When I discovered Yoga, I was immediately attracted to practice of asanas. They were challenging, but what attracted me most is that I knew that each posture was properly aligning my body. I was also taken in by how peaceful I felt even when I was working very hard to improve and hold my postures. From my own personal experience, Yoga asanas start from within and build a force of energy that becomes motion in stillness. Even in the stillness of a posture, there is a feeling of continuous energy moving in all directions. When I am in a complete state of focus and concentration there are no boundaries. It is freedom. Free from thinking and all perceived limitations.
I strive for this state of being. My dance background has given me body awareness that has helped me improve my practice at perhaps a faster rate than most. And if truth be told, it is often my mental state that keeps me from achieving full expressions of my postures. When I find my mind and my body are not in union with each other, I again turn to my dance background. I play the most beautiful dance adagio in my head to bring myself to a place of calmness and a place of pure joy and happiness. Focus and concentration returns, the world disappears, and there I am again. Freedom. My true self.
Dancing and Yoga are two very similar disciplines. Both provide an opportunity for self-expression and body awareness. During my 38 years on this earth, 32 of them have been spent discovering myself through dance and Yoga. Every one of us has something that they are good at and for me, it started out as ballet dance. I had no idea how much it was a part of me until I stopped dancing. Thank the universe I discovered Yoga. Yoga has given me so much. It has allowed me to express myself physically while simultaneously improving the over all health of my body and mind.
I began ballet lessons at the age of six. So from an early age, I started to learn a routine of systematically warming up, strengthening and creating flexibility in my body. Every movement that we learned was then turned into a combination of movement that became a dance. Over time, the source of those movements came from a place deep inside. It is such an exhilarating feeling to be able to be able to outwardly express what is inspired by music and creativity. Dancing felt like a moving meditation. Energy in motion. Dancing became an outward expression of my true self.
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