I wish I had known some of this when I started practicing yoga. Here’s my guide to being a newbie (although this advice still feels very relevant today!).
Firstly, yoga is a living system of breath, movement, meditation and reflection, which is a lifelong pursuit. By this I mean that being a yoga practitioner is a long journey and the results of your practice will build up over time. I really like to compare it to your first piano lesson – you wouldn’t expect to be able to play Mozart’s Requiem after a 60 minute lesson. Well, the same logic applies to yoga. We live in a results-driven society and we all want the results yesterday! Yoga practice takes practice – pardon the pun! If you are consistent in your practice, then the results will accumulate over time.
Often when we don’t know much about a subject, we can make the mistake of overlooking its richness and depth. Yoga can simply be a physical, once a week, feel better in your body practice but it has the potential to be a lot more. Yoga can be the vehicle through which you can become more familiar with the innermost workings of your body, mind and emotions. It has the capacity to help you to build self-compassion, resilience and awareness. Yoga is an ancient and vast body of work, that can take a long time to explore, so give yourself time… don’t be in a rush.
This leads me to my next point - decide to be on your own side. Stop judging yourself – you are learning a new skill. Accept that it takes time. I can promise you this – we have all been the newbie at something which means that we had a skills gap (to put it politely!). But just like learning to ride a bike, if we commit to learning and practice, we improve and get better until we can’t remember not being able to ride. Almost everyone that comes to class says something like, “I’m not very good at yoga/ I’m not very flexible.” To which I always reply, “Then you are in the right place!”. It is going to be confusing at times, the insecurities will come up, it might be uncomfortable but let yourself appreciate the fact that you are putting yourself out there and following your impulse to be well.
For most of us, including me, the main driver to try yoga the first time is the desire to feel better physically. Yoga certainly does help the body feel better, whether its fewer aches and pains, better sleep, improved strength and mobility to name but a few. But in all honesty, its more than this that keeps us coming back. So, my newbie friend, I hope that you will be on your own side, be consistent with your practice while giving yourself the time and space to be a beginner and discover all the joys yoga has to offer.
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