peace

 

A karma yogi performs action by mind, body, intellect and the senses. Without attachment or ego only for self purification’ Bhagavad Gita

There is something incredible about feeling alive and in those momentous moments where we realise anything, everything is possible. We free ourselves, transcend the humdrum to feel the true qualities of being alive.

As a yoga teacher this is what I want to inspire in my students so it’s important for me to feel connected to that potential. Yoga is a practice of connecting and balancing our breathing, moving, vital body and alert, functioning, sentient mind.
To hone our senses on what is happening in that moment.

Before teaching I always take five minutes aside to relax and have a quiet moment to reflect so I can feel that inspiration and I need a little something that is refreshing and invigorating but that balances me where water or caffeinated drinks just won’t do and there are only so many energy snacks you can have before that downward dog feels a bit daggedy.

So when I found that every bottle of supabalance is packed full of nature’s most potent and enlivening ingredients it seemed like a good option to try. It is important to me to have a drink that is in itself alive so senses can hone in on the experience of the taste, my body is nurtured and my mind relaxed and I’m ready to teach.

In my yoga practice on the mat I get to work out all those little knots of tension and stress of life that may have built up in the body or mind. This is Karma, or action. I take time to do these actions as an act of care and of nourishment. The idea of karma as something bad that happens is more about what happens if you don’t make action or do anything about all those little moments of stress that build up, you quite literally hold on to them so they begin to hold the body in tension, the mind in stress, the senses dulled.

So you begin to hold on and to hold back and start to loose the ability off the yoga mat to make free choices in your life.

Yoga is the art of balancing what has been before with where you want to be so that right now you have the freedom to truly be yourself. I am always seeking to live as the embodiment of my yoga practice to live my life to the fullest.

But this act of living in balance or harmony isn’t only available from a yoga class. I do love yoga, sure, but it’s not the only way to live well. Those moments are available in everything we do in life. Friends of mine mashing on stage in their metal band are so present in that moment, doing, living, not holding back.

Or for my sister who doesn’t really like yoga at all, but finds this process by taking time to connect with nature and her nature, on long leisurely walks.

Finding a way to reflect on and in these moments, even if they seem tiny and if they seem insignificant, through the doing of them, through noticing their potential to let you feel joy, build up to ‘I had a good day today’, and that is the path to life that’s well lived.

Elizabeth yoga
Director of London Fields Yoga