Yoga reading notes | Yoga training notes | Yoga practice insights | Yoga stories | Yoga and life (This is a column about yoga stories, and the main characters are you, me and others.
If this story can touch your heart strings, even if only for a moment, that’s enough!) The year 2022 is Claire’s interval year.
She did not stop moving forward, but chose to spend more time thinking about her future, including applying for graduate programs, Return to yoga practice, etc.
This winter, she wants to go to Nanjing Library to borrow yoga books to better guide her practical practice.
During that period, she was suddenly interested in meditation, so she went to the shelf of “spiritual cultivation” and caught a glimpse of “Yoga is spiritual practice”.
After opening and reading a few pages, she was deeply attracted by the contents of the book, which mentioned the skills of meditation practice, how to apply meditation to life, and how to practice the principle of non violence.
She felt that this was a kind of practice in life.
Claire likes the book “Yoga is spiritual practice” very much.
When she reads a good quotation, she will extract it in her notebook.
Among them, the translation of one of the chants can be called her favorite – The beauty is like the moon, but actually wins the moon, gathering the universe.
The beauty of all the moons cannot be better than that of others.
The meaning of this sentence is that the moon itself is a very gentle, romantic and beautiful image, and the beauty of all the months is not as glorious as human nature.
“My impression of the chanting content is quite rigid and boring.
I didn’t expect that the chanting translation would make people feel very beautiful, a little like the works of literary masters.” At this time, she has been exposed to yoga for more than four years, and the more she practices, the more she feels.
In addition to going to a yoga studio to practice yoga, she also reads some yoga books.
In her eyes, yoga books and asanas are complementary.
“If you only read books and don’t do asanas, you may not be able to mobilize your body’s awareness in place; but if you only do asanas and don’t read books, you may not be able to mobilize your mind’s awareness in place.” As long as you are a practical reader, you can get closer and closer to the truth when reading books.
The so-called “reading books for thousands of times” means that its meaning is self fulfilling.
However, without the careful guidance of offline yoga teachers, it is difficult to establish awareness with the body.
In the past four years, Claire has experienced different styles of yoga courses in several cities at home and abroad, and gradually found out a suitable yoga method.
Claire studied at New York University in order to lose weight, shape and practice yoga, but she gained some changes in her heart.
She returned home after the winter vacation in the first semester of 2018.
She was not satisfied with her figure and decided to go to the yoga studio with her mother to try the effect.
After a yoga class, although she would sweat, the yoga poses were not very intense, which seemed unable to meet her demand for fat reduction, and she felt that they were of little use.
Even after practicing for a month, she didn’t see any obvious changes in her figure, but felt that her clothes were a little loose.
Maybe it was a psychological consolation.
After that, Claire began intermittent yoga practice, and took various yoga courses in New York, New Jersey, Shanghai and Nanjing.
She believes that yoga is a way of exercise, and her pursuit of weight loss and shaping has never changed.
Besides yoga, she will try other sports, such as boxing and Pilates.
Unexpectedly, she had more interest in yoga unconsciously, because yoga brought her some “different” feelings.
After a big class in the yoga studio, her body would sweat and get tired.
But after she closed her eyes in the quiet classroom for a while, she found that her body was not so tired, her mind was clear, and her energy was more abundant.
In short, she was very comfortable.
This comfort is actually a sharp contrast between the whole body’s exertion during the exercise and the whole body’s relaxation after the exercise.
When conditions permit, she will go to the yoga studio every day to practice, which seems to have become a habit of her.
If she can’t go to the gym because of something temporary, she will do yoga with Keep, and she feels very comfortable after finishing it.
She is very calm.
Sometimes, she will deeply feel the charm of the back bending posture.
“I feel that I will become more tolerant when my mind is open.” Such a kind of calm and tolerance is virtually integrated into Claire’s life.
On the road before, if she heard the sound of honking the horn, she would be very upset and felt that others had disturbed her.
But after regular yoga practice, she would look at the same thing from a different perspective.
If someone honked the horn, she might really have something urgent.
She would try to be considerate of others and make way for them, instead of internalizing it.
The sense of achievement is the motivation to insist on practicing yoga.
When Claire first went to a yoga studio to practice yoga, she was not very interested, because she felt that doing asanas was not useful for reducing fat and shaping.
Fortunately, her mother often encouraged her.
Two weeks later, she was getting better.
In class, she will receive praise from the teacher unexpectedly, and a small sense of achievement will rise quietly in her heart.
In the next two weeks, her enthusiasm improved significantly.
Even if her mother did not go to class, she would happily practice alone.
Once again, she felt a strong sense of achievement in the yoga studio she chose this year.
The courses there are mainly stream yoga.
The students in the hall are older, but the aunts are very good at postures.
They can easily handle various arm supports, splits and handstands.
In contrast, Claire, although young, is very much like a novice in the yoga industry.
She is cautious in doing poses and has many concerns.
She always stays in her comfort zone.
Under their silent inspiration, Claire ushered in a new breakthrough.
In the past, she chose to paddle silently when she encountered some poses that she was afraid of.
Now, she is willing to try, such as God Monkey (also known as vertical fork)..
