Notice your breath.

Notice sensations in your body.

Where do you notice this pose?

I don’t know how many times I say the word ‘notice’ in a yoga class – probably too many. But that’s the number one thing that I want to empower you with when you take the time to practice yoga with me: self-awareness.

If there’s one way yoga has changed my life that would be it. It gave me a place to pause and reflect. It brought things to the surface I didn’t even know were there, but were running my life. 

Here’s what it’s done for me: I still get stressed out, I still get overwhelmed, I still get overcome by life. And I can tell much quicker when I’m getting in that state. I can pause and interrupt before going down the spiral.

When we notice a stressor, our body shifts gears and signals are sent to our brain and nervous system to cope with the stress. This triggers all sorts of reactions in our bodies and minds and often we are in auto-pilot. We go through the motions of a learned behavior to get us through. Sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes it no longer is. 

Yoga is very powerful in shedding light to our “auto-pilot” behaviours, but only if we start paying attention. It can start with noticing how our breath changes when we move into a pose. Or noticing the places where you are holding tension.