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For us at Yoga Journal, every month is yoga month. There isn’t a day that goes by once we’re not desirous about it, learning about it, writing about it, posting about it, or practicing it. And we’re guessing it’s the identical for a lot of you. But during this 12 months’s National Yoga Awareness Month, we desired to take a step back to think about and have fun among the predominant reasons all of us come to yoga.

The numerous advantages of your yoga practice

Science has confirmed, again and again, the numerous health advantages of the physical practice of yoga. While there may be value on this, much of yoga’s impact lies within the less quantifiable way that the practice makes you are feeling: Strong while you press up into Plank or lift into Handstand. Liberated when a twist offers release and relief. Exhilarated the primary time you lean forward into Crow.

At any moment in time, you possibly can turn to pranayama to calm your jangled nerves. When things are unsettled in life, you possibly can turn to meditation to show you how to find balance. Every single day, as you interact with the people around you, there are methods to practice generosity, kindness, honesty, and all the other principles which might be at the basis of yoga philosophy.

Whether you’re sweating it out in a hot yoga class, holding for dear life in Yin, or resting flat out in Savasana, your practice becomes an extension and an expression of who you might be. Every visit to your mat is effectively practicing the way you show as much as life. And you already know in addition to we do this yoga’s biggest profit could also be in the way it helps you be the person you should be.

What brings you to the mat?

Everyone involves yoga for their very own reasons, but our motivations are inclined to have a couple of things in common: We wish to feel strong and versatile; we wish to seek out a way of balance and somewhat (or lots of) peace. Yoga gives us all of that—in greater than a couple of ways. Throughout the following 4 weeks, we’ll explore how yoga helps you—and us—live the lives we envision for ourselves.

(Photo: Thomas Barwick)

Flexibility

You’ve experienced how yoga may help ease your tight muscles and achy joints and make on a regular basis movement somewhat easier. Just as a consistent yoga practice results in subtle and incremental changes throughout your physical body, flexibility also means being open to latest ways of seeing things: being willing to compromise in relationships, allowing others to have a distinct experience from you without judging them, letting yourself sleep for those who’re drained slightly than dragging yourself to the studio for the umpteenth 6 am class this week. Overall, flexibility is being less perfectionistic and more patient—with yourself and others.

Flexibility Week: September 4-10

Join Jivana Heyman (@jivanaheyman) and Kino MacGregor (@kinoyoga) on Instagram Live to explore various ways to specific flexibility.
Tuesday, September 6, 2022 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET.

(Photo: Thomas Barwick)

Strength

While you hold a yoga pose, you challenge your muscles with the intention to strengthen them. In a similar way, you furthermore may strengthen your concentration and even perhaps your ability to beat the voice of self-doubt.

Strength can feel invincible yet graceful at the identical time, like the way in which you are feeling while you hang your head back in Wild Thing. , Remind yourself of that feeling when you should shrink in a difficult life situation. For those who falter, remember how long you practiced that pose before you felt confident in it, and gather strength from that.

Strength Week: September 11-17

Adam Husler (@adamhusler) leads a yoga practice on IG Live that focuses on strengthening…but not in the way in which you would possibly expect.
Thursday, September 15, 2022 at 9 am PT/noon ET

(Photo: Thomas Barwick)

Balance

The teachings we learn once we practice balance poses mirror a lot of what we want to grasp in life: Find your center. Trust your core. Adjust your position. Be willing to sway and fall and take a look at again until you discover your equilibrium. Repeat.

There’s also the balance you strike every day between your devotion to family members and your commitment to work. Between constructing healthy boundaries and remaining open-hearted. Between fighting for what you think in and deciding to let go. Yoga is the practice of quiet perseverance that may lead you to inner equipoise.

Balance Week: September 18-24

Practice together with Neeti Narula (@neeti.narula) in a balancing vinyasa flow followed by the stillness of Yin yoga on IG Live. Neeti Narula
Tuesday, September 2o, 2022 at 3 pm PT/6pm ET

(Photo: Thomas Barwick)

Calm

Lots of us come to yoga in search of a treatment for the chaos in our lives. When something is lost or broken, or our world appears to be spinning uncontrolled, the mat is our respite. We practice tips on how to be so attuned to our bodies and focused on our breath that we are able to lessen the grip of our thoughts. Or we are able to simply curl up in Child’s Pose or rest in Savasana.

The fullness of yoga, generally known as the Eight Limbs, also encourages quiet mindfulness—turning inside, focusing our attention, finding stillness in meditation. This practice can show you how to find your quiet center inside–even when the noise and busyness of life are swirling throughout you.

Calm Week: September 25-30

Soothe your body and quiet your mind with a relaxing practice on IG Live. Check this space for details.