OM Yoga Magazine – July 2018

om mind

yoga; as a studio owner I felt it important to ‘do’ yoga and push my
body in my asana practice. However, my tired body had other ideas.
Things started to go wrong, I had multiple injuries and constant back
pain. I pushed myself into sun salutes and back bends. All the while,
my body cried for rest. One day, in a particularly painful forward
fold, I broke down on my teacher (Tom) who held me for a moment
and made me realise that what I needed was to feel supported
and rested rather than constantly moving and forcing myself. So I
stopped looking outside for the perfect life and body and started
inquiring within for a new way of being.
Society programs us to work to exhaustion. It tells us that we
are not good enough to live out our dreams; we must instead tie
ourselves to a desk, a mortgage, debts and possessions. We feel
guilty taking time out for ourselves and honouring our own needs.
We’ve stopped listening to that voice inside that screams to be free.
But, in my opinion, the world is going through a massive shift in
consciousness with many people waking up to the idea that anything
is possible if you have that deep desire to create it. It’s time to
unashamedly ask for what you want not what you are told to want.

Overcoming self-doubt
It took a lot of soul searching to reach the point we had reached. I
still have days when I worry about all the awful things that can go
wrong and all the terrible things people must think about me. When
this happens, I breathe and remind myself of all the things that could
actually go right, all the things that I have been through to get this
far. I turn off that part of my brain that chats incessant and stressful
rubbish and I tune into that old wise part that knows that I am safe
and supported. I follow the flow of life. I am enough and I absolutely
mustn’t take any of my thoughts too seriously. A feeling of calm
washes over me and I know that focusing on anything other than the
things that make me and my family happy are a total waste of time.
We are now helping to run a beautiful B&B in the south-west of
France whilst working every day on our passion that is the Soul
Circus festival. I used to plan my pride and joy (the festival’s yoga
schedule) from a dark room covered in sticky notes in the West
Country; I now get to do it in the sunshine with my family by my
side. My little boys run around in shorts, bare chested in the warm
weather and my husband casually wraps his arms around me in a
relaxed and loving way. We’ve still got a long way to go but I tell you
what: if the world ended tomorrow I would die happy knowing I’d
spent the last three months on an unforgettable adventure with the
loves of my life. Definitely worth all the tears and the cat wee.^

Ella Wroath is co-founder of Soul Circus Festival
(soulcircus.yoga)

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