The Beginning of My Practice
I began practicing yoga about six months ago because chronic hip pain had me going to physical therapy. I was curios to see if yoga would help with my hip pain as well, and it did, so I continued practicing. As I continued improving, I fell in love with the practice. I love the stress relief that comes with deep stretches, the power and control it gives me over my body, and how it serves as a daily escape for my mind, body, and soul.
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My Struggles in Yoga
Like any beginner, I face both mental and physical challenges in my yoga practice. Although yoga has helped a lot with my hip pain, sometimes my hips hold me back because certain positions cause me too much pain and because I am not very flexible in my hips and hip flexors. I also struggle a lot with concentrating all of my energy and focus inward. This is most likely because I have always participated in competitive sports, so this competitive mentally is very ingrained in my athletic side. When taking yoga classes I often find myself looking around the room and comparing myself to others either to check if I'm doing it correctly or to boost my ego. When I catch myself doing this I try to stop and recenter, but I definitely still struggle a lot with this. Similarly, I often find myself pushing harder than I should be. This may be because I'm pretty insecure and I feel like I should be doing better, but in reality I know that I'm just a beginner and progress takes patience and time.
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My Hopes for Boulder
During my time in Boulder I am really hoping to learn more about some different styles of yoga to find which is best for me. I will be speaking with yogis to learn more about their experiences with yoga and how they found what worked best for them. I will also be asking them for advice about my hip pain, as well as my issues with comparing myself to others and pushing myself too hard. My main end goal for this intensive is to find and create a yoga practice that is the best it can be for me.
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