Lifestyle blogger and psychologist Sophie Kelly shares how her newly discovered love for yoga has helped her balance her hectic life in all the right ways. Sophie exposes the truth about the common yoga myths. 

​

Yoga, at first glance many will turn their heads and this defiantly not. But forgetting its connotations and hollywoods representations, yoga is surprisingly great. Honestly, I never would have thought bending my body into strange positions and breathing deeply in a room full of strangers could be so beneficial. But bizarrely it is.  

​

I came to yoga after a difficult period in my life. I had tried it a few times before, and I found it was  nice and relaxing, but the ‘earth did not move’ so I had not really understood what all the fuss was about. Fast forward a year or so and my twice weekly class of bending in strange, painful positions had become a regular fixture in my life. As my commitment went on I started to find it helped me process my emotions, calm my worries, and frankly get me in the best shape of my life. Complete mental and physical magic, I like to call it.

 

After a few months I was feeling pretty confident in my downward dogs and my triangle poses and decided to graduate to a more advanced class in the centre of the city. Arriving at my first class I had not anticipated how intimidated I would feel. I was a mildly flexible women in a baggy t-shirt and suddenly I was surrounded by meditating, hyper-toned lithe bodied people decked out in head to toe Lulu Lemon. It was like accidentally walking into an Instagram post. The imposter syndrome kicked in hard and I felt an urge to apologise for interrupting everyone and run for the door. Luckily I persevered and quickly found out I had no reason to worry as everyone was absolutely lovely and no one was judging my baggy t-shirt and red face. 

​

A lot of friends and acquaintances I have met overtime admit they would love to try yoga but there seems to be quite a bit of worry around the whole  "I'm not flexible at all!” or “oh I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to be the worst in the class”. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have heavily glamourised yoga and created a perception that it is reserved for toned, tanned skinny minnies who live in Bali and seem to run on strange coloured juice. I have news for you, it is not. Realistically it is for anyone and everyone and the benefits are wonderful. 

​

Regularly practiced yoga teaches you essential techniques on how how to calm yourself, focus the mind and cultivate some balance in your day to day life. It enhances self-compassion, and compassion for others, which filters into a lot of personal relationships. Use it to help you listen to your body and become more comfortable with the bits you do not like rather than working against them. Ignore all the ridiculous yoga stereotypes and grab yourself a mat and give it a go.

​

Here are 3 myths about yoga if you are feeling a bit nervous about going to your first class.

​

​

1) You have to be flexible.

No. Not at all, yoga is not about turning yourself into The Rubber Man. Physical flexibility is a fluctuating thing and some days I can keep my legs dead straight and curl my palms right under my feet - and then others I can barely touch my toes. One of the top physical benefits of practising yoga is that it facilitates and increases physical flexibility. So don’t worry, no one is expecting you to turn up bending like a Russian gymnast in your first class.

​

 

2) I won’t be able to keep up with everyone else.

When you’re on the mat it is just about you. It is the time to go into your own mental and emotional space and cultivating self compassion. Yoga is not a competitive sport and the whole philosophy of practice is about aligning you mind, body and spirit and listening to your body. Sometimes in classes its natural to look around the room and think ‘oh god how can everyone be staying in this position for so long? By all means it is human nature to compare ourselves but your fellow yogis are not judging you and neither is your teacher.  So do not worry about what anyone thinks and remember it is always completely ok to spend half a class in a heap on your mat. If that’s what your body seems to want. 

​

 

3) Isn’t it like a religion? 

No it’s not, but yoga does have a huge spiritual element and this is something I will admit I struggled with upon first beginning to practice. I soon realised you can take as much or as little of that side as you want. You will not be unknowingly joining a cult by going to a class and after 3 years of practice I am only just getting comfortable with the whole ‘chanting’ thing. It can ease you into your spiritual world if you would like that, or you can focus more on the physical benefits if you so prefer but it is entirely your practice and your choice.