As we just celebrated this weekend the 18th birthday of my daughter, every year it reminds me how my yoga journey started.
As a movement enthusiast since childhood and already working as a physiotherapist, I experienced something new after giving birth. My body felt stiff and tight, my nervous system was weak, and a kind of overwhelming feeling hid the base.
Then, as in many yoga stories begin, a friend took me to a yoga class. For the first time in my life, I experienced movement in a more meaningful way.
Very quickly, my practice deepened, and I started my first teacher training “Freie Yoga Practice”- Isolde Paknin.
At that point, yoga was integrated into my daily routine with my one-year-old child, and during every nap time you could find me on the yoga mat.
But then something happened, her nap time changed and interrupted the time for myself practicing yoga. Honestly, I was frustrated, even a bit angry that she didn’t sleep any longer.
Then I spoke with my yoga teacher about it, and wisely she said:
That has been a very important lesson for me: often we feel we need a special space in order to practice, but being a yogi doesn’t only mean going to yoga classes or becoming a teacher.
It means bringing the practice into everyday life, cultivating awareness, presence, and kindness in whatever situation life presents to you.
I used to play her mantras to help her go to bed. When she was six, I brought her along while I was teaching “Yoga im Park,” and as she became a teenager, she sometimes joins my classes and supports me with social media.
Thank you!
Enjoy your yoga practice on your yoga mat and beyond.
YOGA – Caldas da Rainha
Tuesdays & Thursdays at 10:00 a.m.
Sociedade Columbófila Galdense
Namaste!
Andrea Stern