Truth be told, being a yoga instructor, or a yoga student can be extremely fulfilling and inspiring, but being a yoga cheerleader, not so much.
Trying to convince people of how yoga can transform their lives, bodies, and thinking is beyond a difficult task. Most people have already made up their mind about yoga without giving it a shot just because they’ve heard “rumors” about it.
Here are the top 10 myths that people really need to stop believing:
Okay, first off, if you’re not flexible at this moment in time, what are you going to be like ten years down the line? A stiff board? Exactly why you need to get, yoga to be part of your lifestyle. Yoga is all about strength, balance, and finally flexibility. Every person has a least one of these things in their favor, and with time, practice, and patience, you will attain all 3.
Umm. We’ve got to say; this myth is completely backward! It is people who have injuries that need to start practicing yoga. This spiritual art is great for pain relief, and possible healing in some cases.
That’s painfully funny! Do you know who started yoga? No? Yoga was started by MEN and was exclusively practiced by MEN hundreds of years ago. So, please get out of the mindset that only a woman would be caught dead in warrior pose because a lot more men are finally seeing the benefits and are getting on the yoga train now.
This one might be partially true, but hey, have you heard of something called the internet? Yeah, that thing you use to scroll through your social media pages, you can use that same thing for plenty of free classes, just browse through YouTube. Or, go the old-fashioned way, get a yoga DVD. Or, even another possibility, check for local yoga groups that meet up to practice together, the solution’s list is really endless.
Yoga was built on something called spirituality, which promotes you to become at peace with yourself, kind, and compassionate towards not only yourself but other people as well. It has nothing to do with religion at all. In fact, if people think yoga is a religion, then what is meditation and thinking? Ah, not religion, just understanding oneself.
There are so many different variations to yoga; there’s power yoga, restorative yoga, swing yoga, and plenty of other types that are difficult to pronounce. So, it really does depend on what type you’re after, you could calm your body down, or you could get your heart rate pumping and burning calories. Read about the types, and you’ll be amazed.
Listen, times are changing, people in the past may have given up a healthy lifestyle when they hit 40 or 50, but people now keep on living a healthy lifestyle for as long as their bodies will allow them to. We’ve all seen photos of 70-something-year-olds exercising and looking like they have barely past their 40s. You’d be surprised just how many 60 - 70-year-olds actually practice yoga.
Any form of physical activity you want to get into is time-consuming. So, if you’re willing to pump iron for 3 hours and think a half hour of yoga is too much, you just might want to reevaluate your exercise routine.
Okay, yoga classes are not about shaming people about the way they look. The classes are about bringing people to where they want to be physically and mentally. Whether they want to lose weight or remain the same weight is entirely up to them.
No, just no. There are different types of yoga; we’ve already established this. Those stretches and positions are all helping you attain balance, strength, flexibility, and controlled breathing. It might look silly from the outside looking in, but do one class, and you’ll know just how beneficial those stretches and weird positions really are.
