YOGA - A Friend In Life

In contemplating my yoga journey I am struck by how much it has impacted my life and how my reasons for practice have morphed and changed through the years. 

As a young woman I was quite traumatised and completely detached from my body.  I lived primarily in my head.  I had a friend who went to Iyengar yoga classes and coaxed me along.  My first class was a revelation to me – I had a body!  As I began to regularly attend classes, I increasingly connected to my physical body and became more grounded.  As I connected to my body I also began to connect to my mind in a different way; with more space and clarity.

During my 20s the messiness of life often got in the way of yoga but it became something I returned to sporadically.  Something kept drawing me back, even as other things drew me away.  I danced this path of quite destructive behaviour and health and wellbeing.  This dance continued for many years but the yoga was always there waiting.

The journey of parenthood brought with it stability and I began to attend a regular class again.  Yoga once more provided a healthy connection to my body but more importantly, I began to experience an oasis of peace and quiet that spilled over into my daily life.  

Through the following years yoga sustained me through many challenges and tough times.  While I was often not very consistent, it became something I would return to with a sense of coming home. During this period, yoga became a place of deep nourishment and rest.

Now in my 50s, I am increasingly drawn to the spiritual aspects of yoga and look forward to this unfolding in my practice.  I look back on the different stages of my adult life and see the immense benefits yoga has given me and how my experience of what it is has grown.  I see the gifts of courage, stamina, strength, stability and resilience.  I am thankful for the peace and calm and clarity it gives me.  

I feel so lucky I stumbled across yoga and don’t like to think of where I might be without it.  I am so grateful for this constant friend; a friend always waiting and ready to take my hand, to support me into the future.

Louise Frances