YogaSol & Sol Therapies

YogaSol & Sol Therapies

Yoga And Consumerism

Consumerism and Yoga.

Ok we all love to get new things.
Shinny and new makes us happy.
For a while, then shinny and new gets dirty and old and our attachment to it changes and we discard it for the next best thing. Shinny and new.
When we think of Yoga, we think of each breath being our shinny and new. We think of each pose creating shinny and new within our physical bodies. We think of rising after each Savasana with a shinny new outlook.
Unfortunately sometimes this inward shinny and new gets side swiped by marketing and our need for consumerism.
We feel compelled to have the best Bamboo organic Mat, coupled with our Hemp fair trade bag. Our $200 Yoga Pants and our organic cold pressed oils to “clean” and over stimulate our senses while shutting down and withdrawing form external stimulation. .. What?
We don’t need fancy clothes, Fancy smells or fancy props.
We just need a moment of peace and compassion of Self to bring our selves out of this crazy wasteful consumer driven world that we live in, and into our self. Our Home, our Body, our Breath, our Planet.
This ever increasing “need, want” can create a trance of unworthiness and disappointment even despair and depression. The impact on our planet is devastating too.
So next time you are told you need a certain product to improve your Yoga, think about what that product really is.
You
You are all you need to make your Yoga practice happen.
You are all you need to improve in Asana or Pranayama.
You are all you need to find that Yogic glow of peace and joy, Compassion and Love.
If you don’t have a mat, use the floor. If you don’t have a calm space, Cultivate that calm space within your own self.
If you don’t have the latest Chants on spotify, Sing or listen to your breath, the birds, the wind.
Yoga always meant poverty and renunciation from Earthly possessions by the devotion to the path of purity, and although we no longer live in the age of the great sages and we don’t live in a country where Renunciation is common place, we can practice self restraint and bring the practice of mindfulness into our consumeristic ways.
Seeking to understand why we feel we need a product. What is our expectation of the product and how we think it will change our experience of Yoga.
If we all reduce our buying we also reduce our waste.
Mindfulness is not just about our Breath we can bring mindfulness and compassion training into every aspect of our lives.
Try starting introducing mindfulness and compassion into our shopping habits.
I look forward to hearing the results.yoga mats

Annette’s Light Bulb Moment. Another Solian Story

The latest in our story sharing from our beautiful Yogic community.
This is Annettes Light Bulb moment story!
Thank you for sharing Annette.

My light bulb moment thanks to yoga.

All my life I have tried to do the right thing, look after my body ,eating properly, and squeeze in some exercise between everything else I had to do but never did it occur to me that I wasn’t doing everything, I wasn’t looking after the whole me, by nurturing my ‘self’

That is until I felt a calling almost, to try yoga. And it was in the first couple of beginners classes with Claire and her gentle guidance that opened up an whole new dimension of myself that I had not been paying any attention to.

I have been surprised what I discovered about myself. I am enriched now by what Yoga has connected me to. I feel a lot more mellow within myself, thanks to Yoga.

Michael’s Yoga Story

Here is one of our Dedicated Yogi’s sharing his story of his body and mind since starting a regular Yoga Practice.

My yoga story. I’d like to think the story so far is just beginning.

I’ve had an interest in yoga for a long time and dabbled in it over the years using DVDs and such, but it never became a practice. From the bits and pieces I tried, I could feel it was good for me but lacked the motivation to keep it going regularly.

When YogaSol opened, I thought I would try out a class and see what it was like. I was a bit nervous as I have some long term injuries that would restrict some movements (frozen shoulder and weak ligaments around the knees), so I went for a gentle beginners class. Some things I could do, some things I couldn’t, some things I could almost do. It was wonderful to find out that there was no pressure to do anything that was beyond me, and there were always options if a pose was not within my grasp. I’ve found if I work within my abilities, improvement would eventually follow.

