Lisa Morrison - learning to chill
This is the third post in a series of yoga stories from readers. Tell us how yoga changed your life and go in the draw to win a yoga prize package.
Submitted by Lisa Morrison of Otago:
From my very first class 8 years ago, I was totally and utterly hooked on yoga!
There are no exact words for the feelings I experienced during and after a class, but it sort of felt like I’d ‘come home to myself’; a feeling of blissful contentment.
This was just the tonic for me as I was a type A personality, heavily into keeping fit through swimming , power walking and running, all while working as a part time teacher, a wife, and a Mum to two preschoolers.
I was constantly putting pressure on myself to be the Superwoman I thought I should be.
Eight years on, I am still the same person and I accept that I have high expectations of myself and others. But, I’m a much more chilled, balanced (of body, mind & spirit) happier, and contented person.
Practising yoga created a stillness and calm to my busy life, and I cope much better with ‘what is’ rather than always trying to control things.
Two years ago I decided it was time to take my yoga journey further, and enrolled in the IYTA teacher training diploma. It was a fantastic journey!
I feel so blessed to be able to share the gift of yoga with others, and I no longer live to practice yoga, rather: practice yoga to live!
It is an important shift in thinking for those of us in the yoga community who are also Mums, wives and so on, in that some days my yoga practice is 15 minutes of asana while tea is cooking, or, even practising meditation while brushing my teeth or weeding the vege patch!
It is impossible to articulate in so few words how yoga has change my life, but quite honestly, yoga has provided a framework and a path that reconnected me with my ‘truth’; my innermost self.
And for a girl who was moving through life feeling quite soul-less and unfulfilled, I feel eternally grateful for all I have and all I am.
Namaste,
Lisa Morrison
Readers’ published yoga stories so far:
- How yoga helped me… find steadiness and beauty within my body
- How yoga helped me… lose weight and feel good again
