![woman with curly hair doing yoga](https://i0.wp.com/feelgoodesprit.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/pexels-photo-5890702.jpeg?fit=867%2C1300&ssl=1)
When I first came across yoga, it conjured up two things for me:
The first was a way of life, a spiritual connection and journeying deep into a remote place in East Asia and the other was Lulemon pants, lattes, rolled up mats over the shoulder, middle class areas and high end studios.
I didn’t think about yoga being for me but I had heard great things so went about trying it out with some success and then some absolute turn offs!
I will save the not so great experiences for another post. In short, don’t give up and definitely try different types of yoga and places out. It’s like dating, you won’t get into a relationship with every person you go to dinner with.
When I found my match, I fell in love and the rest was history. Here’s a few things I’ve loved about yoga in relation to me now becoming a mum:
1. It teaches you mindfulness
You learn a lot from yoga around your breathing which is essential both during pregnancy, labour and post partum too. It helps you slow everything down and focus on just one thing: your breath. More on that here: Pause. Breathe. Move.
2. It makes you feel good
Yoga is a form of exercise and makes you feel great! This is what I struggled with at first when trying to find the right class, sometimes it would hurt and would be far from fun, but I discovered a class where the instructor shared different levels of the yoga poses and suddenly I could do them!
3. It is great for strengthening
Not only can you work up a sweat, you can also strengthen your core. Plus the stretches do wonders for strengthening your body. This is a wonderful thing during pregnancy when you’re suffering from any aches and pains.
4. There’s a variety of types of yoga to choose from
What I really like is that there are so many styles and I haven’t even tried them all but whether you’re up for hot yoga or more gentler hatha yoga, you can find different styles to suit your fitness needs. There’s even yoga combined with pilates. I think they call it pyro? Let me know if that’s right.
5. You can do it face to face or at home
Covid revolutionised this for sure. Yoga classes were suddenly over Zoom and it worked. I did my entire pregnancy classes over Zoom and I loved it. However I also more recently have been back to face to face classes which I enjoy to give myself time that’s purely mine and uninterrupted. The best thing is you can decide how you wish to do it.
6. It’s perfect for you and your growing bump
I just loved how yoga grew with me. It was something I practised way before being pregnant and then when I was, it was something I could still do and tap into to help me through it. It is also still growing with my post partum body as I try to get back to feeling stronger.
Are you a fan of yoga? If not, would you give it a try? You can find classes online across youtube, on meet-up or by simply googling ‘yoga classes near me’. Don’t hesitate to reach out to the yoga teacher and ask to attend a trial class before committing.