When you move your body in yoga and focus on your breathing, you calm your farm. Photo / Supplied
By Rachel Grunwell
Yoga has gone from wu wu to cool.
Yoga is no longer seen as something for hippies who eat mung beans, swig kale smoothies all day and hug trees.
The mainstream knows now that yoga can bring length back to tight muscles. It helps you move well. But it also sorts your head mess. Or is that just me?
When you move your body in yoga and focus on your breathing, you calm your farm — as I like to put it. You feel distracted from this fast-paced planet. You can slow down and de-stress.
1. Comparison is the thief of joy — Theodore Roosevelt famously said. This couldn't be more true in yoga. Never look at the person next to you in a class and compare your ability (or lack of this). We all have different bodies.
2. It will take time to learn the art of stillness in shavasana (that part at the end of a yoga class where everyone lays on their backs, eyes closed and dead-like). I know, I used to be such a fidget!
3. Turn up to yoga to learn how to love your body, not because you hate it. Self-love is crucial, sister.
• Rachel Grunwell is our weekly wellness columnist. She is a qualified yoga teacher and fitness consultant. She teaches yoga weekly in Auckland, 7pm-8pm, at 19 Thomas Peacock Place. Email her if interested: rachel@inspiredhealth.co.nz