Starting a new project is always a bit daunting. I dabbled with blogging a few years ago when I wanted to chronicle my experiences in the music scene. Well, I got distracted and the blog didn't last too long, but I'm intending to apply myself better this time.
This is a blog primarily about:
yoga
meditation
my journey to become a qualified yoga teacher
my thoughts & approach to yoga
yoga in action (i.e. "off the mat")
However I can already anticipate that other things will creep in. Yoga feeds into all aspects of life, and all aspects of life are reflected in yoga, so I'm not worried if things go a bit off-piste from time to time. Actually this is a good thing! If we only think of yoga as some shapes we throw in a class, it's not really much more than stretching, is it?
For a start, the name Liquid Yoga is quietly a nod to something completely different. I'll get to that in another post though.
In thinking what I wanted to do with this blog, I realised that I've got a lot to say about how yoga works with and in everyday life. There are a lot of calendar events throughout the year, for example, which give me some food for thought in my yoga practice, including back care week, stress awareness day, movember...
With the blog, as well as with the liquid yoga project as a whole (once I'm fully qualified to teach), I really want to be able to reach people who aren't already crazy about yoga, although a few of those are always good too. I want to write about and create yoga that's relevant to every day, not just the time you spend on the mat (because possibly some of you reading this don't spend time on the mat at all, which is totally fine).
Yoga is something of a lifestyle for those of us who have been practicing a long time and have been fortunate to have met a teacher or two that we really gel with, or have had some other moment of realisation when we decided that we needed to invest more in this thing. But I think we're probably in the minority, so we should also pay attention to those who just dip their toes in yoga from time to time, because one day it might help them to experience the moment of realisation too. Or just to have a nice yoga experience, which is a completely valid outcome!
Being based in Leeds, there may be a number of Leeds-based items that crop up on a regular basis (for example, the studio that I mainly attend is the lovely Yoga Kula, based in Chapel Allerton), and I am a bit of a sucker for Yorkshire on the whole, but whilst I anticipate that there will be a bit of posting going on about yoga that's happening in Leeds, I am hoping to escape and do yoga in a few other places from time to time (especially once things are on a more even keel with coronavirus restrictions; I do hope to visit India in the not too distant future!).
Finally, in the blog, I do want to foreground the strong connection between nature and yoga. If yoga is about unity of the self and the higher Self (I could do a whole series of posts on that one), or recognising the essential connectedness of all things, then being in nature is a direct route to yoga. Being outside and in nature is also, in my opinion and experience, a bit of a superhighway to being present and in the moment, which reduces our stress levels and helps us to be more contented. I hope to demonstrate the benefits of not only practicing yoga postures or asana sequences outside, but also to say something about how just being outside can be your yoga practice too.
Namaste for now x
Emmalene
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