Guest Post // Yogic Beginnings

Firstly, thanks Jayne for hosting me on your blog! I’m Tash, I blog over at Ballet, Dance & Fitness about healthy living, fitness and dance. I’m also a relatively new yogi, and that’s partly due to the lovely Jayne herself!

I think my first ever yoga class was on a cruise ship holiday 7 or 8 years ago. I remember signing up for Pilates classes on board but one day, not realising that the ship had sailed through a time zone overnight, turned up at the wrong time and ended up in yoga, much to my confusion! I enjoyed it none-the-less, but decided for whatever reason, not to explore it much further.

Over the years since, yoga occasionally appeared in my life, mainly in the odd class at dance college or my attempt at bikram yoga via a groupon voucher. I considered taking it up more regularly, but something else always got in the way...until now.

When I started blogging I read as many fitness blogs as possible and started to follow my favourite blogs and instagram accounts. Among these were blogs about running, weight-lifting, and of course, yoga... Miss Jayne Becca being one of them. I found that on instagram, I was most inspired by the photos of yogis, not only for their seemingly constant positive outlook on life, but for the enviable strength that some possessed. One account that I was most drawn to was Jayne’s. With her sunny disposition, funky leggings and her progress being tracked through her instagram feed, I saw that her determination and dedication was the key getting into yoga. At the same time, Women’s Health Magazine set a 21-days-of-yoga challenge, and I got a voucher for Yotopia in Covent Garden. That was me set, I was about to become a yogi.

Now I know that yoga is not supposed to be competitive and ‘look what I can do’ but I come from a competitive dance background, and I’m not gonna lie, I wanted to attempt some of those postures too! Being a dancer, I’m flexible and have pretty good balance, all this of course helps in yoga classes, but it certainly doesn’t make it easy. I realised that you need strength, focus and most importantly, breath control, all things that I find tricky. Yes I tried all the fancy postures, but yoga is so much more that that.

I’m now obsessed. I’ve tried Vinyasa, hot Vinyasa, Dharma, Yin, Hot Hatha and Forrest yoga and have enjoyed each one for different reasons. I want to explore the spiritual side more, work on getting deeper into each pose and attempt to switch of my constant brain chatter, or at least focus momentarily on my body and my body only. I try to practise a little every day, and enjoy the instagram yoga photo challenges, even if they are a bit pose-focused.

I didn’t think I’d become a yogi, but 2 months down the line, I am fast becoming one, and I partly have Jayne, and many more #yogisofinstagram to thank for that.

How did you get into yoga? Pop by Ballet, Dance & Fitness and tell me your story. Maybe I’ll meet some of you on the mat one day.

Namaste.

Instagram: @balletdancefitness Twitter: @balletdancefit