Rachel Brathen - Yoga Girl: Finding Happiness, Cultivating Balance and Living with Your Heart Wide Open

www.yellowkitebooks.co.uk

First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Yellow Kite
An imprint of Hodder & Stoughton
An Hachette UK company

Originally published in 2014 in Sweden by Bonnier Fakta

Copyright Rachel Brathen 2015

The right of Rachel Brathen to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rending medical, health, or any other kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical health or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it. The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss or risk, personal or otherwise, which is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

ISBN 978 1 473 61959 3

Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
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50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ

www.hodder.co.uk

For every single person whos ever stepped on a yoga mat. And for those out there who havent... especially for you.

Contents

W elcome to life as a yoga girl! Or yoga boy, for that matter. Yoga is a practice for anyone and everyone, and Im here to share with you the big secret of finding success and balance in your life, yogi style.

The secret is, there is none. There is no grand recipe for a perfect life. In todays fast-paced society we often find ourselves looking for a quick fix, the next big thing to make us feel better, which is why we see new health trends and diets taking the world by storm every other week. I am not here to announce the newest weight-loss technique or to tell you that you should be eating fewer carbs or more carbs or no carbs (ah, thats it!) or whatever fad is hitting the Internet this morning. I am not here to tell you to change your life so that you can be better.

Im here to tell you you are good enough the way you already are.

Shocking, I know. Even though we are a decade and a half into the twenty-first century, sending people to the moon on vacation and connecting through the virtual world in more ways than ever before, there is still a fundamental flaw in how we treat one another, and most of all, in how we treat ourselves. We do not love ourselves enough. We run around trying to find ways to change our bodies, our health, our love lives, our workanything to make us feel whole and happy. But the faster we run, the faster we miss the point. We all search for balance, but finding this does not lie in the latest health trend. Balance comes from slowing down, from taking deep breaths, from understanding your body and what it needs. It comes from accepting who you are and loving yourself every step of the way.

For me, yoga was the way to get there. Although yoga is a practice that has been around for more than five thousand years, its well adapted to the culture we live in and its getting more popular every day. The world of yoga is so full of different styles, teachers, classes, online videos, and gadgets these days that it can be hard to navigate. My aim with this book is to give you an idea of what life as a yogi can entail, and to help you get back to the root of the practice: creating moments of silence. These moments are when the real breakthroughs happen, when we come back to our priorities, our focus, and the love we have for ourselves and the people around us. Yoga involves much more than physical poses practiced on a yoga mat. In fact, there are beautiful ways to use what we learn from this practice and bring it out into the world. I hope to inspire you to be the best you can be, and to accept and embrace every single aspect of what that means.

I firmly believe that real change and true happiness come from acceptance. Accepting our bodies, accepting who we are, and accepting the situation we are in. Many of the insecurities we struggle with daily come from thinking that things should be different from reality.

We live in a society that continuously harps on everything that we should change in our lives. We need to improve, do better, look better, feel better. We should lose weight, gain muscle, eat healthier, get better jobs, buy nicer clothes, get shinier hair, earn more money. Only rarely are we told that we are good enough just the way we are.

There is a big difference between genuinely wanting to change something about our way of life and feeling that we need to change because we have to alter who we are in order to be accepted and fit in. Where do you live on that spectrum? And what is it you are looking to change? If you are like most people, there are probably many things youd like to see different in your life. My question is why. Throughout your life, who has told you that you are not good enough? Where did you get the idea? Most of the time the judgments we feel come from no one other than ourselves. No one judges you the way you do. When it comes to creating a happy, healthy life, we need to start from the right place. No matter what you want to change in your lifelose weight, de-stress, build a careerit needs to come from a place of genuine intention.

We can make changes in our lives based on love or on fear. Do you want to lose ten pounds because you know it would be good for your heart and youd feel so much better? Or do you want to lose ten pounds so youll fit into your skinny jeans and look better in a bikini? Maybe the answer is all of the above, but there is a very real difference between them. True, lasting, effortless change comes from taking action from a place of love. From the heart. Does your heart give a damn about what you look like in a bikini? I highly doubt that. However, it probably does cares about your ability to move freely, to be strong, and to feel healthy.