My Yoga: Finding Love, Balance and Sattva

Yoga isn’t about flexibility.

At least in a traditional sense. The difference is when we cultivate a sense of love in life, the question we should ask when starting a Yoga practice is what do I seek from my practice. So many people come to the practice  and approach it from a physical level “I want to be flexible” where as a different, self aware and loving way to answer that question is “I want to experience freedom and space in my body, my mind my life”.

What does answering that simple question have to do with Yoga, balance and love?

Everything.

Tradition says that love sits at the deepest level of our being. Why this is difficult and challenging to reach is because the layers of superficiality, the layers of keeping busy, the layers we create around ourself, for ourself means we run the risk of living in a false world without self enquiry, self knowledge and stability. With true self enquiry we understand that without self awareness, real self love cannot occur.

Without stability, self knowledge is out of reach.

The idea that Yoga is about physical flexibility isn’t new. In this modern world, we use distractions or being busy doing more earning more scrolling more – our minds are so over stimulated that we are distracted from who we truly are. And the hype of the modern yoga stereotype, social media, yoga asana in particular, distracts us from really experiencing yoga Union in its pure form. I know, I was a “busy”, distracted and miserable person. I too thought Yoga was an exercise when I first started practicing back in 2010.

Yoga begins when we slow.

Get steady. And get real to deal with ourselves. Then all of a sudden once the fluctuations in the mind become less and less, we begin to live a life of self knowledge which leads to love, self love in its pure form. Your connection to your soul nature – a balanced and contented nature, using all the positive life force energy we can. – Sattva.  I know what it means to choose “toxic” energy over Sattva, the purist form of life  force energy, prana force. Rajasic energy is evident in lifestyle, loud, busy, burnout, over consumption, salty and highly processed foods, too many animal products, stimulants, and for years I rolled along with fueling my life with this energy.

How did I feel ?

What happened in my life back then?

I was self loveless, disconnected, depressed, tired, busy was normal, sick, unconsciously engaged, sexually aggressive. My nervous system was overworked. I was heavy. My mind was busy. All. The. Time. Then I fell in a heap.

Now, 11 years on, I came to Yoga not for flexibility. But to heal a destructive mind, a heart that broken and a life that was completely out of balance – I was Rajasic and toxic.

The issue for me was that I did not realise I was out of balance until I hit darkness. The universe has a beautiful way of re-calibrating what you need at the time. Its one of life’s eternal lessons. Allow yourself to experience pain, darkness, for if you don’t you are suppressing what the universe has in store for you – for your soul to learn and grow.

I now work in a lighter, brighter, connected and heart centered mindset. I practice stillness, I nurture my body,  I find the space I have developed in my abundant and full body to be empowering. I chose freedom over flexibility. I chose balance and stability over a life and work that wasn’t in service to my higher good.

My Yoga practice is completely about love and balance. Join our Nest Community for more than the Yoga practice.

I so so grateful for my love. My self knowledge. My balance.

That’s my Yoga.

Much love

Nic x x