If you've been following me on YouTube then you know that I love to teach strength poses in yoga. It might surprise you, but when I first started yoga I wasn't naturally strong. That's why these strength poses are so important to me and my personal yoga journey. In this episode, I'm taking you on my journey of strength to inspire you with you some of the most important lessons I learned on my yoga mat.

Remember back to my first episode - my very first impression of yoga was the headstand. I wanted nothing more than to be able to stand on my head. That's what I thought yoga was: a fitness class of perfect, physically fit people standing on their heads. I quickly learned that couldn't be farther from the truth.

The yoga path is for everyone, and this is why representation is so important in yoga. When the yoga journey is presented as one image or one particular shape or size or color of body, it starts to exclude those who really want to learn the practice. Yoga students start to think they have to pose a certain way or look a certain way to be a real yogi, and it can be really hard to find the strength to stay on your mat.

But you have the strength! We all have the strength to get back on our mats and try these poses again and again and again. I wasn't able to snap my fingers and be in a headstand. There were months of practice, of posing, of kicking yoga teachers in my attempt at inversion. And there were a lot of doubts. I doubted myself and my own strength and thought - there's no way I can do this.

That's when I turned to my yoga teacher. Yoga teachers - in fact, all teachers have the uncanny ability to believe in their students, even when that student doesn't believe in herself. That faith started as a tiny seed, a tiny voice that shouted "Yes I can!" through the doubt, and it eventually bloomed into the strength I use today, both on and off my yoga mat.

The lessons I learned of lifting myself into a headstand carry through to my daily life. I have the strength to lift myself up from negative emotions or cycles of self-doubt, and I've learned to trust in this strength as well. Don't sell yourself short just because you don't think you can be any stronger than you are right now in this moment. I'm here to tell you now that you are strong enough, you just need to put in the effort to see your strength. Are you willing to work for it?

What lessons have you learned on the yoga mat? Please share a bit of your yoga journey with me and my listeners. Send me an email at [email protected] and tell me - what does yoga mean to you? You could be invited to guest spot on The Yoga Inspiration Podcast with Kino MacGregor!

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