Why Yoga Isn’t An Escape

“ yoga isn’t an escape, it is an approach to life..”

I came across this quote whilst, full disclosure, doom-scrolling instagram earlier this week and despite the lack of positive effect social media usually has on my life, this one actually got me thinking.. how has this practice changed how I approach the world?

When I first discovered yoga, the days where I felt furthest from myself, most distracted by everything around me, living in and guided by the external, were the days I’d go nowhere near my mat or battle myself for hours until I stepped foot anywhere near it. Don’t get me wrong I still have these feelings and tendencies now having had a yoga practice for many years, but I can definitely catch myself doing it a little earlier now. Sitting with myself with no distraction, there to pay attention to nothing but my breath and the thoughts that arose in between, was incredibly daunting. Busyness was what I clutched to. It kept me disconnected and distant me from what I was truly feeling, keeping me in the doing cycle rather than the simply being, and I had no idea I was doing it.

But as I showed up to myself, over time, the shifts I noticed in my mind, body, in my approach to life and relationships have showed me the depths that are possible with dedication to this practice. How patience towards oneself on the mat can show up as compassion in our relationships, how awareness of the breath can teach us to take our day just a little bit slower, or take that extra pause before we react to a situation, how sensitivity to sensations in the body can reveal to us the smaller moments of beauty in every day life and bring us more in tune with subtler feelings as and when they arise.

Yoga doesn’t have to be an escape, but an approach to life, an invitation, a call to a deeper, more considered way of life.

We’ll be immersing ourselves on this journey in less than one month on the beautiful Greek island of Zakynthos. If you would like to join us, you know where we’ll be.