When was the last time you felt good about your body?

Become friends with your body.

We’re very negative about your bodies, aren’t we – always finding fault. We don’t like this and we don’t like that. We’re too something and not enough something else.

We say things to ourselves like, “just look at that nose.”

So often these are messages we hear from our parents or from society – right. You know this and you realize it’s happening but still you look in the mirror and frown at your body or – even deeper – don’t want to look at your body at all.

Can you relate?

Midlife brings another layer of gloomy perception, as we watch our body changing. It’s all too easy to get caught up in this loop and feel more dejected and droopy so that you’re increasingly at sea.

It truly doesn’t have to be this way – your body is changing but it hasn’t given up on you.

This happened to me. In my mid forties I looked myself in the eye and said – Antonia, you need to find an activity to keep your body humming. Long walks are wonderful for body and soul, but it’s time to take charge of your midlife body and keep it ticking. At that point – that’s what I thought ‘take charge’ of my body meant. I learnt that my thinking needed to change too.

I tried this, that and the other. It was those push, push push, feel the burn forms of exercise we do in the west.

It wasn’t til I tried yoga that I realized what hadn’t been doing it for me.

Why is pounding your body the ultimate? Why is feeling the burn always the best?

In the west we think that our mind should control our body and that our body is under the power of our mind.

I started to see how wrongheaded this was.

It’s even been happening in yoga – all those tie-yourself-in-knots poses!

That might be why you haven’t considered yoga as a way to start feeling good in your body. It looks far too crazy.

Let’s be clear – that’s not traditional yoga. Traditional yoga is made to help you become friends with your body. Connect with yourself

As I began to move on the mat, I felt a space begin to open up. The slow pace, the way I held the pose, the way I began to become one with the pose helped me receive.

I heard my body. I understood what it was telling me. I tuned into its messages and how they varied from day to day. I began to have conversations with my body ‘oh hello legs, back is telling you that I should bend my knees in Downward Facing Dog today’. ‘My goodness arms, you’re positively fizzing.”

My body and I began to have a positive relationship. We started to understand each other. My body blossomed – perhaps because it was heard and appreciated.

When was the last time you appreciated your body?

It’s not something we’re taught so it doesn’t cross our mind. Let’s change that.

Yoga opened me up to my body’s voice because we got to know each other and value each other.

I realized my body had things to contribute and shouldn’t be shut out of the conversation or ignored or told to pipe down.

My body began to lose the resentment it had from being ignored and became an active partner in my well being.

My body changed and my mind did too.

To adapt an idea from my teacher Guru Singh – yoga is the feng shui of the body. It gets your body properly aligned and the energy flowing the right way. It’s how you feel at home in your body.

Are you ready to feel at home in your body – and your mind?
Let’s chat!