After a few weeks, I found it was much easier cultivating a regular practice by going to classes rather than the sporadic, self-motivated practice I tried at home. So I decided to make a commitment for 12 months to get to class at least 3 times a week, I’m now just over 2 months into that commitment.

What has changed:
Better movement. I have more flexibility in my shoulder and more strength in my knees. I’m not doing shoulder stands or getting to 90 degrees through the knees in Goddess (God) pose, and my downward dog may need a trip to the vet, but I feel I’m making progress and am positive I will get there in time. I would love to be able to get into a full plough pose someday.
Clearer mind. Yoga has been a great way to get better at staying present. With challenging poses, I’m learning to cultivate mindfulness through the pose and what it is doing to my body. The more challenging poses are great at bringing your awareness to the moment. This has also had an effect on other aspects of my life. I’ve started meditating in the mornings, have better concentration at work and feel calmer when dealing with the world.
Improved health. It’s funny how when you start looking after yourself in one aspect of your life, you feel motivated to clean up other parts. My diet has greatly improved in the last couple of months, cutting out virtually all processed foods and cooking a lot more at home, I’ve even lost a few kilos. Although the weight loss is a pleasant byproduct, I don’t think it’s as important as the other consequences of feeling healthier, stronger and more energetic.
My wife has also joined me in my practice. We both lead busy lives and it can be a challenge coordinating the time to practice together, but when we can manage it, it’s great if we can both get to a class and do something together that’s just for us. I think Yoga Nidra may be our favourite class to do together.

I’m looking forward how far I can progress over the next 10 months and beyond, not just in yoga, but in the other parts of my life that yoga has inspired me to improve. I really want to try Hot Vinyasa but still feel a little intimidated in doing an advanced class, I will endeavour to “man-up” soon.

Image may contain: one or more people, shoes, living room and indoori

Our Solian Stories

Here is the first of our Yoga Sol Stories.
 
This new feature will be a chance for you to tell your story to help inspire others who may be struggling or to give you a platform to feel pride and satisfaction in all your efforts and your achievements, not just in Yoga Asana but how Yoga has effected you as a person.
Sarah is our first ‘Solian’ to share her amazing story of regaining her health and managing chronic pain.
 
I first met Claire from Yogasol in April 2014. At the time I was 25 years old but the first time I met her I told her “I feel like a 25 year old stuck in the body of an 80 year old!”
I had been having health problems for more than 5 years. After a back injury, a neck injury, one surgery and being misdiagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and hashimoto’s Thyroiditis when I was 19, I was fed up with the medical system and the countless doctors who had failed to help me.
 
I had seen dozens of doctors and specialists who couldn’t offer me anything to improve my day to day quality of life. I spent a few years feeling totally disheartened that, despite my young age and all the time, energy and money that I had spent, I didn’t really have control over my health and I felt like rubbish every day.
 
My chiropractor recommended I try yoga and gave me Claire’s number. I was hesitant as I had been to one yoga class in a gym years earlier and I found it to be intimidating and hard.
 
Claire was the first person who really listened to my health problems and actually understood what was happening in my body. She told me she was going to teach me how to sit, stand and walk from scratch. I was surprised at the level of knowledge of anatomy that she had and she guided me to slowly and gently re-train the way I lived my life through yoga.
 
Three years later, I cannot even to begin to describe how different my life is thanks to yoga. While my health problems didn’t magically disappear, my day to day quality of life is so much better and I feel like my own age.
 
Through yoga I have the tools to manage my health in a gentle and loving way. I wake up every day feeling like, although my health and body are not perfect, that I can live my life to its fullest and I have control of my health.
 
The knock on benefits to my mental health, personal relationships, work performance and overall happiness have been bigger that the physical improvements.
 
It sounds cliché to say, but yoga truly did change my life.
 
My greatest yoga achievement has been earlier this year when I completed my first headstand. For someone who has had chronic back and neck problems and an RSI injury in both wrists, to stand
on my head was something I never thought would be possible!
sarah handstand