Last month I was lucky to be in one of the best holidays I ever had. For three weeks, my partner and I were travelling around the most amazing wonders of Brazil and Argentina.
During that period, I must admit I didn’t spend much time doing yoga. I’m not great at self-practising when I’m out of my work-home routine, so I allowed myself to chill and enjoy, without feeling too guilty about the yoga break.
By the time I was back though, I was very keen to go back on the mat. I knew I wanted to go to class because I felt too out of sync to even practise by myself – wouldn’t even know where to start!
So, the day arrived when I went to my local yoga studio after a month off, eager to see how my body was going to cope.
Interestingly, or better said, dramatically… I lost quite a lot of flexibility. That is actually quite silly of me because flexibility postures are the ones I prefer and find easier to do when it comes to practise on my own here and there.
My balance was still there and I could hold a headstand as if I never left. This is funny and encouraging because it comes to show it could be one of those skills your body doesn’t forget, like riding a bike or skiing.
My strength holding postures such as chatarunga or planks was still there too, but I noticed how worse it got. Holding a posture that was easy before, now meant quicker heart beats and breathing.
The post yoga feeling was also “interesting”. Even though the class was not too hard, I could feel the muscle pain in my body the day after. This helped me to realise how beneficial yoga is, even if you think it is not making a difference in your body and muscles.
My yoga break also made me realise of my commitment to yoga (or lack of). Yes I did some asanas when I as in front of those amazing landscapes, just to replicate the amazing yoga pictures. But the truth is that it was not real yoga, but quickly made off poses that left me feeling quite embarrassed if there was people around.
Now that I’ve returned to the yogi life I hope I can go back to where I was and, most importantly, make it such an inner part of my daily routine that it persits no matter where I am in the world.
Wellbeing Lifelong 