a life changing practice...

Published Thursday, February 20, 2014 by jodi renee | E-mail this post

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Almost 10 years ago, yoga literally fell into my lap. It has become a practice that I've committed too on the mat, more importantly off the mat.  I can honestly say it saved me, sustains me and now creates space for this little person in me AND in my life.
For more than 15 years I obsessed with my exterior. How everything I did or ate affected the way I looked. I paid a big price for this…with my body, my skin, my mental health.

There is nothing more damaging than living a life fixated on the superficial. TOO much time spent in a gym, feeling guilty about things that I ate, and constantly worrying about 'how I looked".

I was riddled with anxiety and stress, bad skin for 8 years of my life. People wonder why I hid from the camera? Yet, how do you put yourself out there when you have to keep up with 'perfect'? This was a job in itself and a vicious cycle that fed itself.

My diet has RADICALLY changed. I eat way more stuff that was on the 'banned' list years ago, that would normally send me to the gym for guilt motivated cardio. I work out at a fraction of what I used too. From 5-6 days a week at the gym for hours, to probably once a week (if that) …and when I do go, I go because I WANT to be there. To enliven my body, invigorate my muscles, to get the blood pumping. But I'm far more interested to walk outside amongst the fresh air and trees, or go for a run…tap INTO nature, and my TRUE nature, with yoga. I make sure that I'm always giving my body something, my intentions have nothing to do with 'how I look' but 'how I feel'. The byproduct? I look and feel greater than ever before. In fact…at 2 months pregnant, (if weight matters) I weighed less than before my hard core days of strict eating and working out. Mind you, I have a lot less muscle, but I don't have more than I need.

I can honestly say, I have never felt so balanced and healthy in my whole life.

I love the below quote from Bryan Kest...and if you want to know more about this journey and how I got to this place, let me know. xo jodi renée

"The original function of exercise was to heal or maintain health. It wasn't about looking good so much as feeling good. Now, most exercises have nothing to do with healing and everything to do with looking good, creating even more dis-ease or imbalance by overdeveloping the outer muscles and ignoring the rest. Even the exercises themselves, created to give fast and extreme results, can be damaging. Yoga is about balance, because health is a state of balance.

The practice of yoga is the practice of cultivating balance - mental as well as physical, because they go hand in hand. Doing the poses is one thing, but how we do them is the key; that's the yoga, the state of mind behind all things. The outer environment in which I live, is a reflection of the inner environment in which I live. The yogis traced back the root of all misery and, the seed from which that root stemmed is attachment. And, what am I more attached to than me and my body? I have this image of myself and, when I can't maintain it, a whole lot starts to surface…" - Bryan Kest

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