In the years I have taught and practiced yoga, there have been a lot of myths of yoga people have made. And what I have learned from yoga is to drop what I know or what I think I know to create new possibilities. When I come from a place of knowing, I have missed out on opportunities in my life. While past experiences shape us, they can leave us not being open to something new
For example, I had gone through most of my life thinking I didn’t like sushi because of a bad experience I had growing up. . When I met my husband, I learned sushi was one of his favorite meals. I grumbled for many years about not trying it again due to a poor experience. And finally, I tried it, and shocker, really liked it. We go almost once a week now for sushi – and I had missed out on many years of not eating tasty food because of one bad experience.
The physical practice of yoga is just one of the eight limbs of what makes up traditional yoga. Here I will mostly touch on the physical practice of yoga and the common myths I hear about not doing the physical form of it.
I can’t touch my toes, so I am not flexible enough to do yoga.
This is probably one of the most common statements I hear regarding yoga. It is an interesting comment because it is something that improves once you start doing yoga. The physical practice of yoga has so many modifications that can be made for poses that you won’t even notice you aren’t flexible if you start doing them. A problem I observe when teaching is the student is so panicked about looking a certain way in class, they don’t hear the modifications the teacher has to offer them. This leaves them feeling super sore and uncomfortable and discouraged to try yoga again. I encourage you to try again though! The more you do something – the less sore AND more flexible you will become.
I remind students that being an adult and starting something is hard! When we are kids we don’t even think twice about trying new stuff and don’t realize we aren’t so good at something. As adults, we have a lot of judgements and think we should be at a certain level. And we when we are starting something new, it is new, and we won’t be an expert right away. It isn’t often we get do have a beginner mindset as adults, and yoga is the perfect place to discover that. Flexibility will come with time and practice – and to get the benefits of yoga it doesn’t require you to touch your toes.
It’s for women only.
Yoga is over 5,000 years old and has a long history before women even joined into the practice. Like most things in society, it has roots of not allowing women to participate. As yoga has become more mainstream in the past century, women began to practice more often, and a cultural shift began with less men participating in yoga. The physical practice of yoga is structured so that any body can do it, male or female.
It’s not a workout
There are many styles of yoga. Some are more vigorous than others. Vinyasa, the style practiced at Bright Heart (you can check out our schedule here), is a style that induces sweat and gets your heart rate elevated. What’s great about this specific style of yoga is you have a warm up and a cool down. You can ease your body into practice and then be able to wind down, so that when you leave you feel complete. I really appreciate this as many people miss getting a good warm up in and cool down in when they are playing a sport or at the gym.
Also, while yoga does allow for an increase in flexibility, the style of vinyasa also helps to build strength in your body. As with all new strengthening, it can take 4 to 6 weeks to start to see a difference in the tone of your muscles but hang in there you will see them if you practice consistently!
You must be vegan or be skinny to do yoga.
The really great thing about practicing yoga is you don’t have to follow a certain diet or look a certain way to participate. It’s difficult with mainstream media throwing pictures at us that make people who practice yoga look a certain way. It makes me so happy to know at Bright Heart that we do have people here who really are all walks of life. Everyone figure out what works for them and makes it happen in their lives. And the physical practice of yoga is one piece of the puzzle for those looking for a healthy lifestyle that practice at the studio. Many even say once they started practicing yoga, their diet changed naturally because they become interested in different foods (and that doesn’t mean they are vegan – they just cut out foods that weren’t serving them anymore).
I am too old to start yoga.
While there are certain tasks that become more difficult as we age, it doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of doing physical activities. In fact, as you age you can continue to gain strength and flexibility if you stay consistent with yoga – and that is true for any age. The thing that becomes more difficult with aging is balance AND yoga works on balance. And if you still think you are too old – check out Tao Porchon Lynch – she is currently 100 years old. She is practicing and still teaching yoga.
What is something you have made an assumption about and therefore haven’t experienced it? Maybe it’s time to go out and try it 😊