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Healthy Living Through Exercise
How a yoga class changed my life
In my pursuit of the delicate balance between pushing myself beyond my boundaries to experience growth, while still maintaining a healthy living state isn’t always smooth sailing. This past week I experienced some turbulence in the form of pain in my right knee. In order to let my body heal and not exacerbate the problem I opted to do some lower impact activities. Yoga was my first stop. I walked into class with the intention to just get my sweat on and avoid further tweaking the bum knee. I reached both of my goals and found more ways to lose weight.
First, I was reminded how much of a difference it makes to breathe. In any uncomfortable situation, not just a contorted yoga pose, remember to fully exhale. No wonder breathwork is a trend amongst celebs like Amy Smart. My second epiphany was that we all need to step aside from our hectic lives and truly do something for ourselves, for at least an hour once a week! Ideally something (or nothing) that reconnects us with our inner voice. While in warrior two pose the chatter in my mind went from the repetitive playlist of my to-do list to actually quieting down. In that noiseless space I realized that so much of my time, energy and thoughts are focused on what’s wrong and missing. And I consider myself a positive person! 
Then I thought about all you Sensa shakers out there, and how much of our attention is spent on our outer selves. We bust our butt working out, sweating like crazy on cardio machines, hammering out crunches and constantly thinking about nutrition and weight-loss. But how often do we actually spend time exploring within ourselves? I found that taking just one hour to analyze some of my thought processes opened up new ideas that helped me break through some of my blocks. This may seem silly, but what impacted me the most upon leaving that yoga class was getting that no matter how much I have, I will always have less than what I don’t have. And if my attention is constantly fixed on the negative, that is the only thing I will see and experience.
It can be a challenging journey to venture inward to the source of our thoughts, but it’s a flight worth taking. Set aside time for yourself, tune in to your inner conversations and be selective about which ones you want to be a part of, which ones you want to continue. Why not let some of the ones that aren’t serving you go? For example: any negativity around exercise, anything that says you can’t do something, or you aren’t good enough, etc.
“Physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.” -Joseph Pilates
Exercise is a great way to catapult you into a new space, opening up new thoughts, giving you powerful insights and the ability to look at life’s problems from a new angle. So, what are you waiting for? Go get your sweat on, healthy living is on the other side.
My next scheduled landing will be a fancy new spinning studio in my neighborhood, I’ll be sure to report back.
Leave your comments below and let me know how your journey is going!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, remember to pack your Sensa!
- Kardio Kate
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