The Life Altering Capacity of Yoga

Each person comes to Yoga for their own reason; we all have our Story, our purpose in life, our struggle; what brings us to the mat for the first time.  Read Vanessa Lee's story from a Yoganonymous article and how something as 'simple' as a Selfish inspired and moulded her life ...

Vanessa'se story inspired me.  I hope you find your own inspiration from it as well xo

This post was submitted by a member of our community.

I’ve read a few articles bashing the "yoga selfie" as of late.

If you’re not sure what a yoga selfie is, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a selfie in a yoga pose—and they’re all over Instagram and probably everywhere else in social media land.

There’s quite a bit of controversy suggesting that those who partake in yoga selfies and the social media-based yoga challenges are not “real yogis.” It’s been said that yoga selfies are no more than self-indulgence and that they completely minimize what yoga is supposed to symbolize: A private and inward journey. It's even been said that yoga selfies are narcissistic.

While some can certainly argue all of those points quite well, yoga selfies changed my life for the better. In fact, I owe my entire yoga journey to the yoga selfie.

I’ve been doing yoga since 2007. I use that phrase loosely, because for approximately the first seven years of my stint, I didn’t really "do" yoga. I knew the basics, I attended gym yoga classes, and I knew I liked it. I attended what I now know were Vinyasa flow classes but in my small town yoga just wasn’t a thing. There weren’t any dedicated yoga studios at the time, and in the random event that one would pop up on a downtown corner, it was closed a month or two later. I was fortunate that the teacher I had was really great. She held my interest. When she left teaching, I kind of bailed on yoga. My relationship with it was intermittent and I didn't have a clue as to what a dedicated practice was.

In late 2013, I realized I really needed some form of consistent exercise in my life. I had gained a few pounds and since I’ve always lived with generalized anxiety, it was time to put some work into my physical and emotional self. It only made sense that I reincorporated yoga into my life.

Again, just the basics: some Sun Salutations, stretching, and breathing.

I have been in love with Instagram since it began, so one evening on a business trip in early 2014, I came upon this amazing gallery of someone’s yoga poses. Extremely advanced yoga poses. I was absolutely intrigued and had an immediate desire to imitate the poses.

(Stay with me here because I know this is where the controversy comes in.)

Yes, I wanted to imitate the poses. I wanted tostand on my head. This woman was fit and awesome. She was balanced and was so inspirational in her posts. I wanted to hashtag #inversionsmakeyouhot and radiate this beautiful art form that I saw. I didn’t even know yoga could get this advanced, this intense, this beautiful. I was beyond inspired.

I quickly learned that—surprise, surprise—it wasn’t that easy to imitate the poses or the lifestyle she portrayed. Apparently standing on your headrequired work. Physical work, sure, but emotional work as well. In my case, fear was a huge factor. I wanted to face my fears, but it also made me hide deeper. I wanted to understand the poses—the asanas—and I wanted to understand why they were beneficial. It sparked a need in me to understand, research, and learn abot yoga... In its truest form.

I soon started to follow every yoga Instagram superstar I could find, as well as other amateurs like myself. I could not believe the community I found in the space of social media. All of the yoga challenges became a part of my daily routine, which had actual prizes at the end of the month—but I didn’t participate in them for tangible things: I just wanted to learn, I wanted to be inspired, I wanted to be motivated by others, and possibly inspire others.

I found myself so inspired that I would go to the local bookstore to read about the history of yoga, chakras, different styles of yoga, different teachers, and all of the benefits yoga has on the mind, body, and spirit. I hadn’t felt so passionate about anything in my life, as far back as I could remember. It felt so incredible to have this connection with yoga.

With a new life.

This year also coincided with the worst year of my personal life, so all of this newfound knowledge about yoga could not have come at a better time. Yoga saw me through a divorce and major family illnesses. Yoga helped me through navigating becoming a single mom and through a broken heart. Through career upheavals and through soul searching. I turned to yoga every single day for solitude and healing. Who knew that yoga could do all of this if you did it correctly?

And speaking of correctly, I may be an unorthodox yogi: I truly don’t believe that yoga can be done wrong. I’m not vegan. I don’t meditate as much as I’d like to. I don’t practice for 90 minutes a day. I don’t love some of the yoga styles. I don’t know about every chakra or even every asana's Sanskrit name.

What I do know is that yoga is when I breathe through life. It’s when I feel the most connected with myself and when I can get my mind to settle down. It’s when I feel good about my body and all its imperfections and its limitations. It’s when I accept that backbends may never be my thing and my shoulders and hamstrings are much too tight. It’s just… Practice. Of so many things.

It’s a journey. And yoga selfies started all of it for me.

I never reached any kind of Instagram popularity with my own yoga selfies, nor did I aspire to. I don’t participate in challenges much anymore or even post many yoga selfies. Yoga selfies were just a starting point for me into something much deeper and more meaningful, and, for that, I am forever grateful.

Respect others' journeys into yoga. Try not to judge. That yogi that you’re dismissing as narcissistic on Instagram may just be changing someone’s life.

They changed mine.