Consistency in and through Yoga

by | Nov 27, 2022 | Ashtanga Yoga, Classes, Community, Health & Wellbeing, News, Wisdom

Having run North Sydney Yoga for 25 years led me to reflect on consistency. Before having made yoga the centre of my life, I struggled with the idea of a regular routine, which seemed personally outmoded and not something I was striving for at all. I travelled for many years, and didn’t live anywhere for a long time period of time. I was constantly searching and wanting to do something meaningful with my life.

Yoga became a passion. It introduced regularity, commitment, and a halt to my travelling life; it was a comfortable and natural transition.

The Passion for Yoga

Having such a strong urge to become ‘better’ at yoga and to learn everything about it, it seemed only fitting to arrange my life around it. Where I worked and the conditions surrounding the job, as well as where I lived, needed to fit in with where and when I wanted to practice.

Over time, the majority of the friends I made were Yoga friends, which, of course was conducive to the lifestyle I desired.

Running a Yoga School

North Sydney Yoga was a gift I had never considered or imagined, would enter my life and it became my life’s focus. But when I was offered the Yoga School in December 1997, I immediately felt strongly compelled to follow the call.

It soon became clear that everything that had so far taken place in my life, was a preparation and necessary learning to follow a Yogic lifestyle, and to run a Yoga School. The degree in computer sciences, the traveling, and moving away from my home country had prepared me for the practice of Yoga; to teach and to train future teachers.

Your life’s calling

Running a Yoga School is a 24/7 commitment. The nature of the Yoga practice allows us to look at every day, month, and year, with fresh eyes; to be flexible and determined enough to go with the flow in a healthy manner. Of course, running a studio today is very different to when I began. A lot of changing and adapting was needed, and I had to develop many new skills over the years. Only the passion for yoga and what I do, enabled me to adjust to the new demands and enhance my capabilities.

How to sustain the commitment?

Yoga is the one constant in my life I always long to come back to. A regular routine nowadays is what I enjoy i.e. my day-to-day life is enjoyable. I feel I can face anything when I practice regularly. It is important that we are truly looking forward to our daily routine, when e.g. returning from a holiday. Depending on the nature of our holiday – yoga holidays are the best – we sometimes need to compromise a bit on the extent of our practice when travelling. This means that even after a great holiday we are still happy to return to our daily routine – because Yoga is a part of it.

Realistic expectations

We sometimes need to remind ourselves that we are human. This means that occasionally our practice might not be as extensive as usual, because we might have given a helping hand to someone in need, or we wanted to spend some quality time with a friend. We should always look forward to our practice. Or, on days when getting onto the mat isn’t so easy, the enthusiasm should pick up during practice. It is paramount that we set up our practice habits intelligently, so we will still be practising in 50 years time or more.

There’s always something we can do

Also during times of sickness, injury, or time constraints, Yoga offers us plenty of practices which can be followed during challenging times. Ask us if you need some advice on what to practice when any of this might occur.

Let’s stay flexible, determined, inspired and consistent in our practice. The love we give it will be returned multifold.

OM Shanti, Angelika

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