Why I do yoga and maybe you should, too

This past weekend I was visiting with some friends who have been navigating recent loss and trauma. My friend Elena turned to me and asked, “Renee, what do you do when you feel shaken to your core?”  I thought for a moment about all the hard times I’ve endured since my twenties and answered, “I do yoga.” I have found conscious movement and breathing–experienced through mindfulness practices like yoga, Qigong and Nia dance–have had a profound effect on my emotional well-being and have helped me to feel to heal (read more), more than anything else.

I was raised by yogis and introduced to yoga (ok, forced to do this!) at age 10. For years in my mid-late twenties I did yoga once a week at a studio, enjoying the health and stress management benefits. But in 1995 I began to embrace the more subtle gifts that come from this ancient practice which has now become mainstream (34 percent–about 80 million–of Americans say they are somewhat or very likely to practice yoga in the next 12 months).

Why would a busy entrepreneur with a global business and an active family, carve out time each day for downward dogs? At age 53, I have experienced tremendous benefits from yoga–which means to yoke or unite–but what keeps me coming back to the mat time and time again is this practice which:

• helps me feel more spacious on the inside. Sat. a.m. my teen was arguing relentlessly with me, but after my hatha class and an hour of Ujjayi breathing, I returned to my family more centered, relaxed and the “triggered feeling” was gone. Yoga allows me to more easily be with what is.

• reminds me that my problems aren’t mountains, they’re molehills. After practicing, I reclaim a 30,000 foot perspective which supports me in being more aware, compassionate and clear.

• uncorks my well of creativity. This blog post pretty much wrote itself in the last moments of my yoga practice. Many of my best ideas-and all my books-have come to me effortlessly while I’m holding pigeon or in triangle pose.

I could go on and on about the gifts that I have received from a regular yoga practice--a happier disposition, a kinder relationship with my sweet body, an openness to inquiry and an abiding curiosity–but more than anything, when I do yoga I remember who I really am and that everything is perfect just as it is (read more).

I challenge you to try a class or do more yoga (ideally at a yoga studio as opposed to the gym-they’re different, I promise). If you already like yoga, increase your frequency, create a home practice or try another form and do it differently (I love it all: Kundalini, Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin or Restorative and iRest-one of my favorites). Here’s an explanation of the different  types of yoga; also Yoga with Adriene has some good free yoga videos. Totally new to yoga? Here’s a great overview for beginners. Namaste to all.

WANT SUPPORT FOR FINDING BALANCE? HERE ARE THREE OPPORTUNITIES: 

• Hire me to plan/facilitate a custom workshop or retreat for your company, team or organization on life balance, resiliency or self-renewal in 2019-2020. I’ve been speaking professionally for 25+ years on work-life balance and managing your energy.  My clients include Fortune 500 companies, national conferences, nonprofits and organizations. Learn more and email me at workshops at reneetrudeau dot com with questions.
• Craving authentic community and want to find (or create) your tribe? Learn more about our global sisterhood of RTA-Certified Facilitators  and empower/support women in your community! More here on how to become a RTA-Certified Facilitator and join our inner circle ($100 off through 3/31 for training; learn more + includes private coaching with me).
• Filling quickly! Join me May 1oth from 9-4 in San Antonio, TX at the stunning, peaceful, 19-acre Cathedral Park at the Bishop Jones Center for our New Way of Being: Women’s Self-Renewal Retreat (Mother’s Day Weekend); check out the bring-a-friend specials but don’t delay-this always sells out.  Learn more.

Subscribe here to Live Inside Out, a weekly blog written by life balance coach/author/speaker and mindfulness teacher Renée Peterson Trudeau. Passionate about helping men and women experience balance through the art/science of self-care, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, US News & World Report, Spirituality & Health and more. Thousands of women in ten countries are becoming RTA-Certified Facilitators and leading/joining self-renewal groups based on her award-winning self-care curriculum.  She is the author of three books on life balance and mindfulness including the award-winning The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and 17-year-old son. More on her background here.

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