Rachel Brathen - Yoga Girl

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

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.

Caring for our well-being has to start from within, and this is also one of the most important foundations of the yoga practice. We need to direct our attention inward and connect to the breath. Focusing on our breath keeps us present, calms the mind, and allows us to develop the awareness of the body we need to practice with care and compassion. If we are not fully present, we are no longer practicing yoga but are simply doing exercises and stretches on a yoga mat. Cultivating this awareness begins with the breath and is what eventually turns our chattering minds into quiet places for contemplation and acceptance.