Lotus Yoga Off The Mat Challenge
Day 9: Yoga and Positivity:
How does yoga promote positivity in your life?
Hello Yogis!
Day 9 of the Lotus Yoga Off The Mat Challenge theme is Yoga and Positivity. We often talk about the benefits of yoga, but today I’d like to channel those ideas into how we take those benefits into our lives and experience positivity in our attitudes?
Yoga is more than stretching and poses; it’s more than increasing flexibility, building strength, releasing tension and managing stress. Yoga is more than calm, peaceful relaxation. Yoga is a philosophy, a state of mind, a way of living, and these are the aspects that promote positivity.
Lotus Yin Yoga teacher, Tammy Holstein, often says that if we just sit for the whole hour of our yoga class, it’s still yoga. It took me awhile to understand what she was saying, but I realize now that she is talking about the deeper experience of yoga – the things that are difficult to pinpoint and articulate – the way of yoga. This depth of yoga is indeed, positivity.
Yoga is about forgiveness, compassion, and love. It’s about forgiveness, compassion, and love for SELF as well as for others. It’s about self-inquiry, and in better knowing ourselves, we have a deeper understanding of ourselves in the realm of a bigger existence. In this way, yoga teaches us to activate what Jesus tells us from his sermon on the mount: Do unto others as you would do unto yourself (Luke 6:31).
These things are not always easy, but they are always positive.
In my yoga meditations, I often leave the mat with a new resolve regarding life’s questions and problems, and every time, I know that the insights I have gained are in a positive light.
But positivity doesn’t only come from quiet sitting or meditations; it comes from physical challenges as well. The most challenging yoga classes usually fill me with the most passionate positivity. To overcome physical limitations is to overcome layers upon layers of self-doubt, fears, negative perspectives, and a stuck-in-a-rut daily existence. Believing in the what-if is incredibly positive!
So, let me ask you to imagine for a moment, what if the whole world took a yoga approach to life? Oh, my goodness! Now that’s a positive image!
I’d love to hear your ideas about yoga and positivity!
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