledge on my journey, all forms and types of yoga itself and all the fantastic people and stories I have connected with and connect with on this lifelong journey.

I welcome you to surajyoga.com, your home for all things yoga.

Thanks for reading.

Written by Suraj Ghumra.