The Floor is Yours: How to Overcome Obstacles and Begin Your Yoga Journey
Starting your yoga journey can be difficult, but the rewards can last a lifetime. Here are some pieces of advice to help you get started, and why private yoga might be the ideal way for you to begin.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
This Lao Tzu quote resonates throughout many aspects of life. Whether it’s setting off on a new career path, learning an instrument, or any other challenging endeavor you’re considering, that long journey towards the finish line has to start somewhere.
Quite often, however, that first step is the most difficult. Fear of failure, apathy, or just flat-out not knowing where to begin are all common reasons that prevent us from taking this initial leap. With no guarantees on what the future holds, we may opt to play it safe and remain on the starting blocks.
This sentiment certainly applies to starting out on your yoga journey. When someone begins to consider making yoga a consistent part of their wellness routine, they may do so for a variety of reasons: to improve physical health, to increase flexibility, to better manage life’s stresses, or a variety of others. But despite these best intentions, there are a semmingly equal number of reasons why they hesitate to take that first step onto the mat.
What are some things that hold us back from starting a consistent yoga practice?
Hesitance to practice with others - Diving into the unknown can be quite daunting, regardless of what your newfound activity is. This is especially true when that activity is performed in front of larger, more experienced groups, as is common in yoga studios.
Gender and cultural perceptions - Yoga in the western hemisphere is commonly perceived as a cisgender female activity. As a result, males and other gender groups may feel alienated. Certain cultures and religions may also feel that their established norms “go against” practicing yoga.
Body type perceptions - In both mainstream and social media, yoga practicioners are frequently portrayed as slim and athletic. This portrayal can be limiting to the broad spectrum of body types that may be interested in practicing.
Lack of physical flexibility - Quite often, the media also portrays people in full, advanced expressions of yoga postures that exhibit a high level of flexibility. This perception creates a standard with beginners that there’s only one way to execute a posture and that you have to be flexible.
Time commitment - With most physical fitness and many wellness routines, acheiving desired results generally requires at least a few hours per week of practice. This commitment, combined with “starting new” at something, can be alienating.
This is just a short list of things that might prevent us from diving into the world of yoga, or at least from embracing it to a level that will be noticeably beneficial. However, as we come back to what the essence of yoga represents, we begin to relate to these things from a different perspective - and our path to the mat opens up.
Yoga helps us arrive at our truest self - no matter where we’re starting from.
“Yoga is the practice of observing yourself without judgment.” -T.K.V. Desikachar
At its core, yoga is about how you feel about yourself on the inside, and not how you appear on the outside. This is a very important piece to remember when navigating the early part of your journey.
Yoga provides us with valuable tools that can be used - on and off the mat - for self-improvement and self-empowerment. However, in order to improve, we must first realize that we need improvement. We all come from different backgrounds and different starting positions, after all, and that’s part of the beauty of life.
A great way to assist you in coming to this realization is a brief mantra meditation. We invite you to begin by arriving at a comfortable seated position closing your eyes. Start shifting all of your focus to your breath - following each inhale and exhale in your mind to completion, and then continuing to rest into the breath with each cycle. Once you’ve established this, begin to repeat an encouraging phrase silently to yourself - “I am open to the possibilities of the universe” could be a good one to use, but feel free to create your own. Continue to recite this to yourself for a few minutes. It will help you rest with and accept the fact that you’re new at this, while realizing that everyone is on their own self-improvement journey. (Feel free to explore additional mantras here!)
Many yoga beginners are drawn to studios as their journey begins, and for good reason: having an established physical location to go to can be great motivation for sticking with it. However, practicing in front other more experienced people right from the get go can be difficult to deal with. If you’re feeling hesitant towards practicing in front of groups, you should consider other options. Feelings of judgement towards yourself or others go contrary to the yogic philosophy and hold us back from reaping the benefits. Try talking to someone at your studio about class offerings that are more geared towards beginners, or ones that tend to have fewer students in them. Private yoga can also be a great way to keep the studio atmosphere while not being distracted by others (more on this later).
Another roadblock that may arise when practicing in groups is that your gender, cultural background, or body type might not resemble the “norm” for a yoga practicioner in western culture. It’s only natural to feel more comfortable when we’re around others that look like ourselves and have similar backgrounds, so this concern is certainly warranted when you’re a beginner. While there’s still a lot of work to do, the yoga community in the USA has made positive strides in recent years to make studio environments more inclusive. If these feelings are still lingering, that’s perfectly acceptable - just remind yourself that your yoga experience is about you - and not about what others think of you. Keep this mantra in your mind every time you enter your studio. That said, if you ever feel overly judged and not accepted, it’s probably best to find another one.
If it’s a perceived lack of physical flexibility that has you hesitant, remind yourself first that how you appear in yoga class is not the important thing. It’s about the feeling and benefits that the practice brings to you - and everyone’s body is different. Even if you can’t touch the ground in a standing forward fold, you can still push yourself to your own comfortable limit, which is where you receive those benefits. And speaking of the word “practice”, it’s important to remember that’s what yoga asana sessions are. You will get better and more flexible with a dedicated routine. Thousands of avid practitioners - and even some of the world’s great teachers - started out with limited flexibility too.
If you’ve managed to bring your mindset to a place that can move past these obstacles confidently, then great! If not, don’t fret - this process takes a little time for many people. In either case, it’s important to have an actionable plan in place that will maximize your chances of sticking with yoga over the long run. In the next section, we’ll outline a specific route that might make sense for you.
Private yoga is a great way to bypass external barriers and introduce yourself to the world of yoga - specific to your unique wellness journey.
As was mentioned, these obstacles tend to show up differently for everyone. But no matter where you stand with them, we’ve found that private yoga is an excellent way to begin the yoga journey for most people.
In private yoga practices, it’s just you and your yoga teacher. While you are still setting aside a dedicated time and location to practice, you aren’t doing so in a class environment - which can greatly assist with moving past these beginning obstacles and allow you to commence your journey more comfortably. Removing external factors in this manner often translates into a deeper internal focus that can help you realize benefits even quicker.
Furthermore, a 1-on-1 setting is ideal for individualized instruction - allowing teachers to tailor practices directly to your unique wellness profile and goals. Maybe you want to improve the technical side of your asana poses? Or infuse more mindful breathing (pranayama) into your practice? Private yoga allows for a deeper, more customized level of instruction that is difficult to replicate in class settings.
At Soul Summit, we begin learning about your specific wellness journey from day one. Your first private yoga session begins before we get on the mat with a consultation. After this, we’ll prepare a practice (or series of practices) that’s aligned to your experience level, anatomical makeup, and goals. Sessions are then booked at times that are most convenient to you - which is another advantage in taking the private route if you have a busy schedule.
From there, we’ll continue to move through sessions that support your growth as a yoga practicioner while tracking progress right alongside you. We can introduce more advanced postures, different styles of asana practice, meditations, and other elements of yoga when the time is right.
Whichever route you choose, we wish you the best of luck in starting a thriving yoga practice! Getting onto the mat is the hardest part - once you do that, a new world of life-changing benefits is in front of you.