How yoga has changed my life?

By Hanne

I first found my way to yoga in 2004, when I started Astanga yoga. I didn’t know much about yoga, let alone Astanga yoga; besides, it is physically quite challenging. I was running marathons at the time, and what better addition to my training program than Ashtanga yoga, I thought. Yes, yoga was only a physical exercise for me then, which is probably why we only spent a little over a year together. Yoga came into my life again in 2015, and in this article, I will tell you how yoga has changed my life.

How Yoga has changed my life?

At the beginning of 2015, I started yoga again. First, I went to Astanga yoga classes, and very soon, I changed my practice to Hot yoga and Vinyasa classes. At first, the physicality of yoga attracted me, but soon I noticed something more profound and much better with the practice.

At that time, seven years ago, I had a day job, and in the evenings, I worked as a personal trainer, so life was, to put it mildly, a bit hectic. During the yoga practice, I noticed how my restless mind, which was running in overdrive, quieted down during the practice.

Little by little, my body started to find the lost mobility that I had been running to a minimum, and the stiffness that I hadn’t gotten by running came from group exercise and computer work.

The quieting of the mind and the increased mobility attracted me and made me go back onto my mat again and again. And very soon, right at the beginning of 2015, I knew I would become a yoga teacher; I just didn’t know when.

Yoga every day

After practicing yoga for a year, I knew I would become a yoga teacher in 2016. At that time, at the beginning of January, I still didn’t know where I would study; I just knew that it would happen. With this thought, yoga also became a daily practice for me. My session could have been short, only half an hour, but I stepped on my mat every day.

At the end of the previous year, I had torn my right hamstring, and because of this, my forward bend was about 10 cm bend forward. It was probably the first ego struggle I experienced with yoga.

I came to yoga from a world where I had to be better and faster every day. Marathon training was always based on the fact that if there is an hour’s run in the program, then it’s an hour’s run, not under, but rather over. Yoga changed this, especially after the hamstring injury I experienced.

I remember thinking during the class about what others may think when I didn’t move more than a few centimeters into a forward bend. As if anyone cared. That’s what I thought, though.

Luckily, little by little, I was able to let go of what my hamstring was like before the tear and what it was like after and continued to practice with my body as it was on any given day. The healing process of the hamstring took a good three years in total. And that grew my frustration into patience that further molded itself into respecting the body.

Becoming a Yoga teacher

I traveled to India for yoga teacher training on May Day, 2016. All in all, the one-month training was a life-changing experience. That trip to India changed my perception of the country and made me return there again and again, and finally move there.

The yoga teacher training included two daily asana practices; Astanga yoga in the morning and Hatha yoga practice in the evening. During my yoga teacher training, I fell in love with Astanga yoga. It seems that right then, I found a certain kind of flow in Astanga yoga, which I had not experienced before, and not after the training either.

Due to its intensity, the training was challenging, not so much physically but mentally. During the third week, each of us students experienced some sort of mental breakdown. We, of course, survived from it and the entire training.

Even after that training, I journeyed with Astanga yoga for a while. However, it didn’t stay in my life for a more extended period either, and my last contact with Astanga was back in 2018 when I taught it.

Acceptance and being gentle

The biggest and most important thing that yoga has taught me is self-acceptance. I have journeyed with an eating disorder and feelings of complete worthlessness even longer time than with yoga. Yoga has been a great help in building acceptance for both myself and my body. And it has done that in the most significant way than anything else. And right now, I can say that I’m in balance with both of these.

By practicing yoga, I have also learned that quantity and doing things with more intensity is not always the best option. There have been periods when my practice has consisted solely of Yin yoga, for example, during the last couple of summers. And these periods have made me understand even more clearly that every practice, every moment I spend on my mat, takes me further, even in the way that serves me the most.

This year has been the time for a more vigorous yoga practice. And it has been my lifeline in a way. My exercises have been my way of turning inward, which has come into need this year more than ever. Only through movement have I felt that I could connect with myself. And the movement has been the thing that has quieted my mind.

Discoveries on a Yoga mat

I used to beat myself up for athletic performance; I ran even though I didn’t enjoy it. It feels like I have lived through times when I have acted only against my body and its sensations. My body was like an enemy that I always had to discipline a little. Yoga has changed this. It has brought with it a gentleness towards my body and my practice. Today I do yoga every day because I want to do yoga. In general, every practice I do these days comes from a pure desire. If I’m tired, I shape the exercises accordingly.

This year, my time on my mat has also opened up a new angle to my teaching. I feel my insights have been shaped into a form I can share with others. And therefore, those insights have become part of the content of the classes I teach.

Over the past seven years, this is how yoga has changed my life. We’ll see what the coming week, the end of the year, and the next seven years bring. How has yoga changed your life?

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Hi, I'm Hanne

I am a yoga instructor and personal trainer dedicated to holistic wellbeing and natural living. On my blog, I share insights and practical tips to help you find balance and harmony in your life.