Confidence? Believing in our abilities to be strong, to develop our gifts, to share our passion, to be adventurous and courageous. Making better choices for our health is a great avenue to create confidence.
How can yoga create Confidence?
There are multiple areas in which yoga helps us tap into the best version of ourselves. One area of yoga is the Chakras - or energy centers of the body. For confidence, we focus on the 3rd chakra - located in our core center to build a strong sense of self and generate will power. Finding our center - physically and mentally can help to create balance as we look for our mind-body-spirit connection.
Yoga postures require body awareness, concentration and stillness. Breathing through stretching allows oxygen to travel into our muscles - which allows more flexibility and a calming sensation within the nervous system. As our nervous system calms, we are able to reduce feelings of stress. As our bodies find strength, we find a better body alignment. As our posture improves, our body image improves. An entire circle of positive energy begins to flow through our bodies.
As we find body awareness through yoga we find deepening in the physical postures as well as limitations. Recognizing our physical limitations allows us to continue to stretch safely. We all have a different bone structure, muscle length, and physical history. This is why in one yoga class, the same posture can look different throughout the group of people present. Being able to access postures without feelings of self-judgement, expectations of perfection, or competition is the essence of yoga. We find peace with what our bodies give us each day.
Through practicing yoga on a consistent basis we can find more strength and relaxation in the muscles allowing us to deepen many postures. It's fun to see our bodies relax into postures we initially felt unattainable. Finding strength in our muscles throughout the body opens doors to balancing better on our hands and feet. As you document your yoga journey through photos of the challenges, you are able to see even subtle changes as your body finds relaxation and strength.
This month we will find Adventure in April, join me on an adventure of strength building poses! The sculpture represented in this month's challenge photos is called "Childhood's Great Adventure" and has roots in our town deemed the "Storybook Capital of Texas."
Each pose allows us to find deeper breath, strength, commitment to self and purpose, as well as courage - all building our confidence to be the best version of ourselves! As with ALL YOGA POSE CHALLENGES I've proposed - find YOUR pose of the day! Props are our friends - blocks, straps and the wall can help with this challenge! If the variation of the pose I've shown doesn't feel great for your body, share a variation that feels the best for you that day. If you're not sure of a variation that will be accessible for you, please ask me - and I will give you lots of options!!!
Some of the poses are just hard! They are hard for me - physically and mentally! If I let my husband video our photo sessions for the challenges - you'd see struggle! My fear of face-planting on concrete is REAL!!! There were pep-talks to encourage me to face my fear of concrete and fly. No, not every pose is perfect, but it's me. It's my body on this day.
For those that share their photos from this challenge with me, you can win this fun prize! Spring is a time many choose to clean - our bodies, our spaces and our minds from excess. This prize can help you on that journey!
Each day you share your pose with me, you'll be entered to win this fun prize. There are many options to share your photos - FaceBook or Instagram (Just be sure to tag me so I can see your beautiful pics @clarissapyeattyoga), message, text or email them to me - or - add your photos to the comments on my FaceBook posts each day.
I look forward to our adventure this month!