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Stacey Steele

Yoga Has Made Me a Better Person

When I first went to a yoga class, it was 6 weeks after giving birth to my second child. I felt that I wanted a gentle form of exercise to start getting a bit more strength and flexibility in my body post pregnancy.


In all honesty, I had no real clue what yoga was. I assumed it was just some fairly easy stretches for the body. I did a quick google search and found there was a class at the community centre just a few minutes walk from my front door and that the first class was free. I signed up for that free class and never looked back.


Sure, I got what I went for. Some gentle(ish) exercise for my body to build strength and mobility, but there was so much more than just that!


Yoga has taught me to have a better relationship with my body. After years of thinking I wasn’t good enough because the numbers on the scales and tape measures were too high, yoga helped to show me all the wonderful things my body is capable of, regardless of a bit of extra padding.


Back in the day when I had an office job, the very thought of making a presentation, meeting a client, or even speaking to someone on the phone was terrifying. I worried that I might say something wrong, or sound silly. I was very low in confidence and self-esteem, but by practicing moving in time with my breath, or attempting to stand on one leg for a few seconds that confidence began to grow.


If you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d be standing on a yoga mat wearing sports clothes, in front of a room full of people to demonstrate different ways to move their bodies and tune into their breath I would have told you that you were crazy. Yet, here I am doing that exact thing week in week out – all because of the self-belief and trust that yoga has given me. Of course I still get nervous on occasion, because I care about delivering good yoga classes, but I’m no longer too scared to try.


Among my foibles, I must admit to never having been a particularly patient person. I’m not good at being told to take rest – I need to be doing something. Once I’ve had an idea, I want it put into action straight away. I also have a tendency to be pretty quick to anger (don’t mess with a Scorpio!), but something about the practice of slowing down in yoga, particularly yin/restorative styles of yoga has taught me that it’s ok if everything doesn’t happen immediately, that it’s ok to rest and that I can take a breath before reacting to something that has annoyed me. Feeding little snippets of yoga into my life off of the mat to enable me to be more tolerant and patient  - this one is a real ongoing practice for me.


Things that have come more easily to me after consistent yoga practice have been mindfulness and gratitude.


Yoga really brings the focus to the present moment; to feeing each breath as it comes and goes, to noticing the sensations in the body as we pause, or move in different ways. So often we are busy and just press on with things without noticing the effects that has on our bodies and minds, moving quickly on our journeys from place to place without  really seeing the things around us. Through the focus and observation of breath and sensations whilst I’m on my yoga mat, I have become a more mindful person off the mat. Noticing the beauty of nature when I’m walking, taking time to enjoy the flavour of my cup of tea, noticing when my mind is cluttered and allowing a few deep breaths to soothe it.


When we are so busy it becomes easy to take things, even people, for granted. We have so much to do that we don’t really enjoy any of it  - even the fun bits – and we can even begin to resent some of the things we are having to do. In this state, it is hard to be grateful for anything, but yoga has given me the tools to reframe even the most mundane of tasks.


Rather than thinking “I have to do all this laundry” I can think “aren’t we fortunate to have all these clean clothes”, rather than “I have to cook dinner again” I can think “how wonderful to experience different foods each day”. By taking a moment to notice the positive effects of what I am doing, rather than the act of having to do something I would rather not do, I have been able to foster a real sense of being thankful.



If a day seems particularly busy or unenjoyable, I try to stop just for a few moments and find something I am grateful for, no matter how simple or small, it really does help to lift the spirits. Now I always try to look for joy in even the smallest things, or strangest places.


What yoga hasn’t done is made me a perfect person. At the end of the day we are all humans, yes even yoga teachers are human! We still make mistakes, lose our patience from time to time and make bad decisions. To be honest, I’m not sure that a perfect person even exists, what would that even be like?


If we didn’t make mistakes, get things wrong, even fail catastrophically sometimes then how would we learn and improve? It’s often from the things that go wrong that we can start to make progress and grow as individuals. Yoga has allowed me to accept the imperfections, the errors, the wobbles and to practice making it better next time.  


It’s the intention behind what we do that really matters. Sure I’m going to muddle up left and right, arms and legs, to fall out of a balance pose sometimes, in the same way I’m going to drop a plate, snap at a loved one and forget to reply to an email. But none of that is done on purpose. Yoga has taught me that the intention is always to act with kindness, to do my best, to be thankful and to remain mindful.


Yoga is a practice; a life-long journey of learning. And practice doesn’t make perfect. What practice makes is progress and that’s all we can ever hope to achieve. Moving forward by learning and trying to be the best version of ourselves we can be.


That’s why I keep coming back to my mat, continuing to practice looking after my physical wellbeing  with conscious movement and stretches and looking after my mental wellbeing with breathwork and meditation, giving me time to step out of my thoughts and into my body in this moment.



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